A rush... and it's over

Alternate title: If it's Wednesday, I must be home.

The last week in Cleveland was a blur of activity. The Garden of the Gods project panels are continuing, but at present are enroute from Ohio, so you'll have to wait to see how they're coming along.

We made a little excursion to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last.. what was it? Thursday, I guess. Sketching was minimal, since I a) wanted to see a good bit of the park and b) wasn't there by myself. But, I managed a little quality time with the Aldabra tortoises and wisps of an uncooperative koala.

The Cleveland Zoo is actually two distinct facilities, one of which is a tropical rain forest building that does a nice job of talking about flora, fauna, scientific research, and conservation issues.

AND, January days when the temperature isn't predicted to rise above 32 F are "Polar Bear Days," and admission is half price. We had a great day! Cheap entry, hardly anyone there. Yeah, so the climb to the top of the hill was pretty cold, but other than that it was perfect.

Sunday was the last big day for driving and sightseeing, so we headed west along the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, arriving in Sandusky for lunch. It was, of course, cold and windy along the lakeshore, but there were some marvelous assemblages of wave-stacked ice blocks draped along the edges.

On the way home we took a walk at Old Woman Creek. We weren't really dressed for hiking (wet sneakers in the snow are only amusing for so long), but still spent a little time on a nice trail through the woods to the edge of the estuary. Bald eagles... cardinals... titmice... nuthatches... white-throated sparrows... chickadees... red-tailed hawk. The sanctuary center exhibits weren't open, BUT! Look at these nifty tiles on their porch! Frogs! Each frog was about the length of my foot, maybe a little bigger. They remind me of a puzzle my brother and I had when we were kids. All of the puzzle pieces were shaped exactly the same.. salamanders. (And until this moment I could remember the name of the puzzle, but it escapes me now.) Escher would have been proud.


Monday it was one last trip to the now-dear Rocky River Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks before starting to pack up the precious iMac and all my painting gear and the miscellaneous acquisitions of four weeks wandering new turf. Although I was ready to get back to more predictable sunshine and my own familiar belongings, four weeks in Ohio flew by entirely too quickly. How could I run out of time to do everything when I had an entire month?