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.
Love the painting! I knew immediately that it was Paris, too—you must have the light just right. Way to go!
Is one of your book orders the 4th one in The Thursday Murder Club series? I just noticed that it’s due out on the 19th—The Last Devil to Die.
Yes. I’m in line for that book and the newest Robert Galbraith, which is also coming out in September. But it’s a long line!
Yes, I’m in a long line for both of them, too.
xo
Thank you so much, Shanna.
Stay safe.
I think your painting looks so good you could frame it right now.
I’ve never been a fan of John Wayne and you nailed it…he became a caricature.
We are having some georgous weather here with sunny days and cooler nights. We have no rain in the forcast either. It will be a lovely Labor Day weekend for one last beach day or camping. We are having family for a cookout.
Take care
You should watch Stagecoach, Marilyn. He’s young, heartbreakingly honest – a beautiful performance.
Stay safe.
You’ve been a busy woman! Isn’t Jardin du Luxembourg wonderful? I think your painting is, too. I love painting meaningful spots from travels — it brings it all back.
Glad the garden is hanging in, if beginning to ease for the fall. My Annabelles go green, not brown. Hmmm. I’m glad all the plants have recovered from the earlier munching and now are in bloom.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Stagecoach — I’ll have to check that on out!
Ours go green as well, but then they turn brown after that.
You must see Stagecoach. It’s one of my favorite films. The perfect western.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
I’m loving that painting….those chairs look so inviting!
You can really tell the gardens are starting to wane….that it’s time. I still have 3 panicle limelight’s that are going strong…but their scent is fading. And I’m ready. I’m still picking a few weeds…I guess I just can’t help myself. But with the hot and steamy weather predicted for this weekend, I plan on hibernating, except for Saturday. We are going to a Badger football game…hope we don’t melt too much.
Enjoy your rain free week ahead! ;)
I think we’re going to get some hot weather, as well. Sigh.
Thanks, Donnamae.
Stay safe.
I love your painting!! Please let us see it when it’s finished. I’ve been wanting to get back to painting, too, and you’re inspiring me!
Oh good! Get back to your painting, Jenny!
Stay safe.
please, please, please frame this painting! it is incredible!
and i knew right away that it is from when you and don went to paris.
great work, claudia!
glad you are painting again.
also glad you are still getting garden blooms in spite of the weather and nibbling deer you’ve had this summer.
on our daily rides we see lots of wildflowers alongside the roads. lots of queen anne’s lace (a favorite) , brown- or black-eyed susans, some unknown little yellow flowers and now-dried sunflowers and purple thistles. and a white-tasseled tall grassy thing (i really should research what those unknown things are).
interesting about claire trevor. good for her!
john wayne was born in winterset, a nice little town southwest of here. he and his family didn’t stay long, but there’s a museum for him here. and a statue. and the “blue note” featured in the “bridges of madison county” movie. we drive by there at least a couple times each month. i don’t know how they do it, but the town keeps huge, huge floral arrangements hanging from many lampposts along the main business district all summer long. pansies? zinnias? i don’t know (again, research should be done), but they are well-tended and beautiful.
how are your sister and nephews post-idalia? hopefully safe with no troubles of any kind.
several tasks done this morning, including a dirty one (car). now, a little break, then on to something else.
happy, safe friday to you, don and everyone else.
kathy
Family is fine – just some branches to clean up.
Thanks for your kind words, Kathy.
Stay safe.
Love your painting. You really captured the light! I imagine that is one of the most difficult things to do. You both have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks so much, Tana.
Stay safe.
The painting is beautiful, those green chairs!!
Thank you, Jen!
Stay safe.
I’m pleased you find such joy in painting, and convey it, albeit quietly and deliberately in this particular landscape. I envy your talent but even more so, your willingness to learn and expand it!
Thank you, Wendy.
Stay safe.
What a pretty painting!
I have two endless summer hydrangeas. Two years ago they had a few blooms. Last summer, nothing. Not one flower. This year they were full of flowers. No clue why other than weather changes.
I don’t have a clue, either. My other hydrangeas are pretty consistent, but not the Endless Summer.
Stay safe, Denise.
Taking a break after mowing sounds like a good idea! I really enjoy old movies and have seen Stagecoach, but it’s been awhile. I’ll have to watch it again next time I see that it’s on. I always Google actors when I’m seeing a movie….also enjoy reading the trivia section about the movie. What a beautiful painting! It really looks like a photo…
Thank you so much, Barrie.
Stay safe.
Your painting is beautiful! Glad you are creating.
I am very puzzled by the milkweed this year. I have a sunny spot where I just let it reproduce. There are approximately 50 plants. I’ve seen one Monarch. No caterpillars, no cocoons. My sister lives an hour east of me. She has 4 plants. Has never seen a Monarch and has 6 caterpillars! Mother nature is very entertaining and a little fickle. :)
P.S. I stopped weeding 6 weeks ago. My gardens are jungles. Too hot, too much rain, too little motivation and sleep on my part. Tomorrow is another day…
Some years I don’t see any caterpillars, but that just means they’re under a leaf or not showing themselves when I’m looking. The caterpillars move several feet from the plant when they’re ready to transform, so you won’t see them near the milkweed. We have only seen one chrysalis, it was hanging under the birdbath. I’ve already seen a monarch or two this year, but I have no idea if they were from my plants or someone else’s.
Stay safe, Betsy.
Lovely, newsy post, Claudia. Your painting is going to be a show stopper. So many beautiful shades of green. The rose of sharon trees around here are stunning this year. Who knows why? I’ve just baked an apple walnut cake in the microwave. Who knew you could do that? I’m sure a lot of people do but it was a first for me. It turned out great and the texture is good. 7 minutes! Great if it’s hot and you don’t want to turn the oven on. Hugs, Elaine
Enjoy your apple walnut cake, Elaine.
Stay safe.
I always think it’s nice when you end a post or a reply to a reader with the hope-prayer of ‘Stay safe’ (thank you, Claudia!) — because the uptick in virus is getting scary again although the latest from Fauci is indicating to not panic as there’s enough of the population who’s vaccinated or who have immunity now, such that we wouldn’t see the high numbers of infection and death that we did in the height of the pandemic (at least this is how I interpreted the comments; for me, doesn’t matter, I’m always masked; I have ‘way too many risk factors for complications were I to get infected; but who wants to get sick in any degree when it’s so darned easy to just don a mask!).
I’m certainly going to look out for the 1939 version of the film you describe; have never seen it. I like the idea of you saying it was before John Wayne became somewhat of a cariacature. I once loved later movies he did with Maureen O’Hara after “The Quiet Man” but it seems his roles did become formulaic/predictable. Not to take away from him being a beloved icon and a good actor (prolific amount of work!), but I’m just glad to know your opinion about Stagecoach. You had me looking up John Wayne and reading about him just now. Amazing to think of his 50-year career in the 1900s and that he knew Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp, two other guys of whom I’ve known very little.
One thing I continue to notice with old films (but even up to the 80s) is that they had their share of violence, like men and women hitting each other (or even a dog), as if slapping and the like was some kind of appeal that went with the story, no matter if it was drama or comedy. I’m glad that in later films, this was less acceptable to the viewer. We don’t benefit from what I guess they thought was mild violence for effect. Violence is never mild. Even as a child I can recall being in a store (late 1950s) and seeing a mom spank a kid in public; glad it’s not something I’ve continued to see; was always upsetting.
I enjoyed ‘Boy on a Dolphin’ the other night on TCM; haven’t seen it in a few years; a young, tall Sophia Loren with an older, short Alan Ladd. I remember reading once that in close-up scenes (this was late 50s), the crew would actually dig a hole for her to stand in so that she sunk lower than him; otherwise, like in a romantic scene with kissing, she would have towered over Mr. Ladd.
My mom (a globetrotter in her heart and soul and brain, yet not one who was ever able to leave the U.S. for a foreign location/vacation [just never had the money to do anything like that]) loved these sorts of on-location films (in this case [‘Dolphin’] Greek islands and Athens); she introduced me to them early and we’d salivate over scenes of exotic places, like Monte Carlo in “It Takes a Thief” with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant; Jennifer Jones and William Holden in “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” (Hong Kong). I think for Mom, it just made color photos in books come alive on film, almost the next-best thing to going there. But I know I’ve talked about this before whenever the subject of old movies comes up, and I love it when you or anybody else here on the blog talks of them, because … like Stagecoach … I get some great, new tips. I guess I’ll always prefer the films of the 50s shot in Technicolor but I’ve tried to embrace good-quality black & white films, too.
One last thing, about Claire Trevor (I’ve never known much about her): It’s always so interesting to me to learn of actors who have a double or triple or more talent. If artistic, it shows on more than one thing/genre/talent. Look at you, you act and sing and coach and write (and paint). Don acts but he also sings and writes songs. Claire Trevor along with so many other artists was an actor and a painter. Tony Bennett was a singer and a painter. John Mellencamp (or John Cougar as we knew him in the rocker 80s) is both singer and painter. Art, music, performing; it all goes so hand in hand.
Art in the DNA; what is it? If you have the artistic gene, you just emote and express in a diff way than the other person who’s got the science/engineering/math gene? Although, say, as a sculptor, don’t you have to have some of both; like, sure, I know I’ve read this before, that both da Vinci and Michelangelo were both architects and engineers as well as artists. Something I want to further ponder today. But, wow, what gifts.
Claudia, we’re not even getting a up-close view of your painting but I can see it may be the best you’ve ever done. This is a somewhat-untapped talent you really need to keep developing. You’ve captured amazing light in the work; I’m impressed! I’m no expert, but it seems to me you’ve really got good depth and perspective in this work (and terrific colorway as well; the green chairs are the bomb). Bravo!
(PS: Really great post today; lots of good stuff in it! Thanx for all the info. And I hope you and Don have a really nice, long, relaxing Labor Day weekend. Mine is quiet, and I like it!)
Thank you, Vicki. That means a lot to me. It will be a low key weekend for us, as well. In fact, we forgot that it was Labor Day weekend!
xoxo
I was running errands today and some people with masks on, but not enough, in my opinion. It’s on the rise everywhere and I simply don’t want to run the risk of getting it.
Often actors who were shorter would stand on a box – I believe it’s called an apple box – so they matched the woman’s height. Still used today, I think.
I much prefer black and white films. There is something ‘pure’ about them to me. For instance, Stagecoach is beautifully shot, brilliant use of light and shadow, we were oohin and aahing about it all night long. I also love old Hollywood black and white portraits of the stars for the same reason.
We are definitely creative artists. Terrible at money, business, math, science. But good at creating.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Your painting is wonderful! As I scrolled down , I thought it was a photograph! Beautiful! Talented!
Thank you so much, Melanie.
Stay safe.
Love the painting. We had an eventful night. Monsoon season has started in Arizona and it got so windy last night that a huge branch fell off of a big olive tree in our front yard. It also blew over a big swing we had in our backyard. We live in an area with a HOA so they will clean the tree up. There is no way my husband could do it. Hopefully tonight will be a little calmer. Take care!
Hopefully, all that is over!
Stay safe, Deb.