A bit of history

Damn it's cold outside!

The above masterpiece is from Claude Monet, entitled Bulbfield and Windmill Near Leyden, courtesy of the Web Museum. It made me feel a little warmer.

It feels like winter will never end this year. I must be getting old.

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978. It had winds of hurricane force, 75 mph, thunder and lightning, and dumped upwards of 55 inches of snow in some areas in roughly 33 hours. This storm hit before the advances in forecasting and a lot of people were caught completely off-guard. Governors Grasso (Connecticut) and Dukakis (Massachusetts) closed all roads except for emergency travel, for three days.

I guess things could be much worse.

Wildenstein & Company

Will be exhibiting 62 (holy cow!) works of Claude Monet from April 27 through June 15.

Everyone in my family better stay healthy and whole so I get a chance to head down to the exhibit.

Life is still hectic and tiring. It's getting better though. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long, long ten weeks.

It's not that I'm not paying attention to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, or the lunacy of the US administration - I just need a break from it all. I keep reading about the horrors human beings are inflicting on each other, at home and abroad, but I don't feel much like discussing it.

Maybe next week.

In the meantime I'll share some of my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews):

Astronomy

Cassini finds evidence of hydrocarbon lakes on Titan

How cool!

Researchers counted about a dozen lakes six to 62 miles wide. Some, which appeared as dark patches in radar images, were connected by channels, while others had tributaries flowing into them. Several were dried up, but the ones that contained liquid were most likely a mix of methane and ethane.

See Titan at The Nine Planets as well as Universe Today.

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Art



The image above is of Claude Monet's oil painting Springtime, another of my favorites. According to the Fitzwilliam Museum website:

It shows Suzanne Hoschedé, the eighteen-year old daughter of Monet’s then mistress, and later wife, Alice, and his own son, Jean Monet, in the orchard of his garden at Giverny in 1886. The tonality perfectly examplifies the ‘violettomania’ or ‘seeing blue’ for which the Impressionists were repeatedly criticised: one commentator described the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877 as having the overall effect of a worm-eaten Roquefort cheese!

It might seem strange, but, another favorite artist of mine is Piet Mondrian.




I love the clean geometric lines and bold colors of his work.


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Glass




I love beach glass and blown glass, cut glass and stained glass. Glass has fascinated me... forever. And, being 41 years old, that a long freakin' time. The chandelier above is from FunctionArt.com. As much as I love glass, I probably wouldn't hang that in my home, but it's an amazing piece of art containing 101 individual hand-blown glass pieces.

See also:

It's all about perspective ~ Hm. Next glass art piece for my collection? I think I'll email the artist and find out what it costs. It would look really nice on the dining room table.

Blue Bamboo

Rattled

And my favorite of all cut crystal, Waterford:



This is the 8 inch Cecily Rose Bowl.

sigh

I need to marry a billionaire or hit the lottery.

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Gemstones



My birthstone, (as is this, but I don't like it) courtesy of Gemstone.org, the website of the International Colored Gemstone Association.