Footnotes to a Conversation, October 28, 2024
“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus
Floral Art
My sister, Clare, and I went to a floral art exhibit on Saturday. I was intrigued by the combinations of natural and artificial in many of the displays. Our favorite was the one with a fairy door and two tiny gnomes with long pigtails. [Victoria Floral Artists Guild]
The Fruit of Art
Isabella Dalla Ragione isn’t interested in the brushstrokes or portraiture. What interests her in the Renaissance paintings on display in Italy is the fruit - acquaiola cherries, a variety that has almost disappeared in Italy but was quite common in the 15th century or 3 gnarly apples.
“For Dalla Ragione, the apples, including a variety known in the fruit science lexicon as api piccola, represent a key to restoring Italy’s disappearing fruit agriculture, with characteristics not found in today’s apples: Crunchy and tart, they are capable of being stored at room temperature for about seven months and maintain their best qualities outside the fridge. And these ungainly apples are just one variety among scores of others that Dalla Ragione, who is among Italy’s foremost experts on tree fruits, has identified as being widely cultivated in the 16th century—and largely gone by the 21st, as genetic diversity among all of Italy’s major fruit trees continues to plunge.” [Smithsonian Magazine]
An Impression of London
From 1899 to 1901, Claude Monet created nearly 100 paintings of fog over the Thames in London. Buildings and bridges become insubstantial, “a place beyond place that sits outside of time, an ethereal elsewhere,” according to T S Eliot.
“Monet was the first to confess that in order to make London a suitable subject for him to take on, a fabricating Insta-filter was required. ‘Without the fog,’ he remarked, ‘London wouldn't be a beautiful city. It's the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth. Its regular and massive blocks become grandiose within that mysterious cloak.’" [BBC]
Strong Moral Values
I went on a tour of BC’s Legislative Building with my sister-in-law, Shelley, last week. I thought the stained-glass windows were lovely, but the language, and possibly the messages, of the slogans seemed somewhat dated: Great Effects Come of Industry and Perseverance; The Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance; and Discretion is the Perfection of Reason and a Guide to Win All the Duties of Life.
The Cats’ Wall
Cats, whether singly or in a pack, have become the unofficial residents or mascots of the Great Wall of China. [Thrillist]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.