What is beautiful?

As I write the blog, I think about our subjective ideas of beauty. On many things, we're in agreement: sunsets, babies, foals, puppies, flowers, etc. Although even those miracles leave some sad folks cold. But when you stray into the world of Art, it's De Gustibus non disputatun est. (The one quote I retained from college Latin, meaning: there's no accounting for taste.)

I bought this piece of garden art at the Twisp Farmer's Market on Saturday. It's a good sized thing-a-ma-jig, and heavy too. John was not thrilled to haul it home in our little Honda. In case you can't tell from the picture, it's a moon and a bell, but also looks sort of like a giant's battle-ax. On the drive home, I was thinking about becoming a headline on The Onion: "Woman Decapitated by Garden Sculpture in Accident on Mountain Pass."

Amanda and I both liked it. Since it will outlast us all, I told her it would be hers "someday," although hopefully I'll be around to admire it for a while longer :-) When John unloaded, he just stuck it outside the office window, and I can see it now from my desk. A pretty good place for now, but I can lug it anywhere I want.

Anyway, Twisp is a small place, and on Saturday the locals didn't recognize the gentleman who was selling his cool metal art creations at their market. I head a rumor he was "from Alaska," and indeed he told me he "found" the ship's bell on the beach there. I don't know anything about ship bells, but I believed him because it makes a wonderful loud clang that would carry for miles over the water.