Hilton Head, Part 2

Day 11

So what’s the deal with Hilton Head? Beats me…

Beautiful? Yes.

View from the porch

Landscape at Villamare

Even on a cloudy day, it's gorgeous.

We spend most of our time walking, porch-sitting, shopping, and eating. And oh, boy, do we eat.

This is Ombra Cucina Rustica

One of the two owners, Michael Cirafesi, is the former Executive Chef at Michael Anthony’s, and the author of the Michael Anthony’s cookbook, which is one of my cooking bibles.

Michael's cookbook and recipe handout from first class

 In fact, he taught the first two cooking classes I took there, several years ago. He opened his own restaurant (Ombra) two or three years ago, and it was quickly added to our favorites list.

Me and Michael

The first year we went to Ombra, we met Ned, who was to become “our” waiter. The problem is – sometime during that first year, my brain changed Ned to Ken, and I can’t seem to change it back. 

So we went to dinner there the other night, and sure enough, I asked for "Ken."

They said there was no one working there named Ken. If I had asked them to line up all the servers, I could have picked him out!

They seated us at a quiet table in the bar, and sure enough it was mere seconds before Ned came out to say hello. 

It’s very embarrassing, and has never happened before; in fact, I pride myself on my ability to remember all our servers from year to year.. Ned/Ken doesn’t seem to be insulted, but I’m sure he’s a little hurt. So I determined this year I would get his correct name into a safe spot in my brain.

First I tried adding his name to my journal, in the page where I wrote the menu from the first night we were there:

But I wasn’t sure this was enough, so I tangled his name. If this doesn’t work, I’ll just have to take him home with us.

Ned, playing with Cadent, Fife, Verdigogh, and Puf

Starting Over, Part 2

Continuing the tale of my Beginning Zentangle class....My next assignment was to learn and use (counter-clockwise from the right side tangle) Bales, Nipa, Static, and Puf.

 Class Tile 2 - Counterclockwise from right side: Bales, Nipa, Static, Puf

Static is deceptively easy, but actually pretty difficult to do well. I’ll have to practice that one. A lot. The important points (no pun intended) are First,  to make sure you change direction with a point, rather than rounding or curving it. Then Second, not to make the “teeth” too close together as I did. When they are small and close together, the illusion of 3-dimentionality is lost.

Puf  is just wonderful – one of those “magic” tangles that results in a surprise pattern after you have finished.

On to the last tile. Of the three tangles, I had done Cadent (bottom) and Mooka (at the right) before. Mooka is a tangle that I’ve used a lot, but liked not at all and never did well - I think the absence of a "joining" at the bottom really bothered me. Carmen was able to show me a way to draw it so that I understand its popularity with tanglers.

The new one is Socc, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful tangle. I’ve fallen in love with it! It’s related to Puf (Tile 2) and Garlic, but is very organic and different every time you tangle it. I can see myself using this one a lot.

 Class Tile 3 - Clockwise from right: Mooka, Cadent, Socc

All in all, the class was worth every minute, and every dollar I put into it. Carmen Burgos is a great teacher – I’m looking forward to more classes with her. For anyone who is self-taught in the art of Zentangle, no matter how experienced, I recommend Starting Over.