Victorian Tea at River Lea

The Grand Island Historical Society presented a Victorian Tea at River Lea on April 20, followed by a program and a tour of the house. The tea was quite delightful, featuring traditional afternoon foods and a cup of delicious tea. The tea was called "Maisie's Tea," and it was a blend of tea created by one of the members of the Historical Society. I enjoyed it so much that I consumed three cups of it within a short period of time. All of that wonderful food was followed by a delicious dessert. As you can see from the pictures here, the main course and dessert were attractive enough to photograph. Ladies dressed in crisp white aprons served our food and our tea. We were all seated at round tables and had a chance to chat before the program, "A History of Hats," presented by Maggie Gushue, began. My friend Jinni Kelley and I came together to the tea party. Jinni was quite delighted to have another water color painter sitting next to her. After the entire event was over, Jinni went outside and painted a scene in Beaver Island State Park, which is where River Lea is located. It is a beautiful spot, right on the Niagara River. Jinni and I agreed that we would come back to Beaver Island State Park to do some painting, as there is much to paint at the park, from River Lea to the boardwalk at the beach.

a few hats

Maggie Gushue presented "The History of Hats," which was illustrated by a fashion show, in which models demonstrated changing hat styles from the 1700s until the present. Maggie talked about hats being functional, decorative, or flirtatious. While the earlier hats were big to shield women who worked outside for many hours from the detrimental effects of the sun, later hats became smaller and smaller until, at one point, they did not even cover the head. Hats were decorated with all sorts of additions, including ribbons, flowers, fruit, veils, feathers, and whole birds. The more elaborate of these hats weighed quite a bit. Other hats, which were too small to stay on the head, were held on with large hatpins, which were also excellent self-defense devices.
Hat fashions constantly changed over the years. Sometimes, the construction and wearing of hats resulted in strange side effects. The makers of felt hats used a great deal of arsenic when constructing the hats. The result of consuming that poison caused the hat makers to develop mental illness. Hence the phrase "mad as a hatter." The hats that were decorated with whole birds became so popular that the breed of bird used became endangered.
In recent years, however, hats have declined in popularity. Many people prefer to go hatless or to wear baseball caps. Since fashion tends to go in cycles, hats should eventually become popular again...

New Voice Club of the Niagara Frontier

Last night, I went to a meeting of the New Voice Club of the Niagara Frontier. I had been invited to come as a guest speaker by second vice president Sue Bognar, a speech-language therapist, whom I had met in the Grand Island Community Chorus. She also serves as the club's speech advisor. The topic of my talk was dealing with disabilities by journaling.
Sue read a story that I had written about my sensory processing and auditory processing disorders. In a nutshell, my sensory processing disorder causes me to be hypersensitive to certain stimuli, such as light touch, scratchy clothes, smells, and competing noises. My auditory processing disorder means that I have difficulty understanding what I hear, especially when there are competing sounds. I have learned some compensation strategies with the help of speech-language therapists at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
I shared with the group different methods of keeping a journal. These include a traditional diary, a blog, and a visual journal/sketchbook. I brought samples of each type of journal. I talked about the reasons for keeping journals. They vary, depending on the type of journal one keeps. With a traditional diary, I can write down private thoughts, knowing that no one will see them but me. With a blog, I can share ideas and pictures with the world. With my visual journal, I can draw pictures of things that might be important to me that day. For example, when Benazir Bhutto was killed, I drew her picture in my sketchbook as a tribute to her. Other reasons for keeping a journal include brainstorming ideas or working through fears and developing one's creativity. In addition, for people who have difficulty communicating and difficulty being understood, maintaining a journal is an excellent outlet.
The New Voice Club was a wonderful group to speak to. They asked great questions when I was done speaking and they were very kind and welcoming to me.
The New Voice Club does some interesting projects. One of the most interesting is that the group's members, many of whom are cancer survivors, go to schools to try to discourage kids from starting to smoke and try to encourage kids who are already smoking to quit. This is a great public service that they perform. The club, by the way, is sponsored by the American Cancer Society.
I felt very inspired by members of the New Voice Club. The laryngectomees have been through so many difficult times... cancer, surgery, learning to speak again, learning to adjust to the world with a disability... Their new voices may sound expressionless, but the words that they say are far from expressionless. They have stories of difficulty and of strength to tell, for everyone to hear.
I truly enjoyed my experience with the New Voice Club and am so happy to have made some new friends!
Pictured above is Charlie Roszak, the club president.

Tara Jane

This is Tara Jane, the therapy dog, who came to visit the New Voice Club meeting. Tara Jane is a sweet dog who goes to visit special education classes in schools and who goes to other places where people with special needs can enjoy the companionship of a dog. She has a gentle temperament, which makes for an excellent therapy dog.

Purple and yellow flowers

Inside the Church of the Nativity in Tonawanda, I saw this beautiful display of flowers on this old chair.

Tom Lewis

In late 2005 and early in 2006, I spent some time living at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D.C. I enjoyed the city and its museums and I especially enjoyed the ease in which I could get around without an automobile. There were plenty of places for this walking tourist to explore.
I also met some very interesting people, who told me their stories or who taught me something valuable. One of those individuals was Tom Lewis. He was both an activist and an artist and, among the things that I learned from him, was that art and activism are not mutually exclusive. A person can do both... seek truth and beauty as an artist and say yes to human rights and to life and no to torture, assassination, and war as an activist... because artists are part of this world and have a responsibility to make the world a better pace with the gift that they possess.
That is what Tom did. From 1968 until 2007, Tom worked tirelessly as an activist, seeking to end war and to call attention to the violent threat of nuclear weapons against all life on earth. He committed many acts of civil disobedience/resistance in his pursuit of a world free of war and of weapons of mass destruction. He accepted the consequences for his actions, serving approximately four years in prison at various points of his life.
Tom also worked as an artist and as an art teacher. Many people have experienced the joy of visual art, thanks to Tom's patient and affirming instruction. He taught regularly in Massachusetts. He also taught in other places, single lessons for students who might never have had the experience, had Tom not been an activist, traveling to protest war and nuclear weapons.
I was one of those art students. On a dreary late December day, Tom offered a few children and me a watercolor painting class at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House. Tom handed out a few paint sets and we got some photocopy paper from a computer. Tom then set up a still life. One of the boys wanted to paint something else, but Tom asked him to paint the still life, saying, "You can always paint the other subject, but you won't always have me to teach you."
The boy ended up by making a beautiful painting.
After the lesson, Tom told me that I had made a gorgeous painting and that I had talent. He wanted me to keep the paint set.
It was a very special gift.
When I returned to Western New York, I started going to a painting class at Stella Niagara in Lewiston. My friend and art teacher Jinni Kelley teaches several Franciscan sisters there, and she invited me to come to the class, as well. She gave me some paints, which I had been using, in addition to Tom's paint set.
A few weeks ago, Jinni taught a lesson, in which the idea was to paint the entire color wheel in the background. For that lesson, the paints that I used were predominantly Tom's paint set. The colors were vibrant and living. It was a great joy. I had discovered the vibrancy of the colors in the previous lesson, in which we were to draw a picture in ink and then add paint. I painted a "fantasy background" to my picture of a cardinal on a stump. The colors were very dramatic, I realized (see the paintings, above).
I thought about Tom when I made the colorful paintings. I would have liked to have shared the paintings with him.
But, it was not meant to be.
On April 4th, Tom passed away at home. I will miss Tom, even though my time with him was brief. Tom had given me a rainbow. I just wish that I could have shared that with him.
For more about Tom, including a photo album, take a look at http://www.jonahhouse.org/

First flowers

Just a few weeks ago, I was posting pictures of snow, gray scenery, and a seemingly endless winter. So, it is with great joy that I post this picture of the first flowers of the season. As can be seen by the purple/yellow combination that these plants offer, nature apparently likes color theory as much as I do. The complementary color schemes add brightness and vitality to the plants. After a long, dreary winter without color, the first colors of springtime appear especially dazzling.
There's nothing like new plant life and bright colors. Go out and enjoy springtime!!

Rediscovering my strength

It has been two months since I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I am, for the most part, recovered from my illness. I am back to singing and to walking and to doing my freelance journalism job. Every day, I grow stronger. Yesterday, I went out for a walk after I finished writing my articles for this week's Island Dispatch. It was a beautiful, warm day. The water, as you can see above, was a beautiful shade of blue. I was happy to see the water, happy to hear the birds in the trees chirping, happy to hear the geese honking their journey north, happy to be alive.
Speaking about happiness at being alive, one of the articles that I wrote was about a lady named Angeline Scalia (pictured above). On Saturday, March 29, she had her 100th birthday! She is very happy to be alive. She is recovering from a bout of pneumonia with her usual grace and cheerful spirit. I asked her what her secret for long life was, and she told me to always be upbeat. "Don't be a downer," she said. "There are always people who are worse off than you." She also said, "Don't be a lazy bum. Keep moving." She has done both for a century. Her birthday, she said, was a grand occasion for her. Twenty people surprised her with a party. She was given flowers and plants and balloons and the love of her family and friends. She even gave pieces of cake to the staff at the nursing home that she is staying at while she recuperates.
Angeline also told me about some of the stories that she shared with her family and friends at her party. She talked about some of the trips and she and her late husband Leonard took after he retired. One of their trips took them to the town outside of Rome, where Angeline's parents came from. Angeline related that she saw the house that her parents lived in. One of her cousins, named Josephina, still lives in that house, and Angeline had the chance to meet her. Angeline said that Josephina came to visit Angeline and Leonard in Western New York and that she was "surprised by everything."
Wow.
As Auntie Mame (in the play of the same name by Patrick Dennis) would say, "Life is a banquet, and most poor fools are starving to death."
For sure, Angeline is not starving at life's banquet.

Most happy fella

Look at the smile on this guy's face! There must be some awfully cute birds seeking out snacks in that birdhouse.

It's spring!

I was thrilled to spot these little guys peeking out from beneath the ground. Winter has seemed almost endless. But now, with these little ones peeking out, it won't be long before color comes back into my world!