For Rent Glemsford 625.00 Pounds Sterling, Fully Furnished

This is a darling little house for rent in Glemsford.  Fully furnished, just the little place you would love to live in out in the country.  Sorry I could not get larger photos.

Click Here and go have a look.

Christy

Sunset on Wednesday

I got home from work at about 5:30 PM and we, Bo and I probably got out of the house and over to the park by 5:45 PM.  I wanted to get out and enjoy what was left of a beautiful day after being stuck in the office all day.

Twilight is never long where we live, so by 6:30PM when we got back to the car it was quite dark.  But the setting sun was lovely and now I have a new Blog banner appropriate for this time of year, as it is my neck of the woods today, Wednesday 7th March 2012.

So I have both photos of the sun setting and the moon rising. The first photo I took which was at the grave yard is my favourite and that is what I used for my banner.

Christy

An Azores Tablecloth

The Azores are an archipelago of islands 800 miles off the coast of Portugal and belong to Portugal.  They are very isolated, but lush and green.  Known for beautiful hedgerows of flowers, lilies, gardenias and many others.  Oranges grow there and because of their lush greenery they have herds of Frisians.

So when we visited several years ago we so much enjoyed the scenery.  And of course we went in the little shop at the Pineapple Plantation, where everything was quite expensive so didn't buy anything.  But it has been my experience that sooner or later it will turn up at the thrift shop.  Just like this brand new little tablecloth from the Azores did.  So how could I pass it by having been there.

The twin lakes are beautiful and we did visit them.  They are extant volcano craters.  I'll have to look through my photos of the Azores and post some.

Christy

iPiccy

iPiccy

I heard that this is a good replacement for Picnik.  Actually I never liked Picnik but I think I will like iPiccy;  which is in the Beta state, in it's trial stage.

It seems you can do lots of fun things with your photos.

I cropped a corner out of a photo and added a couple of random functions, sketch and a watermark of my Blog name, quite fun.

Christy 

Just Remembering Paris

Just remembering our last day in Paris together, Rob and I at a little Bistro just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower.

Happy times.

Christy

Ghanan Market Basket

Hand woven in Bolgantanga, Ghana West Africa.  Made with veta vera grass, commonly known as elephant grass.  I really do like my Bolga Bag.  One came up at a very reasonable price on Ebay.  Such a lot of work goes into these.

Christy

Pieces In My Kitchen

Just a few bits in my kitchen.  I like the ceramic muffin pans.  Metal ones always seem to rust however much you try to clean them and the non-stick always comes off and I think you land up eating it so I don't like them much.  The apple one makes huge muffins, that was thrifted, but I couldn't pass it by because you don't often see the ceramic pans.

A little tile with a dog rose impression bought while on vacation in Massachusetts, at a lovely country tile studio.

An English mug, with a Miss Marple type scenery, little birds nest plates, a bowl from Brittany, which has little style handles either side, only unfortunately the worse for chips.

Last but not least my bakers rack; which I brought for our other house, where it had to fit into a small area as it does here.  It truly does hold and display a lot.

Well just a few pieces in my kitchen.

Christy

Tea 1919 by Matisse

Matisse's painting, 'Tea', 1919. The samovar on the table once belonged to Sarah. She traded it to the artist for a drawing.

Imagine having Henri Matisse, a titan of modern art, as a teacher in Paris. Sarah Stein did.
Sarah, sister-in-law of celebrated Oakland native and poet Gertrude Stein, and Gertrude's brothers Leo and Michael, together in Paris collected the work of Pablo Picasso and Matisse - the 20th century's greatest painters - before and after the year in which Leo and Sarah studied there with Matisse. Fortunately, Sarah took notes.
Imagine having Henri Matisse, a titan of modern art, as a teacher in Paris. Sarah Stein did.

Sarah, sister-in-law of celebrated Oakland native and poet Gertrude Stein, and Gertrude's brothers Leo and Michael, together in Paris collected the work of Pablo Picasso and Matisse - the 20th century's greatest painters - before and after the year in which Leo and Sarah studied there with Matisse. Fortunately, Sarah took notes.

Christy

Dig For Victory

Always good to learn some new tips for gardening and I did from this old WWII video.

Contemporary Painting of the Mona Lisa

A painting thought to be the earliest copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and painted alongside the original has been discovered in Madrid's Prado museum in Spain, giving another insight into what the model for one of the world's most famous paintings actually looked like.



The discovery, hailed as one of the most remarkable in recent times, was made during conservation work and is believed to reveal how the famous sitter would have looked at the time.


"This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world's most famous picture," said Art Newspaper, which published the findings.


The Prado painting was long thought to be one of dozens of surviving replicas of the masterpiece made after Da Vinci's death, but it is now believed to have been painted by one of his key pupils working alongside the master.


The Louvre museum original, displayed behind glass, is obscured by cracked darkened varnish, making the woman appear much older than her true age. Because of its fragility, cleaning and restoration is thought to be too risky.


But art historians believe the Prado's Mona Lisa reveals her as she would have looked at the time.


"It gives a much more vivid impression of her enticing eyes and enigmatic smile," reported Art Newspaper.


The discovery of a contemporary copy of the Mona Lisa painted in the same studio of the master has been accepted by experts at both the Louvre and the Prado.


The sitter is generally believed to represent Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine cloth merchant Francesco del Giocondo and is thought to have been painted between 1503 and 1506.


Ana Gonzalez Mozo, a technical specialist at the Prado, presented the findings at a conference on Leonardo da Vinci at London's National Gallery last month.


She said that what was most exciting about the Prado replica is what it reveals about Leonardo's original. In the Madrid copy there are areas that are better preserved than in the Louvre painting.

I just thought that this was so interesting, another painting of the Mona Lisa.  Done by a student at the same time and not a copy.

Christy

New In The Kitchen

A couple of additions to my kitchen.  First the salt and pepper shakers, when I saw those bright red poppies I thought what a lovely splash of colour and you know I love poppies.  They came in a very pretty sturdy little box.  Rob came home and said do you have a little box for me to make a Pin Hole Camera?  So voila!  I gave him that one to use, problem solved without a big house hunt.

I had one of those glass cutting boards by the sink, not that I ever cut on it because I think they would ruin your knives, they feel and sound awful to cut on, but they do come in some very pretty picture designs, but after a while they fade, or being by the sink, water gets under them and the backer starts to come off.  So since I came up with the idea of a large cutting board, and put some plastic feet on it.  It reminds me of the old kitchen draining boards, which used to be wood.  I remember Mrs. Ratcliffe down Water Lane where I used to live had a wooden draining board, draining into a shallow but large old kitchen sink.  Plus it rather goes I think with all the wood in my kitchen.

Christy