Patti Lynn Clark Barnett

Here are a few pictures Stan took.

We visited Valley Forge National Park this afternoon and took these pictures. The weather was beautiful, bright and cold! I hope you enjoy these pictures of the National Memorial Arch.

This is the inscription on the inside of the arch:

And here in this place of sacrifice in this vale of humiliation in this valley of the shadow of that death out of which the life of America rose regenerate and free let us believe with an abiding faith that to them Union will seem as dear and Liberty as sweet and Progress as glorious as they were to our fathers and are to you and me and that the institutions which have made us happy preserved by the virtue of our children shall bless the remotest generation of the time to come. --Henry Armitt Brown

This is a detail of the arch ceiling:

The arch is to the right of the flag behind the trees:

I have memories of two unfortunate Memorial Days in the past. One was when I missed meeting my Maker, by a hair, in Scottsdale, Arizona that I recounted in last year's Memorial Day post. The other was when Wallace, our cat, got so badly hurt that he wound up in the hospital for a week. However, this Memorial Day experience was as positive as these other two were negative.
 
The Memorial Day week end started in New York and ended in Reading, Pennsylvania at an Andre Rieu concert. New York, as always, was brimming with excitement and people. The city was awash with the military. And I had the opportunity to speak with a few servicemen and tell them how much they are appreciated. And, as always, I advertise my website.  But I must spend most of this post on the high light of the year, so far. The Andre Rieu Concert!
 
I have seen Andre Rieu on TV several times and have been a fan for years. So, having the opportunity to finally see this maestro and his orchestra in person was an Event, to be sure! They played to a packed Sovereign Center last night in Reading, Pennsylvania. I wish I could even begin to describe the atmosphere and performance. When Andre Rieu and the "Gang" of musicians marched down the isle and took center stage the crowd went crazy. This is possibly the most beloved violinist and orchestra leader in the world. And his audiences include every age and social class. He crosses all barriers and just brings his audiences the joy of his music. His is the epitome of great music of our time, I believe. It was as colorful and entertaining evening as one could imagine. There were beautiful girls in wonderful gowns and the music ranged from Straus waltzes to Mozart concertos to mariachi boom boom to, "Amazing Grace". The vocalists were all, I suppose, among the best the world has to offer. Magnificent, is the word that comes to mind.

His violin playing and conducting are impeccable, as was the whole orchestra's performance. It was obvious that he requires nothing short of excellence from every musician as well as himself. So, we were all the recipients of this musical purity and beauty. One of the female sopranos was the youngest to win the Australian Opera award at nineteen. When she sang, "Ave Maria" it was truly like an angel, as Andre said when introducing her.  He assured us, before she sang, that we had never heard such a rendition before and he was right. The huge video screens allowed a close-up into the  beauty and expressions of all the musicians.

Andre had made several good natured jabs at Reading, a relative backwater in comparison to their usual venues. In his awkward English, he said, "We play all over the world, the word's biggest cities, but lately I have not been able to think of anything but, READING!" The people laughed and loved him. The evening was total entertainment from beginning to end. And the end seemed as if it would never come. The audience would not let them go and they played encore after encore.

I am just grateful that such music still exists and that there is a growing following for Rieu's entertainment. I am also grateful that my husband and I had the opportunity to see and enjoy such a night of entertainment and excellence. I hope you will not miss seeing him if he is ever anywhere near you. I promise you, you will then and only then know what I'm talking about. You will not regret it!

The Gwynedd Wildlife Preserve is absolutely beautiful and practically in our own back yard. I'm supportive of private citizens and corporations preserving green space and I'm also very grateful they have prevented this land from being subdivided. Otherwise, we would not be able to enjoy it like we do.

Last Sunday was a spectacular day with clear blue skies and it was so warm we ended up carrying our coats. Far more like spring than mid winter temperatures. Other than very muddy trails, it was perfect. My husband and I sat under this lonely hickory tree last year and ate hickory nuts he arduously cracked with a rock. Fresh hickory nuts taste fantastic, but if you have ever eaten them from the shell, you'll understand why they are so very expensive, that is if you can find them at all.  It is virtually impossible for mere humans to extract the delicious little nuggets from their cloistered embedments and chambers. However, an amazing non struggle for the squirrels I've seen devouring them with almost mechanical speed. Seems to me the hickory nut tree is rare and headed for extintion. This being the first I've seen in years. On this visit, we could not find a single nut that the squirrels had not gotten to first. Must have heard we were coming:))

I am thankful to God for our good health and the ability to experience the joy of days like this.

I hope you all had a joyful Christmas. Instead of traveling south to be with family, we made some relatively short and very enjoyable trips. The first was New York City, a must see at Christmas time. The sights, sounds and delicious smells of food truly delight the senses and get even the Grinchiest hearts in the holiday spirit. Bergdorf Goodman's fantastical creations were the best. But pictures don't come anywhere close to doing justice to the detail and imaginative effort that obviously go into these beautiful artistic endeavors. Plus, only a portion could be photographed. They must begin working on them in January! We also saw the Buccellati jewelry at Bergdorf Goodman's which is also spectacularly beautiful.

Winston Churchill Avenue is in Paris off the Champs-Elysees on the Left bank and runs between the Grand and Petit Palaces. The street, of course, is named for Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's Prime Minister during World War II. There's a statue of France's leader, General Charles De Gaulle at the north end of the avenue and one of Winston Churchill at the other. The Churchill statue is modeled from a photo of Churchill marching with De Gaulle down the Champs Elysees on November 11, 1944.

A ceremony was held on the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which ended World War 1. Queen Elizabeth II joined France's president Jacques Chirac to unveil the statue of her first Prime Minister who led Britain during World War II. The Queen, speaking in French said, "I am confident that Winston Churchill, my first Prime Minister, who guided me with such wisdom and humor through the early years of my reign, would have commended to me the special recognition of the 80th anniversary of the Armistice".

Brian Reeve, an expatriate businessman, remembers suffering through the London Blitz as a child. He said," Churchill was a man on the move, who wouldn't stop". He said Churchill would walk through the streets just encouraging people, and this, "Was very, very, impressive even to the kids".

The 10 ft. bronze statue by French sculptor, Jean Cardot, weighs two-and-a half tonnes. The plinth bears the immortal words, "We shall never surrender". Churchill is one of a very few foreigners to have his likeness displayed in Paris.

 We need more stalwart souls like Churchill today. His brand of fearless optimism and rock solid resolution are in short supply among modern politicians. 

The cathedral is dedicated to, "Our Lady" (Notre Dame) and stands in the center of France, the point from where all distances are measured. This is also the center of Paris. Midst so much historical significance and architectural grandeur, it is difficult to select a focal point on which to write a post.

I'd studied about the edifice's flying buttresses and the orders of columns in an art class, but other than that I knew very little about Notre Dame. The facade includes a panel depicting Judgment Day. Angels with trumpets are reminding us that all people from all social classes will be judged someday. Jesus stands between twelve apostles. Above them is a row of 28 kings of Judah. Somewhere between 1789 and 1799 (during the French Revolution) the citizenry took these statues to represent the much despised kings of France. So, they decapitated the statues. A neighborhood school teacher collected the heads and buried them for safe keeping in his back yard. In 1977, some 200 years later, they were discovered during excavation for a construction project. Today the 28 original heads can be seen a few blocks away in the Cluny Museum and the original statues have had reproduction heads installed.

When the rise of Christianity started to become threatening in Paris, the bishop of Paris, St. Denis, was beheaded by the Romans. This was to put the fear of the Roman gods into Christians entertaining the idea of forsaking the establishment ways. Well, it is said that St. Denis, headless but determined, "Got up, tucked his head under his arm and headed north, paused at a fountain to wash it off and continued on until he found just the right place to meet his Maker. Parisians were convinced by this miracle and Christianity gained ground and a church soon replaced a pagan temple".

God’s creation of human kind is described in Genesis:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed”.

Auguste Rodin's "The Hand of God" represents the creation of humanity in marble. Ideally, it is nice to see these sculptures from all angles for full appreciation. This sculpture was on a heavy table that could be rotated and it was in front of a mirror as well. Of course, a photograph is but a vague representation of this amazing work of art.

The Louvre has over 30, 000 works of art displayed along 12 miles of displays. Suffice it to say, we walked five hours and saw a fraction.

The wind blown, "Winged Victory" "Venus de Milo" and "The Mona Lisa" are here among all the other art treasures great and small.

Once a friend of mine in Phoenix, on first seeing a portrait I'd labored over for days, had no comment. It ticked me off and I said so. His reply was, "Patti, after seeing the works of art (like that above) in the Louvre......." A lack of tact maybe, but now I can't argue with where he was coming from.

The Orsay and Orangerie Museums are the homes of my favorite group of artists, the Impressionists: Renoir, Monet, Manet, Cezanne and others. The impressionists', seemingly, carelessly, splattered and splashed canvases made it easy to understand why the established artists of the 19th century were outraged, shocked and insulted. They wanted to ride these, "No talent, messy, lazy dabblers" out of town on a rail. Such departure from the laboriously detailed realism to which they had devoted their lives was a disgrace to the name of art. You can’t get any more wrong than that. This is a picture taken through the back of one of the two large clocks in The Orasy Museum. The view is north across the Seine.

Of course these museums house art of other styles and periods. It is difficult to take your eyes away from the beauty of "The Birth of Venus" painted by Alexander Cabanel in 1863. The same can be said for numerous other works, for sure.

 The panels of Monet's water lilies, at the Orangerie, I must admit, were disappointing. They, like the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre were much easier to appreciate in reproductions. The “Mona Lisa” is quite small, behind glass and roped off so that you can only get within about 10 feet. And then there was a huge crowd. This is far from an ideal environment for experiencing great art!

If your levels of creativity are waning, these visits will get you going again…or nothing will.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, "Le Dance"