Springtime

One of my favorite flowers are Bleeding Hearts (they are actually perennials). The most popular name here is "Tränende Herzen" - Crying Hearts.
Where my grandmother lived, there was a small meadow with three buildings around it, and along the walls of those buildings, there were Bleeding Hearts. I still see myself sitting down beside them to admire the little pink hearts which were so perfect.
Probably my memory deceives me and there wasn't the mass of blossoms I seem to remember, but that doesn't change anything about my thinking of my grandmother every time I see one of those plants.

Picture via pxhere

Then one day I stumbled upon a picture on deviantArt which surprised me, not sure why it did because I love looking at flowers, but don't know the next thing about them.
It was a white Bleeding Hearts plant and it looked beautiful. I had seen black and blue ones on the web before and knew those weren't real, but white ones are and I immediately fell in love. So when I met the neighbor the next day and he told me he was off to the garden center, I jokingly asked him to bring me white Bleeding Hearts and he did!

It has been in our little garden for some years now and while it's not blooming in abundance, it makes me smile every year.
Last week Monday, there were no blossoms yet, but when I went down two days later to fill up the bird feeder, I was happy to see two little rows of white.
From what I read, April is rather early for Bleeding Hearts to bloom. Part of the blossoms were still quite delicate and I just hoped the predicted rain wouldn't be too hard on them because it was already too dark to get a good picture.

The next morning I checked from the window and saw a blossom peek out from under the green, so I went down - without much hope because it was a really grey day, just how I love it, but not good for pictures with my little old camera - and found them alive and well.
Welcome spring!

If you want to know more about Bleeding Hearts, where they come from, and an old tale behind the name, check out
Bleeding heart: origin, properties and flowering time

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Three years ago we got our egg delivery via bunny post for the first time. This was the promo picture and we were sold right away. Who could resist such a sweet smile?
Actually, he's an old friend of mine.

This year, however, there's a new kid in town because Mr. Gnome is on Easter vacation - Floppy the Bunny who has moved in here not long ago (it was a sale and I blame my sister, this time because she gave him to me 😉), just in time to take over. You have to give young people a chance, don't you?

I just hope Floppy hasn't got overwhelmed ... it was a lot of work.

Mr. Gnome made by my lovely friend Jennifer ❤
Running bunny made by Steiff
Floppy by Steiff (actually his name is Hoppy, but he reminded me so much of the rabbit Bluey's sister Bingo has)
Chocolate by Lindt
Wire knit and bead eggs made by me

I'm not affiliated with Steiff or Lindt in any way.

Random Saturday - Random kitty

What can I say? Der Dekan has been the epitome of grace from his very first day with us.
I never really told his story here, did I? Of course Gundel did it on Ponder's blog, mostly to vent about what I had done to her by letting this little monster in our house.

Der Dekan moved in here shortly after my birthday in 2021. The birthday was coincidence.
I felt it was time to find a companion for Gundel after Ponder had been gone for almost one and a half years. So I talked to Kosel, one of the upstairs poodles, to bring me a kitten the next time he went to the garden in a village nearby with his humans. There was a farm near there.
Just a few days later I got sent an email with a picture and the order to put the crate in the hallway. You have to remember these were still very much Covid times which was also the reason for not picking an older companion for Gundel, 1. I couldn't get to a shelter easily, 2. especially not one that didn't insist on a balcony (without exceptions), 3. as we know, shelters were wiped clean at the time (I wish they still were). 4. I didn't take two kittens because I wanted Gundel to get involved and because I was at home all the time. Gundel didn't warm up to him right away like some cats do to kittens, but they really get along fine with some very minor spats.
The email said something about how this little fellow "had to go" which I found curious. Shortly after I got my crate back, filled up with the cutest little kitten, randomly chosen ... or was he?
Possibly it had to do with him being one of nine siblings (people, as cute as kittens are, please neuter your pets!) or maybe one point was the content of his litter box.

I don't know if you can see it here, but he had a bit of a balloon belly and it wasn't worms. Maybe he had started early eating everything in sight and had got something wrong? Anyhow, the master started his new life at the vet's where he got injections and got put on a diet until his guts calmed down and I didn't need oxygen anymore after cleaning out his box.

I still like to call him Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More than 30 years with cats, and this one still finds ways to surprise me, in good ways and some, erm, slightly annoying ways.
Everything he does, he does 200 %. Yeah, we are both not good at math.

Do you wonder why I'm telling you his story on this day of all days? Well, it's his birthday (yes, we assigned one, but he said he's okay with that)!
It's hard to believe that he's four years already and still the adorable little kitten ... What? A girl is allowed to dream, isn't she?
He may not be little (give me a moment while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes), but he's still adorable. Here's one of my favorite pictures even if he just eyed my cheese sandwich.

He's not at all macho (send help, he's making me say that!).

And of course he's always well-behaved (where's the help??).

Happy Purrday, my furry baby, I love you - no need to send help, no one had to make me say THAT.

Tackle that stash - Mookaite "teeth" earrings

Maybe you remember my mookaite "teeth" necklace that I made a few years ago inspired by a favorite YA novel of my childhood (with regular re-reads) - Rulaman from 1878 about a tribe of cave people set in an area not far from me at all which of course made this an even more fascinating read.
This is an illustration of the fest held after they hunted down the dangerous cave lion to whom they lost so many family members.
The idea that there were cave lions and bears in my area was so exciting to me!

I said then that I might make more using a different Delica color and of course promptly forgot about that until I shared the necklace elsewhere last week.

Last time I used copper and berry for the bead strips holding the stones and even if it doesn't seem this way, I chose the stones by size. The one in the center is the longest and then I chose similarly sized pairs to build the sides.
This time I went for different browns for the strips and as my left over stones were all over the place in regards to size, I thought earrings from teeth would have been something even for Neanderthals - not in combination with metal of course, but after all the plan was not to make authentic Neanderthal jewelry, but to be inspired by it.
Yes, it is indeed believed that they did wear jewelry and makeup.
Of course those earrings would be asymmetrical and probably random in the choice of stones, just the way mine are.

At first I had put three stones on each earring, but I couldn't get the third stone and chain to fall the way I wanted it to, due to the size of the dangles. I think two worked much better.

Here's a longer variation.

Not all of my stash tacklers have to become something big.
My mookaite stash is not even close to being used up with these earrings. I have a little box with different sizes, shapes, and colors.
There are also these beautiful big beads, not many matching pairs among them, but these two cream colored make a really nice one.

Since I got that box in a destash, the beads call to me every, now and then. It will be interesting to see even for myself what the next ones will want to be!

Silent movies - A trip to the moon

1902 was a good year. My grandmother was born which also made me possible and therefore this post, and Richard Steiff designed their first teddy bear, the PB 55 (I'm not going into the discussion who invented the teddy).
And it also was the year for "Le voyage dans la lune" to come out, in English known as "A Trip to the Moon".
It's incredible 15 1/2 minutes long which was quite long, practically feature-length for those early days of film.
What's happening, you may think, so much for attention span! Is she already getting tired? Will the next one be even shorter? Let's say that's not the plan, but you never know what happens.

Not only does this film takes us to yet another genre, science-fiction, and is regarded to be the first one in it, but it's iconic - in fact it's where it all began.
Of course that doesn't mean it's the first movie ever as we all know, but those coming before were short documentations of everyday life, such as the famous train arriving at a station, by the Lumière brothers.
Enter the stage - Georges Méliès.

Public domain via Wikimedia

Méliès was born into a wealthy family, his father had a high-quality boot factory. When he was sent to London for work and to improve his English, visits at the Egyptian Hall sparked his passion for stage magic which didn't stop when he returned to Paris. After his father retired, Méliès sold his share to his brothers, bought a theater, and began creating illusions of his own.
Attending a private demonstration of the Lumière cinematograph led to Méliès buying an Animatograph film projector and modifying it into a film camera. Unlike the Lumières, however, who wanted to save the medium for scientific and historical study, he used it to bring his magic and special effects such as the stop trick or superimposition - which he also often invented himself -  onto the screen and to cater to the fairground and music hall crowd. He also often acted in his own films.
Unfortunately, his career declined over the years due to problematic deals which finally led to his ruin, so he had to earn his livelihood at a candy and toy stand. Even after his work was rediscovered and appreciated again, his financial situation did not improve until his death.

Back to our moon trip.
The story is told rather quickly as early Méliès films didn't have an elaborate plot.
A group of scientists - looking more like wizards with their pointy hats and robes - fly to the moon in a space capsule launched by a cannon and with a military group of ladies in shorts (that would have reminded me of the shorts we wore to sports in school in the early 70s if they had been black) cheering them on.

Even if you don't know the film, you probably know this picture, the Man in the Moon hit in the eye by the space capsule (we never learn if he has recovered from this traumatic incident; also I can never help being reminded of the moon from The Mighty Boosh which simply must have been inspired by this one).

The scientists get out, watch the Earth rise, and fall asleep missing the celestial and magic scene above them until they get woken up by snow.

They explore the fantastic moonscape until they meet the moon's natives, kill some of them - at least that's how I interpret them going up in smoke -  but finally get captured.
They manage to escape and run back to their capsule followed by natives with big spears.

Are you confused by the mix of black and white and color
in the screenshots? We'll be getting to that.

They kill some more, but one of them jumps on the capsule before the scientists leave the moon and dive into the ocean. The space capsule is towed back by a ship and the scientists, showing off the native who miraculously survived the fall as well, are welcomed home enthusiastically.

The movie was inspired by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells books. Humankind has always been fascinated by the moon and there are many tales woven around it, new and old ones, so I'm not surprised Méliès liked the idea of going to the moon and find it filled with wonders.
I'm not sure how much his scientists really appreciate that thought, however. As mentioned in one blog, "film historian Matthew Solomon points out that Méliès' 1890s political cartoons mocked militant nationalism and bullying colonialism". I think it's safe to say that the wizardy costumes already show that Méliès didn't take them too seriously, also the professor (played by himself) simply draws an arrow from Earth to Moon and off they go where no man has gone before. Who even designed the capsule? They more or less just stand in the way when it's being built.
Then, instead of doing some serious exploring, they immediately get distracted by a moon native, start killing a few, escape, kill some more and shove off, only to show off the one native they brought home in a very undignified way.
Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it, especially for a time when there were still "human zoos".
And for those who didn't notice that, it was just fun, whimsy, and magical.

Méliès had some of the prints hand colored - that explains the screen shots, you can see the movie in black and white here or the colored version here - and one of those was found in Spain in 1993 and restored which took years. There's a documentary about it which I haven't seen (yet), but would love to.
Hand colored means someone actually painted frame by frame. The sets themselves had been painted in black and white for better contrast in the film.
Try both versions and see what you like better. I think here the colors add to the magic and dreamy mood.

The film was a success with the audience. Unfortunately, that also contributed to it being heavily pirated in the USA (yes, Edison was included, too) and imitated which resulted in big profit losses for Méliès who had not only put a lot of time, but also money into it.

If you are interested in the medium film at all, give this a try (and the two videos in the sources which tell you more about the film, but also the man behind it). It's worth it.

Sources:
1. A Trip to the Moon: Film History #1. On YouTube, channel "A Matter of Film"
2. The Father of Special Effects: Georges Méliès. On YouTube, channel "This is Barris! - French History"
3. Fritzi Kramer: A Trip to the Moon (1902): A Silent Film Review. On "Movies Silently", March 29, 2015
4. Daniel Stride: Review: A Trip to the Moon [Film] (1902). On: A Phuulish Fellow, July 19, 2020
5. Dan Stalcup: Review: A Trip to the Moon (1902). On: The Goods: Film Reviews, November 20, 2020

Springtime in Paris - Paris Blues

This post is part of the Springtime in Paris event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings have on their blogs this spring.
Today's movie is "Paris Blues".

Artists of all kinds have always been drawn by the charms of Paris, painters, photographers, composers, musicians, and there is more than one movie about Americans in Paris (for example "An American in Paris", what a surprise).

"Paris Blues" is about two of them, Ram and Eddie, both of jazz musicians.
Ram is white and aspires to be a serious musician, Eddie is black and came to Paris because to escape racism at home (as in fact many black artists did).
At the train station, Ram meets two tourists, Connie who is black and her friend Lillian who is white. Ram is attracted to Connie and invites her to see him perform at the club. She's not interested, but Lillian convinces her to go. When they leave the club, Ram tries to flirt with Connie again and gets angry when she rejects him.
In the end, Connie leaves with Eddie and Ram ends up in bed with Lillian.

The relationships develop over the next few days.
Both of the women want the men to come back to the USA with them. Lillian, who has two children, wants Ram to commit to their relationship, Connie is convinced you can only change things at home and therefore tries to persuade Eddie to go back. Ram, however, puts his music first and Eddie is glad he experiences less discrimination and racism in Paris.
Thereupon, the women decide to head back home early.
After meeting with a record producer and having one of his compositions rejected, Ram is ready to go with Lillian.
Eddie can't bear the thought of losing Connie and agrees on following once he has settled his affairs in Paris.
When they meet at the train station, though, Ram tells Lillian he has changed his mind and will be staying in Paris because he can't give up on his dream of a more respected career as a musician. Lillian tells him he will never forget her and gets on the train, heart-broken.

The film doesn't show the romantic Paris for tourists. I couldn't imagine it in color. Actually Connie and Lillian don't even get the chance for sightseeing.
You get to see the Paris of the artists in pictures that are beautiful without being sugarcoated, the clubs, the bird market, the drugs, the good moments and the disappointments, the music and the mood, and the movie is easy enough to watch, but to me it was like a babbling brook. I can't help that image, that's what it felt like throughout the movie.
Connie and Eddie talk about racism and how she wants to fight it at its source and he wants to escape it, but it didn't sound as passionate to me as it could have been.
The same goes for Lillian and Ram, I didn't feel any big passion and therefore didn't feel very sympathetic towards both of them, Ram not getting his big chance with the producer and Lillian not getting the relationship she wanted.
Maybe I struggled understanding big decisions like that being made within 12 days?

There are only two scenes that really stood out for me and both of them didn't have to do with the couples.
One was when Louis Armstrong as Wild Man Moore comes into the club and starts a spontaneous jam session which is wonderful. Actually I loved the whole score by Duke Ellington, period.
The other one was when Ram got into a fight with his guitarist over his drug addiction. I really felt that one, but that wasn't what the movie was mainly about, right?

It has been said that the film missed the chance on making a real impact by not mixing the couples up. Poitier talked about the studio getting cold feet after - so the rumor goes - the original idea had been interracial relationships.
It would definitely have made it more interesting and given the opportunity for deeper conversations and conflict.

Now I'm not saying that "Paris Blue" is bad, I still enjoyed watching it, but I think it could have been better.
Poitier regarded it as a step in the right direction and maybe we should just take it as that.

Ombré flower

This pendant got started "backwards" because I had forgotten to sew on one of the leaves for Nadine's palm in my last embroidery piece. Then I found I just had about enough of those green beads left for one more leaf, so I beaded that, and only then I started thinking about a main design to go with those leaves.
I had a small flower in mind, but as you can see once again my mind and Mabel (my imaginary muse) didn't agree and as usual Mabel won.

I pulled three colors from my drawer for an ombré design. The red is one of my regular stock-ups because I love the color, the other two were in one of my surprise orders.
Sometimes the bead tubes in those orders are full, sometimes they are leftovers, so I didn't have much of the salmon color and therefore didn't know how many petals I would be able to make. I honestly didn't think it would be enough for the fifth one and had already made plans how to deal with that. It was pretty close in the end, I had about ten beads left when I finished!

After the petals were attached to each other, the hole in the center was next.
The last time I made a flower with brick stitch petals, I had filled the center with beads in the round, but this time I went for loads of stamina in yellow and gold on a bead foundation instead.
Then I sewed on the leaves and beaded a golden bail and voilà!
Some time ago I got some black satin ropes and spontaneously added a few pink ones although I didn't know if I would ever use those, but isn't it perfect for my flower?