Boomeresque:Definition
1. Adj.: Describing a person born between 1 Jan. 1946 and 31 Dec. 1964
2. Adj.: Description of a person, place or thing possessing Baby Boomer je ne sais quoi
3. See also, Boomer, Esq.: A Baby Boomer who is also a licensed attorney (See, e.g., About).

Weekly Challenge #264: “String Theory: String into Spring”

by Suzanne Fluhr on April 18, 2016 · 22 comments

Azalea blooming on Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia

Azalea blooming on Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia

The azaleas in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square are blooming and the trees are sporting lovely light green new leaves.

[New to Zentangle? Start here.]

OK, Mother Nature, cover your ears. Here in Philadelphia, it seems that spring might actually finally really have arrived.

We’ve been on a weather roller coaster here in the northeastern United States. We had temperatures over 80 degrees in early March, before the official first day of spring, followed by having to dig out winter coats, scarves and gloves after the temperature dipped below freezing again.

The Zentangle Diva, even way up in Saskatoon, Canada, has been bitten by the spring fever bug and her challenge this week was to come up with a “spring string” for a tile. (I hope our southern hemisphere Zentangle friends aren’t feeling left out. Yours can maybe be a “fall into fall” string.)

I tried to make my tile a little colorful for spring by preparing it with watercolor pencils, but after I tangled it, the color is pretty much invisible. I added a little orange pencil to the Arukas “sun”. Here’s my spring string:

20160418_112302

And, here it is after tangling. I tried to use at least vaguely botanical tangles. In addition to the sunny Arukas in the upper right corner, I used Pokeberry, N’Zeppel and a stylized floral design someone shared somewhere from some African cloth although I don’t know that it was ever officially deconstructed. If it was, please let me know in a comment. (It’s not African Artist).

20160418_123323-1I’m not sure when or if I’ll get to next Monday’s challenge. That’s the day we arrive in Scotland after flying from Philadelphia via Dublin. It comes to about 12 hours of travel time because of a 4+ hour layover in Dublin. And, speaking of spring, the weather forecast for our time in Scotland looks rainy and chilly—every day. Is Scotland one of those places where they say, “If spring happens on a Saturday this year, we’ll go on a picnic.”? We’re taking our winter coats and umbrellas. When we travel, our mantra is, “Embrace the weather”. We achieve this with varying degrees of whining success.

After Scotland, we’ll be flying to Birmingham, England where Mr. Excitement is attending a medical research conference of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group. While he’s conferring with his science peeps, I have plans to meet up with Margaret Blank who I met on line thanks to the Zentangle Diva challenges. I love how international, generous and supportive the Zentangle community is.

Is spring springing where you tangle (or do whatever it is you do)?

{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }

joyce April 18, 2016 at 3:09 pm

Love your tile…and that arukas sun!!

Joyce

Reply

hungrycorgistudio April 18, 2016 at 3:17 pm

Like orbs of light and life, this tile is fantastic!
Sarah

Reply

Val Brandon April 18, 2016 at 3:56 pm

I hope you enjoy your trip to Scotland. The highlands are just amazing and you often get four seasons in a day. It certainly isn’t warm in April ( from experience). It isn’t exactly warm here in Dorset on the south coast either. My jewellery tutor’s father is very sick from mesothelioma and she has been unable to come the last few weeks.

Love your tile so please bring spring with you. Val

Reply

Suzanne Fluhr April 20, 2016 at 3:15 am

Thanks, Val. Mesothelioma is a vicious, ultimately relentless cancer, but research is producing some treatments—however, many are still experimental. It’s worth putting up with some coldish, wettish weather so the international scientists working on it can get together—and I’m a UK-a-phile, so I’ll show up with my stiff weather upper lip—and all that. šŸ˜‰

Reply

Carmela Claessens-Soro April 18, 2016 at 4:08 pm

Beautiful, sunny, flowery tile. Nice!

Reply

The Creative Miss L April 18, 2016 at 7:09 pm

I love your tile and enjoy reading about your travels. Hopefully you’ll get at least one sunny Saturday.

Reply

Jacqueline Gum April 19, 2016 at 5:10 am

Tile is lovely, as always! And Spring has been slow o Charleston too! Safe travels!

Reply

Dudley Bacon April 19, 2016 at 9:27 am

Ah yes, Spring. I was in Philadelphia for my only visit ever a few years ago when it was supposed to be Spring. Walked from downtown all the way to the Japanese House for a photography session only to find it wasn’t open yet and if it hadn’t been for a couple cherry (?) trees blooming I wouldn’t have wasted the pixels.

I so agree with you about the international community of Zentanglers. I have chatted with you, Helen Williams, Beate Winkler and others about our shared interest to much delight and friendship.

I love how your Arukas seems to be shining a spotlight on the rest of your Poketangle.

Enjoy your trip.

Reply

Suzanne Fluhr April 20, 2016 at 3:32 am

Wow. That was a really long walk. I hope you’ll come back and give Philly another chance. As you can see, there’s plenty of flora around without having to walk all the way to the Japanese Teahouse—which I don’t think I’ve visited since 4th grade.

Reply

Lorna April 19, 2016 at 12:41 pm

Wonderful details, the tangles well chosen!

Reply

michele April 19, 2016 at 2:00 pm

Great tile! I love the patterns;-)

Reply

ria matheussen April 19, 2016 at 3:53 pm

I agree with the others: a really sunny spring-tile with tangles that belong to this time of the year.
I wish you a pleasant trip to Scotland. I was there one year ago and it was raining almost every day, but the colours in the sky were beautiful, the food is very good (really Granny’s kichen), the scenery is amazing, the villages are so nice and the people are very kind. I’m sure you will enjoy it.

Reply

Dorita April 19, 2016 at 5:25 pm

I like how your sun is pouring down on the lovely garden. Yes, we’ve had quite variable weather here too. No snow of course, but it was 90-deg yesterday and is supposed to be rainy and cold by Friday.

Reply

Daniel @ The Tangle Corner April 19, 2016 at 5:57 pm

Oh, I do love your tile and especially that lovely floral pattern…someone must get around to deconstructing it soon(wink wink nudge nudge ^_^)!

Reply

Jean Chaney April 19, 2016 at 6:38 pm

Great tile! Lucky you to be able to meet tanglers all over the world with your travels. Be sure to say Hi from me LOL!

Reply

Annemarie April 20, 2016 at 1:37 am

Your tile is very pretty with well chosen tangles. I hope you have a fantastic time in UK!

Reply

Sandra April 20, 2016 at 11:25 am

Your tile is so beautiful and I love your Arukas-sun! Good combination of the patterns and a nice spring string šŸ™‚

Reply

Sue Sharp April 22, 2016 at 10:24 am

Enjoy your trip to Scotland! I have relatives there and have been several times – the weather forecast is not always what happensā€¦ I’m sure you’ll enjoy whatever the weather brings! Lovely tile! I love the arukus as a sun beaming down on the plants!

Reply

Ilse April 23, 2016 at 4:35 am

You’ll love Scotland, no matter the weather šŸ˜‰
I love your tile, with the sun in it as well!

Reply

Chrissie April 23, 2016 at 4:52 am

Lovely tile and floral and spring like. I hope you have a super time in Scotland, it’s my birthplace although we live in the south of the UK near to Bournemouth. The weather even in the south is very cold and has been wet as well.

Reply

Annette P. (aka LonettA) April 23, 2016 at 7:45 am

What a beautiful tile! It remind me of a sunny day in a spring garden! Great choice of tangles!

Reply

Maggibee April 23, 2016 at 2:58 pm

Well, Suzanne, I’ll admit I’m getting pretty excited about seeing you at the very beginning of May. The third? (I’ve booked my train ticket so I’d better check that out.) Anyway, to Zentangle. Your range of patterns is impressive, with a couple I don’t know and will therefore have to study. I’ll let you know what progress I make…

Reply

Cancel reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: