White spider and lilacs
Category Archives: plants everywhere
Syringa vulgaris or smell of spring
When May comes after a long winter, it looks like green hues are painting the landscape all over the place.Since always you remember the spring smell of new leaves opening all over the forests, gardens, parks.And, indeed, when then first fresh green tiny leaves are unpacked from buds ,it again feels in spring of this year everything could be possible, even the almost forgotten smell of lilacs seems to become more as mere memory quite soon.And when then comes the first tiny spring rain,washing down leafy smell from the air,you feel spring is already evidently here ,but then you open the window and sweet smell of lilacs embraces you.There it is, lilacs in fool bloom , and now you know for sure, this spring is real……
“Open Window Lilacs Study 1886″ oil on Canvas,Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_297499/Valentin-Aleksandrovich-Serov/page-1
“The Lilac Bouquet” oil on Canvas, location: Private collection.Serkis Diranian, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_80221/Serkis-Diranian/page-1
“The Bunch of Lilacs” oil on Canvas.James Jacques Joseph Tissot from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_253706/James-Jacques-Joseph-Tissot/page-1
“Gathering Lilacs” oil on Canvas Daniel Ridgway Knight, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_324463/Daniel-Ridgway-Knight/page-1
“Lilacs” oil on Canvas Boris Kustodiev, from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_204631/Boris-Kustodiev/page-1
Prunus serrulata and Cherry blossom Viewing
Utagawa or Ando Hiroshige:”Cherry Blossom at Asakura” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_210155/Utagawa-or-Ando-Hiroshige/page-1
Torii Kiyonaga: ”Cherry Blossoms at Asakayama near Edo” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_203768/Torii-Kiyonaga/page-1
Pierre Amede Marcel-Beronneau:”Cherry Blossom” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_368106/Pierre-Amede-Marcel-Beronneau/page-1
Ogata Gekko:”Cherry blossom Viewing at Kiyomizu Hall in Ueno” oil on Canvas.from:http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_286026/Ogata-Gekko/page-1
Spring makes me happy each year .This year the winter was cold and so long we almost forgot the colours of a spring sunny day. Yet it is now here, opening our hopes towards the future, making us believe sun will shine forever and all these vivid colours of spring flowers in breeze will carry us into some new days. Unexpectedly,this Japanese cherry in full bloom embraced me not only with the smell of new day to come, but with sweet memories of past days at the same time.Admiring pink cherry buds opened in early day I remembered how many years ago my son couldn’t wait cherry blossoms to fall down to make us a pink carpet on the pavement on our way to kinder-garden.And as these thoughts under cherry tree have carried me back into memories I’ve searched across some old art works with cherry trees catching my memories-to be transposed in future of the spring day again, staying fascinated with the impression of old and new times catching each other under a cherry tree!
Spring flower hats from Salzburg
Tržič flowers in iron and stone and Radetzky march
Visiting Tržič last time , still in winter, I discovered cute floral architectural details. Old town’s times of prosperity had faded away and road towards a better future made a turn here years ago .Still witnesses of old times, now protecting some new kids and their secrets, stone houses built in rows managed to somehow carry trough time their artisan-al details.Carved flowers made with certain love and devotion , now frozen in future of their dreams.Who were the ones walking the narrow streets almost without noticing stone flower rosettas looking after them……..and how much did like these iron flowers the man with March named after him, coming from big battles to invest in his wife’s homeland…….
Johann Josef (Joseph) Wenzel (Anton Franz Karl) Graf Radetzky von Radetz (English: John Joseph Wenceslaus, Count Radetzky of Radetz,Czech: Jan Josef Václav Antonín František Karel hrabě Radecký z Radče) (November 2, 1766 – January 5, 1858) was a Czech nobleman[1] and Austrian general, immortalised by Johann Strauss I’s Radetzky March In 1798 he married Countess Francisca von Strassoldo Grafenberg, from Tržič, Carniola (now inSlovenia). They would have five sons and three daughters.
Radetzky was intimately connected with the Duchy of Carniola, because of his wife and because he owned much land there. His courage was praised in folk songs. The first representative statue in Ljubljana, the capital of Carniola, was a statue of Radetzky. It was placed in the most elite location, the Congress Square, and all main public events took place in front of it.[5] As he owned the Tivoli Castle in Ljubljana, the capital of Carniola, he greatly contributed to the arrangement of Tivoli Park.[6]
from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Radetzky_von_Radetz
Botanical design-cherry lamps
Botany reinterpreted is what these gorgeous lamps are.I just love the twist from old botanical prints , one gets in mind thinking about botany and art, to modern design with wit, one sees when these lamps turn on! Looks like the happy feeling of sitting under a cherry tree is an archetypical one-it does not matter if the cherries are big blown glass light sculptures!
more at:http://www.nikazupanc.com/objects/lightning/black_cherry_lamp
Tulip mania and Bitcoin
Our dinner today was an educative event, kids were teaching parents and grandparents about bitcoin, an interesting phenomena of the internet era. Things went pretty bad for us, older ones, it almost looked like we were complete idiots not understanding basic new concepts of virtual world. I said almost, for then I’ve remembered tulip mania.Some concepts were known already far ago, it would be shame to forget them, just in case…….which of course does not mean I do not believe in bitcoin…or tulips!
At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble),[3] although some researchers have noted that theKipper- und Wipperzeit episode in 1619–22, a Europe-wide chain of debasement of the metal content of coins to fund warfare, featured mania-like similarities to a bubble.[4] The term “tulip mania” is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble (when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values).[5]
A tulip, known as “the Viceroy”, displayed in a 1637 Dutch catalog. Its bulb cost between 3,000 and 4,200 guilders (florins) depending on size. A skilled craftsman at the time earned about 300 guilders a year.[1] from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
Paper flowers-an old craft
Euphorbia and ancient king Juba II of Numidia
Euphorbia forms one of the biggest genera of plants.It originates in tropical and subtropical Africa and America and its more as 2000 species show big diversity.Which fascinates me, is the same plant making my day brighter today, took attention centuries ago already. Isn’t it strange to know the plant I write about today (and your read it ) was named by husband of Cleopatra’s daughter ? King Juba II of Numidia named Euphorbia after his personal Greek physician Euphorbus!
Coin of the ancient kingdom of Mauretania. Juba II of Numidia on the obverse, Cleopatra Selene II on the reverse.from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_Selene_II
Juba II (Iuba in Latin; Ancient Greek: Ἰóβας, Ἰóβα or Ἰούβας)[1] or Juba II of Numidia(52/50 BC – AD 23) was a king of Numidia and then later moved to Mauretania.His first wife was Cleopatra Selene II, daughter to Greek Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Roman triumvir Mark Antony.
Juba II was brought to Rome by Julius Caesar and took part in Caesar’s triumphal procession. In Rome, he learned Latin and Greek, became romanized and was granted Roman citizenship.[1] Through dedication to his studies, he is said to have become one of Rome’s best educated citizens, and by age 20 he wrote one of his first works entitledRoman Archaeology.[1] He was raised by Julius Caesar and later by his great-nephew Octavian (future Emperor Caesar Augustus).
He is also known to have written a book about a spurge found in the High Atlas which he named Euphorbia after his personal physician. It was later called Euphorbia regisjubae (‘King Juba’s euphorbia’) in his honor (it is now Euphorbia obtusifolia ssp. regis-jubae).Botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus assigned the name Euphorbiato the entire genus in the physician’s honor.[8]
Spring flowers on Easter eggs
