Monday, 26 January 2026
I wanted to look at the snowflake emoji close up. While researching, I found out this is the Apple snowflake, not The Other Kind. I like that it’s off axis and not exactly aligned up-down, and side-to-side.
A long time ago, I looked at a few snowflakes close up. This is not what they looked like…not delicate enough. But it works great displayed in my texting app.
Saturday, 6 December 2025
Fast and _what_?
This was a manufacturer display we saw at a Meijer. This misspelling was on two of the four shelves.
Friday, 28 November 2025
I once heard a tri-lingual knock-knock joke, but this only takes two languages. “Soy” in Spanish means “I am.” I, of course, read soy as soybean, as TJ’s intended. The Guru saw Spanish “soy” to go with the Spanish name of a particular sausage, and pointed it out to me. I’m still giggling.
Monday, 10 November 2025
The leaves are down across our lawn, making the equivalent of a (down) duvet keeping the ground from freezing as the temps head for brrrrrr. However, we’re not expecting the White Stuff that’s been falling in the Midwest and even in the mountains down here.
Too forced and artificial?
Thursday, 16 October 2025
I had this with my coffee and thought, gee whiz, there’s something to post here. Perhaps. [Mitad means half in Spanish.]
But, this is better. We began a new series of evening TV watching. We sometimes use our choices to be a kind of travelogue, or travel abroad that doesn’t require a passport. This choice is “Hotel Costiera,” set in Positano, on the southern Amalfi Coast. So far, there’s not much food in it; drinks, yes, but little chow. [Not ciao.] Pleasant. Entertaining. Mostly in English.
Sunday, 25 May 2025
Backlit leaves, aglow.
Ferns and ramps (wide angle).
Siberian apple; polinator tree, not for eating. More of the apple trees are blooming.
Backlit pear, sure to be heavy with fruit.
The woods, an hour after the backlit pear, so the opposite direction,. The opposite word/phrase—is it fully-lit?
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Blue-purple? Purple-blue? Or perhaps just a shade of blue?
Friday, 31 January 2025
Different day, different museum: Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, established 1908. This is the “Old Building;” behind it, the new is being reworked—note crane. The collection focuses on Basque and Spanish works.
This is Ramiro Arrue’s (1892-1971) “Euskaldunak karta jokoan,” meaning Basques playing cards.
He did it about 1919. I was fascinated by the footwear, especially the boots on the left with exterior laces.
Aurelio Artete did this in 1930–35, and called it “Euskal arrantzaleak,” or Basque fishermen. Again: footwear…. I’m wondering if the short boots are of rubber? They do look globular. Also: bare feet.
We saw one Picasso on display: “Still life with glass/bowl of fruit,” dating to 1937 (don’t know the original language of the name). In English, it’s “still life,” but in Spanish it’s “naturaleza muerta,” or, literally, dead nature.
They had three Goyas on display, including the side of the shipping crate they came in from France…I didn’t get the full story. This was the middle painting of the three (yes, I cropped it), the esteemed Bernard Tavira, dated about 1787-88.
Here’s a detail of the Señora’s carnation and ruff.
A few smaller rooms displayed fascinating historical documents and the like that normally no members of the public get to see. These are a pair of pages from “Corpus Iuris Civillis;” it dates to before 1477, and is in Gothic script. This is a later copy of a compilation of Roman laws from AD 117–565; the compilation was ordered by Emperor Justinian I, who was emperor from AD 527 to 565. This copy was made for Pierre de Laval, who became archbishop of Reims in 1473, and died in 1493. Many modern legal systems relate back to these laws.
Here’s a small section of the official document of excommunication of Henry VIII of England by Pope Clement VII and the Holy Council of Cardinals. This is an authorized copy sent to the Spanish court, and dates to 1531.
And then we were outside enjoying the sun…we found groundskeepers at work—here the fountain cleaners.
Here’s Bilbao’s river, the Nerbioi (Basque), or Nervion (English). This view is toward the mouth. This area was once the port area. With larger ships, it’s moved to the bay at the mouth. Note also that Bilbao, the city, is along the river, and the higher elevations are forested.
The façade of this building stood out to us both. It appears to be a private business…. BTW, that’s a pedestrian bridge to the left.
And, our riverfront trajectory brought us back to…this sculpture/building by Frank Gehry (born Frank Owen Goldberg, in 1929).
I very much enjoyed seeing Anish Kapoor’s “Tall Tree & The Eye” (2009) without raindrops.
Here’s this combo moto and lift that I posted yesterday from the other side.
Guggenheim detail. I think this is employee parking on the “back” side.
And, for giggles, a totally different façade, in town, away from the former port area.
