Friday, October 22, 2010

Still Life With Pomegranates...




Pomegranates have arrived at the local market..., so I plucked three, and put them in my shopping basket.

I love this fruit (remember this post http://neinahavelin.blogspot.com/2010/08/pomegranates-persephone-full-moon.html) not so much to eat, but more to look at... I find them exotic and beautiful, their skin,  luscious and shiney red, open one up and it exposes its hidden treasure of  ruby jeweled seeds....

I took these photo's with my new SLR camera, I'm slowly learning how to operate it, there's so much to learn about how to take good photo's and get satisfying results...



I'm always on the lookout for interesting subjects to take photo's of, if the photo's are good enough, I can
take them to my oil painting class...  I think my next painting will be of pomegranates...


Below is a poem by Dublin born poet Eavan Bolan.... 


The Pomegranate ~ by Eavan Boland

The only legend I have ever loved is
the story of a daughter lost in hell.
And found and rescued there.
Love and blackmail are the gist of it.
Ceres and Persephone the names.
And the best thing about the legend is 
I can enter it anywhere.  And have.
As a child in exile in 
a city of fogs and strange consonants,
I read it first and at first I was
an exiled child in the crackling dusk of
the underworld, the stars blighted.  Later
I walked out in a summer twilight
searching for my daughter at bed-time.
When she came running I was ready 
to make any bargain to keep her.
I carried her back past whitebeams
and wasps and honey-scented buddleias.
But I was Ceres then and I knew 
winter was in store for every leaf
on every tree on that road.
Was inescapable for each one we passed.
And for me.

It is winter
and the stars are hidden.
I climb the stairs and stand where I can see
my child asleep beside her teen magazines,
her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit.
The pomegranate!  How did I forget it?
She could have come home and been safe
and ended the story and all
our heart-broken searching but she reached
out a hand and plucked a pomegranate. She put out her hand and pulled down
the French sound for apple and
the noise of stone and the proof
that even in the place of death,
at the heart of legend, in the midst
of rocks full of unshed tears
ready to be diamonds by the time 
the story was told, a child can be 
hungry.  I could warn her.  There is still a chance.
The rain is cold.  The road is flint-coloured.
The suburb has cars and cable television.
The veiled stars are above ground.
It is another world.  But what else 
can a mother give her daughter but such
beautiful rifts in time?
If I defer the grief I will diminish the gift.
The legend will be hers as well as mine.
She will enter it.  As I have.
She will wake up.  She will hold
the papery flushed skin in her hand.
And to her lips.  I will say nothing.


o ~ 0 ~ o







Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Halloween Coming To Your Neighborhood Soon...

I love Halloween... do you?

Every year, (after sadly waving summer goodbye,) I look forward to decorating the house for the spookiest night of the year...  I like to play dress up, and pretend to be somebody/something else for a while... (I was a crow last year...)

 I also enjoy decorating the house (weeks before the actual night,)  I light spicy apple candles, and arrange plump pumpkins, and quirky colorful squash on the kitchen table...

  These rituals I perform every year..., and love them...

Sparkles on this skull remind of the decorated sugar skulls for
 Dia de los Muertos

Crows, bats, rats, skeleton hand.. pumpkins, fairy lights.... a perfect recipe
for a jolly good time...

I love the warm orange glow from these little witch lanterns

Martha Stewart has come out with a line of fabulous wall stickers such as this 
flying witch and cat...

Taz has been doing a good job of keeping the mouse population down in
this old house, but sometimes... a few slip by undetected by her...


Monday, October 18, 2010

A New Family Member...

Meet our new family member...  Little Saskei, he's just 11 weeks old.  We picked him up from the breeder just yesterday..., and already he's captured our hearts...

Look at this face...


Shiba Inu's look like little foxes


He loves to snuggle under covers, and peek out at us...


He's very photogenic, so I expect he may be starring in this blog from time to time...


Its funny how bringing a baby (animal or human) into a home can change things..., little Saskei has a lot of fans already, my daughter Isabel, invited a friend to drop by, the two little neighborhood boy's have stopped by and a couple of our friends came over with their older female dog for a play date...  its such fun to see how the puppy reacts to all the new people..., so far its been a very positive experience for him... little tail wags so enthusiastically.   But like newborn babies,,, he can get exhausted quickly and so he just zonks out at the drop of a hat..., (preferably hidden under his blankie...)

What a love.....