Bastille Day

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Radishes

In honor of the day I post this painting, featuring, among other things, our ratty yet beloved old Paris guide to arrondissements. This morning we hung from the porch our homemade French flag and put Edith Piaf on the CD player. For dinner I will make a soufflé (not exactly a dish suited to July, but definitely a family favorite) and we’ll watch “Casablanca” and sing along during the Marseillaise scene. Vive la France!

This image is available as a high-resolution print on 8.5″ x 11″ archival paper.

Palisades Parade

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Palisades

An event we enjoy just as much as the Fourth of July fireworks is the Palisades neighborhood parade, which begins with a rousing group of bagpipers and concludes with cowboys on horseback (an arrangement cleverly designed to keep manure off the marchers’ feet).

In between are families riding their decorated bicycles; dressed-up trucks from the local firehouse, plumber and grocer; a group of fabulously energetic Peruvian dancers; local politicians distributing flyers, jewelry, and candy; the GLBT Different Drummers, with their Big Band/Swing sound and exuberant drum major; vintage cars driven by their vintage owners; home-grown George and Martha, Uncle Sams and Statues of Liberty; a huge float bearing summer campers belting out Broadway show tunes; patriotically attired dogs; and a crowned and smiling Miss Millwood, the currently favored teen queen of Millwood Place.

We wave, we cheer and clap for everybody, we go home feeling a love of country and a connection to all humanity.

CakeFireworksMelinda

The Longest Day

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OrangeSun

Today I plan to dress in yellow, carry freshly baked corn muffins from door to door, and oblige everyone in my family to step outside and leap over a big fat candle in lieu of a giant bonfire (which would be frowned upon by the city government) to bring us luck in the coming year. Yes! today is the solstice, and, in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year and the first day of summer. Make the most of your long lovely light evening, because starting tomorrow, the days will begin to grow shorter again. Happy Summer!

Parish Picnic

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HTPicnic11Rev

Every year in early June our church holds Sunday service outdoors, with plenty of singing and clapping, followed by face-painting, balloon sculptures, moon-bounce, and frisbee, accompanied by a vast spread of grilled hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, and brownies. That’s my kind of Sunday worship. During the homily, as I sketched the father and daughter in front of us, the priest spoke about father/daughter relationships (next week being Fathers Day), and the pair exchanged an affectionate nudge.

CakeMusicMitch


Easter in Japan

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EasterJapan

In Japan the school year begins in April—with emerging blossoms rather than falling leaves—and so, despite continuing difficulties, this past week children began their new classes, some of them amid vast stretches of earthquake and tsunami rubble.

A few years ago we spent this season with friends in Japan. With kindness, good nature, and interest, they found, and accompanied us to, an exceedingly long Easter church service. Afterward we transplanted to their home our family’s Easter basket treasure hunt, a tradition begun by my mother that I have continued with my own children. This time, though, the clues were bilingual, the English ones first written by me and then rewritten in Japanese by my son. (Later we copied the clues here into my travel sketchbook.)

Today is also the anniversary of the founding of the Library of Congress. For sketches and a saga, please see Library of Congress.


Life on Earth

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PleasantValley

At this time of year my husband and I are usually in western Massachusetts (hiking, sketching, and—if deadlines have required hauling along a laptop—working) while our daughter’s homeschool coop spends the week working on a Hudson River Valley farm. This year the coop has a different plan, so here in DC we remain. Nevertheless, in honor of Earth Day, I post a sketch from one of our hikes through Mass Audubon’s Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, where we have spent many happy hours quietly watching beavers. (The beavers are less happy to see us.)

For another sketch, and a history of Earth Day, please see Earth Day.

CakeGreenGunilla

CakeChocCurls2Hasse

Triduum

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Triduum

The dates of Passover (Pesach) and Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), are both related to the arrival of spring and the phases of the moon, connecting their celebrants with humanity’s remote ancestors, to whom knowledge of the seasons and the heavenly bodies was not merely interesting but vital for survival. Passover begins on the 14th day of the Hebrew calendar month Nisan, which is also the date of the full moon following the vernal equinox; Holy Thursday falls on the Thursday before Easter, which is the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. (Whew!) It sometimes works out that they fall, very satisfactorily (to me, anyway), on the same day; Holy Thursday is, after all, the celebration of a Passover meal.

For a painting and a poem about Holy Thursday, please see Holy Thursday.

Våffeldagen

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Waffles

According to tradition, today is the feast of the Annunciation, the day on which the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to announce an unexpected little surprise that was to arrive on Christmas Day…EXACTLY nine months later. Unlike most of the rest of us moms, Mary was apparently not fated to go into premature labor or run weeks past her due date, thus alarming midwives, spouse, and relatives.

In Sweden, this day is celebrated with waffles. You may ask why we celebrate the pregnancy 2000 years ago of a nice small-town Jewish girl with a medieval Dutch cake? Well, as the story goes, in Sweden, the Feast of the Annunciation is called Vårfrudagen, or “Lady Day.” Which is similar enough to Våffeldagen, “Waffle Day,” to cause a little confusion on March 25th and launch an annual tradition. It’s a confusion we are happy to perpetuate in our household, despite its being the middle of Lent. It IS the Annunciation, after all.

CakeRedRosesLauren

This image is available as a high-resolution print on 8.5″ x 11″ archival paper.