Last week, we visited the Lincoln Park Conservatory for the first time since December 2018. It remains one of my favorite spots in the greatest city in the world.
A hidden gem
Acquisitions
Already shelved.
Portraits
My images of some of the people I met at the Detroit Institute of Arts last weekend.
From top left to bottom right:
A Philosopher (about 1635) by José de Ribera
Two Jesters (1550-75) by Unknown artist
Self Portrait (1828) by Rembrandt Peale
Head of a Man (1777-78) John Singleton Copley
Girl Reading (1938) by Pablo Picasso
Self Portrait (1887) by Vincent Van Gogh
A few more books
Recently acquired and shelved.
Acquisitions
My photos of recently acquired books have become my TBR pile.
Endangered
Saving the world, one monarch butterfly at a time.
Still walking
Seen last weekend while walking and birdwatching.
Four miles in the morning before it gets too hot has been working out for us most days. Recently, we traded our weekday neighborhood route for the prairie trail. Why we didn’t do this sooner remains a mystery, but we’re glad for the prettier and joint-friendlier walk. On the weekends, we head to the state park or one of the county conservation areas.
The rest of my summer has centered on reading and study, yard work and gardening (our “pollinator pockets” have proven quite successful), and preparation for the upcoming recital (yes, live and in-person — I’ll be playing the Allegro molto from Schubert’s Sonatina in D Major).
Acquisitions
A few new books.
Cezanne
From Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast :
p. 13
I was learning something from the painting of Cezanne that made writing simple true sentences far from enough to make the stories have the dimensions that I was trying to put in them. I was learning very much from him but I was not articulate enough to explain it to anyone. Besides it was a secret.
p. 69
I learned to understand Cezanne much better and to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry. I used to wonder if were hungry too when he painted; but I thought possibly it was only that he had forgotten to eat. It was one of those unsound but illuminating thoughts you have when you have been sleepless or hungry. Later I thought Cezanne was probably hungry in a different way.
Walking
Chicory is under-appreciated.
From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four:
Chapter 7:
How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!
Nerdishly 