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You are here: Home / Archives for movies

Wednesday Potpourri

February 21, 2024 at 9:05 am by Claudia

♦ Even though we had decided “No Valentines Day Cards or Presents” Don snuck this home from the grocery store. Whenever I challenge him on buying something when we had agreed not to, he says “But I’m the guy!” As in, it’s my duty to give you something for Valentines Day. It’s a kalanchoe plant.

♦ We learned last night that Don’s stepmother died a few days ago. She was 95. They had a complicated relationship as June was ‘the other woman’ when Don was a kid, and Don’s mom, who suffered from mental illness, did not handle it well – to put it mildly. June and Lee eventually married and they were together close to 60 years or so and had three children together. It took a few years, but Don and June forged a relationship and she was always good to him. I liked her, as well. Rest in Peace, June. I like to think that Lee was waiting for her on the other side of the veil.

♦ For the past few months I have been very introspective, looking back on my actions in the past, assessing them, and regretting many. I’m a good person, but I sure haven’t handled every situation well. Decidedly not. I often react from a place of high emotion and that isn’t always the best way to react. I can be impulsive. It’s important to look back on these things with a clear eye. And to do better in the future. It seems a natural thing to reflect on things like this as we get older, though it can be uncomfortable.

♦ We watched The Red Shoes  last night on TCM. I have seen it before, but Don had not. I urged him to give it a try because I knew he would love it. It’s such an amazing story with a brilliant cast, beautiful art direction, and a gorgeous musical score. He LOVED it. It says so much about the dedication being an artist requires, along with the struggle to have a normal life. Brilliant, I think. Both of us had dreams last night based on the movie. Mine was right before I woke up and it was quite detailed. Rather than involving dance, mine was about acting. Of course. Have you ever seen it? You should!

Derek looking out at the snow.

♦ We walked yesterday, a very brisk walk, as it was quite cold out. While we were out, I purchased a smaller box from the post office for shipping an Etsy order, which I have to mail today. We’ll try to walk again today, as Don has a gig tomorrow, so we’ll not get a walk in. And then we’re due for rain.

♦ I’m halfway through the 750 page The Year of the Locust  by Terry Hayes. I have yet to read my assigned chunk of Wolf Hall  reading. Locust  is due next week and since it was just published, I doubt I’ll be able to renew it. Must finish. It’s a riveting spy thriller, so it’s not as if I have to make myself read it! I often can’t put it down.

And that’s about it!

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Filed Under: books, Don, family, movies 24 Comments

Floods, Books & Movies

September 30, 2023 at 8:27 am by Claudia

It’s raining again this morning, but I won’t complain. Yesterday’s rain was less than expected but areas closer to the coast were flooding, including New York City. The film I watched of the flooding in Manhattan and Brooklyn was shocking. I remember this happening a couple of years ago, not long after I’d been living temporarily in Brooklyn. Some of the film showed an area relatively close to where I was living in Park Slope, near the Gowanus Canal. Not that flooding like this hasn’t happened before, but it seems to be happening more frequently. Subways flooded, streets flooded, basements flooded – many apartments are in basements. It’s dangerous. I haven’t checked on the weather in NYC this morning, but I hope the amount of water has receded.

We did have flood watches up here and I’m sure our rivers are way too high at the moment, but all is well.

Our repair work on the refrigerator seems to have done the trick. No water leaking! Every time I walk by, I stop to open the door and check the refrigerator ‘status’ but so far, so good. Hey, I think we did it! Thank heavens for YouTube, which has the provided many answers and how-tos over the years.

A stack of books from the library. Unfortunately, the large print Lisa Jewell smells of cigarette smoke, so we’ll have to see whether I’m willing to deal with that. Probably not. I’m reading The Secret Hours  at the moment and I’m more than halfway through. Excellent, excellent.

Late in the afternoon yesterday, I checked TCM’s schedule and saw that Cinema Paradiso  was the prime-time offering. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to tell Don. We love, love, love that movie. I have Don to thank for introducing me to it many years ago. It certainly is in my top five best movies ever. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s a love letter to the magic of the cinema. It’s an Italian movie, and it takes place in Sicily. The cast is brilliant, especially the young actor who plays the main character, Toto, as a young boy. I’ve never seen a better performance from a child. But every performance is spot on, the score by Ennio Morricone is unbelievably beautiful – it’s a treasure. And it is beautifully directed. We cried at the end as we always do, and we’ve been talking about it this morning. It stays with us, lingering, bathing us in its warmth. I’ve written about it before on this blog. I always feel better for having seen it. I’ll carry it with me throughout the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: books, movies 26 Comments

Sunset, Garden Update & Painting

September 1, 2023 at 8:15 am by Claudia

The sunset Wednesday evening:

I’ve always loved that combination of a blue, blue sky and pink clouds.

We mowed the front lawn yesterday. Today, we take a day off from our mowing duties to recover. Tomorrow, the corral and back forty. The grass is still growing as if it’s spring, not fall. I’m not sure when it will slow up. But we do have a stretch ahead of us with no rain. Yes, no rain until next Friday. Whatever will we do?

A deer has eaten the tops off all the milkweed plants, which is problematic because that’s where the seed pods develop. In fact, I think he ate the pods. I can see only two plants that have retained their pods, so I’m hoping they’ll distribute enough seeds for more plants next year.

He’s also chomped on my coleus in the secret garden, which is so secret that he sneaks in there without me noticing. But at this point, I no longer care, just as I no longer do any weeding. Well, I do a little, but not much.

As to the garden, some little bits of information – despite my worry about the deer chomping on the David phlox and a bush or two, every plant recovered and new blooms formed. And the calibrachoa that lives in an urn on the porch and was eaten by a groundhog also came back and is in full bloom. My lesson from this is to refrain from getting too upset by these things. Though it’s frustrating, mother nature always tends to heal and restore.

The phlox is still in bloom, though waning a bit. The coneflowers are still purple and white, but they’re starting to look pretty tired. The brown-eyed susans are still going strong, even though they bloomed earlier than usual this year. My Annabelle hydrangea is looking downtrodden and the blooms are turning brown – the rain did a big number on that bush. The limelight hydrangea is beginning to turn pink. The spirea is in its second bloom. And my two Rose of Sharons have provided an endless supply of blooms. I think there are only a few buds yet to open but I’m so grateful for their big flowers and their height. They are in the memorial garden and boy, have they enriched that particular space! Tall zinnias are still opening in one of the beds – a late summer gift. My small hydrangea (endless summer) had absolutely NO blooms until about a week ago. And even then, only two. Go figure.

And the porch plants are still going strong. It’s not too long before I’ll be bringing them in at night because of a freakishly early frost warning. And then the dance will begin until I finally accept the arrival of cold weather and regretfully let them go.

I’m in the middle of a painting – still very much a work in progress.

The inspiration is a photo I took in one of our favorite places, the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. There’s still a lot more to go, but it’s been fun. Every painting is a learning experience, especially for an amateur like me.

Last night, we watched one of my favorite movies ever – the 1939 version of Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, and starring a cast of incredible actors, including a young John Wayne (before he became a bit of a caricature – he’s so good in this) Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine and a host of great supporting actors. We often google the actors before we close up and go to bed and some research on Claire Trevor (who breaks my heart in this movie, she’s so good) showed a picture of her standing before an easel with a paintbrush in her hand. A portrait was on the easel. Sure enough, she was a painter and had studied art as a young woman. When she was older she had more time to paint. An old Architectural Digest profile showed her Manhattan apartment with portraits she had painted hanging on her walls, including one of Virginia Woolf and a young Pablo Picasso.

She was really, really talented! She also supported the arts, so much so that the University of California, Irvine named their school of the arts The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. It focuses on the performing and visual arts.

She lived to be 90 years old. I’ve always been a big fan but the discovery of her paintings is an added bonus.

I’m surging ahead with War and Peace, no longer simply reading a chapter a day. I’ll probably finish by the end of September. I’m also back to The Deptford Trilogy, reading the second book in the trilogy – The Manticore. I have six books on order from the library, some of which won’t even be published until later this month.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Filed Under: books, garden, movies, oil painting 38 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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