Away, away ...

George Sand and Chopin

Eugène Delacroix 1798-1863

GEORGE SAND

What time the gifted lady took

Away from paper, pen and book,

She spent in amorous dalliance

(They do those things so well in France).

Dorothy Parker

You know it's Spring when....

A Sparrow takes a bath

and glares at you for watching!

The first Rose blooms

Gleditsia loves the morning sun

A Cockatoo has slept in a pine tree!

The Smokebush flares up

Azalea too

You find a Wren's nest

Mr and Mrs Wren

Lilac buds pop open

and fill the air with perfume

An inquisitive Kingfisher drops by

It's a rare visit;

we had to be quick with the camera

The pretty Crabapple

The Satin Bowerbird comes by

looking for colour for the nest.

Look at that blue, beady eye!

She's fascinated by those yellow balls!

On tippy-toes

Darn, I'll fly up!

♪♪ "It might as well be Spring!" ♪♪

Another five weeks of
splendour in the grass, garden, trees and sky!  

School's in on the joys of fishing.....

Grandson Bailey made the papers, now he can read it on Nana's blog.  

Congratulations Bailey!

The following from The Weekly Times, Melbourne, 20 October, by fishing writer, Steve Cooper.

Stocking small lakes as part of the school holiday fishing promotion is working well for Fisheries Victoria.  Anyone who doubts the merits of creating put-and-take fisheries for young anglers to experience the joys of fishing should have a chat with Eildon fly-fishing guru, Mick Hall.

During the recent holidays, Mick had his grandson, Bailey Degenhardt, staying and he wanted to go fishing.  Fishing with Mick isn't a straightforward affair.  Not only is the chosen method fly fishing, you also have to tie your own fly, in this case one of Mick's 'Scruffy' flies.

When the fly was tied to Mick's satisfaction, he took Bailey to a little artificial lake in the middle of Marysville, which Fisheries had stocked with advanced yearling trout for the school holidays.

Mick said, "The lake was clearer than most other waters in the district, Bailey threaded up his fly rod, I tied on his Scruffy and he did the rest. "In all he caught, landed and released seven rainbow trout in less than an hour."  

And that is why Victorian Fisheries stocks small waters with trout for the holidays.

I found my Janssens!!

I bought this little print in an antique shop many years ago.

I don't know about you but I can never leave an antique shop 

without making some small purchase!

All I had to go by was the handwritten note on the back,

'Dutch Interior by Janssens'

It's a bad shot, taken through the glass

but I didn't want to destroy the back any further.

Now, which Janssens?

Years ago I couldn't find much at all

and the other day, decided to do another search.

And, voila!!  But, do you notice anything different?

A maid has walked in to sweep the floor!

Nowhere could I find my painting with the little dog, sans maid.

My 'Janssens' is the Dutch painter Pieter Janssens (1623-1682).  Born in Bruges, the son of Gisbrecht Janssens, he was a 'Golden Age' painter and changed his name to Elinga in 1653.  His oeuvre was interiors and he is best known for his 'Perspective Box', which now hangs in the Museum Bredius in The Hague.

'Perspective Box'

Another 'Janssens' was Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen (1593-1661), an English portrait artist of Dutch or Flemish parents, who changed his name to Johnson when in England and Jonson when in Europe.  Art critic and historian, Alexander Joseph Finberg (1866-1939) said, "so long as auctioneers are born with an ingrained conviction that a foreign-looking name gives greater value to a picture than an English name, so long may we expect to find Cornelius (sic) Johnson or Jonson masquerading in catalogues as Cornelius Janssens."

Yet another is Abraham Janssens (also known as Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen), a Flemish 'Baroque Era' painter, c.1573-1632.

Now, to find this artist.  It's badly framed but I

had to have it!  Do you know the artist?

Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli - 1890-1973

Italian fashion designer

Thinking of Italy, where we'll be next month, I remembered the first gift of perfume I received in 1960 when a teenager; a very tiny vial of Shocking de Schiaparelli. I thought the scent a little flowery back then but, 50 years later, my taste, or rather, sense of smell, may have changed.

Elsa had a fabulous following and some of her loyal clients included such names as Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford and Zsa Zsa Gabor.  I found much more about Elsa at Candida Martinelli's Italophiles site.  

I must look for Shocking at the duty-free shop before we fly!

The vintage bottle of

Shocking de Schiaparelli

in the shape of Mae West

Farewell, 'La Stupenda'

Dame Joan Sutherland

7 November 1926 - 10 October 2010

I had several other photos to share
of the wonderful career of Dame Joan
but, unfortunately, my image uploader
isn't working!  Please enjoy the following
from Lucia di Lammermoor; Joan and
the inimitable Luciano Pavarotti.

Pavarotti made his American début with the Greater Miami Opera in February 1965, singing in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor opposite Joan Sutherland on the stage of the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in Miami. The tenor scheduled to perform that night became ill with no understudy. As Sutherland was traveling with him on tour, she recommended the young Pavarotti as he was well acquainted with the role.  Source: Wikipedia

Haiku Error Messages

Kitagawa Utamaro

I was surfing around recently and came across the following message:

You step in the stream,

but the water has moved on.

This page is not here.

- Cass Whittington

I went looking for Cass and found that she had entered a Haiku Error Messages Contest run by Salon Magazine.  Some of the entries are amusing, others would infuriate me!  Here are some more:

The website you seek                            A file that big?

cannot be located,                                It might be very useful.

but endless others exist.                        But now it is gone.

- Joy Rothke                                                                      -  David J. Liszewski

I ate your web page.                             Windows NT crashed.

Forgive me.  It was juicy                        I am the Blue Screen of Death.

And tart on my tongue                           No one hears your screams.

- Unknown                                            - Peter Rothman 

Yesterday it worked.                             Three things are certain;

Today it is not working                          Death, taxes and lost data.

Windows is like that.                             Guess which has occurred.

- Margaret Segall                                                             -  David Dixon

More here