Summer Reading

Update from last July - 

This summer sizzles and scintillates and " ... easy, breezy..."  is a keyword for me, so as not to get overheated!  

A huge stall and hiatus in things has passed and progress in business and personal life abound!   A few years ago, they said "wheelchair" and "end of things" and it's been exactly the opposite, with a bit of application. Praise for all who helped and have been patient and fun!

Summer reading this summer?  White papers to support and update the work during the week, and almost-forgotten romances for weekends - especially those that respond to the growing number of later-in-life romances ! 

The largest-growing age group is those over 100 years old !   Creative?   Dreaming of better than ever artwork keeps me in prayerful thank yous at the easel.  And making my own stories of the new options and possibilities is fun for me this summer - making notes . I will be sure to include the biographies of others who are doing neat things for the world and for themselves later in life.  Yes.

At "upper midlife" one gets out early and late and avoids the noonday sun when heat advisories go up , so that leaves time for books and notes and writings WHILE being senior-smart.

What are you reading this summer?   Comment below and be confident that your ideas will be respected.  The feedback is always a vitamin. 

elle

Last year's Summer Reading ( July 13, 2017 )  entry follows here:

July and we may duck indoors to escape heat, it's plenty of outdoors time,  at the pool, lake or beach or breezing about for business or pleasure!  We are happy escapees from winter's confinements in America's Northeast Connecticut - two blizzards this year!  More;  a fix on both feet found me wildly bursting OUT OUT OUT, when the weather and the feets finally allowed.  

Thanks to technology, wait times en route are never boring - audiobook and kindles on my ipad iphone let me engage with my summer reading choices:  Some white papers,  learning and technology for workdays/workhours;  some religious , some women's things, and health and diet things, and stories - fact and fiction, they make the time fly and fill the spirit.

But this is about biographies - a huge thank you!    Since girlhood I seem to reach for biographical reading whenever I am "in a brown study" over things, wanting a job or project, grieving, sluggish for emotional or physical reasons, in flux and lost.  Somehow Biographies do the trick, when I must be still,  my heroes swashbuckle for me - reading of the challenges and triumphs of the subject, I am entertained, informed and almost always inspired before long,...even empowered from within ... to get up and get at it once more, with new insights and inspirations.

As a girl, Lives of Women in Holiness, Red Cross, Nursing, Medicine and Arts of all sorts seemed to find the top of my list. Achievers of either gender in patriotism and science and wonderful inventions and business really lit me up, and still do!

This Summer?
-  Woman Transcendentalists like Margaret Fuller - do not always approve, but am impressed.  --  Innovators of the new Millennium - just finished one about Elon Musk and was just plain thrilled - did you know you can get a used Tesla for under 50 thousand USD?   wow!  I was hurt in the spine and thought I'd never drive again, so I sold the car to pay the medical bills a bit.....then of all things - I  healed!   instead of a wheelchair, it was the Manchester Road Race / Walkers.  Instead of death, life and plenty of it back at my work including one that went to the White House.
- For the Fourth of July, "John Adams" and his famous lady Abigail

The list goes on  Elizabeth Vigée LeBrun and her important portraiture and much more. Czeslaw Miłosc. the Polish poet, Elie Weisel, and last summer, Edna Gladney.  Somehow reading biography really helps me because it focuses like other media do not and so the results are better.   My Nancy Drew Collection, while not exactly biography to some folk , is very real to me and her immortal fans of her immortal , never changing , ever evolving self. 

What are YOU reading this summer?  I am not being silly, I am interested in your comments about it:  where does summer reading take you??? 

My radio show - if I had one - Thanksgiving 2017 musings...

I promised to post this today.   my show.... What would I call it?   The funny name club show?  Sassy seniors with long hair?  Snak-l-frok !

But it is not like that - my name means light and if I had a show it would be to bring light into a dark place - many dark places.  Confront dilemmas and mysteries and get them solved.

My housekeeper said "you really get things done" - and there is that feeling of a doing a thing for the world - but I want to focus on things my Normal Rockwell Childhood brought to table for action - then tabled and never done.   

I think "Occupant Safety & Escape Technology" for planes and tall buildings would lead my campaigns - for years death from their failure has NOT been necessary, but no one is making them do it.  In fact, I'd put it away, then forgot it - parents' orders.  Then on NINELEVEN, I literally had to grab the counter to NOT fall down, when the memory found me and stunned me.   NO ONE needed to die that day.  NO ONE.   If the escape tech had been done on time, two things, in fact would have happened:  if attacked occupants could safely leave the plane or building FAST - super fast.  But with such tech in place, terrorists may  have skipped it for an idea, since there would be so few victims.

On my show, I could invite the dozens of contacts whose job it was to make and use the Technology but who could not or would not.  I would talk with them to see what it would take to win the breakthrough.

This is a priority topic: lives depend on it and I am still a good redcrosslady.   But I do  have a  list of topics I would share from my own experience and observation - I will add them here or linked.

We have so much for which to give Thanks!   BECAUSE we got things done, leaping to meet opportunities and win through obstacles -  and no other reason!

Blue " Hallelujah"

 Peter Hollen and Jackie Evancho sing a pretty a capella version of Leonard Cohen's iconic "Hallelujah" -  this year at YouTube for the holidays ......find it if you can.   I think I wrote this "Variation on the Theme" for a memorial to the author's passing this November 7th

A ' Different'  Hallelujah

What , sweet angels, do you do

It's Christmas and they don't like you, 

And to be truthful, you're not keen on them ?

Skip them,  and go find your friends

and play till New Year's parties end

Find the new year full of Hallelujahs

Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !

When big hurts hurt, they do deplete - 

It isn't pretty, isn't sweet

You cry, "Please, Santa, ANY Hallelujah ! "

You pray to find a new insight

 it won't run clear, it won't go right

 Till you can't even spell out  'Hallelooojah' !

Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !

I found my son today online

With Bride, too far away, but  fine

But why assail me with   UN-hallelujah !

And now they'll have to charm this dear,  

to find the former welcome here

And still I know I'll know that Hallelujah !

Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !

His sister's newly-wedded smiles

Just dreams - we are apart by miles

Some one-day moment here -  for Holy Yule - yah !

Again a merry company

For Christmas, once again, and we will

Sing ensemble, truly,  Hallelujah!

Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !    Hallelujah !   Hallelujah ! 

The strawb'ry top still  spins,  my loves !

The spirit's there and more above

A power of its own, sing Hallelujah !

I love the wisdom of my years

The invitation's loud and clear, so

  I'll close now  and just get back to my Yule - yah !

Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !   Hallelujah !

May YOUR  "Hallelujah" and "Gloria" and "cheers", glow with family spirit this year and always!

elle

Hallowe'en Stories of a Sort

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Do not let the cheery pumpkins fool you - I have scary stories to share at Halloween at this true stories blog.  But should they be shared at all?  Grownup scary stories are not pretty. 

Mayborn, my life has been a blessing, and very normal;  these stories only a fraction of my generally happy life.   More -  these stories  enjoyed happy endings,  but I certainly do have my moments - and then I realize most folks do.

  Life is not "Trick or Treat" but Trick AND Treat ! 

A list of my scary stories - details on request - or maybe added here as possible, with lead in and outcomes included.

There is the story of why I am why there are child-guard caps.

• There is the story of life with no pulse at all, for varied reasons during the years at war. 
• There is the story of childbirth and not dying like two of the grammas doing it - just almost.
• There is the story of how a  woman's hair can stand on end, exactly like the "Little Rascals" movies, when her love dies suddenly at her feet
• There is the story of abandonment by loyals, and being harassed by new, completely inappropriate, spouse material, or none at all .
• There is the story of raids upon a grieving lady and her children for anything not tied down.
• There is the story of rescuing staff of noble personages in panic over the recession, staff being exploited to the point of slavery.
• There is the story of being exploited and left for dead in a shelter for two years.  And like Sherlock Holmes' famous cormorant story...the world isn't ready for it yet.
• There is the story of how these scary stories could not possibly have happened - but did, prudence notwithstanding. 
• There is the story of the destruction of fourteen years of honored online existence and the near-destruction of its business.
• There is the story for this year: attacked by a mix of stinging insects and stopped counting at over 55 bites  -  my main job was not screaming. 
• There is the story of wondering IF to tell such scary stories, knowing it might bring the reprisals we are guaranteed cannot happen in America. 
• There is the story that there is not a "thirty million dollars" in my bank account for fair compensations for the clear malfeasances.  Oh yes..that, to this proud American is the worst, the scariest!  
• There is the story of the "Troop Beverly Hills" moments, when the nail polish error cost negative impact to the entire integumentary system....and stuff like that.

And yet... to tell these truly terrifying stories effectively, I'd need to be paid enough for the spa afterward to make repairs from the angst, and a nice retainer for the right attorney to protect me.

Would it only insult what is otherwise the most wonderful Golden Autumn Day full of pumpkins, friends, good work  and the Autumn Art Shows under way and me able to be part of it all?

 Would it help or hurt the honeymoon with  my new Mac and being able to run again and dance and drive after spinal injury and earning the cash for the car with fine artwork I am able to do?  

 Would I win my justice or undo my happiness?

SOME of it I must pursue and win, or be remiss.  Some is hopeless and timed out.  Some of it stays as a thing to peck at and eventually resolve. One point may need very hard work to win through...and risk...and danger of only creating another scary story to survive.

What do you think? 

Scary, no? 

Happy Halloween!

Elle

Poirot Marathon-ing

Poirot's  famous Boutonnière Vase

This is late being posted because of "'Air-kyool"  - Hercule Poirot.    And I feel fine about it.  Some things are important. Marathoning a series is valid in this case - my life is in flux and it is a fine and affordable distraction; and a lesson in authorship for any writer, and  a quality engagement.  To me, it is an honor thing - he completed the entire series, a thing not easily done! Bravo!   But for me, it is just the epression of it all at this phase of things, of my passion for the mystery-thriller of quality since childhood- so do not gloat, Monsieur! I just happened to be going that way.

At ages 8-10, in the late 50s, I was the one in line at the LIbrary - no Google - for the next episode of Nancy Drew Mysteries!  How would it be this time?  Never disappointing!  Never bored, curled up with a exciting Nancy Drew Adventure Mystery !   Days were sunny for me and in Nancy Drew land.  We'd spend a Saturday or rainy afternoon companioning along as her chums and I followed her lead,  immersed in one more challenging scenario to happy conclusion!    No other girls my age on the block just then,  Nancy was a handy friend and inspiration for so much in spirit and goodness.  

Then, hooked on mysteries, I'd raid my brother's Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then, back to my "Trixie Belden"  nurse sleuth stories.   And then it was  TV and  "Mr. &  Mrs. North", "The Thin Man", and favorite "Charlie Chan" - my Father was Charlie Smith and so we'd come tearing in from school or play and call out, with Key Luke's enthusiasm,  "Hiya, Pop!" as Charlie's many children did in old China and US Chinatown.  Dad was a fine one,  and would return the fun at us, mimicking "yeh, yeh, but..." Chan's longsuffering love for his "number one son" and  'number one daughter".  

At fourteen, the crush I seemed to be dealing with, for the family friend and local beach lifeguard, enjoyed some satisfaction, when I asked him about the book he was reading and it was Ian Fleming "Bond, James Bond" - brand new in the movies!  He , his steady girfriend and later wife, and I read all the books - such fun to talk the good and bad of it....always that excitement in realizing some of such things are true!  

Soon it was on to college and cutting study hours for "The Avengers" and "the fuge"  ... "The  Fugitive"  Some things were more important than - there was the place for mysteries;  the appeal to the intellect and skill set and the way all issues are resolved at stories' end.  Life ahead, no matter how well we prepped, was a mystery, still,  when it came to the core of it all.

Then  into the core, indeed, with no-joke time:   JFK's assassination , Martin Luther King's, Robert Kennedy - serious bad guys , right in our back yard!  Worse:  instead of John Wayne wars, it was about Americans as idiots sacrificing our own in unwinnable conflicts and Agent Orange of the insidious kill.  

Lucky me - bride to the son of a Federal Agent / whose job in Viet Nam after college was getting rid of chem warfare/ Agent Orange, with USACE's special ops, while I spent my first hours with wonded soldiers and  felt honored to serve....while others were fighting for peace with pot and dancing in the mud - horrors!   Dangers notwithstanding, I felt the lucky one.   My brother too, in berets jumping out of planes chasing enemy in the jungle.   The day they came home from war in one piece remains te happiest day of my life!

This go-round , we won thru nicely!    

And sooner than we ever hoped, at the mysteries again -  Husband relaxing in the den after his work day with Wellcome making medicine, and our son asleep and helping our little girl in her wiggly age, by NOT engaging with her , but quietly rocking along side her crib, crocheting a coverlet for her, or reading a book - this time  the COMPLETE Sherlock Holmes stories.    

Then it was winter and I was critical of me because I'd finished the Holmes and now what?  Winter reading hunting,   I met Hercule - and  I ran to the mailbox when "Curtain" arrived from my book club - after going through the Poirot stories  and looking for more of the Herculean ouevre...50 years of works about Hercule Poirot!   Better.

I wrote sometimes and so I was impressed with the 56 years of Agatha Christie's stories about the wonderful Belgian sleuth !    

 I always wonder - did the Herculean name inspire the Herculean achievement, or the other way around? 
And why is there not more said  about the famous Boutonnière Vase of such romantic origins in "The Chocolate Box"?  He was rarely without it.  Like the famous swan cane.

Then there were the years with NO TV and no fun reading: but that's another story.   

Lucky  me today! The past few days, "In " for me - resting a toe-fix -  I have just completed marathon viewing "Agatha Christie's Poirot" videos at Acorn TV !     I cried at the final story, "Curtain" then realized that our hero, Hercule, and his world,  was not dead but sleeping - not "Sleeping Murder" as one of his mysteries was called, but sleeping mystery chum -  and I could revive him at the click of my trackpad!  Thank you Acorn TV !  Well Done!   

David Suchet, the actor who played the role, spoke my thoughts, when he stated that the idea was to faithfully portray and  that was certainly done so that Dame Agatha would be pleased if she could view the results. In fact, Ms. Christie's  daughter found the David Suchet portrayals  perfect, and said so !     Me, too!  Thanksomuch for the immortality of it for us.   And most of all thank you,  David Suchet and the book he has written about the world-class achievement of the complete Hercule ! It is worth the read for fans !      

They say that we immerse in someone else's mysteries to remain calm when we cannot work on my own, and get back to solving our own puzzles with renewed energies for it.   Life!   I am non-violent so I always wonder why it must be murder mysteries, then decide that the author feels that if it is not life and death, when it's only a story, and not real,  we might not be interested.  

I don't know: for me it has become part of grief recovery -   before Hercule,  the last time, it was Jessica Fletcher all 268 (  I think ) episodes , they helped when my Father died and now it's Mother at her last days and Poirot and Phryne Fisher - yay girls CAN!  and when my FBI godfather passed, it was NCIS.   Unique validity in it I guess  :-D  since,  finding a thing to companion along during such testing times, is better than "biting the lifesaver' in it all.

Thank you three times, then!  

There remain so many places in my life, where my reply must be:  "It's still a mystery to me" !   Notes for my own mystery next?  okay.  I realize that I can actually solve a few of them - do you not agree, Captain Hesssteengs?   Hein?  

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercule_Poirot_in_literature

Irish and Other Celtic

 
Toasts & Cheers: 
For my Irish-American Gramps “The Chief” and his beloved “Else” - for our Father, his eight siblings, and all their respective loves and children
~~~~~~~

My childhood world entertained me - I sang for my Father, leapt at every interesting moment with glee, to help with the Mothers and Gram - dressed in royal blue satin and white lace or red velvet and bunnytfur or summerdresses of perfect organdy over our little swim suits , pails and shovels and littlegirl beahshoesies for rocky shores in New England beach outings and sunny plaids and sweaters for back to school.

Special.

We loved our social times
but also enjoyed a passion for good work, 
and, afterward, celebrations with bustling ladies, 
songs and good men, filling the skies with
broad laughter from hearty food and great ale. 

And after get-togethers of great meals, fine pipes and cigars and an ale or brandy or port, the songs might go on till midnight- fun growing up in Hobbiton?sort-of.

The main thing was that A child got the idea - life was a great occupation! 
And so, I cannot, in truth, omit this! 

---

"May ye be in Hivven, half 'n' hour
before the Divvil knows yer' gone!" 

Another Irish Toast, from the Famous Irish poet:: 

A Drinking Song

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye:
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh. 

~ William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

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SAINT PATRICK AND HIS DAY

An old Saint Patrick's Day Rhyme from Christin Fagan 3-17-2011 

Good St. Patrick traveled far, to teach God's Holy word
And when he came to Erin's sod, a wondrous thing occurred
He plucked a shamrock from the earth and held it in His hand
To symbolize the Trinity that all might understand
The first leaf for the Father
...And the second for the Son
The third leaf for the Holy Spirit
All three of them in one. 

thanks, Christin ! 

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Biography:   Saint Patrick - also known as Maewyn Succat; Apostle of Ireland; Patricius; Patrizio ~ Memorial: 17 March

Profile:
Kidnapped from the British mainland around age 16, and shipped to Ireland as a slave.

Sent to the mountains as a shepherd, he spent his time in prayer.

After six years of this life, he had a dream in which he received a command to return to Britain; seeing it as a sign, he escaped. Studied in continental monasteries.

Priest. Bishop. Sent by Pope Saint Celestine to evangelize England, then Ireland, during which his chariot driver

was Saint Odran, and Saint Jarlath was one of his spiritual students. In 33 years he effectively converted the Ireland.

In the Middle Ages Ireland became known as the Land of Saints, and during the Dark Ages its monasteries were the great repositories of learning in Europe,

all a consequence of Patrick's ministry. Born 387-390 at Scotland as Maewyn Succat
Died 461-464 at Saul, County Down, Ireland
Canonized... pre-congregation, meaning that the pronouncement was made before good written records.
Name Meaning warlike (Succat - pagan birth name);noble (Patricius - baptismal name)

His Patronage:
against snakes, engineers, "excluded people", fear of snakes, and a range of several spiritual sees, including of course, all of Ireland. 
Representation: bishop driving snakes before him; bishop trampling on snakes; shamrock; snakes; cross; harp; demons; baptismal font
Images Gallery of images of Saint Patrick at CatholicForum.com and other Church and Celt sites online...have a fun search! 
too little was known of Saint Patrick, and at one time , he was thought to be a fiction, an invention

to explain the Christianization of his part of the world. However we know his profile much more accurately now,

thanks to modern data manipulation. I want to spend myself for that country, even in death, if the Lord should grant me this favor.

It is among that people that I want to wait for the promise made by him, who assuredly never tells a lie.
He makes this promise in the Gospel:
"They shall come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
This is our faith: believers are to come from the whole world.

... from" the Confession of Saint Patrick"

saint patrick, per catholicforum.com:

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"LORICA" 
Morning Prayer of Saint Patrick

"Lorica" means "Breastplate", or the chest-protector in a suit of armor, as this prayer is meant to be, and was, for Saint Patrick and his followers whose work was the transition from pagan worship to Christianity. They were sometimes physically threatened, and an alternate name for this prayer is "Faed Fiada", or "Deer's Cry" because an old legend says that the saint and his monks escaped pagan pursuers by turning into deer and running swiftly out of harm's way. 

This prayer is very empowering if used sincerely. You may wish to read the entire Lorica, then choose one line or paragraph that reaches you specially, for a true spiritual vitamin. 

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, 
The invocation of the Trinity, 
Through belief in the threeness, 
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation. 

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism, 
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial, 
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension, 
Through the strength of His descent for the judgement of Doom. 

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of the Cherubim, 
In the obedience of angels, 
In the service of archangels, 
In the hope of the resurrection to meet with reward, 
In the prayers of patriarchs, 
In prediction of prophets, 
In preaching of apostles, 
In faith of confessors, 
In innocence of holy virgins, 
In deeds of righteous men. 

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven; 
Light of the sun, 
Radiance of the moon, 
Splendour of fire, 
Speed of lightning, 
Swiftness of the wind, 
Depth of the sea, 
Stability of the earth, 
Firmness of the rock. 

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me: 
God's might to uphold me, 
God's wisdom to guide me, 
God's eye to look before me, 
God's ear to hear me, 
God's word to speak to me, 
God's hand to guard me, 
God's way to lie before me, 
God's shield to protect me, 
God's host to save me, 

From snares of devils, 
From temptation of vices, 
From every one who shall wish me ill, 
Afar and anear, 
Alone and in a multitude. 
I summon today all these powers between me and those evils, 

Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul, 
Against incantations of false prophets, 
Against black laws of pagandom, 
Against false laws of heretics, 
Against craft of idolatry, 
Against evil spells of witches and contrivers and wizards, 
Against every knowledge that corrupts body and soul. 

Christ to shield me today
Against poisoning, against burning, 
Against drowning, against wounding, 
So there come to me abundance of reward. 

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, 
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, 
Christ when I lie down, 
Christ when I sit down, 
Christ when I arise, 
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me, 
Christ in the eye of every one who sees me, 
Christ in every ear that hears me. 

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, 
Through belief in the threeness, 
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation. 

Note: There are many Loricas, or prayers for protection, but Saint Patrick's is so famous, that his is the definitive Lorica.

It is one of dozens of translations from the early Celt 

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LESSER SAINTS AND SACRED LORE
new, incomplete, so please return!

St. Celsus of Armagh, also known as Cellach Mac Aodh, was born in 1079 and much of the information of his early life has been lost. In the year 1105 he became bishop of Armagh, in Ireland, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Soon after becoming bishop, Celsus began to develop a wide reputation as a reformer and as an effective administrator. As bishop he traveled throughout his diocese, and other parts of Ireland, calling for reform and encouraging the clergy and the laity to a more zealous practice of their Faith. In 1111, Celsus was requested to preside over the Synod of Rath Bresail. This synod worked to bring several practices of the Church in Ireland in line with the rest of the Church. After completing the synod, Celsus returned to his diocese and oversaw the rebuilding of the cathedral at Armagh. Throughout the rest of his life, he often served as a mediator for political conflicts and he was widely respected for his wise decisions. Celsus died at Ardpatrick on April 1, 1129. 
I hope to link here,soon to some of the many more Celtic Saints I am meeting, lately, and hope you will enjoy it all along with me!

ERRATA:     In my writings about my Irish-American side of the family, they lived in the same town for the most part, and so I saw them constantly and interacted frequently and happily and yet, in my writing , I misplaced an entire Uncle, making it nine, not eight in total ! A major  'errata' indeed!  

I omitted the eldest - Tom - and a lifelong friend on fine terms - who was Gramps' son in a very early marriage that was brief - not even sure of the details. Tom was eldest he was "grown 'n' gone off on hizzown" on the other side of the state and not at the homestead very often, though visits were joyful and Gram loved him, too. We would Tom, his wife and children loved by all and of fine schools and work, and wife and children. 

Apologies! Tom, Em, Bill, Jim, Dad, Hank, Al, Joe ... and Bob, still with us! ...and their loved ones - oh, what picnics in the summer we'd enjoy!    And our wedding? oh..... With even a modest collection of friends and maids, groomsmen, flowergirl and priest - it was over 200 at the reception. I helped pay for it, at the nicest non-countryclub reception center in the area at the time - you could hardly call it a "hall".  Lovely, with its sunken dance floor and stage, and more.    Gram also had a child who did not live from a too-early marriage that did not last, as well.  I do not know why they keep lowering the age of reason, when the statistics of error from  too early assuming things are skyhigh.

Irish and Other Celt

Click here to enjoy the Irish Music of the late David Machell

Gramps, called "The Chief", celebrated his Saint Patrick's Day Birthday with his darling wife of 50 years,   eight sons, one tiny daughter, their families and a lifetime of friends, associates and neighbors.  The line of party visitors began at dawn and ended at midnight.   Those days are passed, but their abundance is mine always to share!  Have some!    - Elle Smith Fagan

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The Finest Music

Fionn Mac Cumhail was a legendary Irish hero, urbane, cultured and cunning, 
who combined elements of warrior, seer and poet. 
In one story, Fionn sparked a debate when he asked his followers
what they thought was the finest music in the world. 
"Tell us what you think," said Fionn, turning to Oisin. 
"The cuckoo calling from the highest tree in the hedge," cried his jolly son. 
"That is a good sound," said Fionn. "And Oscar," he asked, 
"what do you think is the finest music?" 
"The best music to my ears
is the ring of a spear on a shield," cried the sturdy lad. 
"That is a good sound," said Fionn. 

And the other champions told what
best pleased them: 
the bugling of a stag across water, 
the baying of a melodious pack heard from afar, 
the song of a lark, 
the laughter of a gleeful girl, 
or the whisper of a moved one. 

"Those are all good sounds," said Fionn. 

"Tell us, chief," one ventured, "what do you think?" 
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, 
"that is the finest music in the world." 

- James Stephens, Irish Fairy Stories

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Above: Watercolor, "Jesuit Celtic Cross ", by Elle Fagan
Gift to Sacred Space Dublin, Ireland -
Not For Sale - Special display for
Jesuit 500th Anniversary Celebration
Ask me about other available Celtic Crosses & Similar

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A Serious note:

Here in America, we pray that the new millennium will bring new solutions to old conflicts, and that "Peace In Ireland" will be more than a prayer and a wish!

May it be that the FOUR green Fields of fame and song will once again be “the way of it” .
May harm to a beating heart, within and without the womb no longer be. Education, birth control and morning after care are more than enough to help us through these complex times. There is NO NEED TO KILL the very lives of the helpless, which man is given responsibility to protect above all!

The loving spirit and fearlessness of my Irish forebears gave me the illusion that humanity comes first.     An illusion that I have never surrendered.

So I am horrified at the laziness we must be allowing to let this murderous way exist. Free Ireland - Protect the unborn beating heart!

NOT ONE OF US is excused from life's challenges, BUT these are the very opportunity to shine!

Good sense, good work and good love, and willingness to strike out on one's own, team play for a cause, the worst days could be" turned 'round" completely - we celebrate the win!      

I am not an activist, but follow the news and have helped in some civic and US Patriotic, and my art was shared at the White House in 2007, so, In hope for all of us for a finer future , I felt this link to The Bogside Artists was worth the posting.

I am no expert and they may be the most unworthy blokes to call themselves Irish, but I think they aim well and strong, at least, they are not “lukewarm” as the Bible warns us against ! Their work portrays the 70's uprisings and the time of Bernadette Devlin in "unmissable" format, and fine skills. Lest we forget....looking for the right things for this page, re: Michael Collins and The man, DeLorme of early 1900's fame in "the cause".

SAGA OF A LITTLE WHITEHOUSE

A 20th Century Irish-American Song

Irish and other Celt cultural have been enjoying a rennaissance!

And I have been enjoying time spent with all branches of my senior relatives and friends, an All-American collection of souls, but at one time, with a strong Irish contingent! They were so challenged and still made it a life to interest and delight us! 

It will always be my prayer that in their senior years, they would pat themselves on the back at least a little bit, for the grand business of life and all our parts in it...

And it is also my wish that you might rap on the door of the little house, below, to enjoy their story!..
a fun and rhythmic "read"...and a "bunny in the bottom of the bowl" for those who follow it to completion.

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Visit the complete posting at Knowth.com & its "Art Works" link at the home page head, for complete show/sale data, a treasury of text, image and links about this mystical occurrence. I will say that the backstone is the spot at the back of the inner walls of some of the Ancient Irish Burial Mounds. Like the astrological arrangement of the famous Stonehenge rocks, the doors of the mounds were constructed to admit the lights at specific times, revealing the ancient glyphs, runes, carvings and symbols. Thousands of years later, the effect is still true and impressive. 
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Aon-Celtic Art by Cari Buziak Comprehensive.Award-winning. Don't miss it ! Lost arts, crafts, lore and more, Rediscovered Our parents did well by us and so we were able to be their fans in the preservation of their heritage, to learn and share more of things Celtic...the memory of their special charms compels us to listen, and remember, research and share ! Most of "our own" have been Americans too long to do more than learn and love and respect the ethnicity, but most of us also have an interest in understanding it all and learning more... so, I hope to keep my promise to this page.
You, too, can design and create stunning examples of this lost art ~

Winter leaves by Aon-Celt artist Cari Buziak! Her site and advice was a Primer for my own interest and work in the Celtic Traceries. You will not be disappointed in a visit to her site.

Thank you so much, for visiting this page and do contact me with comment, corrections or ideas to enrich its offerings! ~ elle 

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Page Links, with a Celtic Touch, from Around the World: 

Elle Fagan artworks, with a Celtic tone - Commissions accepted!
Saint Patrick Profile Modern data & "Celtic Cross" watercolor/graphic by elle fagan
Lorica, or "Breastplate" of Saint PatrickAncient Power Prayer

Fun with "my own" - An entire page of artists named "Fagan" and
Link to the Clan Fagan Website
Celtic Webmerchant.com based in Holland, features some Elle Fagan artworks and others celebrating the Celt-Viking Connection
Celtic Britain Net ~ originates in Holland ! Global-be-gorra!
Tolkien & Lord of the Rings for fans, Old & New! Prequel, "The Hobbit" is coming this Christmas!
NEW ~ Amazon Portal for Reading and Research of Things Celt from Ireland's famous "Knowth.com" & Michael Fox
Loughcrew Backstone at Solstice 2004 The year's first lights, at the ancient site! by artist, Elle Fagan
"Sacred Space", Dublin-Based Daily Inspiration
Aon-Celtic Art by Cari Buziak Comprehensive.Award-winning. Don't miss it !

Knowth.com ~ One of the best on the Web ! Irish & Celt resource ~ Special focus on the Mounds ~ And much more! Do visit !

Mythical Ireland and Shadows & Stone Do stop in! The latest stunning photos and reference,history and current activity reports.
"Spirited Ireland" a wealth of Irish Experience
The moving "Four Green Fields" from the iconic late Tommy Makem

A very strong "Support Tara" Group Goal to enjoy modernity, but to protect the ancient sites! TaraWatch.org is active, worldwide and worthy. Stop in and see what you think !

Story & Crafting of "Saint Brigid's Cross" 

National Art Gallery of IrelandGreat place to start!
Heritage of Ireland
Romance and the Irish
Johanna Murphy, artist/hero
George M. Cohan, Patriotic Music
Celt Cheers, Wishes & Toasts
Gaelic Language Lessons Online
Erin go Braugh! Irish spirit &Irish-American song, "Saga of A Little Whitehouse"
Unicorns, "Beowulf"and Other Celtic Creatures in Fact and Lore Contributors to this page most welcome ~ perhaps a blog here, soon!
Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance" Official site!
"Christmas In Killarney" at Winter Holiday Page!
My pages at Jigzone.com Puzzlefun - Irish & Travel images. Try one! A Fine Wish: May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you! ~~~~~~~ And another: "Love covereth !"(Saint John) ~~~~~~~

a really fine page of Irish Toasts with translations! Have fun!

Art in America - a Timeline

ART IN AMERICA - A TIMELINE

March 2, 2016 SketchcrawlHartfordConnecticut USA 8-15 esf

SketchcrawlHartfordConnecticut USA 8-15 esf

ART IN AMERICA ~ HISTORICAL OUTLINE and a MYSTERY

I posted this timeline in 2003 at my first site. It made a good thing to share and handy reference for me.  

But in the loss of things from the old site hacking, is the loss of the SOURCE of this neat post.  

In trying to find it, I found ten newer ones but none so simple, elegant and easy to USE.  

Will continue the source search and will add a few links to other good sources.  Thanksomuch - Elle
  
 

Art in America of course begins with Indigenous Art - long before the 1600s, the land now called America 1000 BCE or Early Ancient Period already shares pottery and leather crafed goods, and it goes on from there - I am sharing this resource for a great overview I found, for you and for my own updates and reference. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/ancient-art/american-indian.htm

Colonial Period: 1607-1788
    
  With survival uppermost in the minds of our earliest settlers, the arts were slow to take root, but there are always crafted items for practical use, made from materials in the New World - I think they sold well “back across the pond” immediately . The earliest painting, primarily portraiture, was accomplished by untrained artists called limners, whose main task was to record the likenesses of the stalwart colonials.
  
  The first artwork was, naturally, derivative and found its inspiration primarily through imported prints that reflected styles then prevalent in England, Holland, and Spain. Many artist/artisans divided their time between attempts at fine art and designing utilitarian objects, such as signs and carriage decoration. Our first glimmerings of serious sculpture, for instance, were done by gravestone carvers.
  
  The earliest trained painter to come to the colonies was John Smibert, whose hefty portrayals of landed gentry and merchants derive in style from the seventeenth-century Dutch realists. Our first native geniuses of the brush, Benjamin West of Philadelphia and John Singleton Copley of Boston, found it necessary to leave the colonies in order to fulfill their artistic visions, although Copley's highly illusionistic colonial work surely remains a monument to American ingenuity. West eventually became painter to King George III and opened his London studio to a continuous stream of emerging American artists.
  
  
  
  Early Republic to 1812: 1789-1812
  
   
  
  A new nation, the United States of America, continued its reliance on Old World artistic traditions, especially with few opportunities for training in this country. American artists John Vanderlyn, Washington Allston, John Trumbull, and others sought instruction in London (under our own Benjamin West) and in Paris but also sojourned in Italy, where they absorbed that country's rich classical style and subject matter.
  
  Upon their return, these artists and enlightened American citizens recognized the need for creating institutions where artists could be trained and where art could be exhibited. Trumbull was instrumental in the running of the New York Academy of the Fine Arts (founded 1802), with its imported casts of antique sculpture, which offered a definite teaching tool to eager students. Boston followed suit with a cast collection located at the Athenaeum (founded 1804) and exhibitions that began in 1827. Charles Willson Peale was a pioneer in creating Philadelphia's art circle, establishing the first art gallery in 1782 and the first American museum in 1786.
  
  An awareness of our history inspired the nation's leaders to recognize the need to capture images of leaders in significant portraits by Peale, Gilbert Stuart, Samuel F.B. Morse, and others, but history painting itself made little headway until later in the 1800s. When sculpture was needed for the neoclassically-inspired government buildings in Washington, D.C., Italian sculptors were hired to embellish them. Home grown sculpture, however, always flourished due to its ties to functional objects such as gravestones, ship's mastheads, and practical decorations.
  
  The first glimmerings of landscape painting surfaced at this time, thanks to trained artists who came from abroad (for example, Robert Salmon), who concentrated mostly on recording the emerging cities, harbors, picturesque places, and native inhabitants of a new world. The unique talents of John James Audubon elevated the recording of America's flora and fauna to unprecedented artistic levels.
  
  
  
    
  
  Jacksonian Era through Civil War: 1812-1865
  
   With the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, an era of democratization and equality swept America and with it a period of vast expansion of creativity in the arts. Landscape artists Thomas Doughty, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Church, and George Inness strove to document the untouched look of the "new Eden," blending their individual styles with the Old World romantic traditions of the sublime and the beautiful. It was the American landscapists who first captured the symbolic features of the new nation. Instead of ancient ruins, these painters found history in spectacular land and water formations and, especially, in the inclusion of Native Americans within their scenes. Unleashed waterfalls, soaring eagles, and other emblems of liberty came to represent the country's image.
  
  A narrative or genre tradition of depicting everyday experiences began in the Jacksonian era when artists like John Quidor matched imagery to Washington Irving's History of New York or when William Sidney Mount committed the rural life of Long Island to canvas or when Lilly Martin Spencer explored images of her own household. An expanded audience for landscape, genre, and another relatively new Jacksonian subject, the still life, came with the mid-century explosion of magazines, newspapers, and journals, and with prints produced from original artwork, distributed through organizations like the American Art Union. Lush beautiful still life paintings by Severin Roesen, John Francis, and others celebrated the American harvest, offering little indication of a major civil war on the horizon.
  
  The 1820s and 1830s saw the first cluster of American sculptors working in Italy, where marble was readily available and trained artisans could carry their designs to fruition. By mid-century the colony, which also included painters, was larger than ever and included Horatio Greenough, Hiram Powers, and Thomas Crawford.
  
  
  
  
  Civil War to End of the 19th Century: 1866-1899
  
   The 1860s brought to American landscape painting several options. Artists could concentrate on the tiny details of nature in close-up studies recommended by the American followers of Ruskin such as Aaron Draper Shattuck or William Trost Richards. They could expand their subjects to include highly dramatic views of the West, such as those portrayed by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, or scenes of the arctic by William Bradford and others. Or they could concentrate on quieter views that explored the full potential of light, a style known as luminism. Gradually the extreme detail of Ruskin's adherents and the dramatic subjects of late Hudson River landscape painters turned inward, capturing the spirit rather that the topography of America's natural views. Inness's conversion to Swedenborgianism, William Morris Hunt's adherence to Barbizon influences, Albert Pinkham Ryder's and Ralph Albert Blakelock's choice of dream-like subjects--all reflected the nation's somber mood at the end of a devastating internal war.
  
  
  
  
  
  Beginning of 20th Century to World War II: 1900-1940<br><br>
  
   The twentieth century has been one of continued emulation of European styles, exploitation of those styles into unique American trends, and, beginning in the 1950s, leadership in the contemporary art world. A group of Philadelphia journalist/artists later known as the Ash Can painters--Robert Henri, John Sloan, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shinn--began the century with a new brand of realism, their subjects drawn from the street life of New York, where they ultimately settled. The first decade also saw the initial glimmerings of European modernism in American art in the work of Alfred Maurer, Max Weber, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley-all members of the New York circle around the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. A groundbreaking event was New York's 1913 Armory Show, where Americans saw in huge numbers the work of Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, and Duchamp.
  
  Between the world wars, however, American art took a more conservative bent, echoing the nation's isolationist posture. Pride in our industrial architecture-skyscrapers, grain elevators, barns, machines-found a visual counterpart in the work of the American Precisionists Charles Demuth, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Charles Sheeler. Other realist movements between the wars were Studio Realism in the work of Kenneth Hayes Miller, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Eugene Speicher, Leon Kroll, and the Soyer brothers. American Scene painters Charles Burchfield and Edward Hopper explored the sometimes lonely existence of town and rural living. Regionalists Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood celebrated agrarian life and culture as no one had done before them. Social Realism flowered in the Depression era in the scenes of heavy labor, shopgirls, and the unemployed as shown in the work of William Gropper, Ben Shahn, Philip Evergood, and, later, Jacob Lawrence, who, like many American artists, received his first incentive as an artist through the Federal government's Works Progress Administration (WPA), organized in 1935 for artists on relief.
  
  Abstract art was kept alive in this country during the 1930s through groups like the American Abstract Artists association. A huge explosion within the American art world came in the 1940s and 1950s with Abstract Expressionism, a New York movement concerned with the process of painting itself. Painters Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko, and sculptor David Smith were all pioneers in this new instinctual method of working.
  
  A reaction to abstraction came with the precise geometric imagery of Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, and Richard Anuszkiewicz in painting and Donald Judd in sculpture. The 1960s brought Pop Art, suggesting in its title a celebration of the commercial world; practitioners were Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, George Segal, Roy Lichtenstein, among others. Sol LeWitt's conceptual art and Robert Smithson's earthworks also evolved in the 1960s, focusing on the idea and less so on the product, if one were produced at all.
  
  The Post Modernist era has capitalized on the art movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Abstract Expressionism in all its manifestations, pure geometric styles, the art of the absurd--have all opened up a new artistic exploration of our world. The human body, long the basis for representation, has now been fragmented and super-analyzed from both within and without. Our gender roles in society have become grist for the artists' mill; private worlds have been exposed for all to see and imagine. Democratization is key to the understanding of the new art, whether created by the professional, the untutored, or other "outsider" artists. It is important today to understand how the viewer thinks and how people learn in order to form a more engaging dialogue among the artist, the onlooker, and the art itself. A healthy questioning of the past, quoting from it with skepticism at times, has also created an atmosphere out of which new art can develop for the future

In Art, writing, patriotic, American Art, ConnecticutTags Elle Smith Fagan, Patriotic Art, Patriot, Writing, Connecticut

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Purpose

Also named  "A Splendid Torch"  or, "Purpose" -  this is A New Years Inspiration for everyone!  A vitamin of a sort,  from George Bernard Shaw, one of my least favorite persons, but most favorite storytellers.  It is reprinted everywhere under several titles.   I hope you enjoy the easy read!  Elle

This is the true joy in life,

the being used for a purpose

recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

the being a force of nature

instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of

ailments and grievances

complaining that the world will not

devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that

my life belongs

to the whole community,

and as long as I live

it is my privilege

to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,

for the harder I work the more I live.

I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Life is no “brief candle” for me.

It is a sort of splendid torch

which I have got hold of

for the moment,

and I want to

make it burn as brightly as possible

before handing it on to future generations.