Thursday, August 30, 2018

A Sunflower, and Tsarist Photography


Here's our volunteer sunflower in all its blooming glory. It's very small, not much bigger than a field daisy. But it's still a nice addition to our almost-September garden.

Wow, is it nice to have our house back. Chris and Gary were the perfect guests, but there's nothing like being able to sit on the couch with Dave and not "make conversation." Getting back into our routines last night, making dinner and watching TV, felt wonderfully comfortable. That makes it sound like Dave and I don't talk, which isn't true at all, but you know what I mean. Entertaining, as much as I enjoy it from time to time, adds a layer of artifice to home life, doesn't it?

Dave ordered sushi for dinner so he wouldn't have to cook, but I was insistent on eating our leftovers, so I cobbled together one of my peculiar "clean out the fridge" meals -- a fried egg over lentils and vegetables, with a side salad. And watermelon for dessert. I bought a tiny watermelon at Tesco last week that's no bigger than a cantaloupe and it's good -- and practically seedless.

Today, on my way to work, I'm going to take the sheets and towels from our visitors up to the laundry and drop them off. I can pick them up tonight, all clean and folded, and believe me it's totally worth it.

Have you seen today's Google doodle, which honors a Russian photographer named Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky? I'd never heard of him before. He pioneered color photography in Russia during the time of the last Tsars, and I found it fascinating to page through his photos on the web site of the U.S. Library of Congress. (Donald Trump hasn't gotten around to dismantling it yet.) Talk about a window onto another age -- peasant girls in colorful skirts and head scarves, the emir of Bukhara in his embroidered blue silk coat, miners with horses and wagons, a woman from Samarkand in a head-to-toe blue burqa. Click "view all" on the linked page above to browse through the online gallery.

11 comments:

  1. Perhaps one day in the distant future the Google doodle of the day will feature the London-based photographer - Steven Aloysius Reed. I tell you what - his work is much finer than that of Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky.

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  2. It is always interesting stumbling upon a piece of photographic history...Humans would have missed a lot of the rest of the world without photography. Is there anything in particular you would like to photograph that you haven't yet?

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  3. No matter how much we love someone, it is impossible not to breathe some sigh of relief when they leave.

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  4. Well, when kids come home that really interrupts the routine. My kids are 46 and 48. It's nice to see them come and nice to see them go. Sort of bitter - sweet.

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  5. yeah, I enjoyed having the girls here but was glad when they were gone.

    I looked for some of the photos you mentioned but after scanning 5 pages gave it up. I think one of the worst things about globalization is the loss of cultural clothing. now everyone dresses the same.

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  6. It really is nice when the house is quiet again, even when we've waved good-bye to those we dearly love. We love our quiet life and the daily routines of our own rhythms.

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  7. I'm off in the next hour to have cataract surgery so I've left myself a note to look at those photos you mentioned tomorrow. I love the sunflower. It's small but it's perfectly shaped.

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  8. We get a lot of visitors. I limit them to 3 nights if I am feeling courageous and assertive. I love having them come, but after 3 nights it becomes stressful.

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  9. I have always found making conversation difficult except with Tom or my immediate family. I can talk forever with them. lol
    Briony
    x

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  10. I hear you on the visitors. No matter how lovely they are, I still feel I have to be "on" and that is tiring.

    What a perfect, tiny sunflower!

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  11. Like grandchildren, great to see them come and great to see them go.

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