Showing posts with label San Diego 2023. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Diego 2023. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 08, 2023

Visiting Phyllis and Ed in Del Mar, California

Last week we had a wonderful visit with our friends in Del Mar, California, just outside San Diego.
I’ve written about how we all visited the zoo and the art museum.
One morning they brought in these fabulous croissants from the bakery on the corner near their house.

And a delicious cheese board for lunch one day.

Good food and good wine for dinner.
What wonderful hosts we had! We are very grateful to them.

Their home is furnished in craftsman-style chairs and cabinets.

The garden with Ed’s bird watching scope.

The back garden, with mainly native California plants.

Sunset from their dining-room window. They have lived in this house for many years.
Let’s face it, people like us can no longer buy houses with a view like this!

As we were leaving, I took a photo of the front of the house.

Not far from their house is a beautiful area for birding: a lagoon by the ocean. Ed is a committed birder!

A side trip to the nearby Whole Foods where this mural is in the parking garage.

At a diner near their house: a great view of the sea.
And real California orange juice.

The Movies We Watched


Phyllis had a great selection for movies each evening. 
“The Booksellers” (2019) was a very interesting documentary on the New York antiquarian book trade.
My only criticism is that it didn’t mention the recent major impact of eBay and online book selling.

“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” (2022): a very creepy Stephen King film. I liked it!

“Awakening in Taos: The Mabel Dodge Luhan Story” (2015): a documentary about Mabel Dodge Luhan, who had a sort of artists and writers colony in Taos in the early twentieth century. I had heard about her in connection with D.H.Lawrence and Georgia O’Keeffe, but learned a lot of new things.

 Blog post © 2023 mae sander


Monday, March 06, 2023

Home Again!

 

Goodbye to San Diego. We took a walk on La Jolla Shores Beach, which we have loved for decades.
Then we headed for the airport.

The San Diego Airport is very beautiful. Our flight left on time, arrived early.


And now, a cup of coffee on the glass-top table in my own living room.
We arrived home at around 6:30 AM. Back to normal, and to being in Elizabeth’s blog party.


Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander

Wednesday, March 01, 2023

A Portrait

Francisco Goya (1746 -1828) "Vicente María Vera de Aragón, Duke of Roca"

At the San Diego Museum of Art we viewed a room dedicated to portraits from European painters who were active during the last several hundred years. Goya’s painting of the Duke of Roca shows an old man who knows he is important. The work dates from 1795, when the artist was at his most successful as a court painter. 

Goya, I know, was very successful at pleasing the nobility and royalty of Spain of his day, but at the end of his days his work showed a very dark and pessimistic vision of a completely different world. Seeing this depiction of a very proper nobleman made me wonder about Goya — what was he thinking when he painted the Duke? Here are the two much later works (which I’ve viewed in Spain) that seemed in my mind’s eye to be such a great contrast.

“The Third of May, 1808” — Goya’s commemoration of Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s occupation.

“Saturn eating his children”
Did Goya see this years before, in the face of the Duke?

 

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

 


















Photos © 2023 mae sander for maefood.blogspot.com

Monday, February 27, 2023

Balboa Park on a sunny day


Back at Balboa Park with Phyllis and Ed today. A gorgeous sunny blue-sky day!

We returned to the art museum, and spent quite a bit of time there. This painting is called
“Seated Women with Shawls” by Mexican artist Francisco Zuniga (1912-1998).
It was in the exhibit titled “Identities,” which we viewed again today. It is very impressive! 

Outside the museum: a sculpture of the same two women by the same artist.

Lunch at the Art Museum Cafe



The sculpture garden behind the cafe.

The Natural History Museum




The Gardens




Blog post © 2023 mae sander

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Breakfast Republic

We left the conference Sunday morning, heading for our friends Phyllis and Ed’s house.
It was time for breakfast and we spotted this great-looking place which turned out to be, yes, great.


What we needed: coffee!
 
The place is full of little slogans.




Definitely a fun place with good food!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you much more about our visit with our friends Phyllis and Ed!

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander