2017 Week 18: Surprises

This week we were intentional about recovery. For Michael it meant staying away from MadJax and robotics, and for me resting more to get over a cold.

Today I discovered these beauties growing by a side of the house where no one will see them.

We have a spy-bird, or rather a cowbird that spies on us persistently. He sits for hours on the deck chair by our window looking in (or perhaps watching tv with us).

Jude was with us overnight Tuesday and most of Wednesday, the day I came down with a cold.
Among many other fun things, we played Connect Four.

Surprised to win

Michael attended to chores on the homefront when and where possible. Heavy rain and cold weather most of the week hindered some.
However his first honey harvest of the season was surprisingly abundant.

A bigger surprise was when he went out and discovered that some of his bees had swarmed. He was just in time to rescue and relocate them.

Thursday evening was the opening of the graduate exhibition of the Herron School of Art. We went with Stephan and Karen to see our friend Stefan Eicher's MFA thesis work.

"He laughed" (60 x 55")                         "the Opposite of Fear" (60 x 84")                             "The You in I" (60 x 72")

He welcomed us warmly and invited us to break bread together, while cutting into carefully carved grenade-shaped butter.

Three large oil and acrylic canvases covered the wall behind him and lining the floor below a row of bullet-casings become pencils. The deep and layered significance of the exhibit, in his words:

"Violence, whether physical or psychological, is sustained by the act of 'naming'--placing people into categories of 'the other' based on a singular difference in identity. Art, by its very nature, works best when it breaks a viewer's categories of visual certainty and ability to 'name.' My work seeks to break the 'violence of naming,' by breaking the 'naming of violence,' and in the process explores the multi-valency of identity and the human connections between people." 

I especially liked the painting on the right which is based on a historical photograph--in the midst of war, surrounded by grenades laying about, fellow humans share tea.

On the way home we were delightfully surprised by the food at a new restaurant in Hamilton Town Center--Fresh to Order, F2O. 

Before the rain and cold set in, earlier this week, I took a walk to see what surprises awaited in our outdoors.

Here are  photos from two weeks before.

And the pond area two weeks apart.

After the successful swarm-rescue, Mike put out a notice on FB to let him know of any swarm-sightings. Today after church he responded to a swarm-alert Karen texted. So he has successfully populated yet another box he made last year for just such an occasion.

Did your week hold any surprises?