Christmas Eve

Prepared the turkey for its roasting early tomorrow morning
(Note to self: Put in oven at 07:00!), and other ingredients for tomorrow's Christmas dinner all organized.
Ufa! What a week, but everything's now pretty much done/planned...
I see that I still haven't recovered my stamina after the surgery.

Tonight, we go to my friend and youngest son's godmother's home, for their Christmas Eve family dinner.
It will be lovely, I'm sure — dear friends, laughter, and caring.

Merry Christmas!

Gerard van Honthorst, 1622
(click to enlarge)

Christmas: Butzelmann&Roses

Remember my Butzelmann bottles?

Here they are, all dressed for Christmas!

I sent the photo, along with my Christmas card, to the friend who sent them from Germany.
To you, dear:

Christmas

Got the tree up!
Happy dance, happy dance!
(This year, I actually got it up on Dec. 12th — Yea! Triple happy dance!)

 Tannenbaum 2011

click to enlarge

Got some candles lit...

And a few friends 'round the house...

 

(it's blurred cause the critters won't stay still!...)

(... not my hand shaking!)

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas penguinis

Christmas heart

  "Christmas is not just a holiday for sparkles, roast and trees.
   It's something you do by sharing your hands and your heart
   with people everyday."  ~  overthinking

A Touching Christmas Day by ~overthinking

Photography / Conceptual©2010-2012 ~ overthinking

Qigong

For some time now I've been interested in qigong. Its soft, flowing movements appeal greatly to me. I haven't yet found a teacher where I live, but found many videos on Youtube.
I especially liked the ones by Cheyne Towers.

The following one, although for someone who already knows the moves, is very calming to watch.

Tears in the Rain

I've loved science fiction since a teenager.
When the Blade Runner movie, based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", came out, I recognized that world from so many alternate futures I'd come across.
One scene in its touching, longing, beauty became part of my emotional make-up.

Aptly expressing the human condition, to which the android Roy Batty most ardently desired —and, in my view, in the end achieved it with this soliloquy— is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking moments in cinema...

 "Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?

  That's what it is to be a slave."

 "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

  Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

  I watched C-beams...

        glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.

 All those...  moments

       will be lost...  in Time,

       like...  tears...  in the rain.

 Time...  to die."

                                              — "... The final form of the speech was improvised by Rutger Hauer, the actor who delivers it." from

Thanksgiving

via

Today I spoke with/saw with Skype my family in the States, while they gathered and cooked for Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house.

How wonderful are comp video calls?

One more blessing to give thanks for today.

There I was, albeit stuck in a propped up flat box, in the their midst sharing the holiday in New England!

Simultaneously, I'm sitting in my chair in the spring/near-summer of my hemisphere, roughly 7427.1 km (4615 miles)* away, as some crazy bird would fly.

And that's about a third, very roughly, of the Earth's diameter!

(This little bit of info to add to my collection of interesting but useless information.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

via

For Mothers and Lovers

From my newest passion, for all mothers and lovers, with a humorous twist...

Safe Travels (Don't Die)
                               — Lisa Hannigan, from album her Passenger
Please eat your greens
and don't sit close to screens,
your eyes are a means to an end.
And I would be sorry if, due to your hurry,
you were hit by a lorry my friend.

Like you always say,
Safe travels, don't die, don't die,
safe travels, don't die.

Don't walk on ice, no matter how nice,
how sturdy, enticing it seems.
Please cross at the lights
and don't start fires or fights and
don't dabble in heights on caffeine.

Like you always say
Safe travels, don't die, don't die,
safe travels, don't die.

Don't swallow bleach
out on Sandymount beach,
I'm not sure I'd reach you in time my boy.
Please don't bungee jump
or ignore a strange lump
and a gasoline pump's not a toy.

Like you always say
Safe travels, don't die, don't die,
safe travels, don't die.

                                   — Lyrics from her site

For sure I'm asking Santa for two cds!

Halleluja!

I'm always amazed at Youtube...
All these songs that I've wanted for years to discover the what and the who about, I can now with a few jumbled words actually track them down.

Amazing.

Such a song is this: beautiful melody and voice - Leonard Cohen singing his composition Halleluia.

Hallelujah 
             — originally version, by Leonard Cohen

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

The Halleluja part is especially apt for this moment: the process I've been working on since February has finally came to fruition after a loooooooot of ups&downs and work & prayer. Signed, sealed and delivered. Halleluja!

Paper, Music, Magic

Lisa Hannigan: a new face for me. Loving her music and videos,
... and fun!
(for the title add: "... and Some Paint!")

I have to thank Content in a Cottage for sending me Lisa Hannigan's way, as well always being a sure source of many pleasures: delightful snippets — pictures, sayings, ideas... and Webster and Piggy.

Auto Lurking

I haven't had the urge to blog for awhile now... but I have been coming here, lurking about my own blog for several days now.
This to catch up on my the doings of the people of my blog list (I guess that would be in newspeak my blog peeps).
Although not in a blogging mood, an executive blogging mood, I'm enjoying catching up with those who are cheerfully posting away. There some of my favorite bloggers who also seem to be having a time off ... a long while between posts for them also.

Today marks the second month since my surgery. I'm starting to feel human, slightly, again. Or maybe the term shoud be normal, whatever THAT is, as human can aptly describe the highly fragilised state I've been slogging through.
Post-op, even the excellent ones like mine, basically
                   just
                          plain
                                   suck.

So, 2 months and 14 kg returned to the Cosmos, or Gaia, or who/whatever needs it most at this moment.
I'm having more energy now, more mobility... so now I'm actually starting to get a happy feeling about it.
And fitting back into some of my old clothes. Yippee!

Beautiful

Some true beauty for the equinox!

I AM... Welcome Home

It always takes me a while to realize that I can try tracing on Youtube the song a liked so much from a tv add.
And... voilá! It worked!
From the beautiful Nikon adds: Ben Cooper ~ official site

Welcome Home ~ Album: Ghost  ~ by Radical Face (Ben Cooper)

Here is the first add (I believe) and the Brazilian version...

More minion love

Feeling  the tiniest bit better from this dreadful head cold.
Found this today when I dragged myself to the computer.
I now have a minon of my very own!!!

Hitech

Pôneis Malditos!

Love them minions...

Saw Despicable Me a while ago.
I loved the movie, especially for the army of minions... just loved those little yellow fellows!

Eclipse

First in a brand new saros cycle today, the eclipse was near Antarctica, and over the next 18 years-plus will wend it's way up to the Arctic.

 

Astronomers Studying an Eclipse painted by Antoine Caron in 1571

from

Itsy-ibtsy-teensy-weensy

As I've said: love those teeny houses, buuuuut...

A house I'd love to fit in!

Actually, the laundry of Withy Mills Farm!!!

To see to what heights, or smalls, an itsy-ibtsy-teensy-weensy cottage/house obsession can take you!
(There's always the addendum: just make it a little larger and...)

Gaga

I do believe I'm going rather gaga, as I'm finding the ads on tv much more entertaining than the programs, and (this the gaga part) actually talk about them to my friends!

The Secret Life of Chaos

More Hobbity...

Of course, coming across those photos yesterday set me off on another safari for hobbity houses....
And I found this!

A romantic engineer, who outside his businesslike, professional exterior, must be just dying to find someone to build a house for! My interpretation, as I certainly would be, if I were in his shoes!
(and as I also have a dream of building one...)

Of Hobbits

Don't you just love this window?

I came across these today of "Hobbiton", the film set in Matamata, NZ being rebuilt.
There are tours during this rebuilding, up to the actual filming that should be starting at the end of this year.
If a Tolkien fan and in that part of the world, it would certainly be interesting to visit.

Bag End and neighbor

Hobbiton coming back...
this part of the set had burned down at the end of filming

Can I go in, please?

The Party Tree (right) near the lake

*All photos from Spinky

What were you doing?

Well, I just couldn't resist watching it!
After all, I did see his mother and father's in 1981.

I loved the speech (homily?) made by this clergyman.
(Sorry... I didn't write it immediately down... the Bishop of London?...I'm sure to find it someplace. The Rt Revd and Rt Hon. Dr Richard Chartres, Lord Bishop of London)

I hope to later be able to get the text... very good words for all couples and relationships.
I loved the Chaucer quote.

'Whan maistrie (mastery) comth, 

the God of Love anon, 

Beteth his wynges, 

and farewell, he is gon'.

Update:

Found on the web...

The short version...

via

Pug-licious Design

Puglicious and Eames. Need anything else be said?

via Cute Overload

Flying Fur Balls!

I've discreetly admitted elsewhere on this blog that I do have a cute-addiction, even as my highbrow blushes violently at the thought!

Looking through my folder today, I realized I had separeted some images to post, but never got to it.

Today, then, from last year: 

The Flying Fur Balls

[also known as the Hovercats]

via Cute Overload

April Ladies

Been out of posting mood for a while. A very upsetting beginning of the year. Now, I think all the bootstrap-pulling-upping is finally working.

Today, after a long abscence from quality blog-time, I visited The Girls.

Whenever I do come to the blog and give myself some short or long visiting time, these are usually the first I visit: Posy, Attic24, and Marmalade Rose.
So, why not post of this simple little ritual that brings me happiness.
A two-fold blessing: aknowledging the gift of their presence and getting a post written!

They always cheer me up (even when giving me that pang of envy by all their energy, lovely locations end crafty work!) I love their gorgeous photos. I love taking little or long trips with them to town, to the countryside, even to the supermarket; or just sharing, for a moment, a little bit of their lives.

They don't know of my existence as I'm pretty much of a "lurker", dreadful sounding as that word is. Although once I did comment at Posy's and once at Marmalade Rose's. Fiona, The Rose, kindly answered me back, a happy, warming moment. Although nice to receive, the "commenting" is not what is important: sharing their world through their blogs, these generous ladies share it with me, and this brightens my life.

Note to Self:

Ok, ok, already!!! My conscience pestering me!

So: I like all the blogs on my list!!! (or they wouldn't be there, right?)

Some also are cockle-warming, some have fantastic decorating info, many are crafty, all with interesting and beautiful photos... It's just that these three I start with, like today, when I specially want some coziness.

There, are you satisfied? Can you give me some quiet now?

Qigong

"Curso Completo de Qigong"
Part 1 of 13

Part 2        Part 6         Part 10

Part 3        Part 7        Part 11

Part 4        Part 8        Part 12

Part 5        Part 9        Part 13

"Qi Gong o Chi Kung son técnicas relacionadas a la medicina china tradicional que comprenden la mente, la respiración y el ejercicio físico. Se practica con objetivos orientados a la salud.
El carácter chino Chi significa aire (fluido que anima la respiración) y tiene un significado similar al del Pneuma (griego eπνευμα) de la Grecia antigua o el Prana (Sánscrito प्राण) de los hindúes; Kung significa trabajo o técnica. Chi Kung por tanto se puede traducir como el "trabajo de la respiración" o el arte de hacer circular los hálitos de la forma más adecuada a la finalidad con la que se practica."

Japan

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Japan

Let us pray

Hope

Right message at right time!

Dalai Lama

Although there is no certainty about what lies ahead, people live with the hope that all will go well for them. It is impossible to fulfill our life when we are utterly discouraged. But if we manage to keep our hopes in the future alive, we will be able to overcome all sorts of difficulties and go on living.

Valentine's Day

A star-studded cosmic-heart valentine for all my dear ones!

The Rosette Nebula
From APOD

Change

"A BIT OF WISDOM from A Course in Miracles tells us that no matter what our lives look like at any given moment, we can choose again. As our awareness shifts, we create ourselves anew, adjusting our resonant signature and consequently, experiencing life differently.
...
In Jerry Jampolsky's Love Is Letting Go Of Fear, he gives us the words we use to stay in old energy and sabotage our progress, and suggests that we both notice and curtail their constant use:

impossible
can't
try
limitation
if only
but
however
difficult
ought to
should
doubt
any words that place you or anyone else in that category
any words that tend to measure or evaluate you or other people
any words that tend to judge or condemn you or someone else"

— Judith Gayle, Letting Go of Fear, Planet Waves Weekly, Nov. 14, 2008

The Bittersweet

Improvisation sur les Folies d'Espagne

From the film I saw some time ago, Tous le Marins du Monde.

Improvisation sur les Folies d'Espagne, Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Soundtrack played by Jordi Savall

And here, Jordi Savall

From Wikipedia, Folia:

La Folía (Spanish), also folies d'Espagne (French), Follies of Spain (English) or Follia (Italian), is one of the oldest remembered^{[citation needed]} European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, of a composition, on record.
...
History
The epithet 'Folia' has several meanings in music.

• Western classical music features both an "early Folia," which can take different shapes, and the better-known "later Folia" (also known as "Follia" with double l in Italy, "Folies d'Espagne" in France, and "Faronel's Ground" in England).

• "Early Folia": Recent research suggests that the origin of the folia framework lies in the application of a specific compositional and improvisational method to simple melodies in minor mode. Thus, the essence of the "early Folia" was not a specific theme or a fixed sequence of chords but rather a compositional-improvisational process which could generate these sequences of chords.^[3]
• The "later Folia" is a standard chord progression (i-V-i-VII / III-VII-[i or VI]-V / i-V-i-VII / III-VII-[i or VI7]-V[4-3sus]-i) and usually features a standard or "stock" melody line, a slow sarabande in triple meter, as its initial theme. This theme generally appears at the start and end of a given "Folia" composition, serving as "bookends" for a set of variations within which both the melodic line and even the meter may vary. In turn, written variations on the "later Folia" may give way to sections consisting of partial or pure improvisation similar to those frequently encountered in the twelve-bar blues that rose to prominence in the twentieth century.

• Several sources report that Jean-Baptiste Lully was the first composer to formalize the standard chord progression and melodic line.^[4][5]
• Other sources note that the chord progression eventually associated with the "later Folia" appeared in musical sources almost a century before the first documented use of the "Folia" name. The progression emerged between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century in vocal repertory found in both Italian (“Canzoniere di Montecassino”, “Canzoniere di Perugia” and in the frottola repertoire) and Spanish sources (mainly in the “Cancionero Musical de Palacio” and, some years later, in the ensaladas repertoire). Even though the folía framework appeared almost at the same time in different countries with numerous variants that share similar structural features, it is not possible to establish in which country the framework originated.

• There exists a folk tune with the name "Folía" in the Canary Islands.^{[citation needed][clarification needed]}

^...
Over the course of three centuries, more than 150 composers have used it in their works. The first publications of this theme date from the middle of the 17th century, but it is probably much older. Plays of the renaissance theatre in Portugal, including works by Gil Vicente, mention the folia as a dance performed by shepherds or peasants. The Portuguese origin is recorded in the 1577 treatise De musica libri septem by Francisco de Salinas.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, along with Philidor l'aîné[8] in 1672, Arcangelo Corelli in 1700, Marin Marais in 1701, Alessandro Scarlatti in 1710, Antonio Vivaldi in his Opus 1 No 12 of 1705, Francesco Geminiani in his Concerto Grosso Number 12 (which was, in fact, part of a collection of direct transcriptions of Corelli's violin sonatas), George Frederick Handel in the Sarabande of his Keyboard Suite in D minor HWV 437 of 1727, and Johann Sebastian Bach in his Peasants' Cantata of 1742 are considered to highlight this 'later' folia repeating theme in a brilliant way. Antonio Salieri's 26 variations, produced late in his career, are among his finest works.

In the 19th century, Franz Liszt included a version of the Folia in his Rhapsodie Espagnole, and Ludwig van Beethoven quoted it briefly in the second movement of his Fifth Symphony.[dubious – discuss]

La Folia once again regained composers' interest during the 1930s with Sergei Rachmaninov in his Variations on a theme by Corelli in 1931 and Manuel María Ponce and his Variations on "Spanish Folia" and Fugue for guitar.

The folia melody has also influenced Scandinavian folk music. It is said[who?] that around half of the old Swedish tunes are based on la folia. It is possible to recognize a common structure in many Swedish folk tunes, and it is similar to the folia structure. Old folk tunes (19th century or older) which do not have this structure often come from parts of Sweden with little influences from upper classes or other countries.

	La Folia More… Without variations (290KB)
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Beauty

These beginning days of the new year needing all that uplifts the heart.
Sad and troublesome personal news right and left.

I love Bach's Cello Suites.
Below, played by Mischa Maisky.

Compassion on Creativity

Rereading, again, and loving it even more every time, Eat, Pray, Love.
Elizabeth Gilbert writes directly to my heart and doubts, and in such a funny, warm, kind way.

Found this on Youtube, and being an artist, it is especially suitable.

The Last of Christmas

Today is Reis Magos/Epiphany, the day to take down the Christmas decorations.
Amazingly, I actually managed to!

The last few days I've been enjoying the lighted tree, the Christmas votive candles... the smell of the evergreen in my living room. As I was so late in setting up, the joy of seeing these was even greater. I was even a little sad, but a happy sad... another Christmas come and gone. Enjoyed, now that the rush&tiredness are over and just memory.
I'm awaiting some more photos that Son¹ took and has to send me. I'll post them here when they do come in...

The New Year we spent with some friends at their farm in the southeast part of the state, about three hours' drive away. We had a lovely time: very food oriented! What to cook, who(s) to cook it, the cooking, then the eating!
All repeated the next day!
This interspersed with good conversation and napping. I actually had to asked forgiveness from my hostess... I was taking very long naps; I think I may even have gotten some of my sleep debt paid!

The new little house, a guest cottage with two suites,
that we inaugurated. It is set up the hill in the orchard.
The materials were reused from another little house
that had been on the property.

Click to enlarge 
The view from the veranda of the guest cottage,
looking towards the valley.

The red flowers' sisters that edge the drive can be seen.

The evening of January 1st we had...

Pizza!

A pizza fest in their home-pizzaria!
What a great way to start the new year! 

Sorry, what between sleepiness and pizza-hunger,

I didn't take pictures of the baked pizzas.

via

Hubby made a coulis of jaboticabas brought from Son² girlfriend's fazenda. This at the end of their season in November, but it has kept well in the fridge. Jaboticabas are a native fruit to our state, and the coulis has beautiful deep, dark reddish-violet color and a tart taste. It is especially beautiful over vanilla ice cream. Yumm!

I washed and boiled some small jars and put some of the coulis in one. 
Then I made a quick label. The writing, made with a thin-tipped marker and color pencils, blurred as I had glued the label onto the jar with the very cold coulis already in it—the condensation attacked!
The effect came out not too bad... I can pretend it's a certain vintageness from ageing in a cellar.

I managed to find a ribbon in my mess atelier, and so, a gift for our hosts, who much admire Hubby's cooking talents.

Christmas 2010

This year (last year!) I have to admit that I wasn't in too much of a Christmas mood.
I usually love setting out the decorations... getting out my family of stuffed animals that join us in our Christmas cheer, my tree decorations made and that survived the years, and twinkly lights for the tree and veranda.

This year, although I got the boxes out at the beginning of December, I finally managed to put the wreath on the door (the official start of Christmas for me) only a week and a half before Christmas eve. The tree, although bought a full week ahead, I was only able to get ready on morning of the 24th...
I guess this is the "Just in Time" planning so much touted about in the business world!

Hubby desired a live tree for Christmas this year, so we found this lovely little conical expensive thuya. The decorations were more in a minamalist mode: your basic lights&balls.
I used the survivors of various years' white incandescent mini lights, and a new set of unearthly (as in "alien/from another galaxy') white LED mini lights Hubbs brought back from his December trip to Germany. Yes, I do not like white LED lights...
But mixed, alternated, with the leftovers of the regular mini lights, it actually came out interesting... but just by themselves, just think Christmas at the Frankenstein's or something else rather creepy!

I added the red and green butterflies that Son²'s girlfriend gifted us and a bow of iridescent cellophane I made years and years ago, and ... voilá!
Nearly instant Christmas tree!

I then added the few animals I did find (the box with most if them I couldn't find... ??? where or where has my little lamb animals gone?).

Although not to an auspicious start—actually a rather bad one with sleepless nights the whole week before due to my cold&coughing and some others troubles—the Christmas gatherings came out very well:
Christmas Eve dinner here at home and Christmas Day dinner that we cook and take to my mother's. The food was all delicious, and more importantly, everyone was happy and in good spirits.
All peacefull under the Christmas star!

Hubbs also brought back from Germany a green tablecloth and some red embroidery sousplats. Once out of the package while setting the table, I found out to my dismay that it was a rather garish, very shiny satin. Added to the red sousplats, the table came out veeery colorful, more than my usual style. But, honors to my dear Hubby for thinking of a pretty home!

* Instant centerpiece: brass candlesticks plus apples plus red christmas balls *

I'll leave the Christmas dinner(s) menu(s) to another post.