Just finished the book on Morris Hirshfield. A Polish immigrant, he settled in New York and worked as a tailor. Hirshfield only took up painting after he retired in 1937. He was 'discovered' by accident and by 1943 the MoMA was exhibiting his works and calling him Americas greatest self taught artist. All his figures ( human and animal ) have two left feet. The picture of a C-A-T on a couch is perhaps his best known work. No picture can do justice to the thousands of brush strokes used to paint the fur. The book, published by MIT, is a joy, not least because it feels beautiful to hold.As we head out of the front door a group of golfers get out of a cab in front of the small hotel with the French breakfast chef. The strong jet stream over the Atlantic keeps on bringing in the US flights well ahead of schedule. One of the golfers looks up and down the empty street and asks the driver ' Where's the busy part of town ? '. He shrugs his shoulders when the driver replies " You're in it ".
We keep on expecting them to go but the three gull chicks don't seem to be in a rush to leave the nest. Who can blame them ? Their parents provide them with a constant supply of newly scavenged restaurant left overs. This morning the three of them are perched, perilously, on the neighbours roof gutters. As we pass the university admissions office we see a dead chick from another brood on the ground. Not every first flight goes smoothly. We now feel slightly guilty at wanting our three young young neighbours to get on their way.
We stop at the wee cafe by the kirk. They are catering for the start of day chocolate loving crowd. Angus was hoping for a bacon roll but the kitchen staff aren't in yet.
As we leave a group of tourists wander by. They all look glum - and who wouldn't be on a group tour at this time of the day ?. Each of them has a small audio device that relays the towns history in some Carpathian language. They are led by one of those unnaturally cheerful tour guides who can be identified because she's holding a balloon. The tour guide has a very strong local accent so she and her group presumably deal with their mutual incomprehension and communicate via hand gestures.Yes, sunflowers do grow in Scotland. A local firm is diversifying into the wild bird food / cut flower markets. 'The Font' picks up a bunch at the Highland Store for £4. Sunflowers in Scotland must be the surest sign that climate change is a thing.
8 comments:
Hari OM
One of the bonniest fields of sunflowers I ever saw was up near Invergordon... YAM xx
My goodness Angus, seeing those books piled high on the chair - have you run out of shelf space already?
The sunflowers do look cheerful.
Loved seeing the 'supermarket chicken sized' chicks at last and looked for the balloon which must have gone around the corner!
Would be so happy to be in one of those chairs going through your book collection.
Wendy (Wales)
Couldn't help but notice your Virginia pillow. I am a life long Virginian, didn't expect to see our crest in a Scottish farmhouse!!!!
I also noticed the great seal of Virginia, I have lived in northern Virginia for 14.5 years. We look forward to hearing about that connection.
I seem to have a weakness for birds that some others find annoying - crows, bluejays and, of course, seagulls - probably because they're all very smart. We've seen the occasional seagull doing a flyover here, but in general, we don't see many birds other than doves and magpies. I've been a bit surprised by that. In any event, I'm glad the gull chicks are not as elusive as the moorhens, and I hope their flight training proceeds smoothly. I am not familiar with the artist, but I surely love that portrait of a cat. We do have some pretty cheeky cats in our neighborhood. In Japan they tend to run right off, but here it's a different story once they've decided (correctly) that Charlie is not a threat - lots of luxuriant stretching and rolling.
Can't help but wonder what those gull chicks are thinking, perched so high.
I'm not familiar with Hirshfield either, but I love the book cover art and the cat. I will look for the book.
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