So, this didn't work....but I have a new idea...

The idea was to have a butterfly roof shape,  the tram station roof shape,  and in black the Chase Bank facade on the left.  The sky and mountains are represented by the ovals to pick up on the oval shapes of the Chase Bank building.  It's just not going to have the effect I want and after passing the Chase Bank yesterday,  I realize I have to represent this wonderful building in its original white.

So,  I'm going to make a background of turquoise,  orange,  and purple (mid-century mod colours) ovals and then superimpose the Chase Bank facade in white.  I'll use a less elongated canvas.  I've already painted over this canvas (it was the rainbow that didn't work) so maybe it's jinxed.   Rather than paint over it I think I'll play around with what's there and see what happens.

 ps visitor's centre Tramway Gas Station

Butterfly roof

Chase Bank

Our rockers were really rocking' at Las Casuelas today....

We had a great view of the band,  the dancers,  and people watching on the street.  Great fun...hadn't been there for a while.

 My shrimp quesadilla with mango salsa.

 Jim's usual combination

This woman danced the whole time....she must be at least eighty or more  We didn't see our favourite old couple,  though,  hope they're ok.

Catfé

Jazz has left the building - adoption 16!

This morning in Palm Springs

Pink dawn this AM... And into the 70s by tomorrow!

-Photo by Alan Craig

"Big Bird" at the hummingbird feeder

His beak looks quite short but he seems to get nectar.  The hummingbirds have been trying to chase him away but he's stood his ground so far.

Catfé

Fly after dark. 💕 Fly was adopted today, just one day after I fell madly in love with him! Adoption #15

More new cats at Catfé

 Dexter

Alice

Sketch for next painting...I think this one will go quite quickly

My latest painting

I knew I wanted some black cactus and/or succulents to anchor it and rather wanted to incorporate the cactus and aloe vera plant and perhaps the rock cairns that are in our garden.  I left the painting for quite a while but couldn't really come up with a way of doing that.  It needed something less busy and more stylized....so this is the result.

"Desert"

9 x 12

Acrylic on canvas

Jan/16

You can see the cactus,  aloe vera plant,  and rock cairn in this photo.

I think these all work rather well if I do say so myself!

Now,  to do something Mid-Century Modern....rooflines,  I think..  I'm working backwards with this one in a sense because I know what the black anchor will be....the arches of this wonderful building that we are constantly passing....the Chase Bank.  We'll see if working backwards will work.  Susan is working upside down at the moment :)

What is now Chase Bank at Ramon Road was originally built as Coachella Valley Savings and Loan in 1961 designed by E. Stewart Williams.

Tacos, books, pasta....quite a day!

Recently we watched a very good movie on Netflix "Buan Dia,  Ramon" and Jim got inspired to make tacos....yum....the beginning of a tradition I hope.

Then my Canyon Sands Bookclub in the afternoon.  Always lots of fun.  We talked about our reading resolutions and what we were beginning the New Year with in terms of reading.

Reading resolutions:  

My resolutions are to re-read some classics and read more non-fiction.  For non-fiction I begin with a book on hummingbirds.   Since the Friends of the PS Library are reading Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” (which I loved many years ago) this month,  that seemed a good place to begin.  And I also will read at least some of Henry James’  “The Ambassadors” which I found a tremendous slog.   So far,  I like Dalloway less and the Ambassadors more.

A Christmas tradition for us is for my husband (who loves buying second hand books) to find titles of authors I read but whose works I haven’t read and to find new authors that I might like.  I  usually begin my reading in the new year by starting with some of these.  Two that particularly intrigue me are Jan Karon’s “At Home in Mitford”  and Peter Pezzelli’s “Italian Lessons”.

And then Pasta Night at the Dolly Sinatra Lodge with Brian & Susan and Nicki and Stan.  Always a great time and great food.  So,  Jim got pasta and refried beans in the same day....he must have thought he was in heaven....

Too funny....a cat video from someone I know.

From Debbie:

Simon does not "get" the concept of glass. Because my back room is an add-on, I have what used to be an outside window between my kitchen and the back room. This is what happens when Tabitha is on one side of it, and Simon the other. Note her complete disdain.

https://www.facebook.com/debbie.gascoyne/videos/10156375432310142/?theater

Best of St. Tropez

After the Art Museum,  we went downtown to the store where Elaine and Jim bought those wonderful cushions that have all the things we love about France in the pattern.  Glad to see they're still in business but do wonder how long they will last.  We were the only customers and it was busy downtown since the film festival was in full swing.

We bought these mugs and a Herbes de Provence grinder.  Grinding these herbes on food might work out well for me since I seem to be somewhat allergic to pepper these days.

At the Art Museum there was a PS Film Festival booth selling merchandise.  The Annenberg Theatre at the Museum is a venue for the films.  I couldn't resist this hat!

I did resist this $350 teapot in the Museum's gift shop.

But I may buy this at some point....looked rather cool.

Starting the morning with cats....is there any better way?

This quote from Albert Schweitzer came up on the cat calendar my dear friend,  Elaine,  gave me and went to my computer to post it on my blog and picked up an email from Elaine with these absolutely wonderful "10 Best Cat Commercials".  Enjoy,  cat lovers and dog lovers will like it too I'm sure.  There is one for a company called "Be More Dog"....will have to look up what that is all about.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XWZZsGhz4Q&feature=youtu.be

Another one of the new cats at Catfé.

Pulie was a scaredy cat when she first arrived but is feeling more confident inside her #nekoflies tunnel. She will purr up a storm with visitors who are gentle and patient.

More PS Art Museum

Given my current exploration with my new style of paining,  you can see why I really enjoyed seeing these works of Yaakov Agam.  I think the Museum owns these works now.

He's done some pretty amazing stuff.  This is him in front of a building he decorated.

More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaacov_Agam

Visited the Palm Springs Art Museum today

Calder and Picasso and of course my old favourite Henry Moore's....

Music, music, music...

From using my whole allowance most weeks of a dollar to buy a 45 rpm record (Fabian, Elvis, Richie Valens, etc) to play on my one at a time 45 player to Apple Music...wow!  And remember when we all bought our first expensive stereo system?  We paid more for that than we paid for many of our cars...  but then we mainly bought beaters.   Then the iPod that I loaded up with all our CD's so almost our entire music collection was on a device not bigger than a pack of cigarettes.  And that was augmented by loading on CD's from libraries.   Now,  absolutely everything it seems is on Apple Music.  We're on a three month free trial and then for "family sharing" so we can access the music on all our devices, it will be $15 CDN.

Another thing we've  discovered lately is that many episodes of Melvyn Bragg's South Bank Show are on YouTube.   When on YouTube on your computer or Apple TV,  search  "South Bank Show Little Richard" for example.  Jim has a list of a lot of shows he searched for and now we are starting to see if they are on YouTube.   We have seen quite a variety already...K.D. Laing (country),  Leslie Garrett (opera),  and Little Richard (rock)....all wonderful!  We first got looking at the South Bank Show when we had the satellite dish (so Jim could pick up Mexican TV...ah,  them was days) and the first show we saw we were introduced to the Penguin Café  Orchestra which we have continued to love.  And there are all sorts of writers on the shows as well.  We watched one on Philip Larkin last night....great poet.

Take a look at the six new cats at Catfé!

http://www.catfe.ca/cats/

This morning's photos...lots of snow on the mountains and sunshine.

The first two taken picking up the paper outside the garage doors.

 These are from outside our back door.