Category: Family & Friends

Today is the birthday of my cousin, Janet. She is just a tad older than me, which means that I cannot remember a day in my life when she wasn’t there. For two weeks each summer (the very best two weeks!), and holidays, and family parties, Janet was always there with me. When I think of Thanksgiving dinners as a child, I see Janet sitting next to me. We whispered during the meals and after we’d either sneak off on our bicycles and ride to the beach or if the weather was bad, we’d escape to my room and play with my collection of Barbie dolls.

She is like a sister to me and I really enjoy the times we share now. I can see us growing old together, with our dogs and our cameras and perhaps a cruise or two together. Whatever the future holds for us, I know we’ll be together and the ocean will be nearby.

So, Happy Birthday, dearest cousin, and many, many more!!!

Today my grand niece, Abby, graduated from Pre-School. My sister went and brought along Luke so they could cheer her on and take these pictures for me, since I couldn’t be there.

Abby is the daughter of my oldest nephew, Mike. In fact I was just 13 when Mike was born and he was like a live doll for me! So I am really enjoying his lovely daughter. She has the most beautiful blue eyes and every summer her dark blond hair turns nearly white blond in the sun.

Abby loves all animals, birds, helping my sister cook and clean and is just about the sweetest kid you could imagine. She and her cousin Luke get along really well and are playmates. I think they look very much like brother and sister!

I’ll be seeing her again in July and I can hardly wait! It’s times like these, (when she graduates from Pre-School) that I wish I lived closer than a 4 hour car ride!

When we arrived at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts we had literally just pulled into the parking garage when we spotted our friends, Ed and Janis across from an open parking space. They had just arrived as well! Perfect timing!

This is The Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The area shaded in blue is under construction and when it opens it will give the museum more room to display works that currently sit in storage.

We walked together into the museum, picked up our tickets and went straight to the exhibit, “Spanish Art during the Reign of Philip III: El Greco to Velazquez” Already the crowds were thick, but seeing as I have been trained by my dackels, I just pushed my way through and got to the forefront.

This was the first painting I saw. What struck me was El Greco’s ability to use highlights in a way that many during his time (1541 – April 7, 1614) did not. Although born in Greece, (real name Doménicos Theotokópoulos) El Greco ended up settling in Toledo, Spain and the picture above is of Toledo.

El Greco’s portrait of St. Francis of Assisi was a lot more striking than this reproduction can show. The highlights in this were bright and bold. Notice how El Greco elongated the whole body and face of St. Francis. This was to be found is nearly all of his portraits.

I found myself wandering and discovering that El Greco had actually spent time with many artists of his era, including Peter Paul Rubens, (1577-1640) whose portrait of The Spanish Duke of Lerma was the only painting by a non Spanish artist that was included in the exhibit
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This portrait dwarfed many of the other paintings as it measured 3 meters high by 2 meters wide! In this portrait Rubens uses the same brilliant highlights that El Greco had. I also was captivated by Rubens ability to mold the muscles of the horse so that I felt it’s very strength!

I was taking notes with my trusty pen in my little date book, as that was all I had in my purse, and I needed to get fairly close in order to read the discription of each picture. I guess I looked suspicious, because one of the security men came over and asked if I was a critic. I giggled and said, “sort of, I have a blog!” and so began a delightful conversation with the young gentleman.

Once we worked our way through the exhibit, we decided to have lunch. I ordered the best entree! The skirt steak with yukon gold potatoes and a small kraut salad. It was delicious, and just the right size to adhere to Weight Watchers standards.

Then we wandered back to visit some old favorites. For me it means almost anything Monet. I love his work and have, in fact several reproductions framed in my house so that I might be surrounded by the beauty of his work.

One of Hubby’s favorites is Auguste Renior’s, (1841-1919) “Dance at Bouvigal”. Most of us have seen it, but I was amazed to find out that this is one of the most requested pieces for loan. Although Boston is it’s home, it goes out on tour six months out of the year.

Another favorite of ours is a painting done by Frank Weston Benson (known as an American Impressionist, 1862 – 1951) of his daughter, Eleanor. It never fails to take our breath away with it’s simple beauty.

Frank Weston Benson resided for quite a time here in New Hampshire with his family. Eventually in his later years he retired to the seacoast of Maine.

They also had another smaller exhibit going on that we decided to walk through. It featured the work of Antonio López García, a contemporary artist, (born 1936 in Spain). Most of the work featured scenes of Barcelona, Spain, but as I turned the corner I saw this:

It is a pencil drawing by the artist and the young girl looks directly into your soul. The picture is titled, “Maria”, and in my opinion was the best piece that I saw there of his work.

All too soon it was time to leave. We could have stayed for days just wandering the halls and galleries of this wonderful old museum.

A very big thank you to our friends for inviting us to this wonderful show. It was such a pleasure and something we do not often have a chance to do.

It’s apple blossom time at the Dackel Princess house. When we woke this morning the blossoms were opening, the trees were a beautiful shade of pink and white and the bees merrily worked the trees. It was a nice day and the dogs all enjoyed running around in the back yard, while playing with the kids.

Anneliese

Kimmie with the dogs.

Hubby worked in the yard for a while, played with the dogs, and took a few pictures of the trees. It always makes me happy to see how content he is when he is working on them. His love of nature, of his orchard, is truly a beautiful thing.

I also love to watch him because of Fritz. Fritz will follow Hubby around the yard, sit and watch whatever it is that Hubby is doing and when Hubby moves to the next job, Fritz follows faithfully along. It’s the sort of thing that makes me smile.

Hubby took this picture today in the orchard. I love it because it shows his nicely planted trees along the back line of our property.

I also love this picture because it is one he took when thinking about his daughter. It is her birthday today. On the day she was born the apple blossoms were in full bloom too. What a lovely time of year to have a birthday!

Happy Birthday Jess!

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~Time~

The first picture is my sister Melodie, our brother Richard, who passed away when he was 26 from cancer, and me. I think I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. But time passes doesn’t it?

This second picture is of me with Melodie last week when we went to see the cherry blossoms. It’s so nice to have such a loving relationship with your sister.

It was another beautiful, warm day and we had my grand-nephew, Luke and my grand-niece, Abby to take out for a nice walk. We strolled along an area that is being developed as a walking path between two towns. The place is beautiful, with a nice little river, a lot of trees and plenty of wild flowers.

We brought Arnie along with us, and as any dog would be, he was delighted! He ran with the children and pulled me along. I thought how lucky we all were to be there together!

I go home tomorrow and look forward to being back with Hubby and the other three dogs. It’ll be great to go back home and get to enjoy springtime all over again in New Hampshire!