MARCIA DUNCAN ALSO HAS LOTS TO REPORT ......

In the bleak mid-winter, sitting warm at home, We recall last year’s events.

Here we’re sharing some . . . 2015 was a memorable year for the recognition of our photographic collection. TheNational Gallery of Art celebrated 25 years of collecting photographs, and photographs we’vegiven were part of the looking-back exhibit In Light of the Past, the current exhibit of recent giftsCelebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art (on display until March 13), and TheAltering Eye, a major book showing the breadth and depth of the NGA collection. Senior curatorSarah Greenough recognized our long involvement, inscribing our copy with: “Well, here we are25 years after your Walker Evans gift! Look what you started!” Simultaneous with the summerNGA exhibit, we had works on loan to exhibits at both The Phillips Collection and the LutherBrady Gallery at George Washington University. With all the traveling we’ve done, it may seem incredible that in 2015 we made our firsttrip to France and visited Paris for the first time – two separate trips! In April we toured SouthernFrance with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a very fine itinerary covering Roman architectureand sites immortalized by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. Then in late Junewe survived ten HOT days in Paris enjoying museums, historical walks, and navigating Metroand other rail transport to various destinations in an AHI Travel “Paris Immersion” program.Early in July we flew from Paris to Glasgow and embarked on an Audubon Naturalist Societytour of Scotland, starting on the Isle of Islay (“the I’ll of I’ll-ah”), where we also investigatedsingle-malts and woolens. From there, we rode to Aigas Field Centre in Inverness-shire, ourwonderful home base for day trips all over the northern Highlands. It was much cooler than Parisand not nearly as rainy as we’d expected, and the scenery was grand. Our hosts Sir John and LadyLucy Lister-Kaye have created a very special place for studying nature and the history of land usein Scotland. After the ANS tour, we spent some time on our own in Glasgow and Edinburghtaking in such troves of culture as the Kelvingrove Museum, Edinburgh Castle, and the ScottishNational Galleries. We learned about the “Glasgow Boys” and connections between CharlesRennie Macintosh’s wife Margaret McDonald and the Viennese Secessionists. Domestic trips during the year included a March drive to Nebraska to see the spectaculargathering of migrating sandhill cranes along the Platte River, a May drive to northern Ohio withfriends from the Cosmos Club to witness once again the spring wave of warblers and othermigrants, two drives to NYC for museum and gallery visits and to see friends Martha andMichael Rohr, and numerous weekends in Canaan Valley WV or Chincoteague Island VA. We had an unplanned restoration and redecoration project in our apartment that took upmost of August and September. While we were in Scotland, a drain in our apartment backed upand flooded the kitchen, hallway, and parts of the office, living room, and second bathroom. Itwas discovered when a resident two floors below us noticed water coming through his ceiling!Although the staff was able to correct the drain stoppage and turn on fans before we got home,the water damage was extensive. Kent had to move the contents of five bookcases and the casesthemselves out of the hallway and we had to empty cabinets, closets and drawers before the crewcould remove the soaked parquet flooring, wallboard, carpeting and cabinets and start restoration.It’s all behind us now, and the new stone countertops and flooring in the kitchen look fine, butthis is not the way one should ever undertake redecorating. Two more international trips rounded out our year. Right after Thanksgiving we flew toTanzania and went on safari with six long-time friends of ours who’d never been to Africabefore. We wanted to return to wonderful places we’d previously been, and Augustine Minja ofAAAfrica planned a tour for us which was fabulous – better than one could imagine. We sawlions in trees in more than one location (Lake Manyara is known for this phenomenon); we drovethrough herds of elephants at very close range; we photographed lionesses as they rested neartheir kill and as they rose and approached us, taking refuge from the hot sun by lying down in theshade of our safari vehicle! And then there was the awesome Serengeti – the endless plain –filled in every direction as far as we could see with tens of thousands of wildebeest. For our last trip of the year, right after Christmas we returned to Panama, to Canopy Tower near the canal and Canopy Lodge in El Valle in the mountains. The weather was moremoderate and less humid than when we visited in August, 2014. We saw old friends among boththe guides and the birds, and observed progress in the canal lock expansion project. Thedisheartening surprise was the low water level in Lake Gatún, so low that trunks of trees leftstanding long ago when flooding first formed the lake are now exposed, the snags stippling thewaterscape. El Niño has brought drought; this is only the beginning of the dry season; will therebe sufficient water for canal functioning during the next few months? We have finally had to take notice of the fact that we are getting older! Kent’s back hasgone the way of his hips into arthritis, as have both knees; this means serious changes in travelplans and even in the length of the walks that we take. Marcia was diagnosed with coronaryartery disease, and while it has not required any surgery or stents, it has more than doubled thenumber and type of pills she has to take. Our holiday gathering happily included grandson Gio, although we are sad that he andMary have parted ways. He remains in the Army at Ft. Bragg, while Mary and Ava are back inSilver Spring. Granddaughter Ali completed her 1st semester of nursing school; high grades arekeeping her motivated for the long hours and commuting. Great-granddaughter Leila enjoysswimming and “Saturday School” in addition to her 2nd-grade activities. Alfred keeps her onschedule even as he continues earning performance awards for his work at Kaiser. Lisahouseholds in Middletown Md, wrangling teen-age granddaughters Sofi and Lucy and three cats. When we left for Panama the temperature was in the high 60's; when we returned January12th it was in the 20's; now we’re watching as two feet of snow melts! We’re warmed bymemories of all the magnificent creatures and wonderful people we’ve encountered in ourtravels. We hope that we all can find ways to live together and sustain this marvelous world of ours.