Almost Done

From this

To this

And finally adding the magma and waves

Now there is only a bit of spattering to be done with the waves in the back
and, of course, steam from vents and the magma hitting the water and such. 

I spent an inordinate amount of time on the black cooled lava building up layers to resemble the thick ropey cooled lava flows of Hawaii.

The flow of the hot magma was that Happy Accident I was talking about much earlier...before I had even mixed the magma colours. One night after working on the black I sat the canvas up before it was completely dried...the next morning there were runs...easily fixed...but then I realized I could use tilts and runs to get a realistic flow pattern with my magma. 

That Newton fellow was onto something!  Gravity Works!

Or maybe just "on something".

Anyway I mixed the flow colours...really globbed it on the canvas and tilted for a realistic flow pattern.

And to my extreme happiness the colours with the flow turned out looking fairly "thermal/hot"

Oh...and I mixed a pinch of sulphur power into the paint. So there is an olfactory side to it as well.  Hoping it tones down a bit after it dries overnight because now...well...The Shelby-Cat is squinting and the apartment smells a bit like a portal to HELL.

                                     "Thank God the SCREEN is open!"



Yeah...yeah...everybody's a damned critic...even the cat.

But happy with the progress today and hoping to finish it up tomorrow!

Going to take a week off after Hawaii (give or take a few days) and then start the next virtual adventure. One I have deliberately waited until the heat of July and August (here) to enjoy and may finish out the virtual travel year here..

Sicily.

Itinerary soon...

 

All the Boys: Together Again!

This makes it all worthwhile!

Our "Middle" (Lennon) up from Florida for a week during his vacation.

Recuperating today after many days of over-doing...but so worth it!

We plundered Plainfield, Cox's Nursery and Plants, The Shoppes at Perry Crossings and Cracker Barrel.

We enjoyed (nearly) EVERYONE together at James and Nicki's for a Saturday Cook-Out! Burgers and Dogs on the new grill, Baked Beans and Chips (and best of all...family!)

(back left to right...Tina, Chris, James and Aiden, Nicole, Emma, Brittany and baby "son" bump, and Savannah, Lennon, Hannah and I, Amelia Rose and Brenden. Missing: Preston [who was there earlier in the day] and Kaylee)

Lennon and I did a Trip Down Amnesia Lane on Sunday with a Tour of Every House he had grown up in with us 1992-2010

The First Being Montclair.

Proof that Robert Frost was right. You can't go home again. Basically because there is a No Trespassing sign affixed to the boarded up front door. At least the hideous sky blue trim seems to be gone. Morel of the Story: Never trust Walmart to mix paint...and no it never darkened up when it dried...for years.

Overgrown and boarded up. Left to decay, as were all but 2 houses in the entire town. Quickly becoming a ghost-town. Doc Singer will be so pleased (the ghost from the time our house was Singer Station...the Hub or Montclair)

Our next stop was the Lake House Coatesville

In good order...and the small trees that we had planted as sticks now towered over the house. The Cherry Tree that Lennon planted for me on Mother's Day which was not much taller than he was back then, is HUGE now.

When we arrived at our (past) home in Bainbridge I was amazed to find this!

I think I want it  back. (the tree)

Although my Magnolia and Wisteria are long since gone and the decorative pond we worked so hard on- filled in...this Willow Tree was planted as literally a 1" in diameter stick-of-a-tree.  Nothing reveals the passage of years quite as clearly as a tree you once planted.

The Modular Ranch House was in good shape and the blooming Yucca were some I had planted. An improvement would be the removal of those horrid (pre-existing bayberry) bushes that ran along the front. Not sure if the giant elderly lilac bush that graced the back is still there or not. We used to get baskets full of blooms off it.

And my Rose Cottage in Roachdale

Sadly rose-less and bushless. They were all cut down. 
This my have well been my "favorite" of all our "shells".

~sigh~

We had a great time "chasing memories", though...and there were a million of them.

Also enjoyed a day at Turkey Run

 And an impromptu photo shoot through the one way glass at the Nature Center

                             
                           (...you had to hand it to this guy for persistence...)

He even snagged me a piece of black granite off one of our trails.

On the way back we stopped at The Big Berry.

"What do you mean you are out of STRAWBERRY ice cream???? You've a giant strawberry on the roof of the building for crum's sake."

(...Lennon fixed this later that evening by bringing me back a pint of Ben and Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake from the store...which is every bit as decadent as it sounds...still enjoying it slowly...) 

He and Chris also managed a couple of solo evenings out.

Pre-flight we brunched at Jackson's Family Restaurant before he had to leave.

We have been coming here since all the boys were literally head-high to the tabletops.

Oh...and he found this sign...now we are listening for the banjo music. Seriously.

So- now he is back to work...and the Morning Zombie Walk to the Keurig and Shout at the latest TRUMP blunder seems lacking.

Did I mention the kid turned out as political as Bill and I...and puts down even more coffee than me. So proud.

A wonderful time...see you again soon!

And only

 More days until "Rose and Idgy's Artists Getaway" this year.

Fresh canvas and paints...wine and cheese and fresh fruit...good chocolate...REAL hugs...candles and chat!

Can't Wait!

Woke to Monsoon Conditions on NPB this morning, so no basking today...just taking a quiet Zen Retreat here until Monday.

Have a Wonderful Weekend.

More Anon...

Lanai Lookout at Sunrise and Halona Cove at Sunset

With today's sunrise...and sunset, I have reached the end of my Virtual Hawaiian Adventure.

The above Sunrise is at Lanai Lookout and it spectacular!

I may have to paint it some day.

I want to finish my Hawaiian (Lava Painting) before Lennon arrives this week...then take a couple of weeks before starting the next virtual adventure. 

So much out there to see and learn and experience.

And Sunset at Halona Cove

As we bid "Aloha" (...which is not only hello...but also goodbye...) in Hawaiian.

Finishing up my painting between now and Thursday night (will share a picture) and have ordered this as a souvenir of Virtual Hawaii.

The small silver turtle is fashioned after one of the sea turtle petroglyphs on Maui.

More anon...

Novel-The Plan: The Hospital

Bumping along, roughly, in the ambulance; Mark watched in horror as The General had another "cardiac episode" as the Paramedic called it.

By the time they reached Allegheny ER he had experienced two more smaller episodes.

The ER physician, a bespectacled balding man, peered over the top of his glasses addressing Mark as son while giving him the prognosis.

"He has had at least two major heart attacks and several smaller episodes of cardiac oxygen deprivation over the past few hours. His heart is badly damaged. It is somewhat of a miracle he is still alive, now. I'm sorry, son. He probably won't last the night."

 They moved him into an unused hospice room and placed him on oxygen as a comfort measure.  It was  dimly lit instead of the harsh hospital florescent lighting with its annoying buzz (like there were bees in your skull trying to find a way out).Mark knew about the bees. They had driven him to near craziness during his early days after the explosion. They had replaced the antiseptic smell of the ER with a light floral scent. Maybe Rose or Lily of the Valley. It was hard to tell. The walls were a restful peach.  Mossy and sage green accents highlighted the matching peach bedspread on the full sized (but still hospital) bed.

Every aspect of the room was well thought out, to help make dying (for the patient and the family) a less stressful experience. As if, thought Mark, that were possible.

When they were finally alone, The General motioned him to come closer to the bedside, and then clawed the coke-bottle green mask away from his nose and mouth.

"...eed you to isten..."

he formed the words carefully, although some were abbreviated with the tremendous effort it took to breathe.

""Dad, it is okay...I am sorry about what I said to you before..." Mark began to apologize.

The old man's eyes flashed anger and he repeated his command more forcefully.

"...amn it, ark, shu the uck up...eed you to isten. "

The General was still, very much in there, somewhere.

Mark listened.

So much of it choppy, garbled, long pauses for breath then beginning again, some of it made no sense at all and he wondered if some other type damage was done when The General's body was deprived of oxygen.

But as he sorted through names he did not recognize  Mygina and "...TEVEN" who The General adamantly insisted was his son (although everyone knew that he had only daughters) and that

"...ast'rd k'lled h'm an' I cou'dn elp st'p it."


 and listened to his tear-clotted confession about Jerry.

"...amn it, s'n...I di it for yo...wht kin f a fri'nd oes wht he di to yo...???"

"I lov' oo, son"

when he wiped the tears from his dad's face, The General turned and looked him sternly in the eye and added

"...ucking 'octor was t'ying oo get c'los oo Trac...she tol' me sh was sc'red f h'm. H' k'led er...b'cau'se sh' w'nted oo be b'ck w'th yo..."



Then he closed his eyes, exhaling deeply. He had finished what he had to say and drifted into sleep from the exertion.

He never spoke again.

The ER doctor's prognosis was inaccurate.

The old man lived until 9:42 AM.

Completing his watch.

Always The General.

His Last Words, a lie.

One that would never be questioned, or discovered.

(Virtual) Hawaii: The Great Crack, Ka'ena Point Trail and Petroglyphs

On Big Island...The Great Crack.

Also known as the Hilina Slump...the crack is roughly 5,000 miles in length. The slump is caused by the movement of the Pacific Plate as it moves and erosive behavior of a debris avalanche (or underwater landslide)

The widening (movement) thus far appears to be only about 10 centimetres a year. An undersea formation of a "buttress" may actually prevent future catastrophic detachment.

Since the Crack hasn't widened and a great portion of Big Island swallowed up by the Pacific...and although the crack isn't particularly scenic...there are still those who "Hike the Great Crack", perhaps because it is there.

https://youtu.be/eLfv0z0DEJE

At some points the crack is very small...at some points sixty feet wide and just as deep. Its scope is very difficult to capture in photographs from the ground.

A better view and some NASA photographs in this article

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hi?Hikes.crack

On the west side of Oahu is the Ka'ena Point Trail. Running alongside the Pacific.

The trail is an easy 9.5 mile (less than 100 feet elevations) hike along the North Shore. The dirt road used to be an old railroad bed.

During whale season you may spot humpbacks.

Monk Seals

Or occasionally Green sea turtles.

 And although the lighthouse at the point is much less than impressive these days

It is little more than an abandoned base with graffiti and a mirror light.


The over-all journey is worth the hike.

Ka'lena Hike

https://youtu.be/sKsuqUgxVJw

And the Petroglyphs on Maui.

Pu'ui Kilea on Maui.

Known as the Olowalu Petroglyphs it remains one of the most  easily accessible petroglyph sites in the Hawaiian Islands. There are about 100 images carved here by the ancient inhabitants of these islands.

 

And the trek to see the Olowalu Petroglyphs.

https://youtu.be/y9E3w6lK8MM

and Olowalu Valley Hike

https://youtu.be/rE-S9N4U26w


More anon...