Crater Lake National Park Adventure - Part 1

I recently returned from a trip to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon's Southern Cascade Mountains. I traveled with 23 fellow participants and 2 guides as part of a Road Scholar Program. We encountered day after day of cloudless blue skies and warm weather. Our spirits were high as we explored this exceptional landscape.

I am going to divide the posts into two parts: first ( this post) will be pictures of the Diamond Lake area where we stayed during our visit. And the second post (soon to come) will be Crater Lake National Park.

PART ONE: Diamond Lake is a 20 minute drive from the National Park. We traveled back and forth each day for our adventures in the Park. One exceptional feature of Diamond Lake is the John Dellenback Trail, an 11 mile walking/bike path around the lake. Some of these pictures were taken on walks on that trail.

Some clouds rolled in on our last day but they only made for good photo ops!

Our True Home Is In The Present Moment

A poem by Thich Nhat Hanh

Our true home is in the present moment.

To live in the present moment is a miracle.

The miracle is not to walk on water.

The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.

Peace is all around us - in the world and in nature - and within us - in our bodies and our spirits.

Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed.

It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice. 

And a preview of Crater Lake National Park!

More to come soon of explorations in the National Park. Thanks for looking.

Music City, USA

I traveled to Nashville, TN, better known as MUSIC CITY, USA, with friend Karen several weeks ago. We had the great pleasure of staying with some friends I met recently. Richard and Kathryn were wonderful hosts and it was terrific to get better acquainted with them. 

Here is a glimpse of our quick weekend trip:

First stop was in downtown Nashville. Our destination was Hatch Show Print which is one of the oldest letterpress poster shops in the country. In business since 1879, Hatch is owned and operated by the Country Music Hall of Fame and has created art for Grand Ole Opry stars and performers associated with the country music scene. 

On the way to Hatch Show Print we passed some of the local color of Nashville.

One disclaimer! I am not a devotee of contemporary country music and the whole scene attached to it. But plenty of people are if the numbers of people roaming downtown Nashville are any indication! Broadway Street is loaded with honky tonks and bars of every variety and it looked like a 24/7 scene for the country music crowd.

It's a Nashville thing!

And a striking feature of downtown Nashville is the Music City Center, an enormous convention center that is brand new to the city. And I mean IT IS BIG.

And of course you cannot be in Nashville without coming across a tribute to The Man In Black!

Saturday: First stop  of the day was the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The Frist Center is a significant architectural landmark in Nashville. It occupies what was the former downtown US Post Office. The building was constructed in 1933-34 and represents the most distinctive architectural style of the period, Art Deco. It was the perfect place to view the exhibit "Sensuous Steel: Art Deco Automobiles". The automobiles and motorcycles in the exhibit were built in the 1930's and 1940's and they are big and shiny and streamlined and luxurious.

The cars were lots of fun to see BUT I have to put in a plug for the other exhibit at the Frist. The artist is Vik Muniz and the exhibit title is "Garbage Matters". Vik Muniz constructs his "paintings" by assembling hundreds of pieces of post-industrial waste - garbage. The best way to see and understand the depth of what he is doing is by seeing the documentary on his work "Wasteland". I highly recommend it. It is enlightening and full of heart.

Next stop was The Parthenon, a full scale replica of the famous Greek temple in Nashville's Centennial Park.

It's Nashville: Gotta have MUSIC!

Sunday: Last stop was Cheekwood Art and Gardens. The Cheekwood mansion and it's 55 acres of grounds were once the home of Leslie Cheek and Mable Wood. This family is responsible for the Maxwell House brand of coffee and they played a significant part in the growth of Nashville. The Art Center and Gardens were opened to the public in 1960. Below are some shots of the garden areas.

Again, special thanks to Kathryn and Richard for providing a place to stay and for their very special company.

Thanks for looking.

Limberlost & Gene Stratton-Porter

I took a road trip this week to pick up some of my art work in Wabash, Indiana and then drop off art work in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a show there. Finished with those stops, I decided to stop at  Limberlost, the adult home of noted Indiana author and naturalist, Gene Stratton-Porter. Both her childhood home near Rome, Indiana and her adult home, Limberlost, are Indiana State Historic sites. Both are in the north-east section of the state.

 In 1895 Gene Stratton-Porter and her husband built their home near the Limberlost Swamp in Geneva, Indiana. The "swamp" covered 13,000 acres and it became an inspiration for both her fiction and non-fiction writing. By the time she settled there a long term drainage project had begun, altering the natural wetland environment for the purpose of allowing large scale farming operations. 

 

 The home at Limberlost is a large 14 room rustic log cabin built in the Queen Ann style. 

 

Gene Stratton-Porter published both nature studies and novels celebrating the life and the ecology of the Limberlost region. By 1910 she had become a recognized American author publishing Freckles in 1904 and A Girl of the Limberlost in 1909. 

 

What I learned from my visit to the state historic site is that her legacy reaches far beyond her status as the writer of classics of Indiana literature. She has been widely recognized by the conservation community for her non-fiction books and her early environmental activism. She spoke out often to ensure that natural areas were not drained for economic gain. 

 In 1993 a group called Limberlost Swamp Remembered formed in order to begin reclamation of a portion of the original 13,000 acre swamp. Today 1,500 acres known as Loblolly Marsh are available to the public, having been restored. And this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gene Stratton-Porter. She died suddenly on December 6, 1924. Today she is still read, quoted and written about by contemporary students of both American literature and the conservation movement.