June 29, 2022 at 7:08 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Family, Links, Lists, Niece, Places, postaday, Relatives, Traveling)
Tags: blogs, lens-artists photo challenge, memories, photo challenge, Prague
Thank you, Travels and Trifles, for the prompt.
Self’s post is Prague-themed: In May 2019, she and niece Irene went to Prague, our last trip together before the pandemic. It was self’s first time in that beautiful city.
- Picture # 1 is Franz Kafka. Self visited his humble abode, just outside Prague Castle. This simple photograph somehow captures the intensity of the artist. It’s all in the eyes.
- Picture # 2 is the poster for a Young Designers Fair, the last before the pandemic. Loved the translucent red scarf across the model’s eyes.
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June 27, 2022 at 8:32 pm (Books, Links, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, postaday, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: Adrian Tchaikovsky, blogs, British writers, fantasy, favorites, Mondays, mystery series, novel, photo challenge, reading lists, Ruth Galloway, science fiction series, Shards of Earth, space opera
For this challenge — The Fan of . . . Challenge hosted by Jez Braithwaite — self didn’t want to just say Books. Sure, she spends most of her time reading, but she wanted to specify that she gravitates towards certain types of books, depending on her mood.
This year, she’s definitely into space opera (Shards of Earth), fantasy (The Mermaid and the Bear), and Elly Griffiths’ Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series.
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June 25, 2022 at 5:06 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Recommended)
Tags: art, Asian Art Museum, exhibits, experimental, museums, photo challenge, San Francisco, Saturdays, Six Word Saturday
Yesterday, self dropped by the Asian Art Museum on Larkin in downtown San Francisco. Traffic was surprisingly light. Good thing, because self was so distracted by listening to npr on her car radio that she might have gotten into an accident, the news was so bad.
It was her first visit to the Asian Art Museum since before the pandemic, well over two years ago.
The museum currently has not one, not two, but three blockbuster exhibits: Carlos Villa, Worlds in Collision; two experimental artists: one from Kolkata, the other from Hong Kong. And Marin artist Zheng Chongbin’s I Look for the Sky, a site-specific installation hanging from the lobby ceiling.
Hong Kong artist Lam Tung Pang’s piece, A day of two Suns (2019) was a video installation. The screen looked like a Chinese painting, but with witty modern objects decorating the edges. Amazing.
Posting for Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday.
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June 23, 2022 at 1:39 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Lists, Recommended, Surprises, Women Writers)
Tags: reading lists, humor, summer, novel, mysteries, indulgences, Ruth Galloway, summer reading
Still reading The Lantern Men. The Dr. Ruth Galloway books are such a guilty pleasure.
Self is on p. 277.
She was in the city for most of the day, couldn’t wait to get home to resume reading!
Note to self: Never, ever stay at a writers retreat with a name like Grey Walls.
Another note to self: Never get friendly with the girlfriend of a serial killer. Never return her calls, never introduce your eleven-year-old to her gardener.
Just when her frustrations with the main character reach near boiling point, Elly Griffiths slips in a joke: Ruth is seeing a doctor because she’s been getting panic attacks. “The loo in the patient area had a sign on it saying PATIENT TOILET. Well, the WC must be the only thing around here that isn’t feeling frustrated.”
LOL
Stay tuned.
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June 23, 2022 at 12:51 am (destinations, Links, Lists, postaday, Recommended, Weather)
Tags: art, Cee Neuner, CMMC, exhibits, Gardens, Golden Gate Park, museum, photo challenge, San Francisco
Ooh! What a fun challenge!
Today, self went with a friend to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Saw a FANTASTIC exhibit of painter Alice Neel (closes early July: to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, HURRY). It was a beautiful day in the City — a much-needed respite from the searing heat on the Peninsula.
She took a couple of “J anywhere in the word” pictures: a gigantic jar, just outside the de Young, on the main concourse; the entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden; and a Japanese garden sculpture:
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June 22, 2022 at 6:35 am (Books, Conversations, Food and Drink, Lists, Recommended, Surprises, Women Writers)
Tags: desserts, English writers, fantasy, indulgences, mysteries, nostalgia, novel, reading lists, Ruth Galloway, summer, summer reading
Self had her first It’s It in decades.
She went to the library and checked out a new book: Katherine Addison’s The Witness for the Dead (Surprisingly thin! The Goblin Emperor, which is the only other Katherine Addison book self has read, was a hefty tome)
She bought a few sundries from Bianchini’s in San Carlos and the bill came to $39 (She bought 13-gallon garbage bags, 10 0z. of Peet’s Dark Roast, a small container of cubed watermelon)
She is on p. 244 of Book # 12 of Elly Griffiths’ powerfully addictive Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series (She keeps complaining about the plots, but is unable to stop reading). Detective Sergeant Tanya Fuller interviews a witness:
She shows Crissy a photograph of the pumpkin badge.
“Do you recognize this?”
“It’s a Hallowe’en thing, isn’t it? I don’t like Hallowe’en as a holiday. Why dwell on the darkness in life?”
Don’t ask me, thinks Tanya. You’re the one who was married to a serial killer.
— The Lantern Men, Book 12 of the Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery series
Stay tuned.
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June 22, 2022 at 1:28 am (destinations, Family, Flowers, Links, Lists, Places, plans, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: blogs, California, Cee Neuner, CFFC, England, Filoli, Gardens, inspirations, northern California, Oxford, photo challenge
This week’s CFFC is: LANDSCAPES or WATERSCAPES.
Self has lately been thinking of adding a water feature to her garden (though, she is worried about Lucia falling in, so maybe not until she learns to swim). Here are examples from various gardens she has visited in the past month:
- The Glasshouses, Oxford University Botanic Garden
- Central Fountain, Oxford University Botanic Garden
- Central Courtyard, Christchurch, Oxford University
- Filoli Gardens, Woodside, California
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June 19, 2022 at 10:38 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Conversations, destinations, Holidays, Lists, Movies, Recommended, Sundays, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: action movies, blockbusters, California, humor, indulgences, Menlo Park, mysteries, summer, summer movies, summer reading
Listening to Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine.
It is son’s FIRST FATHER’S DAY, WOO HOO! Where does the time go.
Jumbotron on Jefferson Avenue says: SEVERE DROUGHT. LIMIT WATERING TO TWO DAYS A WEEK.
This is why self does all her watering by hand. And only at 10 p.m.
This morning, she was at the 9:35 a.m. screening of Top Gun: Maverick at the local Century 20. There were lots of people. She got peeved when someone came in late and sat right next to her. She prefers to keep at least one empty seat between her and the next person. So she moved. We are still in a pandemic!
After the movie (Really great. What a good actor Miles Teller is. And Jennifer Connolly is fantastic and beautiful. How many people know that she was an undergrad at Stanford? She was a transfer from Yale), self drove to Menlo Park Library and checked out yet another Dr. Ruth Galloway mystery.
Went home, resumed reading The Chalk Pit, which might be her favorite of the entire series (14 books and counting). p. 267, Nelson interviews a local theater director in his flat. The same director who is staging an Alice in Wonderland play featuring an adult Alice tripped out on acid (The staging of this play is one of the biggest running gags in this book)
It is pushing midnight. A local woman’s gone missing. The woman just happens to be the partner of one of self’s favorite minor characters, DI David Clough.
“All the cast get on well. Cassie seems close to Adrian Linley, who plays the Caterpillar, her father in the play. Flora Frampton, who plays the Queen of Hearts, she mothers everybody, and Darrell Shaw . . . ” he pauses.
“Yes? What about Darrell Shaw?”
“He’s a young actor. Very talented. Plays the Gryphon, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. I just have a feeling that he has rather a crush on Cassie.”
“Does she have a crush back?”
“No.” Leo sounds quite shocked. “She seems blissfully happy with that oafish policeman partner.” He stops. “Oh, I’m sorry . . . “
Nelson hangs on to his stiff upper lip. LOL LOL LOL
Waiting in some excitement for the Juneteenth concert at the Hollywood Bowl to begin. CNN is carrying it live.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 15, 2022 at 3:50 pm (destinations, Explorers, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Surprises, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: blogs, Cee Neuner, CMMC, England, history, London, memories, photo challenge, spring
This week’s CMMC is: Pick a topic from Cee’s photo.
Possible topics frame within a photo, window, square, silhouette, restaurant, bushes, trees, table chair, green, red, brown, parked, vehicles, looking through, etc. What else can you come up with?
Have fun this week.
Topics self picked up on: trees, green, red
She took this picture at the end of May. She was on a walk with Old Map Man. We met at Trafalgar Square and walked to the foot of the Jubilee Bridge on the Victoria Embankment.
Self loves these embankments. Her love of London grew with her awareness of them: Southbank because of the Millenium Bridge, anchored at one end by the Tate Modern and at the other by a narrow funnel to St. Paul’s.
Recently, she’s become more aware of the Victoria Embankment: more staid than Southbank, but so historic! Samuel Pepys’s house is on the Victoria Embankment.
Self wondered aloud how old these embankments were. Old Map Man said, mid-19th century. Wow! All this time, she thought they were constructions of modern London.
Later, it began to POUR, so the walk had to end rather abruptly.
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June 12, 2022 at 6:47 pm (Books, destinations, Lists, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, Women Writers)
Tags: humor, novel, reading lists, science fiction
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, pp. 30 – 31:
WELCOME TO THE FIVE-HOP ONE-STOP!
THE LITTLE DOME WITH A LOT OF OPTIONS!
OUR RULES:
NO WEAPONS!
NO MAGNETS!
NO BAD TIMES!
THIS WAY:
OFFICE AND SUNDRY SHOP
– CERTIFIED TRAVEL PERMITS
– CERTIFIED IMUBOT SOFTWARE UPGRADES
– OFFICIAL CG TRANSIT AUTHORITY MAP CHIPS
– WATER FILTRATION STATION
– SOUVENIRS!
– GIFTS!
– SNACKS!
HOST RESIDENCE AND
LIFE SUPPORT / COMMS FACILITIES
NOT OPEN TO GUESTS
THAT WAY:
FUEL AND FIX-ITS
– BARRELED ALGAE
– ALGAE STARTERS
– PHOTOVOLTAIC REPAIR
– MECH TECH BITS AND BOBS
– NO COMP TECH SUPPLIES ON SITE,
BUT WE CAN COURIER THEM IN!
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