Update about blog

The San Juan Mountains near Durango, along Highway 160. Yes the pole is to help plows know where the pavement edge is when it snows. I won’t be driving up there then!
Showing posts with label Asheville Art Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asheville Art Museum. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2025

Art from the internet and...

 

How many times do we see Fibonacci spirals all around us?


Watercolors by Rachel


Bertha Lum Paper Lanterns and Parasols 1907



by Ellen Harding Baker 1876 Solar System Quilt posted to The Marginalian

Thanks to Asheville Art Museum for this last sculpture below




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Art by Aleah Chapin - from Facebook "Girl God Books" posted to encourage women to take care of themselves.




Today's Quote:

The most precious inheritance parents can leave their children is their own happiness.

THICH NHAT HANH


From my family albums:

In college I had a supporting role in the musical play, The Boyfriend. The only thing I remember about the performance was seeing my parents in the audience, then missing my line completely.



I'm on the far left in the scrumptious pink velvet flapper dress, which of course belonged to props.



Sunday, July 27, 2025

Some historic views

 

1914 - a few months before it burnt down.

Springtime in Black Mountain...an ornamental  cherry tree gave beautiful blossoms. The birdbath was a leaky gift, so I stuck an old sculpture in it. This was my rental house on Beech St.


Enjoying my son Marty's family at my last Mother's Day in Tampa before I retired in 2007. Marty, Cayenne, Cinnamon, and William, with me standing!

William achieved his AA, and sister Cayenne her High School degree and enough honors classes she entered college as a sophomore (or maybe a junior!) 


I love seeing what women can do with their hair these days, and most of them say yes when I ask if I can take a photo of them.


Before Sept. 27, 2024, when many of the tracks were washed out along the route through the mountains over the continental divide, there would be one or two trains a day from the east going to Asheville. Tracks have apparently been repaired going west from Asheville to Tennessee, but not going east. We're not sure they will be. This engine is crossing US 70 to deliver supplies to an outfit near Swannanoa, perhaps the most eastern business the trains are doing at this time from Asheville.

Some interesting art...





From the Asheville Art Museum
I still can't see any recycled cans in the finished products!

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Environmental news:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark opinion this past Wednesday, stating that countries have a legal duty to protect people and ecosystems from the "urgent and existential threat" posed by climate change. It’s true that the ruling is an advisory opinion with no legal mechanism for enforcement. However, it represents important precedent that will have weight in other courts as litigation continues. 

For example, it means that the countries most impacted by rising temperatures – typically poorer countries who’ve contributed least to the problem in the first place - may be entitled to reparations from the world's top emitters. “This ruling is a powerful tool we can use to demand that those most responsible for this climate crisis be held accountable,” said Flora Vano, Vanuatu country manager for the non-profit ActionAid. “As the planet’s weather becomes more chaotic, this ruling paves the way for the protections and reparations we desperately need to rebuild our lives and secure a just future.”

The litigation was dreamed up by law students from the Pacific island nation of Tonga in 2019. One of those students, Siosiua Veikune, was at the ICJ in the Hague this week to hear the opinion, telling the BBC, "I'm lost for words. This is so exciting. This is a win we take proudly back home to our communities." And I agree: this ruling is yet more proof that ordinary people, when they use their voices, can change the world.

Thanks Katharine Hayhoe!

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Today's quote




Surrender isn’t a sacrifice of the known, but rather a celebration of the infinite.

NIPUN MEHTA


My old photos:


Tai proposing to Kendra with garlic, around 2013, used as header the week of July 23, 2025














Sunday, July 13, 2025

Granny Glamour and...

 Thanks, Asheville Art Museum






Reality.

A friend lives in Pittsboro in central NC, where the remains of tropical storm Chantel dropped 10 inches of rain in just a few hours. Flooding of course. One life lost that I've heard. 

But actually I don't hear much because the focus is on the bigger horror story from Texas' flood, where over 100 lives have been lost.

No comparison needed. Just that there are limits to how many stories appear on the news, even on FaceBook or Bluesky

I am reminded so much of the storm that changed our environment here in western NC. It was good to see on our local news Mon. night that some folks from Beloved Asheville were about to depart to help out in Texas.
And on Tuesday on Facebook I saw the same organization saying:
When the waters rose suddenly in Chapel Hill, we moved with love and urgency. 💧❤️
Today, we’re delivering emergency supplies to our neighbors in Central NC after the flash flooding turned lives upside down. It wasn’t just the roads that were underwater — homes, hopes, and safety were shaken in an instant.
Rapid response has become a skill we’ve had to grow — not out of luxury, but survival. It’s about showing up now, not later. It’s about seeing the danger and saying, we will not let you face this alone.
We invite you to dream and build with us — a network of Rapid Response Mutual Aid across the country. We protect each other. 🌎💪🏽
We move not just with supplies… but with solidarity.


Outside helpers may offer their knowledge and assistance, however the big thing these catastrophes bring is the coming together of neighborhoods. We are learning the hard way that small groups of like-minded (surviving) people can make a BIG difference when we're pushed into huge changes.

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Reality



I go this way to the grocery store once a week. This car appeared here last week. Directly behind it is the overpass of I-40 over Blue Ridge Rd. It's clearly been pulled from a waterway, after the September 27, 2024 flooding here.  The Swannanoa River is a block away. This building across the street from the car (below) is not being demolished because it is on land which will eventually be part of a new I-40 interchange. So we get to see it daily, and cross the one-way bridge over the stream below. That also won't be improved upon until the interchange is constructed. 



Yes indeed, climate change is real!

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Yale Program on Climate Change Communication gives this:

  • Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 (69% versus 15%).

  • A majority of Americans (60%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, 28% think it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment.

  • 65% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. This includes 29% who say they are “very worried.”

  • 58% of Americans think extreme weather poses either a “high” (18%) or “moderate” (40%) risk to their community over the next 10 years.

  • Additionally, 64% of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including 34% who think weather is being affected “a lot.”

  • 12% of Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming.

Today's quote:

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable…but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

Agatha Christie

An old photo:


This is me around 11-12 years old.