Judy’s 2023 adventure

I'm getting ready for the arrival of my sectional sofa midweek by assembling a FLOR carpet for my living room and getting art off the floor and onto the walls.  First, the FLOR carpet -- it's tiles that are joined at the corners with a sticky square. The idea is that you can easily pick up one tile and wash it, if needed, or even replace it if you can't get some dirt out of the carpet.  I love the idea, I think it's great for kids and dogs and possibly essential for Seattle muddy weather.  We'll see.  You can see how the tweed pattern (which I placed randomly) looks in the living room photos.   Life imitates art!  The flowers were sent to me and I put them on the table right below this painting by Christine Lafuente I brought some of my own work, but also brought work that I'd acquired over the years from other artists.  I don't have them all hung yet, but here's some photos of what's up so far. In my bedroom, the photos of the sunset light in Portug...

 I’ve been here a week now and I’ve learned so much!  The first notable thing is that I didn’t understand “muck” and now I get why people in Seattle always take their shoes off inside houses.  After thinking I’d figured it out by putting a shoe rack near my front door, what I did not understand is that the entryway mat needs to accommodate muck boots (I think of Fern in Charlotte’s Web in with the pigs) and that when boots come off, there’s mud and boot everywhere.  My coat rack, sitting on my wood floor, was not ready for dripping wet raincoats.  So I’ve now set up a rain entrance at my kitchen door.  Concrete floors in my kitchen can handle a coatrack, a wet dog and muddy boots. What fashionable Seattle dogs are wearing New storage shelves have been added to my utility room so I went grocery shopping today and actually have room to put food in the kitchen.  It’s all good!  My living room sofa comes on March 1 and once I have that and I put toget...

 I've now been in Seattle for 5 whole days!  So far I've been lucky that it's been pretty dry and Dr Scott is a magnet for making friends.   As I'm unpacking and setting up my house, it's clear that my goal of moving as little as possible still meant moving a lot.  That said, I also have another 3 weeks until my new car will be delivered and until it's here, I'm either on foot or on Amazon. Saturday, I have my first training session in the CityFruit program to become a master fruit tree steward!  While DC area street trees are non-fruiting varieties, it seems here there's quite a lot of apples, peaches, cherries etc growing streetside. The trees need care and the fruit they produce gets harvested for distribution to area food banks.  When I heard they were starting a new cohort of volunteers, I signed up!   My house is a mess but assuming it's tamed somewhat in the next few days, I'll post pictures.  I'm still too jet-lagged from my trav...

We arrived yesterday --  Dr Scott was a great flyer, who knew? -- and I have to say that I didn't want to see the sunrise .... but if you have to be up because you have no idea if you are in Europe or Bethesda or Seattle, I got lucky with a sunny day. So (sorry) Sleepless in Seattle.  But happy to be here and I'll report in with blog updates once things are a bit more settled.

 I’m close to the end of the last day of my trip! I saw this Edward Hopper painting at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum today and I can relate! My early morning was spent on logistics, doing some laundry (thankfully it dries quickly, even on a drying rack, here) and realizing I needed to schedule the delivery of my worldly goods in Seattle on Monday (I had the movers, just hadn’t requested an access time for them with the POD company — not an immediately obvious issue, not covered in their FAQ page and their need for a phone call created hours of low-grade stress waiting for the East coast of the US to wake up and answer their phones). I’d considered making my last day a daytrip out of Madrid but decided instead to focus on the things I haven’t done here.  It is a little chilly so indoor activity made sense.  Top of the list was the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum.  My usual thoughts about crowds, tour groups and noise aside, it’s a beautiful collection and contained surprise...

 Just a few blocks from my apartment is Casa Alberto, a restaurant established in 1827, that serves its own vermouth on tap (vermut al grifo).   Yesterday, I had a late afternoon plate of manchego, olives and glass of their vermouth, while sitting in the beautiful historic bar area with a nice view of hanging jamon Iberico. Today I got to the Reina Sofia museum right around when it opened.  I got the audio tour in part because the beautiful building with high ceilings is an echo chamber and school groups were out in force — it was a way to shut out the clamor and focus on the art.  Although works by Antonio Lopez Garcia are in their collection, they are not on display right now, so one goal I had was thwarted.  However, the collection of works by Dali, Bracques, Picasso, Miro and many others was really spectacular.  I particularly thrilled at seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a painting I’d last seen in Paris in 1999 when it was on loan to the Picasso Museum. ...

 I rode the metro this morning during Madrid rush hour and a) the ticket machines are easy; b) the metro is very clean and speedy and c) it was very crowded!  There’s a subway stop, Anton Martin, a couple of blocks from my apartment and the Iglesia stop (6 stops away) was a short walk from the Sorolla house and museum.   The Sorolla house opened at 9:30 am and I had a ticket for right then, which was a great thing because it got very crowded with tours and students not long after it opened.  The house is gorgeous and the work on display in most of the house is the iconic later work of beach scenes and white dresses and gorgeous light and color.  It’s the 100th anniversary of Sorolla’s death this year, and there’s a special exhibit of his work during his formative years.  He could paint a still life at age 15 like a Flemish master and his early work is very influenced by Velazquez (whose work he copied in the Prado) and other artists of that time.  He t...

 The Prado is vast, overwhelming and amazing.  I set out early to get coffee and then meet the tour guide I’d booked for my visit to the Prado.  Although I was early to the meeting point at the Goya statue near the ticket office, I found myself still waiting while other tour groups came and went.  Fortunately, it was a beautiful sunny day and there were no lines for tickets.  After an unsatisfying “chat” online with the company that handled the booking (I will let you know if I ever find out what happened and whether I get the refund I requested), I bought my own ticket, got an audio guide and went in. Three and a half hours later, I was art blind. I think my jaw hurt from gaping at all the amazing Goya, Velazquez, Rubens, Caravaggio, Durer, Bosch, Titian, Sorolla …. It was and is mind-boggling.  I was particularly thrilled by the Sorolla portraits that were grouped in a special exhibit and the room of Goya’s so-called black paintings.   Any resistanc...