Thursday garden

 Hi Everyone!

It's over cast today with spurts of rain. Good for my garden. 

I showed, a few weeks ago, how my garden lupine was blooming. Well, it was a quick bloom and after the flowers dropped these appeared. Soft but firm and fuzzy. Not quite like pussy willows.

 

My radishes are doing very well in the little container. 

 

and spinach, is already coming up.

 

The lettuce is starting to show and the beets are good too.

 

These little white flowers come up every year in my yard.

 

More foxglove in white. 

 

This is what we call the natural area. The barn used to be there. We just let it go wild. I do throw flower seeds in it and a lot of garden soil went it too. In fact there is celery and potatoes growing there.

I love all the different grasses that have grown.

 

Well that's it for now.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day.

Nicole.

Wednesday Rantings

 Hi Everyone!

Before I start in on my rant. Thank you to everyone who has Mr. M. in prayers and well wishes. When I calm down from the news I will write about it. 

Me and Mr. M. in the early 1990's. 

For now!

I don't read about the "thing" in the white house everyday, because no one can keep up on his evil ways. Plus it upsets me too much. However, lately his vicious antics are beyond belief. The "thing" makes sure that there is so much chaos every day that we forget what he has done in the past. 

Today however, I read this. 

The "thing's" administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate. 

These Ocean Observatories also detect weather changes and a host of other valuable information. 

The National Science Foundation said it would send ships in June to begin removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea. 

Craig McLean, who was the acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the first "things" term, said the move was part of a pattern in the "things" administration.

“This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit,” Dr. McLean said. “By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back, yet again, into a rear seat in global scientific leadership.”

The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years. Jim Edson, a marine meteorologist who led the Ocean Observatories Initiative, called it “the world’s most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems.” When it was first proposed, the science foundation said it was important to have a long-term presence at scientifically important sites in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

There is a lot of writing on this. Just google it.  

Since the "thing" is a total brain dead, moron. It stuns me that there are people advising him to do this. The devastation that he imposes on our country goes far beyond the writings of Project 2025.

I can't find an explanation to why?  

  Nicole 

T Stands for

 Hi Everyone!

 

I'm joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for T-Tuesday. I had several photos on my camera to share this week and when I went to download them they were no longer there. I have no idea what happened to them. 

So.... 

I made a few AI 

 

I would also like to ask for prayers for my dear Mr. M. His health has taken a bad turn. He tries very hard to stay healthy but his body is not cooperating. So, prayers, spells, healing energy, and well wishes are all accepted. Thank you.

 

Now for my drink.

On occasion I like an ice cold

Diet Coke 

That's it for now. 

Have a nice day.

Nicole
 

Monster Monday

 Welcome to 

 

 Happy June!

 

Someone once asked me if I have always been macabre. Uhhh yeahhh, since I was a little kid. But it wasn't until AI art that I could really express the visions in my brain. This week my monsters just want to look pretty.  Hey every girl needs heels. 

 

Especially red heels. 

 

 

Uhhh I need another shoe here. 

 

I'm not lending her my shoe. LOL

  

 

 

 

 

Even though I think the lady monsters with heels are pretty, I will show some other pretties too. 

 

 

That's it for now. 

Have a fabulous Monday. 

Nicole

SITAR

 Welcome to 

 

SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography, the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.

 

Art in Austria 

Gustav Klimt is considered Austria's most famous artist. He was a pioneering symbolist painter and a leading figure in the Vienna Secession movement. His masterpiece,  "The Kiss" and his 

 Golden Phase are universally celebrated.

I first heard of Gustav when I was in my twenties from my Nan. Of course, at the time I was not that interested. 

 

Gustav Klimt was born July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, Austria and died February 6, 1918 in Vienna Austria. Age 55, from complications of the Spanish flu. In early 1918, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed, contracted pneumonia, and died. Historical records and biographies also indicate he lived with syphilis, which heavily influenced his art.

He worked in a long shirt and loved cats

 

A few of his pieces.

The Kiss 

Golden Tears

Part of his golden phase.

The Tree of Life

Hope

The Virgin 

 

Adele Block Baure

 (1881–1925) was a prominent Viennese socialite, patron of the arts, and the only subject Austrian painter Gustav Klimt painted twice in full-length portraits. She was known for hosting a famous cultural salon, which brought together Vienna's intellectual and artistic elite

 

 

Adele Brock Baure

 

 Life and Death. 

 

I have to say that klimt's life is quite interesting and if you want to read about it click here

 

The one thing I find extraordinary is that  

in 1901, the Austrian parliament convened its first-ever cultural debate. A parliamentary debate on art.

He was a rebel for sure. 

 

This next bit is taken from

The Scienctific Breakthrough That Revolutionized Gustav Klimt's Art. 

 

The subject was the enormous allegoric paintings Gustav Klimt had been commissioned to paint for the ceiling of University of Vienna’s festival hall. “Official outrage session” might more accurately describe the occasion that channeled public fury and saw only the education minister come to Klimt’s defense.

Why all the anger? Most immediately because the three paintings were experimental, profane, and weird. The works were asymmetrical, filled with languid sensual bodies, along with octopus tentacles and snakes, skeletons, and sphinxes. Klimt had been tasked with creating idealized images of Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence. He refused, offering abstracted impressions instead.

 

 

The kicker came later that year when Klimt’s proposed professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts was rejected by the government. Not that the Vienna native wanted the post; he repaid his commission fee later telling journalist and friend Berta Zuckerkandl, “I refuse any help from the state, I renounce everything.”

 Despite such protestations, Klimt continued to work in a city governed by conservatism and censorship. One way Klimt navigated these constraints and remained forward-thinking was through deploying images from the latest in scientific research.

Four decades on from Gregor Mendel’s experiments with garden peas, the foundations for the science of cells and genetics were being formed. Klimt was obsessed. In Vienna, art and science were mixing, in part through salons that brought together artists, intellectuals, and academics.

You can read more on this and view more art here 

21 facts about Kustav

The above link is very interesting and is written in short paragraphs.  

 

I hope you enjoyed this little bit about Kustav Klimt

I personally love his 

defiant, actional, nonconformist behavior. 

 That's is for now.

I'm joinng Gillena for 

Looking forward to seeing your arty post.

Nicole

 

   

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gustav-klimt-gold-2543498

 

https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/gustav-klimt-magical-kaleidoscope/ 

https://www.factum-arte.com/pag/1171/medicine 

 

Saturday Garden

 Hi Everyone!

 

This is NOT the year to NOT have a garden. OMG! I made a quick drive over to the store yesterday morning to get a few veggies. 

Ice burg lettuce was $3.49 a pound. Are they effin kidding me?

I have lettuce, spinach and beets starting to show up in my big garden but that doesn't help me today. No, I did NOT pay that price.

We know who to thank for this.

 

 On a happier note, today is my Son's birthday. He is 57. Last year I wrote that he was 57 but I was a year off. EEKKK!!! 

My Son and DIL at the fair 

Yumm corn dogs

 

Back to gardening 

Just starting to come up.

Spinach 

 

Beets 

  

I have several types of lettuce.

 

In our natural area I noticed foxglove blooming. 

 

and in the back Salvia is starting to bloom I'm very happy because it's been storming, cold and windy.

I did get some romaine at the other store in town. I washed and dried it then put it into quart size mason jars. 

 

I've showed this trick before with my food saver, but that has bit the dust. Last year  I got a hand held sealer. 

 

place a new or used canning jar lid on the jar. Then push the sealer on, press the button and watch the air get removed from the jar. When the sealer is done it makes a pufff sound.

 

Screw on  the ring, label and place in the fridg. This lettuce will last about 3 months. I use small canning jars to preserve herbs this way. They last so much longer.

 

To end this post here is a little guy that comes to visit everyday. He turned his head just as I snapped the shot.

 

Have a nice Saturday

Nicole