Sunday, October 31, 2021

Travelog 2021, part 2: Road Scholar at Chautauqua

This was our 39th Road Scholar program (47th if we count the one-day "day of discovery" field trips).  We began traveling with Road Scholar in 1996 right after they eliminated the age requirement.  We like the combination of learning and sight-seeing, the value for our money, and the interesting fellow travelers.  Click on the link in the blog header to see the complete list of our RS adventures.


Road Scholar holds weeklong programs at the Chautauqua Institution in spring and fall -- before and after the actual Chautauqua season.  They also have a programs during the season when it's a lot more crowded (and more expensive).  We stayed at the beautiful, historic Athenaeum Hotel   


(Our third-floor room had a view of an inside courtyard, not the lake, but we only used the room for sleeping.)

The 90 participants were divided into three groups.  We were all together for meals and for the evening entertainment but we were in our small groups for the lectures.  It wasn't overwhelming at all, and it made for interesting conversations since might be eating with people who'd gone to something different than we had that morning.  

Monday morning:   naturalist Jack Gulvin has been involved with purple martin conservation for many years.  The birds now depend on people to create multi-compartmented houses for their nests.  Contrary to what most of us thought, they do NOT eat mosquitoes. They do eat many other insects.  Gulvin is also fascinated by sumac so we learned a lot about the prolific shrub -- including that the berries can be steeped to make "sumac-ade," a sweet-ish beverage.  We tried some -- not bad.  

 



The view at lunch (and every meal in the hotel dining room), with time for a short walk.

 

Monday afternoon: Chautauqua’s archivist Jon Schmitz told us the history of the Chautauqua Institution and the Chautauqua movement. I took pages of notes. In short: a post Civil War educational, cultural, and moral improvement movement. Aligned with the Sunday School movement to teach religion and upright living. The Chautauqua Lake site was a campground that attracted church workers and families—20000 the first summer. Later other Chautauquas were created and also traveling tent shows. The Chautauqua Institution  today is a private nonprofit corporation that provides programming nine weeks each summer. People can stay at hotels, motels, or B&Bs, or rent houses or apartments. There are many private homes, mostly seasonal, but about 300 stay through the winter. Day/week/season passes to lectures, concerts, etc., are sold.   The meaning of Chautauqua is uncertain, but perhaps “place where the fish are taken.” 

After the presentation we had a shuttle bus tour with Allen Nelson, a sixth-generation Chautauquan. He pointed out architectural features and significant buildings. Both presenters were very informative.


Frances Willard’s summer home. At one time it was the WCTU headquarters. (From what I have learned about her, she was conducting business and advocating 365 days a year so likely the WCTU HQ moved along with her.) Her home in Evanston is a museum and research library. (For more about Frances:  here)


 


The Chautauqua Women’s Club, founded in 1889, is a GFWC affiliate. The clubhouse offers accommodations. Members live in every state. When the Chautauqua Institution was threatened with bankruptcy club president Mrs. Pennypacker leveraged her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt and put on a fundraising luncheon in Washington with Eleanor. Club members eagerly sought invitations though most of them (and their husbands) were Republicans who had not voted for FDR. The club members also persuaded John D. Rockefeller (junior??) to write a check to pay off the rest of the debt.



 There's a variety of housing at Chautauqua. The first dwellings were tents on platforms. The bottom center shows one of the cottages erected on a platform base. (Those are all the same footprint and have no basement.) The bottom right shows a house closed up for the winter. There's a big business in custom-made canvas covers (with zippers in the doorways to get in and out). With 200+ inches of snow each year the summer homes need protection.


Monday evening: Frida Kahlo portrayed by Sharon Rula Backos, a Rochester-based actor. A wonderful performance! It was icing on the cake for me after seeing the Kahlo exhibit at College of DuPage last summer.

 

Tuesday morning: “The Wild Bunch: Supreme Court Justices 1937-2019”—a lively, informative, and entertaining presentation by Dr. Greg Ferro. (Look him up —he does Road Scholar , OLLI, and other courses online and in person. He’s great!)  

 Left: in good company with RBG (hotel lobby) 








Tuesday afternoon:  Nature walk with Jack Gauvin ( the purple martin expert).   There's not much "wild" at Chautauqua but the gardens are beautiful.   Upper right:  shelf fungus on a maple tree. Lower center: earthstars fungus. 

 Tuesday evening:  we enjoyed a folk music performance with two local musicians.  


 

Wednesday:  Field trip day! Morning; Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown. He grew up here though lived in Old Lyme, CT, as an adult.  (Peterson observed the effect of DDT on bird populations, particularly osprey.  (PBS/Nature on 10/27 was about osprey in Connecticut, and we felt very well-informed.)  

Lower left: a mural depicting Peterson's life and career. 

 




The gray house with yellow trim is Lucille Ball’s childhood home.  (We did not stop. My snapshot got 83 likes on FB and many comments.)

 




Field trip, part 2:  The Robert H. Jackson Center.  (A follow up to the Supreme Court lecture on Tuesday.)   Jamestown native Robert H. Jackson was Solicitor General and attorney General before being nominated to the Supreme Court by FDR. His notable decisions were WV Board of Ed vs Barnette (protecting students from compulsory Pledge of Allegiance) and Brown vs Board of Ed. He took a leave from the Supreme Court and was US Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. He died in 1954.  

 


 

 


Thursday morning: Bat Chat with year-round ChautauquanCaroline Bissell. Bats are “Chautauqua butterflies” As you likely know, they are beneficial for insect control and pollination. You also know that they are threatened by white nose fungus (brought from Europe to Howe Cavern, NY, in 2006 by a cave explorer), light pollution, habitat/nesting loss, etc. Caroline was so enthusiastic!!  

 The cutouts in the railing of the Athenaeum front porch are bats. 

Thursday afternoon: “Dealing with the Dragon on Common Ground” with Phil Shull, retired from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. Interesting perspective on the differences between US/European and Chinese culture. The second half was about genetic modification in agriculture—which had gone on for decades/centuries of plant breeding. (No photos from the lecture.)     

The last evening! We had a screening of the 2017 film Marshall. It was very good. (We learned about the Supreme Court earlier this week.)

 

Last Chautauqua sunrise.  

We said good-bye to our new Road Scholar friends and were on the road mid-morning.   We stayed overnight at  a hotel outside Syracuse, chosen because it was halfway to the next destination -- and because we needed to do laundry.

Next:  a weekend in the Berkshires . . .  


 

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Travelog 2021, part 1: Cuyahoga Valley and a president

 18 days, 8 states, 3010 miles.  Our October trip -- the farthest I've been away from home since February, 2020, and even longer for Stevens -- was a memorable success.  We accomplished three goals and did so much more.  The travelog will be presented in multiple parts.

We left home Friday morning, October 9, headed for Richfield, OH, just south of Cleveland.  

 Saturday morning:   All aboard! Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad tour to start our day. 

From the website:  CVSR is  a tourist excursion railway and private sector, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization operating in partnership with Cuyahoga Valley National Park. CVSR is dedicated and committed to preserving and renovating historic railcars so that they may be enjoyed by future generations. In addition to providing event excursions year-round, we also offer a membership program and have a volunteer base of more than 1,000.



The round trip took about 2-1/2 hours and provided a great overview of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. 




 


Saturday afternoon we explored Cuyahoga National Park.  Beautiful fall scenery and two waterfalls.   (This one is Brandywine.) 


The weather was so mild that we dined outside at a Ukrainian restaurant near our hotel.  The food was delicious. 


Sunday morning: a final stop in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  The Gleason Store (upper left) had displays with the story of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The shortest distance would have been from Cleveland to Marietta but to get taxpayer buy-in they routed the canal southwest to Columbus and further southwest to Cincinnati.  Lower left photo shows one of the canal locks.  Boston Mill is now the park headquarters/retail store. 

It was nice to find the Mentor Public Library open Sunday morning when we had ninety minutes before the next scheduled event. I wandered around while Stevens read the Sunday Plain Dealer.  The local quilt guild had an exhibit in the lobby display case. 

 


Sunday afternoon: James Garfield National Historic Site.  A Civil War general and a college president, Garfield bought Lawnfield in 1876. He added on to the nine-room farmhouse to accommodate his large family—wife Lucretia, five children, and his mother. He was the first presidential candidate to campaign in person, greeting some 17000 people from the front porch. He was shot in July, 1881, and died in September. Lucretia was determined to keep his memory alive, that he would not be forgotten after only 6 months in office.   An appeal for memorial funds raised enough for her to add onto the house including a library and archive. She saved every piece of paper he had—a boon to historians. The house stayed in the family, became a local historical museum, and was eventually deeded to National Parks.   


Left: the famous front porch. Right:  the wire-mesh bed where Garfield lay. (They used electric fans blowing over ice to keep hi cool.)  Bottom:  the Garfield children drew on ceramic tiles that were overglazed and set into the fireplace surround.  

Period quilts at Lawnfield.  A needlepoint footstool.  Stained glass and the Garfield children's cradle.



Wildflowers, woods, and waters at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.


...... next:  Chautauqua......

Thursday, October 7, 2021

I Like Thursday: trip preparation, guild rummage sale, and donation follow up

 We leave tomorrow morning for our trip east -- Road Scholar and granddaughter's wedding with sight seeing before, between, and after.  No blog posts until the end of October. . . . and no time for wildflower or even garden photos!

While I'm away my sewing machine will be in the shop for a much-needed cleaning. 

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Last evening our guild had a members' rummage sale.  $20 per table.  I split with Irene -- I had a table and a half and  she had the other half.  I packed boxes with books, patterns, notions, kits, and fabric. Every time I turned around I found something else I thought I could live without.  [Note: quite a lot came from estate sales, thrift shops, and destashings.]   

Not many people participated. The program chair said there were a number of cancellations.  Attendance at guild meetings still hasn't come back to pre-pandemic levels.  

I didn't sell out, but I returned home with less than I brought.  Out of my house are: two pairs of never-used Gingher applique scissors, a pattern, four books, a pattern, a tote bag kit, six cute greeting cards decorated with buttons, a mola, a set of vintage blocks -- and, hooray, 32-3/4 yards of fabric!   (I could not resist and bought five yards from other sellers.)   It was interesting that all the sellers priced fabric at approx. $3/yard, an independent decision.  My profit after the table fee and my purchase:  $53.50. 

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I wrote about my recent estate sale quilt rescue in this post . 

 I sold the blue bows quilt for $200. 


 



 I traced the origin of the signature block quilt
to Itawamba County, Mississippi, and sent it to the historical society there.  I got this lovely email acknowledgement earlier this week:  

(I'd link up with LeAnna's I Like Thursday but I'm not sure how.) 

See you all at the end of the month!



Monday, October 4, 2021

Weekly update: class reunion, quilt show, a finish, and reading

 The Glenbrook North High School Class of 1970 had not-quite a reunion on Saturday evening.  Early in 2020 we began planning.    Committee members (of which I'm one) tracked down classmates to get phone numbers and email addresses.  We created a Facebook group and used an online class reunion site to try to reach everyone we could.   In July, 2020, we realized that the pandemic wasn't going to be over by October so we cancelled the event. We began 2021 with the hope we could pull off a "Fifty Plus One" reunion for October, 2021.   Evites went out and reservations were made.  But people were hesitant -- the pandemic still hasn't gone away, we're senior citizens (a vulnerable group). We cancelled the big weekend (wine tasting, golf, school tour, and the dinner party).  Some had made travel plans and others were confident of their vaccinations.  So, we had a mini-dry-run-reunion this Saturday.  There were 26 classmates (if my photo count is correct) and 10 spouses. The weather was mild and we enjoyed drinks and heavy hors d'oeuvres outside.              [I am on the left in the second row.]

This was either brilliant or incredibly foolish -- no masks, hugs, and close proximity.   We are going to reboot the big event for next summer -- outdoors -- "The Class of 70 turns 70." 

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There were many beautiful quilts on display at the Village Quilters biennial show.  Irene and I went on Friday afternoon.  

(I have info about each quilt and the maker's name if you are interested.)



Three quilts from a workshop with Weeks Ringle.  (I really like this idea for "can't cut this" fabrics.)

From a improv workshop with Cindy Grisdela. 





There was a Quilts of Valor presentation during the show, but not when we were there.  QOV had an section of the exhibit (no photos, sorry) and a booth. They had donated fabric not suitable for QOV--put a contribution in the jar and take some. And I did! 


QOV goodies at the top.  A little stash enhancement at the bottom. 


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In the studio: 


I can boast of a finish for the month!  I made the flimsy earlier this year.  


The back uses a batik tablecloth and part of a batik sarong.   They were thrift shop or rummage sale finds. I am convinced that people buy these as souvenirs, or receive the as gifts, and never use them.


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This week's reading: 


Fox came to visit Catherine Raven's rural Montana cabin every afternoon. Raven, a biologist, knew better than to make him a pet. Her observations of his behavior -- hunting, denning, playing, and raising four kits with his mate -- are interspersed with her memoir (park ranger to grad student to professor). The story seems to zig and zag, rather like the movements of a fox. It is not sentimental but neither is it hard-edged.


A hand-written list with the titles of eight books flutters from a shelf in a branch library near London. Teenaged library assistant Aleisha  finds the list.  (She's not much of a reader; she's only taken the summer job to get out of the house and away from her severely depressed mother.)    Mukesh Patel, an 80-year-old widower, is tentatively venturing out of his house.  (His late wife was a great reader and patron of that library).  Perhaps if he finds a good book he'll have something to talk about with his bookworm granddaughter. He asks Aleisha for a recommendation and she helps him check out the first book on the list: To Kill a Mockingbird.  She realizes she should read it, too, so they can both talk about it. 

That leads to Rebecca, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy -- certainly an eclectic assortment. Mukesh and Aleisha pick up on different threads in each book. In their weekly conversations they get to know one another and so it is that Mukesh and his family (his three daughters and Priya) can help Aleisha and her family through a devastating time.

"Priya was reading a book he knew all about. He knew the world Priya was in right now. There was something magical in that--in sharing a world you have loved, allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself." (281)

"Please try to remember that books aren't always an escape; sometimes books teach us thigs. They *show* us the world; they don't hide it." (319)

"She thought about the journey the books had taken her on, the places they had transported her to...Through the reading list's characters she'd experienced injustice...guild...terror and unease....resilience...the power of hope, faith, and community...." (361)

 This is a lovely, moving tribute to the power of books to transform lives.


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Linking up with Design Wall Monday Monday Making Oh Scrap!    


P.S.  Virginia creeper at Sand Pond on Sunday afternoon. 


Friday, October 1, 2021

Friday check in: a September finish, the stash report, and OMG October

 


Rabbit, rabbit!  (Here is the explanation of the good-luck legend.) 

We get our Pfizer booster shots this morning --another good luck token.

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Here's a collage of Michaelmas daisies for Michaelmas Day, September 29. (It's also Archangels Day but the other archangels don't have fall wildflowers named after them.)  

According to Wikipedia the traditional meal features goose . We're not High Church so we had chicken.  Maybe next year I'll remember to bake a version of St. Michael's bannock.  

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I quilted the tilted slab blocks. The bias I mentioned in the previous post was not a problem after all. 

When I re-rolled the quilt sandwich to quilt the borders I found piecing mistakes.  Row 3 and row 4 are tilted the same way.  Too late to change them!


The print on the lower left is a William Morris reproduction from the late 1990s. Rose & Hubble, I think.   "I can't cut this!"  "Yes, you can!"  and I did.

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The stash report:

September fabric IN  25-1/2 yards, $51.00

September fabric OUT  31-1/8 yards

YTD  fabric IN  297-1/8, $1097, average $3.69/yard

YTF fabric OUT 371-1/2

Net reduction:74 yards

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My OMG for October is to figure out a setting for the framed four-patches I've made for Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  RSC October is lime green. Because I used limes when I made green blocks earlier in the year I'm not going to make another batch.

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Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  One Monthly Goal Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?