Lands of the Midnight Sun Cruise--Part Two--Stavanger, July 26th

From Oslo we sailed on toward Stavanger, another town we’d visited in our ’07 cruise to Norway. Unfortunately, this was a town I slept through! I took more of the seasickness medication—Jo said I should have taken one tablet at a time rather than the two the doctor recommended—and was just too sleepy to do anything but nap! Bob went with Jo and Ray, though, to the Petroleum Museum, which he said was fascinating.


Timely, too, because of the oil spill this year. Stavanger has been booming since the 1960s when oil was discovered off its coast. Today, it is the 3rd or 4th largest city in Norway, with a population of around 100,000. It’s hard to be precise because the information given out by the ship and that in my guidebook differ.

When Bob returned to the ship, I sleepily requested that he take my camera back out with him and get some pictures of Stavanger. He did a nice job! The city centre is small and intimate, with narrow streets and open spaces protected from car traffic. The open-air market is one of the few in Norway where you can buy produce directly from local farmers every working day throughout the year.

On our cruise in 2007 we sailed up the fjord that is most associated with Stavanger. I remember this as one of the most memorable days of that cruise three years ago. We didn’t see Lyesfjorden this time.  Perhaps the most dramatic sight in Lyesfjorden is Prekestolen (Pulpit Rock), an overhanging platform above a drop of 1,959 feet to the fjord. 

Meanwhile, I snoozed on until 4:30 or so. I got up, skipped the Team Trivia game, showered, and then we met new friends Rachel and Tim—both doctors from Sioux Falls, SD—for drinks and dinner. They are a delightful couple whom we met before boarding the ship and have shared other meals with them in the buffet restaurant; they, too, are on our Team Trivia team. (This time the team did a bit better and were NOT the low scorers, thankfully!) After dinner, we went back to our cabin. I was able to get some lovely sunset pictures from our veranda. We wouldn’t see many more sunsets as we headed north toward the lands of the midnight sun.  As you'll see documented by the clock picture, sunset on this night was at 10:30.  Below you can also see a picture of our ship.

Bob, Alice, Tim, Rachel, Jo, and Ray--in the Horizons Lounge

Lands of the Midnight Sun Cruise--Part One--Dover and Oslo, July 23--26

I started a cruise journal on our recent cruise and have been working at home to complete it. Eighteen days is a long time to be on board and thus much to cover. Therefore, rather than sharing the completed journal—even in sections—I’ve decided to write greatly condensed versions of the journal and post them on my blog.

Our flight from DFW to Chicago and then on to London was as unpleasant as flying in the coach section always is! No reason to dwell on details. After landing in London, we were bused to Dover. Once on Oceania’s Insignia, we settled in and the first picture included below is of our friends Jo and Ray with us with the white cliffs of Dover in the background. We don’t look as tired as we were, fortunately!

Our first full day on board was a sea day, sailing from Dover to Oslo. The ocean was choppy—typical, I understand, for the North Sea. For the first time ever I suffered mild seasickness, but the medication provided by the ship’s doctor was helpful.  

We docked at Oslo around 8:00 AM on Sunday the 25th. It is a beautiful city, the capital and largest city in Norway. Its population is about half a million in the city itself, but its metropolitan area contains probably around a million and covers some 175 square miles. Its city center, though, is quite compact, and so that morning our friends, Bob, and I decided to explore on our own rather than to take one of the cruise’s excursions.

We walked by the Nobel Peace Center, within view of our ship. We had hoped also to visit both the Ibsen museum and the National Art Gallery, but the former was not yet open when we arrived. With just a morning to spend, we walked on to the art gallery. We passed both the Presidential Palace, the national theater and the opera house, as well plazas with fountains, sculpture (many by Vigeland, whose wonderful sculpture park we saw in 2007), and lovely gardens. Everywhere we went in Norway we saw beautiful flowers, and I took many flower pictures everywhere. (Perhaps I’ll do a blog post focusing just on flower pictures!)

Once at the art gallery, which appeared quite large from the outside but proved to not overwhelming in size once we got inside. We chiefly focused on the Edvard Munch room in the museum, home to the famous “Scream” painting, but we didn’t go to Munch Museum itself.  I particularly liked his "Dance of Life" painting.

From there we strolled back to the ship, stopping for a quick walk-through of the City Hall. Built in 1950, this building is somewhat controversial and unpopular with the Norwegians, many of whom don’t care for its Modernist style. I was impressed, however, especially by the gigantic (largest in Europe) mural on the back wall of the Great Hall, a work by artist Henrik Sorenson. In this huge room the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. Along the sides are frescoes by Axel Revoldt depicting the agricultural and consumer society of the 1950s. Once outside the building I took pictures of some of the lovely woodwork on the doorways and by the frescoes based on Norwegian folk tales.

We sailed from Oslo that afternoon. We settled into a typical routine of playing Team Trivia in the late afternoon, then having drinks with Jo and Ray in the Horizons lounge at the front of the ship, and then having dinner between 6:30 and 7:00. Open seating on Oceania cruises—so usually it was just the four of us, though we twice ate with new friends Tim and Rachel from South Dakota or friends we’d met in 2005 on the Baltic cruise—one of whom was in school with my sister Martha!

The pictures below are a select few from our first days on the cruise.  Remember, to see enlarged, just click on them.

The Nobel Peace Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sculpture probably by Vigeland

Presidential Palace

The National Theater, with another sculture of Ibsen

"The Kiss" by Vigeland, in front of the
National Gallery

doorway at the City Hall

Mural inside the City Hall by Sorensen

one of the folk tale pieces

The City Hall

Lia at Camp

We joined the rest of the family in taking granddaughter Lia to camp for her first extended camping experience on Sunday afternoon.  The camp is charming!  It looked like a Old West hamlet in an old fashioned Western movie.  Before she left, Lia was outfitted with a cowgirl hat and boots.  She's looking forward to the horseback riding and animal care. The camp has not only horses but goats, cows, pigs, as well as some more exotic varieties.  Lia was accompanied by three of her good friends, and the girls were all assigned to the same bunkhouse, which is a replica of a chuck wagon.  On Sunday night after we got back home, all of us said we'd love to be flies on the wall to see those girls on their first night at sleep-away camp!

"Sunny" California Swim Meet

"June Gloom" was lasting into July in California when we were there, to bring grandson Locke home from Texas and to watch him and his sister Lia compete in a swim meet.  Above, Lia and friend are ready to swim, despite what felt like cold weather to us!  In the next picture, Lia is poised on the diving platform, ready for a heat.  After each event, the tradition is for the children to get a treat, and so above Lia wrapped up in a yellow towel is clutching the money Mom has just given her for hers. 

Below, Locke is about to swim in his first relay.

And here, Locke and his friend are enjoying a sweet treat after their heat. 

At right, Locke has just earned a blue ribbon for his winning his heat with his favored and best stroke, the breast stroke.  Below, a proud Dad congratulates Locke!

Crafts and Games with Locke

This rather frightening looking rattle snake started out as a man's tie.  Grandson Locke and I stuffed the snake with fiber fill, inserted a small plastic bottle with some beans for the rattle in the tail, and then I hand-stitched the head and tail openings closed.  Next we cut a forked tongue from red felt and sewed on some googly eye buttons for his eyes.
As you can see, the scary snake is actually a pretty nice stuffed critter with which to cuddle while watching TV!

More cuddly, though, than the snake is another crafting project we completed.  Locke has quite an assortment of Ugly Dolls at home, but I thought it would be fun for him to make one.  First, he sketched what he wanted OX to look like.  I then enlarged the pattern, and we cut out front and back from bright green fleece.  Locke was eager to try his hand at sewing on the little sewing machine that is actually is sister Lia's.  So he sewed on a pink oval for the inside of one ear.  I finished up with the other ear and the body.  Then Locke stuffed Ox with more fiberfill.  I attached a button and a gray circle for one eye, and the X is his second eye, which I embroidered with perle cotton.  The finishing touch was the brown felt cookie, with "chocolate chips" inked on with a Sharpie pen.

(The sword was one of our purchases at the Mayborn Museum.)

Probably more hours were spent, however, playing games than swimming, museum-going, or crafting!  First of all, there was the marathon Monopoly game, which first Locke's Mommy played with him, and then Granddaddy took over after she left.  This game lasted for three or four days, and eventually, Locke was the victor!    Here Locke shows off his trophy, and the huge stack of money that was left after Granddaddy went totally broke.  After new friend Riley introduced us to Uno, that became the game of choice.  Only this afternoon have we completed an extended game of Uno, with once again, Locke as champ, racking up 534 points to Grandmommy's paltry 315!  In this picture of a gleeful Locke, he is holding the score sheet and a few Uno cards!

Locke and New Friends in Waco

Grandson Locke, nearly 7, has spent a week with us in Waco.  While here, he made some great new friends!  Pictured above with Locke is Luke, one of the three brothers who first shared a cook-out meal with us and then invited us to their neighborhood's 4th of July parade.  In the other picture, big brother Micah was running a free lemonade stand.  Luke's bike was decorated with a sign that read "The Bike of Liberty."  We also had a great time swimming with the John's parents and brothers at the Country Club. 

Another new friend is Riley.  Riley's grandpa invited us to go out on Lake Waco in his boat.  Here Locke and Riley are in a rubber raft being pulled by the boat, sometimes super fast, "out of the wake," where the ride was as exciting as a roller coaster!  We also watched the fireworks with Riley at his grandparents, and Riley taught Locke a new game, which will figure in another posting!  Below Riley and Locke are enjoying the fantastic Lego exhibit at the Mayborn Museum. 

That evening we took Riley and his grandparents to a Japanese restaurant where the boys were mesmerized by the antics of the hibachi chef as he prepared our meal!  Grandpa Kerry seems to be enjoying the show, too!

Sadly, Riley had to return home to Austin, but another day Locke and Grandmommy went back to the Mayborn for a special "Knights and Ladies" festival.  Locke enjoyed decorating a shield and sword, throwing a lance, and jousting, just to name a few fun activities.  Locke swam in yet another place while in Waco--the indoor Baylor pool.   He loves going down this slide! 

A New Passion--Fabric/Quilted Postcards!

My friend Linda has inspired and motivated me...again!  Linda has been an accomplished artist for years.  Her paintings employ a variety of media and are symbolic, allusional, and totally unique.  Every time you see one of her paintings, you see something new and breath-taking.  I started quilting years before she did, but since the quilting bug bit this artist friend, she has now inspired me to try both journal quilts and now, fabric/quilted postcards!

The ones here are for my little great nieces, Katie and Alice.  Readers of this blog may recall that I made both girls little "quilties"--miniature versions of the quilts I made when they were very little--to take with them on trips.  Both girls are now at a camp in Wisconsin.  I had promised them I'd write, so I thought it would be fun would be to send each niece one of my fabric cards.  I found the cute girly fabric at Hobby Lobby.  I used friend Lin's method of adhering the binding strips to the four sides of the cards with adhesive, using Steam a Seam.   To personalize Katie's and Alice's cards, I bound each with fabric that was used in both their original quilts and their little quilties.  I found another super fabric at Hobby Lobby that was printed with the 50 states. So I used the Steam a Seam to adhere cut-outs of both Texas (where the girls live) and Wisconsin (where the camp is located).

For the backs of the postcards, I used fabrics to coordinate with the bindings--yellow for Katie and pink for Alice. Before binding, I fused both front and back to a product I've never used before, a very stiff double-sided fusible interfacing called InnerFuse.  I've added some swatches of the fabrics used for the fronts here to better show their character.

For the very first postcard I made I used another technique:  using fusible fleece for the batting. This postcard is lightly quilted, whereas the other two above are not.   The fleece was fused to front and back and then the two fused layers were sandwiched and then bound with narrow strips of fabric.  This is an early birthday card for Linda, who's been mentioned often in this post today!

 

Aqua in Abstract: Finished At Last!

The quilt I began at Quilting Adventures in March, 2009, is finally done! I picked it up from my wonderful machine quilter and friend, Judy Steward, yesterday.  All it lacked was for the binding to be hand-sewn to the back, and this morning I have done that. 

I've discussed this quilt before, but to review briefly:  We began by doing "blind contour" drawings of a still life.  My still life consisted of a slender vase containing a few branches with leaves, a more rounded vase beside the slender one, both of these backed by a plate standing on its rim.  These items were arranged in front of some draped fabric.  Finding anything recognizable in the abstract design that resulted is difficult, except for some leaf shapes, some rounded ones that must be the plate, and who knows where everything else is! 

The resulting blind contour drawing, though, seemed an interesting design to me, and teacher Katie Pasquini-Masopust encouraged me to choose this to become an eventual quilt, over all the other drawings, water colors, and designs we had done in class.  I had brought a collection of batiks in my favorites shades of aqua, turquoise, teal, and dark blue to the workshop, so I cut the shapes from these.  Teacher Katie suggested to me that I add  some satin stitching, especially between some of the like-valued appliques, for added contrast.

After I had appliqued all of the shapes to a foundation, I did a bit the satin stitch embellishing, before handing the quilt over to Judy to be machine quilted.  Here are some close-ups of her superb quilting:

Here I've turned up a corner of the quilt so that you can see the lovely batik that I chose for the backing.

  I am indebted to my talented, creative teacher "Katie PM" for teaching me and helping me to work toward my dreams of becoming a true "art quilter" and to my good friend Judy for her constant encouragement and her exquisite machine quilting!