Diane Wood Artist

Winter was unusually snowy and wet for us in Colorado.  The dirt driveway has never been so slippery and icy.  When not icy, it was slippery muddy.  Having deep irrigation  ditches on both sides of our single lane road made for an exciting drive to and from home.

Downtown Denver has become a frequent destination for me this year.  Being co-president of the Pastel Society of Colorado means I attend the Board meetings in Denver.  It really is an active and worthwhile club.  Meeting a lot of new people and enjoying it.

Ken has gotten involved in a trail riding motorcycle club and will be doing some biking and such with the club.  He has several weekends planned in June for biking.

Just two weeks ago, after doing some planting in the gardens, we had a full-on return of winter.  We covered plants with pots, plastic and plastic bags supported by tables and chairs.  The gardens looked like an interesting junk yard.   Most everything survived and a few days later we were able to take down the pots, plastic, etc.  We then zipped through Spring in a week and straight into summer.  The flowers are already spectacular.

Home Improvement

We had our house re-sided with Hardie Board.  It is fiber reinforced cement and about as weather and fire resistant as brick.  The workmen were exceptional.  Not only did they re-side our home, they also replaced four large windows that were rotting.  When the house was built, the workmanship was not really great.  The builder(s) cut corners.  Our crew also pointed out to us that the deck that we had replaced four years ago was being supported by untreated outdoor wood and this too was rotting.  Wouldn’t you think that when the men replacing the deck saw this condition they would have pointed this out to us?  But they didn’t.  Anyhow the men replaced all the joists that needed replacing and we now have a solid deck.

We were so pleased with their workmanship I suggested that we have a cook out in celebration of a job well done.  We did so the last Saturday in May after my return from a one-week pastel workshop.

My Pastel Painting

The Albert Handell pastel workshop occurred in May.  I really enjoyed his demos.  He knew his colors and was an expert at trees.  He is an old codger and does not like anyone to talk and disrupt his thinking process when he is demonstrating.  At one interruption he rambled on “I don’t know, I don’t think, can’t think”.  He has bushy grey eyebrows and wears red suspenders, dark pants and a black hat.  He dresses the same all the time.  One wonders if he ever changes his clothes.

His work sells for $5000 a painting in the art galleries.   He offered his demo pieces to our artist participants in the workshop for $1800.  I did not buy one, but two of the women did.  I must comment that this workshop was the most expensive I have taken.

Trip to Southwestern Utah – Escalante

On May 24 we left home for our trip to southwest Utah.  Our first stop was Green River.  Green River is a small town and a truck stop on Interstate 70.  This is the river that John Wesley Powell began on when he explored the Colorado River and discovered the Grand Canyon.  We visited the River Exploration museum across the street from our hotel.  One of the highlights was a movie of Powell’s adventurous trip.  It was 20 minutes duration and won a national award – excellent and informative.

Ken booked us into a great hotel, River Terrace, right on the Green River with a balcony overlooking  beautiful gardens, lawns and the massive river.  Breakfast was fantastic and in fact this reasonably priced hotel was a find.

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Next day we travelled to Escalante.  We stopped off en route at Goblin Valley State Park.  We hiked the Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon for 2+ hours.  This was my first slot canyon and I am told an easier one.  Several times you had to walk leaning away from the sandstone walls crowding against you.  There were places narrow enough one had to turn sideways.  A couple of places had challenging boulders blocking the slot that we had to climb past.

For the first 10 miles leaving Little Wild Horse and we had to follow road maintenance tankers spraying magnesium chloride on the dirt and graders resurfacing it.  The Toyota Highlander was covered with black, corrosive magnesium chloride.  We spent almost an hour going those few miles.

From here we travelled on the US 12 and the Burr Trail.  This is a narrow, serpentine and precipitous road that is an adventure in itself.  The views are endless.  Many of these ‘trails’ were built to carry mail by horse or on foot.

We arrived in Escalante about 4:30 pm a small town probably 6 blocks long with a population of less than 900.  This town is said to be the most remote settlement in the lower 48 states.  Walking to dinner is easy.  But no gourmet restaurants.  Our Bed and Breakfast served great breakfasts.  Kate did an excellent job.  Georgie’s Place had great salads and good Mexican food.  I was not so enthused about the other options in town.

Wednesday we wanted a more leisurely day since our canyoneering adventure would take place on Thursday.  So we drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park.  Huge colorful rock formations with columns, spires and canyons.  We hiked up the Angel Trail where I did a little painting.  After noon, we drove back to Escalante and had lunch.  At our B&B,  the back yard sitting area is shaded by a large, spreading apricot tree that is 100 years old.

A Real Slot Canyon

May 27, 2010 – My time has come!  Like Ken says – when the green flag drops the bullshit stops.  Our guides at Excursions of Escalante are Mac and Angus.  We meet at their office/restaurant and are told we must drink a large glass of water before leaving so we start fully hydrated.  There are a total of 5 in our party, plus our two excellent guides.  Our guides fitted me for a climbers harness, tightening its straps around my waist and legs so it would be secure in the canyon.  We were also issued gloves and  a backpack that contained two large water bottles and a lunch.  I was told to remove my watch as they did not want anything to catch onto rocks in the canyon.  To get to the canyon we volunteered to use our car to transport our five adventurers.  Besides us, our party consisted a couple from Portland, Oregon, Susan – a concert pianist – and her husband Andrew.  Both were British and had been in  this country for 42 years.  The youngest in our party was Chris, an Air Force electrical engineer stationed at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas.

We travelled South on Hole In the Wall Road, originally built by the Mormon missionaries who were sent to cross the Colorado river and colonize southern Utah.  We traveled 16 miles of washboard dirt/gravel road at 60 to 70 mph keeping up with our guides in their jeep.  This must have frightened our passengers who were unaware of Ken’s race experience.  We then turned left to Egypt!  That is the name given to this desolate area years ago by cowboys.  We traveled another 9 miles of ever rougher jeep road and parked at an area of flat sandstone with a gaping, dark hole.

Yep! We went down the gaping hole on a rope. Mac went thru many safety issues including what to do if anything happened to he and Angus. He had a satellite telephone with emergency telephone numbers and many back up items in his pack. In part, his object in explaining his precautions was to build our confidence. Later, as we proceeded down into the canyon, Mac demonstrated how to descend the varied obstacles using a variety of techniques, most of which involved using your entire body and dragging your cloths on the sandpaper-like rock to slow your descent. This was not just a “walk in the woods”.

Finally it’s my turn to do the do the first repel and enter the canyon. Mac hooked my belay device to the rope and carefully instructed me on stepping over the edge. Since I am right handed I held the brake rope at my right side. The left hand held the rope that supported my weight. You did not hold that rope tightly with a kung foo grip because it just wasted energy. If you do, the guides were going to yell at you ‘No Kung Foo’!

It’s  quite a sensation walking down the side of the cliff.  I was not frightened because of the expertness of the guides, but apprehensive at the thought of going over the edge and hanging in space.  I have never done anything like this and at 72 years of age this was a true adventure.  Well we all made it down the cliff in one piece, continued into the slot Canyon and dropped even deeper into the abyss.  Deeper into the earth went the adventurers.

Every few feet posed a different problem.  Mac was there explaining the moves to descend.  At times instead of repelling we learned to wedge our legs and hips into gaps between the rock and used that as a brake as we slide down into a deeper portion of the canyon.  This was brutally rough on the clothing.  The sandstone is like sandpaper.  I wore long pants and long sleeve shirt, had workmens gloves on.  By the end of the adventure, my clothes looked like they had been trashed.

Diane’s Wild Ride!

By mid canyon we reached a third repel point straight down into a 20 ft. hole.  The problem was an oddly shaped wall for your feet and slippery dust on the sandstone  which Angus had tried to remove using his gloves when he descended first.  The rock curved out and then curved under making your footing during the repel very tricky. Mac was guiding people on every foot placement.  It then was my turn.

I eased over the edge following Mac’s instruction and descended  perhaps 8 ft and made a tricky hop to my right.  I lost my footing!  My feet went straight up, not down.  My shoulders and head flew straight down to a completely inverted position and my back and head slammed into the sandstone wall.  Fortunately we all wore helmets and I had on a heavy back pack.  These helped cushion the blow.  Sorry, no photos, we were too busy and Ken’s camera died.

Mac, like Spider Man, scrambled down instantly (like he didn’t need a rope) and asked if I were ok.  My response “I don’t know”.  My back flip and inversion took less than a second. He told me to stay still, which I did while he looked to see if I had suffered a concussion or other serious damage.  He did that while I was fully inverted.  After he made that initial assessment, he carefully turned me to an upright position.  This was done all without Mac’s use of a rope.  Ken said the whole scene was very impressive.  After I repelled down the remaining portion of rock he checked for broken bones again.  I had been holding my right hand, still gripping the brake rope, by my side as advised and even after the fall, that hand was still there which impressed Mac simply by the fact that I had kept my right hand on the brake rope even during the fall.  I was doing what I was instructed to do.  My error was my feet should have been a few inches lower.  After the fall, Mac took my back pack (over my objections) and carried it the remainder of the journey.  I never lost my composure – Ken was proud of my cool.

There are parts of the canyon where you are forced to proceed by bridging between the two walls.

Sometimes you advance with the toes on one wall and heels on the other.  Sometimes we had to bridge with our butts on one wall and feet straight across on the opposite wall.  At times you also use sort of a spread eagle with one foot on each wall.  There was also a full body bridge which I did  not do with hands on one wall and feet on the other.  Mac told us that he had an experience where he was 70 ft up from the canyon floor in a full body bridge and had to travel a distance that way.  No rest is possible in this position.  You must climb to a place where standing is possible.  He is truly a Spider Man.

The slot canyon we went thru, and most others, are rarely done in reverse because that requires climbing the water polished cliffs that we rappelled.

At last the canyon began to get wider and we exited by climbing out to the left.  Slot canyons are a one way street – you always go one way, you never go back.  On the hike back we regained all the altitude we lost in the canyon.  After expending so much energy in the canyon and then relaxing at the exit, this trek steeply upward on sandstone was not trivial.

Upon returning I bought a commemorative tee shirt as I felt I earned it.  It was very fortunate not to have broken anything in that fall.  It was truly quite an adventure.

May 28, Friday – An Easy Day

We are going to take it easy today.  My body is sore from the crash against the rock.

So we decided to drive to Devils Garden, 14 miles down Hole in the Wall Road.  What is great about this place is that you can drive right up to the Who Doo’s, arches and rock outcrops, park and stroll the area.  It is very beautiful with two lovely arches and a perfect setting.  We brought a lunch and sat under a trees to be shaded from the sun.  I sketched a small scene and they we drove back to town.

We found a copper sculpture artist in his Escalante studio and stopped to talk to him.  His business is online at tribalsounds.com and hydrowheel.com.  Kevin, the artist, makes native drums and waterwheels.  These copper sculptures were quite large – up to 8 feet in diameter.  Kevin, a chemical engineer said that after raising his three sons he decided to go into business for himself.  He lives very modestly and appears to really enjoys himself.

Friday night Ken was outside and saw a puzzled couple looking at the locked B&B office.  They were an older Parisian couple and spoke almost no English.  Ken tried to explain that they just go to their unlocked room and meet the innkeeper at breakfast.  When he showed them their names on the door to one room they were thrilled.  Not like Paris!

The Return Home – Saturday, May 29

On our journey back home, Ken decided to drive Hells Backbone Rd.  This is a 30 mile gravel road connecting Escalante with Boulder, Utah, built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp).  Many fir trees and aspen just starting to leaf out added to the great views.  What a great way to end our vacation on the return trip.

We met son Scott in Green River for a late lunch and it was so very very good to see him.  Then onward to Grand Junction where we spent the night in the old downtown section that was recently renovated and restored.

It was good to return home to our dogs, Guinness and Lily.  Great to get away, but wonderful to be home.  The weeds in the garden grew very nicely during our absence and there will be a lot of pulling.  The lawn could have been bailed.  Flowers are blossoming, and because of all the rain, it is green green green here.  Not the usual for Colorado.  And as a final highlight, the town newspaper had a full page article featuring my art in the Sunday paper – that made my day.

We have not seen the really old snapping turtle “BC” for two years.  However today we saw “Son of BC” at our pond.  He probably has five or ten years to go to reach BC’s size and stature.  But very formidable none-the-less.  Also today while watering container plants on our deck on the west side of the house was a  5 ft bull snake which had slithered up the 12 steps to our upper deck.  I encouraged it to get off the deck with the hose and water.  We do have wild life here.  It is something we really enjoy. You must be cautious, but it our environment and we have learned to co-exist.

Love,

Diane and Ken

February 2010

Dear Friends and Relatives,

We have been busy here.

Ken has been recovering from his broken knee.  At this time he is seeing a physical therapist to help the full recovery. It bothers him walking down stairs but doesn’t seem to limit what he does. He still works from the home office and travels occasionally.

Last November I was fortunate enough to have two of my paintings in the Denver University Advancement for Women building.  It is quite large and very lovely.

I also attended the November Pastel Society of Colorado’s Board Meeting held in Denver.  They had predicted a snow storm and my friend Judy Sprague and I attended the meeting but left before the members’ meeting and beat the snow.  Judy lives in Greeley and had a longer trek than I before returning home.

There are four of us artists:  Judy Sprague, Dru Marie Robert, Jerry Boyle and myself who are putting together a show for the Old Firehouse Art Center.  The title of the show is CHAOS-SERENITY.  We must submit all information by mid-February for possible show in 2011.

I met with Denise Crosby of the LDDA (Longmont Downtown Development Authority) to develop the idea to have an Avenue of Artists during Festival on Main in August.  We hope to get a spectacular turn out to show our community the artists that live and work here.

The Hevenors moved into their home in Lyons mid-November.  It is lovely and has a prominent view from their location.  In fact we had Thanksgiving at their home, just 10 or 15 minutes from our place.  It was a beautiful sunny day and you could sit out on the patio with no jacket and enjoy the warm rays of autumn.

And then – - – one week later we had a snow storm and the temperature dropped dramatically.  Approximately a week later we had another snow storm and the temperature was still in the lower teens and at times below zero.  Our friends said to us:  “you said when it snows, the snow is gone in two days”.  Well that is usually the case, but this was an unusual year.

We have never had as much snow and ice cover on our driveway.  It was quite treacherous as our approach to our immediate drive is sloped so that if you make a mistake, you could end up in the irrigation ditch.  It was very exciting at times.

Fortunately our first Christmas party, the Neighbors Party occurred on December 12.  The drive was at least passable.  We had a sit down dinner for 18 people.  Our table set up is always a challenge.

The next party was the Artist party which occurred on December 19.  By the way we had over 50 people.  I cook for both parties.  It was fortunate that I was able to hire the services of two ladies who served this party and cleaned up afterward.  What a tremendous help.

I set up an art show at First Congregation Church in Longmont in last December.  The reception was Sunday, January 17.  If you sell anything, the church takes a 20% commission.  I told the minister and the person arranging the show that if anything was sold during this time, I would donate an extra 10% to the Haiti relief fund.

We hiked to Mills Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park with our friends, the Faes, on Saturday January 16.  We usually do this January 1^st, but the Faes just moved into their new home (which has been primarily built by Nick) in the historic district of Crested Butte.  Nick built an amazing house. It looks like an old mining town home from the outside but it has the most advanced energy saving features inside.

In January Ken sold his Lotus Super 7 antique sports car to a fellow in  Akron, Ohio. Ken used an agent in Buffalo, NY to manage the deal. Remember I told you our driveway was quite snowy and treacherous.  Well, a 90 foot long moving van was sent to pick up the Lotus so we had to get the car to the street.  Little race cars don’t move in the snow so… Ken attempted to drive it up our half mile driveway but that was impossible. We had to abort the attempt and I towed Ken back to the garage using my Toyota Highlander.  The next day Ken asked our friend Chuck Hevenor to help him tow the Lotus the entire distance to the street.  I am not skilled enough to do this and will readily tell you so. They succeeded and Ken parked it in the Hygiene Firehouse to wait for the truck.

With his play car gone, Ken is putting a lot of effort into his new Yamaha motorcycle.  Heated hand grips and a heated jacket liner have been added for winter riding. These will also be useful in summer when he is at high altitudes. A GPS unit is now installed in anticipation of multiday adventures through the forest roads and trails of Colorado and Utah.

My next endeavor is bringing paintings to AIMS Community College, main campus in Greeley on January 28.  They will hang in their library for the month of February and I will give a one hour lecture on February 4.  The show will be paintings from my trip to China.  I am looking forward to this.

I should be over my cold by then.  I managed to catch the first one in two years.  The last cold I had turned into pneumonia.  I’m being very good and resting, etc.  Made the cure for the common cold, chicken noodle soup.  Medicine has not come up with anything better at this time.

That’s about it for now.

Hope you all are doing well.

Love,

Diane and Ken

October 5, 2009

Dear Friends and Relatives,

We took what I called “our family vacation” in mid-July to Ouray, CO.  We found a motel that would accept animals.  In fact there were many dogs with owners at our motel.  We even ate at a restaurant on their outdoor patio with the dogs.  The waitress brought a special bowl of water for them.

Ouray is an historic town nestled into the Rockies.  It has been dubbed “Little Switzerland”.  One of the places we absolutely love is Yankee Boy Basin, which is just outside the city.  You need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to really drive to the higher roads.  We could not travel all around as we only had our Toyota Highlander.  We did manage to travel up the mountainside quite a distance and left the vehicle and hiked up a distance for viewing and enjoying the mountain air.

Guinness was bothered by the flies and did not really appreciate them buzzing him.  In fact, I believe, he has become paranoid about winged creatures as he was probably stung by one.  It has gotten to the point that at supper time for the dogs we need to stand by him to protect his “little square ass” from potential flying creatures.  Oh the things we do for our animals.

While on this family outing, we travelled to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  It is spectacular.  Not as awesome as the Grand Canyon, but nevertheless very impressive.  We took a rugged dirt road to view the water source and dam.  Lovely country!

The National Show of the Pastel Society of Colorado took place from early August thru September 27.  The Dianes were very active in this show:  Diane Fechenbach, Diane Wood, Diane Edwards and Diana Wade.  It was a very impressive show even though I did not have any artwork juried into the show.  The judge, Susan Ogilvie also gave two workshops.  I helped arrange the sites for the plein aire sessions and Susan and I became friends.  I asked her to critique one of my paintings that I had entered into the show.  She appraised it and said “poppies are handled very well, good handling of the broken down fence; everything was done well except the sky was too blue”.  The painting was of poppies at Crested Butte.  Up at that 11,000+ altitude the sky is very blue.  Susan lives in Washington State where they have many grey skies.  I tell you this story because an artist must get used to acceptance and rejection.  It is all up to the judge/juror.

We have had a problem with mail delivery.  Finally, after speaking to a supervisor at the Longmont U.S. Post Office, he advised that there was also an address for St. Vrain Ranch Blvd.  Both this address and our address are numbered 6914.  We were not received all of our bills, especially the MasterCard, which was not acceptable.  I called Mastercard several times complaining about not received their statement to us and find that it was a screw up with the post office.  The supervisor said he would speak to both carriers to correct the error.

We had Longmont Studio Tour the weekend of September 19 and 20.  It was well attended.  We had four artists at our location and some really great art, however sales were down substantially.  We had at least 183 people stop by.  It is always a fun event, but very tiring.

The potted plants that were placed outside for the warm weather were brought in by myself, Ken and Eliazar and his son.  A couple of weeks after that we had our first frost.  They were brought in just in time.

At the end of August Ken decided to mountain bike at Rabbit Mountain.  He has biked there dozens and dozens of times.  This time thru some oversights on what was happening, he went end over end bike and all and crashed on some very pointy rocks.  He got up, rode home, and had to put ice on his knee.  His left knee was hurt the worst.  The right knee was slightly damaged; his shoulder, hip and wrist were also bruised.  I proposed that he should see a doctor.  He said nothing is broken as I can still walk.  He did walk but with great difficulty and the knee swelled dramatically.  A few days later I suggested he see a doctor as he was still suffering from his injuries.  After contacting our GP’s office and having a nurse get on the line, Ken told her of his injuries.  She strongly suggested he go to a   clinic to be evaluated.  He had an xray and it showed his left knee cap fractured vertically from top to bottom.  The orthopedic doctor told him to do a little exercise, avoid real pain, and not let it atrophy .  Thank goodness he was able to do a few things.  It would have been impossible for him to carry on without being able to do a little exercise.  Fortunately Ken listened to his body and did not overdo.   It has now been 5 weeks since the injury and he is doing very well.  He returns to see his doctor in a couple of weeks.  A full recovery is anticipated.

I received a phone call from a past president of the Pastel Society of Colorado who asked if I would agree to become co-President of the society.  I asked a few questions and asked if I would think about it.  Ken and I discussed this and thought it a very complimentary proposal to my ability.  I asked if there were any night meetings, as I do not want to travel to Denver at night.  There are only day meetings so I accepted.  The length of service in this capacity would be only two years.  The By Laws clearly state you cannot be president for more than two years.  I agreed.

Last Friday I was at the kitchen sink and looked out the window as our dogs were barking very excitedly.  There was an adult black bear lumbering through our yard.  I called out to Ken that there is a bear in our yard and the dogs are outside.  I grabbed my camera, Ken grabbed a shovel and ran outside to protect the dogs if necessary, but the bear was long gone.  He probably dropped down into the James ditch to have some cover.  I called our two neighbors to advise them.

Later I went out to hopefully pick up some plums from our fruit trees.  It was totally clean of any plums including many that had fallen from the tree.  Just a couple of days prior to my looking, we had some high winds and the plums that were located high in the trees were knocked down.  Well, the bear certainly enjoyed some sweet plums.   It is noted that they have the ability to smell food from 5 miles away and eat up to 40,000 calories a day.  That means that beyond Hwy 36, in the foothills, this bear may have smelled our ripe plums.  I’m happy he/she has some calories to winter over.

This same day, Ken left for Farmington, New Mexico to observe his friends from Spidertrax compete at a major national rock crawling event.  He left home about 9:30 am.  He called me about 2 pm as his high performance Subaru developed serious engine problems on a country road and enveloped him in a cloud of smoke.  I gave him several towing service numbers for the Alamosa area.  Ken was out there in  with absolutely nothing around.  It was a wonderful experience in that he met some extremely helpful people who went out of their way to bring him to a garage, then to a U-Haul truck and trailer rental.  It was a Friday afternoon and these working people saved a fellow (Ken) in distress.  Ken arrived home about midnight with the big truck and his car on a trailer.  Monday he must find the proper repair shop.

In between all of these, our friends, Nancy and Chuck Hevenor were staying with us with the purpose of buying a home nearby.  They had success with purchasing a lovely, lovely home in Lyons, about 15 minutes from our location.  They left this morning with bags packed to visit the realtor to sign the final contract.  They were very happy for their achievement and now look forward to the big job of packing,  and moving out here.  By the way, they have sold their home on Mason’s Island in Connecticut.  Big things happening and they will be out in Colorado where both their sons are happily located.

It has been busy and eventful, but interesting and not dull.  I have a couple of art shows coming up and will be giving a talk and slide show on our May 2009 trip to Berlin at the Longmont Senior Center.  This is coming up October 19.  On the 20^th of October I begin teaching a six week pastel workshop.  Never a dull moment!

Hope you are doing well and enjoying the fall weather.

Love,

Diane and Ken