Red Dresses and Sad Songs

RED IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S DRESS
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Nivôse by Martha Romme
from her Calendar Series ~ Les Douze Mois de l’Année, 1919

Sometimes mistakenly translated as "Level"
but, in fact, that would be niveau;
this is Nivôse, an old French term for Winter:
"In Nivôse earth is sealed and usually covered with snow.
At this time earth is resting . . . "

Some years Valentine's Day is snowy,
and you need a red coat
to throw on over your red dress.

Marching On by Sebastian Bauer

For Valentine's Day, I have been saving up a few red - dress paintings and searching for poetry to match. Many songs and poems feature a red dress (as posted previously). However, nothing that I came across) felt quite right for today, so I settled on one of my favorite sad cowboy songs. After all, the word red is in the title. Furthermore, there are those who experience Valentine's Day as a doleful occasion, so perhaps the connection is fittingly forlorn:

Red River Valley

From this valley they say you are going
I will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our pathway awhile . . .

Come and sit by my side if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
But remember the Red River Valley
And the one that has loved you so true

Sung by Marty Robbins (1925 -1982)

I am also thinking that Henry David Thoreau's observation about the number of chairs in his house is equally appropriate to these three paintings:

". . . one for solitude [plus cats!]

Seen on The Cat Café
[still searching for title and artist]

. . . two for friendship

Young Girls Reading (aka The Two Sisters), 1889
by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

. . . three for society."

The Three_Sisters, 1896
by Léon-Henri-Marie Frédéric (1856 – 1940) ♥♥♥ Happy Valentine's Day!

May it be filled with cats and sisters, books and fruit,
red coats and dresses, and a selection of sad songs!

Two recent favorites:
Wishing you A Perfect Day with No Hard Feelings

. . . and this old favorite that I always seem
to find myself humming around this time of year.
Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, February 28th
Between now and then, read

THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Sisters, Friends

"LOVE YA LIKE A SIS"
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

Painting by Claudia Tremblay

Reminds me of ~ Di, Kit, Peg

****************
"I remember standing at the wide white sink doing dishes
while the three girls braided their hair into a single fat rope.
Their conversation consisted of one of them telling the other
two to hold still, and then another one complaining the others
were pulling and would mess everything up. . . . our three girls
were firmly tethered together as one daughter" (36 - 37).

from Tom Lake ~ by Ann Patchett

[See also: FN, KL, QK]

This Fortnightly post will continue the theme of "Friends in Art" that I was having so much fun with last time! The various paintings have all come to my attention recently, but all of the literary passages below have appeared on previous blog posts -- at least a decade ago. So, it does not seem too soon to re-share these favorite thoughts on the depth and breadth of true friendship.

"And friendship had other charms to captivate my heart.
We could talk and laugh together
and exchange small acts of kindness.
We could join in the pleasure that books can give.
We could be grave or gay together.
If we sometimes disagreed, it was without spite,
as you might differ with yourself,
and the rare occasions of dispute
were the very spice to season our usual accord.
Each of us had something to learn from the others
and something to teach in return.
If any were away, we missed them with regret
and gladly welcomed them when they came home.
Such things as these are heartfelt tokens
of affection between friends.
They are signs to be read on the face and in the eyes,
spoken by the tongue and displayed in countless acts of kindness.
They can kindle a blaze to melt our hearts and weld them into one."

Augustine (354 - 430)
from Confessions, Book 8

"Companion or friend? I have come to believe that you can get along without anyone — that is, without the close contact of any one person. That is a terrible shock to me, but I think it is true. You do need companionship, but wherever you go, in whatever new environment, you will find people who, to a large degree, take the place of those you left. That is, you will find as many contacts, they will become as intimately a part of your life, as friends before.

"If you can get along without friends is it all gone after you leave a person? I don't think so, because when you see them again, or write to them, it all comes back. You can meet and talk with as much intensity and freedom as before, your connection is as strong even though the contact surface is not as great.

"Besides, I think that companionship is a static, objective thing. You can have it with anyone and it is relatively the same, while friendship is subjective and multicolored. There are as many different kinds of friendship (for me, at least) as there are friends. The intimate companionship goes, I think, when you leave a friend, but friendship stays. It is an inherent possibility of relationship that, once admitted — well, there it is."

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906 - 2001)
from Bring Me A Unicorn, 1972

Drei Winterthurerinnen, 1822
[Three Women from Winterthur, Switzerland]
by David Sulzer (1784 - 1864)

Old Friendship
Beautiful and rich is an old friendship,
Grateful to the touch as ancient ivory,
Smooth as aged wine, or sheen of tapestry
Where light has lingered, intimate and long.
Full of tears and warm is an old friendship
That asks no longer deeds of gallantry,
Or any deed at all - save that the friend shall be
Alive and breathing somewhere, like a song.

Eunice Tietjens (1884 - 1944)
from Leaves in Windy Weather

****************

"None of us are as young as we were.
So what? Friendship never ages."

W. H. Auden (1907 - 73)

****************

"There was a definite process by which
one made people into friends, and it involved
talking and listening to them for hours at a time."

Dame Rebecca West (1892 - 1983)

****************

"The proper office of a friend is to side with you
when you are wrong. Nearly anybody
will side with you when you are right."

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
See my QK column: "Built-In Shit Detector"
[right-hand side-bar]

Need to send someone a birthday hug?
For me, this painting by Jennifer Yoswa says it all.

Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, February 14th
Between now and then, read

THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Friends in Art

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
~ ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS ~

The Tea Party
by Edward Cucuel (1875 - 1954)

“Friendship is certainly the finest balm
for the pangs of disappointed love.”

~ Jane Austen ~
Northanger Abbey
[Volume I, Chapter IV]

An essay in pictures . . .

Two Ladies on a Bench
by Edward Cucuel (1875 - 1954)

Borbee Plays the Flute, ca 1908
by Florence Kate Upton (1873 – 1922)

Two Girls In The Garden At Montmartre, 1895
by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919)

The Bathers, 1925
Jose de Almada-Negreiros (1893 - 1970)

Two Women Throwing Flowers, 1872
by Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926)

Two Women in a Boat
by Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847 - 1928)

Two Women in Renaissance Dress, One Playing a Lute
by Frank Stone (1800 – 1859)

Two Young Women Seated, ca 1900
by William Henry Margetson (1861 - 1940)

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Earlier Emerson Posts: QK ~ FN ~ KL
Enough excellent transcendental advice
to get you through the entire year!

Coming in two weeks: "Sisters, Friends"
Next Fortnightly Post
Tuesday, January 28th
Between now and then, read

THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com