Easter Blessings

April 4th, 2012

At the breakfast table my bones and joints are speaking to me plaintively, complaining about grey skies, the icy wind that is blowing from the mountain tops and the lack of sunshine that would surely comfort them.

Although I am sympathetic to their needs my thoughts wander to a ninety six year old woman I saw on television last night as I was preparing supper.  Ninety six, and she was still comfortably plumb, quite nimble and when she sat down she picked up her crocheting and spoke cheerily about her life and activities, - clearly one of those people born with a pleasant and positive disposition and a propensity for good health!

Then I thought about some of the people I know who are younger than me (well, that's easy) but who are miserable in their old age, 'halting' around, I thought!


Halting around???  Where did that phrase come from before it popped into my head.

I brought up the subject with Charles, who somehow, in the wink of an eye, turned my question into a political discussion.  How does he do that????

Eventually he expressed his opinion about the meaning of 'halting around', and I was quite in agreement with him.  I walked to the library the other day without my butterfly cane, and on the way home I definitely felt that I was 'halting along'....and thought sadly of the days when I was so proud of walking gracefully.

I am going to go to the drugstore this afternoon to buy myself one of those nice light canes that have a cord running through them which allow them to fold up into a nice purse size.  Charles has two of them, but I need one of my own that can live in my purse (which is really a large carpet bag) and be handy whenever I find I am 'halting along'.

I took a linen hat, a pair of old leather gardening gloves and my red snippers out of the bag before I snapped it, so you can see that a foldable cane would live quite roomily in it.

However, that doesn't solve the real problem that was bothering me.  Here we are, medical science having presented many of us with a life span that lasts probably ten years longer, and have we prepared for it with good living, lots of exercise, a healthy diet and the tenacity to maintain a cheerful attitude in the face of these complaining joints and muscles and bones.....I ask you?

ABC Wednesday
April 3rd, 2012

L is for Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence, the most popular portrait painter in Europe in the early 1800s. 

At only 21 he took the London art world by storm at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1790, dazzling audiences with his full lenth portraits of Queen Charlotte and the actress Elizabeth Farren.   "Their frankness, vivacity and delight in textures and detail departed from the overblown allegories of  Grand Manner portraiture' and the critis acclaimed him a rival and successor to Sir Joshua Reynolds.

One of his well-known portraits, a painting of Sarah Barrett Moulton (known to her family as PINKIE)

And another of Charles Lampton, entitled Red Boy.  Pinkie is more often seen with 

Gainsborough's Blue Boy.

A bit of gossip.

Aways in Love, always in Debt, Lawrence was involved with the Siddons sisters, - first with Sally, then with Maria, then back to Sally.  However, it is said that it was really their mother, Sarah Siddons (the actress) that he was enthralled with.  Lawrence's entanglements with the Siddons family has been the subject of three books and a recent radio play.

Sir Lawrence never married.   He died suddenly on the 7th of January, 1830 from heart complications, leaving a number of unfinished paintings in his studio. The collection was eventually split up and auctioned.  Many of his creditors were paid, but there was no money left, although a memorial exhibition at the British Institution raised Three Thousand Pounds which was given to his nieces.

Lady Harriet Maria Coningham

I find this to be a particularly appealing portrait by Sir Thomas.

For more great L's visit here at ABC Wednesday with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her Lucky helpers.