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Violets, Virginia bluebells (mertensia), trillium at Lyons Woods on Wednesday morning.

No walk on Thursday because the Clara Cummings Book Club met for lunch.  Pamela Toler told us about "the dragon from Chicago." That was the nickname given to Chicago-born Sigrid Schultz, who was the Chicago Tribune's Berlin bureau chief from 1925-1941 and a wire service war correspondent from 1941-1946.   She chronicled the rise of the Nazi party and developed an extensive network of contacts who provided insider and behind-the-scenes accounts of what was going on.  

Toler learned about Schultz when a cache of late 1890's photographs was ...

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 Monet Lives! was the program at the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon yesterday.  Jim Parks put on a beret and became Claude Monet.  

 The audience participated by choosing a 4x4 reproduction of an Impressionist or other late 19th/early 20th c. painting (created by Jim: "it's a prop, not a souvenir").   As Claude walked around the room he gave highlights of the chosen miniatures.

 What a great way to brush (ha!) up on art history.

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In the studio:  I think I'm starting a Christmas quilt.....

Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday

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Wednesday afternoon I walked the long trail at the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park.    I found a wildflower I hadn't seen before.  Great Plains Lady's Tresses is a variety of orchid.  I recognized it as such because of a similar orchid I saw in the Burren in Ireland.  

The flowers are about 1/4".   

The Irish orchid:  fragrant orchid, gymnadenia conopsea.

Is the hole in the tree a portal?  LOL!

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No walk on Thursday.  Rotary breakfast at 7:15, then the first meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club at lunchtime.  The speaker, Susan Benjamin, was ...

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Sunrise today.

"Sky-blue pink," as Uncle Wiggly would say. 

Yesterday:  the Clara Cummings Book Club ended the year with a visit from American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry portrayed by Lynn Rymarz.   Perry was a Boston Brahmin married to a Boston Brahmin who was a diplomat.  In France they lived adjacent to Claude Monet.  Monet didn't take pupils but he was a consultant and mentor to her.  

Many, many years ago Clara Cummings was denied membership in the Excalibur Club, a very exclusive women's club in Waukegan.  Clara began her own club, now eponymous. Members used to read and ...

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The great cicada confluence is upon us. 

 Every 221 years the 13-year and 17-year locust broods emerge at the same time.  The 13-year brood is southern and gets into central Illinois. The 17-year brood is midwestern and gets -- here.  "Here" meaning towns about 10 miles south of where we live.   We haven't seen or heard them in the neighborhood.  

My cicada story was published in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday.  

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Marie Antoinette visited the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon yesterday.   She dispelled many of the legends/rumors that were prevalent during her reign and have continued for 200 years ...

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"Destination Heartland History"  was the topic at the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon on Thursday. Cynthia Clampitt enjoys discovering lesser-known sites and attractions as she travels.  She began the program explaining that the historical midwest covers a lot of territory -- Ohio to North Dakota, Michigan to Kansas.  She reminded us that Laura Ingalls Wilder (=pioneer) and Frank Lloyd Wright (=modern) were born in Wisconsin, four months and 150 miles apart.  Pioneer museums, the oldest still-operating restaurant/bar in a town/county, windmills and lighthouses -- so many interesting places.   

We've been to a number of them.  Now we have a ...

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On Thursday food historian Catherine Lambrecht was the guest speaker at the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon. I first heard Cathy when she gave the program for the Zion Woman's Club (in March, 2022).  This time she talked about the traditions of pie. 

Illinois grows and processes more pie pumpkins than any other state.  The variety shown in the photo is the hybrid most used. It is a cross between the Tennessee field pumpkin and butternut squash.   The array of apples are those grown in a heritage orchard here in Winthrop Harbor.  (It's not open to the public ...

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Historian Leslie Goddard presented an engaging program about Route 66 for the final Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon of the year.   She showed photos and told stories about how the highway changed small towns from Illinois to California (gas stations, restaurants, tourist courts).   It became the popular overland route because most of it was fairly flat (south of the higher Rockies). However, it was a two-lane road that went right through the centers of towns, and in the 1950s and 1960s it was superseded by the Interstate Highway System.  Rather than get stuck in backwater obscurity many of the towns ...

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 "Meet Madame Curie" was Lynn Rymarz portrayal at yesterday's Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon. The setting was 1920 when Marie Curie came to the U.S.   The Association of Collegiate Alumnae, as AAUW was then called, raised $100,000 to buy one gram of radium for her research.  Since many AAUW members come to Clara Cummings it was very fitting.   Dr. Curie sought medical applications to treat cancer but radium found commercial uses, too.  

The second character in Lynn's program was one of the   Radium Girls who painted watch faces and clock dials at the Radium Dial factory ...

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Sign of spring:   Mr. and Mrs. Crane let me get very close to snap this picture at Illinois Beach State Park this week.

Yet the day before the cranes I saw fungus on a tree stump in an icy pond.  

On Thursday the Clara Cummings Book Club was entertained by Mary Cunningham Logan, widow of Illinois Civil War General John Logan.   Jessica Michna's historical portrayal was so informative!  The Logans both grew up in southern Illinois (the Murphysboro library is named for her). She lived in Carbondale during the Civil War. When Logan was elected to Congress she moved ...

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Costume designer Edith Head visited the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon on Thursday.  Martina Mathisen gave an interesting and informative portrayal. Head was awarded 8 Oscars over the span of her 60-year career, mostly with Paramount and later with Universal.   

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In the studio:   it's a finish!

Here is Spare Parts V.   72 x 80.  I estimate 8 yards used. 

  Last week I posted photos of the border/sashing I was considering. I searched further and found this gold batik. It's a Christmassy print (pinecones and sort-of poinsettias) that I got when we were on vacation in northern Minnesota ...

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Thursday:  it was great to join AAUW, P.E.O., and GFWC friends for the last Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon of the season.   Lynn Rymarz presented another one of her Tales in History, this time as Hedy Lamarr who was not only an actress but a patent-holding inventor.   It's always a delight to see Lynn, a friend and P.E.O. sister. 

Our friend Mary Lou said I could pick all the rhubarb I wanted from her garden.  I took her at her word!

Each bag has three cups. Because it loses so much volume when it's ...

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 [Next post will have quilting updates and the one book I managed to finish this week.]     

The 75th International Convention of the P.E.O. Sisterhood was held virtually this week. Because it was virtual any member could 'attend' at no charge. I registered months ago and fully intended to tune in -- but Life In General intervened.  I did watch the opening ceremony on Wednesday and one of the workshops.  Now I need to go back to see the results of the voting on amendments. There were many.  Like so many organizations P.E.O. is striving to improve its ...

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