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Crossing America by air is always impressive. Our country is so big with quiet wonders everywhere. Here are some pictures from flights from California to Texas and then to Pennsylvania (for the CMU commencement) last weekend.
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Images by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2011
Filed under News & Reviews
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I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.
From “The Cloud” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
I love clouds. On our trip to the CMU commencement in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, last weekend, I was delighted to see some wonderful clouds both from the ground and looking down from a jet window.
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Images by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2011
Filed under News & Reviews
My son Paul is in his 3rd quarter at Foothill College here in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is very interested in art and design and has become fascinated with ceramics in particular. Paul recently made a remarkable set of 3 cups on the wheel, decorated with Kanji characters, as presents for his sister Jessica and her fiance Matthew to celebrate their graduations from college this week. Paul said that he does his best pots when he lets his hands work without thinking too much about it.
Here are some of Paul’s recent creations:
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Images by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2010-2011
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
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My daughter Jessica was graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with honors last weekend. Ten of her proud family flew to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Boston, Pasadena, San Francisco, and San Jose to celebrate the occasion. My father, Wade Dickinson, who attended Carnegie Tech before graduating from West Point was particularly proud to see his granddaughter graduate from his alma mater.
Jessica majored in Ethics, History, and Public Policy (that’s one major offered by CMU in Humanities and Social Sciences). You can see a video of her advisor talking about Jessica’s accomplishments. Jessica was presented with a blank diploma folder because she will return to CMU as a 5th Year Scholar next year, to work on a special project and also complete her Minor in Vocal Music and concentration in Arabic. Jessica got to wear what she calls “commencement flare” in addition to her simple black robes:
Unfortunately, Jessica’s fiance Matthew was graduating at the same time from William and Mary hundreds of miles away, so we did not get to attend his commencement. The family did get to spend an afternoon visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece of architecture, Fallingwater, which is like touring an lovely modern sculpture. This is the 75th anniversary for the house built on a waterfall.
Jessica is packing up her house this week to return home to the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer. She is getting married in August, then she and Matt will live in Pittsburgh next year.
Jessica and Paul at Fallingwater
Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
Over a year ago, my husband John and I donated a brunch in WP668, our backyard caboose, to the SAMA auction, to benefit the medical charity of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California). Today, we fed six guests who left very happy with their meal aboard our historic railroad car. The menu included:
The dogs were happy to play with new friends in their yard and were sure that the whole event had been planned for doggy entertainment.
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Images Copyright 2011 by Katy Dickinson
Children and flag are some of the hardest subjects to photograph. Both change unpredictably and fast. I have found that taking many pictures with a small good camera yields better results than trying for that perfect image. I use a Canon PowerShot S95 with a SanDisk 8 Gb flash memory card and two rechargeable batteries. I keep everything in a small zippered case in my purse – ready to take pictures whenever the opportunity arises.
There is something fascinating and alive in how big flags give shape to the wind. The first and second row of pictures were taken after a wind storm ripped the edges off of some flags. The long strips of cloth were rolling around on the ground near the flagpoles.
Getting a picture in which several flags are identifiable is possible but often a challenge. The third row below presents the best of a large number of images trying to picture the flags of California, America, and Huawei all open and pointed in the same direction. Never did happen. The bottom row was taken near Moscone Center on a fair windy day in San Francisco in which nine flags lined up almost perfectly.
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Images Copyright Katy Dickinson 2011
Filed under News & Reviews
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We had more than a dozen kids – aged 3 to 21 – plus their parents over for our annual Easter Egg Hunt last week here in San Jose, California. There were about 400 plastic eggs filled with candy, plus one gold and one silver egg to find in our backyard. We followed the same rules as last year with a few additions.
Last summer, one of our experienced egg hunters arrived with bags of empty plastic eggs for us. When she saw the eggs at a garage sale, Galena bought them to help support her favorite springtime activity. Following up on Galena’s inspiration, this Easter we said that kids could take home their baskets and plastic eggs if they wanted to but they could also leave them with us for next year. The parents thought this was great idea! I insisted that any eggs left with us had to be empty and whole – with tops and bottoms matched up (no leaving half eggs). We ended up with several cubic feet of empty eggs, plus 8 empty baskets.
This year I again provided “advisors” in the form of ceramic bunnies of different sizes and styles. Each child can pick any basket and advisor they want before the hunt starts. The advisors support the young hunters so that their parents are not tempted to help. I buy bunnies and baskets at garage sales and second hand stores all year so that the children have a wide selection to choose from.
Several of our Huawei co-workers came with their kids. I don’t think they hold Easter Egg Hunts in China so this was a novel treat. They had fun playing in WP668, our backyard caboose. The potluck lunch included a wide variety of dishes which everyone enjoyed eating.
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Images by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher, Copyright 2011
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