Spider story (Isn't it the day for it?)

You have to feel sorry for the spider, though...
http://joelhaasstories.blogspot.com/2006/05/i-kill-spider.html

In case you crave more scary tales...

http://filletfish.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3DSpider%2BStories

Pulse Park, NYC

Here's a new way to express yourself while viewing an art exhibit,

putting your heart into it so to speak.

It's located at Madison Square Park north of 23rd Street

between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue South.

http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/51352/

More Litchfield pictures

Cheryl and Priscilla, showing height difference

The Alpha window, attributed to the Tiffany Studios.

The Omega window is on the other side

Another window



More windows above magnificent carvings



Priscilla and Cheryl, showing even greater height difference

Litchfield, October 26, 2008

Priscilla, Cheryl and Kristen

Cheryl and Kristen


Some of the wonderful carving work in the Chancel

To quote the brochure, "The floor tiling of the nave and aisles is laid with custom terra cotta quarries by the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works of Doylestown, PA and are copies of a fifteenth-century English Priory". Also just as pretty: Kristen's boot.

Sospiro Winds rehearsing before the performance

Looking over my photos and reading the brochure on St. Michael's I realize how much I didn't photograph, such as the organ with 2221 pipes and the fragment from Litchfield Cathedral in England. Guess I was too busy gawking.

(More photos to come on next posting)

Ribbitt!!

It was wonderful meeting my blogging buddies Cheryl and Kristen yesterday in Litchfield,CT. Cheryl presented me with a delightful frog pin. Thank you, Cheryl! I was touched. I hope he will stay on.
(These ladies are slimmer than they let on...all that talk about having gained weight! They looked just gorgeous)
Never fear, I'm going to post some pictures later today.....
The weather was gorgeous, the drive up 584 and 84 was a visual treat, and to meet friends at the end of the drive was heartwarming. St. Michael's was impressive with its Tiffany windows and elaborate wood carving. The town of Litchfield is wonderful, with old houses, open spaces, interesting shops, and hills in the distance (which impressed 2 flatlanders from Long Island). The Yale choral group was so skilful and enthusiastic it did my heart good...choral singing doesn't get much better than that. After the concert we walked around and discovered the many magnificent old houses on North St. (Rte. 63). Wow!
What a day!
The best of it, though, was meeting Cheryl and Kristen.

Reading Adventures

I've just been browsing in a blog named "Reading Adventures". It is the brainchild of a Marg in Melbourne, Australia. How fascinating to see what other people are reading! She must be a speed reader...so many titles. I found her blog on the Blogger Buzz Blog's list "Blogs of Note". Gorgeous photo at the heading, too.

http://readingadventures.blogspot.com/

We're coming to Connecticut

This Sunday, Oct. 26, my friend Mary and I are planning to drive up to CT for a concert in Litchfield. It's at 4:00 at St. Michael's Church (25 South St.)

http://www.yale.edu/ism/events/AutumnWindsCamerata.html

Since we'll be in your neck of the woods, Cheryl/Kristen/Maureen, I would love it if we could get together before the concert for coffee or something? Depending on traffic we hope to arrive in Litchfield between 3:00 and 3:30. Maybe you'd even like to attend the concert with us....

(P.S. The creature above is a Gorgon.)

Here's some info on the piece they're doing.
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bbutler/play/music/unicorn/

Orpheus Charming the Animals

This is the postcard image I bought at the Pierpont Morgan Library.

"Orpheus Charming the Animals"
by Jacob Hoefnagel (1575-c. 1630).

Cheryl and her menagerie.

An image from the Internet--what a difference.

Would you rescue him, Cheryl?

Some critters are lovable, some are not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/science/21blood.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

Bartleby the Scrivener

This enigmatic novella by Herman Melville is subtitled "A Story of Wall Street". Appropriate for these troubled times? Well, not really. It was written in 1853 and the setting is a long-gone business way of life. Bartleby is a humble copy person, a human Xerox machine. But he can do one thing that a machine cannot...he can choose.

http://www.enotes.com/bartleby-scrivener-text/bartleby-scrivener-1

Avalon Park, October 16, 2008

Three attempts to capture the beauty of this park in Stony Brook on a hazy day from a high up lookout point.

Holy moly!

When did that happen? Seems just the other day it was at $4.30.

What is gas in your area?

Bought some tape and a candy bar yesterday

and look at all the CHANGE I got! Felt quite rich walking around with my pockets full.

Change we need, and change I got!

(Actually I gave the kid a twenty and a nickle and 2 pennies and had to prompt him to give me 15.00 back)

The King of the Golden River

One of my favorite books from childhood is this fairy tale that features good little Gluck winning out in spite of all obstacles and with the help of Southwest Wind, Esquire. The author is John Ruskin (1819-1900), who is most famous for art criticism. The book was written in 1841 but published in 1851. Have any of you read it before? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_the_Golden_River.
There have been several illustrators starting with Richard Doyle in 1851. The pictures I soaked up as a child (see above) were by Fritz Kredel in the 1946 edition (World Rainbow Classics) and this edition is for me the only real King of the Golden River.
Although reading a story online is less than thrilling--nothing like having the actual book in one's hot little hands--here is the complete text for the next time you need escape reading.
http://www.kellscraft.com/ruskinkingcontents.html

Decisions, decisions

I decided not to decide (for now).

They're all too big and dazzling for my small garden.

Doggone it, here's a shout-out...

.... that needed to be said if you care about the English language at all. Maureen Dowd has hit the nail on the head once again!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/opinion/05dowd.html?ei=5070

Hike yesterday: St. John's Pond Preserve

This little gem of a park (14 acres) in Cold Spring Harbor is maintained by the Nature Conservancy. It has some old growth areas with huge trees... the terrain is so steep farming was impossible. A sawmill once used the water power of the pond but is gone now, replaced by a fish hatchery. Along the trail there's a steep upward slope on one side and a steep downward slope to the pond on the other side.
Looking down the slope at a colorful mossy log.


Looking downward at another spot. Forgot to take pictures of the cathedral effect of very tall beeches, yellow birch, black birch, tulip trees, maples and oaks.

As Ovid has told us in the Metamorphoses, animals and people CAN turn into trees. Here we have a bird (see the eye?) turning into the root of a chestnut oak.

Seeking help for automotive problem

My car's sun visor has gone on strike. Something inside has popped...a spring?... and the darn thing won't stay in the up position., just flops freely. They tell me a new one would be amazingly expensive. Does anyone have any ideas for a solution? Those black marks are bits of velcro I stuck there, but that didn't work (glue too gooey; doesn't hold for more than 10 seconds.)

This is how it should look...and does for 10 seconds.

The passenger side visor is okay. So, all you engineering brains out there, what should be secured to what, and with what, to make the visor stay up?

This is Banned Books Week

Little Red Riding Hood? Banned? Ye gods!

In celebration of Banned Books Week here is a list of books that have at one time or another been banned or suppressed and some of them may surprise you. We need to be ever vigilant that our freedom to read what we choose is not limited or abolished by any group or individual.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/banned-books.html

http://myweb.dal.ca/barkerb/fairies/grimm/026.html The version called Little Red-Cap

They're all we've got