The Last Emperor

I watched this movie again today and was just blown away by it. Bernardo Bertolucci's rendition of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China to the Dragon Throne, is just an incredible film. One of the best films of all time in my book. Ryuichi Sakamoto also wrote the score and won an Academy Award for best music. He also played a part in the movie. The following clip with the Chinese musicians is hauntingly beautiful.

Deep Friday Thoughts

Consider the daffodil. And, while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.

Dog Days

Not much happening at the farm.

Deep Friday Thoughts

Before criticizing someone, walk a mile in their shoes. Then, when you do criticize them, you will be a mile away and have their shoes.

The Mirror

Here is the aforementioned French mirror from the previous post. The palest of blue with white; the old mirror inside in pretty good condition. I walked away, but I still covet.

I am getting all new computer equipment installed today. Don't know if and when I'll be able to figure it all out. I am such a technophobe. So, I'll see ya if and when I do.

Wandering Around My Favorite Store

I went to my favorite store last week in Tulsa to find they had a sale going on. Only, it was the last day (had been going on the month of July). I found a mirror, but left without it and couldn't get it out of my head. More later. I found these French linen panels that had to be at least 14 feet long and loved them. Now, I live on a fifty acre hilltop farm wreathed in oak trees, and don't have one curtain in my house.

But, I am such a nature girl, I just loved these panels; the flora and fauna; the caterpillars and beetles, ferns and fronds.

I dunno.

There were many more things, like this old painted chest with the red japanning inside. But, I still want my mirror. It had been 40% off during the sale. She now would take 20% off. So I walked. It will be one of those things I'll remember.

wuthering heights-Ryuichi sakamoto

wuthering heights-Ryuichi sakamoto

I am feeling somewhat guilty for that previous post, so here is a serendipitous find. I think you know I'm a huge fan of Ryuichi Sakamoto and I was happy to come across this score he did for one version of Wuthering Heights. Nevermind that one of my favorite actresses, Juliette Binoche, played Catherine. Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff wasn't too bad either. I can't wait to watch this version. Of course, the score by Sakamoto will make this movie and soundtrack a must have.

How some artists suffer for their work.

Flylashes from Jessica Harrison on Vimeo.

I know, it's ghastly, but I just couldn't look away. If she only knew where those flies have been walking.

This Man Has the Best Job Ever

Keith Johnson does have the best job ever. He is the head buyer for Anthropologie and travels the world for iconic pieces of art, furniture, textiles and on and on. His show, MAN SHOPS GLOBE, is on Wednesday nights on the Sundance Channel at 9 central time. The things he finds are really incredible, but oftentimes, he shrugs them off (he says he's jaded) till he finds the thing that speaks to him. I love this show. If this clip won't play straight through, you can watch others at youtube. Meanwhile, don't miss tonight's show. It is that good. By the way, just heard Tulsa is getting a new Antropologie store at Utica Square. Yes!

The Scent of Heaven

I'll admit it. I love perfume. I wear it everyday. I put in on my bedding (hoping for sweet dreams to come). I must have been a French woman in another life. Yes, I know some people don't like to smell perfume, so they can plug their noses and hurry by. That is, unless I smell a certain scent on someone else and then ugggggg! Nerve gas must smell the same. Nevertheless, I used to wear Chanel 5 in junior high school. Then Shalimar in high school and no, I'm not proud that I wore these, there just weren't very many options in my town. I have tried so many different kinds - read about different essences and perfumers. Alas, the same thing always happens. I shell out the money for a bottle, get home and gag. I can't even let my daughters have it because I don't ever want to smell it again. Then, so many years ago that I can't remember when, I read about Antonia's Flowers in a magazine. A few years passed and I found it in a Texas store. It is my all time favorite. It comes in absoluto, parfum, shower gel, lotion and the most beautiful soap I have ever seen. When I place my yearly order, I have to call the Hampton's store (factory?) and they always say, Oklahoma? Antonia Bellannca (I can't remember how to spell her last name) has been making it and selling it from the Hampton's for a long time. The top note is freesia. She also makes two or three other scents now. One, Tiempe Passatt, is a love song her grandfather wrote for her grandmother. She appears regularly on the Barefoot Contessa, with Ina Garten, on the Food Network. Ina has even showcased her products in her own home. I wish you could smell it. Perfume Nirvana. Oh, yes, the other scent I wear, is a lotion. Every time I wear it, men and women stop me and ask what fragrance I am wearing. It is Clinique's Aromatics lotion. The perfume is much too strong.

EVENING STAR

Though not really a star, the evening star is usually a planet, visible just before dark, during the gloaming or in the east just before sunrise. This is Venus watching the Moon. When I was a young Camp Fire Girl, we used to sit around a summer campfire and sing this song.

Tell me why

the stars do shine.

Tell me why

the ivy twines.

Tell me why

the ocean's blue.

And I will tell you

just why I love you...

Photo by NASA

WHITE PEACHES

Peaches are peaches say ye who've only tried the common yellow ones. For those of you lucky enough to sink your teeth into a white fleshed peach, well, no other peach compares. Sweet, sublime, peachy perfume fills the senses and once you try a ripe white peach, you can never go back.
Possibly descended from a wild cultivar in Afghanistan, the Europeans believed peaches were native of Persia. They are really from China though and were cultivated as far back as the 10th century BCE. Favored by Chinese royalty, they believed peaches conferred immortality to those who ate them. Many Chinese and Japanese artisans paint peach blossoms and branches in their works. Peaches made their way from Asia to Europe. The Spanish brought them later to the Americas in the 17th century and the native Americans spread their seeds across America. Though Asians prefer the white, delicate fleshed peach, Americans and Europeans prefer the yellow fleshed ones.

I have two white peach trees and this year have been blessed with many fruits. The past two years, the trees remained fallow because of late spring freezes. Imagine my surprise when this year, both trees were loaded; many branches split because of the weight. I have frozen bags of peaches, made jam...............and have two five gallon buckets left.............. Bellinis anyone?

Who Me?

I received an award today from Gaye. She has the most sumptuous, interesting blog - it is really incomparable. Go give her blog a look at Little Augury - littleaugury.blogspot.com. Thank you so much Little a. From time to time, I wonder who or what these friends and acquaintances we meet in cyberspace are really like. Do we gravitate toward the ones we share common interests with; maybe we are voyeurs delving into lives we wish we lived. Whatever, I am just glad to meet so many incredible and interesting people out there.

Little Augury said I should pass this award along to 6 other bloggers whose blogs I enjoy.

AUREA mary-laure.blogspot.com- Mary-Laure has a wonderful blog; reminds me of seeing life through a child's eyes.

THE ANTIQUES DIVA http://antiquesdiva.blogspot.com/- Toma is an Oklahoma girl; lives the life I want, and is becoming famous. I'm meeting her in Paris in March. Yippee!

IT'S ABOUT TIME http//bjws.blogspot.com- All I can say is Wow. (I refer to her as the Professor).

LIFE AT WILLOW MANORwillowmanor.blogspot.com - Willow has taught me so much and is great at what she does; always enjoy her posts.

SWEET REPOSE thefabricofsweetrepose.blogspot.com- Sista Sharon is a long lost twin in a parallel universe.

TALES FROM THE COOP KEEPER talefromthecoopkeeper.blogspot.com- Jayme makes me laugh.

Now, I will reveal 7 random things about moi...

Uhh, I'm not afraid of anything - (except large sharks).

When I was in my younger days, I wanted to be an internist or a volcanologist.

Sometimes, (though totally at random times) I am psychic or should I say intuitive.

I love to read encyclopedias, or did, before the computer age.

My parrot, Birdie, is trying, as I type this, to pluck my eye out. He likes to blog with me.

OMG, 2 more things. This is hard. Must be psychological. (I am married to a neuropsychologist).

I like sunny skies.

I have to tell you a little story here. The day I read that Little Augury gave this award to me in the comfort category, I had to laugh. The previous night, I couldn't fall asleep until 6AM. At 6:45, my cat came running into my bedroom with a squeaking field rat in his mouth and promptly dropped it. At that instance, my little weeny who had emergency spinal surgery in December and isn't supposed to jump off anything, flew off the bed to chase the rat around. She was screaming too, till she caught it. My husband jumped up about the same time and said "one of your dogs just peed on me." Oh yes, and I ruined a painting I had been working on for two weeks, and all that happened before noon. So, Little Augury, thank you and all of my favorite (and there are many) bloggers. You comfort me.

Postscript ~ I will figure out how to link these blogs so you can click on them asap. I am also technically challenged.

Antique Heaven

Many of you remember how not long ago, I visited my good friend Maggie's Mom. I had wanted to see her collection of antiques for some time and when it came, I ran out of space on my camera. Sue sent me a few pics, which I have tried to scan (for the first time) to show you some of the beautiful things I didn't get. Her collection of majolica is exquisite.

This big oil painting was my favorite of the antique collections. It is large and so beautiful. When Sue purchased it, she put it in the trunk of her car and when she arrived home, it had a large tear in it. She had it repaired and it is Divine.

One of her many samplers; of course I love the dog in it. I found out from Sue that if the sampler is unfinished, it means the girl that made it didn't make it (sad, but true). I will go to see these collections again and I promise next time I won't run out of memory.

The Consort- The Virgin Queen

I went to see a movie tonight called Inception. I don't know how to give it a review other than it is extremely convoluted; much like a jigsaw puzzle. I believe the germ for the movie came from a quote from Edgar Allen Poe that I read years ago. I don't know what story or poem it was from but it goes "is it all that we see or seen, but a dream within a dream." Nevertheless, one of the highlights for me was Tom Hardy. A wonderful English actor, I have seen him in several Brit movies and thought I'd show you a little of his work. This first one is one of my favorites and I recommend you rent or purchase it. It is that good. He play Robert Dudley, the lifelong love of Queen Elizabeth (played by the wonderful Anne Marie Duff).

Wuthering heights 2009-take me with you

Another Tom Hardy starring role, playing Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. He is such a versatile actor. PS ~ I don't know why this clip keeps stopping and starting, so just slide the button to the end and at the bottom of the clip some other clips will come up. You can watch those without the stopping and starting.

INCEPTION - Tom Hardy Interview

I was glad to see Tom Hardy in a big budget American film since I think we'd get to see more of his acting. As I said, I can't really critique INCEPTION, but Tom Hardy answers some questions about the film here.

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU CRABAPPLES

A beautiful, fast-growing, flowering tree, the crab apple also gives you a bounty of crab apples come summer. The fruit is about quarter-sized with a crispy clean tartness, but it is definitely appley. So what do you do with a tree full of crab apples? Well, for starters, jelly.

Gather the fruit; I had about 2 1/2 gallons.

Crab apples are hard and you can't just slice them. So, how to chop? I dug out these two old kitchen tools. Notice the acorns carved on the handle on the left. The tool on the right is older, like maybe colonial days old with its kidney bean shape. Each tool has been shaped and hammered or forged. The tool on the left worked better for this job.

Well, here is the result of all that chopping, now ready to cook down to a sauce. You will have to drain the mash in a cheesecloth to get the juice, but any jam or jelly making book will instruct you how to make the jelly.

Voila! It only took several hours . . . but here is the result. I need to make some scones now to try it.

But, if that wasn't enough and you like the occasional drinky winky, I chopped some more and am making crab apple liqueur. These recipes are all over the web. The one on the left is straight vodka and the one on the right has vodka and a little brandy in it. It is fun to play around with the flavors. When I look out to the tree that is still loaded, I am thinking juice for drink concoctions or pickled crab apples, but I don't think any in my family will eat them. Oh well, it's on to the white peaches.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee's magnum opus, turns fifty today. I have fond memories of my young son and I, taking turns reading chapters to each other every evening one summer. We loved it, like legions before us. I have a theory about why she never wrote another tome. When you write a novel, you put most everything you have seen, heard, smelled, experienced into that first novel. While some writers like Joyce Carol Oates are prolific, for others, that's all she wrote; one has to live and experience more: she may have said all she wanted.
Nevertheless, Mockingbirds play a large part in American culture. Early in American history, Mockingbirds were once popular and kept as pets. President T. Jefferson had one named Dick. The American lullaby, Hush little baby don't say a word, mamma's gonna buy you a mockingbird... was part of the Mockingbird craze. Called the American Nightingale, Mimus polyglottos prefers to nest in maple, sweet gum and sycamore trees. As an observation, the birds are out after midnight practicing their songs. I can tell the city mockers from the farm ones. The city ones make police car and emergency vehicle calls. I think they are my favorite bird, today anyway. Postscript ~ Harper Lee's sister was on the CBS Sunday Morning show, and said the aforementioned reason I postulated, was correct.

Sakamoto Ryuichi - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Live)

This is a wonderful live performance of Ryuichi Sakamoto performing Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. I think it is from the movie of the same name starring David Bowie. Nevertheless, I believe the concert was in Rome at the Coliseum and I wish I could have been there.

Energy flow, Ryuichi Sakamoto

A small gift to all my wonderful followers and friends whom drop by to visit sometimes.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Every evening, I go to the pond to feed the creatures. It started out feeding the geese. Before I knew it, I was feeding the entire pond. Zillions of fingerlings come to the edge of the pond to eat the leftovers. They even beat the geese there now. The larger fish stay back a few feet, but make sure and get their share too. Then the turtles became bolder. There are many different species and all have distinct personalities. Who knew? This one is the boldest now. Covered in pond sediment, it swims mostly around the geese feet and the geese trip all over it. I thought the turtles might bite the geese, but it is the other way around.


















Mmmmm. Fish pellets or chili relleno?

These are the fingerlings. Now, start the Jaws theme song...
Here comes trouble. This Snapping turtle doesn't want bread or fish food. It only likes live fish - creeps closer with its long alligator tail and waits, then - SNAP. These really are ugly creatures.

Oh well, this one is too cute and decides to go back and bother the goose.
This is what I do for fun on the farm.

THEY'RE HERE

The aliens have been here all along - we just didn't know what to look for. The tops of my tomato plants were sticks today and some of the green tomatoes were half eaten. Squirrels! Had to be. So I started looking at my plants and found this big guy munching away. It is bigger than my thumb. Needless to say, I removed it to a sunflower and it immediately tucked its head down and played opossum. Unlike Great Grandma Merriot, who used to pinch them, I released this Tomato Horn worm into a patch of volunteer tomatoes. It will grow up to be a Sphinx Moth.

In the moment of roses...

White roses, tiny and old, hover
among thorns by the barn door.
For a hundred years under the
June elm, under the gaze of
seven generations, they floated
briefly like this, in the moment
of roses.

Unknown




Psst ~ I really don't think I have a romantic bone left...so this is for you.

THINGS THAT GO BOOMP IN THE NIGHT

This Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora Cecropia) fluttered down to my farm in May. A giant silk moth, it is the largest moth in North America. She has a full 6 inch wingspan and is a beauty. Or, was. They have no mouth parts and can not eat: they are here for only 7 - 10 days; their raison d'etre is to mate and lay eggs before they go where moths go to die (it is in my drawer in this instance, that is, post mortem). The offspring, huge green caterpillars, spend all their time eating, I suspect, on hickory leaves, before spinning a cocoon then waiting out the winter to repeat the life cycle.

This is a close up of Cecropia. The males have larger antennae and the females, larger bodies. I painted her in gouache and am going to sell prints in my etsy shop. This life sized print is the first in a series of flora and fauna paintings I will be doing - and of course insects too. It measures 9 x 12 and is printed on ivory colored card stock paper. The print will be signed and numbered and sell for $18.00. PS ~ as an aside, may I comment that this print looks so much better than I have been able to photograph. I have tried every setting on my camera and not been able to get a decent reproduction of this print. Does anyone have suggestions? I have a Nikon Coolpix S630.

SHARING THE LOVE

I am really very impressed by my fellow bloggers. It takes a lot of time and effort to make the posts interesting and hopefully pretty; some of them so well done and professional looking. I, on the other hand, can only do the basics. Oh yes, I would love to have little falling stars across the written word and borders to die for. I just don't want to take the time to learn plus I fear what I have done will go poof. Also, this time of year, I am too busy gardening. Sooooo, have a look at the flower/seed pod of a leek. I planted a stand of them last year and they didn't get as large as the ones in the store, so I just left them in the ground. Voila! This year they have huge purple heads on long stems - like something out of a Dr. Seuss garden.


And, these daisies have been coming back like old friends year after year for the past 27 summers. So what pray tell, do these specimens have to do with bloggers and blogging? Well, I get to share them with you...

Antique Heaven

I have finally found Eldorado; was invited to the home which embodies the epitome of collecting and displaying treasures. My friend had been telling about her mother's home and collections for years. Sue has been collecting the world over for decades and I must say I covet everything she owns. From beautifully patinated early American furniture to early baskets, samplers, clocks and Quimper pottery, and did I say early American samplers? Ooooh!

Every nook and cranny has a beautiful arrangement; a tableau to linger over. More baskets, a dog lamp and a beautiful old oil painting of a girl.

Old wooden bowls full of chocolate molds and butter molds, so many in fact, many are packed away.

A main theme in her collections are animals. Dogs, cats, cows, horses, chickens are but a few, but repeated all over the house.

Sue collects majolica and has different displays in different areas of the house, not to mention cupboards full of it.

This is the smallest cobbler's table I have ever seen. I thought it must be a salesman's sample. The tole ware trays show up throughout the house.


I was just getting going, my head swimming and eyes glazing over when I ran out of camera space. Just like that. It has never happened to me before. I could not believe it as I was just getting started. Luckily, my Maggie, Sue's daughter, used her iphone camera so as soon as I get the pics and figure out how to load them on my blog, you're in for a treat. Till later...

THE GOOD EARTH

These photographs are from the film THE GOOD EARTH adapted from the novel by Pearl S. Buck. The book, published in 1931, was considered a masterpiece and won the Nobel Prize for Buck. Themes of earth, God and women were explored as well as family life in a pre-revolution Chinese village. O-Lan, (in these pics) was the quiet, long-suffering wife and mother and Wang Lung her husband and patriarch of the family. Supposedly, this novel helped pre-war Americans to consider the Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan, though I find this a stretch. They were desperate times in China with drought, famine, poverty - themes I guess Americans understood at the time. I'd have to read the book and watch the movie and research Buck's reason for writing this tome before commenting more on the subject. Nevertheless, you can find these photographs and others from the 1937 movie in my etsy shop.

PSST!

Did you ever want to peek in a drawer? I'm always scrounging through drawers in old houses in my dreams. Don't know what that means, but this drawer is full of old locks, thimbles, dog tags, buttons, marbles and the velvet bag is very old. It has a lock of red hair inside it as a remembrance.

The monkey used to have more hair. It is Victorian and moves. The green frog is a snapper toy and there are the various war toys and covered wagons. Some, still in their original packaging: I am always surprised no child played with them. The silver zeppelin lies beside the skull of an egret with a shotgun pellet lodged in it.

There is this and that... an old hygrometer?

Here are some old books and ephemera, namely concert tickets from the seventies to Joni Mitchell and the Rolling Stones and Madonna in the 80's. Look at the oldest wallet I've ever seen. I'll have to open it and show you what's inside at a later date. Now wasn't that fun?