Q is for Queens ~ The A to Z of One Word Messages

Queens
background by Margaret Almon
Lettering by Wayne Stratz

 One of the more interesting commissions we have received at Nutmeg Designs was for six place names.  Fortunately for me one started with a Q. I can't say Queens is a one word message to me, but to many it will be. What one word takes you somewhere? 

Margaret has been blogging an A to Z of places that mean something to her.  Some are more than one word.  Some of them are places special to her from before I met her.  But some are names of places that bring back a flood of memories to both of us (plus she has been scanning some classic photos).  

Bethlehem

Dunmore

Illinois

Lansdale

Oregon

and

Philadelphia

Philadelphia Mosaic Sign
background by Margaret Almon
Lettering by Wayne Stratz

View of The Port of Philadelphia by James Hamilton, 1869

as seen at Philadelphia Museum of Art
photo by Wayne Stratz

Drying Sails, Gloucester by Fern Isabel Coppedge

as seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ~ 

Holiday Jazz 2012 ~ Now: Aids benefit in Philly & Then: Oscar Peterson

Just went on a search to find myself a holiday jazz concert and found this:

The Church of Saint Luke and the Epiphany in Philly is having a holiday jazz benefit concert featuring w/ vocalist Mary Ellen Desmond, Larry McKenna tenor sax, Tom Lawton piano, Lee Smith bass & Dan Monaghan drums to benefit lives affected by AIDS & HIV.  December 16th at 6:00pm.  

I think I desire to be there.

7 for the weekend: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Yesterday Mosaic Woman and I had a date at the Philly art museum, which means we went our separate ways and my first stop was an exhibit that featured this... 

Red Hills and Bones (hills) 1941 Georgia O'Keefe Philadelphia Art Museum photo by Wayne Stratz

I decided to explore some stairs and see where they led, they led to some windows with cool views highlighting the stones which make the museum and later a window gave view to the terracotta that adorn it. 

Stairwell View at the Philadelphia Art Museum, photo by Wayne Stratz

 Under the Pines, Evening 1888 Claude Monet Philadelphia Art Museum photo by Wayne Stratz

Stairwell View at the Philadelphia Art Museum, photo by Wayne Stratz

Le Bon Bock Edouard Manet 1873 Philadelphia Art Museum photo by Wayne Stratz

People digging the view of the Philadelphia skyline at the Philadelphia Art Museum, 

 

photo by Wayne Stratz

Pablo Picasso Man With a Guitar 1912 Philadelphia Art Museum photo by Wayne Stratz

The Dream Garden via Tiffany via Parrish; Wordlessly

Tiffany Dream Garden Mosaic at the Curtis Building, Philadelphia, PA.  Photo by Wayne Stratz.

Tiffany Dream Garden Mosaic at the Curtis Building, Philadelphia, PA.  Photo by Wayne Stratz.

Tiffany Dream Garden Mosaic at the Curtis Building, Philadelphia, PA.  Photo by Wayne Stratz.

R is for Rivetto, a fine way to toast a Big Date

photo by Giorgio Montersino

Mosaic Woman, who posted on Rukeyser, and I went to Philly yesterday to spend some of the money in a big date fund. The date: to celebrate the 24th anniversary of our first date on the full moon of April.

The meal we had was at Tria where you can share tapas with a person you have shared your life. We had had a sweet snack earlier in the big date and had refrained from alcohol with the meal, so we went with some dessert wine. I was enticed by one that had bark in it. The Rivetto Winery makes a variety of Barola, called chinato, which is unique because of the inclusion of Quinine Bark (translated in Italian as china, hence the wines name chinato). Who knew?

Anyway, the fund--- if our mosaic and stained glass business has a good month, which means we have made enough sales to add a required deposit into our regular budget and to cover business expenses, then we put a percentage of what is left into the big Date Fund, with which we can occasionally go hear some jazz or have a beverage from Italy.

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Fridays in PA---- Square Peg and Capogiro in Philadelphia

Maybe this should have been called Saturday in Philly.

Saturday from 4-7pm Mosaic Woman will be on the sidewalk in front of Square Peg Artery & Salvage two blocks from Rittenhouse Square. She will be showing off and selling a variety of her mosaics in the big city.

I will be close by... Studying the cosmos for teaching next week and possibly having a snack at Capogiro Gelato...

NSTA conference in Philly... lets start at the end of the Cosmic Times

I put ice on my ankle

I limped to the train, then to home

A man asked, "Are you OK?"

I fell.

My right foot found a pot hole on a busy street in downtown Philly.

Why am I telling this story backwards...

Lets start here, at home, the night before the conference. I sent a Tweet to a person I had never heard of before.... "which workshop???"

The NSTA conference had 10 billion workshops to choose from, so you need help at times. Often a workshop will call you by name, other times it is a random moment at Twitter.

The woman, to whom I tweeted, works for NASA and she was behind the creation of The Cosmic Times which takes on the human story of unraveling the nature of the universe. Two workshops later it was all over and I headed out into the city to treat myself to lunch. When I am by myself, I will often sit at the counter, which sometimes leads to conversation.

My waitress asked if I was in town for the conference which eventually led to me finding out she has a brother, who has similar traits to my students. Turns out her brother has enjoyed learning history looking at it from the present moment then going back. I said, "Hmmmm..."

It was a short walk up 16th to the train station as my mind worked itself around the idea of heading backwards while teaching the history of the human understanding of the universe... the light turned green... the pedestrian walk light turned white and I stepped forward to cross Chestnut Street.

Maybe next year NASA will fly me to San Francisco so I can co-lecture about my adaptations to their lessons. One has to hope to get there somehow. For now, I am hoping the ice cuts the swelling so I can move with a bit less pain.


...

who needs a daily planner

I have made attempts at keeping one. I have. I really have. But now when I see them in the stores, I feel it would be just a waste of money. Well, I know it would be a waste.

And there are times I mess up. Last week I was talking about going to the NSTA conference in Philadelphia to one of my classes and a student said, "But isn't ..//... happening next Friday." And yes, I had been asked about my availability when ..//..... was scheduled. Feeling guilty, I sent an e-mail acknowledging my imperfections, but not mentioning the brief but quickly fading thought I had of not going to the conference.

...//.... can happen without me.

Now what is happening next weekend was beyond my control... Kind of. You see how could I pass up on the national conference happening in my neck of the woods, even if we had already signed up for a craft show that weekend, and then my father-in-law decided to come to Pennsylvania. How the man planned a four day visit on the four days of the conference is beyond me. So, I can't really not see the man, considering that with this upcoming visit I will have see him, on average, once every 1679 days since I met Mosaic Woman.

OK, so it looks like this... an epic day in Philly on Thursday ending with an evening of jazz at Chris's. Get to Philly early on Friday, but beat rush hour home so I can help Mosaic Woman set up for the North Penn Select Craft Show. On Saturday thanks to two wonderful friends who have agreed to help Mosaic Woman at the show, I will head into Philly, but get back in time to help take down the booth and then an evening with the rarely seen family. Sunday... let me check my non-existent planner... I will head back to Philly for the final four hours of the conference. Who knows, maybe worship with the Jesuits in Society Hill and I have my eye out for a jazz brunch. Do you know of one?

see, who needs a planner when you got a wondering/wandering mind that unfolds with your life. and if I am lucky, I will unfold into some Burmese Food at Rangoon in China Town.

Luckily for now this isn't even penciled in, so I can change plans on a whim.

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