Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Black Dolls

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Black Dolls: Self portrait if Leo Moss.  Built over a discarded composition doll. Photo by E. Tsagaris, D. Neff Collection Leo Moss Doll.  D. Nef...

Happy Birthday to Me, and The Summer Solstice!

The solstice approaches again, Blessed Be!   Enjoy all the midsummer festivities you can, and read, or watch a film, of that most magical play by Shakespeare,  A Midsummer Night's Dream! I love the play, set in Athens, the place I was born.  I love the flowers the fairies, Puck, the sprites, so much.  I saw a magical production in Spring Green many years ago, and the sun hid behind a cloud at just the right moment in the play.  Even the heavens followed the Bard's stage directions.  It was outdoor, and that added much to the ambience.  I think Bernie Koppel played Puck, but I won't swear an oath to it.

Black Doll from Figge Museum exhibit, E. Tsagaris Photo. D. Neff Collection.

Roses, the flower of June, seem to glow with life.  Today, on this latest birthday of mine, it is cool and sunny, perfect.  If only life were. I note the day here as the Bronte sisters when they wrote birthday letters, but I have no sister, so I write to my blog.    There are wild berry vines in my back yard, forming a magic arc, and tiny flowers all over.  My container gardens hold their own, and we are struggling through and surviving the latest family medical disasters.

Jackson Pottery, courtesy Emily Jackson

I have my Dad with me as a birthday present; that is all I want.  I expect nothing, and the unexpected kindnesses that come my way are more than I deserve.

We are extolling the virtue of high fiber diets and oat meal, and cranberry juice and water.  they may have saved us.  That, and a network of caregivers and advocates in the hospital.  Never go it alone, not these days.  I plant o write a guide to help others.  Remember that no matter whose healthcare plan is out there; it's an industry.  Remember no one can force you or a loved one from your home or his/hers, and home care 24/7 is available.

Summer. Publics Domain

I'm at the juncture in my life where I am still young and full of plans, but weighed down by responsibility for others. Yet, the world now treats me insidiously like an old woman, as if I don't notice the snotty tone, the comments.  For these occasions, I carry a special necklace made by my friend Red at "Abernathy's," a charm that spells in pewter and silver, "F**k Off!"  Well, it's a good old Anglo-Saxon word, meant for occasions when people are rude and ignorant.  I carry it in my purse at all times.

Flower Maiden, Public Domain

Thank you, Red. Happy Birthday to my birthday twins out there, including my cousin Madeleine, Brad, Bruce A., Greg S., Guy Lombardo in heaven, Evie, Constance's little one, and I think, Knox.

Charlotte Bronte, Public Domain

Bronte Sisters, Unfinished, Painted by their Brother,  Public Domain

Cliché though it sound, remember to stop to smell the flowers, and to pot them and water them.  Now is a good time to create that fairy garden.  Finally, we will have during the equinox, Long Night's Journey into Day, instead of the other way around.

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: For Pym's Birthday, The Language of Flowers

Miss Charlotte Bronte meets Miss Barbara Pym: For Pym's Birthday, The Language of Flowers: While I'm not sure that my simple pots and fairy gardens would be up to the standards of Miss Clovis or Leonora Eyre, I offer some ph...

We Salute the British People!

John of Gaunt describes England

 

by William Shakespeare

John of Gaunt:  This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

 This other Eden, demi-paradise,

 This fortress built by Nature for herself

 Against infection and the hand of war,

 This happy breed of men, this little world,

 This precious stone set in the silver sea,

 Which serves it in the office of a wall,

 Or as a moat defensive to a house,

 Against the envy of less happier lands,

 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,

 Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,

 Renowned for their deeds as far from home,

 For Christian service and true chivalry,

 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,

 Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,

 This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,

 Dear for her reputation through the world,

 Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,

 Like to a tenement or pelting farm:

 England, bound in with the triumphant sea

 Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege

 Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,

 With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:

 That England, that was wont to conquer others,

 Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

 Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,

 How happy then were my ensuing death!