A Tale of Two Kites

I was sitting outside my hotel near Heathrow Airport yesterday morning. A pair of red kites was soaring overhead in the flight path of landing planes. Seventeen hours later I spotted a white-tailed kite hunting next to San Pablo Bay from the train.

A lot of hours sitting around. Glad to be home and glad to see some good rain here!

Ad Mortem Festinamus

A wonderful music book just arrived for me containing 105 medieval melodies scored for alto recorder which I am now starting to learn. A lot of these songs are familiar to me but it is good to have such a compilation. I’m practicing the song Ad Mortem Festinamus which is this delightfully bouncy tune that belies the topic of its lyrics, all about us hastening unto death so we had better stop sinning. It has been recorded fairly often; here is a live performance by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI.

The lyrics and the melody for Ad Mortem Festinamus are contained in the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, a manuscript that was compiled at and still resides in the monastery at Montserrat. This manuscript contains nine other songs with musical notation. The illumination at left is from the second page of the text and music for the song.

Walking Around Worcester

When I was at university in Birmingham I came to Worcester a couple of times with my godmother to go to the market, which at the time (early 80s) sold fabric, not much of it and not particularly nice, but it was fun to explore. I/we never made it over to the cathedral, though, which I did yesterday with my godmother’s grandaughter (and my niece, long complicated story).

The cathedral was first founded in the year 680 by the Saxons. In 983 it became a Benedictine monastery before starting time in its present incarnation under the Normans. King John, of Magna Carta and Robin Hood fame, is buried there, and by 1400 it was pretty much as it is now, barring the damage sustained during the English Civil War and occasionally misguided Victorian renovation efforts, but it is an outstanding example of English gothic architecture (like King’s College Chapel in Cambridge or Salisbury Cathedral). I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention to this kind of thing when I actually lived here.

Later we walked past the busker pictured at right. Such a great sign, and so very productive for him!

Picnic Day Parade

Today was Picnic Day, which is the annual student-run open house event here at UC Davis that draws tens of thousands of visitors to the campus and town. Events range from fashion shows to weather balloon launches to dachshund races. In recent years I’ve avoided the huge crowds on campus but have gone to see the parade which kicks off at 10:15 in the morning and does a loop downtown several blocks from our house.

I decided I’d try to sketch the parade and here is the result. When I was watching the parade I sketched only with a sanguine drawing pencil but took some reference photos too. Back at home I added color with more Derwent drawing pencils and watercolor wash.

Catching up with Old Friends

I arrived in London yesterday afternoon and made my way to the Cortauld to meet up with two college friends. I’d seen them since our school days but not much and also not recently. We saw the special Seurat and the Sea exhibition which was astonishing. I’m afraid my feet have decided they’ve had enough and made sure I didn’t give the paintings the full attention they deserve, but I was very glad I went.

I spent the night at Carol’s in Kingston south of London and saw Richard, her husband, a fellow birder and someone I hadn’t seen for 40 years. We’re all older and grayer, but it was fantastic to catch up.

Today I made my way to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see two other friends and meet up with my niece, who then drove me to her house in Worcester.

Staying in touch with old friends is an interesting exercise… Do you because they were your BEST friends or because they, and you, are good at staying in touch? I think at this point my Christmas card list is well winnowed down. And whatever past I’ve shared with the friends I saw, we still have plenty of points of connection, well beyond cataloging recent minor or massive medical issues (Martin said once you’re in your 60s you’re in Sniper Alley, which seems sadly accurate).

I did a lot of drawings but haven’t yet colored them in, see below…

Delphiniums Arrive

The planter box in our backyard has been taken over by delphiniums, which are starting to bloom now. This is sketched with Derwent drawing pencil, a 0.1mm fineliner, and watercolor wash.

Beethoventown

Bonn isn’t about to let any visitor leave without knowing that its most famous son, the composer Ludwig von Beethoven, was born here. There is obviously the Beethovenhaus which I visited today. There is a Beethovenstrasse, a Beethovenhalle, a Beethoven Gymnasium, a Beethoven Park. Shop windows of everything from Apothecaries and Antiquarians to Restaurants and Tobacconists feature his bust, his statue, or the modified smirking one at right, complete with falling-down trousers; a copy of this sits opposite me in the garden of the basement flat where I’m typing.

What impressed me about the museum visit was just how many images had been made of this composer, in an early nineteenth-century masterclass in image curation. Multiple busts, drawings, paintings, but also his correspondence with adoring literary admirers, who stoked the fire of his burgeoning fame.

I was especially entranced by Beethoven’s “last quill” — as you see below, there are no annoying feathers that seem de rigueur in period films but which get in your nose and are quite impractical, as well as being irresistible to moths. Beethoven’s quill was able to hold a fine line and live up to multiple parings, and his working and re-working of pieces was displayed in a pentimento-style buildup. (It reminded me of how Numenius and I first met online over 30 years ago now, a conversation about goose quill knives for calligraphic purposes.) Beethoven’s goose was almost certainly a greylag, which are ubiquitous along the Rhine. Of special interest to me is the length of the central slit, much longer than I was taught to cut, but if might also be damage from a later time; 200 years is an astonishing length of time for a quill to survive, assuming they’re not fibbing about it.

I leave this lovely cherry-blossomed city tomorrow for the UK and friends and relatives. I’m not sure if I’ve been able to do as much chatting with strangers as I’d hoped, but with bronchitis having walloped me, I think it’s okay.

Red Potato

Sketched with Derwent drawing pencils, Derwent Graphitint pan colors, and a bit of black ink. I’m going to be making lentil soup tomorrow, so I picked up a couple of red potatoes in today’s early morning shop.

Down the Rhine

I took the KD ferry yesterday from Bingen to Sankt Goar, the most scenic portion of the Rhine. It was a gray day and of course you have to be very fast to sketch while a boat is going downstream. I did here what I’ve been doing on other occasions: drew in pen and filled in color later, from memory and occasionally with reference photos.

I caught the train from St. Goar to Bonn, arriving in the city in time to have a nice salad lunch before I repaired to my airbnb in the old city. I haven’t used this service at all up till now but I needed a little sanctuary to roam from before I leave for the UK.

I’ve picked up some kind of bug and the drizzly day hasn’t encouraged me to stray very far though I had a much longer than planned for walk this morning. My sweet host brought down a whole bag of different German medications; I chose one then went and bought some from the pharmacy this morning.

Sunday Urban Sketch

We still have unsettled skies following this weekend’s storm that brought 0.93” of rain to our house. This sketch is looking across Russell Boulevard from the City Hall building in Davis.