Well, that doesn’t seem like a very good idea…

Posted on August 14, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

But I should be fine… as long as nobody fires the gun…

a 2

Oh man… and I thought Mollie’s boyfriend liked me…

a 3

These are more of the photos I took in Old Town while our English relatives were visiting. There are cousin Lynne and her boyfriend, Malcolm, getting face to face with the history of San Diego.

a 4

There is cousin Dot… whom, I will remind you, is over 80… Hey, I knew the margaritas were a good idea…

a 5

Ummm… there is Dashawn… my younger daughter’s boyfriend…He got right into the spirit of things… almost too far into the spirit… and they are too young to have had any margaritas… I admit that doing funny poses in front of the old gun was my idea… but usually I am the one who goes one step too far… it is sort of my thing… I don’t know where the ‘line’ is… but man, this guy really fits into our family dynamic…

a 6

Gun surfing… that’s more like it!

a 7

Malcolm likes cacti… so San Diego is a good place for him…

a 8

We might have all been getting a little silly at this point… hot sun… tequila… it’s been known to happen… especially with my family…

a 9

There were these two life-sized planters in the shape of ladies, and covered with little succulent plants… and I had a good joke… What does a lady made out of plants wear under her dress?

a 10

Planties!!!

Posted in Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The English patience… ha… see what I did there?

Posted on August 14, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

There I am, still teaching my English relatives, cousin Dot on the left, cousins Lynne beside her, and Lynne’s boyfriend, Malcolm, about Mexican culture, food, and most importantly, tequila, in Old Town, San Diego…

a 2

Oh yeah… big margaritas and big plates of real Mexican food…

a 3

And we needed to fortify ourselves, because we did a lot of walking. Dot is over 80, and it was hard to keep up with her… and this was still the first day…

a 4

Lynne and I have a funny thing we do… that started when we visited them in England last year… I try to take a picture of her when she is taking pictures of the rest of the group, and she turns to take a picture of me taking a picture of her…

a 5

By this time… after all my walking around taking dia de los muertos and art and flower pictures while waiting for everyone to arrive, my younger daughter Mollie and her boyfriend… and my wife… were also with us. He said I could put him in the blog. My wife still doesn’t want me showing Mollie on the blog, but her face is obscured… and my wife still doesn’t look at my blog… ever… Just so you know, we staged this picture…

a 6

And there I am again… a little buzzed… and sprouting angel wings. Mollie took three pictures of me in front of the wings, lining them up… and we all know I never waste a picture of me…

a 7

More evidence of the water that Southern California steals every year… via a very long viaduct… (say that five times fast)… from Northern California.

a 8

So I took these two pictures to highlight the fact that, due to the good weather in San Diego… and the pilfered water supply… anything will grow here… if you don’t mind running short of the stolen water…

a 9

I don’t know if the two photos capture my point very well, but in them, you see cacti… which is what should be growing in a desert… which Southern California actually is… and a big pine tree… that would look more at home in Northern California, where it’s water supply comes from… and palm trees… which would be just as happy on a tropical island… all growing happily together in the never ending sunlight.

a 10

It was so much fun to have them all here.

 

 

Posted in Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Old Town in San Diego isn’t only about dia de los muertos art… part 2…

Posted on August 14, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

More photos of my epic adventure with my English relatives in Old Town, San Diego…

a 2

But I didn’t want to give you impression that all the art was dia de los muertos-oriented.

a 3

Oh no… mixed in among the stores and stalls that sell the cheap tourist crap are many wonderful places that sell real art…

a 4

And it comes in an astounding variety…

a 5

I like a shark with a bad sense of direction.

a 6

Because I had time to kill before the relatives arrived in Old Town… and due to the fact that we walked around a lot after they got there… I tried to take photos that would give you a real taste of that variety.

a 7

I loved the big scorpions that flanked the gate in front of the store with the shark on top!

a 8

And everybody likes little metal donkeys… except little metal quail… who just glare at them angrily all day…

a 9

Oh, I knew I took a photo inside the store with the ‘fancy tin products’ sign! These tin lantern lights were just some of the lovely tin art objects they offered.

a 10

I know… I went overboard with this whole thing… we are still on the first day of the three days my English relatives were in town, and we are covering a lot of ground… but as long as we were showing them the sights, I figure you might as well see some of them too.

 

 

Posted in Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Oh! The humanatee…

Posted on August 14, 2016 by pouringmyartout

c 2

Posted in dogs and other animals, My art, Pictures of me | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Oh! The Hugh manatee!

Posted on August 14, 2016 by pouringmyartout

c 1

Posted in dogs and other animals, My art | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

OH! Hugh, the manatee!!!

Posted on August 13, 2016 by pouringmyartout

c 1

Posted in dogs and other animals, My art | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Old Town in San Diego isn’t only about dia de los muertos art… part 1…

Posted on August 13, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

There are also flowers…

a 2

Lots of pretty flowers…

a 3

Flowers grow well in Southern California… because it is sunny almost every day… and because, as you might remember from an earlier post, the people of Southern California, where I now live, who outnumber the people at the other end, where I was born and grew up, outvoted them and stole half of their water… even though a desert isn’t supposed to be full of flowers that usually grow on wet, tropical islands… or millions of thirsty people…

a 4

As you might imagine, I have mixed feelings about this.

a 5

I mean, I love flowers… which is exactly why, while I was waiting in Old Town for my English relatives to get there, I took these pictures while I was walking around looking for dia de los muertos art to take pictures of for you…

a 6

I guess I also took some while we were walking around exploring Old Town after they… and my wife and younger daughter showed up… after we had the margaritas…

a 7

But even slightly drunk, I can still take good flower pictures… It’s the artist in me.

a 8

The funny thing is that I am not doing these pictures in order…

a 9

Well, I am, sort of, I suppose. I am trying to divide it up into the three days my relatives were visiting…

a 10

And I do realize that this is making me sort of ramble a bit… even more than usual, I mean… and that you have to really follow along with my little stories in order to figure it all out…

a 11

Or you could just look at all the pretty colors… I mean, if you scroll down through all the pictures I have posted of this latest adventure, it might just be the most colorful picture collection in history.

Posted in flowers, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Dia de los muertos… part 6…

Posted on August 13, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1

So have you looked up the Mexican ‘dia de los muertos’ festival on Google yet? You should, because I might forget to tell you about it. But I am ready to tell you why I have so many pictures of the artwork associated with ‘the day of the dead’…

a 2

Three days ago, when my English relatives arrived in San Diego, they wanted to get right out and start seeing sights. That is how the English… and my family in particular… roll.

We are always up for an adventure…

a 3

Well, they got themselves some tickets for the hop on/hop off bus tour… yes, just like we we did when we were in London last year… very good, you are either paying close attention, or you went back and read about our European adventures.

a 4

They were going to hop on the bus near their hotel downtown, and then meet me in Old Town. What I didn’t know, when I set out right away instead of waiting for their text so I could surprise them, was that the bus went all the way to the fancy old Hotel Del Coronado first… yes, where my wife and I stayed not long ago to celebrate a big birthday for her, and we threw the sneaky surprise party for her, you really are paying attention…

a 5

So I showed up an hour and a half before the bus was due to arrive…

a 6

The thing is… and this is the thing that explains this whole thing… that Old Town is surrounded and full of shops and stalls. Yes, a lot of them sell cheap tourist crap hyping San Diego, but many offer spectacular works of real art, and almost all of those have a section  hand-crafted dia de los muertos things…

a 7

And I mean all kinds of things… You can get skulls and skeletons, and skulls and skeletons on stuff… like clothes, oven mitts, towels, light switch plates, dinner ware, you name it… or you can get paintings of skulls and skeletons… or painted skulls and skeletons…

a 8

Because it is a festival honoring the dead, where you can go to the cemetery and have a picnic with your departed relatives. It is a happy thing. A day of remembrance and a celebration of life. And you can do it any day of the year, but there is one day when it is celebrated with more enthusiasm.

a 9

I don’t remember what day that is because I am bad with numbers, but I seem to recall that I took a picture of a sign that talks about it.

a 10-

Anyway, I had time to kill… and a camera… and I love you… so I walked for miles, poking into every store and stall, and asking if I could take photos of the folk art to share with you. I hope you are enjoying it.

Posted in Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

My English relatives have gone… so now I have more time to post about my English relatives…

Posted on August 13, 2016 by pouringmyartout

a 1There I am, teaching my cousin’s boyfriend, Malcolm, that it is okay to drink the less-manly blended strawberry margarita… as long as you get the extra-macho grande-sized ones. Yup, I am still posting pictures taken on the first of the three days we spent with our relatives, when we took them to historic Old Town San Diego.

a 2There they all are… in the Wells Fargo bank museum. Cousin Lynne is on the left, talking to her mom, cousin Dot. Malcolm is admiring the stagecoach.

a 3As long as they are learning about California history, you might as well too. San Diego is one of the oldest settled parts of the United States… by which I mean it was stolen from the Native Americans a long time ago… by the Spanish… before we stole it from them…

a 4

No, Dot, I swear we didn’t steal that coach from the Queen and repaint it…

a 5

Hey look… the oldest jail cell in California… that looks like it would be fun when the temperature climbs above 100 degrees…

a 6

There is a very nice mural of the first settlement. And this shows an important thing that is hard to explain to visitors to Southern California. San Diego and Los Angeles are located in the desert. I know, you see palm trees and beaches and lawns and parks full of greenery and all kinds of tropical flowers and trees everywhere. But that right there is what it used to look like. Dry. Brown. And then, millions of people moved here… and planted billions of plants… and none of it is sustainable… except for the fact that, because there are more people in this end of the state, so they just voted to build an aqueduct and steal water from the Bay Area and Northern California… which is annoying to me particularly, because I am  Bay Area boy, born and raised, but now I am living in San Diego… and I do like to have a yard and take pictures of flowers… and drink enough water to stay alive…

a 7

Another important lesson… never buy tin products that aren’t fancy… This shop was actually very nice, with lots of tin artwork done by real artists… I think I have some pictures that might show up later later.

a 8

That just seems so… specific…

a 9

So yeah… there is the historic Colorado house, where you could, in the old days, take care of your banking needs…

a 10

And there is the old Johnson house… where you could take care of your Johnson needs… oh man… I crack me up… I took those pictures just for that joke… (If you don’t know, Johnson is American slang for… uh… man-parts)…

Old Town San Diego is a little confusing. There are building left from the original Spanish settlement, when San Diego was mostly huge haciendas… (ranches)… and other buildings from after we stole this part of California. And it is sort of a tourist trap. But it is fun and educational, and full of good food and and nice shops, and you really can learn about history.

Posted in Pictures of me, Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Dia de los muertos… part 5…

Posted on August 12, 2016 by pouringmyartout

b 1

Even if you haven’t bothered to Google ‘dia de los muertos’, and have no idea what these pictures are about, you should at least by now be impressed by the pure volume of my crack-squirrel-filled-head-induced dedication to this project…  Ten pictures per post, five posts so far in this series… and more to come… oh yeah…

Okay, I won’t bore you with more words in this post. Just enjoy the pretty colors and the craftsmanship… or craftswomanship… of our local artists…

b 2

b 3b 4

b 5

b 6

b 7

b 8

b 9

b 10

Posted in Stories of my life | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment