Vintage postcards

It's amazing the amount of time you can waste on a computer. One rainy morning, I was sucked down into the wonderful New York Public Library Digital Gallery, and came out an hour later with a stiff neck and glazed eyes. The library has already scanned and cataloged nearly a million images, and the Vintage Holiday Cards collection has nearly 2,000 postcards of idyllic winter scenes, Easter eggs, holly, horseshoes, shamrocks, chicks, cupids, cherubs, four-leaf clovers, turkeys, and bushels of flowers.

Around 1900, postcards were popular and also a way for starving artists and illustrators to make a living. Back then, postcards weren't about travel and vacations, but more like the Hallmark cards we buy to mark birthdays and holidays. Isn't it great that so many were saved in shoe boxes over the years?

Here's a few from the library Halloween collection:

Some give advice for warding off witches...

Some are goofy...

Or artsy...

Some are romantic...

Some are jokes...

Or spooky...

And all of them are fun. Have a great weekend!

Happy Bithday, Tom

I hope Amanda bakes you a nice one-- have fun today!

A real Halloween story

Are you looking for a film to send a chill down your spine? Forget about The Shining and Nightmare on Elm Street, and look for a DVD called Death for Five Voices. It's a lurid story about the life of composer Carlo Gesulado (1566-1613.) Musically, he's known for his intense, sad madrigals that sound (to me) like heartbroken angels singing. John bought one of his CD's recently, and it's just the thing when you feel like a little wallow in depression. Carlo Gesualdo was so beautiful his nickname was "Angel," and here's an angelic looking portrait:

Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa

But now the story gets interesting. Gesualdo was born in Venosa, then part of the Kingdon of Naples. From an early age he had a single-minded interest in music and little else. In 1586 he married his first cousin, Donna Maria d'Avalos. In her portrait below, she looks even more angelic than him.

But wait! Although she was a famous beauty, Gesualdo was more interested in music and hunting than his wife, and she started an affair which she managed to keep secret. He really must have been preoccupied, because the rest of Naples knew about it long before him. You can imagine the snickering behind his back.

Donna Maria d'Avalos

When word finally got back to Gesualdo, he tricked the lovers into believing he was away hunting, then came back to his castle and caught them in the act. An old story... however, in this case Gesualdo murdered them both on the spot, and left their mutilated bodies in front of his palace for all to see. He dressed the unfortunate dead adulterer in his wife's clothes, with his pants stacked neatly beside him. Bye-bye.

The depositions of eyewitnesses survive to this day, so there's no lack of grisly detail. After the murders, the Neapolitan tabloid press picked up the story, and a flock of writers soon capitalized on the sensation by writing poems and stories which sold like hotcakes.

Gesulado couldn't be prosecuted because he was a nobleman-- and anyway, it was justifiable homicide in that time and place. They had it coming. But the violent man soon doubted the paternity of his dead wife's child, and the story goes he hung the little boy outside the castle wall in a harness until he died.

Gesualdo moved back to his country estate to avoid revenge and he married again. His new relationship was not good-- his second wife accused him of abuse and left to stay with her brother. Many angry letters went back and forth, but at least he never murdered her. Although there are suggestions that she eventually murdered him.

Late in life he suffered from depression (what a surprise) and had himself beaten daily by his servants. He never left his castle, and enjoyed nothing but music. With his vast financial resources, he was able to hire musicians for his own pleasure, and his most famous "woe-is-me" music was written during this period of isolation.

The DVD Death for Five Voices was directed by Werner Herzog for television. It was filmed in Naples in 1995, and has a macabre style with the gritty, contemporary Naples setting and everyone talking about the crime as if it happened yesterday, instead of 400 years ago. And of course, the film is filled with Gesulado's hauntingly beautiful vocal music.

Click here for a short YouTube video of a Gesualdo madrigal being performed, and you'll get the idea.

The party moves inside

This is a sedum morganianum, or Donkey Tail plant. They are difficult to grow in Seattle, but these have been on the same table in the same little pots for about 4 years. Even in our cool climate, it puts on 6 inches or so each summer. I keep them on a corner of the deck behind the gas grill. It's a fragile, finicky plant that would prefer to live on a sheltered patio in Southern California. Join the club.

When you have a small house, you have to compete with your plants for light and space all winter, so very few things are worth bringing in. Although this is one of them. The problem is the whole shebang, table and all, has to be lifted in and put by a "cool, bright sunny window" for the winter. As if such a thing existed in old Seattle houses. Anyway, it will probably survive another winter on a couple drinks of water, but will be one unhappy donkey by spring.

Leaf raking time

Autumn Leaves
John Millais

This painting is considered Millais's masterpiece. It doesn't tell a story, but shows four young girls around a smoldering pile of leaves they just collected from the garden. Oh yes, the transience of life and beauty which is overwhelmed with the passage of time...

The wind has been doing a good job whipping leaves around in our neighborhood this week. And here's some real life raking humor:

1. I love the feel of back pain so early in the morning.
2. I've just filled 20 bags, and I've barely made a dent. I'm moving to Arizona.
3. Repeat often: Leaves make good compost, leaves make good compost...
4. I just stepped in doggy doo. Ugh.
5. I hate the wind. I hate the wind. I hate the wind.
6. Where's Beaver Cleaver? He'd rake my leaves for a candy bar.
7. I'm wheezing, I'm freezing and I'm sneezing.
8. Now I know why "rake" rhymes with "ache."

Picasso and rain in Seattle

We had "everything" weather this weekend-- drenching rain and black clouds followed by short bursts of bright blue sky. The wind is howling this morning, and the rain is still beating on the windows. Now I'm wondering why I took the time to clean them last week.

Yesterday morning, we went downtown to the Seattle Art Museum to see the new Picasso exhibition. Our favorite time to visit SAM is early Sunday to take advantage of free on-street parking (providing you can find it) and light crowds (providing other early birds don't have the same idea.) The Seahawks were playing a home game at 1:00, so downtown was already buzzing by 9:30 am. But we lucked out and found a tiny free parking space for Little Beep, right across from the museum. Wow.
And we joined a crowd of people huddled outside in the wind, waiting for the doors to open. Very unusual! But this is a large, well-publicized temporary exhibit, with over 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs loaned from the Musée National Picasso. Picasso's works are scattered everywhere in public and private collections, but this museum in Paris has the largest, most important collection. You may wonder why such priceless works would travel to our little corner of the world? Well, the French museum is now closed for renovation, creating the opportunity for a big global tour.

Picasso was a wildly prolific artist for over 80 years, and these works of art are from his "personal" collection. I guess this simply means these are the works he wouldn't (or couldn't) sell, although that is impossible to imagine. Most are masterpieces. A few of the paintings are unfinished, but all his major periods were shown in chronological order, which made the exhibit especially interesting. Blue period, cubist period, etc. etc. if you remember your art history. And underneath the wild colors, geometric shapes and crazy abstractions...the man could really draw. There were many beautiful examples, and we both agreed the fine drawings were our favorite part of the exhibit.

Of course, no photography is allowed inside SAM, but here's two paintings I downloaded from their website. If you live in Seattle, you should go and see this exhibition.

Cat Catching a Bird, April 22, 1939
Oil on canvas, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Spanish, (worked in France)
Courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris


Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937
Oil on canvas, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Spanish, (worked in France)
Courtesy Musée National Picasso, Paris

Punkin at the pumpkin patch

Nova's first trip to the pumpkin patch! Amanda took these last week at Cascadian Farms on the North Cascades Highway.

A little game of hide and seek...

Finding the perfect, baby-sized white pumpkin...

And helping dad pick out the big one!

Zucchini, corn and peppers

Here's a simple, fresh vegetable dish. I bought the corn, but the pretty striped zucchini came from my only plant. Cut the corn off the cob, slice the squash and peppers, then sauté everything together in olive oil with a dab of butter. Salt and pepper.
And the leftovers make a good salad the next day with a vinegar and oil dressing.

Sunny streak continues

Golden Hops

In October, it's unusual (to put it mildly) to have a six day stretch of sunny weather. When this type of high-pressure weather system happens in the summer, it gives everyone in Seattle a chance to complain about the 80 degree oppressive heat. But in this year of strange weather, a few sunny days in a row feels like a bonus. The air is chilly but the skies are clear after the morning fogs burns off. We saw the enormous moon come up around dinnertime.

Good days for working in the garden, although many plants still look so nice I hate to pull them down. The golden hop is a self-twining climber with bright gold foliage. It's beautiful all summer, and then you cut it right to the ground in the fall. This one has been growing for years over an arch where nothing else ever survived, so I like it for that reason alone. The little pods, which look like pine cones, are used for flavoring beer. I don't know if it has any other uses.

I recently read Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, and a section of the book described the hops harvest in 19th century England. Apparently, entire families would show up each year to pick the crop, and have a camping out vacation in the country at the same time. It's worth reading the book just for that vivid chapter. With all that fresh air and freedom, the young folks found plenty to keep them busy, and weddings often followed in the spring. Some were of the "shot-gun" variety.

The Seattle World's Fair and MOHAI

As soon as I finish them, the Museum of History and Industry posts the new archival "finding aids" on the Northwest Digital Archives. This is really nice. Here's a definition: A finding aid is a document containing detailed information about a specific collection of papers or records within an archive. They are used by researchers to determine whether information within a collection is relevant to their research. ...

If you're interested in such things, here's a direct link to the latest finding aid:

http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv67358

Like the other collections I've worked with so far, the Robert D. Ashley records are about the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. But this collection was larger and more challenging, and had everything from old phonograph records to slides, photographs and all types of fair publications and tourist memorabilia. It took several months to complete. If you glance at it, you will see what looks like an insane amount of detail, all of it intended to help future researchers ferret out what they are looking for.

(A certain person who lives with me will occasionally make a snide comment that a librarian capable of such detailed work should better organize the home book collection. Oh, well.)

One of the best parts of these projects is doing background research on the donor, and writing a biographical note. We found out that Robert D. Ashley was the chief Legal Counsel for the World's Fair, which must have been a complex job even in that simpler time. He lived a long productive life in Seattle, and made many contributions to the community-- he was key player in saving the Pike Place Market in the early 70's.

I know I've mentioned before how much I enjoy working at the Museum once a week. The 50th anniversary of the World's Fair is coming up in less than two years, and it's rewarding to help the Library make these old collections more accessible. The MOHAI Library is a Seattle treasure.

Autumn poems

We're having the stretch of sunny weather that usually comes in September, when it mostly rained in Seattle. A high-pressure ridge off the coast holds the clouds and gloom way out in the Pacific for a few days. You can see it on the weather map and you can feel it in the dry, crisp air. The sunsets are golden and the moon is out.

Of course, being October, it's chilly and the days are short. But still, fine weather to do just about anything outside. And to miss riding your dear, old horse-- even if it was just to the end of the block to look down together at the freeway and Boeing Field.

The majority of people say that fall is their favorite season, but most of the poetry written about autumn is sad or reflective. Well, maybe it makes us happy to be sad now and then. I thought of this while clearing out messy flowerbeds and cutting off the last of the flopping dahlias and asters.

Here's a poem called The Garden, by Sara Teasdale:

My heart is tired with autumn,
Heaped with bending asters and dahlias heavy and dark...

In the hazy sunshine, the garden remembers April,
The drench of rains and a snow-drop quick and clear as a spark-
Daffodils blowing in the cold wind of morning,
And golden tulips, goblets holding the rain-
The garden will be hushed with snow, forgotten soon, forgotten-
After the stillness, will spring come again?

Cran-Apple Chutney

It's hard to beat a simple cast iron skillet and convection oven for great roast turkey. And for only $6.50 we had a big dinner, then turkey curry and enchiladas later.

Cran-apple chutney made with dried cranberries is easy to make, and perfect with a fall dinner like this. I got the recipe from Sunset long ago, when it was more of a plain old cooking and crafts magazine.
Cran-Apple Chutney

1 cooking apple, rinsed, cored and chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1 tbs. mustard seed
1 tbs. minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cloves or allspice
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chili pepper flakes

Like most chutney recipes, you combine everything in one pan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer until most of liquid is evaporated and it thickens, about 1/2 hour.
Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, it's a nice change from plain cranberry sauce. And it freezes well, if you divide it into small baggies.

"The Craftsman" Journal

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

This is the first issue of The Craftsman magazine, published during the Arts and Crafts movement that took place in America from about 1900-1925. On the wondrous Internet, you can even read all of the old issues on-line.
(Click here.)

The descriptive writing style is wordy for modern attention spans, but if you're interested Arts and Crafts design, the magazine ran articles like "An Argument for Simplicity in Household Furnishings." It reminds us of a slow paced time when reading long periodical articles was recreation for most literate people.

Craftsman style bungalow in San Diego

The Craftsman magazine was started in 1901 by furniture maker Gustav Stickley, but the American craftsman style had its origins in the British Arts and Crafts movement founded on the social philosophy and artistic style of William Morris. The movement emphasized hand-made over mass-produced, and was also a reaction against the over decorated Victorian era. But the democratic idea of "ennobling" modest homes for the middle class was a unique part of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Craftsman bungalow homes like the one above are common in American cities; there are thousands in Seattle. In fact, we live in one.

Unfortunately, ours doesn't have a darling breakfast nook like this. The built-in breakfast nook was a new development of the Arts and Crafts bungalow design. Kitchens of the Victorian era were separated from daily routine, and didn't have a "proper" place for family members to sit or eat, something we take for granted now. In this new era, the middle class housewife prepared the meals, so the kitchen was a place to gather and became the heart of the family's daily life.

Arts and crafts objects were useful and simple in form. They often had designs and patterns reflecting nature, like this lamp.

And warm, earth-colored glazes on ceramics and tiles that complimented the dark mission style furniture.
William Morris designed beautiful tapestries, wallpapers and textiles which are still widely reproduced:

And if that wasn't enough artistic genius, he was also a prolific writer of essays, fiction and poetry.

I know a little garden close,
Set thick with lilies and red roses.
Where I would wander if I might
From dewy morning to dewy night.
Wm. Morris

The William Morris Rose

Hollyhocks, again?

Ever since I could remember, flowers have been like dear friends to me--comforters, inspirers, with powers to uplift and cheer.
Celia Thaxter
1835-1894

It's raining again this morning, but we had a short stretch of nice weather earlier in the week. The skies were blue and clear, although the air was chilly even in the sun. After all, it's October. Sometimes I'll see spring bulbs sprouting up this month, but in western Washington it isn't cause for alarm. When the temperature cools, they settle down to wait for February.

The hollyhocks have a second late bloom. A bit puny, but there it is. I cut the flopping stalks completely to the ground in August, but the wet September must have revived them.

I keep going out and picking white dahlias. I think each vase will be the last, but they keep sputtering along. The plants look awful, but I hate to chop them off when they're still giving us flowers. Once they're gone, it will be a long time until we see dahlias again.

No concert this weekend, and it looks like good weather to rake leaves for mulch.

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