Back home again

I had a fabulous trip to Texas and Utah. I saw all four children and their families. I missed some grandcats and a granddog but otherwise saw the whole clan. MF had just had her fourth and I went to Texas to help out there. Then I went to Utah for the baptism of GL's second-born. The photo is of one of the dance moves of GL's fourth. What a doll! All ten grandchildren were unbelievably cute and charming.

I loved the weather in both places, ate Mexican food in Texas and hit up the Provo Bakery in Utah, played games, helped with art projects, and got to rent a very cool Fiat 500.

The only glitch to the trip was that there was rain in Philly when I arrived there from Denver on my way home. This may not mean anything to you, but the Philly airport is notorious for shutting down for weather. We got stuck there two days in December and I would have been stuck there for almost twenty-four hours if Michael hadn't decided to come pick me up. I guess he missed me! It's a two and a quarter hour drive one way. Instead of getting home at 6 we rolled in right before midnight.

I realized how much I love Texas on this trip. Yes, I love northeast PA. It is beautiful, lush, green and the possibility of seeing a gorgeous waterfall is never more than a few miles away. But I do love that open Texas sky, the cloudless days and the general look of the place. It drove right, smelled right and sounded right. Which means, of course, that that is our final destination once Michael finishes his career up here.

The other big news is that my book (Snarky and Sweet)  is coming out in print very soon. It's already available as a Kindle book. It will be on Nook soon and then the print versions will be available. I'm waiting for my box of books from the printer. It's been a fun thing to go through this process.

Wanderlust

 It's been a while since I've visited. But Europe calls to me constantly. I'm reworking a novel right now about a schoolteacher in France. She's helping to herd a group of teenagers on a school trip. Sound familiar?

Of course it does. I tend to write what I know, even in fiction. But even those arduous trips with teens are precious to me. Because I love Europe. I've never been to a country in Europe I didn't fall in love with. These pictures are from Portugal where my daughter lived for a few years.

And I have a long list of places still to go there. I've never been to Bath, Brussels or Rome. And they're all way at the top of my bucket list.

This year has had some fine moments but it hasn't been the greatest in a lot of ways. The constant desire to travel has been one of the hardest things to deal with.

And that's because it's not just Europe that is calling to me. One of the most frustrating things this year has been knowing that some fabulous places (I've never been) are within driving distance of here. Niagara Falls, Boston, Cape May,... I could go on and on. And now the weather is cooling off. It won't be long before any trips to those places become problematic.

But I can still be a tourist right here in Northeast PA. Because having the weather cool off in August is novel. And having everything so green in August is also novel. And my fascination with fall color still hasn't worn off and probably never will.

So we'll stay close to home. We have a couple of grandson baptisms this year that will make traveling a pleasure. They just won't be in Europe.

Too much Mucha?

Impossible. It is impossible to get too much Mucha in my opinion. Let me say this again. Much Mucha is a magnificent thing. And Prague is full of Mucha. The king of the Secessionist movement (also known as Art Nouveau), Mucha spent a lot of time in Paris doing advertisements but never forgot where he came from--Bohemia. His influence is everywhere and his actual work is not that hard to find. Some examples:
The stained glass above is in the Saint Vitus Cathedral. Beyond belief beautiful with a understanding of aqua that not many artists have had.

 

This glorious piece is part of the drapes (yes, drapes) in the Mucha room in the Municipal house. The whole building is a paean to Czech nationalism and to Art Nouveau as an extension of their culture. A must see if you go to Prague.

This is also in the Mucha room in the Municipal house. Impossible to get a photo (although Michael did a magnificent job getting details) that shows the feeling you get in each room because you are surrounded from floor to ceiling with the artist's vision of what the Czech Republic and Prague are all about.

With some musicians you just know they "get" their culture: Chopin, Copland, Gershwin, Liszt. But to me, not so many artists ooze with nationalism. In the Czech Republic it seems that so many artists "get" their culture. All you have to do to understand what it means to be a Czech is to open your eyes.