Emily Carr Interlude

My, haven't I been gone a long, long time!  Sorry for the silence.  I've been traveling and will soon be traveling again but in the meantime I wanted to share a poem from a slim volume of poetry I found when I was on Vancouver Island recently.  It's called Emily and is written by Florence McNeil*.  Ms. McNeil has "translated her own love of the West Coast and its rain forests, seas and mountains into poetry based on the life and work of Emily Carr."  

Emily Carr is one of my favorite artists and I seem to grow to love her paintings more and more as the years pass.  I thought that Ms. McNeil did a most admirable job of writing in (what I imagine) is Emily Carr's voice.

Sundays

It is not the surface I want

not the ocean with the sunday sailors

the harbour where ladies

boldly (in summer)

consider their ankles

or the straw hats 

that float

in the placid inner harbour

I want     like Alice to go through

the glass

come out on the other side

of respectability

display barnacles kicking

on the schooners' bottoms

show the insolent energy of seaweed

tell the languishing ladies and gentlemen

of Victoria     in their sacred departures

there is violence

florid and beautiful

beneath their holy excursions.

*Florence McNeil, Emily, (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1975, print).

I will try, Dear Reader, to post a few snaps of where I've been and share with you what I've been up to, before I leave for Southern Africa early in October.

1.11.11

Odds and Ends, by Emily Carr (1871-1945), Canadian painter

I spend two nights in Victoria, BC just before the New Year. Nonie and I had a little after Christmas holiday and we had a lovely time. The weather was clear but cold and it was beautiful. I enjoyed seeing all the Christmas decorations and some of the after Christmas sales. The photo shows yours truly with the Emily Carr statue near the Empress Hotel. Emily Carr is one of my favorite painters. Besides having this photo taken, I got a chance to see the house where she was born and raised and also to go to the new exhibit at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. It was a great show! If you find yourself in Victoria, head on over and take a look. You won't be disappointed!

The Inner Harbour at night, all decked out in Christmas lights. It was magical.

This was the view from our room at the Inn at Laurel Point, looking west towards the Outer Harbour.

The Emily Carr House at 207 Government Street.

You know how when you live or visit a place you often don't go to the tourist sights? I've been going to Victoria for years and for years I have never ventured to visit the Craigdarroch Castle. This trip Nonie and I decided to go, and am I glad! It was an amazing house and the visit was great fun. Visitors are allowed to explore all over the house, from the ground floor to the very top of the house (where the views are spectacular!). The Castle was all decked out in Christmas finery.

This photo of the entry hall was taken looking straight up. It's an amazing space. It cost a fortune when it was built, something like $30,000. Now? It would be an astronomical expense to create such woodwork in this day and age, if you could even find the craftsmen to do it.

I believe this room is called the study. It was a lovely room. The stained glass window over the fireplace was an especially lovely detail.

The ceilings in the formal, public rooms all over the Castle were amazing. Note the lion head in the corner plaster work.

The diningroom was decorated for a Christmas feast and tableware was lovely. I was especially taken with the mother-of-pearl flatware.

The stag carvings is so Scottish! You can guess the Dunsmuir family's heritiage from this detail alone.

This is the breakfast room. I love the morning light that comes through the beautiful windows.
The room below is the smoking parlour---there was even a hubble-bubble on display.

I wonder, justwhat does today's date signify? I know it's already a third of the way through January, much to my horror and disbelief, but 1.11.11 seems so....I don't know.....cool? Weird? Maybe just graphic! But it's something to make note of, at the veryleast.

(And, no, Dear Reader, I am not superstitious about the date!)