Remembering good food

Waffle trials--attempts to recreate this Strasbourg waffle--begin this week. If I can find the waffle iron. And if I don't start crying at the lack of cheap excellent chocolate.

A Kick-Ass Holy Lady

Sketch of Francisco de Zurbaran's Sainte Engracia, in Strasbourg's museum.

He is one of my most recent and beloved loves, seen first in Strasbourg. I saw his Saint Francois in Lyon, and (I believe) another of his intense women on loan in the Orsay.

Denver Botanical Gardens Part II

My old friend scabiosa. (Specifically scabiosa caucasia, variety 'Deep waters'.)










































Eryngium giganteum, whose common name--no joke--is "Miss Willmott's Ghost."


















Salvia pachyphylla, called Mojave Sage and native to California, Arizona, and Nevada.

























In the garden's "Perennial Walk", posing not just with the flowers and the hedge but ALSO with the Big Red Crane behind me, which I decided I want to learn how to operate.















Any trip to Denver means stopping at Sakura Square and our beloved Oriental Food Market.

They're not flowers, but if I could catalogue my childhood, each of these would have a Latin and common name.

The Denver Botanical Gardens

Unidentified hanging purple flower, in the Tropical Conservatory.










































Clematis smilacifolia
(That means it's related to your tame garden clematis, and is also part of the buttercup family!)


My old friend salvia! Salvia greggi, variety 'Furman's red'.
























CORRECTION: Emily FAILS once again at reading labels! (Though one might also say that the DBGardens failed at clear labeling.) This is apparently not Galium odoratum at all but Anemone! Specific species name unknown. All apologies where due.






















Nelumbo nucifera
a.k.a. lotus!

Illustration Friday : Legendary

The legend of Angelique (Angelica) saved by Roger (Ruggiero) is found in the 1516 adventure poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. (He was Italian, as evidenced by all the o’s).

Pencil sketch from a model by Antione-Louis Barye, at la Musée des Beaux Arts in Strasbourg.

The Temple of Dendur

Sketch from a visit to the Metropolitan in September.
(You really have to click on the image to see it well.)





And a headdress copied from a textbook on Egyptian art.

Assemble-a-Story : Excerpts

found postcard

found between the pages of Clea (Lawrence Durrell) in a used bookstore

the cathedral in Milan

On the roof, looking south.

a very old musical instrument

Blind contour drawing of a violoncello, ca. 1650.
In a museum in Florence, whose name I've forgotten.

Tate Modern, fall 2007

(Click on the images for a better version.)

MoMA, spring 2008

I'd never seen this piece by Wilhelm Lehmbruck before, and found it very compelling.






















No matter how many times I see Giacometti, I never get tired of him.






















Olafur Eliasson's exhibit was called "Take your time"; here is our view of a fan whirling freeling in the atrium, which we watched from a leisurely view on the couches.

Visiting the Berkshires

City of Peace : a Shaker village in Hancock, Massachusetts.

(Click on the images for a bigger version.)

Illustration Friday : Sugary

The Victor Immanuel II monument, in Rome, is a tiered and sugar-coated cake.

Illustration Friday .com