Wordless Wednesday

 

Color

Warm.             Loud.               Bright.            Heat.              Fire.

All that greets us outside our front door.

The nickname for this flaming plant is Burning Bush.

Very appropriate, yes? Our view is gloriously bright these days!

For Rose

Iron horses

prancingand rearing

on a tiny, postage-stamp size lawn outside a restaurant.

You should see them IRL some day.

P.S. Happy Birthday Skye (who will always be ‘puppy’ in some sense to me)!

Why I’m glad today

Last night Rose and I spent the evening out. We talked about a variety of topics, including ancient Rome. For the life of me, I can’t remember how we landed on that subject, but while we were there, she told me that most women’s names in that time were feminized versions of their family name.

Interesting.

Especially interesting given the fact that I have five sisters. So would all six of us have had the same name if we lived in ancient Rome?

Not likely.

Women in ancient Rome apparently didn’t have sisters.

You see, baby boys were valued, but not girls.

So once a family had a daughter, they didn’t welcome any more baby girls.

Since I’m not the oldest of my sisters, I’m glad that I wasn’t born in ancient Rome.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down today
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

But isn’t it glorious while it’s here?

(Photo is the view from an upstairs window last week.)

November fruit

“The kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them.”

The last tomatoes of the season.

The plants from which they came are no more – due to Jack Frost’s visit last week.

But this blog still exists!

(Off to sign up for NaBloPoMo, aka National Blog Posting Month)

A child’s view

Detail of an 11 year old’s* version of the Resurrection.

Did you know that, in addition to singing “Alleluia”, the angels provide commentary?

The angel hovering above the soldier who has fainted is saying,

“Oh my, I hope he believes after this.”

Happy Easter!

Frohe Ostern!

god paske

*My son, the Matterhorn, is the artist.

Is it Really Spring?

The garden yesterday evening.

The same spot this morning.

12 hours.

Spring = dramatic changes.

At least spring snow melts quickly.

Ginevra

Serene Beauty

I wish I possessed that serenity and calmness. Today, in the midst of our usual beginning-of-school-year-busy-ness, this painting that I saw three years ago came to my mind .

The ability to wonder at something is not the exclusive realm of children. Some of the most mature people I know have retained a great ability to wonder and I hope to always possess a sense of wonder (even if I never achieve serenity and calmness of spirit!). At this time of the year, I need to take the time to wonder at the beautiful. Although the exquisite perfection of Leonardo’s painting of Ginevra de Benci can only truly be appreciated in person and in contrast to other works of a similar nature, seeing it here is better than not seeing it at all.

Enjoy!