My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. This little golden tree I saw on a walk the other day.
2. Robert’s Christmas Morning Breakfast …
Apple and Bacon Sundae Cups
Okay, maybe now it seems more like Christmas Breakfast/Dessert.
3. Holiday Joy.
4. Benny’s favorite gift …
Kitty Stocking Scratcher.
5. Granddaughter Madison … a beautiful gift.
Maybe a few more than Five Happy Bringers this Holiday Friday.
May you show up in Holiday Joy this weekend.
Marveling!
So the other evening Robert and I drove over to daughter Amy‘s house on Skidaway Island (Savannah) to walk doggy Coastal while her fam was out of town.
When Coastal, HR and I started meandering toward the next-door neighbor’s house, we saw this …
Wait, you need it in color. So let’s send Robert closer.
Either very cute or terrifying! This Rudolph has to be the biggest reindeer in the history of the world.
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I was so startled that a few of my photos came out quirky because of my nervously, shaking hands …
Or did that Holiday Giant have special Holiday Powers?
We urged Coastal to finish her business quickly and hastened our way back to the safe house.
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We left Coastal and her brother-from-another-mother Little Kitty at peace and watching the chimney with care.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Very neat seasonal looks everywhere you turn.
2. Holidays and Seasonal Changes.
3. Robert’s Recent Rescue.
So the other afternoon HR and I drove over to Jesup GA to one of our very favorite Christmas Tree farms, Days of Creation.
We bought a pretty fresh wreath.
When we got home, Robert put the wreath, along with some branches of spruce, in our shower (!) to freshen them up with some cold water. (Some things in a marriage you simply put up with.)
In another room, I heard him yell/squeal, “Neal, look!”
It took me a minute to see the little fellow.
“What are you doing?!” I asked.
“I’m rescuing him, of course.”
His new home outside our door.
4. These amazing little slider hotdogs we had yesterday for lunch at local Sly’s Sliders and Fries.
5. Nearby church spires at dusk here in Savannah.
May you look around and see some Peaceful Beauty this last weekend before Christmas.
Marveling this 15th Day of Advent, remembering our FASCINATING few hours last week at Philadelphia’s uniquely beautiful Barnes Foundation.
Have you heard of this incredible art museum? I hadn’t.
“Philadelphia art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) chartered the Barnes in 1922 to teach people from all walks of life how to look at art. Over three decades, he collected some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. He displayed them alongside African masks, native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and decorative metalwork.” Barnesfoundation.org
I’ve never seen a museum like this!
The exhibition rooms are arranged in what is referred to as “ensembles,” mixing paintings with decorative objects like door hinges and metalwork to create visual dialogues across cultures and time periods. There are no explanatory notes beside each piece. Barnes did not want to tell the observer what to think about the art. (Today you can download an app which will give you info, if you choose to do so.)
After a bit, HR and I went our separate ways exploring and discovering.
Then I turned a corner and … saw my … my … Joy.
Wait, no, not Robert.
The colorful painting to the right of HR’s bald and shining pate.
I walked quickly past the interfering, albeit smooth, head and stood mesmerized in front of the painting which had so captured my consciousness.
The blue, or blues, drew me closer and had me standing, at peace, at calm.
The over-plenty of fruit spread across the table reminded me that my table never lacks bounty.
The painting shouted loudly that diversity of color, of shape, of direction and intent is a good thing. That colorful difference should be celebrated and displayed. Should be framed as masterful.
I stood entranced by art’s aim.
And I hope that Matisse somehow sensed, back in the warm summer of 1907 when he completed this scrumptious still life, that he was painting it specifically for an old fellow in the cold of 2025.
“This painting belongs to a remarkable group of still lifes made between 1906 and 1908 in which Matisse explores arabesques—designs of intertwined, flowing lines that function to move the viewer’s eye around the canvas. Matisse had been studying the works of Cézanne, who had died in 1906, and Cézanne’s influence can be seen in the tension here between two and three dimensions. To create the illusion of depth, Matisse constructs a series of horizontals and verticals that recede like a staircase.” Barnes Foundation
NealEnJoy 