YESTERDAY I HAD A DELIGHTFUL CONVERSATION……………………..

…..with an Episcopal Chaplain who said that his definition of faith is to be present in the moment/situation.  That was an eye opening statement that got me thinking about why I was so very moved at Judith Nelson’s recent birthday bash.

There we all were, over two hundred happy campers who have all been the beneficiaries of Judith’s being ‘present in the moment’ with her friendship.  It was humbling and awe inspiring.

This delightful painting greeted us as we entered the grounds of college roomie Marsha Bohr’s ‘French chateau’.

Beginning to mingle and below is guest of honor, our Miss Judith in the middle with effervescent Marsha to the left.

Dr. Charles Rosenbaum is engrossed by wife Isabel who I will love forever and delightful Marsha.

Someday I will have to write a blog about the amazing Min Lush who thanks to Judith has become a dear and precious faith filled friend who continually gives so generously of her time and heart. 

Min is the most knowledgeable person on real estate and her lectures throughout the state are continually sold out!!!

This was so amazing…Judith wrote “I regard the people connected to me as treasured gifts’.  And ditto to you we say!!!  The tree had various branches showing where we all fit in.  One from being Chief Counsel at Teledyne,a cute branch for ‘The Tuscany 12’…12 friends who as the title suggest, had a memorable journey to Tuscany.  And so on….

See if you can find Charles and me in this (one of two) collection of friends who share in their awe of Judith.

The band was sooooo much fun!!!

Even as a confessed foodie I can’t begin to describe the food….and the impeccable service.  Wine?  The finest California has to offer, carefully selected and truly running over!!!

We were given free range of the house and ‘facilities’ with the exception of the ‘forbidden room’ which I may be arm twisted to divulge.As each guest left we were handed a beautiful long stemmed rose by “The Girls with Roses”, The Valettes, Ltd.

A PERFECT RESPITE CAN ALWAYS BE HAD….

at the tea house in The Garden of Flowing Fragrance at the Huntington Botanical Gardens.  If you haven’t been to Suzou this exact copy of a scholar’s garden there is the next best thing.

Seen left to right are lovely Carol Soucek King, dear Tomiko Varga, Annie Papreck King, Ph.D., with her mother Sally Papreck from Missouri, and her sister… lawyer Susie Papreck Wine (she and her husband Matt recently moved to the Irvine area) the hostess with the mostest, Valerie Foster Hoffman and yours truly.

This was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting delightful Annie (daughter in law of Carol and Richard King) and her sister and mother.  They are all as wonderful as their photographs suggest!  Wonderful Annie was teaching English lit(concentrating on George Bernard Shaw, Gilbert and Sullivan (takes me back to my Interlochen days) and Oscar Wilde) at USC where she met Dr. Jeff King, philosophy professor and one of the world’s leading philosophers of language…(WOW) they were married four years ago and now both teach the same subjects at Rutgers University in New Jersey.  Aren’t we just in awe of brainiacks!!!

Carol O’ Toole’s SMILE AND LOVING HEART WILL ….

 

make your day!  What a dear friend she had been since our first meeting when I did a Serigraph for the Pasadena Jr. Phil’s.

Jim & Sandie Reilly invited me….

To be their guests at Bashan’s for Dr. Jim’s birthday.  Hey guys, shouldn’t it be the other way around?  But remember, I did say I’m a foodie so I was in heaven.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!!!!

I FIRST MET DIANE KARPEL in the ‘90’s…..

 

…..when I had three booths at The California ART EXPO and Diane and her husband Jeffrey had a company called ‘Lease Art’.  Diane had stopped by my space, we chatted and struck up a friendship.  Each year I would send a Christmas card with the notation “we have to get together”.  Well, after years of that Diane sent me an e-mail saying…”You keep saying that but we never do”.

 

Well, I certainly changed that…..Diane came over to the studio, we lunched, caught up on so much and I’m happy to say have stayed in close contact since.

Here’s Diane at ‘Aroma Cafe’ in Studio City with one of her amazing pieces.  She has this marvelous series based on their world travels….and I do mean travels…they have been everywhere except the moon and I suspect that’s on the list!

I’VE BEEN DONATING ARTWORK TO PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL IN BURBANK FOR YEARS AND….

….they always have the most amazing thank you parties for the contributing artists.  These two pieces have been selected for the new Stroke Center which will be completed in 2011.