New Year's Eve

As seen here:

Detail of people drinking, from a treatise on the Seven Vices, Add MS 27695, f. 14r

A picture above of revelers from the past making merry in their own way.  For us, champagne at home and asleep way before that ball descends in Times Square.

Three loads of fabric including linens and clothing in the trunk of the car for a Good Will run, house cleaned, and soup about to be cooked.  That is my New Year's Eve, in a nutshell.

This is a five star recipe from Alton Brown from Food Network.  I am hungry already.  Lunch soon.

What are your evening plans, if I may ask?

First Sunday in Advent: Questions for Angels

A pilgrim on a pilgrimage
Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
His sneakers torn
In the hour when the homeless move their cardboard blankets
And the new day is born
Folded in his backpack pocket
The questions that he copied from his heart
Who am I in this lonely world?
And where will I make my bed tonight?
When twilight turns to dark

Questions for the angels
Who believes in angels?
Fools do
Fools and pilgrims all over the world

If you shop for love in a bargain store
And you don't get what you bargained for
Can you get your money back?
If an empty train in a railroad station
Calls you to it's destination
Can you choose another track?
Will I wake up from these violent dreams
With my hair as white as the morning moon?

Questions for the angels
Who believes in angels?
I do
Fools and pilgrims all over the world

Downtown Brooklyn
The pilgrim is passing a billboard
That catches his eye
It's Jay-Z
He's got a kid on each knee
He's wearing clothes that he wants us to try

If every human on the planet and all the buildings on it
Should disappear
Would a zebra grazing in the African Savannah
Care enough to shed one zebra tear?
Questions for the angels

Thank The Lord

It now being the early morning of Thanksgiving Day in the USA, it came to mind the phrase "thank the Lord".  I can clearly hear my grandmother saying those words even though it has been three decades since she has gone to her eternal reward.   Mom usually said that phrase in an off-the-cuff manner and, most often, in such a quiet tone that only she was meant to hear.

So now, thank the Lord, I am sitting in a warm house, in front of a cozy fire, hot coffee nearby, hoping you are looking at your day ahead with a grateful heart and praying you are counting your blessings, as well.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens his will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to his name: He forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!
Amen

Traditional Thanksgiving Hymn

(A translation by Theodore Baker: 1851-1934)

There is Nothing I Can Give You Which You Have Not

I salute you and there is nothing I can give which you have not, but there is much while I cannot give it, you may take it. No heaven can come to us unless we find it in our hearts today. So take heaven. No joy can come to us, unless it comes to us in this present moment. Take joy. No peace can come to us, unless we find it right now. Take peace. (Father Giovanni, 1513)

Franz Cižek (Austrian artist, 1865-1946) Santa with Toys 1910-20 

Merry Christmas!

Favorite Christmas Images

Just to share some beautiful Christmas images I have been collecting on Pinterest, and hope you take a moment to enjoy the season... 

Angel with Lute di Jacopo (Italian Mannerist painter, 1494–1540) source

Luca Signorelli (1441-1523) source

source

George Bernard O’Neil (Irish artist, 1828-1917) Hanging the Mistletoe 1892 source

Gustave Brion (French painter, 1824-1877) Christmas Singers Detail 1856 source

Melozzo da Flori (Italian Renaissance artist, 1438-1494)

 Angel Playing the Tambourine source

That is a DOG by the fire! source

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linking to Inspiration Avenue and  the Victorian Era

source

Pigs Can't Fly, but Goats?

This from The Daily Mail:

We all know pigs can’t fly — but last month we learned that goats can climb trees. Because water sources were scarce, these billies climbed up to chew on a 17ft argan tree’s tough berries. But don’t expect British goats to follow in their footsteps, as these Tamri types in Morocco have two toes that spread out to help them climb, plus soft soles for grip.

I'll be in Texas for ten days, so will not be posting for a while. In the meantime,

Best Wishes for a Happy New 2012 Year!

A Kid's View of the Christmas Story

Thanks for sending this my way, Dottie.

Christmas Music with Cello

Top favorite buy this year for me in the genre of Christmas music was Christmas Cello Music - Piano and Cello Music for Christmas Dinner by New Age (Dec., 2011 by Winter Hill Records).

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (Italian Mannerist painter, 1494–1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning the Red Florentine in Italian) Angel with Lute Madonna dello Spedalingo

Take a listen to Christmas instrumental music with cello accompaniment:

5th Graders: Quinhagak, Alaska - Hallelujah Chorus

Hans Holbein the Elder (c 1460 -1524) Angels

Madonna Con Gesu Bambino and Icons

This is Esteban Murillo's portrait of the Madonna and Child, located in the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. Murillo painted this about 1650.

I purchased a small copy of this work on eBay about ten years ago and have been trying to paint a similar portrait from this print for probably just as long.  I finally "finished" this last year, and am displaying it on a table with other Madonna and Child icons in our living area.  This is my rendition:

It obviously pales in comparison to the real work, but it was an enjoyable artistic challenge.  When I look at the face of Mary that I have painted, she looks quite a bit older than fourteen or fifteen, but the gist of her facial expression has a sweet countenance.

Many more of Murillo's paintings can be found here on a slideshow.

This is a picture of two tops of tables displaying my icons of Madonna and Child which I have collected over the past dozen years while traveling.  Each comes from a different country [Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Venice and Florence)  New Zealand (Christchurch), America, and several place in the United Kingdom including one from St. Abbey's Cathedral in London].  One is a beautiful Christmas card that a friend sent one year in the mail.

These icons serve as our holiday "Christmas Tree"

Thanksgiving Day

From the 1800's, depicting Thanksgiving in Colonial Times:

Thanksgiving 1915 A Colonial Revival Painting of The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (American painter, 1863-1930).

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,

Patient of labour when the end was rest,

Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,

With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

~Alexander Pope

Norman Rockwell, 1942, published in The Saturday Evening Post

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~Erma Bombeck

Memorial Day Birthday for Evan

My nephew's birthday party over the weekend...fun was had by all!