Dermatologist, art walk, award thank you

I took my camera with me to my dermatologist appointment today because I planned to go on the Art Museum art walk if the appointment didn't run too long. Before I even walked into the doctor's office, I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of the pansies and tulips in front of the building.The appointment went well. No surprises. No biopsies. Nothing of concern at all. Woohooo. After my melanoma diagnosis, I had to go for skin checks every three months. It was extended to 6 months after I started seeing a medical oncologist in addition to the surgical oncologist who has followed me since my sentinel node was positive for melanoma.
I am a very easy skin check because I have almost no moles or freckles to follow. The risk with me was that my nodular melanoma primary was so deep and it had spread to a lymph node. I was hoping that I might go to annual dermatology appointments after this one but he wants to keep me on the 6 month schedule which is alright for now. I'm relieved that there wasn't anything hiding somewhere that I couldn't see and that I got a clean bill from the head to toe check. I wasn't expecting any problems but you never know.
It was cold and cloudy today but I'm on such a roll with my daily walks that I headed over to the NC Museum of Art for a walk in the art park after I saw the doctor. This makes my 9th day in a row of going for a walk. I have written about the art park before on my blog but last time I was there I didn't walk on the woodland trail part. Therefore, my plan was to snap some shots on that trail. The work above is called Cloud Chamber for Trees and Sky and was created by Chris Drury (British, born in Sri Lanka, 1948) in 2003. You can read more about this and the other works in the art part link above but briefly, if you go inside you can view the sky on the floor. An aperture in the roof projects an inverted image of the sky onto the floor. I expected a hobbit to come walking out of the door but fortunately for my heart, that didn't happen.
Another large work in the woodland part of the art park is called - To See Jennie Smile and was created by Steven Siegal (American born 1953) in 2006. Seen from a distance as photographed above, it blends into the woods and appears to me to be made of wood chips, at least to me. It's actually made from tons of unused newspapers donated by the News and Observer which represents 2 weeks of leftovers. The structure is anchored inside around the trunks of two trees and the tops of the trees were sectioned and used for the base. The close-up above shows the base. The paper exposed to the elements is predicted to last around 10 years so this is a temporary work. One of the concepts of this work is to return the paper created from trees to the woods.
I never would have guessed that it was made from newspapers if I hadn't stood very close and taken a shot of it. Standing far enough away to see the whole work, it blends into the woods, although it's clearly a man made work.
The shot above is of the outdoor stage at the museum where they have performances and movies in the summer. I love this time of year where some trees are still bare and others are in full color.The meadow path above connects the open part of the art park to the woodland path. I love meadows and will have to be sure to come back later in the spring when the wild flowers start to come up. However, I like meadows all times of the year and for some reason found it appealing as it is starting to leave winter and herald spring. I will be posting more photographs from my art walk in future posts but I think I'll end this post here with a thank you.
SabineM passed on the Hello My Friend award to me which I appreciate so much. Sabine is a great friend and a wonderful photographer. I am so glad to have gotten to know her through photohunters.