It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well today! I am tired this morning but doing pretty good otherwise. It’s a morning I am grateful for coffee that is for sure.
This is a short post from me today!
Read Last Week:
I loved both of these books! The Haunting of Aveline Jones was a fun Middle Grade, that was actually pretty spooky. It was extremely atmospheric and young Aveline reminds me of a young me. Lol. A Dark and Secret Magic was such a good read as well. I think it is the perfect Halloween read, with lots of autumn goodness tucked in as well as witches and ghosts and a big bad villain, and a romantic hero. Yep, I loved it.
Reading This Week:
Version 1.0.0
This week I am settling in with an old comfort read of mine, Witch by Barbara Michaels, and a new to me author, Bee Littlefield. I won a giveaway on Instagram for this book from Bee, and it came with some cute stickers, tea, a journal, and coffee as well! I am looking forward to both of these reads this week.
Nothing too different or exciting here, other than our movies for Comfy Cozy Cinema that I am doing with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings. We watched Dial M for Murder last week which was amazing, and this week we are watching Practical Magic. The post goes up Thursday! If you are watching or following along and posting, this week is wild card week – so free choice of movie, or you can watch Practical Magic as well! I wanted to add too, that our last movie is Chocolat, and we will be doing a “watch party” – basically we will all hit play at the same time, and chat on discord. (so you don’t have to worry about being on video in your jammies!)
Billy and I have also been watching What We Do In the Shadows which cracks us up, as well as The Great Pottery Throw Down. Now I am trying to convince Billy to build a kiln in the backyard. Who will win? Lol.
Hello everyone! This morning is rainy but we had the most glorious sunrise, the most amazing shades of pink and orange. It was spectacular. So is my coffee, which is Seattle’s Best Henry’s Blend this morning. I think it is my current favorite.
I feel like today is a big exhale, like I have been holding my breath for weeks making it through all of the various plans and appointments we have had. Nothing that should have been stressful, just low key busy.
Where should I start? It’s been a minute since I wrote one of these. I will start with my own good news! I have had high blood pressure since I was 24; my dad and brother since they were 13. We just have some weird genetics. Anyway, ever since I spent a month in the hospital with pre-eclampsia when I was pregnant with Wyatt, I have been extremely anxious about having my bp taken, which when you already have a history of high blood pressure is not super helpful. It’s controlled at home, but usually in the office is ridiculous. I have to take a blood pressure log and everything with me to appointments. Well, this week my blood pressure in the office was 123/85! I think my anti-anxiety medication is working! My doctor was extremely happy as was I. My log from home reflected these have been my readings at home too, that or lower, but to have it in the office was another thing altogether. So that was my little success this week!
Ok, moving on to more fun things!
We had our scout meeting the other week and we had a blast. We are exchanging nature boxes with another pack in Oregon, who live in the desert area of Oregon, so it will be really cool to see what we receive. Our scouts spent the meeting making pages of leaves stuck with contact paper and labeled. They loved it, and they also loved the leaf rubbing station we had set up as well. It was some of the kids first time doing a leaf rubbing and they thought it was magical, which was cute. The parents enjoyed it too, actually, with one of the dads making quite a few himself. I was happy to see the plans all coming together and everyone having fun.
Wyatt and I also had a fun day out the other week! We went to see the Wild Kratt’s Live Action Show in Ann Arbor, and it was pretty neat. It was Wyatt’s first show like that and he loved the being able to yell and cheer and interact with the rest of the audience and Chris and Martin. My only complaint about the whole day was the theater’s interpretation of wheelchair seating. I bought wheelchair seats and it literally was a regular seat where the arm raised up, and then Wyatt’s wheelchair, his only way to move around, was moved into the hall. We were also the last seat in the last row of the theater but that wasn’t terrible on its own, I guess just the idea of that is how they prioritize disabilities. What if there had been an emergency situation? What if I had not been able to transfer him on my own? It just felt extremely low effort on the part of the theater for accommodations for the disabled community. However, all that aside, Wyatt did have a good time and I did as well. It was nice just to have that moment and first with him.
This week we also went to the orchard and pumpkin patch! I look forward to this trip all autumn! We picked our pumpkins out and drank some hard cider (well not Wyatt), bought some apples for baking a pie and some honey, and just in general had a great time. They didn’t have doughnuts the day we went but that is ok, I think this weekend we will take a little drive to the Halloween bakery, although I haven’t told Billy and Wyatt that yet, it will be a surprise. After our pumpkin hunting, we took a walk on Grosse Ile, foraging for things to put in the scout nature box.
This month has been so full. Full of fun and family moments, watching the football game with my dad and stepmom eating our bowls of fancy ramen, a nice long massage, reading with Wyatt, sitting out on the deck for the ramp in the sun with Billy and Wyatt and Devin and my nieces. Stitching in bed while watching tv at night, our comfy cozy cinema nights, just all those little things that make up most of our days. It is apt maybe that this month is so full feeling, in tune with the season of harvest. A long time ago, when people still lived mostly off the land, this time of year would be their richest in food, as they laid up their food for the winter. We are reading about this right now in Wyatt’s read for history, The Birchbark House. I do like that the mom thought about those times they would need a little something extra too though.
I too often need a little sweetness to remain strong in spirit.
Hello everyone!! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!! Our link will be live for a whole week after we post about a movie. You can find Lisa’s post here.
This week’s movie is Dial M for Murder, another Hitchcock film. This one stars Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, and Anthony Dawson and is summarized on IMDB as “A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.”
They probably have the same problem I do – not wanting to reveal anything about this movie so they kept their summary short and sweet.
Dial M for Murder is a typical Hitchcock, full of the twists and turns and tension that we are used to. This movie wastes no time at all in getting right down to it either. The movie starts building tension immediately, as Margot and Mark are in Margot and Tony’s apartment, anticipating his return home. Margot reveals that she has gotten two letters, blackmailing her over her adulterous relationship with Mark. As they are discussing what this means and what she should do, Tony arrives home, interrupting them.
And honestly, right from this point on, the game begins.
The viewer knows everything that is happening in this movie, unlike in Rear Window when we could only see what Jeff saw. Here, we see everything unfolding before us and despite knowing all the facts, we helplessly watch as things play out and keep us on the edges of our seats. Billy and I were fairly silent as we watched this movie; normally we chat here and there, or have little comments, but for this one, we were drawn in right from the start and barely spoke.
The movie for the most part takes place in one room, Tony and Margot’s ground floor apartment, and the fear that Hitchcock can create just using that one little room, a simple setting, is pure genius, and so much rests on the performances of the actors, all of which played their roles with equal talent and genius. I admittedly had a few scenes where I gasped, surprised or shocked, and scenes where I felt like shouting at the screen – I was all in. I really really didn’t like Tony, and he played the role of a diabolical schemer so very well.
The actual “big scene” was so scary, I barely took a breath! And when Grace Kelly flung out her hand, like in the movie poster, it sent chills down my spine.
This movie really did keep us guessing, and well, I loved it. It was perfect for mid-October, a movie that was a bit scary but not too scary, not gory, and as we made ourselves comfy, with our popcorn and for me, a glass of red wine this time instead of tea, it was that perfect near Halloween feeling. When I was younger I found it in horror movies and haunted houses; now I find it with old classic Hitchcock movies watched from the comfort of my bed.
Did you watch with us? Add your post to our linky, or if you’d rather, share your comments below! The more the merrier! Find Lisa’s post here!
Next week we are watching Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, or if you would rather, throw in a wild card movie of your choice! This post will live up on Halloween!
And one final thing – we are having a watch party for Chocolat! Stayed tuned for more details but the gist is that we will all watch independently, we will press play at the same time, then discuss and chat during the movie on our discord, The Dames! I am setting up a room today for the discussion of all of our movies – feel free to join and poke around. If you are nervous because you are not familiar with discord, well, I am still figuring it out as well!
Hello everyone! Today’s prompt is about how my reading habits have changed through the years. I am not sure I will get to ten but we will see how I do!
First, probably the biggest change of all – the number of books I read a week. Before I had Wyatt, I could read 2 or 3 books a week. Now I am lucky if I can read 1! I would spend whole weekends reading all day sometimes.
Second, the amount of books I would buy for myself has changed as well since before and after motherhood. Now I buy way more books for Wyatt, and maybe one a month for myself. I always used the library like crazy, but now the majority of the books that I read come from the library first. Then if I love it I buy it or add it to my wishlist. I used to buy a lot more books for myself a month. I don’t mind though honestly, I feel like now when I do buy a book I appreciate it more.
What I read has changed through the years too. I used to read more fantasy, romantasy , historical fiction, and horror, while now I read more thriller, mystery, and middle grade. I still read every the other genres that I used to, but just less of those and more of others. I feel like I cycle through phases of reading and what I like to read. Does everyone do this?
Hmm what else..
Oh! I used to read right before bed, sometimes for hours. I can’t do that now, I will just fall asleep immediately!
I still take a book with me wherever I go – now though I usually have my book and Wyatt’s book too. He loves books just as much as I do.
I also listen to audiobooks occasionally now, which I never really did. I like to listen while I stitch or clean.
I have also started annotating and highlighting and underlining in my books. I have my little setup next to my bed, and have a highlighter and one of my favorite fine point cat pens in my purse, along with some book tag things for when I am out as well. I like to match the stickers to the cover too.
I loan my books out more freely now too. Before they were all my precious and now I feel like passing them on so others can read them is more important to me.
And I think that is it! How have your reading habits changed?
Hello everyone!! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!! Our link will be live for a whole week after we post about a movie. You can find Lisa’s post here.
Also -we have a winner for our Comfy Cozy Care Package! I will be posting the winner as well as an important update about next week’s movie at the end of this post.
This week’s movie is Rear Window starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.
The summary: When professional photographer J.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, he becomes obsessed with watching the private dramas of his neighbors play out across the courtyard. When he suspects a salesman may have murdered his nagging wife, Jeffries enlists the help of his glamorous socialite girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to investigate the highly suspicious chain of events… Events that ultimately lead to one of the most memorable and gripping endings in all of film history. (from Amazon)
Billy and I absolutely loved this movie! We were glued to the screen the entire time, except for the moments I had to cover my eyes because I was nervous (and one time because I was sad).
I think had I been Jeff in this situation, I would have totally been doing the same thing, watching the neighbors. I mean, it was pretty fascinating. A bit creepy I guess, but at the same time, there was so much to see out there. It was like a tiny little bit of life, played out large, with so many personalities. I loved how it was like snippets of all these lives, and the stories and imaginings they had about the inhabitants. And then the ending! Not just with Jeff and Lisa, but it was really cool to see how the stories ended for all the people he had been watching. It was just so many mini-stories laid out, and I loved it.
The main story itself, where Jeff begins to have suspicions plays out perfectly. As events transpire, I think it unfolds exactly as it should. There was nothing too crazy, and it reminded me on some level of Only Murders in the Building, which seems like it may have been a little inspired by Rear Window in some ways.
Hitchcock was seriously a master at his craft. The scenes he sets up, the feelings they invoke, the tension, the fear that can be created by the sound of a door clanging.. some scenes were so simple yet could send shivers down your spine.
I loved all the main characters in this movie, especially James Stewart and Grace Kelly. They both played their characters so believably that I began to just imagine that is how they really are. I totally could buy Grace Kelly as high society but with a twist- in fact I thought her character was so charming. And Stewart, while older, didn’t seem too old, even though there are twenty-one years between their ages. Sometimes in older movies it can be a bit ick but I didn’t get that too much in this one.
This year was also the 70th anniversary of this film so happy anniversary Rear Window!
Overall, I loved this movie. It is an old classic that I should have watched much sooner in my life than this!
If you have watched along with us, and want to share your link, please feel free. We would love it!
Ok – so let’s talk about next week’s movie. We were originally going to watch a movie I chose, Murder by Death. I chose it because I read that it was funny and because it has Maggie Smith in it but I didn’t do much research on it other than that. However, after doing some reading it looks like it could be considered problematic so we are going to scrap that one and trade it for Dial M for Murder instead. It is probably not a bad movie, but a movie that didn’t meet the goal of what was trying to be achieved – it was actually trying to shine a light on racism and homophobia, and no one mentions the ableism but I think I read that is in there too, that was prevalent in Hollywood and the world, but instead just looks like it is in fact all of those things itself. Anyway, we decided to watch Dial M for Murder for Comfy Cozy Cinema, since we are trying to be cozy and snug with this fun movie watching challenge. I think both of us plan on watching Murder by Death at some point though, whether it is together or just on our own.
For the week of Halloween, we are leaving it as a wild card, although Lisa and I are watching Practical Magic. Should I have a midnight margarita?
And now, our winner of the Comfy Cozy Care Package is Yvonne! Thank you to everyone who entered!
This week’s prompt is: Books I Was Assigned to Read in School
This is a fun look back at high school and college!
The Jungle and Animal Farm were both assigned in high school and they both were pretty mind-blowing to my 16 year old self. The Jungle actually turned me into a vegetarian, from like 18 until recently. So it is safe to say it made a huge impact on me!
Frankenstein was a college read, and probably one of my favorites. I absolutely loved it, and found it so very sad as well, the loneliness of the monster.
The Great Gatsby took me to wild parties, the glitz and glam of the roaring twenties, dancing, and what looks like freedom and happiness. But the reader begins to see through this to the classism and lack of compassion and caring. It is still a favorite classic of mine. I am going to stop saying this because I feel like I will just keep repeating myself.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is an amazing book where we watch the main character learn to find herself and her voice. And the book that made me terrified of rabies. Plus there is a character named Tea Cake which I loved when I first read it in college. His character was not the greatest but his name was.
Beloved is a story that haunts you, and I am not trying to make a joke. I think this book and story is one that stays with you, the trauma and fear of the characters in a world of slavery that drives people to do things they would not do under normal circumstances.
Annie on My Mind is a book I read way back when in college, in my children’s lit class. It stands out as the very first LGTBQ book I have ever read, and also because it introduced the Cloisters to me.
The Metamorphosis by Kafka is one I feel like I read in high school and in college, and I liked it both times. It was so crazy but it is possibly the only existential book I really understood in school.
In high school I was introduced to The Canterbury Tales, and I just loved them. I loved discovering all the characters stories. Another one I should go back and reread.
I had to take sooo many Shakespeare classes in school, and of all the plays that I read, Hamlet was my favorite.
And that wraps it up for me today! What were you assigned in school that stood out to you?
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone!! Last week we spent time with Billy’s aunt who is in from out of town. She lives in NC and the last time that she saw Wyatt he was a teeny tiny baby! It was really good to see her and we need to make sure it is not another ten years before we see her again.
Read Last Week:
Last week, I read Berries & Bones by James Stephans and Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina; I also finished listening to The Pumpkin Spice Cafe.
I absolutely loved Sisters of the Lost Nation and could not put it down. I was sucked in immediately, and Billy stopped me once from flipping to the back to read the ending. It was excellent. It was part horror, but horror based upon Indigenous lore, and also mystery/thriller. It also highlights the crisis surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Berries & Bones was …different? I both loved it and thought it was weird. Old Bear and his cozy den was described so perfectly and I wanted to move in with him and drink his tea and eat his pies. However he goes on a mushroom hunt one late fall afternoon and all sorts of things befall him, and the story starts to feel like a fairy tale quest, complete with otherworldly creatures. And, it ends on a cliffhanger!
I finally finished listening to The Pumpkin Spice Cafe. I enjoyed it, it was very cute and fluffy and had big time fall vibes, but I also felt like the MMC’s (male main characters) issues that were the wedge that could potentially keep the two apart sort of dragged out too long. I was rolling my eyes at him near the end of the book, like come on dude get over it. As far as spice, there was definitely some spice, not closed door. It is hard for me to rank romance since I don’t read too much of it, but I would say I enjoyed Haunted Ever After more.
Reading This Week:
I am in love with the cover of A Dark and Secret Magic. It just looks so fall! Like perfectly fall.
Listening:
Wyatt is learning about dinosaurs in science right now, and it has been a big reminder that I have not actually thought too much about them beyond the Jurassic Park movies since I was in 3rd/4th grade. I thought this book sounded really interesting and I am looking forward to starting my listen.
Billy and I are watching the television show What We Do in the Shadows which is hysterical. We are also watching The Pottery Throw Down most nights, which is also amazing in a much different way.
As for movies, we are halfwayish through our Comfy Cozy Cinema lineup that we buddy watch with Lisa from Boondock Ramblings. Our movie last week was Blithe Spirit, which elicited some interesting responses. Our movie this week is Rear Window, and I am super excited to watch it tonight. It is supposed to be a rainy day and night and I think it will be the perfect movie to watch. Deb from Readerbuzz and Cat from Catwire are watching along with us some weeks and it has been a lot of fun! If you want, watch and post along with us! Or just watch along and comment with us on our posts. We are considering a watch party in November for Chocolat, where we will all tune in at home at the same time and chat during the movie on Discord.
Speaking of Comfy Cozy Cinema, there are only a few days left to enter our Comfy Cozy Care Package giveaway! We are giving away a package that contains tea, chocolate, a cute fall mug, stickers, a soft cozy blanket, a signed copy of Lisa’s 1st Gladwynn Grant book, a copy of a fall poetry anthology that I put together, two journals, as well as a few little surprises! You can enter here!
And that is it for me this rainy morning! Stay safe everyone, and try to do something that makes you smile today!
About a month ago, I posted my overly ambitious fall tbr. I knew then that I would not be following my own plan, and I am curious to compare and see how I did.
So according to my post I was going to read five books in September and I ended up reading seven books – a few of which were pretty short, but still, seven! Now, how many were on my list for September? Just one. The Full Moon Coffee Shop. I did read two from my October list though- Haunted Ever After and The Girl in White. I ended up dropping a few because I wasn’t in the mood, and then I didn’t end up reading The Starling House because I was reading Alice in Wonderland with Wyatt, and they just had some similar vibes and I couldn’t do them both at the same time. So I did do some bouncing around, and then also added in a few that I hadn’t listed.
Of the seven, my favorite reads of September were The Twilight Garden and Haunted Ever After. The Twilight Garden was just one of those books that is just heartwarming and sad and happy and all the things. About people and community and found family. It was a beautiful story. Haunted Ever After was just a fun read! I am looking forward to the next in the series, whenever that will be.
Hello everyone!! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and sometimes, chilling) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!! Our link will be live for a whole week after we post about a movie.
This week’s feature: Blithe Spirit, starring Rex Harrison, Kay Hammond, Constance Cummings, and Margaret Rutherford. Blithe Spirit is based on the play written by Noel Coward.
As the name suggests, this movie does not take itself seriously. It is silly and frivolous and cavalier, with some interesting characters. Apparently, Coward had been wanting to write a comedy with ghosts for a while, but since it was wartime he wanted to make sure that the characters were unsympathetic, as that would be too sad.
The plot: “To get background for a new book, author Charles Condomine (Sir Rex Harrison) and his second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) light-heartedly arrange for local mystic Madame Arcati (Dame Margaret Rutherford) to give a séance. The unfortunate result is that Charles’ first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond) returns from beyond the grave to make his life something of a misery. Ruth too gets increasingly irritated with her supernatural rival, but Madame Arcati is at her wit’s end as to how to sort things out.”
I think that he succeeded in creating a comedic play centering around ghosts without a sympathetic character in the bunch. Charles is the very definition of blithe, cheerfully indifferent to the goings on around him. He takes it all in stride, and yes, at times is very callous. When the ghost of Elvira comes back to haunt Charles and Ruth, he is nonplussed, even after Ruth goes through many different stages of annoyance and irritation and even worry. At first she thinks he is just being a jerk and making it all up, and even insulting her when he is talking to Elvira, which he believes she should understand even though she can’t see Elvira, then she moves on to concern that something is wrong with him, and then once Elvira proves her ghostliness to Ruth, she is at first shocked then annoyed that Elvira is hanging around, disrupting her marriage, which Charles could care less about.
Spoiler alert: Ruth also dies, and becomes a ghost. At first, Charles is just “blithely” going about his evening, getting his drink, sinking into his snug little chair by the fire. I am guessing he believes that things will be peaceful now that he is just home with his ghost wife – until his second ghost wife blows through the door.
Madame Arcati is the spiritual medium, and a bit crackers, and she tries to help Charles return the two women back “home”. After what feels like forever, to Charles and the viewer as well, Madame Arcati hits on the reason why she can’t get the spirits to leave.
Madam Arcati – let’s talk about this character for a second because for me she kind of stole the show with her crazy performance. I think she really went for it, embracing this sort or crazy, zany medium. I think she fully embraced the quirkiness of this role, and probably had a lot of fun with it. She was a kook, but she did have some cozy scenes, with shots showing her in her snug home, sitting in the window studying her books while the weather went wild around her outside.
This role has been played by three Dames, all heavy hitters – Rutherford, Angela Landsbury, and most recently, Judi Dench. Billy and I have actually seen the 2020 version starring Dan Stevens and Dame Judi, and while we thought that version was ok, the 1945 version was better.
Billy and I were impressed by the quality of the 1945 special effects. They were obviously not anything like ours, but we thought for the time they were really well done. What was especially neat was Elvira. According to a comment on IMDB, “Writer and director Sir David Lean and cinematographer Ronald Neame decided not to use double exposure to create Elvira’s ghostly appearances. Instead, Lean created an enormous set that allowed Kay Hammond to move freely in each shot. Hammond wore fluorescent green clothes, make-up, and a wig, with bright red lipstick and fingernail polish. Each time she moved, a special light would be directed on her, allowing her figure to glow even in dimly-lit scenes and giving her an otherworldly appearance.” I think it worked pretty well, as she did stand out t in the scenes she was in, and sometimes did appear very ethereal, and it would have looked fantastic in black and white.
Overall, this movie was a bit of a silly ghost movie, not sad, not spooky, just silly.
You can find this movie on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and Hulu to watch streaming for a fee. You might also be able to find it at the library.
Our next movie is Rear Window, starring James Stewart. I picked both Blithe Spirit and Rear Window, and I had no idea when I picked Rear Window that this year is the 70th anniversary of the movie. So that is a neat little extra!
Also, don’t forget to enter our Comfy Cozy Care Package Giveaway! You can enter here!
Yesterday I shared a little bit about our crazy day getting to our destination, and about an amazing bookstore. Today is all about the train! Buckle up, this is going to be a long, photo heavy post. Maybe refill your coffee..
Our Airbnb was 40 minutes from the station, so we got up early to drive to Akron. I was super nervous. The train itself is not wheelchair accessible, however it does have an ADA car that wheelchair users can ride on. The area we sat in, the skydome car, is not at all, so our plan was to leave the wheelchair in the car and Billy would carry Wyatt up to our seats. I have no idea why I was nervous about this, but I was. I didn’t need to worry however, because boarding went perfectly.
We felt pretty fancy, heading up the small staircase in the train to our seats. There were about 8 tables that sat four people in our area, and windows above us, forming the dome. The car we rode on is called the Silver Lariat, and was part of the California Zephyr back in the day. Now it transports tourists up and down the tracks, alongside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Wyatt absolutely loved every second of the ride. And so did Billy and I!! The ride was beautiful, and we saw a beaver marsh, lakes, trees, and a woman working on the most amazing cut flower garden in her yard. There are stops along the way throughout the park, but since we didn’t have Wyatt’s wheelchair we just rode the train as a roundtrip ride, a total of two hours.
This was such a fun way to start the day, and we loved it so much that we want to go back, maybe during the winter. I totally want to see snow out the window and pretend I am in the movie White Christmas. It was well worth the drive to go on this ride, and well worth the relatively inexpensive tickets for the skydome seats.
After the train ride, we went to the Visitors Center at Boston Mills in the park. We had some ice cream, and Wyatt completed his Junior Ranger Badge.
When we finished up at the National Park, we weren’t ready to pack it in quite yet. So we found a nearby nature center, the Brecksville Nature Center. The building was really cool, with carvings decorating the beams. It also had a nice sized trail that we could take Wyatt on in his wheelchair. We even saw a couple getting married in a small intimate maybe 5 or 6 person wedding ceremony. We tried to keep a respectful distance and maintained quiet while we passed them.
After tooling around the nature center, we were ready to head back to our house. We were a little wiped out! So we got some takeout, took it back, and relaxed in front of the television. We were packing up the next day to head home but we had one more adventure before we did.
We weren’t sure in the morning where we wanted to go; there are so many options! The Art Museum, the Natural History Museum, the zoo, the aquarium – we just didn’t have enough time left to hit them all. Thank goodness we are just around the lake and can go back easily enough!
We ended up choosing the art museum. I wanted to make sure that we had more than enough time to spend in the Natural History Museum, so we are definitely going back for that soon. And while Wyatt may not have had as much fun as he did on the train, he did have fun. Billy and I however really enjoyed our visit. There are so many famous artists on display here! Picasso, Van Gogh, Rousseau, Rodin, Warhol, and Monet. Sigh. Monet. I love Monet. And I got to stand in front of one of his Water Lilies paintings and it was incredible.
We also saw a dining room rug that once was in Louis the XIV’s palace. It was immense and absolutely gorgeous.
I also may have accidentally set off an invisible alarm system….ok, I did. But I didn’t mean to, and I wasn’t really breaking a rule. There were these chairs, you see, tapestry chairs with wolves in the center, and going into full homeschool mom mode, I was standing next to it, gesturing and pointing to the wolf in the middle and explaining to Wyatt how they were based off fables and blah blah blah – and my hand went over the invisible alarm in my wild gesturing apparently. The alarm was not silent. Wyatt’s eyes went wide and I was like what is happening. A security guard did come over and she told me I set off the alarm, and told me so many people do that – and said that some people even sit in the chairs!
Billy and I also went nuts in the Asian arts area, over all the pottery. We felt so knowledgeable after watching The Great Pottery Throw Down. We were throwing out terms like we were experts.
Wyatt was super bored in this area. He perked up when we went to the armor room though. Both Billy and Wyatt really loved that room.
I met them over there though, because I wanted to spend time fawning over the Faberge…
And I need to wrap this up!! We of course all had favorites. Wyatt loved the armor room the best.
In addition to the armor room, Billy really liked these two pieces, but particularly the Bats and Peaches dish.
My favorite pieces were the Faberge, a Monet called The Red Kerchief, which depicts Monet’s wife Camille, which is said to have been kept with Monet his entire life, as he loved it dearly. I also absolutely loved this painting of Nathaniel Olds, painted by Jeptha Homer Wade.
I love it so much. This is what it says about it on the website. (and on the placard under the painting)
The green-tinted spectacles worn by Olds were designed to protect the eyes from the intensity of Argand lamps, a type of indoor light used during the early 1800s. These lamps burned whale oil, and many people worried that its bright flames might damage eyesight.The painter of this portrait founded the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1854 and soon became one of Cleveland’s wealthiest industrialists. His grandson, Jeptha Wade II, was a founder of the Cleveland Museum of Art and donated the land upon which it stands as a Christmas gift to the city in 1892.
It also apparently has inspired Halloween costumes in the Cleveland area. I can see why, it is such a cool painting!
And like I said, I need to wrap this up. After exploring for a few hours, it was time to hit the road. Thankfully our ride home was uneventful, and we were all happy to see our pets when we tumbled into the house two and half hours later.
If you get a chance, check out the train and the Art Museum. They are definitely worth the trip!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 