Last Christmas Project

Remember last year Christmas Project - orchid shade house.

It was how it look like a year ago. And here is more about my orchid growing background info; I have been trying to grow orchid for a decade with more failures than I can count. They would grow for a while but eventually get diseases or bugs and then die off. All the orchid experts will tell you, growing orchid is easy, as long as you give them what they want, and what they want is very simply. With hindsight, I understand now I wasn't providing the right environment until last Christmas. BTW, I'm not the kind of grower who can spell all the long names, and tell the the difference between all the different species.

In a year, I witnessed the difference between how to do something right with no effort, great result and how to do something wrong with a lot of efforts but no result. Now, they're so prolific , blooming left and right and multiplied two to three times. Not many investments get this kind of return these days.

If you live in zone 9-10 like me, here's the simple general rules for outdoor orchid;

1. 50% Sun - use the 50% shade cloth

2. Watering - every other day. I set my sprinkler timer on Mon, Wed, Fri for 15 mins each.

3. Fertilizing - growth food every other week, bloom food every month

4. Repotting - every year or when crowded

Here's the not so general tips if you want prolific growth in anything, after providing basic supportive environment;

First thing every morning (OK, first thing after you made your coffee/ tea)

- visit your plants/ kids/ significant others

- watch/ listen/ feel their subtle changes, and try to understand why

- make subtle change on your part to see if it will make any difference

- more subjects you get, more controlled experiments you can do, quicker you understand their subtle difference

Even the raspberry growing next to the shade house is very happy.

It reminds me of evolution and revolution. Under the suitable environment, small change at a time; makes the difference of life and death.

Checked!

It was something we hoped to do for years, but for whatever reasons, never get to it until yesterday. Riding all the way around the big Lake "Okeechobee" is about 120 miles, too much in one day for me. So, we did it in two days, with minimal load, perfect weather and no major incident. Started from the town Okeechobee, went clockwise, slept in Clewiston - Hoilday Inn Express, back on the dike, then mostly backed up on SR78 (since the dike on this part is not paved, and very bumpy for 3 wheels).

There are a number of locks, gates and pumping stations we need to get off the dike and go around. But, the major obstacle was the 27 mile re-inforcement constructions from Port Mayaca to Pahokee. They said it should be done in a few months. In the mean time, heavy traffic SR441 is the only alternative.

On the dike. You can go miles without seeing anyone. No motor vehicle or horse allowed.

Yes, "sunscreen" is important as the sun come up.

Some water management is required in long stretch of road.

Things to do before and after breakfast, on Christmas day

This is the "Wolfram|Alpha spikey," constructed with 12 pieces of cut out papers, with 60 faces, 62 vertices and 120 edges, also known as a rhombic hexecontahedron. I considered it as an accomplishment to have put it together before breakfast.

The starting point of our 30 miles ride - Port Mayaca in LOST.

15,000 mile Monkey Prize

I don't remember ever seeing this Nabisco's Pinwheel Cookies before, but Bill said it was his all time childhood favorite. He only got them from his mom, maybe a couple times a year, when he did something really well... So, it became the requested prize for this year's Monkey Prize.

I topped it with Fresh Market's Chocolate Whoopie Pies as bonus. They're amazingly soft.
In fact, if you ride 5000 mile a year, 3 years in a row, you can almost eat anything, anytime and as much as you want to. And still lose weight. This is the gift for last year, with a dozen ice-cream bar.

Mini Monster and Fish Bowl

They came out from Justin's newly rebuild kiln, the same day I attended the wonderful wedding of a good friend in Hong Kong. One pair will fly back to be special gift.

Shino fish bowls came out better than I expected, even they were over done with new glazes.
Firing a new kiln with other people's works - hundreds hours of works, take a lot of confidence.

Putting your own works on someone else hands, take a lot of trust.

It makes me think of the marriage I just witnessed. Strong faith on each other, make beautiful things happened.

Kiln, Boat, Piano

A new KILN imagined, sketched, calculated.

Wood measured, cut and joined.

Brick stacked and skin coated.

Built by a group for one and/or themself.

It seems very much like a BOAT or a PIANO.

A big piece of functional sculpture.

The intention of the craft is the same;

to build an instrument that offers service, and journey, and escape.

The act of firing a wood kiln seems to relate to sailing and to music too - a voyage conducted by wind (very hot wind in this case), with slow, stately passages, or the gusty allegros.

Each journey has it's distinct tempo,

Listen carefully and it will bring you closer to your destination.

(Partly borrowed from "Playing Piano for Pleasure" - Charles Cooke)

No, it's not my kiln, but I'm very glad to be part of the group.

Some part of the group eyeing my lunch.

Happy Birthday and Smile On

Last night, we went to see Lang Lang play with the Philadelphia Orchestra celebrating the 200th Birthday of Franz Liszt, LIVE to the local theater. In the first hour, Fathom and Sony try to occupy us with Lang's Solo concert recorded from London's Roundhouse earlier this year. Right from the beginning, I kept thinking about, what would Franz think if he is watching this....... I think he will first be very surprise a Chinese kid playing his work, and becoming a piano hero around the world. Then he will get sea sick very soon because of the psychedelic background projections, swing around spot light and the worst - camera angle changing every 3 seconds. However, I hope Franz will woke up to hear the Orchestra playing his first Piano Concerto and the way the rest of the world inspired by it and .... smile on.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

iSad, iGrieve, iMourn

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. ... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. ... They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ... Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

New Season

New happening in the Lighthouse Art Center : Justin Lambert became the ceramic department chair a while ago. There're new shelves for green and bisque ware, low table for throwing and furniture re-arrangment for better use of space. What don't change much are the faces in class. I guess that is what happen in a small community, when they find a teacher they like. People keep taking the same class season after season.

Ron is a professional potter in town. He came to explore soda firing after he heard about this new soda kiln. Here he pull a draw ring to check the surface for soda deposition, before we decided to put more soda in.

Unloading this morning, which is 4 days after the firing.

Clean up.

More clean up.

My trade with Ron.

An Afternoon at Boca

Even it's only an hour south, the vegetation on the beach is different. I like how this hairy plant look silvery and soft, almost like candy.

Their geko is a lot bigger, and not shy.

If you ready need to know, it's a seawall.

Tour of Sebring - labour day weekend

Notice biker do come in different size, shape, age, color and mood.....
Waiting for start, in the break of light...
The host hotel: Kenilworth Lodge, almost a hundred years old.
All the historic photos in the hall.
Inside the room.

Back to the Mountains

I was back to the mountains, way earlier than I thought possible. Also had the rare opportunity to photograph the Canadian Rockies with Art Wolfe, Gavriel Jecan, Chris Martin and a very small group of fun fellows.
Art is famous with his outdoor/ wildlife photography. But, what amazed me is his animal sense and human sense. No matter what we ran into; mountain goat, caribou, grizzly, he seems to know how to talk to them/ photography them. No matter what kind of student fellow in the group, he has a way to inspire them.
We traveled some difficult mud trails by horseback for 25km into Tonquin Valley, stayed there for 4 days, encountered rain, snow, ice storm, thunder storm, strong wind and sun. But, everyone was totally immersed in their works, quickly forgot about the cold, and wet toes.

I must have try hundreds of photos of Mount Ramparts, Amethyst Lake and it's surrounding; during sun raise/ sunset, with rocks in front, with flowers, with a boat, with horse, with cowgirl, with reflections, in fog, in cloud, in rain....... some work and some don't. I guess that's how one learn.
We spent the rest of the week around Jasper (Horseshoe lake, Maligne Canyon, Angel Glacier) then back towards Banff, had some magic moments in Moraine lake and lake Louise.

If you're interested to see more of my album, here's the link.

Go see the stunning images of the Rockies by Art in his blog.

Chris also talked about our encounter of the Glizzly.

Out of the Mountains

For 3 days, we drove from Idaho to Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and now in Missouri.

Mountains to hills to deserts and flats

Thin air to thick mud

65 F to 95 F

I84 to I80, then I70

Wheat to hay to corn and soy

地闊天空 到 人車擁擁

Someday, I'm going to stay up in the mountains.

More serious white water

Years of playing in flat water didn't prepare me for this kind of white water. I'm so used to waves come from the same direction, no matter how big. Rocks in the middle of my path is also new....

Lucky we had Kim showing us the way, Kathleen and Giselle guarding along. Only a few blisters after a very exciting 8 miles run down the main Payette (Banks to Beehive Bend). I was told that there were several class 3 sections. I can see why certain type can get addicted to white water.

White Water

Here's Kim's summer hide out place along the South Fork Payette, near Boise, Idaho.
These are only two persons kayaking gears......, luck we got plenty of tree around here.
Another river view.
Lunch break after a little white water kayaking in Kelly water park. Then we headed right back to get more wet. Here's a little video of fun. Thanks for all the helps from the experts, Kim, Jeff and Scott, who keep my day fun and safe.