Return to Long Point and the 2015 OHCG Annual Rug Hooking Show

I returned to cooler, rainy weather, flowers, paths and shrubs covered in sand and Lake Erie adrift with ice that floats back and forth in front of my windows, dependent on the wind direction. Inside the geraniums are in flower (cared for by Simon during my absence) and two new walls built (also courtesy of Simon).
Ultimately the ice will melt or make its way down to the East end of the lake and over Niagara Falls. Soon I will have raked and brushed sand off the paths and living things that need to get the sunlight. By April 31 (Ministry of Natural Resources deadline) the bulldozers will have cleared the piles of sand around the cottages and the beach will be summer-ready.
In the mean time the walls need to be primed and painted and the trim and doors painted too.

Rasta has been very cuddly since I got back. He pushes the tablet or book off my knee to get
my undivided attention and he is with me wherever I go in the house.

Very interested in the painting process. Straight up the ladder.

Not so easy, getting down.

Maybe I should get him a little kitty white hardhat. Lying on the bed, "supervising".

Haven't finished the painting yet but this weekend was the 49th Ontario Hooking Craft Guild Annual Meeting and Show, at the Lamplighter Inn in London. There is no perfect venue for this event. Its difficult to find a place that accommodates all the Ontario rug hookers that want to come, and our rug display, meeting and breakout rooms and rooms for the vendors. Light in the vendor and display areas is always an issue as we want to see the materials in natural daylight. The Lamplighter is a good compromise as it fulfills most of the requirements (lighting really being the only one that it fails on). We learned from the last time we were there that we didn't want a room near the atrium with the smells and sounds of the swimming pool and had comfortable rooms, one with a balcony and one with a sitting room to hook in.

There were huge rugs and

and smaller pieces.

Some are serious works of art. This one by Trish Johnson won in the
Pictorial category.

Some are more whimsical. This one is by Pam Watkins.

One whole wall of the display area was the Barn Raising Project. Hooked barns that
will be displayed in various locations through the province. There is also a book of the project.

An unusual perspective, from above, by Grace Tanfara.

A fruit barn by Ruth Emmerson.

By Karen Kaiser.

I left, as usual, inspired to hook more and more creatively.

Barcelona - more architectural details and CCCB

A huge modernista building dominating the corner of this intersection had a
multitude of unusual elements. I think modernista just means "over the top" in Spanish.

Various turrets on the roof, all different.

There was a phoenix theme, on the balconies.

one the door hinges

and lamps.

Every time we turned a corner, crossed a street or looked up there were photo worthy
sculptures, relief work, balconies, stained glass, lamps .....

Usually, if we searched we could find a date somewhere on the building (late 1800s, early 1900s) but rarely any
indication that it was anything special.

We stopped for a brief rest in a parkette and watched this parrot break off tree branches,
take them back to a palm tree and weave them into a massive nest.
 

All of the palm trees have large nests, just under and around the fronds. Sometimes you can see the heads of the parrots and their young peeking out of round holes in them. Hard to tell how many parrots in each tree but they make a lot of noise.

Even with an elegant balcony you still need a place to hang your laundry.

or your suit.

Time to get fortified; calamari and salad and, of course,
a pitcher of Sangria.

Feeling ready to walk again we continued to let interesting buildings pull us down
one street or another.

Ornate roof line of a market building.

We came across this modern building within the courtyard of an old one.

Aimee's search for a bathroom resulted in us spending some time looking at some contemporary,
temporary exhibits. Some odd, some beautiful, all thought provoking. They were artists responses
to the writer/philosopher W. G. Sebald. Paintings, photos, movies, models, collections.

The lobby and staircases had this fantastic art installation of.....

black paper butterflies.

It had been a long day of walking and we went home to pack and then to our local café/bar/restaurant for our final dinner.

We were so hungry I didn't get around to taking a picture 'til dessert; Crème Catalan, Chocolate
Mousse, a few glasses of red wine and we also tried some Vermouth.

When we told our regular waiter that it was our last day he took us behind the bar and had the
bartender take our photo. Earlier we had met his wife and baby boy.

It was a great end to a great holiday.

Barcelona - Architectual details and pick pockets.

Barcelona Tourism has jumped on the Gaudi bandwagon. Its all Gaudi, all the time. His buildings are on the front of brochures, posters, T-shirts, towels. There are books in a multitude of languages about him and his works. The mosaic technique that he used is sold on plates, bowls, little bulls and flamenco dancers. His buildings are the symbol of Barcelona tourism.
Not only did he work at a time of expansion and wealth in Barcelona but his patron gave him access to books about the development of architecture and art worldwide. Even though he never left Catalunya, never spoke anything but Catalan, he was aware of things like the art nouveau movement. He was a creative genius who embraced combinations of new and old building materials, became more and more focused on his faith as he got older and work on sagrada familia progressed and he was eccentric (refusing to have his picture taken, living and dressing like a vagrant). Yes, he and his work hold a fascination but he wasn't the only one to leave his mark on Barcelona.
For our last day Aimee and I decided to have no agenda, to just walk and observe the amazing architecture that can be found on many streets in Barcelona. We chose the area West of Placa Catalunya as we had driven through there on the tourist bus and knew it had the potential for some interesting buildings.

This building was only about a block from our apartment but we had avoided the street as
another building was being worked on and the air was full of cement dust. However it was
Easter Monday, so no workmen. I have no idea what it was originally used for but most is
vacant now.  

Ridiculously ornate.

No idea why, but this beautiful building had eyeballs all over it.
"I look at you, you look at me" ??

Sometimes a façade would look quite simple and then we would look closer and see
elaborate brick work and tiles, especially just below the roof line.

This wasn't on a church building, though it may have been originally.

This was on the corner of a street, about 15ft up. No explanation, just there.

This on the top corner of a church door. A flying cow reading a book?
A cow angel?

Time more for the morning coffee and croissant. We couldn't resist the restaurant
called "Pudding" and decorated like something out of "Alice in Wonderland".

Every now and then we would come across water taps, just sticking out of a wall, part of a
façade or like this, ornate ironwork. They didn't say "non potable" but we assume they are just
to cool off, give the dog a drink etc.

Some buildings had shields, some with dates, some with initials.

Only a very few had a plaque identifying the original owner and architect.

Wrought iron over stone.

Often the underneath of balconies are decorated.

Doors are wrought iron or carved wood or a mixture of both. We peeked in some and
found marble foyers and stairs, carved bannisters, elaborate ceilings and always an elevator.
Aimee had read that Barcelona is one of the most progressive places for handicapped access.

A couple of times as we meandered around the neighbourhood, pulled down one street or
another by a glimpse of something we wanted to see better, we crossed the extension of La Rambla,
(beyond Placa Catalunya it is not as wide or as crowded). This bull "thinker" was at one intersection.

Later in the day, when we crossed it again, we found this provocative giraffe.

This extension of La Rambla was the only place we came across the notorious pick pockets that the travel books (and locals) warn about. We were approached by 2 young women with bouquets of carnations, they pushed one on each of us, saying "for the saint" or something like that (it was in Spanish). Automatically we took it and then they asked for a penny, just a penny, for the saint. We were sort of thinking this might be something to do with Easter, how naïve! When we reached  for where we were keeping our money (inside pockets of our jackets) they also reached in there, with another flower. We clued in fast and pushed away from them. Walked rapidly away. They yelled at us wanting the flowers back and being good, polite Canadians we handed them back. Afterwards we thought how stupid that was, giving them back the tool to try the ploy again. It left a bad taste for a little while but then we were distracted by the architecture again and just glad that they hadn't got anything.

Barcelona - Segway Tour and Marine Museum

Well we set off for our Segway adventure with some trepidation. The woman who booked it said that anyone could ride a Segway and they have people from 10 to 80 years old with no problem. When we thought about it we decided 10 year olds can do a lot of things we can't (manage cell phones, play video games) and the 80 year old was probably a masters marathon runner. Anyway we got their early, sat in the office and watched all the young folks arrive. Not a grey hair in the bunch.

Sitting in the office looking at our rides getting charged up. According to our guide
one charge will last 6 hours or 40km.

They went over the rules with us and had us sign that we understood them. Things like going in single file, watching out for pedestrians, crossing at cross walks, basic common sense. What they didn't have us sign was more surprising: no waiver.
We were outfitted with helmets, given a water bottle in the carry pack on the front and we each pushed our Segway down a little incline from the office to a small square to learn how to ride.

Aimee, very focused on the technique with Julia, our guide.

They really are a breeze. You step on, staying central. Lean forward to go forward. Lean back a little to stop, further back to go back. They don't steer like a bike, rather the post bends to left or right and you go that way. We had a few minutes with the instructor to learn and then a few to practice.

and we were off, through the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter. As it was 10am on
Sunday morning it was not as crowded as usual which gave the 6 of us a chance to gain
confidence.

Quick shot of one of the Barcelona 2 man race boats. We went from the Gothic Quarter into the wide
open spaces of the port area and then the beach areas. Pedestrians could be a bit of an issue but usually
it was pretty easy to move around and through them.

Cruising along the waterfront towards the W Hotel (that's what it's called).
From there there are some great views of the commercial harbour, cruise port
and the beaches.

Sunday morning dinghy sailing class heads out in front of a cargo ship.
There were 6 cargo ships anchored outside of the commercial port, which
is huge. The cruise port is also the largest in the Mediterranean and they are
expanding both sections.

By this point we were pretty comfortable on the Segways, zipping along, weaving between
pedestrians, going up and down ramps.

After 2 hours we returned, through the narrow streets. It was great fun. Not particularly informative, no history lesson or much info but fun, relaxing and allowed us to see a lot of real-estate in a short time with little expenditure of energy. We had 3 breaks in the 2 hours to get off and rest our feet. Oddly enough they get sore, just standing on them and shifting your weight.

Next stop lunch and yes, we did have a Sangria

and yes, I had grilled squid. Aimee had tuna pie, also good.

We walked past Christopher

across La Rambla with its human statues

and into the Maritime Museum which is located in the old shipbuilding yards.

Its a beautiful old industrial building with displays on the various ports of Barcelona,
the maritime history of the area, the 2015 2 handed sailboat race, pirates, sea travel for
 leisure and commercially through the ages

but the most interesting for me was the actual boats of Catalan heritage. This is the royal galley
(a replica of one built here) and its massive.

One side was cut away so you could see the hold, complete with a rat.

Beautiful wood, carving, painting, gold leaf.

Aimee thought the stern looked like a bum.

There was a video, elsewhere in the museum, of what it would be like to be a galley
slave/oarsman on one of these things. Not fun, but a beautiful piece of equipment.

Poseidon on the prow. 

There were also fishing boats, leisure boats and a lighthouse.