A Note About the Art

I thought I would mention--we brought a bit of Minnesota to Utah via the artwork in 7B.  We have three works by Jim Brandenburg, and also an enlargement from Maplewood State Park in the space between the master bedroom and the bathroom.  I'd love to make the Maplewood link active, but the MN government can't agree on a budget, so the whole place is shut down--meaning all the parks are closed indefinitely, and the website isn't active.  LAME--just agree already!

Anyway, I digress.  In the kitchen is a picture of Mac and me hiking the Valley of the Ten Peaks in Banff last summer, the color palate dictated that I have it printed in sepia, but the color version is stunning, too, so I have included it here.

On the landing is a black and white of the trees off lift 4 (Navajo) in 2010...we were out visiting and received the gift of 33" of champagne powder in 24 hours.  Which made skiing interesting as we could barely see, much less hear, each other--and driving to Mi Pueblo for dinner--oy.  That was an adventure.  The quote is from one of my favorite short stories, Blue Winds Dancing.  I read it in college and I don't know if it was the moment or what, but that story clings to me still.

The wolf picture by the gliding chair in the loft I purchased at an art fair in MN several years ago.  I spotted it and then tried to convince myself I shouldn't spend the money.  (You know how this story ends.)  After looping around the art fair twice more, the picture was missing from the artist's stand.  He winked at me as I went by and said, "I set it in the back because I knew you would come for it."  It never really had a place here at our MN house, so, I am glad it has found one now.

The four pictures above the fireplace are reproductions of Charles Darwin's sketches from his voyage through the Galapagos Islands.  I am a biologist, so I am a huge Darwin fan.  Hopefully that doesn't turn anyone off from staying at our place.  Especially since it took forever to get all four of them spaced evenly/correctly leveled.

On a whim, we built the two mirrors in the master, mostly because we couldn't find any that we liked.

The last little piece of creativity is driven by our guests...the book on the coffee table is for you to leave a memory of your stay.  Something funny, some little sentimental reflection--how you spent your time in 7B.  You know, it's sad for us to be so far away.  We are glad people stay there, because 7B was meant to be lived in.  Maybe you saw the wildflowers at Cedar Breaks, or rode up the Giant Steps lift with your bike.  Or cross-country skied, those are all things we haven't had the chance to do yet, so it will be a gift to read about adventures through you.  Even if you slept in every day and then watched movies and barely dragged yourself out onto the deck to grill one hot dog, that's worth writing in the book.  It's your vacation, you make the rules.  ;)