I Went Nuts with the Camera in Hermann, Mo...

...the first evening, 19th Century Re-enactors casting a spell.

At the Feeder..

...this regal young female cardinal (one of the "late summer" babies in the class of 2010) is fully fledged and bursting with attitude at the feeder.  And off to the right, you can see one of the standard "little brown jobs"
in a flight of panic. (They must sense me at my kitchen window with the camera, getting material for Critter Cam this week) Click on photo to enlarge and see it better.

Lord and Lady Guildford...

...from the book I mentioned in the previous post. These are the sketches. Holbein was so skillful that all he did to make Lady Mary look more mature and serious was to put the prayer book in her hands and point her winsome gaze direct at the viewer and subdue her little smile. A theory is that Lord Hubby want her to look matronly and solid for this portrait. Hubby pays, Hubby rules in 1527. I like that we have the sketch--we can still see how pretty she was. (one of my vices is that I like art)

Visiting Lady Guildford...(at the St. Louis Museum of Art)

...in September, I mentioned I had listened to Philippa Gregory's novel (on Recorded Books, Inc.) The Boleyn Inheritance. The painter, Hans Holbein the Younger, appeared as a character in the section devoted to Anne of Cleeves. It occurred to me I knew little about that artist; I also mentioned I found a book devoted to an exhibit of Holbein's work. He was such a talented portrait painter, but he excelled in producing accurate likenesses of his famous subjects in quick sketches which he used for reference in the final paintings.
I learned that the portrait of Mary, Lady Guildford is housed in the portrait collection in the St. Louis Art Museum. The actual painting is large--about 32" square; of course the clothing is richly painted, using real gold in the paint. The subject was in her mid-twenties, the wife of Lord Guildford, important friend of Henry VIII, who acted as Henry's events director to stage his ceremonies, public entertainments and such.
She appears serious, solid and matronly with her prayer book in her grasp, but Holbein's original sketch shows her looking younger, merry, smiling and even flirtatiously charming. The painting was made about 1527. Imagine. The thumbnail portrait to the left shows her hubby. His portait by Holbein is in London.
The photo above is from Hans Holbein the Younger--Painter at the Court of Henry VIII by Stephanie Buck and Jochen Sanders. It's a beautiful and interesting read.

The St. Louis Art Museum....

...a nice sidebar to our bike trip was a visit to the Art Museum in St. Louis. See Outdoor Wednesday and
please stay tuned...

The Official Portrait....

...here it is: The Last Rose of Summer 2010. The bush this came from is new to us this year. Got it at Sam's Club. Ruby Tuesday !

Happy Halloween My A$$..2.0

....or FlowerGirl's Really Rotten Halloween!  She got a respiratory infection which peaked on Halloween Day. She was coughing, throwing up and had 101+ degrees fever. I've never seen her sicker; it was heart breaking! And she was perfectly aware that she was missing Trick or Treat; she cried; not realizing she felt too horrible to go out even if her parents had taken her out! So sad.