Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago

That name does not automatically sound like a fun-filled adventurous day. This museum goes back to 1893 and the World Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The museum is named after Marshall Field (yes, as in the store named for him as well) who, as an early supporter donated 1 million dollars to this venture. While these are a few facts about the place, it is indeed an exciting and often magical place to visit.

 

The museum is near the lakefront and downtown on what is now called the Museum  Campus.  This whole area has become quite a lively place to visit almost any day as locals and tourists go from spot to spot.  The Field is very large and the items on display are only a very small fraction of what they have stored, as is the case with many museums.

 

Over the years there have been a number of traveling exhibits that are as monumental as the building itself.  The first that comes to mind was the King Tut exhibit where people stood in line for hours just waiting to get in the building! And yes, it was worth the wait, but will probably never go on tour again.

Currently there are a couple of special exhibits.  One is on dinosaurs and is appropriate for most ages to view, but a little scary for some.  One of the ones we went to is on Tattoo’s and is for adults.  With the societal changes, it is now the norm to see a young man or woman with a full sleeve tattoo. This exhibit goes back to early days of tattoo and the reasons why people did them.

 

It is a very full day just trying to see some of the special items on display. This comes highly recommended as a great place to take the entire family.

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A Photo A Week Challenge: Mountains

 

I love mountains.  Big snow-capped majestic ones and soft curving old ones like the Smokey’s. When I lived in Alaska last year I saw them daily and loved every bit of it  This photo is of a pass through the mountains last summer.

This is a lovely quilt pattern called Moon Over the Mountains.

This is for the Nancy Merrill challenge, A Photo A Week.

A Photo A Week Challenge: Boats & Ships

I am trying to do the photo a week challenge by Nancy Merrill, this week it is “Boats & Ships.”

This is a cruise ship that was in the harbor in Seward Alaska.  It is the first cruise ship that was going north through the northern passage.  It was traveling with its own ice breaker ship in the lead. This was going from Seward to New York City and was going to take 3 months.

Two of my son-in-laws were very happy with the purchase of this old boat, so happy they could not wait to put it in water to enjoy it.  Big boys and their toys.

What a pretty quilt with a nice variety of ships on it.

A Photo A Week Challenge: Yellow

“The Calla Lilies  are in bloom again…”  Katharine Hepburn in “Stage Door.” Love the quote and the flower, here in the Midwest they do not winter outdoors, so seeing them bloom is a happy thing.

Right now the garden has a few other yellow contributions and a great-grandson brought out a collection.

The other place I go to is always a quilt.  Someone once told me that if a quilt has only a small percentage of yellow fabric it is classified as a yellow quilt.  I think that he combination of yellow and another color often makes a beautiful quilt and I love all the shades of yellow.

Hot And/Or Cold

One of my favorite examples of Hot and/or Cold.

Sadly I have one of those minds that remembers unimportant trivia.  The “hot and cold” water towers were featured on a television show at least 25 years ago, but they certainly made an impression on me.

I equate most things to quilts, so here is a great example of a quilt with warm and cool colors working beautifully together.

I See Quilts.

Not as bad as “I See Dead People.”  This just means that I look at a beautiful landscape and try to figure out how to turn it into a quilt.  I did not realize that everyone didn’t do this.  I know many of my quilt friends get it because they do the same thing.

An honors course I took in college called “Women In Literature” gave us a lot of latitude to create our own final for the course.  Some wrote an essay about what they felt about the course; some made a video of one of the books we read; I made a quilt. The reading material translated in my mind to quilt blocks.

Many of us make quilts for all life experiences.  The birth of a child is an obvious one, however birthday and house-warming are a couple of automatic occasions in my mind.  Another occasion is the passing of a friend or family member, also a promotion at work fits the category.  We can’t forget as a fundraiser either.

I don’t believe this is a deadly illness to have, some may disagree when they see the size of my fabric stash.  If it falls down, it’s all over.  I would cite a lot of other examples, but my mind is already racing at my next blog post and what quilt will I use to explain it.  How would you gift a quilt or what event would you like to receive a quilt for?

 

 

A Photo A Week Challenge: Flying

 

One of the highlights  of my summer in Anchorage, Alaska was a float plane trip.  One of my grandsons came to visit and celebrate his birthday with mine, so we took a plane ride together in a Cessna that was 1 year younger than I am!  It was beyond description amazing.

 

Our pilot was well versed in the options to find wildlife on the mountain ranges we flew over and we saw a lot.  He took us over so many different glaciers, I lost count.  One more beautiful than the next. We landed in a lake that was formed by the runoff from 3 glaciers, opened the door of the airplane and handed us a giant ice cube. about 12 inches,  probably over 10,000 years old from a calving glacier.

I had to restrain myself and choose only a few photo’s.  I have been very lucky, flying many places in the world, on big new 777’s and tiny old regional jets. Some aircraft that looked like a crop duster in little one gate no-where’s-ville.  I have landed in huge modern international terminals, small antiquated  international terminals. But this flight circling the mountains  around Anchorage is one I will treasure.  The best time flying ever.

A Photo A Week Challenge: Black & White

Here is my photo for the week, it is frost on a window.  Beautiful but very cold.

My second is a black and white quilt.  I do so many in color I sometimes forget the simple beauty of black and white.

 

 

A Photo A Week: Music

My granddaughter dancing at a wedding.  The joy of enjoying the music and the dance and the moment shows on her face.  Love this photo!

A Daily Challenge: Footsteps

When I would write something years ago, I would start with a search through the dictionary or one of several encyclopedias that we had.  Today it is Google or Wikipedia to start.  I do believe the end is the same, a jumping off point, that little nudge needed to start the next project. Today’s word prompt is Footsteps.

My first search was on other blogs.  I came across one of a young man from Romania who had a most interesting blog about walking and taking one footstep at a time.  Then to an online dictionary.  Footstep, a step on which to ascend or descend, a way of life, conduct or action followed in his father’s footsteps.

I was looking for my personal meaning and I think I must amend it to baby steps.  This is how I feel my life is traveling now.  I am taking baby steps to make a decision about where to live.  I am taking baby steps in learning how this blogging really works.  I am OK with baby steps at this stage in my life.  I don’t need to create an artificial deadline for me to meet with my decisions.

I guess as long as I am feeling and/or seeing forward progress, I am good with that. I am OK with the Scarlett O’Hara quote from Gone With The Wind.  ” After all, tomorrow is another day”