Days of Wine and Roses

Dreaming of sunny days, I played with this image I took in Barcelona last year.

Our spring is a bit unpredictable this year! The sun plays hide and seek, the rains they come and go. One has to profit from the periods when the sky is blue and the air is warm, to race out to the garden and smell the roses, which are in abundance at the moment.

On the terrace are three kinds of climbing roses, sharing one trellis. They are all in glorious bloom. The light pink one was a gift from our local wine merchant, Roland. I don't know the variety, but it's a little like a Cecil Bruner in that it grows vigorously, smells, wonderful and blooms a single time during the year. The purple is a charming ancient variety called Veilchenblau. The third is a Ghislaine de Feligonde, a special rambling rose which produces beautiful blooms throughout the season.

Of course our mutabilis rose is the real star. It blooms continuously in all the warmer months and displays several colors on the same plant, as the blooms take different shades as buds, mature blooms, and then as faded ones. Last weekend we stood on the terrace with our clients, all doctors from Paris, and enjoyed it together. It's a bit of a show-off.

Our yellow rose on the front of the house took a bit of a beating in the cold of last winter. We have had to prune it back considerably. But still it is putting out a profusion of blossoms.

In our larger garden, we have an entire bed of rose plants of various varieties. Rick called me over to take a look at this beauty and pronounced it "perfect." It was at that moment, which lasts so temporarily, where its form and color are at their ideal. The sun captured it and made it seem to glow.

If you really love roses, you should visit Rose Notes, a blog by one of my friends, Carolyn Parker. She is the expert and her images are spectacular.

Skies have been dramatic and changeable.

The moon has been full. And of course Venus transited the sun. We couldn't see it, as it was cloudy that day.

It's been such a long time since I've taken you for a walk in our woods. It's such a lovely time of year for a stroll under the trees.

I have been working quite a lot on various art projects. My image "View From Inside" was chosen to hang in an international print show in Richmond, VA. It's the small one just to the right of the sculpture. Rick framed it between two pieces of glass. I like the way it looks floating in its frame.

Here's a sign from St. Suzanne, a beautiful old medieval village not far from us. It's for a storefront where sacred art is exhibited. I find it very amusing how voluptuous this nun is!

Bella Barcelona - Part 3 Joan Miró

Joan Miró was born in Barcelona in 1893 and lived until 1983, so he witnessed and was influenced by all the chaos of the twentieth century. He was friends with the poet Garcia Lorca who was killed by Franco during Spain's fascist period. During the dictator's reign, it was a capital offense to speak the native Catalan language. Miró spent the Franco years in France.

During the final years of Miró's life, and with the encouragement of his Majorcan wife Pilar Juncosa, he built Fundació Joan Miró on Montjuic, not far from Franco's execution grounds. This is one of the loveliest and most entertaining museums I have ever visited. It was easy to spend an entire day there.

I was not particularly a Miró fan before visiting the Fundació, but I certainly left there a committed one. His work is colorful, playful and seems to be very appealing to children.

The architecture of the museum is modern, in the best sense of the word. It is expansive and clean. There is a lovely garden with panoramic views of Barcelona, a gift shop, book store, café and restaurant. There are lots of places to sit down and many rooms to visit. The collection is impressive. Like Picasso, Miró was extremely prolific and lived a long life, working until the end.

He did large colorful paintings and charming fanciful sculptures.

The museum also had a fun temporary exposition while we were there. Each artist had an entire wall to decorate. They were mostly fresh and fun. They seemed exuberant, which is how the entire museum space feels.

 

My next post will recommend some restaurants in Barcelona.

Bella Barcelona - Part 1, Architecture

 

We have just returned from five days spent in Barcelona. It was our first visit to the city and only our second time in Spain. The stay was long enough to absorb the atmosphere and learn our way around. With the highly recommended Top 10 Barcelona by Eye-Witness, we were able to discover wonderful little corners, bustling markets, gorgeous architecture, must-not-miss sites and fabulous museums, not to mention some outstanding restaurants and cafes. We experienced all the four seasons in the brief time we were there. It rained, it shone and it even snowed while the temperatures varied wildly between about 35 - 75 degrees. We rented an apartment in the Poble Sec neighborhood just at the foot of Montjuic and a short walk to the Harbor and sea. 

I have so many nice photographs of Barcelona that I will post several blogs about the city. This post mostly focuses on the architecture and general ambiance of the city.

Barcelona, like many Spanish cities, has narrow shady streets (cool in the hot summer months) which open out onto large squares, where people congregate.

 

  

 

  

 

Barcelona is a city that has been greatly influenced by her native sons, particularly by the modernist architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). His fantastical church, Sagranda Famillía which has been under construction since 1883 is not estimated to be completed until 2026.

 

Many of the buildings in Barcelona are extravagantly ornamented. Certainly Gaudi and those who came after him have lent much to the city's decoration, but Barcelona's history is long and many of its buildings have stood for hundreds of years. It seems always to have been a place of architectural taste and experimentation. It has often, throughout its history, been a very prosperous city.

 

 The harbor and Mediterranean Sea were just a short walk from our apartment. Our first day in town was clear, bright and warm. We had lunch next to the harbor and walked along the boardwalk afterwards.

Next post will feature Barcelona markets. I simply can't resist taking photos of food!