A Good Hair Day?

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head."Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "H-m-m, " she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did and she had a fun, fun day.


The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YEAH!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"


Attitude is everything.


Have a Great Day! Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Live simply and love generously. And have a Happy Halloween!

The Vatican and Fontana Di Trevi

Top photo: Rome from a window in the Vatican Museum.

Second: a view to the garden surrounding the Vatican Museum, and a few more of those trees I liked.


Third and Fourth: Trevi Fountain, scene of so many movies and TV shows. This fountain dates from 1732, and is located at the convergence of three streets. In movies, it appears to be a much larger area. The fountain itself is quite large, but the surrounding area is very small.

Edited below!
More scenes of the area surrounding Trevi Fountain.


Jay asked if it was always this crowded. I think it must be, since it is one of the first places that visitors to Rome want to see. The Spanish Steps are always crowded, as is the Colosseum, the Vatican, St.Peter's and all the major churches.


Most of these people were tourists, but I think some of them must have been locals who were out on their lunch hour. That day the weather was perfect, and everyone who could be was outside.

Happy Halloween!

My seasonal table. I call this my "lazy" table, when I don't want to put much effort into it.





The three sections of a card that was given to my son when he was nearly one, in 1966. The card stands up, in three sections, and we have displayed it every year since he received it. I should have given it to him when he was here visiting. I guess it looks pretty good for a 40 year old greeting card, huh? The black parts are velvety soft.

Two of my children and their families came to visit Sunday, to celebrate my birthday. Two of my granddaughters baked a devil's food cake (my favorite) and we all enjoyed a slice of it after dinner at a local cafeteria. I am sure you are thinking "A cafeteria? For a birthday dinner?" but I can assure you, that when 12 people go out for dinner, and 6 of them are children, a cafeteria is the restaurant of choice!

The cake was full of candles, but had fewer than the requisite 66. I would have never been able to blow them out! They had one candle of the kind that re-lights and it seemed destined to burn forever. I blew until my face turned red and I nearly fainted, before I realized it was a trick. The children laughed at me and their laughter was beautiful music to my ears......I am well and truly blessed.

Julie Andrew's New Favorite Things

To commemorate her 69th birthday on October 1, actress/vocalist, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP.

One of the musical numbers she performed was "My Favorite Things" from the legendary movie "Sound Of Music."Here are the clever lyrics she used:

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillac's and cataracts and hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache,When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I've had,
And then I don't feel so bad.

(Ms. Andrews received a standing ovation that lasted for over four minutes and repeated encores.)

I could sing that song for my birthday tomorrow, but there's one thing I know for sure: When your joints ache - you're still alive - and that beats the heck out of the alternative.

Scherenschnitte ~ Part 2

A short break in the vacation series is in order, so here are a few more pics in the series of paper cuttings.


Remember the original post about this? You can find it in the archives for October 7th. These pics didn't get into the post last time.

More St. Peter's Basilica

Miscellaneous pics; side altars and statuary, and at the bottom:

Michaelangelo's Pieta. I blurred it badly. The statue is now behind glass and elevated above the crowds. To get a shot of it, you have to hold the camera above your head, and you run the risk of flash glare off the glass. I guess a blurry photo is better than none at all.

A side chapel and an altar, and then from the graves under St, Peter's:

The sepulchre of Pope John Paul the 23rd and that of St. Peter the Apostle.

St. Peter's Basilica ~ Vatican City ~ Part 8

I am going to post nearly all the photos I took inside St. Peter's. This basilica is opulent beyond belief and spectacular in every nook and cranny (and there are many). Much of it dates from 1506, and I thought to myself how truly amazing it is that people back then had the technical knowledge necessary to build something like this. Of course, I thought that about nearly everything I saw in Rome and Florence. We in America have the tendency to think that only we have brought such beauty and architectural genius to the world - and we can believe that even when we have studied European art and architecture in school or on our own in books. It is humbling, I assure you, to finally realize that most of it was here in the world long before we were.

I know that some of these pics are repetitive. It is too hard to decide which ones are best - and so you are getting them all. Everywhere you look inside the basilica there is either a painting, a sculpture, some gilding, marble and ornament of some sort. There is hardly a blank area on any wall or ceiling, unless it is some beautifully patterned and colored marble.

The color of the photos I took inside the building are somewhat muted, but except for the paintings and murals, most of the colors are paler than you might expect. I wonder if that is because some of it has faded over the years?

Comments under the post below.

Bernini sculpted the high altar canopy shown at the top; called a baldacchino. It is so gorgeous, and so large that it is hard to get a good photo of it. The area is somewhat dark and with the crowds of people, one cannot get a good perspective on the canopy.

Sorry about the dome photo being blurry. I could blame it on someone jiggling my arm, but I probably just moved the camera too much, or zoomed in too far.



This third shot is one of the seeming hundreds of statues there, and I was struck by the fluidity of the marble. Truly, the fabric of her cloak looked as though it were being blown by the wind. And though she was clothed, the human form was evident under all the clothing. The mark of a sculptural genius, I think.

 

Planes, Train, etc. ~ Part 7

Let's try this again, shall we? In the top photo: an ornate entry on an otherwise plain wall, to the Vatican Museum. There are 1400 rooms in the museum, so it is impossible to see them all. They have color-coded routes through specific eras and types of art, and you can choose the route that most do, which leads eventually to the Sistine Chapel.

Second photo: another of those sculptural trees which held my interest. They add considerably to the scenery in Rome.

Third and Fourth: sections of St. Peter's Square. It was impossible for me to get a photo showing the whole building and square at one time. Bernini's Colonnade and the statuary atop the building are both magnificent. In fact, that is a word I was heard to use frequently while in Rome.

The Sistine Chapel does not allow photos, and I didn't buy any postcards to show you. It is smaller than I had thought it would be, and with 400 people crowded in at one time, we felt rather like the proverbial sardines in a tin can. It is noisy, in spite of the fact that it is a Chapel, people talk out loud. At intervals, a guard is heard to shout "Silencio!" and I thought to myself, "he is making more noise than we are". There are benches built into the side walls, but there are too few seats, so we craned our necks backward and looked up, to the fabulous paintings which are Michaelangelo's masterpieces (at least in frescoes). My favorite of his works is the statue of David, but I will write about that when I get to the Florence portion of the trip. I think tomorrow I will begin the photos of St. Peter's Basilica, the opulence of which is not to be believed.

Planes, Trains, etc. ~ Part 6

When you stroll the Via Condotti and surrounding streets, this is what you see. Gucci, Pucci, Valentino, and nearly every other famous designer has a shop on this street or near here.

These photos were taken at night, around 9:30-10:pm, and it was dark. In the last post, someone commented about the light in the photos of the Spanish Steps. I had to lighten the photos considerably before they could be seen, and it is the same with these.

The reason I photographed the street sign of the Via di Bocca di Leone (the street of the mouth of the lion) is because we know a man whose name is Leone, and we thought he might like the photo.

The last pic was taken across the street from the Steps, and I had to crop it to get rid of the hundreds of people's heads.

We all strolled the area, looking in the shop windows and drooling at the clothes, purses and shoes which would be forever out of the financial reach of most. Can you imagine paying $1,200 for a purse? I surely can't! In fact, I wouldn't - even if I had the means for it.

I am SO ticked. I wrote a second post tonight, with photos from the Vatican and St. Peter's Square, and Picasa/Blogger LOST IT!

I will try to get it up again tomorrow afternoon.

Planes, Trains, etc. ~ Part 5 ~ Spanish Steps

"Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems instinct with spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some legend of long-neglected lore".
Margaret Fuller

The Spanish Steps - or Piazza Di Spagna E Scalinata Della Trinita Dei Monti - built in 1723. They get their name from the piazza, on which the Spanish Embassy once stood.

The fountain dates from 1627, and is referred to as "the sunken boat".

The monument below stands at the far end of the piazza, but I do not remember what it commemorates.


These photos were taken at about 9pm on a weeknight. Apparently, the steps are never without people on them; it is a favorite place to meet, for Romans and tourists alike.The building at the top of the steps, with scaffolding, is the church known as Trinita Dei Monti. We did not climb the steps, due to the construction on the church.

I did not know it when we were there, but the building to the right of the steps is where the poet John Keats died in 1821.

The street known as the Via Condotti, where all the famous clothing designers have their shops, enters this piazza perpendicularly. Tomorrow, I will show you some of their windows. Later in the week will come the Vatican, St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel and the Fontana de Trevi.