'River of Tulips' Egg Tempera Painting

Here's the latest painting: 'River of Tulips', 16 x 10" egg tempera.


The flowerbeds in Spring in Geneva, Switzerland are amazing. This painting shows a cascade of tulips one Spring at the Parc des Eaux-Vives. There were many more tulips than these, and in many brilliant colors.

There are all sorts of arrangements and flowers. Stay tuned for a display of some of these in a future post on DweezelJazz blog.

Announcing Shannon Ryan Art

A new site has just gone live today:  Shannon Ryan Art. Shannon Ryan does beautiful watercolor painting and the site showcases her art. She has also started a blog called Chipper's Alley.  I'm looking forward to reading her future posts which should be a lot of fun and interesting because, for one thing, she lives with four high-personality parrots.  You can meet Shannon and her four feathery, two-legged characters by reading her first post.

I've been heavily involved in the design of the site and during the last two weeks have been coding away in html and css.  I'm sorry the posts have been rather scarce on DweezelJazz lately.  My laptop was finally returned two weeks ago after four months being in the repair shop.  When I signed and paid for the laptop insurance, it didn't occur to me that there was no time-limit on how long the repair could take! In future, I'll be much more alert to the details involved in retail-supplied insurance. Fortunately the laptop now works perfectly again, so all is well.  

Next week we visit with family, but after that I plan to resume posting regularly. Cheers, and thanks for reading DweezelJazz Blog.

Jasmine Takes A Bath

These days Jasmine takes a shower every morning - a proper shower in the bathroom, but that will be the topic of another post coming up soon. She occasionally also likes to take a bath.
Sometimes she splashes around in her water bowl, and even though this is far too small for her to fit into she can get herself and, most especially, her surrounds impressively wet. This is the signal that she wants a bath and to fill up her bathing bowl with water.

Jazzy's bathing bowl is a large stainless steel bowl which sits inside a metal ring in her cage. This bowl is available for $11.45 from 'The Bird Safe Store' and is called is called "The Stainless Steel Coop Cup, 64 oz".


She spreads her wings to get them wet, and flaps and turns to fit herself in the bowl somehow.





She tests the water with her beak...


puffs her feathers out in preparation to get wet...





...comes in at different angles...


...feet all the way in...








...and comes up the other side.
















Then she spreads herself, wings fully stretched out, over the bowl.




She twists and turns and manages to get her tail submerged.






She's all motion. It's a little difficult to figure out where her head is in this photo: but it's right up front with her beak against the edge of the rim of the bowl.



You can see she has managed to get her tail fairly wet.










After another tail immersion she clambers up the bars, tail feathers still spread out.
Jazzy is quite a blur of movement when she's taking a bath, but this gives an idea what it's like to see her splash around.



At the end she sits regrouping for a moment, taking stock of her state.



Most of the time Jazzy's 'swimming pool' isn't filled with water - instead, it's filled to the brim with toys, and it becomes what she calls her 'toy bowl'. Jazzy loves to sit on the edge of it, selecting foot toys. She plays there for hours every day, choosing one toy after another to chew on, submerge in her water bowl, toss into her pellet bowl, or simply drop to the bottom of the cage to see how it falls, and to hear the sound it makes.

A Short Wander Through Budapest, Hungary

There are all sorts of things to do in Budapest. There are shops, shopping malls, spas and baths, cafes, restaurants, museums, grand architecture - there's even a zoo.

There's a huge shopping mall next to the central railway station. The contrast of this bright, modern shopping mall with the old railway station and historic, but often run-down exteriors of the buildings surrounding it, is quite astounding and unexpected.

Budapest has an interesting and fairly complex history. It's a place where the majesty and previous power of its success can be seen, but alongside it there's a lingering impression of the extremely hard times that have been endured by its inhabitants in the past.

Flowing between the two halves of the city is the River Danube. The city is actually made up of three cities: Buda and Obuda (Old Buda), which are on the west bank, and Pest on the east. These were united to form one city in 1873.When I was a kid, and had never heard of the Danube and had no clue where it was, an elderly friend of the family made me aware of Strauss': The Blue Danube. It was her favorite melody and somehow it seemed to encompass some distant dream she had held close for many a decade. Some of the magic of her reverence for this music and place, where that legendary river flowed, remains with me. Even now, when I hear of the Danube I think of her. So I was quite surprised when I found myself, continents away from my childhood setting, standing by that very river.The Danube was very important for fishing, especially during the Middle Ages, and has also been a source of drinking water. In our times, both of these for the most part have ceased to be practical because in most places the river is too polluted.

The Danube is the second longest river in Europe and flows through, or forms a part of the borders, of ten countries. Ocean ships from the Black Sea are able to travel up part way, transporting a tremendous amount of goods. During the second half of the 19th century, Budapest became a hub for industry and the river port played a very important role.We made our way across the river and headed up towards the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church - you can see, in the photo, it's steeple reaching high up over the other buildings on the hill.


Fisherman's Bastion is a very pretty and appealing place. I did a painting in egg tempera, using this photo for reference. You can see the painting in a previous post, or in my art gallery on DweezelJazz Art web site.

The Fisherman's Bastion is in the Castle District in Buda. It was built around 1900 next to Matthias Church.




It's made up of seven round towers to symbolize the seven Magyar tribes.




To see a little more about the Magyar tribes see previous post "Heroes' Square At Night, Budapest, Hungary".

The view from the Fisherman's Bastion is fantastic. Below are 6 photos stitched together showing most of the view from the Bastion. Click on the photo (as is the case for all the photos on DweezelJazz blog) to see larger.
On the other side of the Danube from the Fisherman's Bastion is the Parliament Building, the seat of the National Assembly of Hungary. It's one of Europe's oldest legislative buildings, its construction being completed in 1904, and it is the second largest Parliament in Europe. A wikipedia article states that there were about a thousand people involved in the construction, which included the use of 40 million bricks, half a million precious stones and 40 kg of gold.




Fisherman's Bastion is a lovely place to walk around. The turrets, statues and light-colored stones contribute to a fairyland wonder.








There are covered passageways with arches overlooking more views.











It feels a warm, friendly place (even in the cold air of January, which is when we were there!).
Amidst its embrace stands the 13th-century church: grand, majestic, fabulous and tall, domineering and serious in its beauty by contrast.

Officially it is named "Church of Our Lady", but is popularly known as Matthias Church after a 15th-century king who rebuilt the church and added the towers.

Jasmine Sees Snow

Jazzy has seen it snow before, but last weekend she saw it snow heavily.

The flakes were so thick and sometimes large that it wasn't possible to see more than a block or two away.



















Jazzy took this all in her stride.

(She looks rather pterodactyl or tyrannosaur-like in this profile shot, doesn't she!?)








She was curious to see the flakes and to see the white 'stuff' building up on the balcony.

Later, I brought in a handful of snow from the balcony and made it into a fairly large snowball. I showed it to her, saying it was 'fun', which is our keyword for knowing something is safe. She showed immediate interest and started playing with it, chomping holes out of it with her beak.

She's quite fearless when it comes to most new things. She seems to enjoy the excitement of something new and challenging, so long as she knows you're there to keep her safe at the same time.

Flying and fun indoors continued as normal...




...as she comes into a landing at her play station...



(To see more about Jazzy's play station you can go to a previous post: "Jasmine On Her Play Station".)





...and settles herself...










...for another good look at it snowing.

Easter Weekend Snow In The Pays de Gex, France

I love snow. Most of my early childhood I only imagined what snow was like. The closest experience I had of what it looked like was one of those toys that, on being shaken, bring up fake flakes which descend through the liquid inside the glass globe onto a scene within it. And ever since whenever it snows, especially if it's heavy, I see it as though I were in one of those toy globes and it seems just like magic.

It snowed and snowed in the Pays de Gex last weekend, and then it snowed some more.

Two weeks ago there were already many signs of Spring arriving and we were surprised when the snow continued heavily for several days.

It was cold enough for icicles to form on the balcony...

...and was very beautiful.

Going anywhere was a challenge, so we stayed home.

It was Easter weekend, though it looked more like Christmas!

The Jura foothills were gorgeous. It's fascinating to watch the clouds move over the trees like a stealth blanket.

The sun sometimes shone, shedding a glowing light on the white treetops.

When patches of blue sky also appeared the sight was glorious.

Fisherman's Bastion Egg Tempera Painting

There are many grand and beautiful buildings in Budapest, Hungary. We visited for a short time so I didn't see them all, but I was very taken by the Fisherman's Bastion. Here is an 18 x 14 inch egg tempera painting of it that I completed a couple of days ago.
I love its rounded contours, simple elegance and the warmth of its light-colored stone. It was built around 1900 and was named after the location on which it is situated: the medieval ramparts of the city walls above the Fisherman's Town. During the Middle Ages, this was the section of the city that the fishermen defended.

You can see photos of Heroe's Square, Budapest in a previous post "Heroes' Square At Night, Budapest, Hungary". And soon there will be another post showing some more of the Fisherman's Bastion and views of the city.

I dropped my laptop mid-December. I had headphones on, and my feet got caught in the lead. Next thing I knew, the computer had landed, screen corner first, on the floor with a resounding crash. Fortunately, it was completely insured for accidents. Unfortunately, it's still with the repair shop. I hope to have it back soon, and then I'll get back to posting regularly and visiting all my blog friends frequently as I used to. I look forward to it. Cheers!
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