Monday, March 20, 2006

Sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude

..."are the five ingredients that, according to Italian folk traditions, create the ideal habitat for the olive tree." I like to think that if I concentrate hard enough I'll be able to taste all five in the oil. Sometimes when I'm dipping warm bread into olive oil and balsamic vinegar I think of Van Gogh's paintings of olive trees. When I looked at my favourite painting of the series a short while ago, I was struck by the accompanying text, especially the last few words of a quote from one of Van Gogh's letters. "Very difficult, very difficult."

This will be my last post for a while. I look forward to seeing some of you at Talking Fresh. I really hope there will be cupcakes. I'll keep an eye out for the signs.

5 comments:

Crafty Missus said...

ummm... i love van gogh.
i was comissioned a few yrs ago to recreate starry night with st. johns harbour.
here is the result and comparisons:
http://www.livingplanet.ca/shirts/nf/nf022.html
http://astro.nineplanets.org/StarryNight/sn.html
(will send phot of tne narrows taken from our bedroom window)

Anonymous said...

Safe journey, B. May you find many signs along the way!

And I love Van Gogh, too.

B-)

Anonymous said...

But,... but,... you've only just got back?! All this literary gadding about and talking... Be sure not to let talking about writing interfere with writing: the doing of it.

Been years since I've eaten a cupcake. Maybe when I'm next in town I'll track one down, eat it, and blame you.

Ariel Gordon said...

I agree. I'm finding your gadding exhausting, even from a distance...

Maybe by the end of the month you'll be longing for some "sun, stone, drought, silence and solitude" of your own...

Brenda Schmidt said...

Cara, that's a great re-creation! Thanks.

B-) sorry I didn't see you at Talking Fresh. The best sign of the trip was at Swan River, Manitoba:
"Sorry Vacancy"

Pete, good point. The doing has been little of late. Things are fantastic on the cupcake front. I received the greatest cupcake of all at Talking Fresh.

Ariel, I just got home an hour ago. The weekend was incredible. I had a ton of fun. A ton! Talking Fresh was another smashing success.