It seems at times that all kinds of odd characteristics and behaviour go with the job of being an artist… French Impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was working on a group of winter landscapes. The pictures were set in very beautiful and spectacular mountainous countryside and featured an oak tree and a river.… Continue reading An artistic temperament?
Category: Psychology
An enlightened age?
Perhaps doing a double shift outside alone in the Starbucks Kiosk is not a good thing for me, because it leads me to thinking about things and the way perhaps they should or could be. I confess the older I get, the more confused I become. Now while some folks suggest that this is the… Continue reading An enlightened age?
Under the skin
Oh, narrow, dark and humid streets rising like crevices to an unforgiving sky. I long for a Cathedral, a fine old pagan stone fortress, just for its refreshing cold atmosphere. I would even settle for a baroque, homely, altar in a corner hole in the wall, just to squat in the corner and enjoy the… Continue reading Under the skin
Why we walk backwards
Female deities with inscrutable smiles, the Stele di Nora (a stone tablet showing in Phoenician characters the first recorded occurrence of the name “Sardinia”), and spindly, highly stylish, innovative and quirky bronze statuettes of varying sizes are just some of the things possible for viewing at Cagliari’s Museo Archeologico. This is Sardinia’s premier archaeological museum… Continue reading Why we walk backwards
Criminals or heroes?
Three events in our eight-day Sardinian adventure prompt today’s theme: – In San Vito, we meet an Englishwoman who shares with us her despair about having her car broken into while she was on a beach and had stuff stolen from her. Our B & B operator, Cristano Porcu, assures us that this kind of… Continue reading Criminals or heroes?
Travelling with the enemy
It has often been said that the two true tests of a relationship are: 1) Your ability to assemble IKEA furniture together 2) Your ability to travel together In regards to the first test, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I have failed that test. She is impatient with my stumbling efforts, convinced She knows… Continue reading Travelling with the enemy
Great expectations?
Well. in an hour and an half’s time, a mini-adventure begins… Off to Sardinia with She Who Must Be Obeyed… What to expect? What to expect? Mediterranean. Hot hot hot weather. A Canadian in Sardinia = a penguin in Hell? A land of sardines? A land of sardonic laughter? A land of danger? In the… Continue reading Great expectations?
Unloved in Jerusalem
There is a phrase that beguiles me with its unknown source that “a prophet is rarely respected in his own Jerusalem.” This phrase comes to mind when I consider the Rhine towns of Feuerthalen, across from Schaffhausen, and Rheinau, downriver 181 km / 113 miles if discussing walking distance. Feuerthalen, population 3,500, is Schaffhausen’s unremarkable… Continue reading Unloved in Jerusalem
The Grand Guestbook
They say we are judged by the company we keep. Let’s look at some of the people who have kept company with the Rhine Falls: It never ceases to amaze me how often in history great changes begin with only one individual. Before 1548, the Rhine Falls were relatively unknown. There was (and still is)… Continue reading The Grand Guestbook
Smells like team spirit
I know…I know.. Working at a place like Starbucks, it is normal for there to be a lot of personnel change. People move away for personal reasons. People get transferred. People leave for better opportunities elsewhere. But there is something uniquely special about working in an environment like a restaurant or a cafe as opposed… Continue reading Smells like team spirit