Walking down to my village, Northmoor

It's been a wonderful summer day round here. It was the perfect day for a lunch time visit with our friends Chris and Diane.After lunch, Robert and Chris wanted to talk cars and general boy stuff, so Diane and I decided to walk down to the village to look around, post a letter, and visit the church.Northmoor is about a mile down the lane form West Cottage, past fields and farms and country estates.We saw this big guy! Look at the size of his horns!Further down the lane we found these little lambs who came trotting to us and they were so loud!I fed them some dandelion leaves.In the village, the cottages are so lovely. I love the old English feeling of our village.Then up to and into the church.And said hello to my Knights Templar Thomas Moore......and his lady Isabel.We walked around inside the church and read the grave stones and carvings.Had one more look around and walked back up the lane to the cottage. :D

Village open garden tour which turned into a visit

My friend Elaine called Sunday morning to say come to the village open garden tour from 2-4 pm.We said we would love to.Well, I was dying to visit and catch up with Elaine and William, and so the village garden tour turned into a visit one garden and stay put tour. (Besides, Elaine made tea and some wonderful cakes). :DElaine and William's garden is a wonderful British mix of jumbled beds of flowers......and beautiful cultivated organisation......all backing onto a field, walking distance to the Thames.There's plenty of whimsy in the garden, (like this flute playing frog and tons of bells tied to the branches of a tree), and Elaine had some lovely pots of plants and home grown fruit for sale.One of the visitors described the garden as a little fantasy garden for children to play and I can see why. There's a lovely open grassy area for turning cartwheels and somersaults, hidey areas behind trees and under arches and little paths thru little woods and shady, ferny places.And there's a pond with reeds, waterlilies and beautiful little goldfish.I asked Elaine for a little piece of this spectacular Gyppsophilia for my garden. I'd love to grow it in memory of Theo.So we wandered around the garden having our tea and cake, chatted with new friends and connected with old.And had the most wonderful afternoon. :D

Inner Eye, Susan's wonderful drawing challenge

Last week, Ariane announced that Susan had offered "Inner Eye" as this weekend's drawing challenge.I happily jumped at the chance to participate. Inner eye, how hard can that be?Turns out that it was pretty hard for me. I don't mean difficult as in technique, I mean difficult as in feeling satisfied with an image to depict the subject.I think I drove Robert crazy with the constant reevaluating.At first I broke down the inner eye, the third eye, the Sanskrit Ajna, the Shiva Hakini, three petals of the white lotus, moon and sun, my yoga practice...there's too much, you know? In the end I was most satisfied with the white lotus, and that's what I started to draw and then paint.The painting evolved any old way along my favourite "as the cell divides" method. I used pencils and inks and pens and acrylics and watercolours and charcoals.I still have Mucha in my mind and so it took on a somewhat Art Nouveau bend. I still have Klimt in my mind and so some of Klimt's colours and shapes popped in. And, by this morning, I put this painting down and had a big sigh.I'm not satisfied with it.The more I looked at the white lotus on that yellow, golden background, the more I wasn't satisfied with it, the more I came to Poe.The lotus reminded of my favourite Poe story, Silence, a Fable, and the following:"The waters of the river have a saffron and sickly hue --and they flow not onwards to the sea, but palpitate forever and forever beneath the red eye of the sun with a tumultuous and convulsive motion. For many miles on either side of the river's oozy bed is a pale desert of gigantic water-lilies. They sigh one unto the other in that solitude, and stretch towards the heaven their long ghastly necks, and nod to and fro their everlasting heads."And, while I read it, I looked at the amazing art of William Heath Robinson.And this afternoon I picked up a page of Chums; a boy's magazine from 1910.I started to draw the white lotus again, ghastly and ghostly in it's sickly hued morass, sighing, unto the others.This time I'm satisfied. :DCome have a look at Susan's site and our friends' wonderful ideas about this challenge.

A day at Aston Tirrold

Today Robert and I went to the lovely village of Aston Tirrold to help R's sister Catherine prepare for her house move.She took us out to lunch at the local pub The Crown.Do you know English village pubs? If you do, don't you just love them?Most have an outdoor patio......and that quaint Old English feel inside.According to Wiki, there are 261 different The Crown pubs in England and they have nothing to do with each other, unlike The Slug and Lettuce pubs which are a chain...go figure. :DPub and house names are an ancient tradition round here. Most likely, some proprietor of this The Crown, wanted to show his loyalty to the royalty of the day. House names rarely change round here.We three ordered the first three things on the menu and had a seat and looked around.I know that sometimes estate firms offer "a wealth of old oak" as a selling feature for period homes, but this pub really does have a wealth of old oak, from the lovely beams and special little iron brackets to the floors.And, of course, the obligatory beers and ales on draught.Later in the afternoon we relaxed in the garden with Catherine's cat Jet.He's a big, soft squishy bun of a boy. We were wondering who is bigger, Jet or Milo. Then we wondered what would happen if we could put them nose to nose to compare. Probably a lot of fur would fly...lol.We coaxed shy little Sable out from the tall grass......and, eventually, Lynx came back from the fields for a cuddle, and proceeded to dribble all over everyone with sheer teenage happiness. Lynxey is a very young cat and, like most teenagers, was squirmy and impossible to hold still, so sorry about the blurred photos; these were the best out of at least 20, but you can sort of see how pretty she is. Also, I rarely get to see her because she's always off in the fields killing something, so this was a big treat for me.We had a lovely day, and it was wonderful for me to catch up and see the garden and the kitties.Looking forward to seeing you again next week Catherine. :D

Here I am in England! At home.

Look what Robert had waiting for me!But that's not all. Look what else was waiting for me!This is my new car; it's a vintage, 1970's series 3 Land Rover.And it's MINE! Robbie bought it for me and he and Jason fixed almost everything on it in time for me to get here.By the way, it's been named DODO (as per the license plate)! So I'm introducing you to The Dodo. You'll probably see a lot of it and my mini this summer, (which by the way has been named The Doctor because the license plate says DOC. I need a Dalek key chain for my mini...lol).What I thought when I got here was that I only had three tea bags left in the cupboard. How could I survive with only three tea bags? :( There just is no way! So I asked R to drive to the store so I could get some more tea.Then we cleaned up the cupboard and found all this tea! :DBut he still drove to the store to get me some fresh tea bags.Ah...my hero!Now we're at home. R is with our friend Alan trying to sort out a problem on Alan's car and I've just picked this lovely, fat Nigella seed pod out of the garden......and drew it on the page that says "English".It's good to be here. :D

Last day in Prague

You know what?I love Art Deco! I think I want to redecorate everything Art Deco. Art Deco and Alphonse Mucha. Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau and Gustav Klimt. (sigh)(sigh)Today I was very excited, because I was meeting my second cousin Marian, (son of my cousin...is that how you say it? Second cousin? I never know), for lunch. I have him on my FB and we've known of each other for a few years now but never managed to meet, but I went to see his brilliant performance last night.I got a sneaky idea. I stole gently borrowed an image from his FB from the production last night so you could get the feeling. (Hope you don't mind Marian) That's Marian and his leading lady Andrea.Well, we finally met last night after the performance and we spent the whole afternoon walking around Prague and getting to know each other.We stopped for lunch and then up here on this roof top for a drink and then I spied the tower where he preformed the play. I didn't have a chance to see the view from up there last night and so we decided to go have a look.This is the view down the tower where you can see the small marble and slate cobbles the sidewalks are made from. The streets are made form much larger cobbles.And that ancient tower is so tall that one can see over the whole city in 360 degrees.The view to Hradcany, (the castle district), with that huge Gothic church is my favourite view. Can you see how pink the light is?Sadly, all things must end, and so we hugged and said goodbye and promised to keep in touch, and, after a little rest, I headed back into the evening town to do a bit of shopping.Stood in front of the Orloj and heard it strike nine pm, and I walked and walked around some more till night.I love Prague. I love Prague in the sunshine, and in the rain.A big piece of my heart is right here. Safely cradled in pink light and shinning with gold.Right here.Right now.And forever.

Third day in Prague ended up being a long and wonderful one

Holy smokes, where is the time going?The time is just running by and it seems to me that all I'm doing is walking round from place to place, cross town and back.Mornings in Prague are the loveliest. Just as the sun begins to warm the ochre walls and light up all the golden decorations.That's also the best time to peek into every church and thru every doorway without the summer tourists getting in the way.Then I got on the metro and tram system......and made my way to Vyšehrad, a 10th Century fort and cemetery.Came to find Neruda, Dvorak and Smetana.Also came to see the view over Prague. Do you see Prague Castle over there in the distance? That's how far I've come,It's a bit less city here, more garden.And then I went to the other side to find my grandparents.Here they are. The block marble plaque on the crypt translates as "members of the Alemann family", and in the crypt are my great grandparents (grandfather's side), my grandparents Karel and Anna, both of his sisters Maria and Ella, his brother Emil, and his sister's companion Zora.Here is the church below the cemetery. This is the church my great grandparents were married in.And now for something completely different, a combined photo titled V and the magpie feather because...I've made my way back to Prague to the Dali Exhibit!I so love Dali. Everything about surrealism, expressionism. crazy, zany-ism. Love it.Left: self portrait with cod piece... :DRows and rows and rooms full of Dali.And on a floor right above Dali is Alphonse Mucha.You must know this Czech painter and illustrator, or at least know his style. It's so iconic.And, how lucky are we? On the floor above is a Warhol exhibit! Our cup of soup runneth over. :DYeah, me too.And, in the evening, I went to the top of the tallest Gothic bell tower in Prague, called Jindrisska, up those little stairs, to sit under three ancient bells named Maria (1518 and 500 kg), Jindrich, (1680, and 3350 kg), and Dominic, (1850 and 1000 kg), and watch a dramatic performance featuring a friend of mine, the son of my cousin.It was the most unforgettable experience.One more full day in Prague and off to E on Sunday. :)

Nude, Patrice's wonderful drawing challenge

I'm all over the place right now, but I couldn't miss Patrice's wonderful drawing challenge "nude", so I prepared this digital art earlier.This is my first try at digital art. Layers of my photography, old postcards, old maps, old letters, a couple of free stock images, and a bit of manipulative work with Photoshop. If anyone wants a through breakdown of the system, I'm happy to tell you all. :DDon't forget to come by Patrice's site and check out the other fabulous artists.

Here I am in Prague

Letadlo!Letadlo, letadlo letadlo!I just spent 16 hours in it and can't for the life of me think of the word when talking to the taxi driver! Airplane! A-e-ro-plan! I have to pseudo-Czech spell it out...Letadlo...duh....and what's more I just came from the Letište...Airport! I can't believe how hard I have to search for the simple, everyday words!But nevermind, here I am at last. In my hometown. With my people. Even if apparently I can't speak the language any more...lol. No, don't worry, I can.Oh it was hard to wake up this morning. Jet-lag's a bitch, but the Hilton is central and after a morning of running round various government offices, I made it down to old town square for a little lunch.And watched the Orloj, the 15C anatomical clock, strike 2 pm. Watched as Vanity, the Miser and the Turk shook their heads as the skeleton rang the bell. Death comes to all in the end and nothing can save us. Not beauty, not money, not power. And then the cock crowed and tears filled my eyes.It must be the jet-lag...ahem.I marched across St Charles bridge, listening to the bands, looking at the little stalls of paintings and handicrafts on my way to climb up to the Hradcany (Castle Prague).Bent over the edge of the bridge and spent a long time gazing at the Vltava.Looked down at the mill wheel on the canal under the other end of the bridge. I painted this scene years ago. Where did I put the painting? It's probably in storage in the loft of my garage. Now I want to have it in the house when I get back.And I touched everything. Felt everything. Looked everywhere. Am one with the city.I walked up a street called Neruda. After Jan Neruda, the famous poet who so inspired Pablo Neruda that the later changed his last name to the same. Walked up that street for my late aunt. He was her favourite poet. Came to St Nicholas Church and walked inside. And I stayed for a while inside the vast and holy, pink, Baroque building, full of prayers, and paintings and postulates.And then climbed higher, up the the castle and looked down over the red roofs.In the castle is the most glorious Gothic cathedral of St Vitus.Then down the castle stairs, down thru the town, down to the river and touched the water. Rinsed my hands in it. Like a baptism of sorts. I've come home.You know, whenever I get here, I'm always here in the summer, and that means road works. I always steal expropriate gently borrow alright steal a cobblestone to take home. I hope I'm forgiven by anyone who sees me doing this. I hope they understand that I need to take a piece of Prague home. A real piece, something that holds the pink light and warm glow of Prague and not some commercial meaninglessness expressed in a mug or tea towel. I need this home to be with me.It's late now, and I just came back the National Theatre to see a unique Carmen this evening. With music played by members of the Prague Symphony, danced by the Prague Royal Ballet, and sung by members of the Prague Opera. All on stage at the same time! I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it was.I stopped at the open farmers market......and bought some supper.Sweet dreams everyone. More of the same...heaven... tomorrow. :D Please forgive me if I don't answer everyone right away. Time is short and the internet is a bit dodgy. But please know that I feel so grateful to all of you who stop by and look. Big hugs.Your tired friend in Prague. X

Taking a chance

Yesterday, C and I pointed the car west and began to climb out of the Okanagan valley up, up, and up the Coastal mountain range for what seemed like an awfully long time. Driving my large 4-wheel drive often means that open windows leave little room for conversation, however air conditioning leaves us dying for fresh air. So, when we were two hours driving, I spied a little turn off and a little dirt road which promised a lake.Look at those inviting clouds showing the way. Can you blame us? :DAbout two km down the road and there it was. A perfect little lake in the middle of meadows set about with wild flowers.We stopped the car, got out and decided we needed a walk around. How glorious and warm the day was.The crickets were chirping, the red-winged blackbirds singing, the swallows swooping above the water where a loon was diving, and, every so often, a lake trout jumped for a fly and landed with a gentle "glop" sound and perfectly circular ripples.We walked and then we sat and took it all in for a long time.And then, we hit that interminable highway again.Sharing with Mary at Mosaic Monday