Thank You Muse-Swings

Cynthia at

www.muse-swings.blogspot.com

herself a deserving recipient, has given me a lovely award, don't you like the graphic for this award? Sums up friendship to a 'tea', wouldn't you say....

1. Trust --- I trust that my friends care for me.

2. Kindness----I cherish the kindnesses that my friends offer me

3. Honesty---I expect and receive honesty from my friends, even if sometimes, its not what I want to hear....I know that real friends tell it like it is, when it needs to be told that way!

4. Caring---a wonderful feeling, that you matter, that someone cares, that you are valued.

We are all very fortunate to have our friends!

Thanks again, Cynthia, I'm pleased that you feel my blog embodies these four beauties!

Back At It....

The visit from my American niece is over, and she's gone back to Connecticut, having enjoyed her first visit to Canada. There just wasn't enough time to do all that we wanted to, but we still managed to cram alot into last week, including sightseeing all around the city, the movie Mamma Mia (it was great!), and shopping at one of Toronto's main attractions, the Eaton Centre mall.

Here are some pics from our visit to the Royal Ontario Museum. I am always drawn to the Ancient Egyptian gallery...

And now, I reckon I've got some catching up to do with everyone's blogs~!~

Coming Up For Auction at Sothebys --- Scotland

"My Studio Door, Tangier"

oil on canvas

Dated: 1920

by Sir John Lavery (1856-1941)

31" by 26"

pre-auction estimate: 400,000 - 600,000 GBP

Excerpts from catalogue notes by Kenneth McConkey:

In the early months of 1920, the Laverys took an extended tour of North Africa and the Riviera...the centrepiece of the journey was a month's stay at Tangier...

For the painter, Tangier was a familiar haunt. He first visited the city in 1891... .in the early years of the new century... Lavery purchased Dar-el-Midfah, the 'House of the Cannon' in the hills close to the city. There he joined a motley group of expatriates... that...included... reprobate members of the European aristocracy, including the notorious gambler, the Duke of Frias.

These were dangerous times. Kidnap was a frequent occurance and two prominent British members of the community, Walter Harris and Kaid MacLean had suffered at the hands of the local brigand, El Raisuli. Although Tangier was an international protectorate and the centre of diplomatic intrigue, Morocco was notoriously volatile... When Lavery first arrived, passengers were unloaded into rowing boats from ships moored in Tangier Bay....

There are ...very few pictures that sum up the relaxed ambience of his domestic setting more than My Studio Door, Tangier, where the painter's wife, Hazel, basks on a reclining chair, and a girl, probably her daughter, Alice, leans against the wall in the foreground. ... The work recalls earlier lush Tangier garden scenes.

Lavery never returned to Tangier. After a Mediterranean holiday with the ailing Hazel in 1933, he wrote wistfully to Cunninghame Graham, 'We have just returned from a Mediterranean pleasure cruise passing Tangier in the twilight. I felt quite sad recalling the past.... " (postcard dated 8 September 1933, National Library of Scotland).

Lavinia's Note: I love this painting, particularly the ambience, the play of sunlight and the near-symmetrical composition. It recalls to my mind the scenes I saw when I paid a visit to Tangier in 1990... Now if only I had a spare million lying around, I'd snap it up...

Holidays

My niece from Connecticut arrives tomorrow, staying with us for a long-awaited visit.

I'm taking the week off work, and probably blogland too, as we've

got a jam-packed itinerary of sightseeing, relaxing, visiting, and fun. I hope you all have a great week, enjoying the dog-days of August...

Answers

1) Painting
2) Insane Asylum (photo taken by Lavinia)
3)Malta
4) Christopher Columbus (photo taken by Lavinia on a Cuban beach)
5) I think so --- yes!
6) Writer. This is American author, Booth Tarkington. (but he looks so long and lanky, and with the Olympics just starting, I thought it would throw you off!)
7. Cargo ship (photo taken by Lavinia aboard a sugar freighter)

Thanks to those who played this fun quiz.

Take A Guess...

1. Is the above image a painting or a photograph?

2. Was the above building formerly a

a) Seminary?

b) Orphanage?

c) Insane Asylum?

3. Where are these two ladies enjoying the sunshine?

a)Israel

b) Malta

c) Spain

4. Who is this a statue of?

a) Christopher Columbus

b) Benjamin Franklin

c) Juan Peron

5. Can a love letter really do this?

a)yes

b) no

6. Was this man a....

a) Prime Minister?

b) Writer?

c) Former Olympic Athlete?

7. The above poster would be found where?

a)Police Station

b) Cargo Ship

c) Lighthouse

Letter from The Younger Pliny to the Roman Emperor, Asking How to Arrest and Punish the Early Christians

Another letter from "The World's Great Letters", a book of letters from past centuries.

The following letter was written in A.D. 104. It shows how the power of the Roman Empire was challenged by the rise of the Christian faith....and how, toward the end of the first century, Christians lived in constant danger and peril on account of their faith. Excerpts from the letter:


"The method I have observed towards those who have been denounced to me as Christians, is this: I interrogated them whether they were Christians; if they confessed I repeated the question twice again, adding a threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed.....

"A placard was posted up... accusing a number of people by name. Those who denied that they were Christians, or had ever been so, and who repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and frankincense to your statue, and finally cursed the name of Christ (none of which, it is said, those who are really Christians can be forced into performing), I thought proper to discharge. Others...at first confessed themselves Christians, and then denied it; true, they had been of that persuasion formerly, but had now quitted it. They all worshipped your statue, and and the images of the gods, and cursed the name of Christ.

"The matter is well worth referring to you, especially considering the numbers endangered: persons of all ranks and ages, and of both sexes, are and will be involved in the prosecution. For this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only; but has spread through the villages and the countryside."

------------------------------

The Emperor's reply called Pliny's proceedings "extremely proper. No search is to be made for these people. When they are denounced, and found guilty, they must be punished with the restriction, however, that where the party denies himself to be a Christian, and shall give proof that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him be pardoned upon his repentance."

---------------------------------
Sidenote: In a manifesto addressed to the persecutors of the first Christians, the early Christian leader & writer, Tertullian, wrote:

"And now, O worshipful judges, go on with your show of justice....Crucify, torture, condemn, grind us all to powder if you can; your injustice is an illustrious proof of our innocence, for the proof of this is that God permits us to suffer...do your worst and rack your invention for tortures for Christians; it is all to no purpose. You do but attract the world and make it fall more in love with our religion; the more you mow us down the quicker we rise; the Christian blood you shed is the seed you sow; it springs from the earth again and fructifies the more."

Lavinia's note: From the very start, the followers of Christ showed an immense, all-encompassing faith....many had been eyewitnesses to Jesus miracles, or had heard first-hand accounts. They were willing to give the ultimate sacrifice---their lives---for their faith in Jesus the Messiah. They truly took Jesus' words to heart:

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

--Matthew 16:25