Fun in the sun in Bellingham

Playing with a painting in a Bellingham park.

I visited the kid in Bellingham this week and we had one of those sunshiney happy days that had me thinking of old songs like "Grazing in the Grass" and "It's a Beautiful Morning."

And the COLOR!

We had a lot of fun with long late afternoon shadows in a park on Bellingham Bay. The concrete we stood on looked just like a beach.

Here's the park, and as we walked along the path and I saw all the picnicking families, strollers, joggers, bikers, dogs, and a groovy guitar circle awash in sunlight, it reminded me of Seurat's painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

And then, THERE IT WAS! Or I should say there was a Bellingham version of the famous painting. We were pleased to see so many rabbits of all colors, and I really like that lemony water and the leaves morphing into orange birds.

Another trippy coincidence was having Julia take this photo of me with the rainbow from her door's peephole centered like a third eye, then going to a quilt show at the Whatcom Museum and finding this piece (below) by one of my favorite artists, Susan Shie, on the show's postcard.  

The show runs through Oct. 28 and has a spectacular selection of quilts co-curated by Robert Shaw and Julie Silber. (That tells you the quality to expect.) Photographs aren't allowed, but there are quilts by Nancy Crow and Michael James, to name a few.

If you go, be sure to stop upstairs and step out onto the green roof -- which was looking pretty parched when we were there after our long dry spell. Here's Julia beside the roof garden:

And stop in the gift shop on your way out, where I was sorely tempted to buy this squiggly coil that you can shape into a bracelet or necklace.

Also in Bellingham, we stopped to take photos at Joe's Gardens of the beautiful rows of veggies and flowers and a pile of pumpkins. Joe's has been around since 1933.

Have a colorful day