Girl in Hyacinth Blue

I have now read almost all of Susan Vreeland’s books, and enjoyed them all. Girl in Hyacinth Blue tells the story of a painting, an imaginary painting by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), the indescribably wonderful Dutch painter. Though the painting in the novel is imaginary, it’s described vividly as it seems to several characters who are enchanted by its power:

“The girl in the painting had a blue smock. How glorious to drape oneself in blue—the blue of the sky, of Heaven, of the pretty little lake at Westerbork with the tiny blue brooklime that grew along the banks, the blue of hyacinths and Delftware and all fine things.” (p.76)

I enjoyed reading this book, which is a series of small stories about several owners of the imagined painting going back in time until we meet the artist. The awe in which the work of Vermeer is held in the book is something that I can really grasp, as every Vermeer painting I have ever seen has captivated my thoughts and stayed with me as a vivid memory. I believe that in the course of visiting many museums, I have seen over half the surviving works by Vermeer. I’m adding some images of Vermeer paintings that I was thinking about as I read the novel.

Two Vermeer Paintings of a Girl in Blue 

Lady Seated at a Virginal

Woman Reading a Letter

Seeing Vermeer Paintings

Last year we visited The Haague and saw the Vermeers at the Mauritshaus. one of the best museums in the world because it is small and every painting is a masterpiece.

Vermeer’s View of Delft as we saw it.

The tiny figures on the shore.

The museum.

Blog post © 2025, photos © 2023 mae sander

November Kitchen Thoughts

Not a kitchen: beautiful skies over the Woodrow Wilson bridge to Washington, DC.
The highlight of our month of November was a week’s visit for the Thanksgiving holiday.

November in Michigan

In my kitchen in Michigan this month, there’s been much less activity than we enjoyed over Thanksgiving week in Evelyn and Tom's kitchen in Fairfax, Virginia. I’m sharing two kitchens with the bloggers who link up at Sherry’s “In My Kitchen” each month and with Deb’s Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.

At home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Watering my plants, 2 ice cubes each.

Three new fridge magnets from our visit to the National Gallery of Art:
Top: Leonardo's Ginevra (1478)
Lower left: Vermeer's A Lady Writing (1665)
Lower right: Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance (1664)

Food at home: rather simple.

Huevos rancheros with black beans, egg, and yogurt on a tortilla with a bit of chopped cabbage and a lime wedge.

Len’s treat for breakfast.

Salad with peanut dressing.

Israeli Feta Cheese from Trader Joe’s. Thinking of Israel all the time.

In Evelyn and Tom’s Kitchen

Thanksgiving action photos in addition to the many from last week.

Beyond Thankfulness: Some thoughts for November

While celebrating Thanksgiving, I’ve been thinking about how fortunate we are, but also what responsibility our good fortune means to us. For example, consider this statement from the introduction to The Best American Food Writing 2023, editor Mark Bittman:

“Everyone with unlimited access to some kind of food—the majority of people in this country—takes it for granted. We live five minutes from a banana or a Slurpee or a cheeseburger and we consider that normal, even though everything it takes to bring us those things is part of a deeply flawed and destructive system.” (p. xv)

Along with feeling gratitude, we can also try to remember the social and environmental cost of what we are grateful for. A similar thought is in an article by Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of the outdoor goods supplier Patagonia. He offered some insight into the need to be responsible when acauiring the goods for which we feel thankful. 

“Since 1999, humans have far surpassed — by billions of metric tons — the amount of Earth’s resources that scientists estimate we can sustainably use. The culprit: our overconsumption of stuff, from shoddy tools to fast fashion that is trendy one day, trash the next.

“Obsession with the latest tech gadgets drives open pit mining for precious minerals. Demand for rubber continues to decimate rainforests. Turning these and other raw materials into final products releases one-fifth of all carbon emissions.

“The global inequality that benefits some and persists for the many, ensures that some of the poorest people and most vulnerable places bear the social and environmental costs of international trade. Research links demand for goods in Western Europe and the United States to the premature deaths of more than 100,000 people in China because of industrial air pollution.” (Source: "The High Stakes of Low Quality," New York Times, Nov. 23, 2023)

The climate crisis is a looming issue that should affect our consumer decisions. According to the Guardian: “The year 2023 will be remembered as a critical year in the escalating extinction, climate and nature emergencies – not least because it looks certain to be the hottest since records began.” 

Every day the news is full of examples of products we buy and use (or items that are integrated into products we use) that seem innocent, but threaten the environment, the workers, and the civil order of the countries where they are produced. Here’s one example from numerous possible impending disasters: the production of palm oil. An article in the Guardian titled “Deadly harvest: how demand for palm oil is fuelling corruption in Honduras” described how growing and harvesting oil palms creates jobs for desperate workers and high rewards for the rich by destroying the natural forests:

“Palm oil, especially from the oil palm’s fruit, has become an essential export business in Honduras, used in the food industry, in beauty products and as a biofuel. Its low production costs make it a cheap substitute for most oils, such as sunflower and olive, significantly lowering manufacturing costs in global markets.” 

Planting of oil palms by small agriculturalists in Honduras destroys stands of essential old-growth mangroves and other trees in areas that the government has set aside as protected national parks. A few rangers are assigned to police millions of acres of parkland, while opportunists are destroying the natural plant life to grow oil palms, and collusion between the rich entrepreneurs and the judicial establishment makes enforcement hopelessly dangerous.

How are Americans like me involved? According to the Guardian article, palm oil accounts for about 40% of global demand for vegetable oil as food, animal feed and fuel — so we are surely using it whether we are aware of it or not — I read the label of a favorite Trader Joe’s cookie, for example, and it contained palm oil! 

Globally, oil palm cultivation is endangering wildlife and forests in many other parts of the world, not merely in Honduras. Not to mention that it’s not very healthy to eat foods made with palm oil, which is used in especially large quantities in cheap, highly-processed foods. Honduras is one small example among many producers of the oil, and palm oil is only one of the many destructive products we unthinkingly buy and use.

I feel helpless.

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The first painting we wanted to see in the National Gallery was Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra.
Located in a temporary gallery during a remodeling project, it’s first visible through this doorway.

Ginevra de Benci

People looking at Ginevra.

The Modern Art Building of the National Gallery

Walking through the permanent collections, I especially liked this painting: 
“The Flag is Bleeding” by Faith Ringgold.

Special Exhibit: The Land Carries Our Ancestors:
Contemporary Art by Native Americans

We enjoyed the special exhibit of work by Native American artists.

“Curated by artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation), this exhibition brings together works by an intergenerational group of nearly 50 living Native artists practicing across the United States. Their powerful expressions reflect the diversity of Native American individual, regional, and cultural identities. At the same time, these works share a worldview informed by thousands of years of reverence, study, and concern for the land.” (source)

“Fire Water Woman” by Rose Powhatan

Mural Installation by John Hitchcock (link)

“World Traveler” by Melissa Cody

“Edward Curtis Paparazzi: Chicken Hawks” by Jim Denomie

These art works by Native American painters seemed to me to link very closely with a book I’m reading: Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods by historian Sarah Lohman, in particular the chapter titled “Manoomin: Anishinaabe Wild Rice.” The struggles of Native Americans to stay connected and preserve traditions are documented both in the art works in the National Gallery and in the descriptions of the determined way that tribes in the Great Lakes region struggle to preserve native varieties of wild rice (as opposed to the industrially cultivated and mass-marketed cultivars of this native plant). 

Key passages from Endangered Eating that seem to me to connect to the ideas of the artists:

“Tribes of the Anishinaabeg and their neighbors, the Sioux (Dakota and Lakota), are the only two contemporary Native groups that harvest wild rice. They collect it in the waters of upstate Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and in parts of Canada bordering the Great Lakes. In Minnesota alone, Native peoples consume an average of 350,000 pounds of wild rice annually, about six pounds per person per year. It is the most commonly consumed traditional food. But manoomin is a spiritual food as well, essential to mino-bimaadiziwin, the concept of living a good life. It’s the first solid food fed to Ojibwe infants and it is one of the foods present at funeral ceremonies.” (Endangered Eating p. 140)

“In 2018, the White Earth Nation passed the Rights of Manoomin to protect the remaining wild rice. The law was modeled after the work of the International Rights of Nature Tribunal: much like the legal rights given to corporations under US law, the Rights of Nature grant a natural resource guaranteed rights as a living entity. Under the Rights of Manoomin, wild rice is guaranteed the right to clean water, free from industrial pollution; the right to a ‘healthy, stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts;’ and the right to be free from patenting and GMO cross-pollination.” (p. 166)

And a Nana by Niki de Saint Phalle

On the balcony outside the exhibit: a sculpture by artist Niki de Saint Phalle.
Her delightful characters are all called Nanas. This is “Yellow Nana.”

The National Gallery of Art is so full of masterpieces that the few hours we had were nowhere near enough to see all of the works we would like to contemplate. We saw just a few of the works from the Dutch Golden age (such as Rembrandt and Vermeer), a very brief look at the wonderful collection of impressionist works, and a quick look at more of the modern art. We’ve been there many times, never enough.

“Still Life with Peacock Pie” by Pieter Claesz

Blog post and photos by mae sander © 2023

Shared with Sami’s Monday Murals

 

Kitchens in December

For the end of 2022, I’ve done a few wrap-ups on what is important this year in global food issues , in my own travels, and in my observations of street art. Now: Kitchens in December. For several years, I’ve been participating in the fun blog party titled “In My Kitchen,” sponsored by Sherry’s Pickings, a lovely food blog from Australia. Also, each week, Deb at Readerbuzz connects bloggers at her Sunday Salon. I'm linking to these fun blog parties, and I hope their hosts will keep them going in the New Year.

In my own kitchen this month things are pretty quiet, mostly the aftermath of our 11 day trip to the Netherlands for birding and art. And a post-Christmas visit to my sister in Indiana.

Latest Refrigerator Magnets from Holland

Of course I came back with refrigerator magnets, which replaced the former display.

New Cookbook and Tea Towels

New cookbook: Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice. Len is experimenting with Asian cuisines.
Two new tea towels from England, a gift from my friend Sheila.
Godiva Chocolates: a gift from another friend.

Visiting Elaine’s Kitchen

Len brought along some sourdough starter and baked with Elaine.

Elaine made us a fabulous meal of leg of lamb and vegetables.

Some Good Meals from our Kitchen

Mae cooks: roast chicken, eggplant with herbs and garlic,
and steamed broccoli.

Len cooks: fish in red wine sauce, potatoes.

Len cooks: tofu with mushrooms in pomegranate sauce,
stir-fried snow peas with peanuts.

Rice, braised bok choi, and shrimp in tamarind sauce. Also by Len.

Kitchens in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The most famous kitchen: by Vermeer.

Jan Steen’s “Merry Family” — living degenerately in the kitchen!

The two dollhouses in the Rijksmuseum are amazing. Here’s the kitchen in one.

Blog post and photos © 2022 mae sander

A Brief Visit to Amsterdam

This afternoon from 3 until 5 PM we toured the Reijks Museum in Amsterdam, where we mainly concentrated on the great masters from the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt and Vermeer.are the most famous, but many others are also very fascinating. Here are just a few images that I particularly liked

Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” is sheltered in a huge glass cage, and it’s
being restored, so the crowds cant’ see it very well. This boy looked a bit underwhelmed!

The most famous Vermeer in the museum.

These happy drinkers appeal to me. The next image shows how they are sitting in a garden.

Pieter de Hooch, “Figures in a Courtyard,” 1663.

Judith Leyster, “The Merry Drinker,” 1629.

Update December 19: Judith Leyster is honored with a google doodle!

A famous autograph!

A room from one of the magnificent doll houses in the museum.

Birds in Art

From Aelbert Cuyp, “River Landscape,” 1653.

Blog post  © 2022 mae sander