Category Archives: VA

Dean and Bevaria come to visit

October 9, 2015 Ruth

1058 Old Country Club Road

Roanoke is north of Florida which puts us on the path our friends have been taking from where they are to where they are going in Florida. In September cruising pals Linda and Michael stopped by for a few days and this week cruising pals Dean and Bevaria stayed with us. We met Dean in China when he visited Seahorse Marine checking on his boat during the time we were there while ours was being built. Dean helped us move DoraMac from Hong Kong to the Philippines and during the voyage took time to share his knowledge of how to change from autopilot to hand steering, a good thing that prevented us from running down a fishing boat. But what I remember most is the shopping expedition Dean and I made to Gongbei while we were all in China. Gongbei, which at the time was (and may still be) the knock-off capital of the world is a 45 minute drive from the boat yard. There are hundreds of shops so it was a great place to stock up on gifts especially lovely shawls and handbags. We were in one shop looking at some handbags to bring home for gifts when the shop attendant motioned for us to come closer, hit a secret button opening what looked like a wall of shelves, and motioned us into the room behind. We entered; another button was pressed and we were enclosed in a room with even more handbags. All I could think was, thank goodness Dean was a retired FBI agent so if we end up in a drama here, he can get us out. But all that happened was shopping and then we exited the secret room. Memories of China!

The weather has put us behind schedule on land clearing. But it could have been worse. Roanoke was spared though the poor folks in South Carolina were not. Dean and Bevaria brought the good weather of Maine with then for their visit so we made a trek up to “the land.”

Bevaria, Randal and Dean standing up by the bolder on the left. The bolder is now named “Frog Bolder” because there was a small frog hiding in a hole just near it and it sort of looks like a frog from certain angles. Some trees are gone but we still have 100 acres full. About half of the clearing has been done but the weather has made a mess of the schedule.

Randal, Dean and Bevaria

Bevaria’s beautiful hair reaches below her knees! But just the past year it had been cut to the middle of her back.

A visit to the Mill Mountain Star and the overlook just across the way giving a view of the Roanoke Valley.

Roanoke, VA

Help free Buttons!

July 7, 2015 Ruth

Hi Everyone,

Remember Buttons, founding member of the Netsel Coffee Club with his owner Colins? His plight continues….

Formerly DoraMac and now Terra Firma

Campaign launched to free loyal seadog trapped in quarantine after owner’s death

By South Wales Evening Post | Posted: July 07, 2015

Buttons is currently in quarantine

A campaign has been launched to free an old seadog trapped in rabies quarantine after his owner died on their luxury yacht.

Loyal pet Buttons was left high-and-dry when his owner Colin Spiers suddenly died after spending seven years sailing the high seas together.

Colin, of Llanddewi Velfrey, West Wales, and his wife Jane, aged 55, lived the dream – travelling around the Mediterranean with 17-year-old loyal pooch Buttons.

Heartbroken Jane tried to bring the Jack Russell-Cairn terrier cross back to Britain after 71-year-old Colin died at sea.

But border chiefs locked-up the little salty seadog over fears he could have rabies – despite being in perfect health.

And Jane is worried the family could face more tragedy if 17-year-old Buttons dies while locked-up for ten weeks in a quarantine kennel.

Jane said: “I am just so frightened that Buttons is going to die behind bars.

“I went to see him in kennels and it broke my heart; he was just so sad and old. He is pining badly for us, and particularly Colin.

“My life at the moment is desperately sad and stressful, further compounded by the heartache of knowing that our much-loved family pet is isolated and away from those who love him so much.”

Colin lived most of his life on the sea – working for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst – before taking retirement so he could cruise around the Mediterranean.

Dad-of-four Colin, Jane and Buttons left their home in 2008 to travel around the coasts of France, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Wherever they went Buttons would be seen scampering in and out of cabins and across the decks in his little red life jacket.

Jane said: “He’s always been a sparky, plucky little dog.

“He was known on most of the waterfronts on the Med because of his magnificent beard and his fondness for a cappuccino in the mornings.”

They had been living at the Netsel Marina in Marmaris Turkey where Colin was a popular figure in the local sailing community.

Grandfather-of-five Colin was known as “The Mayor” because he helped with so many of the marina activities, organising socials and hosting his own radio show.

But last month he was discovered dead on his “beloved” yacht called Hydaway as he was getting ready to go on his latest voyage.

Colin was buried on a hill near the sea at Icmeler and Buttons returned to the UK – where he was seized by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Buttons – who is suffering from a heart murmur, cataracts, deafness and arthritis – has been held in a quarantine kennel and looks set to be there until the end of August.

Jane added: “Buttons doesn’t understand what he’s done wrong.

“There is no chance that Buttons could be carrying rabies. He is just a victim of a tick box exercise by DEFRA.”

Jane, who is currently in Bath where she is looking after her elderly father, is desperate to be reunited with little Buttons.

Buttons is being held because there was a lapse of just two days in his rabies vaccination more than two years ago.

Jane is “at a loss” as to why Buttons as been quarantined because he is not showing any symptoms of rabies and has a high level of antibodies in his blood.

Eminent vet Ian Wright, the head of The European Scientific Counsel for Companion Animal Parasites UK & Ireland doesn’t believe Buttons is a risk to humans or other animals.

He said: “There is no known carrier state for rabies beyond six months to a year.”

Jane is appealing to Farming, Food and Marine Environment minister George Eustice to “free the bearded one”.

Simon Hart, MP for Carmarthen west and South Pembrokeshire, has written to the minister to say: “This is a case of red tape superseding common sense.”

“I would urge you to intervene in this exceptional case and let Buttons be returned to his family. He quite clearly is not a rabies risk.”

VA, Virginia

Art Journaling at the Roanoke City Market

July 3, 2015 Ruth

Roanoke, VA 24012

Happy 4^th of July everyone! Imperfect as this country might be, all of our travelling made me truly appreciate being born here!

DoraMac / Terra Firma

I signed up for a morning of sketching and painting and really enjoyed it immensely though you might not tell that from my art work. But I did learn a lot. And I know it takes me at least two or 3 tries at the same thing to get a finished product I sort of like. (So I need to go back and try again!! And again!!!) I had talked my friend Jane Field into going along and we both vowed that we needed to draw and paint more often as we both needed lots of practice. The weather cooperated perfectly with enough sun for shadows but not blazing heat! “Everything’s good!” to quote Cape Cod Coni

A Morning on the Roanoke City Market: Pen & Ink + Watercolor studies—Robin Poteet
1 class: Wednesday, July 1 • 9 a.m.–noon • $15
The Roanoke City Market is ideal for quick studies of people, produce, flowers and architecture. Join Robin for a stroll through the market—we’ll look at the sights, shapes and colors, do quick studies and take photos as we walk around. There are plenty of benches to settle into as you refine your sketches and turn them into little watercolor or pen & ink gems. So… pick up a coffee and pastry and meet Robin at the corner of Market St. and Campbell at 9 a.m. for a fun, relaxing morning!

Jane and I did meet for coffee and then went off for a really fun morning!

We sketched some and then moved to tables for the painting

. Jane working on her painting.

This is Barbara Dickinson whom I know as the author of The Rebellious House and Small House, Large World. I learned that she has also written a book called Lifeguards –and Safeguards which I’ll pick up from the library on Monday from the library. Now I know what a wonderful artist she is!

Barbara Dickinson

Her contribution to the Roanoke Arts scene is huge!

Posted: Friday, April 10, 2015 12:00 am (sadly we were still in Turkey so I missed this.)

By mike.allen@roanoke.com

“On April 5, 1956, Barbara Dickinson boarded a boat bound for Europe, embarking on the first of a lifetime of world travels.

The sketches she made of the sights she saw in foreign lands over the next 60 years adorn the walls of the LinDor Arts gallery in downtown Roanoke, where her new show, “Well Traveled” will stay on display through the end of this month.

More than 200 paintings and drawings depict scenes from Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Egypt, the Netherlands, Japan, China, France and elsewhere. It’s akin to a detailed travel diary, but recorded in pictures rather than words.

“I think I’m a frustrated architect because I love buildings,” she joked about her choice of subject matter.

Dickinson, 82, was the first paid director of the Roanoke Fine Arts Center, now the Taubman Museum of Art. During her two-year stint, from 1958 to 1960, she founded the city’s best-known, longest-lived arts event, the Sidewalk Art Show.

She’s quite proud of what the show has become. She called the expansions of both the show and the museum over the next 57 years “amazing.”

After leaving the museum, she taught art in Roanoke City Public Schools for 20 years. She also raised five children, all of whom returned to Roanoke last week to catch the opening of her show.

“It was a highly successful, rambunctious, wonderful opening night,” she said. “I’m still sort of in euphoria.”

She was flattered that a number of regional artists whom she considers her betters stopped in to see her show, among them Botetourt County artist Vera Dickerson.

Dickinson credits Dickerson’s classes at the Studio School in southwest Roanoke with inspiring a new interest in oil painting, although her passion for art began in childhood. She remembers drawing with pastels and pencils when she was 6.

She earned a degree in art history at Wellesley College and worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., just prior to her first trip abroad.

Had she not taken that boat to Europe, she wouldn’t be in Roanoke today. While living in Heidelberg, Germany, she met Robert Rogers, stationed there as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. “He won my heart,” she said.

Rogers, a son of the co-founder of the Woods Rogers law firm in Roanoke, brought her back to the Star City in 1958 as his bride. He died in 1976, just 18 months after his appointment to a circuit court judgeship.

Dickinson has been married and widowed three times. She speaks fondly of all three husbands. “I’ve had a charmed life,” she said. “I feel very blessed.”

Her travels, though, were undertaken on her own initiative. Sometimes they were vacations with her spouse, sometimes study trips or art tours, sometimes visits with children living abroad.

“These are not extravagant trips that I took,” she said. “I have been very fortunate in my travels and I love it.”

She recalled telling Billy Dickinson, the man who became her third husband, “Marry me and see the world.”

She views her show, too, as a way to let people see the world. She’s priced her work modestly, from $15 for a small sketch to $200 or more for a painting. She wanted her pieces to be available to anyone who might want to own “a slice of Europe,” she said.

“I think it’s important to have original art in your house,” she said.

“Before I leave this world,” she said, she hopes to travel back to Europe by boat once more, and take time to visit many places she hasn’t seen yet.”

My attempts below.

I had no clue how really to begin but finally did though not with the quick sketches around the market. Next time I’ll really make myself quick sketch just to see how to fit what I want to draw on the paper which I did rather badly this time.

Reality and then my attempt but I ran out of paper at the bottom of the picture. And humans add interest so I included one of the group in this picture.

Again, I ran out of room on the top for the actually hanging planters and I needed to have shaded the glass windows of the Roanoke Weiner Stand. I was mostly practicing on the planters.

Robin did a wonderful job of encouraging everyone with their work. Before we started she gave us a handout of tips for creating better and more interesting travel sketches. I should have read mine many more times before I started but will re-read it many more times while I’m out sketching!

Robin at work

http://www.robinpoteet.com/

Roanoke, VA

The End. and The Beginning

June 25, 2015 Ruth

June 25, 2015

Roanoke, VA

Randal and I packed up our 4 overweight suitcases and 2 carry-ons and came home to Roanoke. Living on the sea is a very detached way of living and living on the land is a very attached way of living. It will take time adapting.

No longer on DoraMac

Randal and I are now what my friend Linda calls CLODs : Cruisers living on dirt. We were never called CLOBs which would be a cruiser living boats, but then if you’re living on a boat I guess you are a cruiser and the rest would be redundant. I thought I’d prefer the term land-lubber thinking it someone who preferred living on land. But it really means someone who is a total oaf at sea and though I would never consider myself a seaman by any means; I wasn’t as bad as all that.

“The word *landlubber*, first recorded in the late 1690s, is formed from *land* and the earlier *lubber*. This *lubber* dates from the fourteenth century and originally meant ‘a clumsy, stupid fellow; lout; oaf’. By the sixteenth century it had developed the specialized sense ‘an unseamanlike person; inexperienced seaman’, which is the same sense as *landlubber* and was eventually combined with *land* to emphasize the unfamiliarity-with-the-sea aspect.

*Lubber* itself is probably related to or derived from *lob*, a word also meaning ‘a clumsy, stupid fellow; lout’, which is chiefly an English dialect form but occasionally appears in America (for example: “He is generally figured as nothing but a lob as far as ever doing anything useful…is concerned” — Damon Runyon). Though *lob* is not found until around 1500, somewhat later than *lubber*, *lob* is clearly related to words in other Germanic languages meaning ‘a clumsy person’.”

From The Mavens’ Word of the Day (October 9, 1997)

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/24/messages/1176.html

Randal is working with the engineers and Roanoke County for the land disturbance permit. Then we can make the drive that will lead to the house and clear the plot where the house will be so the architect can start to draw the house plans. I have signed up for 2 art events. One is a morning of sketching and painting in downtown Roanoke led by a local artist. I’ve also signed up for a watercolor landscape painting class that meets 3 times in August. I’ve also joined the book club at the Salem Public Library because my sister had a blurb about it and so I got a copy of the book and went. Fun! I love libraries. And being able to take art classes. Both are why I was ready to come home.

A few last photos from Marmaris

Walking from our small hotel back to the marina. Marmaris had lots of charm, especially early in the morning when I would take my walks.

Our friends Doug and Irene rent a lovely 3 level apartment in Marmaris. They hosted a going away lunch for us with many traditional Russian dishes. Irene is from St. Petersburg. Doug is a Scot!

Seval and Mehmet

Most of the work getting DoraMac ready for sale was done by Guven Marine. Both Seval and Mehmet are wonderful people. We took them to our favorite waterfront restaurant, Neighbors, for dinner as a thank you for all of their hard work and concern for DoraMac. It was a lovely evening.

Guven Marine is a family business. The couple, Mehmet and Gooitske Seval Guven, are managing their workshop in Marmaris Netsel Marina.

They both have been involved in yachts and tourism for a long time. At the time they met in 1988, Mehmet was working for one of the first yacht managing & ferryboat companies in Marmaris, and Seval was working as a hostess/deckhand on a private sailing yacht.

Mehmet holds a German degree in engine construction design and a Dutch degree in computer engineering, combined into ‘mechatronics’. He is managing the team ‘in the field’ and supervising work orders.

Gooitske (her Turkish name is Seval) has a degree in tourism & hotel business and worked in different countries all over western Europe. She is responsible for the office work and public relations.

They both speak fluent Turkish, English, Dutch and German.

http://guvenmarinemarmaris.com/?page_id=12

For a table outdoors, especially on the weekends you better reserve early! I ordered sardines every time with salad which was sort of special and it was wonderful every time. The wait staff were great guys!

Roanoke

Testing out my small watercolor palate for the walk/sketch/ paint morning July 1^st.

“The Roanoke City Market is ideal for quick studies of people, produce, flowers and architecture. Join Robin for a stroll through the market—we’ll look at the sights, shapes and colors, do quick studies and take photos as we walk around. There are plenty of benches to settle into as you refine your sketches and turn them into little watercolor or pen & ink gems. So… pick up a coffee and pastry and meet Robin at the corner of Market St. and Campbell at 9 a.m. for a fun, relaxing morning!” http://www.thestudioschool.biz/classes/

My stack of library books!

The one on the top is the Salem Public Library’s next book club selection; Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. Ice tea, cookies and conversation at the Afternoon Book & Tea Club. I’m glad I have a kindle, but I love books more!