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)
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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.