Birthday present

Today is my birthday and I was home alone for a bit.  Alone time for this introvert is a gift in itself! I don't often buy things for myself and when I do it is usually materials for my artwork, but I fell in love with this painting by Ann Yeager and bought it for myself.  Do you ever buy birthday presents for yourself?  I will always think of it as a present from my beautiful Mom, whom we buried on Monday, since she left me some of her estate which made this purchase possible.

It is quite large as you can see from this photo and the colors change as the light moves with the sun from the east, south, and west windows.  It has a commanding presence from anywhere in the great room and I am very happy with it.  Ann told me that she painted it from the Rio Bravo bridge in Albuquerque looking north.  And thanks to my daughter Brittany and her partner Colin for precariously perching on a ladder over an 18' stairwell to hang it.

My darling husband gave me new camera to replace my old Lumix which died on our Costa Rica trip.  I am loving learning a bit more about photography.

My three girls have made it easier for me to use the iPad by giving me a case  with a real keyboard so that I no longer have to look at what I am typing...and it is hot pink so I will never lose it!

Thanks to all of my Facebook friends for their birthday greetings as well.  And to those of you who sent a real card with a stamp, I found those very special.

Out for a movie and dinner with my daughter, Brittany, this evening.  All in all a very nice birthday.

Looking Ahead to Summer Camps

Have your children ever attended a week long camp?  For a variety of reasons..the challenging economy, parents reluctance to miss a week of a child's life, wondering if camps are safe, feeling guilty about having a week to yourself, etc., many parents are choosing not to send their children to residential camps.  I think this is a terrible shame.  While there are parents who make sure their children have wilderness experiences, many more do not.

Many children have never built a fire, or roasted marshmallows, or hiked more than a mile.  Most have never been in a canoe or a raft, and would not know how to set up a tent.

 

So why are these sorts of experiences important?

1.  Appropriate risk taking encourages creativity.  Because many children spend a good deal of time indoors and are not allowed to roam free because of safety concerns by parents, they no longer encounter choices about whether the water is too high to cross a creek, a branch is too small to crawl out onto, a homemade raft is large enough to hold their weight, a cliff has enough crevices to be able to climb, etc.  In camp settings, these sorts of challenges are presented under the supervision of trained staff.

2.  Overcoming challenges gives children a sense that they can be in charge of their lives and succeed at new skills.

3.  Children are exposed to a variety of people from diverse backgrounds.  Living in community with children and counselors from around the country gives children a broader perspective on what might be possible for their own lives.


4.  Sending children to a faith based camp encourages their own spirituality as they encounter the wonders of creation in a variety of ways that would not be possible in urban settings.  Even if you do not attend a church regularly, children thrive in situations where they can talk about the purpose of their lives and what God might have planned for them.

Please consider giving your child a mountaintop experience.

Here are some opportunities that I am involved with:

 Camp Stoney  

This residential (six days) camp is run by the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.  My father-in-law, an Episcopal priest helped to start Camp Stoney and spent many summers there as a dean.  The camp has been closed for nine months to undergo some much need updating and renovations.  I have been involved with Camp Stoney for thirty years as a volunteer, a camp dean, and then as Interim Director for three years.  All of my children attended this camp and had incredible experiences there.  One of them became a camp counselor, and one worked as a chef there.  I have seen many lives positively impacted as a result of their experiences at Camp Stoney.  Click on the above link to go to the Diocesan webpage to find a schedule of summer camps at Camp Stoney which is located about 15 minutes from downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Ghost Ranch
Ghost Ranch is an interfaith education and retreat center of the Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.), located in a northern New Mexico landscape many deem sacred.  This summer I have been working on a summer camp for teens with Joan Brown of Albuquerque Interfaith Power and Light and members of a diverse group of churches. 

Monday, July 29- Saturday, August 4, 2013
Come spend a week immersing yourself in the beauty of Northern
New Mexico, share community, learn about sustainable
practices, and participate in hands-on experiences with nature,
food production, service, your faith, and so much more.
Limited to 10 adult leaders and 40 junior and senior high
youth. Registration requires endorsement letter of youth leader
and/or pastor because youth will come back to congregation to
lead a sustainability project in their community.
In addition to the service performed, you will have the chance
to meet new friends, learn about Northern New Mexico’s
unique culture and join in Ghost Ranch Outdoor Adventure and
Spirituality offerings.
•$350 per participant (youth or adult chaperone)
Cost includes lodging (dorms), meals, activities, service
projects, and outdoor adventure activities. $100 deposit
required, first come – first serve. Some Scholarship available
for youth of low economic means. 

For more information about either camp, contact me at St. Mark's 262-2484.

If you live in other parts of the country, explore options through the American Camping Association's website.







 

Planning a Party

Tea Party with Granddaughter Sara- Christmas 2012

My Mama, Rose Lee Stewart Womack, loved parties and we are planning one last party for her on Sunday.  Mama died at the age of 95 on Valentine's Day which is pretty wonderful since she was joining her sweetheart, my Dad, who had died when she was 50.  The last thing my daughter Brittany said to her was, "Russell is waiting for you with a box of chocolates, you had better hurry."  She dearly loved chocolate! She used to make fudge for my Daddy after we were in bed.   We might get one or two pieces the next day, but she and Daddy enjoyed most of every batch.  I never understood this until I had children of my own and realized that I did not want to experience their sugar "highs."

If you are in Albuquerque on Sunday, please join us at 3:00 p.m. for her Memorial Service and the party afterward in the Parish Hall of St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 431 Richmond NE.  

Because her favorite color was yellow, we will have yellow flowers on the altar and also for the table centerpieces.  Looking through her photo albums, I found a newspaper clipping with a description of a tea that she helped to host. 
"Officer's Wives Entertain With Reception"
August 1953
  "Mrs. Walter r. Agee wife of the Gen. Walter R. Agee, new commanding officer of Amarillo Air Force Bas, was honored with a tea on Thursday in the Officer's Club.
   Hostesses were Mesdames A.J. Marson, M. J. Sullivan, R.O. Womack (that would be Mama), R.W. Bruce, E.H. Cook, H.D. Rust, Leonard Keller, M.E. Sattler,...
The serving tables were covered with white linen cloths with skirts of green net and centered with arrangements of yellow chrysanthemums and bronze lilies, flanked with large white candelabra holding white candles."

Rose Lee on the far right.

Don't you wish this photo was in color?

Because I have such a clear memory of helping Mom make what seemed (at least to my 8 yr old self) like hundreds of tissue paper butterflies...

Sort of like these, but pastels.

to hang from parasols for a baby shower she hosted, I am busy baking butterfly shaped sugar cookies for her party.  I had hoped they would end up looking like this...

Just the yellow ones.  So far they look like this with the icing I purchased in the cake decorating aisle at Michael's.

Have you noticed the easy way is almost never the best way? Clearly I need to make some royal icing to do the lines.


There will be tea sandwiches, fruit, baked brie en croute, lots of different cookies and many of my friends are bringing their best tea party recipes as well.  And yes, we will be using white tablecloths, silver candelabra, and the silver tea service with those yellow flowers.  Not sure if we will make fudge though.  

Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to introduce those of you who did not know my vibrant, beautiful, feisty Mom to some of the stories of her life.  I think you might be entertained.

CATIE

One of the highlights of our trip to Costa Rica was a botanical tour of CATIE. There is a beautiful building named after one of the USA's vice presidents. In 1942, Vice President Henry Wallace and the Costa Rica president laid the corner stone for this institute. 

 Years later, the Wallace Genetic Foundation awarded a grant to help continue the work.

"The Wallace Genetic Foundation has awarded a grant of $50,000 to help renew and maintain the internationally important collections of tropical plants preserved in the Botanical Garden at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. The grant was made to the Tropics Foundation, CATIE's U.S.-based foundation, located in Atlanta.
The CATIE Botanical Garden protects the germplasm of almost 400 species of food crops and fruit trees of paramount importance in tropical agriculture and serves as a resource not only for Latin America but also around the world.
Both the field collections and the cold-room seed collections are under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, allowing free exchange of genetic materials. Seed and vegetative materials go to farmers, universities, national and international research institutions and nonprofits who use them to develop improved or disease-resistant varieties or to re-establish plant diversity that has been lost. Materials have been requested from countries as far away as Thailand, Germany, Ethiopia and France

In announcing the award, David Douglas, vice president of Wallace's board of directors, said, "Wallace Genetic Foundation is delighted to be supporting the vital genetic preservation work of CATIE and its Botanical Garden. The founder of Wallace Genetic itself, Henry A. Wallace, played a role in helping to launch CATIE in 1942, and it seems only appropriate that his descendants are in a small way continuing to support the visionary leadership of CATIE and its extraordinary germplasm collection."  Quote Via

If I was commissioned to do a painting of the Garden of Eden, I might travel to Costa Rica for models.
Our tour of CATIE was led by Jose who encouraged us to see and touch most of the plants, and taste many of them.

Jose, explaining the parts of an orchid

Pod holding cocoa beans

Cocoa pod cut open

Coco bean covered in a sweet slimy coating

Slimy coating sucked off and bean broken open to show purple insides.  Don't bite down!  It is bitter, but this is the part they use to make chocolate.

"We Are the Eighth Day" Art Exhibit & Poetry Reading

Don't miss this exciting event....

Bird Watching in Costa Rica

Friend, Vicki, and I braving the thorns to catch a closer glimpse of the boat billed heron.

I am the first to admit that I am not an avid or knowledgeable bird watcher, but in Costa Rica I became much more interested with a skilled tutor, Jorge.  Jorge grew up with both his grandfather and his father working at CATIE, the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center in Turrialba.  Instead of going into botonanical studies, he became a river guide and made his living that way until he suffered a shoulder injury.  Now he conducts other adventure tours with both his own adventure tour company and as a sub contractor for Costa Rica Rios in and around Turrialba with a special emphasis on CATIE and the Pre-Colombian archeological site at Guayamo.  Like many Costa Ricans, he is extremely concerned and learned about environmental issues.  Because of living so close to nature, Jorge loves all plants and creatures and can answer almost any question you might have.

Jorge

This post is for my cousins, Barbara and Diane and friend from high school, Mary, who really do know their birds and travel all over the world to see them.  Here is a list of what Vickie and I saw in about two hours and some very poor shots I managed:

Rufus Motmot

Baltimore Oriole (yes they really do fly south for the winter!)
Wedge billed woodcreeper
clay colored robin (the National bird of Costa Rica)
Cattle Egret

Boat billed Heron

Black-crowned night Heron
Green Heron
Golden -hooded tanager
Boat billed fly catcher
Northern Jacanda

Zoomed in a bit too much, but isn't this rather like Monet's Water Lilies?

Purple Gallinulas

Montezuma Oro Pendula

Montezuma Oro Pendula going for a banana in a feeder.

Flycatcher
Black-banded wren
Summer tanager
Road side Hawk
Great Kiskade
Yellow-bellied Elania
Variable seedeater
Sparrow
Yellow warbler
Palm tanager
Common tody-Flycatcher
Banaquit

Keel-billed toucan
great tailed-Grackle
Socit Flycatcher
Crimson fronted Parakeet

blue gray tanager
black vulture
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
House wren
tropical Kingbird
Slary-tailed trogan
Collared Aracari

buff-throated saltator
spot-crowned eufonia

If I continue to enjoy birding, I will need to get a camera with a faster shutter, and a much bigger zoom lens.  Some photography lessons might help as well.  Now if only the birds would stay still long enough for me to get the shot! Mostly I caught only a blurred image as they took off.

Everyone loves a Mime

During our stay in San Jose, Costa Rica, one Sunday afternoon we walked down Central street which has several plazas.  As in all Central American cities, the plazas are social centers of activity.  This Sunday, many entertainers were out. 
Oddly, a pair of young American musicians singing songs by the Beatles.

 
 A duo of mimes caught our attention along with a sizeable crowd.

 And no street fair is complete without children getting their faces painted...