Wild Parrots!

The Husband and I spent part of our last day of vacation at Olde Town Orange.  There's an actual traffic circle there and in the center is a placid (if you tune out the cars) little park with a fountain and huge palm and evergreen trees.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, like we were today, you can hear and see dozens of wild parrots.  They're pretty amazing.

I hope you'll get an idea of what we saw and heard.  After I'd put my camera away, at least 50 parrots did a fly by and soared away into the distance!

A few years ago, I was sitting in the parking lot at the Bowers Museum before a Bead Society meeting and I was surprised by these colorful, noisy birds in the nearby trees.  I've heard different stories about their origins but no one really knows how they got here...  Want to learn more about the wild parrots of Southern California?  Go to here, to Amazornia .

It's been a nice, quiet vacation.  Got a lot of little things done that are difficult to get to during the workday, plus The Husband has been working every weekend in October...  It was good to just spend time together and be away from the Day Jobs.

Do What You Love!

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Great Park Orange County, Part 1

The Great Park is an ongoing project in Orange County that hopes to be Southern California's version of Golden Gate Park, rising up on the grounds of the defunct El Toro Air Base. They recently announced a new weekly Sunday Farmer’s Market that opened on Halloween Day, so while we were on vacation last week, we went to check it out.

Part 1

The Farmer’s Market and Part of The Great Park

Gourmet food trucks lined up for lunch

Design-wise, this is my favorite: Dogzilla, not your typical wiener. That says it all!

Booths and crowds--fruits, veggies, homemade goodies and artisans galore!

A genuine French macaron - Nom!! Fueling my desire to go to Paris!

The Great Park Balloon-tethered to the earth, but rises 400 feet for great views. The morning we went a few years ago, it was foggy, which actually created a really cool effect-made us feel alone in a white, chilly world. They also have night flights at certain times.

One of the finished areas: "rocks" for climbing and sliding for the kids. The building of The Great Park is a gradual process. There are buildings housing historical exhibits of El Toro, plus a carousel and gardens I'm saving for future blog entries.

This tree was moved from it's original place to make room for another project. I love that it was moved instead of just discarded. That gives me hope that The Great Park has responsible people at it's helm.

Stay tuned for Part 2--The Carousel!

Do What You Love!

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The World on a String

Whether you are a bead artist, a bead and jewelry admirer, or even if you’re a world history buff, you’ll be fascinated with The World on a String series of DVD’s, produced by Diana Friedberg.

Through the Bead Society of Orange County, I’d seen several of the movies. My impression was that they were professionally produced, exhaustively researched and very well edited. Little did I know that Diana Friedberg shot every second of footage on a Sony camcorder by herself! No crew, no assistants, sometimes not even a solid destination while on location. She edits at home and her husband, he of the smooth English accent, narrates.

Yesterday, the BSOC hosted Diana, who spoke about shooting the project. I won’t tell her funny and amazing stories here since she’s planning to compile them into a companion book for the series, but suffice it to say that the making of these movies has lead Diana to the ends of the earth and everywhere in between. She calls it a “blessed project” and I could see why. For me, a Motel 6 is roughing it… Diana traveled to areas that would make most of us shake in our beaded sandals, sleeping on dirt floors and eating whatever the indigenous people ate.

Diana is currently on deadline to finish the fifth and last installment of the series, which will be premiered at the Washington D.C. Bead Museum in the fall. Once that milestone is met, she will be trying to get PBS to air the movies nationally.

Here’s the link to her website:

http://www.worldonastringmovie.com I don’t want to sound poopy, but she makes much better movies than she does websites. The website isn’t too impressive but that’s obviously not where her talent lies! You can order the DVD’s through her website or if you’re in the Orange County area, you can pick them up at the Gallery Store at the Bowers Museum on Main St. in Santa Ana.

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