Recently, I've been thinking about the style of painting inspired by the Impressionists. I suppose my desire to post a blog about Giverny, Claude Monet's famous home and gardens where he spend the last 43 years of his life, started the whole thought process.
The big pink stucco home has been restored by using family photographs as well as information gleaned from personal correspondence.
(In the following post any photos used without credits belong to me)
Photo courtesy of Google Images
A visitor's first approach to the house is through Monet's Clos Normand or Normand style garden.
The Norman garden along with the house is located on one side of an unseen road. His large studio is located nearby.
By crossing through a passageway under the road one exits into his famous Japanese garden. I'm sure it was planned this way so that the spell wouldn't be broken for the modern visitor. The spell that Monet and his easel might be glimpsed just around the next turn.
I have a ticket for each of you if you would like come back tomorrow for more of the tour. Be sure not to miss seeing the inside of his home and more of the Japanese gardens where he spent so many hours painting waterlilies.
Thinking so much about waterlilies, inspired me to paint a bit today. I have to work to see color and pattern, to understand how to apply the color. Giving up control, seeing the impression of things, not having to put in each detail is almost impossible for me.
Having to celebrate birthdays separated from your loved ones can be sad, but being there is not impossible. Thanks to modern technology, I am able to watch my granddaughter open her gifts and shout Happy Birthday along with her sisters.
I find clotheslines full of laundry aesthetically pleasing. I like the springy way t-shirts and blouses wheeze in and out with the wind. I like seeing summer frocks blowing gently in hot air. I like the way autumnal winds bluster and whip sheets and towels into a frenzy. I like the way blankets hang half frozen in the wintertime. Unfortunately, these scenes of domesticated loveliness are hard to find nowadays.
Recently, a commentator on National Public Radio informed me that 60 million Americans live where clotheslines are banned by neighborhood covenants. Cities, towns and even whole states have made backyard clotheslines against the law. The main reason cited is aesthetics; clotheslines bring the property values down.
So we are no longer able to hang a clothesline in our own backyard? I say to that, hogwash! Legislation against clotheslines has immobilized grassroots groups who have formed their own Right to Dry Movement. Unfortunately, I find their whole argument extremely funny in a sad, sad way. The Right to Dry people are all about saving the environment by the disuse of tumble dryers. They tout the benefits of Low Tech Solar Dryers on global warming. They see the use of clotheslines as a small way to do their part for saving the planet.
What the Right to Dry people don't seem to understand is that it is probably their very own politically correct agenda that has brought America to this point. We Americans are no longer allowed to state our personal opinions if they don't mesh with the opinions of the masses. We don't want to disenfranchise anyone. We don't want to allow any differences in our society. We are offended by the sight of our neighbor's underwear flapping in the wind.
See where it leads...to more disenfranchisement...to stupid laws...to a ridiculously scary "Big Brother Is Watching" society.
As for me, I love the sight of fresh laundry on the clothesline. It's about aesthetics. And as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
and last night Cynthia from Muse Swings honored me with her own Blog in Bloom award.
I am quite honored to have been recognized by both of these kind women who have amazing blogs themselves. I am continually astonished by the diversity and individuality found in this community of bloggers. We are drawn together by our mutual interests in movies, the arts, travel, tea, pets, photography, food and thought provoking factoids and snippets of nostalgic information. Our individuality allow us to contribute things that no one else might know or have thought to share.
Dear readers, I recognize that each of you deserves to receive a reward for your efforts and success in making the blogosphere a daily place of wonder and interest for me and for every person who finds their way to your internet homes.
So this post is my thanks to all of you. Thank you for teaching me something new each day. Thanks for sharing a portion your family life with me. Thanks for showing me your best photos, your best china and do-dads, your artwork and your hearts. I appreciate the effort you put into visiting my blog and participating in a regular dialog with me. I hope I do the same for you.
Dad Gum, I forgot to celebrate Bastille Day! The storming of the Bastille, the infamous fortress-prison, July 14, 1789 is seen today as the symbolic beginning of the modern French nation.
BTW, the Urban Dictionary says the this expression (Dad gum) is a modification of the much stronger form which I as a nice Christian girl will not repeat but will tell you the initials...gd.....clever huh...whoever first used this epithet, to not only substitute non offensive language but to also rearrange the order of the words....probably to fool their ever vigilant to any swearing granny. Probably wouldn't have been the first time that sneaky dude got his mouth washed out.
Because it was on my mind, I found this and had to post the link. Enjoy!
I have a daily calendar on my desk which features a different island scene each day. My mini island get away for today was in Maine. The caption read: "The islands and coves of Cobscook Bay Maine are home to the largest group of bald eagles in the Northeast." As I studied the photo I thought that there can't be many eagles there unless there are a lot more islands and they are a lot bigger than this one..no wonder the bald eagle is endangered. Take a look. What do you think?
Did you know Shakespeare introduced many familiar phrases? How about these....
A dish fit for the gods...from Julius Caesar A foregone conclusion...from Othello A sorry sight...from Macbeth All that glitters is not gold...from The Merchant of Venice (originally the line was All that glisters is not gold, glisters was long ago replaced with glitters) As dead as a door nail...used by Shakespeare in King Henry VI but was first in print in 1350 Eaten out of house and home...King Henry VI
Look it up...there are a lot more where these came from.
On the heels of yesterday's topic about a favorite school subject, let me mention one of my least favorites...okay...two. Grammar and science...wait make it three non-loved subjects...math, grammar and science.
You can tell grammar was not a favorite by my abundant use of ellipses...my run on sentences and my misuse of the English language. Forgive me, I was young and stupid...I should have learned the rules back when my brain was pliable.
As for math, it has never been easy for me...it just won't stick in my head. I can grasp concepts and learn to work problems fairly easily...easy as long as I practice daily. Once I let said practice go for a month or so, I have to start over learning at fractions again. I have seen the future and I face it bravely...I am and forever will be a math dummy.
Science is sort of interesting...the parts that have to do with the human body...as for fulcrums and levers and small machines and stuff like that...I don't have the brain for that either. But how the brain works, now that's a topic that excites me. I like pseudo-science books. Well not really fake, just not written like text books. Take The Hot Zone by Richard Preston for instance. I learned more biology from this book than the college level textbook I was reading at the same time. Among other things, Preston explained replicating RNA so well that it was virtually the only thing I understood during a whole semester of biology. ( I obviously had a horrible teacher leaving me to teach myself...an impossible task!)
So how about you...any random thoughts tonight? Any books that opened up a subject for you? Any quotes from milord Shakespeare you'd like to share?
I loved elementary school when it was time for Geography. The teacher would pull a wide window shade sized page down and I can still hear the sound it would make. Those big maps hanging above the blackboard contained the mysteries of the continents for me. Where mountain ranges began and ended, the plains states, the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, where the Mississippi reaches the Gulf of Mexico, which states touched the Pacific, the Atlantic, I memorized these locals and more. At the beginning of the year when text books were passed out I would flip through the Geography book looking for interesting information. In short, this was a topic I enjoyed.
My grammar school didn't have much of a library. It was just a small room with books and magazines. I don't remember a single book from that library...maybe it was because I always went straight for the National Geographic magazines. Oh how I loved that magazine. When my boys were old enough to read I subscribed to NG for them. They never appreciated it as much as me. I read it from cover to cover and never threw away an issue. (I still have a row of them out in the garage) My desk draw contains no less than 35 maps, taken from the pages of those magazines. Maps of the universe, charting the stars in the heavens, a map of the Indians of the Southwest, maps of Europe and Asia and a map of a Soviet Union that doesn't exist anymore.
As an adult I have been surprised to find out how many people don't care about geography, couldn't locate Papua, New Guinea or even New Zealand on a map if they were paid to do it, don't have a working idea of each state's approximate location and don't think being able to read a map is a vital life skill. I think it is sad.
I think it is sad that children today are taught more about recycling than about the world they are told they need to save.....but that is another hobby horse and it is late and I don't have time to ride that one.
It took me a few hours to decide how to make them, but I think the aprons turned out cute.
The main body of the apron is made from a dish towel. I used fabric that my daughter picked up at Ikea as well as cotton quilting fabric for the trim at the bottom, the waistband, pocket and ties. I used the whole length of the dishtowel, but cut about 6" off the width since the girls aren't very tall. Two are made with the towel as the widest portion, but the one that used the solid orange towel is made using more Ikea fabric and only 6" of the towel. So there is enough of the cut up towels left to make 3 more if I want too.
I embellished 2 of them with ribbon and rick rack and I'm thinking of adding some colorful buttons for fun.
Now I'm off to my craft room again to see if I can't keep this creative/productive thing going!
Hope you are having a peaceful Sunday.
p.s. We postponed seeing the play until next weekend when another friend who wants to see it will be able to join us. I heard from another friend who did attend that it was quite good .
Photo courtesy of Google Images
The Norman garden along with the house is located on one side of an unseen road. His large studio is located nearby.
I have a ticket for each of you if you would like come back tomorrow for more of the tour. Be sure not to miss seeing the inside of his home and more of the Japanese gardens where he spent so many hours painting waterlilies.
I am no Monet. But not many of us are.
