Monday, December 14, 2015

Monday -14th December

Nikolai Astrup - Norwegian Painter.  As one flips through the news, something catches the eye.  Well it was the yellow marsh marigolds that lined the brooks and water of this painting bringing back a rush of memories, and a blog I wrote in 2007 about 'nails of gold'.  I often look out for marsh marigolds along rivers but sadly they disappear as we apply more fertilisers and pesticides to our fields.

Nikolai Astrup - A Clear Night in June 1915


Nikolai Astrup, Marsh Marigold Night, c.1915, 
Yesterday we went out for drinks and nibbles with a lot of other people in the village to a rather beautifully decorated house.  Everyone talked, and I shall not give my opinion of people's characters on my blog, though I would dearly love to!  Two elegant black long haired retrievers, so gentle and dignified, plodded round the guests and the table was laid out in 'feast proportions' though sometimes you get tired of all these little balls with unidentifiable food inside..

4 comments:

  1. What lovely paintings. That's an artist who is new to me. We still have Mollyblobs growing in the wild round here, but as you say, field treatments don't encourage them to keep growing.

    What a shame that the drinks and nibbles was a little disappointing. You can never tell what people are really like when it's idle chit-chat though, but perhaps the topics of conversation told you enough!

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    1. Most of the people were alright, LS called one person a witch only because she said we should be 'hard' on Lucy. It is a very friendly little village, Rachel who had given the 'do' had worked really hard and had a lovely house - lots of money there I think but she was so unassuming, piles of bird food outside their timber extension, which was rather beautiful and they have sheep in the fields, as does everyone else who has a bit of land.

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  2. Smiled at your comments re nibbles Thelma - I could have written them myself. We went out for Sunday Christmas dinner - one hundred there and all farmers, You could tell that by their rosy cheeks and their mode of dress - nothing fancy (to put it politely). But good, honest food - a lot of it from their own turkey and beef and vegetables. Just the farmer's sort of outing and one that I have learned to appreciate over the years.
    As to those marsh marigolds - they are one of my all time favourites and we still have some on our beck (not in the proportions of those in the paintings though) and I watch eagerly each year for their reappearance.
    Love the header too.

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    1. Of course all these 'nibbles' come from supermakets, these were M&S and as she said, trying to do an accurate sum on what to buy is almost impossible as the trolley gets stacked higher and higher,

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