Traveling

I am finally on my long awaited and much needed week's holiday with the anesthetist. We're in Mallorca for a week. I had to choose somewhere with sea. The sailor in him refused to be landlocked. Will share photos next week. x

Traveling

Off to Paris and Rome for a week for work. Yippee! I haven't been to Rome since I backpacked at 21!
I'm having a sneaky weekend in Honfleur this weekend. Lovely port town 2 hours west of Paris. Photos when I get back.

Summer Dance

Take one phenomenal Finnish dance group, an architectural wonder in the middle of a lush, green valley and a stunning summer night. What do you get? The perfect Saturday evening with Tero Saarinen at the Fisher Centre for Performing Arts in the Hudson Valley.

Located 2.5 hours north of Manhattan, The Fisher Centre is an example of what art benefactors have given the world. The Bard Centre of Performing Arts is apparently one of the best arts colleges in the States. It was on this campus that someone had the ingenious idea to commission Frank Gehry to design an extraordinary, world class arts centre to provide "risk taking performances and provocative programs" in theatre, opera, orchestra and dance. Each summer, the centre hosts a festival of national and international artists. People from all around the area - and beyond - come to savour some amazing culture in the spectacular setting of the Hudson Valley. Located essentially in a green field and surrounded by huge trees and rolling lawns, the Centre has to be one of the world's greatest buildings.

My photos don't do it justice as it was dusk when we arrived. But hopefully they will give you a taste of this not-to-be-missed wonder of modern design.

image 1: whitebird, 

Happy Fourth of July

There's going to be a lot of red, white and blue this weekend. And why not! It's one of the biggest holidays on the American calendar, as we celebrate this country's independence from the Brits in 1776. Isn't it funny to think that at that time in Australia, we were only beginning to forge a link with the Brits.

Anyway, patriotism hits an all time high this weekend.  There will be plenty of flags and stars and stripes and fireworks. I will be enjoying all this from the deck of the anesthetist's yacht. And maybe, just maybe, I can get him to muster up enough love for his adopted country to fly the star spangled banner alongside his Sth African flag!

image: martha stewart

Catskills

We went to the Catskills on the weekend. It was time for me to channel my inner hippie. I'm not very good at that any more. Too many Park Hyatts with work. But the anesthestist is an old hippie at heart; herbal toothpaste, organic veggies and early morning sun salutations. So it was off to the bucolic county of Delaware, 4 hours north of Manhattan. Think rolling green hills, lots of cows, local markets and red barns. All the hallmarks of a stunning east coast pastoral setting in summer.

There we stayed in a cottage that looks like it should have been pulled down a decade ago but holds cherished memories for the anasthetist of his boys growing up there during school holidays,

we cooked up a storm using veggies straight from the farm's organic fields,

bought fresh, young local lamb at the famous Round Hill Barn,

went swimming in the water hole up the back of the property,

sat and listened to the roar of the waterfall as it gushed into the water hole

and drove through the neighbouring countryside dreaming of milking cows, collecting eggs and selling our own organic produce one day.

French Interlude

La nuit ou la lune, 1922

A few weeks back when I was in Paris, I went to a Van Dongen exhibition. I really didn't know that much about him beforehand, but I'm a mad fan now - particularly of his early work. Born 1867 in Holland, he became a "fauve, anarchist and socialite" in Paris between the wars. He used color beautifully, inspired by his numerous trips to Morocco, Egypt and Spain and the likes of his contemporaries Derain and Matisse. Yet Montmartre and its women became his main subject in his later life. He ended up with a very wealthy socialite who changed his life, offering him entry into the salons and bourgeois life of Paris in the roaring 20's and 30's. This influenced his style tremendously, as he focused more on portraits of wealthy women in their silks and ermine.

I'm not so mad on this later period, but here is a selection of some of his paintings from the exhibition that really transfixed me.

Opera Singer, 1908

La doigt sur la joue, 1910

Marchande d'herbes et d'amour, 1913

Spanish shawl, 1913

Arab Girl, 1915

La vase fleurie, 1917

Portrait de Mme Maria Ricotti, 1921

Le Sphinx,  1925

It's very hard to find a good book on Van Dongen's work. But there was a beautiful catalogue published as part of this exhibition. You may be able to purchase it through the museum in Paris, here. If you are in Paris, I would urge you to go and see this. It finishes 17th July.

images: Paris museum modern art

Caramoor

"We built a home my husband and I, not to be old or new, just to be beautiful. And we built it for music."

- Lucie Rosen

Last Sunday the anesthetist was playing on his boat. I couldn't join him for fear of falling overboard and sinking straight to the bottom of the Long Island Sound due to my boot being as heavy as an anchor. So I threw caution to the wind and "stole" his car to drive further north to visit Caramoor, a lovely house & garden designed for the sole purpose of music and the arts.

Caramoor is the legacy of Lucie and Walter Rosen, a well-traveled and clearly well-heeled couple who purchased the property of more than 100 acres in 1928. They were both passionate collectors and musicians. They built the rambling stucco mansion that exists today, fulfilling their dream to create a place where they could entertain friends from around the world and host legendary musical evenings. In 1945, they bequeathed the estate as a centre for music and art and it is now the home of the hugely successful annual Caramoor summer outdoor concerts, featuring artists performing jazz, operetta and classical music.

What is most remarkable are the surrounding gardens. They're magical. They have evolved over the past 80 odd years and include sunken gardens, a cedar walk, a rose garden, a sense circle for the visually and physically impaired, and general rolling lawns dotted with picnic tables for the festival guests to enjoy.

It's a garden lover's paradise and a place where you would expect to see wood nymphs and sprites dancing amongst the trees. It's a far cry from the concrete of Manhattan.

Italian Pavilion

Pegasus Gates

300' cedars now 70 years old

Juliet Gate, a 17th C portal opening into the Sunken Garden

Sunken Garden