Touring France

I have so many photos of my Paris trip that I haven't shared, so I thought I'd show some from our foray to the Loire Valley.  I loved it.  Wish we could have spent more than a day there.  It is located two hours from Paris.  We visited Chambord and Chartres.  I can't remember what is what so I'll just let you enjoy.  

Da Vinci himself designed this staircase.  After we left, I found out he lived his final years around here and is buried somewhere nearby.  I would have dearly loved to visit his grave site.

Some of the household accoutrement.

I loved the quaint villages.  I was surprised that the local roads were only one lane, though I don't remember meeting other cars.  Some of the towns were quite small.  We'd be driving along, and look through an allee of tree and there would be a huge, gorgeous chateau.

The bedrooms at Chambord were still decorated beautifully.  This was the bedroom of Louis XIV.

This tapestry, one of many, was huge.

Don't ask me, I wasn't driving.

Of course, the crazy bird lady of Peaceable Hill Farm was too busy feeding the birds to fully drink in the views.

A statue of the lady of the house and her shoes (and I didn't say this, but they were pretty big for the time period).  More to come.

Different Strokes

Well, I thought I'd seen it all.  Do you love to scroll around on other's blogs to see what blogs they follow?  Your interests change, or you're following too many of the same kind of blogs and you look for other interesting posts.  So what did I come across today?  Pubic hair art and jewelry.  Since I live on a farm, I've seen it all, but that was gross.  I didn't want to post a picture of it, nor ask permission to post it, so I'll tell this story of some of my art instead.

I made a paper mache dachshund and titled it Picasso Can't Have A Dog.  Without going into much detail or psychoanalyzing it, I wrote about it in a stream of consciousness circle above its shoulder (Picasso can't have a dog, no Siddhartha he; manipulator, manipulated...) it goes.  Bigger than life-sized, I made the tail so that it wiggles in a breeze.  Funny thing is, when I finished it, a new book came out about Picasso and his beloved dachshund, a picture of the two of them on the cover.

  I later decided to paint another weenie in the same vein, titled Rollin' In Stink.  From a white whale, a clock, buildings, to a goldfish blowing bubbles, there are many different images on each piece.

Pubic hair art or modern art...  I did paint a portrait of Picasso under the tail of the paper mache piece. 

So, different strokes for different folks, as they say, but I want to see someone wearing that necklace, or maybe I don't.

Remember Me

Down a nearby country road is an old cemetery; once overgrown and nearly forgotten, it is now kept up.  Supposedly, it is an old Indian burial ground.  Many of the graves there are unmarked or have no engraved headstones.   I also noticed quite a few spots where children rest. A stone marks this child's passing. Snoopy and Woodstock watch over the little one.

Postscript ~ Next to this little grave was a tiny bulb lying on top of the ground and I put it in my pocket.  When I got home, I poked a hole in my flower bed and planted it.  Turns out, it was a wild jonquil that grows around here and is the first thing to come up in the spring. My flower bed is now full of them.

Our Home In The Sky

This is a reprint from summer 2010.

My son called me today and told me that a UFO was reported last night over Beggs, a town about 60 miles away. He also believes in bigfoot. I try not to feed that beast, but UFO's? Possible. I'll go along with that. I would dearly love to see one. Remember what Muldar said on the X Files (I do so miss that show), "the truth is out there." Anyway, my weenies and I went out around midnight, to the darkest part of our field and waited. It was light enough to see my hand as the moon was a waxing gibbous at 77% full. Except for the bugs trilling and crickets clicking and a few bird songs, we waited quietly, listening for an odd sound or footfall. That is until a bunch of coyotes came close, howling and yipping. I was beginning to get nervous as they were coming our way, but they veered off across the field away from us. Thank goodness as I would hate having to chase and/or fight a coyote with one of my weenies in his mouth, let alone, in the dark. An owl hooted to another close by. I turned halfway around and startled as a large black form moved slightly a few feet away. It was a red cedar tree. There were glowing lights beyond some trees; I wondered if it might be a large UFO coming over the treetops, but it was only the far off lights from a town. I turned back around and jumped again at the dark form, aka cedar tree. We have had black bears in our area migrating from Arkansas. I'm quite sure I could give the bear a good run for its money on the 4 wheeler. Same for the feral hogs. So, after some time, no old Indian ghosts nor Cherokee shapeshifters appeared. Neither did panthers, feral hogs, coyotes, bears, snakes, coons, skunks or bobcats. No, not even a UFO. The thing that finally ran me off? It was the lowly mosquito.

PS ~ The picture above is the Milky Way - I think the pic is from NASA, but I can't remember now.  Our solar system sits at the edge of the Milky Way. I can see it on really dark nights.  Jupiter was visible tonight and extremely bright. It won't be this bright again until 2022. Look east after sunset and it will rise high in the sky by midnight. It will be the brightest light in the sky next to the moon.