Contributing to Art

This pile of pails is a contribution to art education.........How can that be?........you may ask. My daughter, the art teacher, phoned on Saturday to find out out if perchance we had some extra 5-gallon pails sitting around. She has a unit on papermaking coming up, and her students need pails for to stir up the paper mixture in. I wish I could watch that process.

Finding pails for her was not a problem, as our milk pipeline soap comes in them. Sunday, after church and lunch at home, I headed west to meet my daughter at the Dairy Queen in Story City------she lives in the Des Moines area------more than halfway for me, but we both thought a Blizzard sounded good!

My route to I-35 was on U.S. 20 out of Waterloo, a convenient way to zip through central Iowa, the road having been expanded to a four-lane in recent years. Great for driving.......but, not so great for scenery.......especially in the early spring with lackluster landscapes everywhere. The sky sported dismal gray clouds all day......the trees, when there were any, displayed murky charcoal tones, and the fields grimy brown and black.

One rather scenic spot on U.S. 20 is this high bridge over the Iowa River valley. I'm guessing the span is about a quarter-mile long. This photo was taken looking west.

Later, on my way back east across the bridge, I held the camera up and snapped a shot through the passenger window, out of curiosity to see what might show up. Here it is......looking south.......another dreary scene, over the Iowa River:

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After enjoying ice cream treats and catching up at Dairy Queen, my daughter and I browsed the VF store at the Story City Factory Outlet. I've had good luck finding clothes there in the past. Today was no exception.......there were many CLEARANCE racks, and we each ended up with an armful to try on........by then the store was about ready to close. So it was a fast try-on session and quick decisions. I ended up with half an armful to buy. They had tons of nice tops with three-quarter length sleeves.......my choice of fashion for the past few years, as the upper arms get chunkier. A couple of the tops I bought are dressy ones, and as I drove home I realized that one of them just might work for my son's wedding this summer, IF I can find a longish, very dressy black skirt to wear with it. Hmm.......I've been dreading the thought of shopping for a dress for the wedding, so this might be just the ticket!

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Does anyone know the song that begins with, "Black, black, black is the color of my true love's hair......"? We sang it in madrigal in high school. It kept going through my mind today as the dull scenery flew by. "Drab, drab, drab is the color of early spring in Iowa......". Yes, it truly is.