Monday murals and then some

 

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

Some words of wisdom from Facebook.

Sunday last Helen and I went to a free art museum trip in Asheville. Zoom tickets are available to lots of venues in Asheville, through our Buncombe County libraries. This one was for an air conditioned trip, and a pass lets two people in. We also signed up for a Van Gogh movie, taken from an exhibit at another museum, complete with docents talking about the paintings. It was pricy, but after all, we'd obtained the entrance tickets for nothing.

Around noon thirty in downtown Asheville, there was a Vegan-Fest. Too hot to go strolling for me, however.

I had to enjoy this lady's body art, who checked us in at the front desk.

A wonderful mural in the lobby of the Asheville Art Museum

Layers of wood, cut into a Black America. (My son Tai Rogers would love this, as he made many white map-like sculptural forms.)

Detail of "My Big Black America"

Today's quote:

Life, what an exquisite privilege.

Katie Rubinstein

And an environmental quote from Katharine Hayhoe:

“it's OK to grieve over the things we've lost and will lose, grief isn't the same as despair. We need to be brave enough to do the right thing."

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Early coffee at Four Sisters Bakery (where we also found day-old croissants available!) with Suzanne, a dear old friend yesterday morning. Well, I got a decaf Americano, while she brought her own Chai tea. She's trying also to downsize things and finds it hard to do. We discussed briefly the need to get accurate news, and I referred her to BlueSky. She's an artist that has breast cancer, and has given away and sold a lot of her supplies...but still has a good easel for some aspiring talented person. Her interests are similar to mine in many ways. We plan to meet more Sunday mornings and sit in the cool fresh air and chat. She's interested in that Podcast about the Trickster, which I posted about on "Inner Workings" blog. And like my friend Teresa, she's enjoying doing "slow stitching."

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We spoke highly of Thom Tillis (one of NC's Senators in Washington) who'd voted against the Big Ugly Budget Bill. And then later I saw he'd announced his not running for another election.

"After Trump attacked him yesterday for not supporting the budget reconciliation bill, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has announced he will not run for reelection next year, indicating his unwillingness to face a primary challenger backed by Trump. This puts the seat in play for a Democratic pickup.

In a statement, Tillis said: “In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.” He wrote: “I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability.” 

Tonight, Tillis told the Senate: “What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?... [T]he effect of this bill is to break a promise.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office today said the tax cuts in the budget reconciliation bill the Republican senators are trying to pass will increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over the next ten years despite the $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other programs over the same period. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) called the measure “Robin Hood in reverse…stealing from the poor in order to give to the rich, this massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top…. This is socialism for the rich.” 

Heather Cox Richardson 

Daylilies at Four Sisters Bakery

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My Old Photos:

4.21.48 Galveston TX, my father, George Rogers Jr, grandmother, Ada Rogers & Uncle Chauncey Rogers, myself, Barbara & little sister, Mary Beth. Mother was the photographer. We called it soapy water!

The Gatherer

 

An extraordinary ceramic sculptural tea pot...

The inspiration for this floral basket...another piece of art!

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

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From the current display at the Asheville Art Museum...

Friends who added smiles to a decorated elevator. The other elevator was too chaotically decorated for a photo!

Sorry about my ghostly yellow blouse and the whole gallery intruding as reflections. It was a lovely photo but the details kind of got lost.

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Sunday morning:

Foggy out and 65 when I opened the windows at 7. Took my Fosamax with water, which requires waiting an hour before enjoying coffee. That's for the osteoporosis, which was diagnosed based upon my age, more than the actual density of these bones. However, I've only ever broken one, my coccyx, when snow sledding in the Smokies, and again landing on it from standing on a table which tipped. 

Going to meet an old friend for coffee by the lake in a few hours. I'm back on the antibiotic (at half the dose), so will take the anti-vertigo pill as well, and avoid being in sun, as well as use my walking stick and wear my walking shoes which are like having duck feet, wide, light weight, stable, ugly!

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Today's quote:

One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity, ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear. -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

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Now a new feature for a while (who knows how long!) My very  old photos - just one from whenever, and if I know who and when and where, I'll add such info too. If not, they can remain just old photos.

My grandfather, George Elmore Rogers Sr., with his first son Elmore, and his mother Bette Bass Rogers, 1906.  Poppy built their house in Galveston, 1209 Broadway. Elmore lived only until he was 12 and drowned, when his little brother, my father, was just 2 years old.  And looking at the dates, my father's sister was born Oct. 9, 1916, when Elmore died Oct. 23, 1916. 

But I love this photo because of the dapper outfit my grandfather was wearing, as well as it being the only photo of my great great grandmother.

Another collection of old photos

 

A mobile house, 1926 (did I share this already?)

I wish I had a photo of a young woman with that look in her eyes, talking on a telephone. But I don't.

So I will share on Sepia Saturday what I have, which is another group of old photos that have come my way through the internet.

Flat-Iron Building, New York NY

An early bookmobile.

Charles Ebbets, taking the legendary photo of workers having their lunch on a beam, 9.20.1932, while constructing the RCA building. Below, the photo that is legendary.

RCA Building by Charles Ebbets, 1932

The Farmington Quaker Meeting House, New York, 1816 (I find it hard to believe that photo is that old...much too clear. the process of photography didn't occur that early.

A family leaves Florida for the north during the Great Depression.

King High School Drama Club, including my son Marty, about 1978, Tampa FL. He's wearing a headband.

More book mobiles.

1915 Silk Lace worn by Queen Maud of Norway.

A Sami family circa 1900 in Norway

Baba Yaga with her house on chicken legs.

William Harley and Arthur Davidson, 1914

Coney Island

Flato family, around 1895, after whom the town of Flatonia, TX was named.

Albert Einstein and his wife, Pasadena CA, 1931

It's all our home...

1970 Earth Day poster by Walt Kelly (artist behind Pogo the cartoon.)

And the quote for today is by Albert Einstein...

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

Hodge podge old and newer

Wonderful pioneer mountain women doing the carding, spinning and maybe knitting of the wool. 
 

Myself (lowest) and my granddaughter (l.) and her mother. Granddaughter just graduated from college! She is my oldest son's daughter. We visited with masks, except to eat...it was so nice to see their smiles!

A hug between my middle son and his mother-in-law. I have long wished there were a good term for a couple of mothers of married couples...rather than mothers-in-law in common! I feel very lucky that my son's mothers-in-laws are such wonderful women.

There used to be a train that went up to Mt. Michell...the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Now you can drive almost to the top, park your car and then walk an incline the last couple hundred feet.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday, of course. Can't let these old photos go by without sharing them there!

Today's quote:

Think for yourself and question authority. -Timothy Leary, psychologist and writer (22 Oct 1920-1996)

Then and now

A photo of a plein air pastel drawing I did in 1997.  Probably Amicalola Falls in Georgia. Glad to see my middle son, Russ  has it hanging over his desk in his office.

About the same time in his life, that's Russ on the right, my youngest Tai in the middle, and me from many moons ago on left.

While I visited his family last week, Russ made lovely fires for us in the cold evenings and also was doing the Christmas lights installation outside in mid-30s degrees...and the system he'd invested in wasn't working, so he tried a few other methods before he was satisfied.  Brrrr.

I like the sweet consideration that Michelle and Russ gave me of staging my guest room with many old photos of me.  I know they aren't there all the time, but it was a fun welcome, and I took my own photos of theirs!

And this is my youngest granddaughter (raised a foot on hearth) Russ, and myself, taken last week!

Russ being pensive, which was how he spent a lot of time figuring out how to hang lights outside, when he came in to warm up.

I'm sharing this with Sepia Saturday, these are some fond memories for me! (I might have more next week!)

Don't miss the photo of Russ riding a pony when about 4 years old!  HERE