X-MAS 2008

Dec 25th

Merry Christmas today and Happy Holidays for all this Season!

How can we describe such a lovely trip home? We're in the middle of three and a half weeks away from Florida and later the Bahamas, we hope. Winter has certainly given us a taste of all the reasons we want to be south for the winters. The other day it took 20 minutes for Florrie to scrape ice off her car before going shopping. We've had bitter cold, an ice-frozen Raritan Bay, snow, sleet and even some rain. One morning there was a soft snow fall that was photo-perfect seasonal weather. The visits with family and old friends have reminded us why we miss them all when we are gone for months at a time. One of many highlights was our trip to Baltimore to see granddaughter #2 in the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker. That included lovely time with #1 granddaughter, Alexa, too.
The 25th was the day that granddaughter #3 came to visit, with her parents. What fun to see an almost 4 year old open presents. Stickers are the big thing this year.

We hope you all have had as much fun as we have. See you next year!

Home for the holidays..(click here)

Yes we made it. Left the boat on the hard in Ft. Pierce and got to the airport to find our flight was delayed from 11 to 1. Something about tornadoes in Georgia and the front with snow hitting New England. Sure glad we rushed. Not only that but they sent a smaller plane so needed to bump 22 people. Since they offered $300 flight credit @, we decided to volunteer. It meant waiting for the scheduled !:00 plane which actually took off about 5:00 and getting us in about 8 for a 9 train. Luckily our neighbor, Judy, picked us up at the train station and got us home.
Anyway, we are home for the holidays. We get to see Maddie dance in the Nutcracker, Melissa convalese after her leg operation, and the whole family gather at our place for X-mas on the 27th. We will be back in Florida on the 8th of Jan looking to provision, wax the boat, and a weather window for the Bahamas. If it looks like there is no window, we go south and look again or go to the keys. Anywhere where it is warm. I have been here 2 days...that is enough of cold and it is no colder here than it was going through Georgia.

Art Date

Hi My Artist Friends,

Yesterday I took myself to the Vero Beach Museum of Art. It was the best time I've had alone in weeks! There was a fabulous glass show which will be up until Dec 28. There were three Dale Chihuly pieces, one of which I liked very much. The fabulous surprise was "discovering" Jon Kuhn who works in cold-fused glass crystal. His "A Byte of Time" is breathtaking! There was a Benjamin Moore piece that I might have seen at the Met in NYC; it is a magical blue "bowl" with dramatic lip that casts an ethereal shadow. Those were only three of about a dozen lovely works. The show also had some ancient glass pieces that were exquisite little gems. That part of the museum was worth the whole visit.


Then there was "The Greeting", a video installation by Bill Viola which will also be up until Dec 28th. It is the first modern piece that I have ever enjoyed! It was (approximately) a 4' X 8' video that was like a classic painting come to life. The artist staged and shot a meeting of three women, dressed in modern clothes that are reminiscent of old Roman garb. The flowing long dresses and the red scarf of one are a perfect counterpoint to the dramatic, hard-edged perspective of the street behind them. Reading the label outside the darkened room, I learned that the whole scene was actually a 45 second segment. However, the artist had slowed it down so much that it took 10 minutes to watch. It moved so slowly that you could absorb the composition as it changed as well as the emotions that were on the three women's faces. Static classic painting could not include such a dynamic element as the motion the current artist enhanced.


Since reading Germaine Greer's The Obstacle Race I'm looking at museum pieces with new eyes. That was fun, too. It was interesting to feel my own reactions to different art pieces - and why. Jon Davis's "Lost Luggage" show was interesting intellectually but it did not grab me the way the other two galleries did. As I was leaving I heard one man say to his wife that a particular large abstract was "very feminine". Why? Because it was in pastels? I shook my head and headed for the gift shop.

I hope you each are having a good art date for yourself now and then.
Florrie