Wonky Lion Woman

Another lesson at the Art Soul Gathering that I watched was Jenny Grant's "Soulful Grunge". Jenny Grant who lives in Sweden was a new artist to me. In her session she created a great mixed media close-up face spread over two pages in an art journal (the art journal itself was a piece of art!). It was unusual, but I was also intrigued by it. So I tried creating my own piece.

Oh well...

It did not turn out the way I envisioned it at all. Nevertheless, I tried and that counts as positive in my book. This was such an interesting project that I want to try it again, maybe with a completely different approach - and less paint. I found Jenny's way to paint the eyes interesting - she didn't paint the pupils but just hints of them and I wanted to do that as well. It didn't quite work out - I actullay spent quite some time with those eyes - but it was interesting and I still learned a lot. And I think it's totally okay to show something that is not a masterpiece.

The longer I looked at this woman, the more I actually saw a lion than a woman - despite the human nose and the black-grey hair and all. So I call this the Wonky Lion Woman. Her name is Henrietta. I hope Iris will appreciate this.

This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off where I'm sure you will see more intersting and beautiful faces.

Solar Art

Lacking some real art of my own for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date, I turn to the solar light I recently bought for my garden.

This decorative solar lantern is made from durable Tyvek® material and is weather resistant in rain as well as in snow (which we don't really have here). While the lantern looks beautiful on its own, its true magic shows up in the dark hours when illuminated patterns appear on the ground.

Isn't that pretty? I know it doesn't quite fit Rain's theme of "silhouettes" this week, but maybe just a little bit - with a lot of imagination?

We're still having a lot of tomatoes, both from my garden and the farmers market. I'm not someone who uses tomatoes to make tomato sauce - a little bit, yes, but there are so many more ways to use tomatoes in delicious meals.

We love gnocchi. One of our favorite dinners is crisp gnocchi with brussels sprouts and brown butter. When I found a recipe for crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes and mozzarella I thought I give it a try. It asks for small tomatoes and I had tons of them from the garden.

I only used half of the amount that is given in the recipe, and it turned out delicious. Cooking gnocchi directly in a pan without boiling them first leaves them crisp outside but chewy inside. It is heavenly. You can find the recipe here - it is from NYT Cooking, so for those of you who don't have a subscription the recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Over the past two and a half days we got a new roof. Those were noisy days, but the company's employees did a great job and cleaned up everything afterwards. My porch has never been that clean! We chose a local company since we believe in supporting local business. We also opted for light colored shingles for reflecting the light - it looks beautiful. The stanchions for the solar panels that will be installed toward the end of the year were already put in as well - another local company. Going solar has been on our radar for a long time and I'm glad that we finally took all the steps in the right direction.

Yesterday we got a stark reminder that we're living in earthquake country - at 6:39 pm, I had just started to make dinner, the ground beneath us woke up with a jolt and some very strong rumble, immediately followed by a second, weaker aftershock. We learned that the first quake was 4.4 and the second 3.9 - not much, but the epicenter was less than 3 miles from our home, therefore it felt much stronger. A few things fell down, nothing was damaged and I had the presence of mind to immediately shut off the stove. Our dinner was just delayed by about ten minutes. However, Otis, one of the permanent feline residents in my garden, took off like a rocket and I haven't seen him since. His owner told me later, that he showed up at her home, and that's where he should be anyway.

In the Heart of a Medieval Town

 

While we were exploring the old towns and villages in Alsace, we had rented a beautiful vacation appartment in the very heart of Ribeauvillé, one of those fairy tale towns along La Route des Vins d'Alsace. The apartment was in an old building right on the main street. Our aparment is where you can see the two rows of windows in the roof.

The entrance was through an old gate (left) into the small courtyard. This is so typical for many houses in France. The right picture is the same gate, but seen from the courtyard.

From the courtyard we had to climb these stairs and then some more stairs inside the building. We were greeted by this cute little gnome in front of our apartment door.

Inside it was a spacious appartment with lots of light. A large dining/living room, a well equipped kitchen, a modern bathroom plus a half one and three bedrooms that could sleep six people.

The view was nice from every room. Even though we were in the center of town we could see the vineyards stretching up the surrounding hills.

Every morning we went to the boulangerie to get fresh baguette and croissants as well as some pastries. We drank our coffee out of the huge café au lait bowls. These bowls are so wide, they can hide almost an entire face! As you can probably guess, this is for T Tuesday, so kindly hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

We usually walked around Ribeauvillé in the mornings and evenings. Just like all the other towns it is a lovely place, popular, but not quite as crowded as Riquewihr. The main street is where most people are, while side streets and alleys are almost deserted. You can see one of the three castles that are in the immediate vicinity of the town.

We discovered little corners and nooks and, of course, gates.

One evening we hiked up into the hills that are covered with vineyards. It was a steep incline, but the view (as seen in the photo at the top) was worth it. We could see as far as the Black Forest - it's here that you realize how close you are to Germany. 

I would go back to this place in a heartbeat.

Touch of the Moon

 

A week ago I started watching Art Soul Gathering, a free online art retreat hosted by Ida Andersen Lang. The instructor of the first lesson was Melanie Rivers, an artist I like very much, who was the reason that I signed up for this. We were painting a face forward portrait with the moon in the background by using acrylic paints with a limited color palette. Since I didn't have the exact colors Melanie used, I chose Payne's Gray, Titanium White, Prism Violet and Alizarin Crimson Hue. I have never worked much with violet, but since I like the combination of purple and red I thought these might be good colors.

I was glad that the woman had her eyes closed - it was hard enough for me to paint the face without worrying about the eyes. Very soon I realized that violet was not the best choice I made, so I used more of the Alizarin Crimson that I mixed with the Payne's Gray and also the Titanium White. Violet got on the moon to show that actually there was only a sliver of the moon. Since you can't really see this I decided to draw black swirls in the moon - I do like swirls and they often turn up in my art making. Melanie used filbert brushes which I did at first as well, but I prefer painting with round brushes. I didn't get quite the result with the filbert and therefore after a while changed to a round brush. Do you prefer a brush over another?

This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off. This has really encouraged me to try paint more faces.

Window Poetry

 

When you walk along the streets and alleys in an Alsatian village or small town you can't help but notice the beauty of the windows - big windows, small windows, with shutters or without and so often with flowers in front of them. I started to think of them as a very special kind of poetry.

These villages and towns are eye candy by themselves. Its residents seem to take a particular pride in their windows, and this is not only true for the busy streets that tourists are attracted to, but for the tiny, sometimes even dark alleys as well.

The first thing you notice is the shutters - they frame the majority of windows. With a little bit of imagination you can see entire stories painted on them.

Many are held in place by the unique shutter holders you can see in the photo below.

 Even with the shutters closed the windows are still beautiful.

Some are decorated very individually.

There are flowers, bird cages and many pretty hearts.

Some windows have older glass or ornate grades which gives them a special charm.

And so many display window planting boxes or pots.

This is my "window art" for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date.

What's for dinner, you ask.

Well, there wasn't much cooking going on in our house. The past few days we have had an extreme heat wave. Yesterday temperatures reached 115 F (46 C) - we don't have AC and it was miserable. This is quite unusual for our area. Since everybody in the state was asked to conserve energy and avoid switiching on high consuming appliances in order to avoid blackouts, we didn't have cooked meals for a couple evenings. Instead there was delicious caprese...

... cheese, cheese curds, salmon spread and French paté from the farmers market ...

... and more caprese. For hot days, caprese is perfect.

What do you eat on really hot days?

Historic Kaysersberg

 

After we explored the fairy tale town of Riquewihr, we spent the afternoon in Kaysersberg which has always been my favorite among the Alsatian small towns. Its name - "emperor's mountain" - shows its historical connection with Germany. It is also the birthplace of theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer in 1875, at a time when Alsace had less than four years previously become the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire. Besides the Albert Schweitzer-Museum, there are thoughtful reminders of Kaysersberg's most famous son at the entrance to the town.

Kaysersberg is located amidst hills covered with vineyards. It grows some of the best Alsatian wines and its wine produced from the Pinot Gris variety is a local specialty. In the vineyards you can see the ruins of the castle high above the town. We didn't walk up there this last time, but from earlier visits I remember that the view is beautiful. It was the German Emperor Frederic II (Holy Roman Empire) who gave orders to build this castle in the 13th century.

The river Weiss flows right through the center of the town which required building a couple bridges that today offer lovely views.

Even though Kaysersberg is a lovely medieval town in the heart of Alsace, it is not as crowded as Riquewihr. This might be one of the reasons that I always liked it so much better. It feels a bit more relaxed and slower. Just see how much less crowded the main street is.

The town is not short on narrow alleys and gates either.

This has always been my favorite view, starting the very first time I came here (more than 30 years ago):

We saw lots of beautiful restaurant and pottery signs as well.

I found these man-made nests under the eaves and ledges interesting - they are replacing the "normal" swallow(?), martin(?) nests - maybe because those are damaging the old masonry? I am not sure, however, the birds - I'm not even trying to identify them after my major fail from last week and just leave this to David - seem to accept them happily and very busily flying in and out, feeding their hungry and food demanding offspring (sorry for the bad photos).

Another pretty street - I loved the arch of lavishly blooming roses.

There were so many little quirks and serene corners - this is just a very small selection:

And look what we discovered in the tower of the Église Sainte Croix - a Common Kestrel or Turmfalke in German (Falco tinnunculus) - at least I am 95% sure (and I'm sure to the very same degree that David may diminish my confidence in identifying birds correctly again, but I'd rather stay corrected than make a wrong ID).

Now it's time for showing a drink, since this is for Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T Tuesday. Where else if not here could I brag with this (thank you, Elizabeth, for giving me this opportunity):

This eau de source d'Alsace is located in Ribeauvillé where the natural spring appeared in the 16th century. "Carola" was created in 1888 as a thermal establishment by a Dr. Staub who named it "Les Bains Carola" after his wife Caroline. On their website it says "Carola embodies moments of conviviality, pleasure and sharing". There you have it.

Last but not least, something to consider:

If you take my (parking) space, take my disability as well.