Juvenile works by famous artists

 See if you can guess the artists before reading the article.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/09/artmarket-juvenile-work-name-brand-blue-chip-artists-early-warhol-paintings-phillips-auction-sale

Itty Bitty Book review: "Back to the Garden"

 

I always enjoy the mysteries of Laurie R. King and this didn't disappoint. 

Marc Chagall Stained Glass Windows in Israel

 The Brock House travel series had a presentation by a couple who had taken a trip to Israel. It was very interesting and I'm always interested in what Marc Chagall has done. Here are some wonderful stained glass windows he did.

Well, I can't seem to get images uploaded but you could google and take a look.

Andy Warhol

I remain fascinated by the prices of his work.

 "A massive painting by pop artist Andy Warhol, White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times), is going up for auction at Sotheby’s later this month—and it is expected to fetch some $80 million.

The piece, which is 12 feet tall and 6 feet wide, is one of the largest panels from Warhol’s Death and Disaster series, which he created as a meditation on his obsession with mortality. The last time a piece from this series went on sale was almost a decade ago; Silver Car Crash sold for $105 million in 2013."

A very yummy lunch

 We joined Naomi and Ray for lunch at Suika on Broadway. We enjoyed many tasty items and we all brought home goodies for dinner. And, of course, I especially appreciated the "real crab" in the sushi. They can't get away with that horrible fake crab in Vancouver.

What a lovely day for a drive with all the wonderful falling leaves. 

Great idea to save these wonderful creatures

 

A group of 12 monarch butterflies in Wisconsin are emerging from their chrysalises several months later than normal, delaying the usual migration pattern that protects the endangered insects from the cold of the north. But conservationists have a plan: The monarchs are taking an expedited route to Texas, via a FedEx package, to catch up with their fellow migrators.

The shipping plan, paid for by the nonprofit Friends of Butterfly Gardens Inc., will save the monarchs from a chilly journey, with little nectar to sustain them along the way — and it has implications beyond helping the dozen butterflies.

“If we can save 12 monarchs, and half the monarchs are females, each one will lay 400 eggs next spring,” the organization’s president, Jack Voight, told The Post-Crescent. “So we’re going to increase the population.”

Once they arrive in Texas after a 1,600-mile overnight flight, the butterflies will hopefully head to their final destination in Mexico for the winter. Alicia Griebenow, who found the late-season monarchs as eggs on her property in Wisconsin, said watching them prepare for the trip was particularly meaningful. “This is emotional for me,” she said.

Love this creative idea for those stuck in the middle seat on an airplane

 I've been in that middle seat more than I want to remember and this incentive certainly would have eased the nuisance somewhat.

(CNN) — Offering neither a window view, nor easy access to the lavatory, the middle seat is indisputably the least desirable spot to sit on a flight.In fact, only 0.6% of more than 7,500 voters polled prefer -- or, perhaps more likely, accidentally voted for -- the middle seat, according to a recent social media poll by Virgin Australia. 

That number might soon go up if the airline's scheme to get passengers to willingly book the dreaded middle seat is a success. 

Virgin Australia has just launched the Middle Seat Lottery, a special raffle worth about AUD230,000 (or $145,000). And it's only open to those who sit in the middle seat -- voluntarily or involuntarily -- during a flight.

"Virgin Australia is an airline that's doing things differently and we are having a lot of fun coming up with exciting innovations to make every part of the travel experience more wonderful," says Jayne Hrdlicka, the chief executive officer of Virgin Australia Group, in a press release.

"Now we're giving our loyal guests the opportunity to win from a prize pool valued at over $230,000 for simply sitting in a middle seat."

Prizes include free flights, a helicopter pub crawl and a bungee jump

From now until April 23, 2023, any Velocity Frequent Flyer member aged 18 years or older who is seated in a middle seat can use the airline's app to enroll in the lottery.

Each week, a different prize will be awarded to the winner of a lucky draw. Among the innovative gifts up for grabs are a full day helicopter pub crawl (including return flights to Darwin) and a two-night holiday in Cairns including flights, accommodation and a bungee jump.

For fans of the Australian Football League, there are flights and tickets to the Australian Football League Grand Final as well as exclusive access to the pre-game lunch and after party.

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Travelers could also win Virgin's "Platinum Velocity" frequent flier status for one year -- along with one million extra Velocity Points -- as well as a few refurbished, themed gallery carts.

After the announcement was posted to the airline's social media channels on October 24, some commenters agreed that it is a "brilliant plan" whereas others said that nothing could ever get them to sit in the middle seat.

Interested in trying your luck? The prize of the week will be posted on the Virgin Australia website. 

Top image: File photo of a Virgin Australia plane. Credit: Adobe Stock 

A year of the world'sBest BeachesThere's a perfect beach for every week of the year. Join us on a 12-month journey to see them all

Go to the best beaches

Fun with this business name generator

I put in "baseball, blog, food" and got a lot of interesting  results. Here are a few. I can see playing around with this link could be addictive

Balls and Bites

On Field Feed

Batsbrew

BaitPitch

https://namelix.com

There really is LEGO for everything

 

A fairly quiet night

 We had a pretty peaceful Halloween. We began with a visit with Liz in the afternoon. Great to see her and catch up on news.

And we just had two groups coming to the door so lots of goodies left. No need to think of dessert for a while.

There was some firework noise.

Happy Halloween!

 Love this!

Made by the staff at Truro public library

Another famous writing desk

 From an initial google search it would appear I could post endlessly on this topic.

Jane Austin (1775-1817)

In 1794 Jane Austen’s father gave her this portable “writing box.” When open, it provides a slope on which to rest the paper while writing. Its various compartments include a space for an inkpot and a lockable drawer for paper and valuables. Between 1795 and 1799 Austen produced first drafts of what would later become Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey, perhaps using this very writing desk. While traveling through Dartford in 1798 she almost lost it—and her savings of seven pounds—when it was accidentally placed in a horse-drawn chaise heading for Dover. When Austen died in 1817, aged 41, the desk was inherited by her sister Cassandra. It was later passed down through her eldest brother’s family. In 1999, Joan Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen’s great-great-great-niece, generously entrusted it to the care of the British Library.

A lovely visit yesterday

 Naomi and I had a wonderful time yesterday sitting by the fire and having coffee. 

Ah....the simple pleasures of life.

I love seeing famous people at their writing desks

I guess this might become a thing of the past. 

Queen Elizabeth II at the writing desk in her study in Balmoral Castle, Scotland I January 1972

I just love the simple design and colours

Thanks, Susan K. for sending!

 

Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life. 

Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.

Sad but getting to be true in the U.K.

 

J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling certainly got a lot of reluctant readers to read. That should be mentioned along with her accomplishments.

I stole this from Linda' blog. I don't think I knew very much about J.K. Rowling. It's a pretty amazing story. 

"At age 17, she was rejected from college.

At age 25, her mother died from disease.

At age 26, she suffered a miscarriage.

At age 27, she got married.

Her husband abused her. Despite this, her daughter was born.

At age 28, she got divorced and was diagnosed with severe depression.

At age 29, she was a single mother living on welfare.

At age 30, she didn't want to be on this earth.

But, she directed all her passion into doing the one thing she could do better than anyone else.

And that was writing.

At age 31, she finally published her first book.

At age 35, she had released 4 books, and was named Author of the Year. 

At age 42, she sold 11 million copies of her new book, on the first day of release.

This woman is J.K. Rowling. Remember how she considered suicide at age 30?

Today, Harry Potter is a global brand worth more than $15 billion dollars.

Never give up. Believe in yourself. Be passionate. Work hard. It’s never too late."

I got a laugh out of this

Linda posted this on her blog: 

"If you think you are smarter than the previous generation....50 years ago the owners' manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves.  Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery"

An excellent evening with Donna and Earl

 We met at The Four Olives and so enjoyed our time with them. They are off to Las Vegas. We look forward to hearing all about it!

A lovely visit with Richard yesterday

 He gave us lots of good advice about many things.

Thanks, kid, love you so much!

Interesting facts about the World wide web

I found this quite interesting to read. 

https://www.interestingfacts.com/world-wide-web-facts/Yzu4Ag0dXgAH6ve6?liu=26da72d4899d29579ae9719e3d9b2e04&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1625741359

The days of having to produce I.D.

I do remember my line about ID when I was underage. You needed to be 21. I went to my purse to get my ID laughing and commenting "I'm 24 and have three kids". The waiter usually waved it off and I didn't have to produce it. I do remember it shocked a date of mine and when I told him I was 15 years old he was even more horrified. That was pretty much the end of the night and our relationship.

 

Will someone buy me one of these?

 A pink Cadillac and palm trees and rain...love it!

Can there ever be too many autumn photos of The Sylvia?

 Thanks, James C.!

Happy Birthday, Richard!

You had a lot of fun birthday cakes. This one was obviously from your Superman mania days. I think you even had Superman underwear :)

Public swimming in the Seine.....wow!

In our trips to Paris over the years we have seen people swimming in the Seine even though it is banned. It looked pretty yucky to us but there was one really hot day when I think even we would have been tempted.  I look forward to seeing the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics from Paris!

" Parisians will soon be able to experience the Seine River in a whole new way. Beginning in 2025 — following the city’s hosting of the 2024 Summer Olympics — the river will be open for public swimming, per The Week.

The major news comes nearly a century after people were banned from taking a dip in the famed waterway due to pollution. But extensive cleanup efforts have made the Seine quite different, and much safer, than it was when the ban came down in 1923.

Water quality regulations and increased wastewater treatment have prompted the return of fish to the once-dead river, a positive sign of its improving health, The Washington Post reported last year. “Often in the past, we turned our backs on the river,” Sylvain Berrios, the mayor of a suburb outside of Paris, told the outlet. “Now locals are taking it back.”

In addition to allowing regular swimmers, officials hope to host much of the 2024 Olympics, including the opening ceremonies, on the Seine. If you’ve ever dreamed of floating down the river and looking up to views of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, now may be the time to start thinking about a trip."

A lovely evening last night with Naomi and Ray

We always enjoy our dinners at The Four Olives and glad they enjoyed it too!

So sad to see one of my favourite paintings treated in this way

It is certainly an effective way of getting attention and at least it doesn't harm people physically. I hope it ends as it can only end badly for the artworks and the perpetrators if it continues.

 Environmental activists from the Just Stop Oil campaign group have carried out their most audacious protest yet—throwing a tin of tomato soup over one of the most famour paintings in the world: Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers(1888). The work is displayed at the National Gallery in London. A spokesperson for the gallery says that there is some minor damage to the frame but the painting is unharmed.

The spokesperson says: “At just after 11am this morning two people entered Room 43 of the National Gallery. The pair appeared to glue themselves to the wall adjacent to Van Gogh's Sunflowers. They also threw a red substance—what appears to be tomato soup—over the painting. The room was cleared of visitors and police were called. Officers are now on the scene.” Both campaigners were arrested.

Just Stop Oil released a statement saying that the group “is demanding that the UK government halts all new oil and gas projects”. It adds: “Today’s action comes after two weeks of continued civil resistance by supporters of Just Stop Oil. The disruption is in response to the government’s inaction on both the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis.”

Asphalt art

 I'm sure I've posted on this topic before but I do love seeing this happening since the art gives people joy and it makes road crossings safer. What a win-win!

We will never forget our experience with a maze

 Our first and last experience in a maze was in Hampton Court close to London. It seemed like fun thing to do but we had real trouble getting out. We kept meeting the same people who were also trying to get out. At first we were all laughing and then our expressions got grimmer. We blundered out somehow.

Now, this is a maze I think I could handle :)

Lack of sand in the desert....too funny

Well, I have read of a lot of shortages but didn't expect this one!  This appeared in the Desert Sun:

Love seeing the San Jacinto mountains and palm trees. 

 "One of the most obvious side effects of the global pandemic has been supply chain issues, causing shortages in everything from new cars to baby formula.

But there is a shortage of something that you might not expect hitting one desert golf facility: a lack of sand for bunkers.

For Desert Princess Country Club in Cathedral City, the shortage meant plans to replace sand in 51 bunkers on the 27-hole golf facility were derailed. And it meant golfers were hitting shots into bunkers covered only with black rubber liners rather than sand.

“We are going to write it off this year because of (the upcoming) prime season,” said Rodney Young, in his first full year as head golf professional at Desert Princess. “We can’t be doing bunker projects. So we are going to reset and reorganize and see if we can’t get it done next July.”

In the last week the course finally found about 500 tons of sands from a source in central California, meaning the greenside bunkers on the Lagos nine-hole layout were finally filled with white sand. But the rest of the work on the Vista and Cielo nines will wait until next summer."

Most expensive items....

 From "Interesting Facts"

I wasn't surprised about the Space Station costing so much but rather blown away by the most expensive movie ever made. I don't think I've seen it. 

NEXT FACT

The International Space Station is the most expensive item humans have ever created.

The most expensive movie ever made is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which cost a whopping $410 million. That’s a pretty penny to be sure, but it’s less than half a percent of the most expensive human-made object in history: the International Space Station, whose price tag comes in at $100 billion. Launched in 1998 after more than a decade of careful (and often difficult) planning, the ISS is a collaboration between five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). It has been continuously occupied since 2000, with a full-time international crew conducting microgravity experiments and other research.

Modernism Week in Palm Springs

 We had some fun times going to events and these photos bring back memories.

Another great sunset

Thanks for sending, John.

 

Photo by John Denniston

A great dinner at The Four Olives

 We always enjoy this place and last night we had the wonderful company of Donna and Sherrill. 

Thanks so much for a lovely evening. We forgot all about the Blue Jays losing :)

Vermeer

I've always been attracted to the art of Vermeer and found this article quite fascinating.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/07/vermeer-in-national-gallery-washington-dc-collection-is-pronounced-as-a-fake?utm_source=The+Art+Newspaper+Newsletters&utm_campaign=ead95425c9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_10_07_12_34&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c459f924d0-ead95425c9-62269122

Poutine....Quebec style

 I got rather fond of this dish when we were in Quebec.  I didn't care much for poutine in New Brunswick. I took students on an Open House Canada exchange there. The New Brunswick kids were raving about  poutine. Their poutine were grey balls of dough with globs of fat. 

A lovely evening with Donna and Earl

 We so enjoyed our dinner and conversation. We ordered in from Minerva's and have leftovers for tomorrow so no cooking:)

Thanks so much!

Hong Kong....who knew?

Before it was romanized as Hong Kong, the special administrative region of China that has long beguiled visitors was known in English as He-Ong-Kong. That moniker dates back to 1780 and is thought to be a phonetic reading of hēung góng, a Cantonese name that translates to both “fragrant harbor” and “incense harbor.”

Hong Kong has long been one of the world's most important commercial ports. The apparently sweet-tasting waters of the Pearl River may have been responsible for the “fragrant” designation; as for the other, a number of incense factories used to be found in the city’s Kowloon district. An alternate explanation comes courtesy of John Davis, who served as Governor of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1848 and said that the name came from “Hoong-keang” (“red torrent”). According to him, the name honored the red soil found beneath a waterfall on Hong Kong Island. 

This came up on "Interesting Facts". There is a special place in my heart for Hong Kong. It had an amazing feel to it and after visiting Bangkok it seemed like a peaceful little village.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

 I will spend this day thinking about the First Nations students I had when I was teaching and hoping their lives turned out well. 

A lovely sunny day

 Jim got up early to play tennis and was very pleased with his game. I enjoyed a nice lie in.

I think it's a day for Las Margaritas since we're out of steak. We find the Sterling strip loin at Safeway is pretty good.

Quick trip to Victoria to see old friends

 We really enjoyed seeing people we hadn't seen for five years. Jim and I were amazed  to realize how long it had been.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful welcome and hospitality!

I'm always a sucker for sunflowers....

 Loved Susan K.'s rendition posted on her blog.

"After a brief summer hiatus, Painting With Joy is back.  It proved to be what I needed to end my own hiatus!

We painted Van Gogh's sunflowers yesterday, and I really enjoyed it.  I used watercolor, Neocolor crayons and watercolor pencils in my 9 x 9 Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook."

Turning potholes into art....what an amazing idea!

 AUTHOR Rebekah Brandes

"The city of Lyon, France, is as much subject to urban decay as any other metropolis, the wear and tear from cars, weather, and foot traffic leading to crumbling pavement and potholes on once pristine roads. But for one man, there is inspiration in disrepair. An anonymous artist known as Ememem has been filling in street and sidewalk divots with striking geometric mosaics — colorful bursts of beauty amid the asphalt. 

“He calls himself the bitumender,” a representative for the artist told Nice News, referencing bitumen, a substance used for paving. As soon as Ememem laid the first tile, “he understood he was going to do it again and again, until the end of his life.” 

The striking street art melds contemporary style with the ancient Japanese tradition of kintsugi, the practice of using gold to mend broken pottery. He’s has been creating the pieces for the last six years, first in Lyon, then Paris, and throughout Europe — adorning streets in Norway, Germany, Spain, Scotland, and Italy with hundreds of his creations."

 

Multitasking

 

For all the cheese lovers in the world

 This came up on FB....ah...what would we do without cheese. I'll never forget the first cheese board we were offered in France. It was in Paris and couldn't believe all the choices. There was a whole section of blue type cheese if I remember correctly.