the chronicles of spring break

 Spring break unofficially started very early Friday morning for me with the news that Metal Megan won 2nd Place in the Peachbelt Art Exhibit.  Her steel sculpture was awarded out of 61 entries from 8 different colleges.  

 A couple of hours later I got to watch as Metal Megan found out about her award while we represented Lander Visual Art at the 2nd Annual College Art Day at the SC State Museum in Columbia.  That's Mia, Megan and Braden making Lander look good.

 After work we got to snoop around the museum and check out the cool art.

 Later in the weekend we had the rare treat of hanging out with Donovan and Ginger at the same time.  Donovan is all married now and living in Nashville with his lovely wife while he "teaches" at Belmont University.  He normally plans his visits while we are out of town but we lucked up this time and our spring breaks allowed us to get together to catch up.  He mocked studio art teachers and I mocked those hour long "academic" classes.

 The spring break forecast called for rain all week.  I needed to draw and do tons of boring computer work for school so I didn't complain too much.  But Zeke needs his regular hiking fix so we ignored the rain chance and drove up to Paris Mountain State Park for a nice long walk uphill. 

 The park is pretty cool and since the weather forecast is always wrong, we didn't even have to get wet.

 Zeke has a preference for local organic spring water.  He loves to get it right from the source.

 We hiked the Sulphur Springs trail loop so we had that flowing water bottle beside us for half the walk.

 We even took the time to check out the giant bridge that was built over the tiny creek near the pond.  Pretty useless, but beautiful.

 A day or so later the rainy weather stopped around noon and turned into a sunny, warm day.  I only noticed because Timber made me stop drawing to take him outside.  Once he had me out there in the sun, he dropped to the grass and refused to get up.  I took the hint and we sat in the sun for about an hour.

 And I still managed to finish the drawing.  It's a 2' x 3' piece of wood so it took quite a while.

 After all the items on the to-do list were scratched through, G and I sneaked away to Charleston.  (By the way, "sneaked" is the correct word.  I looked it up.  "Snuck" is currently accepted but "sneaked" is officially correct.)

 Rain was still in the forecast but we managed to dodge it completely.  We also got to do some great people watching.  We sat in White Point Gardens and watched this group of grown men participate in some sort of training exercise.  Each man had to carry another man on his shoulders the entire length of the gardens and then back again.  There was a dude with a fancy camera filming them (and laughing at them) and another dude with a microphone keeping them motivated.  We saw the same group the following morning over in Mount Pleasant carrying a full size telephone pole down the sidewalk.  Strangeness.

We also sat on a bench and watched group after group try their luck at having their photo made sitting on the low live oak limb.  Most of them eventually got the photo, but they paid for it in public humiliation.  Almost all of them needed assistance getting into position without breaking their face.

 We took the required walk along the Battery.

 And because we needed a beach fix, we made a quick stop by Sullivan's Island to see some sand and waves.  The stop was really quick because the wind was very cold and one of us did not bring a jacket.  

We ate nearly non-stop while we were there.  Page's Okra Grill was excellent but the banana pudding was still weighing me down the next morning as I ran.  

spring break shenannigans

So last week was my spring break.  As usual, I thought I'd spend some time drawing and sculpting and having fun.  And as I should have guessed, I did little drawing, no sculpting and lots of having fun.

Here's a quick photo tour of how unproductive I was:

 The break started last weekend when we had dinner with Ginger at The Back Porch in Spartanburg.  Everything was delicious, especially the super dooper moon pie dessert.

 The weather was pretty springy.  We had a few days of nice warm 70 degree sunshine and a couple of cloudy, cooler days.  The current forecast calls for freezing rain here in two days.  Then a return to mid 70s for the end of the week.  

 Zeke was glad to have the extra company this week.  We took a couple of short hikes at the nearby state park.  

 I was fortunate enough to have my schedule line up with Mom and LJ's lunch schedule.  They are very busy retired people and getting to have lunch with them is a rare and precious event.  We ate at Delightful Dishes in Inman and Ginger was kind enough to come out from the kitchen to chat with us for a minute.  Definitely a high point of the week.

 With the time change, there was more time after school for playing outside.  That's Violet posing in front of the yellow bush.  Look out Cessquatch, it looks like there's a new "face of Lander" in town.

 I wont say exactly how much time I spent drawing, but the rainy morning in the middle of the week was well spent.  I was able to finish this new drawing before going back outside to catch the afternoon sun.

 ...because how can you stay inside on a day like this?

 Another nice hike with Zeke at Horseshoe Falls.  

 Oh and I got to spend a little time catching up with Ali, my baptist friend.  She's engaged, planning a wedding, going to grad school and doing all sorts of things.  I don't talk on the phone so we only stay in touch through texting.  The gossip had piled up since New Years so we had some coffee and cake at Coffee Underground and then headed down Main Street to get some burgers and gossip some more.  And by "gossip" I mean we talked about art theory and modern sculptural practices...of course.

 And then we finally got to finish our hike to Little Bradley Falls in Saluda, NC.  G and I tried this hike with the kids back during the days of the Polar Vortex and had to turn back when we couldn't cross the river without getting everyone's feet wet and hypothermic.  Friday I was able to talk G into skipping out on work early enough for us to find the waterfall.  It was cold when we started but it warmed up a little.

 It's a short and pretty easy hike as long as you don't fall into the water during any of the crossings.  The reward at the destination is well worth the wet toes.  It's such a beautiful place.

 There are a couple of trails going up the side of the waterfall so you can view it from several vantage points.  The sun was pouring in behind the cliff, pardon my hand blocking the glare.

 We took Zeke and Tiki with us and they both did well.  Tiki was able to ride inside G's jacket during the water crossings and she was able to run under the fallen trees.  Zeke braved the cold water and did his best to make me enjoy the cold water with him.  He tried to pull me off the rocks during crossings and when we climbed back down the trail beside the falls, I'm pretty sure he was trying to kill me.  Still a great hike.  Epic hike.

 For a sense of scale, that's me and Zeke on the second level of the falls.

 The kids were ticked that they didn't get to go hiking, especially when they heard the dogs went with us.  So we had to make it up to them by taking them to the local park.  The park was crowded and while we watched Blue and Violet run wild, we also watched as some kid dropped like a stack of bricks from the monkey bars.  He hit so hard I'm pretty sure he left a crater.  The fall knocked the wind out of him and when he couldn't get his breath he passed out.  With an unconscious kid on the ground, G was required to jump up and check on him.  Lucky for us, by the time we got to him he came back around.  His dad was just starting to panic and I felt so bad for him.  The kid kept crying and complaining of his butt and his wrist hurting and eventually the dad gave in and took him to get checked out.  At that point I was ready to wrap our kids in bubble wrap and take them home.  Instead we went to Waffle House because, well, waffles.

Today it's chilly again and raining pretty hard.  Blue said to me, "I can't believe you're going to run today in the rain."  A few minutes later he asked G if he could go running with me.  He put in a little over a mile in the rain and was soaked from the knees down but he had fun.  

So, art.  Yeah.  I gotta do some more of that really soon.

spring broke

Spring break happened a week or so later for us this year.  Instead of the last week of February, when things always seem cold, we enjoyed a warmish week in March with a range of temperatures between 29 degrees and 75 degrees.  And except for one day of rain, it was a beautiful week.  

We started at the beach with a quick trip without the kids.  Blue and Violet absolutely love the beach....almost as much as we do.  One of the parents may have tried to keep our destination a secret from the kids.  The other parent may have forgotten to mention this secret to his mother, the babysitter.  When we called to check on the kids we got an earful from one angry 7 year old boy.

I don't remember what this thing is called but I made it.  We have some wild scuppernongs (or scupperdines) growing at the edge of the yard and we needed something for them to climb.  Yes, I realize it's blue.  I know I have a problem with color and I'm working on it.  I really tried to make it brown but I just couldn't do it.  

I spent a lot of time outside this week.  I ran the chainsaw for a while one day and then couldn't hold my hands still enough to draw for the next two.  Since I couldn't draw, I found things to do outside.  The flowers were starting to hang out too.

And so were the lizards.  There were tons of them hanging out in the warm afternoon sun.

I took a few walks in the woods and found this cool half hollow tree.  It's diameter at the base is 7 or 8 feet and you can stand inside the middle of the tree.

When you do, and you look up, this is what you see.  Beautiful.  

I picked up student artwork from an exhibit in Spartanburg and delivered it back to school.  I stopped in the studios long enough to clean up the ridiculous mess my students left trying to meet a deadline before spring break.  I also left this nice note to my 3D design students who have a project due the Monday morning after spring break.  I know, how terrible of a person am I, right?  

I fixed my fire pit and christened it with a nice little camp fire.  The kids thought they were camping because there was a fire and they roasted marshmallows.  As long as I don't have to sleep outside on the ground, that's perfectly fine with me.  There you see Violet demonstrating how patient she can be while waiting on a marshmallow to cook properly.  It got cold again that night so the fire was perfect.

Blue was out of school on Friday so we decided to head to Riverbanks Zoo.  The day Violet was born a gorilla escaped from there.  I don't know why I think that's funny, but I do.  I remember hearing it on the news while we were in the hospital room and I wrote it in my sketchbook.  Oddly enough the gorillas were no where to be found on Friday.  All the other animals were very well behaved and completely civil, which is much more than I can say for the humans who were there.  

We stayed all afternoon in Columbia so we could try to attend an art event I was a part of.  We killed some time at the mall, had some food, and then headed to Main Street.  The kids were exhausted and we didn't last at the event very long before heading out.  

The kids spent a lot of time outside this week too, which makes me happy.  They can entertain themselves for hours with a stick and a swing set.  I'm not sure why they'd ever need an iPad game.  The days were longer after the time change and more sunlight meant more play time.  This excited Zeke as much as it did Blue and Violet.  

Zeke would spend a few minutes between naps allowing us the privilege of scratching his head.  Sometimes he would even follow us around the house to a new location so he could sleep near where we were hanging out.  He's so thoughtful.

Oh, and it's still the season of Lent and I'm still not watching TV.  This week I've been so busy that I haven't really had time to even think about TV.  I'm sure it's no coincidence that I've also completed 5 new drawings over the last few weeks.  Which reminds me, we should talk about coincidences sometime.  I don't know why people say I have ADD.

So the break is over and now comes the downhill race to graduation.  We have tons of events and activities scheduled over the next few weeks.  It's going to be a busy time but it should also be a lot of fun.    

the spring break

blue flew his kite

violet got a new dress

i made this

and zeke dug up most of the backyard to find a new play-friend.  the play-friend didn't last very long.