• About
  • Archives
  • Bread/Baked Goods
    • Almond Cake (made with xylitol)
    • Almond Cake (Tarta de Santiago)
    • Ardys’s Sourdough Spelt Bread (overnight method)
    • B & B Mug Muffin
    • Bread and Butter Pudding
    • Buckwheat Pikelets (pancakes)
    • Donna’s White Fruitcake
    • Flourless Chocolate Cake
    • Gluten Free Currant Scones
    • Gluten Free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
    • Grain-Free Granola (my version)
    • Grain-free, French-style Apple Cake
    • Grain-free, Italian Pear Cake (Torta di Pere)
    • Hot Cross Scones (grain free)
    • Mug Muffin (grain free)
    • My Revised Sourdough (Winter)
    • Nut and Cinnamon Baked Muesli (granola)
    • Pumpkin bars
    • Super Single Muffin
    • Toasted Almond Muesli
  • Favourite Quotations
  • Food
    • Almond Milk
    • Babaghanouj (grilled eggplant, Turkish style)
    • Beef Cheeks Ragu
    • Beef Jerky
    • BLT Salad (with green dressing)
    • Brussels Sprouts with almonds and currants
    • Carrot Cake Style Bites
    • Cashew Milk
    • Cauliflower Cheese and Ham
    • Chicken Breasts with Rosemary
    • Chicken Liver Paté (*adapted from taste.com.au)
    • Chicken Salad
    • Chocolate Pud
    • Cold Brew Coffee
    • Cucumber, Corn, Coconut + Peanut Salad
    • Dukkha
    • Gado Gado (adapted from Charmaine Solomon)
    • Grain-free grilled cheese
    • Green Dressing
    • Grilled Eggplant Strips
    • Grilled Salmon
    • Homemade Ketchup/BBQ sauce
    • Kale with Chilli and Garlic
    • Layered Vegetables with cream
    • My Best Pulled Pork
    • My Pulled Pork (using Romertopf clay baking dish)*
    • Not-Nonna’s Meatballs
    • Pappa al Pomodoro
    • Pasta e Fagioli with Escarole
    • Pickled Eggs and Beets
    • Pumpkin Pie Frappé
    • Ricotta – homemade
    • SANE-eats
    • Slow Cooked Beef Ribs
    • Stuffed Mushrooms
    • Summer Minestrone
    • Taco Salad
    • Turkey/Chicken and Cheese Salad
    • Vietnamese style salad and Dressing
  • Instagram photos
  • Travel Photos

ardysez

~ surrender to yourself

ardysez

Tag Archives: Paris

‘Plan B’

06 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by Ardys in art, Creativity, People, photography, Travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

American, art, diane arbus, France, jeu de paume museum, Paris, photography, Travel

IMG_1613Two years ago when we were in Paris we had the good fortune to discover the Musee d’Orsay closed. What’s that I say? In fact it was to have reopened that very day, after recent renovations, had it not been for an industrial dispute that kept it closed.  Of course, initially, we (especially I) were disappointed.  Late works by the Impressionist artist Manet are a favourite of mine but difficult to find except in this museum which has a large collection of Impressionist art.  And I was on a Manet jag at that point in time.  There was nothing to do, but resort to our ‘plan B’.

‘Plan B’ took us to the Jeu de Paume museum which specialises in photographic exhibitions.  The weather was unseasonably warm and the queue was unexpectedly long.  Neither of us had heard of the photographer whose exhibition had recently opened, but it was our last day in Paris and we had done most of the things in the city area that we had intended to do so we decided to take a chance that the long queue was a good indication of what lay inside.

The photographer’s name was Diane Arbus.  Like many artists she diligently worked at her art form, but fell into the subject matter accidently.  She became intensely dedicated to photographing those in our society who dwell on the ‘fringes’.  Her own tragic demise, suicide, probably to escape the debilitation of a fatal illness, ended a career that shed light on part of our society in a way little else has done.

When I read the following stunning quotation of hers, it changed forever my view of photography.

They (photographs) are the proof that something was there and no longer is.  Like a stain.  And the stillness of them is boggling.  You can turn away but when you come back, they’ll still be there, looking at you.

–Diane Arbus -response when asked for a brief statement about photographs, March, 1971

Next time, we’ll just make ‘plan B’ our first choice!

(if you select the above link, you will find a portfolio of some of Diane’s work, and very, very teeny tiny at the middle bottom are the forward and backward arrows so you can view it)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Springtime in Bethel

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Ardys in Inspiration, Life, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baseball, Bethel, France, French, home, inspiration, Ohio, Paris, Reds, Spring

I confess the inspiration for this post is from another blog I follow called ‘Becoming Madame’ (becomingmadame.wordpress.com/).  She writes about all things French, and particularly Parisian.  If you are a Francophile, or just an armchair traveler, you will enjoy it.  However, I have just taken an afternoon walk on a gorgeous Ohio spring day. It may not be Paris, but it is no less magical.

Flowering Crabapple

Blossoming cherry and pear trees hummed from bees stealing their share from nectar filled blossoms.  Local inhabitants echoed the busy bees, matching their industrious buzzing with droaning lawn mowers. The smell of freshly mown grass made me ‘heady’ as if I’d just drunk some magical elixir meant to help relive a perfect spring day from childhood. (All you skeptics may say it is the high pollen count, but leave me to my own delusions).

Poplar Ridge Drive

I have flown from halfway around the world so that I could visit my parents and walk the lazy lane from  their house, curving toward the highway, in the glory of Spring.  Robin Red Breasts bounced along in front of me, looking for earthworms and other tasty morsels.  Jonquils, daffodils and tulips nodded their greetings to me as I meandered along.  Red bud trees and weeping cherries modeled their Victoria’s Secret lacy apparel on the runway of Poplar Ridge.  Optimistic August lilies  pushed through the earth toward their flowering mission late in summer.  An uncontrollable urge paused me for a few moments in the storm of snowing petals, and I rejoiced in their satin softness in my hair and on my shoulders.  It is a fairyland.  Perhaps the contrast to the dusty, red arid climate in which I live has magnified the experience, but who cares?  Every texture and color conspired for equal attention to inspire this artist’s creative urges.

Cherry blossoms

And if there was any doubt that spring was truly here, the little squirrel that scampered across the road and brought my eyes to rest on the man mowing his lawn confirmed it.  He was dressed in jeans (the man, not the squirrel!), a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap and t-shirt!  The beginning of baseball season is the surest sign of spring known to a girl from Southern Ohio!!

A sprig of pink tinged Viburnum from the yard adorns a bud vase beside me. Its spicy, intoxicating perfume nearly overwhelms me, alluring, no, mesmerizing me into a kind of spring fever haze (ok, coupled with remaining effects of jet lag!)  I feel almost giddy!  If only someone could bottle this! No wonder so many songs have been written about Spring time.  Join me in celebrating the affirming rebirth of Mother Earth, one of life’s true joys.

(And anyway, here is the chainsaw sculpture of Charles de Gaulle that resides here on Poplar Ridge, so really, what has France got in Springtime that Bethel hasn’t?)

Chainsaw sculpture of Charles de Gaulle by Ralph Silvis

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 726 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • who’s in charge…
  • trust the shoes…
  • the good, the bad and the ugly footwear…
  • lest we forget…
  • something’s afoot…
  • one foot in front of the other…
  • ding, ding, ding…
  • what we have to lose…
  • scraping away the webs…
  • after the blow…

Archives

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • ardysez
    • Join 549 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • ardysez
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: