Home and All The Things....
Also, so much fun in local art galleries....
So we’ve now been home for a month it seems, though I had to search the calendar to confirm. We have put in an effort to do all the home things, and have succeeded. Five or six lunches or dinners with old friends; garden/pool party with new friends; family dinners, visits, birthdays; helping out with the grandkids; attending a family music gig; attended a Macbeth production in Santa Cruz with two grandkids performing; attended Chorus Line in the city with a niece performing; joined a plein air painting group; music jams twice a week. And all the cycling and farmers markets and bakery runs. Also, we have rejuvenated the garden and spent many hours watching the insects and birds enjoy it. Ah, we also finished up two new canvas camping mats, hand painted and sealed. (Our old one of 20 years dissolved this year.)
Yesterday we did something very unusual for us: we went into town (Healdsburg) in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. On a holiday weekend. (We are usually go first thing in the morning.) If you are not familiar with Healdsburg, it was a small grape farming town when we moved back to Sonoma County in the late 80’s, but now, per a good friend, it is rapidly becoming “Carmel”. A ridiculous number of expensive restaurants and high-end shops, and all of the tourists that wine, good food, and “shopping” attract.** We braved it for some very specific errands.
Many of the artists in the plein air painting group I have joined are part of Upstairs Art Gallery above our favorite Levin’s Bookstore. I wanted to familiarize myself with the local artists, and one of the artists from last week was there. It was nice to see the work and chat. There is a lot for me to learn there.
And then, we stopped by The Bob Johnson Art Gallery, which we had never seen since we NEVER go into town on a Saturday afternoon, which is when it is open. That will change. We found out about Bob and his gallery from another artist we met this month at a lovely party. David Newman (dnsf.com) raved about Bob and his wonderfully eccentric gallery of his and other’s work. It is up the stairs of an historic building on the plaza. What a wonderful place: Bob’s extensive collection of books for sale is like a library of all the things; his personal art work, which is so diverse that it will take many visits to digest it all; and then HE is there holding court. And so we sat, perused, and visited amidst other visitors. It was so lovely. We will go in on other Saturday afternoons just to visit with Bob and explore all the lovely things he has created and collected. Thanks, David, for the guidance.
And then we went by the Erickson Fine Art Gallery to see the new works by Ken Jarvela who is a Northern California artist who I follow online. The paintings were wonderful and surprising. Ken posts his ongoing work to an online fan cohort, and the gallery had some of the grand (as in very large) landscapes that I had been watching him paint in early summer. The gallery was empty and we had free rein to see it all and the lovely hostess brought out some of the very large (as in 4 feet by 8 feet) images of Yosemite. (The shadows on El Capitan were astounding.) I will be back to study.
FYI: We rented the upper floor of the building next to Erickson Fine Art Gallery throughout the 90’s for our consulting business. It has subsequently become a collection of art galleries including the Harris Gallery, which represents the transition of the town: there’s no place for a software company in the middle of this tourist city any longer.
It was a wonderful trip into town even on a crowded Saturday afternoon. We will be back to do the same circuit—a reminder of the things we can do when we are in “our” own neighborhood.
_______
Now we are wrapping up the homestay and prepping for another wander. Not too long. The centerpiece is “Ride the Rim” wherein Crater Lake National Park closes most of the road around the lake to cars and lets bicycles use all the roadway. Jim has been wanting to do this for several years, and this year it fits the schedule. There are other events on the wander schedule but the rest of them are all in California, not far from home. So we could be home in a month—-or two, depending on how things play out.
And the transition butterflies percolate in my stomach. To go, to stay. “Who am I this time?” (A wonderful short movie based on short story by Kurt Vonnegut.)
Be safe, all. The fall COVID threat is there; a little more caution may be appropriate.
** I will write a screed one day about my sadness with the situation in Healdsburg. Many of my good friends, who have been here for decades, have had to leave or will have to leave as there is nothing being done to enable the economy to support locals, especially seniors. (Or maybe not especially seniors. A family with kids is a rarity.) There is no place to live if you don’t own property you bought in the distant past, though there are very many places for the very rich to live and stay. Grrr. Another time.