Cheddar cauliflower

Farm market purchases: cheddar cauliflower, peppers roma tomatoes, red peppers ,basil, brussel sprouts still on stalk, and plum-cots

Has much more Vit A than white variety

Family dinner guests

Another beautiful fall day. I biked in the cool air. I saw a flock of turkeys that I hadn't seen
 since last winter. I assumed they were the same as they were about a half mile from the last
 time I saw  them. My SIL was spending some quality time doing yoga with her nieces.
 When I returned home, Danny was there wanting a ride. Off we went to a playground.
 He wants to climb on the big kids' stuff but it is hard for him. We had fun.

Now if I were Ms. Efficient, I would have bought all my produce on my bike ride though
 eventually I had bought 2 huge 5 pound  cheddar cauiflowers and a 2 foot long stalk o
f brussel sprouts, sort of hard to carry. I tried to buy all local, most of the stuff is grown 
right at the farm that I went to. The exception was the fruit. There were some unripe pears
 of unknown origin and apples but I opted for plumcots from probably CA. What
 makes them different from plums? I think they are a bit tarter and have a firmer texture.

The plumcots were converted into a free form pie. Never will I do that again with anything
 except apples. Plumcot juice all over the place. The baking sheet is still soaking but the
 family seemed to like the taste.

Roma tomatoes turned into a Caprese salad along with the basil. Beefsteak tomatoes 
would have been better. The Brussel sprouts were stir-fried along with onions, shallots, 
bacon bits and garlic. The cauiflower was just steamed. I made a roast and gravy.
 I thought it would have been nice to have scallops but they are difficult to make for
 8 adults and 4 kids. Naomi thought I should have had both the roast and the scallop
s but would she be around to help prepare them? She said that she'd eat them. I also 
made a sun-dried tomato and mushroom risotto. Lots of slicing and dicing.

But it was nice though trying to have everyone at one table is becoming harder.

A return to Grand Rapids

Mild case of golfer's vasculitis that I got from Tuesday's adventure. The next day, I went to get my nails done. The pedicurist wondered if it hurt or was contagious. No on both counts but it was ugly.Fortunately it has faded and did not come back.

The kids' favorite interactive art. A huge push pin sculpture that you lean on one side. Lots of school kids explorinng the ArtPrize

Picture made from soot. I will post Daniel's own soot work soon.

Sculpture inside of our lunch place: a very tasty tapas place

View from our table

Sister and brother inside of an entrant for ArtPrize

Discarded clothing mountains

Clay heads

Pretty butterfly

copper wire head

This was a crowd favorite: a stuffed moose being attacked by stuffed wolves

Einstein and frisbee

pine needle bear

Georgia on someone's mind

sandcastle

Mermaid head

reflection: not part of ArtPrize

A beautiful day again to explore art: this  time with Steve and his sister. I tried to show them what I thought was best plus we explored venues I didn't have time to go to the other day. Anyway, a fun and interesting time had by all.  Later after our dinner in Brighton, Shanna came over minus the boys to have some quality time with her aunt who treated us all for breakfast this morning.

Must go run before I really blimp out.

ArtPrize photos

Found object Marilyn

There was a 400 sq ft area of thousands of clay flowers: this is just a small part

Just part of the installment I am voting for. Must be experienced in person

penguins

Various beasts from found objects

I love this tiger

quilt made from discarded electronic equipment

This dragon is going to be in the Top ten. It is made from gold beads suspended on strings

Sea gulls

This foot bridge was one huge installation full of metal sculptures

huge glass dandlion

My sister-in-law flew in this morning on a red-eye from Seattle. It is fun having her here and the kids and grandkids adore her. After she slept a bit, we went out to see Shanna's building site. We might go to GR tomorrow to enjoy ArtPrize. I hadn't seen a good deal of it.

ArtPrize: What the Truck?

Motorcycle parts family: for some reason lots of art this year featured motorcycles

To view this art we had to look through polarizing light filters: See below

Through the filter. As with so much of this art, you had to be there in person to appreciate

A series of otters carved from single pieces of walnut

My friend on a motorcycle

Giant Ford head. On my bike ride, there was a town full of these heads but I was in a van passing by when I saw them. Should have made the driver stop to take their pictures

All made from dryer lint. None of it was dyed. They collected the lint from various washings

Incredible pencil drawing that was 30 ft long

Detail of drawing

Waterfall from broken glass

Huge drawing that this is only a part of. Probably will win this year's prize. 

The little frames are childhood photos making the larger photo of the adult

The City Band from afar so you can get some idea of its size. The artist was on hand to give the whole story of it

Installation of my friend's friend: Faces of the Homeless

Not part of ArtPrize but a gold mosaic ceiling of a church some art was in

My friend at lunch at a friend's sister's restaurant

Flower bower from cut metal

The art featured are these huge paper cut-out columns placed between the windows. Also booming in the background, was an organ piece celebrating Easter that was an ArtPrize entry The church features a beautiful original Tiffany window that I could only poorly capture (I am waiting for my friend's much better photo taken with her 10x more expensive camera)

My poor attempt to capture the Tiffany

The side windows were easier to photograph

Hundreds of volunteers swarm the streets to answer any possible questions the visitor may have. My question: why does it say What the Truck on the back of your bib? She was flummoxed. She had no idea that was on her back. Apparently it an advertisement for a business that provided the bibs.

Yesterday, my friend took 330 photos. I only took about 90. I will post more later.
There are 161 venues for ArtPrize. It is impossible to visit even half of them in one day. Perhaps I will return next week with my SIL who is coming tomorrow. Some of my favorites do not photograph like this huge carousal with strings of gossamer bats with changing lighting that flap their wings and circle to opera. Quite the show. Maybe there is a Youtube video of it. The installation that me and my friend will vote for, I can't even begin to describe. It won't win because it is in a minor venue.  But it was fantastic!

This is the third year of the competition. They have extended it to last for a whole month. We get to vote on what we think is the best art. As there is prize money, the artists are out there canvassing your vote. Some venues get visited more than others so exposure is not equal. It would be easy to overlook a perfectly painted entry. Big installations get the attention and votes. They do have real judges go through and more fairly assess the work in a separate competition.

Due to my silly plantar fasciitis acting up, we didn't visit as many venues as last year.Also I got a flare up that I didn't notice until today, of my golfer's vasculitis, an ugly red rash on my calf.  But it was a beautiful, wonderful day!