Guardian Gourds

Happy Hallowe'en, Samhain, Nos Calan Gaeaf

A Hallowe'en photograph of me-as-Twiggy via scan of a crinkled snap has failed to amuse or please. Worse, I look entirely annoyed in the picture & have no idea why. So sorry, B, one of my sisters who sent it with a sweet note ("I thought you looked so beautiful..."). Maybe we can find it on a slide for next year. Fairy-lighted pumpkins against a dark blue sky will have to do for now. Lots & lots of spooky & scary Hallowe'en posts all over the wah-wah-web. (photograph via Martha Stewart)

PS: Happy birthday to John Keats

Damson & Slate - A Breath of Welsh Air

Looking at the Vogue Knitting Holiday 2010 magazine + Dylan Thomas birthday + hand-washing Laura Ashley Welsh knit scarves & lacy cardigan = Damson & Slate website gazing. (There's also a tornado watch until tonight & therefore madly hurrying to be ready for catastrophe. OK, a bit of Welsh-American drama, so sue me.) Just about everyone on US design blogs talks about Toast & I do like them. But here is a site that actually toots their Welsh horn. Things are far too shaky to buy anything from anyone at the moment, unless it's Julie the Cat necessaries. When I can, though, I will figure out how to replace some knits from D&S. Helping to support the Welsh economy is a good reason. (At this point, I would roll around like a feline in catnip if I had their Rosehip & Baobab w/Neroli face cream.)

Anything to put off cleaning the apartment & less-than pleasant reading, I've dragged out bags of needles, rolls of yarn, & am unravelling some half-done projects. I am not one of those "whip up a sweater in a day" people. I admire those who can though. My mother made some very cool stuff when I was little. My redheaded Barbie in her bottle green bouclé Chanel-inspired suit (yep) was the talk of the neighborhood Barbies.

Scarves, mittens, & a few other projects are enough to make me feel (undeservedly) accomplished. Yarn is expensive so choose something small if just starting out. There is (or was) some lovely yarn in the Made4Aid Etsy shop (the badge & site are on the right or at bottom. Template shifting continues). On the Pringle of Scotland site, there's even a little how-to-knit video. I'm not linking it for now because it won't teach anyone to knit, really. The point is that anyone (even me) can learn knit/purl & crank out a straight scarf.

(first 2 images via Damson & Slate, 3rd via Vogue Holiday 2010 Knitting magazine)

That's Richard & Elizabeth to You

& me. Not Liz & Dick! Some of Richard Burton's love letters to Elizabeth Taylor are in the July 2010 Vanity Fair. This is not news, I know. I look forward to receiving my copy; yes, I take it, don't judge! (With the hideous images, descriptions of human rights abuses I have to read & gaze upon...eye candy is what I need, baby.) When there is a highly-publicized VF cover, sometimes it does not arrive in my mailbox. (Grace Kelly arrived in May, so I have hope.) Monday night update: nope not here; it's on the stands. Hmmm.

I can't believe I'm posting these but the couple loomed large when I was little. Anyway, the "Liz & Dick," "Dick & Liz" is annoying. When one is preoccupied with more important matters, small things can grate. So that's my excuse to post photographs of them. (Yes, of course it's also because Burton was Welsh.)

Very few images are attributed, oddly. Some of the black & white are by Gjon Mili in LIFE archives; the others are from The Burtons - a tumblr blog. It's fun, pay a visit. And though there's a super-mushy song playing behind it, here's a well-done, high quality YouTube tribute to E&R. Very clear & beautiful photographs, many I'd not seen before. So on a June Monday, have a little fun.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!

Update: Read The Clever Pup's excellent post on St. David's Day. Well done!

Tomorrow is St. David's Day, the Welsh National holiday & I totally forgot. My annual desperate search for daffodils (ubiquitous every other dang day in the pre-spring/spring) was forgotten. I do have leeks, as always, in the house. I wrote a post for GG's blog to publish tonight & I'll just have to scrape stuff out of that...& excuse it as bricolage...I have a bone to pick with those Welsh, Anglo-Welsh, American-Welsh poets who complain about all the other festivals & sit on their rears & do nothing. I've cheerled (is that a word?) & worked on getting something going in DC (something as much fun as Burns Day at the local Royal Mile Pub or St. P's almost anywhere but in my neighborhood, McGinty's--real Irish-owned) for a few years & give up for now. Too busy.

From GG blog (later):

St. David's Day snuck up on us, it's tomorrow (March 1). Must run out to buy daffodils, braise some leeks, & watch out for red dragons on the loose. As a child/teenager, GG's editor put in hours of choir rehearsal relearning songs in Welsh for an annual appearance at a Pittsburgh Welsh "old people's home." We cringe to think that's how the senior homes were described back then. The older folks were so pleased to see us every year & one or two people always asked, wistfully, if any of us grew up speaking Welsh, or even knew it? Maybe? We had to say no...but they were very complimentary about the performance & asked lots of questions about our lives as "you young people." Lovely people, lovely dinner, loads of daffodils on all the tables.

Dylan Thomas' unfortunate public behavior in America (& everywhere else) still irked/embarrassed many of the older Welsh but they chose overlook it so as to recite Thomas (many could by heart). Do Not Go Gentle...must have had great resonance for them, as it did not for us--then. Seamus Heaney read it at Ted Hughes' graveside in a rainstorm after the funeral & we remember thinking, "fitting, very." For many reasons that are best left to readers of actual poetry books & biographies. Here is a post earlier this year about Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr & one on current Welsh heroine, Duffy.

(Lovely photograph of a real Welsh daffodil by Jan/brynmeillion)

cariad! (kisses)

There then, guilt absolved. Sort of. ciao