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Monthly Archives: May 2016

New Dish, New Growth and A Poem for May

I’m working my way through my new cook-book by the Hemsley sisters and tonight it was Moroccan Chicken, so colourful in the making and delicious in the tasting, served with cauliflower rice and fresh spinach leaves. That’s certainly one to repeat.

Moroccan Chicken

I do love to see the poppy buds emerging and look forward to every stage of their blooming.

Poppy bud

I’m hoping the night stays clear enough to see tonight’s full moon and that all our white flowers with be lit up by the moonlight.

May Night

The spring is fresh and fearless
And every leaf is new,
The world is brimmed with moonlight,
The lilac brimmed with dew.

Here in the moving shadows
I catch my breath and sing –
My heart is fresh and fearless
And over-brimmed with spring.

by Sara Teasdale

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 21, 2016 in Beauty, Food, garden, nature, Photography, poetry, Postaday 2016

Tags: Hemsley and Hemsley, May Night, Moroccan Chicken, Sara Teasdale, The Art of Eating Well by Hemsley and Hemsley

Tulip, Plantain and Wisteria

20 May

We planted deep purple tulips to come up with the white ones. In fact, they came up later but they are fantastic and are surviving the wind and the rain.

Tulip

Just outside Chacewater Village Hall,where I go for Pilates, there is a wild garden with Plantains in flower. I do love their delicate halo of whiteness.

Plantain in flower

On my way out of the village, stuck in traffic as usual, I was able to appreciate and photograph this amazingly beautiful Wisteria.

Wisteria in Chacewater

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 20, 2016 in Cornwall, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday 2016

Tags: Wisteria

Window, Water and Woodland Flowers

19 May

We drove past this front door today and I love the stained glass window.

At the nursery I was looking at the lupins as I like how raindrops collect and magnify.

In the grounds of Burncoose Nursery I was delighted to see that we hadn’t missed the Bluebells in full bloom.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 19, 2016 in art, Beauty, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday 2016

Tags: Barncoose Nursery, bluebells, stained glass window

Truro, The Ballet and The Cathedral

18 May

What a splendid evening in Truro. First a wander, then dinner and the Birmingham Royal Ballet who were just wonderful, especially Frederick Ashton’s piece Momentum 11 set to Eric Satie’s Gymnopedies and then the Cathedral lit up against the dark sky.

Walsingham Place

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Truro Cathedral

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 18, 2016 in art, Beauty, Cornwall, dance, Hall for Cornwall, Photography, Postaday 2016, Truro

Tags: Birmingham Royal ballet, Eric Satie, Momentum

Last Views of Washington and Home

17 May

We spent Sunday morning catching all the sights from the Lincoln Monument to the Washington Monument with the War Memorials in between and on the way to The White House catching The George Washington University Commencement Celebration on the lawns of the park nearby. It was lovely to see the graduates in their gowns with such smiles and with their families around them. We left for the airport at 3pm Washington time on 15th May and arrived home at 4pm on 16th May, UK time !

The Lincoln Memorial

Look hard and you’ll see Lincoln

A very moving sculpture recognising the role of women in the Vietnam war

By Glenda Goodacre in 1993

The enormous memorial to Americans who lost their lives in the Vietnam war

The Washington Memorial

The White House

The national Christmas tree

Proud family

Paddington Bear, 4am in Washington, 9am in the UK and we have been travelling all night with another 5 hours to go on the train!

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 17, 2016 in America, architecture, Beauty, Celebration, Photography, Postaday 2016, sculpture, travel

Tags: Commencement, Glenda Goodacre, The Lincoln Memorial, The Washinton Memorial, The White House, War Memorials

Feather with Raindrops and Emily Dickinson

16 May

Feather and raindrops

Isn’t this a beautiful little poem?

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

By the time you read this, we should be on our way home from our American adventure.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 16, 2016 in Beauty, nature, Photography, poetry, Postaday 2016

Tags: Emily Dickinson, Hope

Himalayan Blue Poppy and John Keats

15 May

Himalayan Blue Poppy

I find the blue of this Poppy quite remarkable and most certainly, ‘a thing of beauty.’

From Endymion Book 1

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 15, 2016 in Beauty, nature, Photography, poetry, Postaday 2016

Tags: Himalayan Blue Poppy

Frida Kahlo and Other Art in Washington

15 May

We started our day walking quiet Saturday streets to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, a museum which celebrates women artists who are often ignored in other collections. It was such a delight to see Frida Kahlo’s ‘Self Portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky’

There was also a very moving exhibition of works by women from Iran and the Arab world.

Click on any phot for the larger version so that you can read the label.

From there we moved on to more of The Smithsonian, this time the American Arts Museum. One thing we especially love about these museums is how the visitor is encouraged to take photos, to get close to the paintings to really appreciate detail. At home we are kept away by rope barriers and an alarm sounds if you dare to get close enough to see brushstrokes.

This first one is Granma Moses goes to Town, with detail of the farmer in the bottom right.

It was so lovely to see the tiny stitches on the tapestry by two sisters, Lydia and Betsy Morphew in the late C19.

On our way to the Washington Monument the skies went black and a storm had everyone running for shelter.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Face

14 May

As we pulled into the parking lot at River House, the B&B we had booked into at Grassy Creek, this face looked down on us from on high.

For others in this week’s challenge, click here https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/face/

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 14, 2016 in America, art, Beauty, Humour

Tags: weekly photo challenge -face

Father William’s Chutney and Washington

14 May

Today we were on a mission! When we were in Stanwell prior to our flight from Heathrow, we had a meal in the local pub and got talking to the people who cooked our delicious pies. They told us that Father William Whittaker, their local priest, had moved to Washington and that they missed him very much. They asked us if we would be going near his new Church, St Monica and St James on Capitol Hill and we said we would try to find it. They gave us a jar of their home made tomato chutney to take to him.

We walked up in the rain from Union Station through many streets and finally found the Church, a lovely old building. We knocked on the door of the Rectory and met Father William who was really moved by our efforts to find him and that his ex parishioners cared enough to send him some chutney all the way from England!

After this delightful encounter we walked down towards the Capitol past some lovely homes, then on to first The Museum of the American Indian and then the National Gallery of of Arts where we were delighted to find the original Andrew Wyeth painting that we have loved for so long and of which we have a print at home.

What a brilliant day that was!