Author: Flower Roberts

Art Portals in Palm Springs

| Flower Roberts

A paintball pallette almost tripped me. I could have fallen into that trapdoor on the floor. That is when I knew this was a tricky museum.

A pearl pin bonnet tempted me to put it on,  but I saw those 31,863 pins and knew it was a Seer Bonnet to trap pathetic women desparate to wear pretty pearls and convert them. Vanity has its price.

Lovely pearls of pain.
Painfully pretty pioneering bonnet by Angela Ellsworth.

The tricky twin symmetry crisscross doorway tried to lure me to its middle by confusing me with its identical sides. I was wise to its ways and backed away.

Right is left is right

A melting tapestry by Faig Ahmed from Azerbaijan lured me close to the spot where I too could have been melted. I never knew museums could be so dangerous!

Too hot to hold
Melted mosaic mesmerizing art patrons.

There was a spaceship that tempted me to tilt forward and look inside. I could see to infinity and beyond. I straightened up and slowly backed away from the otherworldly display.

The Rhombicosadecahedron Spaceship

Next thing I knew I was back on the front steps of the Palm Springs Art Museum with my friends.  We could have ended up in some weird places, but we know art portals when we spy them. Whew!

FLOOOOOOW

Flamingo Pink

| Flower Roberts

I was never a pink girl, but flamingo pink gets me. I must pause for that pink.

My family has several flamingo stories. One is about Daddy and the other about little Rose.

Daddy said if there were jobs in heaven, he wanted to help birds. He paused. We waited for him to say bluebirds, but instead he said he wanted to help the flamingos. Mr. Bluebird turns pink!

My son and I distinctly remember the Rose and Flamingo Pink story. We were out on our deck making a model of a flamingo out of trash for his first grade project. Four-year-old Rose wanted to be involved. I gave her all the paint squirt bottles and told her to mix up flamingo pink for our future bird on a paper plate. We turned our attention back to our big pop bottle body, paper towel roll neck and assorted trash for legs, beak, feathers and feet.

Rose was busy mixing paint unattended. I assumed a mess was being made. My son and I were bending the wire legs when Rose announced she was done.

Her brother and I looked over at Rose and the plate. It was full of the perfect Flamingo pink! No mess. No other colors just that pink with a hint of peach.

We were stunned. We looked at each other and then little Rose. The irony is she does not even like pink. I hope she will wear these socks I bought for her anyway.

Socks souvenir for Rose

So flamingos will always hold my attention and bring back memories of little Rose and my Bluebird Daddy.

Flamingo art made of BEADS.

The house in Palm Springs had a Flamingo Pink theme. So we now have another set of pink stories. Here are pics of the Palm Springs Pink.

Close up of beads. Amazing!
WOWZA
Too cute to use.
Our pink door
Pink private patio. Flamingo friends.
Pink and white chairs with lovely shadows.

FLOW loves Flamingos

Rescue from the Road

| Flower Roberts

This plant in a crack kept me up one night. The next morning, I set out with a plastic spoon to find and rescue it.


It seem to be a metaphor for life’s struggles. It has struggled to survive in a terrible set of circumstances. Then one day a tire smashes it flat.

In need of rescue.


It was a terrible truism that I could remedy. So I did. This tiny Donkeytail Spurge will be pampered from now on.

I do what I can to bring justice to this world.

A Rotating Ride in the Sky

| Flower Roberts

We took a trip up to the top of the San Jacinto mountain on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

I loved that some windows were open to let in the breezes as we ascended to cooler temperatures. I appreciated that the tram innards slowly rotated, so everyone got to see the surrounding views without moving about. I wanted to hold on to my window, but it moved.

Photo by Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

The rotation and dips at the towers took some getting used to. I did not take photos during the ride. I was busy staying vertical.

The views from the top were spectacular.

Palm Springs Wind Farm

I was more relaxed on the trip down due to prior exerience. While my friends hiked down this trail and back up again my sis and I watched a short movie about the biodiversity of the mountain wildlife and the wind conditions between the two mountains, thus the wind farm.

Here they come!
FLOW

Stay tuned for Sunnylands. I am stoked.

FLOW on the move.

Red Yucca Blooms and Seedpods

| Flower Roberts

I love the structure of the red yuccas.

A spiky sea urchin- like base with a slender stalk rising high above the plant body to offer its blooms to hummingbirds.

The real name is Hesperaloe parviflora. May be called Hummingbird Yucca or Red False Yucca. I have seen the term false yucca several times here.

Red Yucca blooms and pods

I was happy to see it will grow in Zones 5-11.  I would love to add a drought tolerant plant as I purge my needy plants in the future.

Rock mulch xeriscaping

There are many examples of xeriscaping here. It is necessary to have plants that are drought tolerant here in Palm Springs California.

Functional and lovely

FLOW  liking low water land-scaping

The Rhombicosidodecahedron

| Flower Roberts

This amazing piece is near the entrance of the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was designed by Anthony James in 2020.

Rhombicosidodecahedron by Anthony James

The rhombicosidodecahedron is made of steel, specialized glass and LED lights.

My hypothesis is that the glass is one-way glass with mirrors on the inside surfaces. The reflected shapes inside repeat to infinity.

Mesmerizing!

The name was too hard for me to say, so I called it the Buckyball Mirror Ball.

FLOW

Bougainvillea Bracts

| Flower Roberts

I have loved bougainvillea since one grew on my balcony in Santa Monica when I lived there as a child.

Bougainvillea

The true flowers are small and white. The colored bracts are what attracts the pollinators.

Flowers are tiny and white.


There is a bouganvilla spilling over the fence here. Its bracts perfectly match the deep pink theme color of the house’s door and decor.

Bract on a float


The match is too perfect to be coincidental. This is how design finds inspiration.

FLOWER among flowers and palms

Time Circles Take Their Time

| Flower Roberts

I have been in a writer’s funk since I put away the book about the Pearson Women. There has been some guilt about it. Now that I am my own Mama Bear, I am better about doing what is best for me even when guilt is involved. I am working on getting strong again after my three hip replacements in two years. I am proud of the results so far.

On Sunday, my bookclub discussed Kristin Hannah’s book THE WOMEN. We had enlightening discussions about the many events involving the main character, a Vietnam surgical nurse, and her two best friends, her parents and several love interests. Reading this book involving a controversial war was an emotional rollercoaster, but we were all glad we had pushed through and read it.

At the end of our discussion, I mentioned what I call ‘time circles.’  There a few were examples of this phenomena in the book.

This got me thinking about a strange event that occurred while I was cleaning out my mom’s house on Enwood.

I noticed two books in the office trash can. I wondered why my sister had thrown them away.  There were stacks of books everwhere. Why these two?

When I asked her about it, she did not know anything about the books. We pulled them out of the waste basket. Neither of us recalled having ever seen these two old  books.

Of course I thought it was a sign from Daddy. I pulled them out of the trash and read them both. One was a book about Vietnam, the other was a book about marriage.

I was disappointed. They seemed like old- fashioned propaganda from the 1960’s. The mystery of those books has stuck with me. I had no clue what either had to do with me…

UNTIL TODAY

You will have to wait for the circle’s completion.  Sometimes you find the end of a circle and sometimes you find a beginning. I call the beginning sign a ‘ heads up.’ The two books I found two years ago were a ‘heads up’ for events happening now. WOW!

I am going on a trip. I may blog, but this circle must wait. It will need my full attention when I return. Rest assured that I will hitting this ‘time circle’ hard when I get back.

There it is. That researcher’s excitement that I have been missing. Hooray!

Thanks Daddy

FLOW