People in Paintings

Sometimes I like to look at old paintings and make up stories about the people in them. (i.e. those silly old weekly character posts.) This one I didn't even have to think - it just was there.

This little girl is in a huge mansion - just look at that expanse of scarlet carpet! She looks lonely - her parents are away all the time, they send her fancy toys, pretty trinkets, even a dog. But she wants something more, see her dress? It reflects that she doesn't care about any of those exotic knick-knacks. Her only comfort in the ornately giant house is the little dog.

Now I've put myself in a sad mood...

...but wierd hats never fail to cheer me up. Grand Lady has gone for a stroll in the woods when she comes upon a very strange child, with huge wings, a battered hat with a scraggly feather, and a box of trinkets hanging from it's neck. One has to wonder where this oddity of a midget came from!

Girl on a Red Carpet, Felice Casorati, 1912.
Hilda Fairbairn, Love the Pedlar, unknown date but early 1900s. Funny, I thought the painter was named Hilda Fairbairn Love, and the painting, The Pedlar.

Typewriter Mug

                                                       Christmas gift from two years ago...

How I would love a typewriter like that. Of course, word processors with erase and fonts and such are so nice, but nothing beats the thrilling historical feeling of using an old typewriter.

Titanic Centenary Week

One of my favorite books...It's not just about the Titanic but many other things as well. Nikola Tesla, spiritualism, journalism, time travel, just to name a few. Sherlock Holmes and his inventor Arthur Conan Doyle, Colonel Astor, even George Bernard Shaw and Queen Victoria are minor characters.

The story centers around the five Taylor sisters: Mimi, Jane (the narrator,) Emma, Amelie and Blythe, whose mother is a medium. Through many events leading up to this, which take up half the book, all five end up on that "Ship of Dreams", sailing towards a compelling ending.

Okay. That summary was bad. But it's a great book! Historical fiction, a bit of romance, science fiction...the only thing that irks me is the dress on the cover. So not 1912!!! And besides, it isn't the main character who wears a wedding dress!

Mayhap Maybe is More Medieval

All right. Mayhap just sounds so medieval. Guess what. It dates from the mid 1500s. Maybe comes from the 1300s. And then there's perchance. SO medieval. 1300s. So it is. And perhaps, it's more modern equivalent, (although unfortunately nobody seems to say perhaps nowadays,) is from the 1400s. So mayhap maybe is more medieval. Even though it doesn't sound as 1100s-ish as mayhap.