Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4 miles
Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4 miles
Walk: Hood
Distance: 5.5 miles
![]() |
Henri Matisse, Open Window,Collioure, 1905, o/c |
Walk: Union Square
Distance: 5.5 miles
So Ciwt's gorgeous amaryllis which she'd been given as a holiday uplift finally stopped producing its blooms in January. Unsure what to do with the flowerless leaves and bulb she stuck their basket way back in a dark closet and completely neglected it. No water, no light, no attention except to lop off the leaves a few months later when they started flopping over the shelf's edge in a creepy way that bothered her.
Then, yesterday, Ciwt was straightening out the closet and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw this:
Impossible to believe, but the bulb had sprouted! Not only that, when she brought it out of the dark and sent a picture to her amaryllis expert friend, her friend responded: That looks like it is going to BLOOM again! If so, I think I would give it some water. None of mine have ever done that ...yours is a premium Amaryllis and a high achiever!Walk: Sports Basement Presidio
Distance: 4 miles
Ciwt was entirely! wrong about last night's Succession finale. And she couldn't be happier. No Chekhov, many guns left still loaded, and devastatingly perfect. It was pre-gun, stark Greek Tragedy in which the show mastermind, Jesse Armstrong, gave new meaning to English cooking, 'a meal fit for a king,' hand holding, empty suits, hubris, defeat and victory.
If you haven't been a Succession follower, some day you owe it to yourself to spend 40+ hours watching all 4 seasons from beginning to end. Meanwhile Ciwt will be joining the bereft original audience who are doing just that - for the second or third time .
Walk: Not sure yet
Distance: ditto
Walks: Hood
Distance: 4.5 miles, 2.5 miles
![]() |
Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967), ca 1937 |
So, as the grey cold summer winds continue in San Francisco, Ciwt's mind goes to the rather grey, cold artist Edward Hopper who was one of the premier recorders of American mid-century malaise. Hopper's favorite subjects were lonely gas stations, New York diners at night, movie theaters, women alone staring out windows. All on the American East Coast, particularly New York City which continually both fascinated and eluded him. New York had something he couldn't quite reach but continued to try.
Ciwt was surprised to learn that some of Hopper's formative artistic years were actually in Paris, a city he visited three times between 1906 and 1910. He was working at a New York ad agency and hated it so Paris was a breath of fresh air to him, and he's quoted as believing there was "never a city so beautiful nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French."
Hopper's times in Paris coincided with the beginnings of Matisse, Picasso's Cubism, and all the many artists who had moved to the city during that revolutionary time in art. But already Hopper was his own man, appreciating the great innovative artists surrounding him while also evolving his own methods, style and visual vocabulary.
Even though Impressionism was on its way out as a dominant artistic style, Hopper was clearly instructed by their preoccupation with capturing light and spontaneity as he wandered the streets, setting up his easel along the same streets, river and churches they had painted.
![]() |
Edward Hopper, Notre Dame de Paris, 1907 |
But that isn't all Hopper's sharp eye was attuned to in that "City of Light." Already he resonated with the dark, the solitary, the remote.
![]() |
Edward Hopper, Stairway at 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1906 |
Walk: Union Square
Distance: 5.5 miles
So yesterday Ciwt referred to the Phoenix bird but then realized she wasn't entirely sure of the Phoenix's story. If you are like her, you might be interested in how Hans Christian Andersen's tells it.
Walk: Presidio
Distance: 5 miles