Into the Blue Hour at Palais Liechtenstein

"Some enchanted evening

You may see a stranger ... "







The first two lines,
"Some enchanted evening
You may see a stranger",
are from lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
from the musical "South Pacific",
set to music by Richard Rodgers.

Click here
to listen to José Carreras sing
"Some Enchanted Evening"

Photographed by Merisi
in the gardens of
Palais Liechtenstein,
in the vaning evening light,
as the sun was setting and
the Golden Hour slipped into the Blue Hour.
Sunday,
July 12, 2009

Sunday Morning Rose

Come slowly, Eden!

Lips unused to thee,

Bashful, sip thy jasmines,

As the fainting bee,

Reaching late his flower,

Round her chamber hums,

Counts his nectars --enters,

And is lost in balms!

(Emiliy Dickinson)

*

Sunday Morning Light
Roses at my kitchen window.

I bought them yesterday
at the farmers' market.
They are true survivors,
they persevered through
days of torrents of rain.

A kind farmer
brought them from Czechia,
and now they brighten
my Viennese kitchen.

May all your Sundays
be filled with light!

Tree and Windows

Tree at my window
Window Tree

Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;

But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.

Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground,
And thing next most diffuse to cloud,

Not all your light tongues talking aloud
Could be profound.

But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
And if you have seen me when I slept,

You have seen me when I was taken and swept
And all but lost.

That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,

Your head so much concerned with outer,
Mine with inner, weather.

"Tree At My Window"
Poem by Robert Frost


*

Farmhouse Windows
Hausruck Region
Upper Austria
Photographed by Merisi
July 2008



*)

Flowers At the Farmers' Market

Photographed by Merisi
at the
Yppen Platz Farmers' Market
this Saturday morning -
too early for the sun to
have broken through the clouds -
July 11, 2009
Brunnenmarkt
16th District

Midsummer Afternoon

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness --
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

(Andrew Marvel, "The Garden")


Farmer's Garden
Hausruck Region
Upper Austria
Photographed by Merisi
July 2008

Midsummer Afternoon

Taking Refuge
from the white glare
of a midsummer afternoon's heat

Under the Cherry Tree
Anya Ranevskaya?
Picking only the ripest, juiciest, sweetest cherries,
all the while remaining in the shadows.

Watching Vegetables
intermingling with flowers,
straining to follow
their whispered conversations.

A Thief at the Gates?
Winged Sandals?
You don't care,
the scorching heat
has dulled you into a languid state of mind.

Gazing
into the trees,
you dream of the world beyond
the visible horizon.

*

Photographs and Text
by Merisi
Hausruck Region
Upper Austria
July 2008

*

Looking Up

4.18am
The Full Buck Moon
Plus 40 hours and 57 minutes

4.19am
Dawn's early light
paints the clouds' edges pink

10.15am
Tall cloud ship
sailing for harbour

10.16am
Azure sky
framed by white clouds

10.18am
A lone bird
coasting with the clouds

10.20am
Jacob's Ladder

6.41pm
Evening play

7.29pm
Clouds painted blue
in the Northeast

7.28pm
The last golden light
reflecting off a building's façade

*

This SkyWatch icon

takes you straight to
Sky Watch Friday Headquarters
from where you can journey on to visit
hundreds of skies around the world!

And Out Came the Sun

In the cool early morning air,
after a night of heavy rains -

rose trees still dreaming
in dawn's blue shade -

from behind the linden trees
lining the perimeter of the garden rooms,

a few pert sunbeams escaped
and set out to dance
around the sleeping blossom beauties
with irreverent gaiety.

Photographs and Text
by Merisi
July 2009

Rose Beds
July 8, 2009
Orangery Gardens
Schönbrunn Palace

Morning Roses After a Night's Rain

Where Roses would not dare to go,

What Heart would risk the way --

And so I send my Crimson Scouts

To sound the Enemy --

(Emily Dickinson)

Photographed by Merisi
early this morning
in Schönbrunn Palace's
Orangery Garden

Rose

In The Storm Of Roses

Wherever we turn in the storm of roses,
the night is lit up by thorns, and the thunder
of leaves, once so quiet within the bushes,
rumbling at our heels.

(Ingeborg Bachmann)

A Midsummer Dream

Once upon a time,

in a faraway land,

there lived a young prince

who not only did not
have the looks of a Prince Charming,
but was also poor and, withal, refused service
in his own country's army.

Having dared
and been refused twice by his King
the opportunity to prove himself
as the commander of a 40 men army company,
he decided to flee
and seek his fortune elsewhere.

He launched a very successful career
in the service of three Emperors
of the country that offered him the opportunites
he was seeking.

This is the summer palace
that was built for him - by one of
most talented architects of his time -
three decades after arriving
as a pennyless refugee.

Schloßhof Palace
Built 1725-1729
by Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt
for François-Eugène,
Prince of Savoy-Carignan
(18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736)

This video
on Youtube offers an interesting synopsis
of the life of Prince Eugene of Savoy
and his role in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

For a more extensive biography
of Prince Eugene, the "Edle Ritter"
- "The Valiant Knight" -
click here for Wikipedia.

Clicking on the title
will take you to images of
Prince Eugene's other palaces.

Photographs and text
by Merisi -
July 2009

Against the Dearth of Monday Poems

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loviliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondance, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o`er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, inspite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.

"Lines from Endymion"
By John Keats

Would Selene have moved Endymion
to Schloss Hof instead of letting
that poor boy sleep in a cave?
I would. ;-)

*

Photographed by Merisi
in the gardens of
Prince Eugene of Savoy's
Summer Palace
Schloss Hof
July 2009

The Art of Sunday Lunch

Pale Pink Roses
Soda Citron
Viennese Iced Coffee
Lemon Crème Brûlée
Caffè Macchiato

Sunflowers, Coffee and Summer Dreams

What, No sunflowers?
You did not think
I would make it home
without a coffee break, did you?

Imagine,
sitting on a leisurely Saturday morning
outdoors of a restaurant called "La Salvia" ("The Sage") -
offering cuisine from the Karst region around
the Italian port city of Trieste
and its Slovenian counterpart -
dreaming about an "Estate Bollente",
a "Sizzling summer" by the sea,
a cooling breeze caressing you!

I was pondering for a moment
to pack my camera in
and follow suit!

Is this gentleman
ready to bike all the way
to the coast?

This one stopped for coffee
before heading home with
his loot.

I spotted one last sunflower,
hiding on top of the slate board
announcing the price for
the sweet local apricots:
2.2 lbs for 2.40 Euro,
what a bargain!

I started dreaming of
dainty dumplings filled with apricots -
simmered just so the fruit
would literally melt on your tongue -
rolled in golden toasted breadcrumbs
and drizzled with the tiniest bit of caramel.

Imagine the fragrance
released the moment
you pierce it on the plate
with your fork!

Happy Sunday
and sweet desserts
to all of you!

*

Photographed by Merisi
on Sasturday morning,
July 4, 2009,
at the Yppen Platz Farmers' Market
Brunnenmarkt
16th District

Buying Roses on a Saturday Morning in Vienna

Photographed by Merisi
a the Yppen Platz Farmers' Market
this Saturday morning,
July 4, 2009
Brunnenmarkt
16th District

For more images
from this farmers' market,
click on the title
and on the pictures!
Enjoy! :-)

Writing in the Blue Hour

Napkin Prose
28 July 2008
No safe place
For a blank piece of paper.

My answer to David McMahon's question,
"How do you look at a blank sheet of paper?"
posed yesterday under the tongue-in-cheek heading
"Blank Stair":

I stare it in the eye,
While I write on it,
And then I shoot it
with my camera!

Here's the link
to David's inspirational post:
Click!