andrew wyeth – Jennifer Michie

November 20, 2020 / 0 Comments

Life Lately

It’s Friday. The sun is glowing and the air is nippy. The shadows have been changing throughout the house on a daily basis. As I write this now a golden hued beam is dancing across the floor towards my feet. Two week ago at this time, that beam would have been in a different place. It feels like a beautiful autumn day, the kind of day my parents would pack up the car with a picnic and take us up to the mountains to feast and hike.

Christmas music is playing. It’s been playing since November 1st! The house is clean and ready for the weekend to begin. I’m working on a final plan of attack for Thanksgiving, so I can ensure that the bread I’ll use for stuffing and the loaf we’ll use for sandwiches and the pumpkin pie are all baked on time. I’m also working on a final grocery store list for the week ahead to ensure I have all the little odds and ends I need.

Thanksgiving will look very different for many this year. It will be as it has always been for us. It’s just us around our Thanksgiving table. Because of school schedules we have yet to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family overseas. But, one year that just might happen!

This year has found me very quiet in this little place of mine. I have felt at times that I did not have a voice. I’ve still been working on my own writing projects, but this has not been a place that I’ve wanted to come to. I’m not truly sure why? The time I have been spending here has been with the help of Mr. Michie, who has aided me in making changes to the overall visual look of my blog. It’s been awhile since I have written code, so this project was a good refresher! There are still a few things left to tick off the list before I get it close to how I would like it. It is a very different, more streamlined look for me and I have enjoyed that, although it was a hard design decision to come to. I narrowed it down in the end and decided what would work best for me.

Our days are moving one into the next. Life is still happening in the midst of all the chaos. There are lots of games of Scrabble being played and books being read and albums being listened too. There has been a steady rhythm that we have continued to beat out through this storm we are all weathering. And that rhythm will continue to carry us through.

I hope wherever you are today that my ramblings find you safe and well.

{Cranberries, Andrew Wyeth, 1966}

September 15, 2017 / 0 Comments

Nostalgia

I don’t know why and I know that it just isn’t me, because everyone I’ve spoken with today has said they feel as if this has been the longest week ever!

The woods were so quiet this morning. I only passed one other person out with her two Jack Russells. The sunbeams were distilled through the leaves, moving in and out as the breeze shook the branches; little tracks of light making the path glow. I could see my breath. It was a perfect autumnal morning.

I love the way the light changes this time of year. The shadows become longer. The light becomes whiter. My Nana’s dining room was at the corner of the house, so light filtered in from the front and the sides. Near one of the windows in the corner she had a Christmas cactus that sat on a tall wooden plant stand.

The afternoon autumnal light would be so pure the cactus almost appeared as it was glowing. The light would move across the dining room table and come to rest on the opposite wall. I would sit at the kitchen table watching the light dance about. It always made me think of Cranberries, by Andrew Wyeth.

We hardly ever turn on the TV, but last night the Mercury Prize Awards were on and Mr. Michie wanted to see some of the acts perform. Sampha, won the prize and we were both very happy with the judges decision. He played, “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano”.

I have no idea why, because there was not a piano in the dining room, or even in my Nana’s house for that matter. But, this song makes me think of her home. I suppose it speaks to me because her house knew me well. I used to clean for her and my other Grandmother for pocket money. I was usually saving up to buy Christmas presents. Her walls heard my voice, her furniture knew the touch of my hand. Her stove was incredibly fun to cook on, this perfect 1960s avocado green beauty. I think this song makes me feel nostalgic. The changing of seasons makes me feel that way as well, excited for what is to come and sad to let the previous season slip away.

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September 17, 2013 / 0 Comments

Heading Toward Autumn

We had a wonderful, wonderful weekend this past weekend. We got to spend Sunday with friends who came all the way from Colorado! It was a miracle they made it out!

They are on a little traveling adventure and spent some of their very valuable time with us. We were simply thrilled! The world is a better place with kindred spirits in it. My girlfriend even brought me a few surprises, one of them being the lovely Susan Branch’s new book:

Oh! Happiness is!

The weather has taken a definite turn toward Autumn this past weekend and when I left the house yesterday morning to head to the train station it was a brisk 45 F!

The sunlight is changing too. While working in the main studio I noticed that the shadows were different. The room felt cooler with the light not streaming through as strongly as it had been a week before. It made me think of Wyeth, I think he would have liked painting in the main studio yesterday!

Cranberries, 1966

Last night we feasted on grilled cheese and tomato soup. I picked up a can of soup on my way home. I’m a Campbell’s girl and they had limited edition Andy Warhol’s “Soup Cans” as their design, so of course, that is what jumped into my basket. I think the soup even tasted better because it looked like an Andy Warhol can! Cute!

December 13, 2012 / 1 Comment

The Whole Story

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show. ~Andrew Wyeth

November 1, 2011 / 1 Comment

The First of November

We turned back our clocks on Saturday night, I don’t know if I was ready for that, but it happened, as all things do. Tonight as we headed home in darkness, the air hung with shrouds of mist, my teeth chattering as we waited for the bus, I knew that Fall was slowly slipping in to Winter. It will fight, there will be still be days of warmth to come, but the nights are slowly turning chilly. The light has changed and the air is crisp.

“November comes

And November goes,

With the last red berries

And the first white snows.

With night coming early,

And dawn coming late,

And ice in the bucket

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn

And the kettles sing,

And earth sinks to rest

Until next spring.”

– Elizabeth Coatsworth

(Image Andrew Wyeth)

August 12, 2009 / 0 Comments

Indian Summer

I love this painting by Andrew Wyeth. What a talented man he was! His work is at times almost a photographic snapshot of time. It makes me think of Indian Summer, when the days are still warm but the nights are cool. I imagine his muse sitting on her stool with a slight chill from the breeze, but still a warm back from the sun pouring forth. The first taste of fall flits over the windowsill in the form of a crispy leaf.

My Nana, first used the term Indian Summer to me to describe this time of year. When I was little I associated it directly with Native Americans and dreamed of the seasons changing because the Indians living in their cozy teepees willed it to be so, what an imagination I had! Indian Summer is upon us here in England, the sunlight is just beginning to change, you notice a difference in the quality of light almost at times a purer light. There is also a difference in the sounds outside.

I love this time of year as it means that fall is coming and bringing with it, crispy fragrant apples and warm orangey pumpkins, witches hats and turkeys. But, this time of year also makes me sad to see the Summer end and another school year begin. I enjoy my time with my family too much and when school begins the schedules change, the relaxed atmosphere gets a little more hectic and the pace of life never seems to slow down and then I find myself longing for Summer once more…