Naw... --- Days 14/231 & 232

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4 miles

"Rats on that for a game of marbles.'  Ciwt just became acquainted with this (very) old timey phrase coined by Englishwoman who lived to a ripe old age.  Apparently she used it when she had had enough of some obligation or project.  "Screw it" might be a modern version.  However it is said, Ciwt is well acquainted with the spirit of the phrase in the longish, darkish, drearyish last few months of the year.  Never seems like a time to begin anything of consequence - even holiday preparations if you aren't particularly in to holidays. And all fitness equipment and diet foods seem like enemies.  Comfort food, mystery books, ipad binges or just plain bed with cats (or dogs) call more strongly,  All very anti the Puritan ethic of carrying on and producing with energetic cheer at all costs.  But, often at this time of year, Ciwt just thinks "Rats on that..."

A Movie! In a Theater! --- Day 14/230

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Sentimental Value)

Distance: 2.5 miles

Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning in Sentimental Value

At last!   A real (according to Ciwt) movie.  Adult script, superb acting, deep attunement to the authentc visitudes of human life and emotions . And, speaking of dreariness - as CIWT was a day or two ago - here is that bone deep, DNA deep Norwegian version captured so well by Munch's "Scream" 😱, and now writer-director Joachim Trier.  If you have a Nordic (or something) sense of humor, Sentimental Value is categorized as a comedy (????) so perhaps you'll enjoy laughing if you go.  Or maybe you'll be like Ciwt and sit unsmiling and nearly spellbound by the overall precision, quality and emotional texture of the movie.

Stellan Skarsgard and Renate Reinsve the principal co-stars of Sentimental Vlaue

Thanksgiving Decorating Non-Contest --- Day 14/329

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4.5 miles

So, much as Ciwt would love to have a Thanksgiving Nieghborhood Home Decorating Contest, she has been searching in vain for entries.  Lots of little pumkin arrangements here and there.  Many behind new front gates installed during the unsafe times of Covid.  

But if she did have a contest, here would be her favorites, each with its own merits.

Most Distinguished

Stand back, Patience and Fortitude*, here are a couple of your counterparts out in San Francisco.  Ciwt loves the restful way they balance the two quietly matching doors and wreaths.  Unmatchable tastefulness.

Very Best Pumpkin Arrangement

The super healthy Thanksgiving red orange and  yellow gold colored Chrysanthemums and artful arrangement bring this festive display to life.  And also mean that this is no passive arrangement.  The owners clearly put it together with an artistic eye and will need to give daily care to the live flowers.

(Some readers may have recognized this as the very skeleton covered house that has been the Halloween BEST WHOLE HOUSE winner for several years.  So, if Ciwt had an actual Thanksgiving Neighborhood Home Decorating Contest, this beauty would be back-to-back CIWT contest winners).

* New York readers and Main Library visitors know Patience and Fortitude very well.

The New York Public Library's 42nd Street building on opening day in 1911

Spoiler Alert: Dreariness --- Days14/327 & 328

Walks: Hood & None (Storm)

Distances: 4 miles, 0 ☔☔

So in her usual exhuberance over the beauty of Fall, Ciwt tends to forget it is also the time of rains, blustery winds and light so low it almost feels like evening all day long.  (Not very energizing ...)

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Rain Storm Union Square, 1890, o/o

Veterans Day 2025 --- Days 14/325 & 326

Walks: Hood and Presidio

Distances: 3.5 miles, 5 miles

San Francisco Presidio National Cemetery 

Veterans Day 2025

Solemn and tranquil resting place of 30,000 soldiers and their families

Often the last thing they saw when they shipped out to battle

The Color of Daly Life --- Days 14/323 & 324

Walks: Hood

Distance: 4.5 miles

Cats, dogs, flowers, daily scenes around the home and grounds!!  How can private, homebody, art and color loving Ciwt resist private, homebody, color loving artist Pierre Bonnard (Fr. 1867-1947)  

She can't; every time she sees a Bonnard work some part of her relaxes right into his scene.  He captures the intimacy of living life without being intrusive or overly cute or judging or trying to understand his subject. There is the ultimate mystery of other people no matter how close, but not detachment.  Through his complex commingling of color, light, shade Bonnard communicates the dearness to him of all that fills his daily life.  The scenes out the window, the pets, the people, the routines, the hush.

Even when he was a young art student in the heart of vibrant Paris, Bonnard finds each individual passerby going about his or her life.  

Pierre Bonnard, Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day, 1890. Oil on canvas,  16" x 31" 

His true artistic life  began shortly after his student years.  Neither political nor interested in the many artistic style debates surrounding him in Paris, he became more and more free to paint the subjects that called to him in ways he developed and refined on his own.  

Pierre Bonnard, Woman with Cat, 1912

Pierre Bonnard, Woman and Dog, 1922, oil on canvas

Pierre Bonnard, Coffee, 1915. Oil on canvas

Pierre Bonnard, Interior with Flowers, oil on canvas

Pierre Bonnard, Young Woman Writing, oil on paper

Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Country, 1913, oil on canvas

 

Pierre Bonnard, Landscape at Le Cannet, 1928, 50 3/8 × 109 1/2 in., oil on canvas

Detail

Out of the Basement --- Day 14/322

Walk: Hood

Distance: 3.5 miles

So, Ciwt is back out of her storeroom/yoga room (which are actually at ground level) to color and a 'view' of how artist's commune and learn from each other through time.  

Matisse set color free in Paris with his intensely controversial "fauve" paintings at the beginning of the 1900's.

Henri Matisse (Fr. 1869-1954), Open Window, Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, 21 3/4" x 18 1/8"

And artists have been liberated ever since: 

Pierre Bonnard (fr. 1867-1947), The Open Window, 1921,  Oil on canvas  

Richard Diebenkorn (Am, 1922-1993), Ocean Park #27, 1970

Basement for You, Ciwt! - Pt. 2 --- Days 14/320 & 321

 Walks: Hood

Distances: 3.5 miles

With Ciwt's storeroom under much more control (see previous day), she was finally ready to put together her little home gym/yoga room.

First she got rid of a smelly old carpet

Then she had a new cork floor put down

Then she brightened it up with new lighting and fresh white paint

Stay tuned for further developments.....