From the front yard
Greetings to thee, Heavenly May of Eternal Wisdom, wherein there has grown the fruit of Eternal Blessedness. For eternal adornment I pray today for all the red roses a hearty love; for all the small violets, a humble inclination; for all the tender lilies, a pure embrace; and for all kinds of beautifully colored and lighted flowers, any heath or mead, forest or fertile plain, tree or meadow, which has been, may have been, or shall be brought forth…; for all cheerful songs of the birds, which ever have been sung on a May-twig, my soul bids thee uncreated praise; and for the ornament by which all temporal Mays are adorned, my soul lifts itself up to Thee today—Thou Blessed May—that Thou wouldst help me in this brief time to praise Thee similarly so that I—living fruit—may be nourished by Thee eternally.
—Meister Eckhardt’s pupil Heinrich Suso, reflecting allegorically on the springtime garden. Thou Blessed May as a name for God is simply wonderful.
Framed version of the carving I wrote about last week. After reading more about the origins and context of the iconography I decided to title it “Crowned with Life.” More on that (and more carvings) next week, I hope.
Pinkladies.
A crowned bird and flower, from inspiration to carving
Here’s a crowned bird and flower design from inspiration to carving. The original artist is unknown, but little paintings like this one (c. 1840) were sometimes given by teachers as rewards to students. The bird may or may not have symbolized the soul, as birds are intermediaries between earth and heaven; if so, is this one crowned in glory? Or do these little guys just look better with something on their heads?
We have reached the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel season for photography along the Eno River. I haven’t done much with the photo challenge this month, but can we call this dreamy? I guess it depends on what you dream about.
Time for mountain laurel in the Piedmont.
There is something incomparably stupid about struggling to sketch distelfink-and-flower designs out of one’s head while a two-volume set titled Pennsylvania German Fraktur, containing 1000 images and purchased at not inconsiderable cost, sits literally two feet in front of one’s eyes. More to come.
Sometimes in designing furniture you use classical proportions and the golden ratio. And then sometimes the thing has to fit under a window whose sill is at 25”, and you have a 14”-wide board that determines the depth of the top, and you want to maximize storage, so 14x25x36 it is. No magic here.