Meanwhile in Maine on March 29th.....

James' bright spot sculpture "Leap, run, leaping" always give a nice splash of colour to the whitened landscape.

 Yes folks it's March 29th and this is the scene out my back windows today - it's snowy again - what's remarkable is that this time last week we had all the windows and doors open and a balmy breeze was blowing through with delicious smells of spring - it was 85F.

All is not lost though as we are heading forth to warmer weather and we're finally on the backside of winter. Also this late snow is welcomed here in Maine and they call it "Poor Man's Fertilizer" because it provides a last shot of nitrogen to the soil.

Through the branches to the woods beyond.

 I do love this kind of now that sticks to everything and makes it a wonderland of beauty.

and lo - as I look out of the window now there's a glimmer of light in the sky and the promise of sun a bit later today!

Well Easter is soon upon us and I am pondering what pudding (dessert) to make for the occasion - I am caught between Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding and a Steamed Easter Pudding with nutmeg Sauce - this is a blond version of Christmas Pudding and is a lot lighter in texture - What do you think dear Readers?

I posit a POSSET for your Beloved....

 How simple can a dessert/Brit pudding be? So simple it needed a colourful and fun background to give it some counterpoint, and hey with all the snow here and lack of colour I need something bright to revive my eyeballs.

ELIZABETHAN POSSET:

OED definition is: Drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine etc (sounds charming....) formerly used much as a remedy for colds. In the Elizabethan era it became the recipe you see below...a more refined pudding in the truest Blighty tradition.

OK I’ve said some of my other desserts/puddings here were simple but this beats them all….4 ingredients (you can even make it 3 if you want to use just sugar - delete the honey and add in 2 extra tablespoons of sugar) and 3 minutes of cooking and a really impressive and divine dessert results!! Sure to impress your beloved on Valentine’s Day!!

INGREDIENTS:

Makes 4 servings.

½ cup/3oz sugar (I used organic slightly brown sugar but if you want your posset the palest of colours then use white)

2 tablespoons of honey

1 1/2 cups/12 fl oz heavy/double cream

Juice of one lemon

METHOD:

1. Put cream, sugar and honey in a heavy bottomed pan.

2. Warm to just barely boiling

3. Simmer very gently for 3 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent stickage.

4. Transfer to a bowl, whisk in the lemon juice dribble by dribble…be in

awe as the mixture thickens.

5. Pour into small, ½ cup containers and allow to cool then pop

into the fridgerdator (tee hee) for about 4 hours until completely set.

6. This is a truly amazing dessert/pudding but I realize what it actually is is a slightly set sweet cheese…do try it, I know you will be impressed!!

Here's what I am working on right now. There's part of that word above that becomes so important in just 10 days time...but which should be as important every other day of the year! and YES glitter glue...I have found a way to use it in my geometric paintings....I know it's hokey and silly but glitter glue takes me back to my childhood and sparkly Christmas cards and my transparent pink plastic stilletoes that had sparkly bits all through them...boy I LOVED those shoes and, of course, they were PINK!!

And here's some pictures of Maine's current disappearing act...more snow due tomorrow and potentially again next Tuesday...how much more shoveling does a girl have in her I ask you??

 

I took these pictures at dusk, my favourite time of the day to be wandering out in a snowstorm...the low light and snow certainly make any colour stand out admirably...and I was cheeky and used the flash to accentuate the gold leaf and tiny snowflakes.

James' "Leap, run, leaping" below is running out of steam and has almost sunk beneath the waves of snow, will she disappear completely in the days to come?

 

And finally "Girl Facing North East"  stands strong against the winter winds.

Snowmen, sculpture and more snow!!

All of a sudden early this afternoon the snow was just perfect to make snowmen...the temperature had raised to above freezing and the snow got a bit slushy and easy to mold...so out I went and made my local snowperson...coals from the wood stove, an old local carrot nose, James's scarf and hat, arm branches from the nearby spruce....making snowmen is not as easy as you think if you have never made one...quite hard to get them round...not as easy as you see in the movies where you just start rolling a ball and all of a sudden you have the perfect shape...na ah...it takes a lot of frigid fingers and considerable manipulation of the frozen stuff.

Cheeky me went out at dusk and used the flash...I just love how it makes the snowflakes look...I have to tell you when it snows at dusk it is one of the most beautiful things in the world, I just love it, everything gets so blue and silent...I think the blueness actually comes from ultraviolet but I may be making that up!!

Looking through the icicles hanging from the eaves at James' sculpture "Leap, run leaping"...it doesn't look like it but I took this photo at about 11AM...awfully dark isn't it??

The sculpture from the 'back' showing the snow covering sliding down and revealing that lovely red edge......

...and here the delicious curve of the snow which swoops and piles just like sand dunes

...masquerading as a shark!!

...and with a perfect line of snow silhouetting the top edge...there's the flash again!!

Almost a white out!

This one is my favourite, it really captures the feel of the driving snow. I love snowfall...I am not so keen on snow when it has fallen but as it is falling it is magical and enchanting and makes me feel like a kid again.

IN THE DEEP MID WINTER by Christina Rossetti, sister of Dante and muse to the Pre-Raphaelites...first verse and my favourite Christmas carol

In the deep mid winter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone
Snow has fallen, snow on snow
Snow on snow
In the deep mid winter
Long ago.

Mystical golden beauty abounds!!

"The Silent Arrival of Memory"

Isn't this truly amazing?, and it ISN'T Photoshopped. That really is a golden ball floating, at average eye level, above a mystical temple in a land far, far away....
This is a detail photograph of James' latest obelisk sculpture, which can be seen below in it's full and awesome glory. It is part of a series of "story" sculptures that he has been working on for the last two years. Using the technology of microchips, electromagnets and rare earth magnets he has floated this golden sphere above the 24 carat gold leafed main body of the sarcophagus/small temple below.
The obelisk base has subtle relief surface sculpture and a stairway leading to a mysterious entrance beautifully painted in a chalk blue that fades towards the top of the column. James says that he likes to imply mystery in these sculptures, relying on the observer to imagine themselves into this mystical world.
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT TO BEHOLD and I feel so honoured to be able to gaze in wonder at this everyday and share it with you through my blog!

A beautiful snowfall in Maine!

"Viewmaster" by James Strickland

Snow piling up under the spruce tree
Our house hunkering down for the storm

"Girl Facing North East" by James Strickland

My "Abbey" mandala...I love the way the snow is sticking to the mandala in a really nice pattern, it's a nice sticky snow that would be perfect to make either a snowman or an igloo if one were so inclined....I would make the effort for a snowman IF it were just a little warmer.

There'll be a lot of digging out tomorrow...what joy!!!

Exhausted but elated!!

Well James and I managed to place his three metal sculptures at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and here are pics of them in situ as I promised in my last posting. The locations of the three pieces are really great thanks to the foresight of Suzette McAvoy, the show's curator. Have to admit we nearly gave ourselves hernia's placing "Leap, run, leaping" (top photograph) atop the grassy knoll and we were absolutely knackered by the time we were finished, but all is worthwhile in the name of art.........isn't it??? Hope you get the chance to see the sculptures at the gardens, their colours work really well in their respective sites...the red is amazing against the green vegetation, James choose the colour which is the exact complementary opposite wavelength of the green leaves to make the sculptures "jazz" and the blue of "Girl Facing North East" (bottom photograph) is a beautiful complement to the lovely light mushroom of the building trim. Well done James! Now go take a nap!

Floating cherries and chairs

James Strickland has just finished two beautiful paintings which I wanted to share with you. The pictures above are close-ups of the paintings, I wanted you to be able to see the delicious detail he has captured in these particular areas. The floating cherry painting, 'Pure Land', is inspired by an Haiku by Issa which is written on the paper beneath the gorgeous cherry...

From the white dew-drops
Learn the way
To the Pure Land

......my photograph does not do the painting justice, it is delicate, luminous and has the feeling of the resplendent illustrations by Joris Hoefnagel from the Mira calligraphiae monumenta (the Model book of calligraphy).

The floating chair...do you sense a theme here?...is based on a Chinese poem by Wang Feng-yuan (1032-1059)...

In April flowers fade and fall and more appear
swallows fly below the eaves back and forth all day
the cuckoo cries at midnight as if it's voice would break
convinced it can still call the East wind back

In China the East wind represents spring or youth so this poem is quite melancholy pining for things that have already passed us by........to reinforce this sombre mood the pear (which also represents Autumn) refers to a day called 'The day of cold food' which in Asian symbolism celebrates wisdom and old age.

These two paintings are from James' latest series of paintings which he calls 'Skyscapes'...in reality the colours on these paintings are almost surreal in their brightness.....I'm excited to see where he takes us next. It is a great honour to see these paintings in progress but sometimes I think it dilutes my final viewing of the artwork because it doesn't have the impact for me that it does for someone who sees it fresh and new for the first time...alas, we cannot have our cake and eat it too!!!!

PS James says the next one may include cake...I'd better get baking!