Sal Sees a Theorbo

Regular readers of Travels with Sal know that I've been taking violin lessons.  (See this post from August and this post from October for details.)  Well, after experiencing the ease of tuning offered by the ukulele, I found tuning my violin to be ridiculously difficult.  At each lesson I would hand the violin to Jessica -- my patient teacher -- to tune.  At home I attempted it, but it was a very frustrating process, as the pegs kept slipping.  The result of this was fewer practice sessions, as I experience enough frustration in my daily life already.  Music is supposed to be a stress reducer -- not another source thereof!

After much slipping (by the pegs) and swearing (by me), I decided there must be a better way.  I have geared pegs that look like tension pegs on my Walnut Flea, which made me think there should be similar pegs for violins -- and there are!  There are Pegheds for violins!  Jessica did not encourage me to get them, for reasons both philosophical (wooden pegs have been used for hundreds of years), and practical ($$$), but I wanted to go ahead anyway.

Despite her reservations, Jessica recommended a fixer of violins named Reese Williams, so I called for an appointment and went to see him.  Mr. Williams made some recommendations about my violin and suggested that I start with adjustments to the existing pegs to make them work better.  We could talk about the Pegheds later if I still wanted them.  I agreed to this and returned the following day to pick up the easier-to-tune violin.

I also brought Sal with me, so I could get some photos of her with an amazing instrument Mr. Williams had been working on -- a Theorbo!?  (Click on that bold word to learn all about the Theorbo.)  It was in the workshop when I dropped off my violin.   I'd never seen anything like it, and it seemed to me that a photo of it with Sal would be necessary.  I think you will agree that Sal and the Theorbo make an interesting pair.

The Theorbo had been moved from the workshop into the front room, as it was ready to be picked up.  I wonder what sort of vehicle the owner drives, and how he maneuvers this giant instrument through doorways and around corners.

Looking at the many strings on the Theorbo, it seems silly that I find it so challenging to play the ukulele with its paltry four strings!

If, after seeing this really cool instrument, you are still interested in the fate of my violin, I will tell you that the old pegs work much better now...  but I still want the Pegheds!

Sal Enjoys Bedford's Christmas Lights (despite the disaster that ends the evening)

On Saturday my sister and I spent the afternoon baking cookies to send to our brother, and then decided to take Sal to Bedford to see the Christmas lights.  If you read my post from last week you know that I was trying to figure out how to get the best possible pictures of Sal with festive holiday illuminations.  I was not satisfied with the photos I took, so before leaving for Bedford, I spent a few minutes with a book about my camera.  I've had the book for years, but never really read it, because I never needed to.  The camera takes great pictures without help from me, so learning about all of its awesome features wasn't necessary.  Saturday's perusal of the book informed me that my camera has an automatic bracketing feature.  Turn automatic bracketing on and when you press the shutter, the camera will take one picture at the exposure it thinks is ideal, and then one less exposed and one more exposed -- the idea being that one of these shots will be good.  This sounded like a great idea, so I decided to try it -- inside the warm house.  Here is a sequence of three pictures from one press of the shutter button.  (Yes, I have a lighted Hello Kitty in my dining room for the holidays.  And yes, she's hanging around with two gnomes.  I never claimed to be a great interior decorator...)

The camera's preferred exposure.

Less exposed.

More exposed.

I thought the results were pretty cool, so I decided to use automatic bracketing for the Bedford photo shoot.  We made the drive and found a beautiful display on the square.  Bedford has all these wonderful lights because it shares its name with the city in It's a Wonderful Life  --  perhaps the most beloved holiday movie of all time.  (The city in the movie is actually Bedford Falls, but that's close enough to give Bedford a reason to go all out for the holidays.)  The scene was truly enchanting, so despite the bitter cold, we began to figure out some shots and snap away.

Sal isn't in this picture, but I had to take some establishing shots to show how pretty the square looked.  This was taken from across the street.

Another establishing shot.

After taking test pictures at the gazebo last week, I thought it would be a good idea to get a flashlight to shine on Sal, but then I forgot.  I remembered when I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of Sal with this monument.  I tried many pictures of this scene in a vain attempt to get the whole very tall monument -- with statue on top -- into the shot.  It didn't work out, and later I noticed that if the pole Sal is leaning on is straight, the monument looks crooked.  Argh.  Even though this isn't a great picture, I had to include it after all the effort I put into it.

Anne says that this Santa looks a little creepy, and I agree.  The lighting gives a sinister cast to his face, don't you think?

Thanks to a suggestion from Anne, I got this picture of Sal with one of the choir members in the gazebo on the square.  The guy is a bit of a stiff, but that's okay.

When I saw the creche pictured below, I immediately had the naughty idea of putting Sal into the manger.  I mentioned it to Anne, who confessed that she had thought the same thing.  Great minds!  We walked over and saw that the Baby Jesus was molded into the manger, and there was no room for Sal.  (Cue slightly ironic laugh.)  I suggested putting Sal next to Mary instead.  In previous years I have read about pranksters who steal the Baby Jesus from outdoor displays such as this one, so we figured we probably were being photographed by a security camera.  Since we were not doing any harm, however, we had nothing to fear.  Religious folk may believe that what we did was in poor taste, but who could resist such temptation!?  (Ba dum bum.)

I think ukulele music would have been very soothing to a poor baby lying in a manger surrounded by smelly livestock.  What better gift could anyone have brought?  We were merely adding a suitable baby gift to the scene.  (What would make a baby happier -- some gold, frankincense, and myrrh -- or a relaxing lullaby strummed on a ukulele?)

 I think this is a lovely peaceful scene -- and Sal makes it complete!  Too bad there is a light fixture sticking up in the middle of the photo -- but the light it gives is necessary.  Perhaps in the future the fixture could be hidden inside a hollowed out sheep or something.

We took a bunch of other photos after this -- none of which were good enough to use -- and then the disaster portion of the evening began.  The screen on my camera went black.  I turned the camera off and on, but the screen stayed black.  We were afraid that the extreme cold (the high temperature for the day was in the 20s) was affecting the camera, so we went inside a nearby church that was unlocked due to a holiday party.  We were standing inside the door, hoping the camera would recover, when a young man entered.  We ended up having a conversation about ukuleles, and he told us that he knows an 85-year-old man who plays the ukulele at the Rusty Nail in Ravenna.  (I plan to call and see when the man is playing and hope to go see his show.  This might be a fun outing for Sal!)  We found out that this young man was coming to the party to play Santa.  He said that he was "the skinniest guy in the place,"  and was going to have to use lots of pillows to play his part.  (He did look awfully young, thin, and clean-shaven to be Santa, but I'm sure that with the addition of a red suit, white wig, and beard he did a fine job.)  Anne and I went back outside to resume our photo session, but the camera wouldn't work and we were cold anyway, so we got in our cars and went home.

DISASTER UPDATE:  I tried the camera again after I got home and over the next couple of days, and it is truly broken.  I am very sad because I really love this camera!  Since it's several years old it's probably not economical (or perhaps even possible) to get it repaired.  I would have to pay to have it evaluated and then who knows?  If I end up buying a new camera, I wouldn't buy the updated version of my beloved G11, because the G15  doesn't have the swiveling screen that was one of the G11's coolest features.  And unfortunately the camera I would want to buy instead (the Sony NEX6) costs much more than I should spend.  Sigh...

TWO DAYS LATER... HAPPY NEWS!  My techie son suggested that I restore my camera to its original settings to see if that would make the screen come back on.  I tried it and it worked!  Hip Hip Hooray for Christopher!!!

Sal Sees Lots of Model Trains

Just around the corner from where I live is a restored train depot housing the Cuyahoga Valley and West Shore Model Railroad Club.  Twice a year they have an Open House.  I've been wanting to go for a long time, but there was always something preventing me -- mostly the necessity of holding down a job instead of spending all my time having fun.   Starting Travels With Sal made me determined to find a way, so I decided that I would squeeze in a quick visit to the May Open House on my way to work.  I was actually on my way there when I was prevented by circumstances beyond my control.  (If you'd like to know what happened, read I've Been Hampered by a Railroad -- the post about that truncated outing.)

After the May debacle, I was even more determined to make it to the December Open House, and this time I was successful.  I asked the gentleman collecting the $3.00 admission fee if I could put Sal into some of the train layouts, and he said I could put her wherever I wanted -- as long as I didn't break anything.  In the "it's a small world" department, this man told me that he does not have a blog, but he did take a Build-a-Bear across the country and dip its foot or hand (I forgot which) into the Pacific Ocean.  (One of the coolest things about doing Travels with Sal is talking with people and hearing their stories.  Everybody has an interesting tale or two to tell!)

When I go on outings with Sal, I carry a largish bag containing Sal, my camera, my keys, etc.  The gentleman at the door very kindly allowed me to leave this bag in his care, as the tight spaces in the depot would make carrying it a liability.  There isn't much room to walk, as there are train layouts all around with relatively narrow passageways between them.   There are trains of several gauges running in realistic scenes of all kinds -- city and countryside, residential and industrial, etc.  There were many visitors there -- and more arrived every minute -- so it was quite challenging to move around.  Everyone was very polite and considerate as we squeezed by each other and admired the layouts surrounding us.  I spoke with some very helpful gentlemen* wearing shirts indicating that they were members of the Club.  They were obviously very proud of what they have made -- and justifiably so! 

I highly recommend traveling to Olmsted Falls to see this train lover's paradise!  The Open House continues today, and there will be another one next May. 

I love how big Sal looks in these scenes.

Quite a few people stopped and chuckled as I was taking this photo.

This might be my favorite picture from our visit to the Open House.  I love the colors.  They set off Sal very nicely, I think.

I tried to avoid putting Sal directly on the tracks as much as possible, for fear that a train would come by and Sal would cause a derailment.  I'm happy to report that no such disaster occurred, but a train did chug by very shortly after I removed Sal from this track.  Gulp.

Next to the depot there is a caboose, which is also open to visitors during the Open House.  Here is Sal on the brake wheel.  (I was told that one of the functions of the caboose was to help with braking back in the day.)

*As a children's librarian, I can testify that boys love trains!  They love real trains, and they love model trains.  I've never been asked for a "train book" by a girl, but I've been asked for them countless times by guys young and old. 

Sal Goes On an Experimental Photo Shoot

Now that Thanksgiving is in the past, and the last of the leftovers are soon to be eaten, it's time to think about Christmas!

(EDITORIAL COMMENT:  Fie on all who shopped on Thanksgiving Day.  How about spending the day being grateful instead of spending it getting more stuff!?  And fie on the retailers who tempted people to shop on Thanksgiving Day by offering them super bargains.  Those bargains could just as easily have been offered on Black Friday.  This year's attempt to get the jump on your competitors by opening on Thanksgiving will just lead to more stores opening on Thanksgiving in the future.  Soon the whole day will be eaten up -- pun intended -- and we'll all be wondering where our nice holiday went.  What a shame.  Greed is NOT good!)

Enough with the lecture!  Let's get back to more pleasant things.  Yes, I'm thinking about Christmas!  It's time to buy a reasonable amount of gifts, plan some festive occasions, practice Christmas songs on the ukulele, AND, last but not least, take some holiday photos of Sal.  My sister and I are planning an outing to take pictures of Sal with some holiday lights.  I am concerned, however, about how to feature both the lovely lights and Sal in properly exposed photos.  To mention the obvious, lights are very bright, the night is very dark, and Sal is in between!

Tonight I arrived home from work to see the Christmas lights twinkling in the gazebo across the street -- as they always do in December.  It struck me that I could just walk over and take some experimental Sal pictures there.  If what I tried tonight didn't work, I could try something else tomorrow night.  By the time Anne and I do our real photo shoot, I should know what I'm doing!  (As a lazy photographer, I don't use all the features on my cameras, so this will give me the motivation to challenge myself.  For the holiday light pictures I'll be using a Canon Powershot G11.) 

Sadly, the photo session was not a success, but here are two of the pictures anyway. 

Starting with the simplest thing first, I tried the Night Scene mode on my camera.  As a picture of an outdoor Christmas tree at night, I think it's okay, but as a Sal photo, not so much.  She's supposed to be star, but you can hardly see her.

When I realized that Night Scene wasn't working, I tried the Low Light setting.  This let me set the exposure by Sal, so you can see her.  This photo is a more accurate representation of the actual lighting in the gazebo.  Unfortunately, it's too noisy.  I'll be trying some other things in the coming days.  Looks like I'm going to have to leave the comfort of scene modes and move into something more advanced.  Gulp.

Lessons learned and resulting thoughts:
1. Sal has to be in a pool of light or she will not be visible in the photos.  Otherwise, even if I can see her just fine, the camera can't.
2. It's good to take practice photos when it's not freezing cold and windy. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays nice.
3. Some snow would be pretty, but it would probably change everything.  So if it's going to snow on the big picture-taking day, let the snow begin very soon!
4. Using a tripod is a necessity.
5. It was a good idea to do some reading and decide what I was going to do before going outside to take pictures.  I will continue to figure out my plan where it's light enough refer back to the book -- in the house!
6. It's time to learn about my camera and what it can do!

Here's hoping I'll have better shots to share in the following days!  Sal deserves to be beautifully photographed!  :)

Sal Visits a Bunch of Cultural Gardens

When thinking about the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, the Lay's Potato Chip slogan -- "bet you can't eat just one" -- springs to mind.  After visiting one garden the other day, I felt that a return visit was absolutely necessary!  Sal and I couldn't visit just one!  I wanted some human company, too, so I was very happy when my sister agreed to walk through the gardens with Sal and me.  (She is not only a great companion, but she has lots of great photographic ideas, too!)

We met at the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse, which is a great place to park if you are going to do the garden tour.  Otherwise you have to park along the side of the road, which is very curvy.  This made me hesitant to park there, for fear of returning a couple of hours later to find that somebody had come around a bend and smashed into my car.

If I'm counting right, we visited at least 15 of the 36 gardens in about three hours, which was all the time we had.  The walk is only about two miles, but frequent stops to take multiple photos really slowed down the process.  The day was quite cold, but pretty leaves abounded and we got many lovely autumnal pictures.  Unfortunately we couldn't get shots of all the photogenic scenes and statues -- due to lack of time.  A whole day would be needed to really do this right!

The photos in this post depict a small fraction of what is to be found in the Cultural Gardens.  I highly recommend taking a friend and going to see them yourself! 

Our first stop was at the Polish Garden.  Anne is upset by the caption on Copernicus' podium, which states that he discovered that the world revolves around the sun.  Anne thinks the world should revolve around HER!

Another denizen of the Polish Cultural Garden:  Marie Curie!

This amazing bust is located in the Slovenian Garden.  We were not familiar with Ivan Cankar, but we loved this sculpture!  The mustache!  The hair!

In the Czech Garden, we encountered this statue of Tomas Masaryk -- another person we were not familiar with.  (Thanks to the internet, I now know that he was the first President of Czechoslovakia.)  His arms looked perfect for holding Sal, so a picture was in order.  Unfortunately, Sal kept sliding off as I tried to pose her on the statue, so Anne volunteered to hold Sal in place.

The resulting photo.  Does it look like Mr. Masaryk is balancing Sal on his arm?  Hope so!

We arrived at the Rusin (sic) Garden, and saw this statue proclaiming "I was, am and always will be A RUSIN."  What?  Check out the link if you are curious!

In the Italian Garden we encountered this handsome guy -- with a nice wide ledge to balance Sal on!

Getting this shot required stepping into the fountain -- which had lots of big puddles in it -- and balancing Sal on a curved edge.  This required much courage, because if she had fallen into the giant bowl, it would have been quite a challenge to get her out.  I think the resulting photo is worth it, though.  (Confession:  I used the "boost color" and "edge blur" effects on iPhoto to improve the blah original.)

This giant tree contained a ideal perch for Sal.

This statue looked like a perfect chance to pose Sal in a hand -- as if Dante was holding her.  Unfortunately, many tries resulted in many failures, so I took this picture.  I didn't think I would like it, but I do.

Anne worked very hard to get Sal balanced on this book, so I included this picture, too.  Not sure which of the two I like better.  Anybody care to offer an opinion?

In the German Garden we came upon this bust of Bach.  Since he is one of my favorite composers, I had to get a shot of Sal with him.  There was no ledge to balance Sal on, and putting her at the base of the pedestal would have been a lame shot, so Anne came to the rescue again and held Sal in front.  I would not have cropped the picture like this if I wasn't trying to eliminate Anne's hand from the picture, but I think the result is really cool. On second thought, maybe it looks strange to have Sal floating in mid-air...

This is probably better, don't you think?

This guy was also in the German Garden.  We weren't familiar with Alexander Humboldt, but the bust is awesome and it has a nice pedestal for Sal to sit on.  I had the crazy idea of putting Sal in this position -- like Sal and Humboldt were communicating by touching this way -- and I think the resulting photo is pretty neat.

A more conventional (if there is anything conventional about a small ukulele posing with a bust) treatment of the same subject.  Which is your favorite? 

The Hungarian Garden was so beautiful.  Yes, that is water shooting up from the fountains.  And what lovely colors...  This is a Where's Sal shot.  Can you find her?

I took a picture of the sign in front of each garden so I would be able to properly caption each photo.  I'm showing this one because my mother is British, and when we see a British flag, she often complains that it is being flown upside-down.  I plan to show this photo to her, and sincerely hope that the flag flying over the British Cultural Garden is right-side-up!

What beautiful colors -- and a lovely sentiment, too.

I had to take a picture of Sal with Shakespeare -- even though there was no nice ledge to balance her on.  This was the only garden we visited that had houses just a few feet behind it. It felt a little strange to see houses instead of trees as a backdrop, but I think it makes an interesting picture.

Sal posing inside the fountain at the Hebrew Garden.  Obviously this picture would not be possible in summer!

The Indian Garden contains this wonderful statue of Mahatma Gandhi.  I took many shots of Sal and Mr. Gandhi, and they were okay, but then my sister suggested this angle.  Perfection!

In the Finnish Garden some of the statues had been knocked over by vandals.  Why people would destroy a thing of beauty is a mystery to me.  Happily, Jean Sibelius was still standing. 

As we walked down the street, we passed this lovely combination of colors and textures.  I had to put Sal in the middle and take some photos!

Sal trying to learn a new alphabet in the Croatian Garden.

This lovely statue is in the Croatian Garden.  Titled "The Immigrant Mother"  -- it is touchingly beautiful.  A lovely finale to a lovely afternoon!

Sal Goes to the Ukrainian Cultural Garden

I have a friend who is Ukrainian.  Life has been giving him lemons lately, so I thought it would be good for him to have a respite in the great outdoors.  Going for a walk in a lovely setting always lifts my mood, and I figured it would do the same for Fedor.  I asked him to go with Sal and me to the Cleveland Cultural Gardens -- starting with the Ukrainian Cultural Garden, of course.

For those not familiar with the Cultural Gardens, a brief description of this extraordinary place is in order.  I'm feeling lazy, though, so in lieu of writing a paragraph myself, I've pasted one from the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation website here:  "The Cleveland Cultural Gardens are located along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and the adjacent East Blvd. from St. Clair Avenue to the south in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. This string of 26 nationality gardens is unique to Cleveland, Ohio and for that matter unique to this Country and the World. Various nationalities that call Cleveland home have collaborated in development of their respective garden to memorialize and share with the World their culture and history. Thus, this unique park is a great educational tool, as well as a great place to relax, enjoy nature in the midst of a city, walk or ride a bike, see statues of significant personalities or depictions of far away lands."

I've wanted to visit these gardens for a long while, and this weekend seemed like the perfect time.  It would be a win/win.  My friend would enjoy a walk among statues of famous folks from his homeland, and I would have a person to keep me company as I posed Sal and took photos of her.  (Sal is a wonderful companion, of course, but it's always nice to have a human along, too.)

The day was very pleasant for November -- sweatshirt temperature and a little cloudy -- with lots of pretty leaves remaining on the trees.  Consulting a map of the Cultural Gardens as we drove along, we found the Ukrainian Garden without too much trouble.  I took some photos and Fedor talked a bit about the people represented by the statues there.

Sal with Voldymyr the Great

Sal with Ivan Franko

I really like this shot of the statue of Lesya Ukrainka framed by this craggy tree -- and Sal, too, of course.

As we walked and talked, it brought back memories of the summer of 2008, when I accompanied Fedor on a trip to Ukraine.  I particularly remember seeing many commemorations there of Taras Shevchenko -- a great Ukrainian patriot and poet. 

Maybe Fedor is pondering the greatness of Taras Schevchenko, or maybe he is wondering whether or not Sal is going to be blown off that high pedestal by a gust of wind.  Happily, Sal suffered no falls today!

I shot this picture of a bust of Taras Schevchenko in the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv.  As a children's librarian, I have often brought Flat Stanley along when going to interesting places, which is why he is pictured with Mr. Schevchenko.

As we walked around the Ukrainian Garden, Fedor said that it was very nice, but lamented the lack of vibernums, which are a symbol of Ukraine.  He told me that Viktor Yushchenko  planted viburnums all around when he was president of Ukraine (2005-2010).  I vaguely remember hearing about the wonders of these plants on the trip to Ukraine, which is why I took the following photo at the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life there.

Real Ukrainian Vibernum

After walking around the Ukrainian Garden and taking numerous photos, a look at my phone showed that we wouldn't have time to visit any more gardens.  I was going to have to drop Fedor off and go to work.  (Time flies...!)  Stay tuned for more Cultural Garden photos, as Sal and I plan to return there very soon!