Saturday morning

It's a balmy 47 degrees, outside, and drippy.

It's raining in Old Forge, too.

Somewhere, in our boxes of snapshots, we have a picture of Allison with my mother, Joan Olsson and me, all playing croquet on a warm Christmas day back in the 1970s.

And, during snowless times like this, I remember the first line of a poem read in second-year French class: "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?"

According to an entry in Wikipedia, "François Villon (ca. 1431 - ca. 1474) was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison. The question 'Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?', taken from the Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis and translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti as 'Where are the snows of yesteryear?', is one of the most famous lines of translated secular poetry in the English-speaking world."

More memories!

Take a nostalgic trip back to a time before "game boys" when Model Trains were the Best Toys Ever! The train exhibit is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Tuesday through Friday at the Oneida County Historical Society, 1608 Genesee St., Utica.

A Christmas Card - or two, or ......

I made my first "home made" Christmas card in 1970 - a very limited edition of linoleum block prints - mostly for the members of the Centennial Committee. The next year, the design was more fun, real copying machines were coming into use and we sent three or four dozen "originals." Every year, the list has grown.

I've missed only one year: I don't remember when that was, but I know that I got alot of complaints because I sent everyone a "store bought" greeting!

I havn't really kept a collection, so to speak, and I probably don't even remember half of them. These, however, live in my computer.

Because of everything that's been going on, this winter, I have not gotten around to doing a new card - nor have I even come up with an interesting design! So - all I can say is: "Merry Christmas!

and

Enjoy!

PsB

In Winter Woods
Watercolor & colored pencil

Christmas Hops
Dry-brush Watercolor

Christmas on Main Street

2001, after 9-11
Watercolor and colored pencil

Winter in the Hollow
(I'd discovered digital photography and Photoshop!)

'York State Winter
Acrylic on wood; 2.5" x 3"

Einstein on Miracles.

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though everything is a miracle;
The other is as though nothing is a miracle."

Christmas Cupboard
Oil on canvas; 30" x 40"

'York State Winter, 2005