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.

Richard did the Gran Fondo

And has the photos to prove it.

Well, we went for a walk on the beach :)

"I rented an old man"

This was the name of an article in "Postscript: TheMagazine for Retired Educators"

It's a pretty catchy title so turned to read it first. It seems like a pretty good idea and made me wonder if such services exist outside of Japan. I imagine they do. 

https://www.tofugu.com/reviews/ossan-rental/

The woman who submitted this articles has a blog:

www.thewayofwords.com

She posts some interesting stuff so perhaps I'll take a look at her posts from time to time.

Just love all this amazing stuff that comes up

 "Queen Elizabeth"

With Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO

.

This lady is amazing!

She was a Mechanic in the British army when she was a young lady!

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth by Andy Warhol

 I've always been interested in Warhol's artistic take. I thought this was pretty good at capturing her regality and intelligence, 

The Brits are great at queuing ...

 

London

CNN — 

It is a moment for which Britain has been in solemn preparation for years. Multiple official agencies were brought together. Meticulous plans were secretly drawn up. Intricate logistical technicalities were ironed out. A route was carefully mapped out. 

And no country’s population could have been better prepared for it.

We are talking, of course, about the queue which Britons must join in order to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II. This is not an ordinary line. It has taken on symbolic meaning, a ritual to be undertaken, an embodiment of the national mood. It is, in short, The Queue.

It snakes from Westminster Hall, where the late monarch’s body is lying in state, for miles along the south bank of the River Thames. It stretches past landmarks such as the London Eye (constructed at the turn of the millennium), the Royal Festival Hall (opened in 1951, the year before Princess Elizabeth’s accession to the throne) and the Globe theater (a throwback to a previous Elizabethan age). Plans are in place for it to be as long as nine miles, or 14.5 kilometers.

Love his work!

 Well, primary colours (and colours that seem like primary colours),  interesting shapes.  I may just get motivated to do something.

Colour Zone, 2000 

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Acrylic on canvas  
106 in x 78 in (H x W)
269.25 cm x 198.12 cm (H x W)
Price on request, for more information please contact artsales@vancouverbiennale.com

Sale proceeds will establish two Vancouver Biennale residencies for Indigenous artists. 

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is one of the most prominent outspoken contemporary First Nations artists working today and is projected to be one of the most relevant of our time. Colour Zone is one of Yuxweluptun's most significant ovoid works. In this canvas, ovoid forms serve as the central element.  Ovoids are the foundational building blocks of classic Northwest Coast Indigenous design and are unique in Yuxweluptun's work as they are used as non-pictorial compositions to  convey critical issues of the human plight such as self-determination, self-government, social conditions and Indigenous philosophy.   Strategically placing different colours of ovoids around a background  in a chaotic matter, Yuxweluptun talks about the frustration, struggles, and confusion of one's identity that occurred in the minds of the Indigenous peoples throughout the colonization of what is colloquially referred to as Canada.  ​

​

I loved this recent photo of Queen Elizabeth and Justin Trudeau

I wonder how many times the Queen met with dignitaries and officials in her long lifetime. This is a recent encounter and I am touched by what seems like honest sincerity on her part. 

Her Majesty met Canada's Justin Trudeau several times, including earlier this year at Windsor

The Queen's dogs

 Anyone who loves dogs must be a good person :)

This is my favourite photo of the Queen with her dogs.

Glad to see this news about Notre Dame

 My blog readers probably remember I was in tears on hearing my beloved Notre Dame sustained a fire. 

Work Begins on Restoring Notre Dame’s 170-Year-Old Stained Glass Windows

More than three years after a fire badly damaged Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, work has begun to restore the building’s iconic stained glass windows. Per Reuters, most of the 170-year-old windows survived the blaze but became covered in smoke and dust, blocking light from streaming through the glass. In order to avoid damaging the windows in the cleaning process, restorers must gently rub the colorful surfaces with a mixture of water and ethanol. Flavie Serriere Vincent-Petit, the head of a stained glass company near Paris, is in charge of restoring 22 of the 39 windows. She told the outlet they are currently in a “major cleaning phase,” which when completed will ultimately “give back full brightness to Notre Dame.”It is one of many concurrent projects to get the historic, centuries-old cathedral back to where it was before the 2019 fire. In July, France’s Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said they are on track to reopen Notre Dame to the public in 2024 — when the country is set to host the Summer Olympics.

Loved this Asimov quote

A bit of humour in this sad time

 

Tributes to Queen Elizabeth

 I continue to be amazed at the tributes around the world to Queen Elizabeth. I guess I shouldn't be as there has been a world wide fascination with the Royals for a long time. I have always admired how well she handled this very difficult role she was thrust into.