Friday, September 21, 2007 ;
12:07 PM
Sep 17
Mon
Left the church friends at Longmont, Co, after a hearty breakfast cooked by our Russian hostess. With a teary ds1 (due to parting with Boyd), we drove south, passing Denver, Colo Springs down to Albuquerque.
The scenery along the way was fantastic. Colorado is as beautiful as what we've always heard from others. Pikes Peak, Rocky Mountains... One day we have to go hiking there.
Crossing into New Mexico, it is totally different too. And the journey, though long (morning till evening, only stopping to grab MacDonalds once), was smooth driving, unlike the bumpy winding roads we took last time, from Yosemite back to SLC across the Nevada desert.
We headed directly to dh's friend's house because it was too late to check into the motel then go visit.
This friend, we've never met before, yet they were also so welcoming, so hospitable. What happened is, some years back in Spore, dh was looking for a good viola, and he searched all the stores in Spore, surfed online, till he came across this friend's site. Thus began an amazing friendship with her.
She's a famous violin/ viola and cello maker, and was also recently featured in the Strings (? can't recall) magazine. In that interview, dh's name was also mentioned. haha.
So anyway, dh liked what he saw on her website, as in, she sources for her own high quality wood and she has great references. They went on emailing back and forth about the design and type of viola he would like, then he finally bought one, which he named as Solomon, because he felt the viola has a richness in tone and a regal feel.
She, in turn, made a viola named Titus, after she got to know our family much better. And even inscribed within the viola, the verse that dh told her (from the book of Titus in the Bible). It's currently on her website, for sale.
http://annecoleviolinmaker.com/violas.php Maybe someday when we're rich, we can buy it. haha.
Anne's incredibly talented, and so is her hubby, David, as we discovered. They're both also music teachers who have students come to learn string instruments and piano at their home studio. We stayed at their house till 11pm, talking non stop, and learning so much about their work. They also served us Mexican dinner, with Chinese rice soup! (Their neighbor married an American Chinese, so she learnt some Chinese cooking)
Her house? It's really amazing. They did all the paintings and decor themselves. There were art pieces and installations everywhere, and sculptures and pieces made of seashells for example. And their backyard is the foot of the Sandia Mountains (no fence/ barrier). So lots of wild animals come to "visit" them, and she even has a wild beehive in her garden, from which she can harvest honey. She gave us a jar of it! Tastes very wild, but it's very good! It's in our fridge now and ds1 loves it too.
Here are some pics.
Above left: A corridor from waiting room to studio. ds1 marvelling at the Cave decor. She made all the decor herself.
Above right: That's the toilet, can you believe it? The whole toilet and bathtub was designed as a underwater world. They painted the whole thing themselves, and in the bathtub there was even a frog and a nautilus shell!
Above left: ds2 felt very at home, somehow. He played with David after dinner while dh discussed the finer points of bowmaking etc with Anne. He even lay on the floor and "chatted" with David for a long time.
Above right: earlier part before dinner, ds2 was too tired and napped on their spare bed. This room was also painted beautifully!
Below: they also had many puzzles and brain teasers for every level in their waiting room. They say those are for the students and for students' parents to challenge themselves while waiting for the lessons or for their kids. Ds2 took all the cubes and built his towers.
Ds1? He really sat down with each puzzle and worked them out one by one. When he couldn't get it, he could get really frustrated and angry. I need to teach him more about self-control! Anyway, that occupied him for very long, so I was able to chat at length with David.
Below left: they also have 4 cats who roam around the house and both ds loved the cats very much and kept playing with them as well, till David had to get them out of the house, cos one of them was getting rather disturbed and he can be very aggressive. David was afraid he may attack the kids.
Above right: at one point, when dh and I were discussing things over dessert with Anne, David and ds1 seemed to talk like old pals, and ds1 was so tickled by all his jokes that he laughed non-stop, so I whipped out the camera to snap a pic.
When dh was still trying out all of Anne's handmade instruments, at like 10pm, David brought out puzzles for me to do also. If I completed it, he'll feign surprise that I could do it that quickly, and went into his store to get "a more difficult one". It was addictive, and since he challenged me in that way, I had to prove it to him. I was stuck on this 3D pyramid one when Anne and dh finished their discussion and came out of the studio. I was pretty close to solving it, but it was almost 11pm, and kids were getting a bit crazy with the puzzles, playing with them wildly, so I gave up reluctantly. They didn't give me the solution too!
David actually surprised us when we got back to Utah with 2 Amazon.com parcels of puzzles and brain teasers! Haha, they are so nice. Anne also gave dh a block of wood for his bowmaking.
Below left: they played with some of Anne's handmade cellos, violas and violins. And we also toured her fascinating workshop.
Below right: ds2 got right onto the cat's cushioned chair and sat there grinning like a cheshire cat!
Below: final group pic before leaving.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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Below: final group pic before leaving.
