There seems to be a lot of these museums around the world these days

I'm surprised we didn't come across one in our travels but perhaps they are quite recent. 

Good on the UK and brilliant that there will be no admission fee.

"The UK’s first LGBTQ museum is due to open this spring in London, founded by the charity Queer Britain. The museum will be located on the ground floor of 2 Granary Square in Kings Cross in the building owned by the Art Fund charity. The space will house four galleries, a workshop, an education space, gift shop and offices.

The new institution “celebrates the stories, people and places that are so intrinsic to the queer community in the UK, and beyond”, says a statement. The museum’s plans and programming schedules are due to be announced; crucially, there will be no admission fee.

It will be funded through “all the usual channels: donations, retail, partnerships, trusts and foundations. Queer Britain is a fully registered charity,” says a spokesman for Queer Britain. Donors who contribute are sent a message, saying: “We are losing stories and artefacts every day and need a central space to examine, understand and celebrate our stories.”

“[Queer Britain’s] exciting proposal for the first UK museum dedicated to exploring LGBTQ+ histories, people and ideas was warmly supported by our trustees, and we're thrilled that our beautiful building in Granary Square will be home for the first phase of the Queer Britain museum,” says Jenny Waldman, the director of Art Fund, in a statement. The Granary Square tenancy is initially for two years.

The LGBTQ+ museum will be located on the ground floor of 2 Granary Square in Kings Cross, in the building owned by the Art Fund charity Photo: © David Levene

The museum director is Joseph Galliano, the chief executive of Queer Britain and former editor of Gay Times. The museum’s advisory group includes Clare Barlow, curator team lead at the Science Museum Group, and Sandy Nairne, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery in London. Photographer Robert Taylor is among the trustees.

Queer Britain’s archive is currently housed at the Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street station, which also holds a vast lesbian and gay news media archive and a library of around 10,000 LGBTQ titles. “Queer Britain’s collection is looked after by the Bishopsgate Institute; they [Bishopsgate] will continue with building their own LGBTQ+ collection as well,” the Queer Britain spokesman adds.

Other UK museums also have significant LGBTQ archives including National Museums Liverpool—encompassing objects such as flyers and literature linked to key gay UK events and clubs—and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which contains a range of objects linked to LGBTQ history."

MuseumsMuseums & HeritageLGBTQLondon

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The fascinating world of copyright

 When we were doing graduate work at the University of Oregon in 1976, I took a course on Journalism in Schools. As a teacher I sponsored the school newspaper so thought this would help in that work. It did end up to be pretty fascinating but I didn't learn much about sponsoring a school newspaper. It was almost exclusively about what constitutes libel. Recently, there had been a big court case in the US that gave school newspapers the right to be free from censorship just like the "real" press but along with that came the possibility of being sued for libel. Hence, it seemed teachers involved in the school newspaper needed to know more about libel than the skills involved in writing news stories or feature articles. 

I guess people who know me wouldn't be surprised that I love this simple design:)

The Australian government has bought the Aboriginal flag's copyright in a bid to "free" the symbol of identity from bitter fights over who can use it.

Indigenous artist Harold Thomas created the flag in 1971 as a protest image but it is now the dominant Aboriginal emblem and an official national flag.

Despite this, many Aboriginal people say the flag has been "held hostage" by copyright deals that limit its display.

The flag can now be reproduced by anyone without fear of legal threats.

"Over the last 50 years we made Harold Thomas' artwork our own - we marched under the Aboriginal flag, stood behind it, and flew it high as a point of pride," said Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt.

"Now that the Commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no-one can take it away."

The government paid more than A$20m (£11m; $14m) in total to secure the copyright from Mr Thomas and to terminate lease agreements, media reports said.

More here:

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/01/24/australian-government-spends-pound105m-on-copyright-for-aboriginal-flag?utm_source=The+Art+Newspaper+Newsletters&utm_campaign=ace1024e67-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_24_06_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c459f924d0-ace1024e67-62269122

Just had to post this!

 It gives me another chance to see this cool sign. It almost looks three dimensional ...guess it's partly the way she is holding it.

"Here is Leslie picking up her Original painting that was bought for her by an anonymous collector. She was invited to meet the family and see the art studio and it truly warmed my soul seeing how happy and excited she was to get this painting that will remind her of her Mother working at 'The Only' Seafood restaurant and all the memories of eating there and being with friends and family. That smile says it all."

Music has certainly changed....from Linda's blog

 It certainly has. The piano I learned on was a big old upright with some of the ivory tops missing and all the white keys were more yellow than white.

I'm sure Cec is going to have a blast with his new piano...look forward to hearing him play on it!

Music has certainly changed

Cec gave his dad's guitar to Lexie as she's been playing an acoustic guitar.  A string broke, surprise, we figure it's 80 years old.  We took it into Tom Lee Music to get it restrung and found the bridge was ready to explode and it was a danger to play!  So we looked at new guitars and then ended up in the piano section.  

We bought a new piano!  It's an digital piano but has wooden keys with the 52 moving parts on each key.  It has Bluetooth so you can attach your iPad and it's way more than a regular upright piano.  You can use head phones and it even has a built in metronome!  It's on order and will be here in three to six months.  It's quite the instrument and if you want to see what it does:

From Mark Art Prosser

As a kid I always loved this sign...something so cool about seahorses.  

"Amazing act of Kindness. I had a new collector over to my art studio on Sunday looking at a few paintings. He saw this painting and really wanted it but I told him it was already reserved. She saw the sneak peak Dec 30th when it was 10% and loved it because her mother worked there for 11 years and had passed away. I usually will only reserve with a deposit but I could sense this painting really meant alot to her. So I said she could do a payment plan and the 1st one was actually due tomorrow. Well this collector paid the painting off in full FOR HER! What an absolute awesome act of kindness from one stranger to another. He wishes to remain anonymous and I'm still a bit shocked but it really proves me to me the that the universe is listening and when you do the right thing amazing things will happen. She picks it up tomorrow."

A Facebook memory from Cloud 9 13 years ago

We had many wonderful times there enjoying the panoramic view of Vancouver.

 

The great old Sylvia Hotel again!

From Lori H. from Vancouver Island Sketchers 

The sketch is by Emma Fitzgerald from her book 'Hand Drawn Vancouver: Sketches of the City's Neighbourhoods, Buildings and People'. (2020) I came across this book recently and it's a delight. Highly recommended. Readily available, and it's also at VPL in hard copy or e format. Not only are the sketches wonderful, but even though I've lived here a long time I learned a few new things about the city too! She's definitely an 'urban sketcher'... there are anecdotes about the adventure of drawing on location.

Queen Elizabeth II

 This photo came up on Facebook today and it seems to say a lot about the character of the Queen. It certainly made me smile.

"Queen Elizabeth II jumps ashore from a barge after disembarking from the Royal Yacht 'Brittania' during a State Visit to Turkey I October 23, 1971"

Internet down today and just got fixed

 I hope it will keep working. What a day. Jim is teaching online at Royal Military College so he really couldn't be without it and then of course I have my blog readers to think about. I'm glad I said I may not be posting every day:)

Sunflower room at van Gogh alive art exhibition

"Van Gogh Alive is not an art exhibition in the traditional sense. It is an immersive, multi-sensory multimedia art experience which combines high definition projections of Van Gogh’s paintings with digital surround sound. Imagery and animations are projected at a scale that offers visitors the ability to see the details of the artists work like never before. More than 3,000 images transform each surface. However, there is no physical work by Vincent Van Gogh on display"

I think this is pretty cool but I don't think it would have moved me to tears as did going through rooms 71 and 72. 

"The D'Orsay museum owns an impressive twenty-seven Van Gogh paintings , most of them located in the rooms 71 and 72. The Musee D'Orsay is a huge modern art museum, located in the center of Paris. The magnificent building was once the Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900."Aug 1, 2020

My break from blogging

 Perhaps I should say that I won't be blogging every day. I seem to be a bit addicted to this but don't want to feel I have to blog every day.

Taking a break from blogging

Just to let people know I won't be blogging every day.

Wonderful time with Richard and Grace

 It was great to see them and Richard did all sorts of tech stuff for us as usual. Grace and I had a nice chat while it was all going on.  Jim is now cleaning up.I took some nice photos but can't seem to find my cable to upload them. 

Thanks so much you guys!

Found my cable. Jim cooked his favourite....spaghetti bolognese.

Cassoulet

This dish didn't sound very appealing to us but we did have some amazing cassoulet during our travels in France. I saw one recipe that used duck confit. Now I bet that would have been good! I guess it's rather like chile in some  ways. I always find chile easy to make and I like that there are vegetables as well meat.

"In parts of the south and southwest France, people are crazy about Cassoulet.

It’s a rustic and robust French country stew that typically includes white beans, pork and poultry. It’s been a favourite for hundreds of years in France and legend has it that the origins go back to the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). During a siege at Castelnaudry, Languedoc, the inhabitants pooled their resources and came up with a casserole. The soldiers ate it and found the strength to fight off the English invaders. The legend of cassoulet was born! Or was it born in Toulouse? Or Carcassonne? Much like the ingredients, stories vary wildly from one area to another and families hold dear to recipes that have passed down the generations. Restaurants can make their name on the back of a delicious cassoulet. At markets, queues form at the most popular stalls.

Making it at home isn’t that difficult, but sometimes it’s not easy to get all the classic ingredients so I’ve given easy alternatives in this recipe. Besides, what’s a classic ingredient in one place, isn’t somewhere else. Some say goose, some say mutton and some say duck… some say breadcrumb topping – other don’t. And, though this dish is all about slow cooking, some recipes call for 3 days of preparation.

There are different ways to approach making cassoulet. Either it’s the epochal recipe of your region or family and involves only using specified ingredients which can be hard to get. Or you can think of it as a sausage and bean casserole…

Most of us don’t have that long, so this recipe takes much less time to prepare.

Ingredients for cassoulet for 6 people

Here, I’ve gone for an easy cassoulet dish that you can make at home."  

-from The Good Life, France

https://thegoodlifefrance.com/easy-cassoulet-recipe-with-chicken-and-sausages/

Update: We didn't have cassoulet but we had a wonderful dinner and  evening with Donna last night. Good friends make everything wonderful. Thank you, Donna! You are very special to us.

Blast from the past

 

As I'm about to take down the Christmas tree, thought I would post from Christmas 2005. 

We had a wonderful dinner at Donna's last night

We sure appreciate her hospitality and friendship not to say good food1

Thank you so much,....it has alway meant a lot but in these COVID times even more, dear friend.

Bisous,

Jim and Janice

Aren't we all dreaming of Spring

 Susan K. posted this sketch on her blog and calling it "Dreaming of Spring"

Linda posted this on her blog yesterday

Sounds like good advice. I'm making up this post Friday morning and there is quite a wind blowing. Hope the power stays on. I think I'l leave the Christmas tree up for a while.

 

National Tempura Day

 Tempura is a deep-fried dish that the Japanese have made for centuries. When did it originate? Let us find out through the history of National Tempura Day!

Learn about National Tempura Day

On National Tempura Day, we are encouraged to enjoy any sort of dish that has been made with tempura batter. This is a Japanese fare, with most people tucking into delicious Tempura prawns on this date! However, there are many things you can deep-fry in this batter. Seafood and vegetables are the most popular, yet there’s nothing stopping you from having Tempura chicken. We are sure that there are plenty of unique concoctions you can come up with as well. Deep-fried Mars bars are popular, so what about a Tempura version?

Tempura is a traditional Japanese dish. It was introduced in the 16th century by the Portuguese that were living in Nagasaki at the time. They used fritter-cooking to achieve the light batter. The batter typically consists of soft wheat flour, for example, all-purpose flour, pastry flour, or cake flour, which is combined with iced water. Some people prefer to use sparkling water to keep the batter light. 

A lot of people will also add spices, oil, starch, baking powder or baking soda, and/or eggs, especially the egg yolk. Traditionally, this batter is mixed in small batches. Chopsticks are used to mix the batter, and it is only mixed minimally, i.e. for a few seconds. Any lumps are left in the mixture, and this – along with the cold temperature – is how the crisp and unique fluffy tempura structure is created when cooking.

Cooked tempura pieces tend to be either salted and eaten as they are or they are presented with a dipping sauce. Tentsuyu sauce is the most common sauce to enjoy with this batter. A lot of people serve it with grated daikon, which is a mild-flavored winter radish, and they eat it straight after it has been fried. You will also find that tempura is typically found in udon soup or bowls of soba in Japan, typically in the form of a fritter, shiso leaf, or shrimp.

It is also not uncommon for tempura to be used in combination with other foods. So, if you want to cook a tempura-inspired meal for National Tempura Day, there are plenty of main dishes for you to consider. As mentioned, you can add tempura to the top of udon soup. It is also typically served as part of a donburi dish, which is where vegetables and tempura shrimp are served over a bowl of steamed rice. You could also make a bowl of tempura soba, which is essentially tempura that is served on top of buckwheat noodles. Or, how about making your very own creation?

Nation

Modernism Week in Palm Springs

 I really wish the best for Palm Springs and hope this year's event goes well. Many happy memories for us and we'll get back one of these days when travel isn't such a hassle.

This year's poster. Just love the simplicity.

Modernism Week’s annual 11-day festival will feature more than 350 events including the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale, tours of iconic homes in more than 30 neighborhoods, and the popular Signature Home Tour. Also offered are architectural walking, biking and double-decker bus tours, a classic car show, a vintage trailer show, garden tours, nightly parties, and a special series of compelling and informative talks. All events are open to the public, and many events are free or low cost.

Another wonderful meal from Hello Fresh....thank you, Richard

 Mid-Eastern Beef Bowls with chopped salad. I supervised Jim and now he has lots of kitchen skills. I don't think I'm going to learn to shovel snow, though:)

The first Holiday Inn in California was in Palm Springs

 

From the Desert Sun:

“The best surprise is no surprise” was the highly effective slogan for Holiday Inn hotels for decades. Unpleasant surprises were the norm in the 1950s when it came to traveling by car on the new interstate highway system, especially when looking for a place to stay.

Kemmons Wilson was more than unpleasantly surprised — he was downright infuriated — on a trip from Memphis to Washington, D.C., with his family in 1951. The New York Times recalled: “On his fateful vacation, Mr. Wilson, already a millionaire home builder, was appalled at the squalor of many guest accommodations, but his anger was piqued by having to pay $2 extra for each of his five children. He told his wife that he was going to start a hotel chain, one that did not charge extra for children. His wife laughed and asked how many motels he planned. He thought 400 for starters.”

I found it interesting that he implemented the idea of not charging extra for children sharing the same room. When we first travelled to Europe with Richard as a child it really was annoying to pay a supplement for a child sharing the same room especially when there was usually just a cot brought in for them and no extra space. I always assumed children weren't ever charged extra in the North America. Thank you Kemmons Wilson!

We used Holiday Inn a lot on road trips especially before Trip Advisor could give you the lowdown on unknown places. It was a consistent experience without surprises.

Introducing "Moonpie"

 This is the neighbour's cat that Richard and Grace are looking after. 

I really loved Susan K.'s sketch of Dr. Bonnie!

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

We've been sorting and organising books and the card for this restaurant (Provence Marinaside) fell out. We really enjoyed going there. The food was amazing and I think that's where they have the fabulous shrimp and crab cakes. I'm almost always disappointed with what restaurants do with these and was trying to remember where I had some wonderful ones. Ah...dining out at fine restaurants. We seem to have gotten completely out of that with COVID. This may have to be one of the first places we try. Sounds like a good New Year's Resolution.

These are the shrimp and crab cakes.