Beware....

Cute..isn't he..but better beware..what you see isn't always what you get...

Happy Halloween

P.S Take a look in the secret garden...if you dare...!

Dainty

“It is dainty to be sick, if you have leisure and convenience for it”
Ralph Waldo Emerson


Painting~James Mc Neill Whistler.

The Flu..

Be back soon......I think the Flu Bug caught me..

The song in your heart..

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”

Painting~A new Friend~Sophie Anderson.

IIIIts a Ghostly Monday..

If there's something strange
in your neighbourhood

Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!

If there's something weird
and it don't look good

Who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters!

I ain't afraid of no ghost
I ain't afraid of no ghost

If you're seeing things
running through your head

Who can you call?
Ghostbusters!

In my sleep..

I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams

happy weekend ..and sweet dreams

The greatest..

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground....”

Autumn screensaver...

The Little Ghost

I KNEW her for a little ghost
That in my garden walked;
The wall is high -- higher than most --
And the green gate was locked.

And yet I did not think of that
Till after she was gone --
I knew her by the broad white hat,
All ruffled, she had on.

By the dear ruffles round her feet,
By her small hands that hung
In their lace mitts, austere and sweet,
Her gown's white folds among.

I watched to see if she would stay,
What she would do -- and oh!
She looked as if she liked the way
I let my garden grow!

She bent above my favourite mint
With conscious garden grace,
She smiled and smiled -- there was no hint
Of sadness in her face.

She held her gown on either side
To let her slippers show,
And up the walk she went with pride,
The way great ladies go.

And where the wall is built in new
And is of ivy bare
She paused -- then opened and passed through
A gate that once was there.

poem-Edna St.Vincent Millay....drawing Warwick Goble.

Party

They (the days) come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Busy days ahead filled with work and music.....

Painting~Music Party~Turner

LUCK...

One reputed origin of the tradition of lucky horseshoes is the story of Saint Dunstan and the Devil. Dunstan, who became the Archbishop of Canterbury in AD 959, was a blacksmith by trade. The story relates that he once nailed a horseshoe to the Devil's hoof when he was asked to reshoe the Devil's hoof. This caused the Devil great pain, and Dunstan only agreed to remove the shoe and release the Devil after the Devil promised never to enter a place where a horseshoe is hung over the door.

Some believe that if guests come to a house where a horseshoe is above the door, they must leave by the same door through which they entered or they will take the luck from the horseshoe with them from the house.
Horseshoes are considered a good luck charm in many cultures. The shape, fabrication, placement, and manner of sourcing are all important. A common tradition is that if a horseshoe is hung on a door with the two ends pointing up then good luck will occur...so now you know what to do....I already hung up mine..Its almost Halloween!

IIIIIIIts Monday..

Some Mondays can be very scary....don't worry ...they will pass

What's cooking..

Sunday Stew

I wisch I could invite all of you for dinner...eat drink and have a wonderful time..and look what's for dessert

on the playlist,Dinner rush..

Madness

There is a system in this madness...

There are famous MADNESS scenes in opera's...Madness and opera go together like, well, madness in opera. And quite often the mad are women who have lost their senses, frequently over love. It's almost a cliché.
Woman in dispear,grieving,surching for revenge,killing out of love,giving you the chills and haunt you for ever...Opera composers have long been drawn to stories in which women go mad!
I selected a few....enjoy...and stay sane

Lucia di lammermoor.
Hamlet"Ophelia"
La traviata..addio del passato
Lucretia Borgia
Tosca...and please watch this one until the very end...phew!.....Happy weekend

Hum hum dum ditty dum...

Hum dum dum ditty dum
Hum dum dum

Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today


drawing Ellen Shaw

Charm

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."


Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)
This line, uttered by the three ugly witches in Macbeth as they stir their boiling cauldron, is one of the most familiar phrases associated with traditional witchcraft. It is the infamous recipe for spell-casting, curse-inducing witchery. People believed in witches in Shakespeare's time, and thought of them as powerful practitioners of evil. Yet while these witches in Macbeth did possess the ability to conjure up spirits, they did not really control Macbeth but rather tricked him into acting in certain ways. Having correctly predicted he would be king, they now produce ghosts who allow him to conclude that he will not be killed by anyone. These ghosts have been called into our world by the use of the infamous recipe given above, which continues with "adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, lizard's leg and owlet's wing," and an assortment of other colorful ingredients.

painting~Richard Doyle

Saudade

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”


{"saudade" is a feeling that you have when someone you love is far away or lost. It's like missing something. 'I miss you 'would correspond in portuguese to : Tenho(have) "saudades" tuas(of you)}

picture taken by The Dutchess at a graveyard in Lissabon.

Sillies...?

The fairies from The Hilltop would like you to know they arived savely on a warm sunny beach at the seaside..

James Matthew Barrie (Peter Pan, Chapter 17)--"...because you see They live in nests on the tops of trees; and the mauve ones are boys and the white ones are girls, and the blue ones are just little sillies who are not sure what they are."

IIIIts Monday..

And join me in the...Hokey Pokey....

Start the day with a smile..that's what its all about...

October Party..

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper~

Its the last garden party to be held in the Hilltop Forest...its a farewell..a goodbye..a"see you in springtime"party..the fairies are leaving..traveling to a warm place in the sun...lets have a wonderful day today..get in a leaf fight and throw leaves at eachother....

Stepping in to Autumn..

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft...

Returning home,stepping in to Autumn...I am blessed..I am happy..I am grateful..

Drawing..selfportret..Soleil D'Automne..by the Dutchess.