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Telling the time

September 16, 2015

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Florence, Italy

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The barefoot queen, Ildefonso Falcones

It is 1748. A black woman leaves a ship in Sevilla, Spain. She used to be a slave at a tobacco plantation on Cuba, but her master died at sea and now she is free. There is one problem, she has no idea what she can do with that freedom. Without work, money or any knowledge of the foreign country she now is, her freedom is of little use to her. Caridad only has two things, a voice to sing with and a knowledge of tobacco. The gypsy Melchor finds her and takes her to his family. In her singing he recognizes her pain and her tobacco knowledge he can use. He is, like so many gypsies, involved in smuggling tobacco. Melchors family are Vega’s, a group of proud gypsies who do not bow to the laws of the Spanish king or the Church. They are gypsies and they are free. There is also a group of gypsies who do follow the rules of the civilians and there is no love lost between these two groups. Caridad becomes friends with Melchor’s granddaughter Melagros. Melagros is in love with gyps...

Exhibition Jan Veth

Jan Veth is a Dutch artist, painter, and art critic who lived from 1864-1925. He was also a professor in art history and was one of the people who founded the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam. In short, he was a very divers and versatile man and highly appreciated by other artists in his time. He was mostly specialized in portraits. Last week I saw an exhibition about his work and I was blown away by how absolutely beautiful his works are. It is amazing to see his attention to details. Spectacular! I did not know Jan Veth very well, perhaps I read his name here or there, but after last week I am a fan. So here are a few examples of his paintings. Selfportrait Portrait of his father Portrait of a woman Portrait of a laborer, Portrait of a woman on her sick-bed The exhibition: The eye of Jan Veth can be seen in the Dordrechts museum in Dordrecht until September.

What have I been doing?

In the past months I have been reading a lot. I am busy with two little reading projects, reading all the Agatha Christie detectives and reading Bronte. I am making really nice progress in both projects. I have already read more than 12 Agatha Christies and I now I am reading them in chronological order I see how she developed as a writer. I love reading all the Bronte books. I am almost finished with all the novels. I did read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights , but I never read the other novels, until now. I love the novels by Anne Bronte, both Agnes Grey and The tenant of Wildfell Hall . I also loved many parts of Shirley by Charlotte Bronte and now I am reading Vilette . This is not an easy read (and since there is no Dutch translation of this book, I have to read it in English), but I do love it. I also have The professor and Emma Browne still on my shelves, and also many non-fiction books and books based on their lives and novels. In short, I am completely emerg...

The greenhouse effect, UJB April 2016

The theme for Urban Jungle Bloggers this month was plants and glass. And the moment I read this, I rememberd I bought a little greenhouse a couple of years ago. At the moment I did not use it, but I immediately thought how I could use this greenhouse for this month's UJB. In the gardencenter I spotted these little plants, and i thought they were really cute. I usually do not like a cactus, and I am always afraid that Silvia will get her nose hurt in one of them, but inside a greenhouse they can harm nobody (and no cat) and they look super-lovely grouped together. I placed the plants inside the little greenhouse and closed the lid. They now have a place in the sun and I am very pleased with it. Unfortunately, this palm was too high to fit inside the greenhouse. Poor thing. So I put it into a glass candleholder and now it still fits with the theme of plants and glass. I did not want to leave it out! Urban Jungle Bloggers (here) is an initiative from...

The waters of eternal youth, Donna Leon

As always I was very happy when the new book by Donna Leon was translated into Dutch last month. In The waters of eternal youth Brunetti is asked by an old friend of his mother in law to look into the accident when her granddaughter almost drowned, fifteen years ago. The young woman suffered brain damage and has the mental capacity of a seven year old and she cannot answer questions about what happened. Brunetti takes up the case but does not expect to find anything. Only when he wants to interview an eyewitness of the event, the witness gets murdered. And this alerts Brunetti that there must have been more to the accident than he first thought. The commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon is one of my favorites. I love the atmosphere of Venice in these books, the way Guido Brunetti ponders life and the future of Venice and the way food plays a role. Are there a few cliches here and there? Yes, there are, but not in such a way it bothers you while you read it. You...

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Telling the time

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