Now it's May

We went to Gettysburg and Washington, DC, on a recent Spring break. The massive rocks comprising the area of "Devil's Den" at Gettysburg are a humbling reminder of the many lives lost during the Civil War. It's a good thing that people still experience this area as hallowed ground.

Of course the beautiful flowering plants and trees remind us, too, that the cycle of life continues and beauty is still a part of the world.

One of our first stops in Washington was Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. I love these murals depicting man's walk on the moon,,,,,

...and America's beautiful, spacious skies. This great mural's by Eric Sloan.

We saw the new WWII memorial. It has many components and is huge(much bigger than pictured here), probably to reflect the huge worldwide involvement. All I could think of were the many committees that must've had to reach compromise after compromise to design and implement this complex memorial.

The Korean Monument allowed you to feel like you were part of a scouting patrol.

The sheer amount of names of dead Viet Nam men or women who gave their lives or were missing in action remind us of the staggering cost of war to those who lost their lives and the countless people still affected by these losses. We found Kenneth Keith's name, a serviceman from our home place we always honor at the local Memorial Day ceremony.

We took time to read the words carved in stone at the Lincoln Memorial. The 2nd Inaugural address, chiseled in stone, is powerful even today. It reminded us that both sides prayed for their cause during the Civil War. and it took years to resolve. It encourages tolerance, humility, patience and to aspire to beliefs and wisdom greater than our own.

We always try to keep Mom supplied with flowers in the nursing home. This is the bouquet picked from around her "home place" that Dad and I gave her on Dad's recent birthday.

My Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas are up! I'm letting more flowers have reign in my backyard garden this year since it's too shady for the vegetables I 've tried to grow there in recent years. I've been transplanting any stray rudbeckia I find into one general area.

The tulips have been especially nice this year!

Our small cat is ready to enjoy the big world beyond her window!

Here's my Mother's day picture my kids granted me. I've been a Mom for nearly 27 years now!

I just finished this drawing recently of the barn near the Sapsucker Woods Bird Sanctuary near Ithaca.(I added the reflection after photo was taken) Ready to start my last calendar drawing for 2011- which will be of Taugannock Falls, also near Ithaca).

The last picture shown below is of me flanked by poet and author, Marilyn Nelson, and my all-time favorite illustrator, Jerry Pinkney! I've been reading his books and admiring the gorgeous illustrations (for over 20 years) to my kids. I chanced to spot these collaborators at a book-signing table at the Smithsonian's American History Museum. We had already exited, but came back, bought the book, Sweethearts of Rhythm (The Story of the Greatest All-girl Swing Band in the World). A flash flood of tears took hold of me once it set in the I met one of my artistic idols. (One's never too old to have heroes) I tell my youngest son, a die hard baseball fan, it'd be like if he had a surprise encounter with his all-time favorite, Derek Jeter!