The students in the fifth and sixth grade art club were very interested in the demonstration that I did about making Ukrainian Easter Eggs. It was so much fun for me. In this picture, I am warming the egg at the candle flame and then wiping the melted wax from the egg to reveal the beauty of the colorful egg which had been hidden by the black wax and final dye coat. The egg in the forground, held by one of the students, was done in turquoise and brown colors. It was a favorite with the group.
Stones I painted to give students in the Art Club
Last week I went to school to show my Pysanky eggs and demonstrate how they are made, — to elementary art club students. It was great fun for me. There were 18 fifth and sixth grade students and they were outstanding in their good manners and good behavior.
I took a box of what I think of as “seconds”, eggs which have flaws, either in design or color or finish. These I let them handle freely, because if one of them breaks, it doesn’t matter to me. The kids were so careful with my seconds that I ended up letting them handle everything. I took several dozen of decorated eggs and nothing was broken. The students were polite and very appreciative. I had a wonderful time with them.
I like to give them something to remember me by when I go to a class like this. This time I painted small flat stones, mostly with an Easter motif. The students were very excited to choose a stone and I was so happy to be able to give them the stones. I think some of them want to paint stones now. Maybe some day I’ll go to a class and talk about and show them my painted stones.
I really enjoyed the time at school this week.
One day at Aquarobics, while the others were finishing work with the weights, they were doing leg exercises, I started working with the Styrofoam noodles. I started to let myself drift in the pool with my eyes closed. I could hear the voices at the shallow end of the pool as I drifted toward the deep end. I felt myself turning around but I thought I was keeping my orientation because of the voices from the shallow end of the pool.
Then it was time for the group to begin their work with the noodles. The instructor told the class to ride their noodles to the deep end of the pool and back. As they got started riding, chatting to each other, I opened my eyes, planning to get out of their way. To my surprise, there they were, coming toward me, from the deep end, and I thought they had just started, from the shallow end. I thought I must have gone into a time distortion and what seemed to me like several seconds was actually a minute or more. How could I have lost track of time like that?
Then I realized, while my eyes were closed, I had drifted around so that I was facing the shallow end. It wasn’t a time distortion that I had experienced. It was a space distortion. I was really facing the shallow end, not the deep end.
What a weird feeling that had given me. I thought I had heard the voices behind me, and it was because I had expected them to be behind me. My orientation in my space in the pool had been turned around.
After a couple of weeks, the clivia was fully in bloom.
It took a while for each of the little blooms to open on the clivia but finally they were all open. It’s a really beautiful bloom. One thing that made me feel bad is that there weren’t very many people who came in to see it. During the time it was blooming, the weather was extremely cold and often stormy, so I enjoyed its beauty and wished that others could see it but weather was too bad to take it out to another location.
Many a bloom is born to blush unseen. At least I and a few friends got to see it in full bloom, and I have pictures to remind me of how beautiful it really was. The individual flowerettes are now dropping off, one by one, but I can look forward to another gorgeous display next year.
I meant to publish a blog earlier than this, but I’ve been busy watching episodes of The Dog Whisperer. I got Season Three from the public library and I think there’s about 45 hours of listening for me. I’ve been using as much time as I can squeeze in to watch and listen to the Dog Whisperer. I hoping to be even more dominant with Rusty than I have been. I did learn a lot about dominance when I was training and working with Rhombus, but I love learning more. Besides, I find I got a little lax in some areas and I need to be on top of the game to be the best “pack leader” that I can be.
Ever onward!
Thanks, Sally, for asking about me. (By the way, I’ve been to your blog and for some reason was not able to post. Don’t understand why. I’ve been too busy to try to work it out. I’ll be back, and I hope soon I can post again.)