Weekend

What a great weekend! Saturday we had brunch in the morning with my family and then my boyfriend and I took the girls rock climbing at Carderock, along the C&O Canal. Sunday was a program at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. I'd never been to this museum before and I was very pleased. It was quite lovely. We had a tremendous docent, too. Did you know that sarcophagus literally means "flesh-eater"? These marble boxes were crematoriums. Marble gets very hot in hot climates and ancient Romans would place the bodies in these large marble boxes, close the heavy lids, and several months later they would open them up and sweep out the ashes. I was astonished; I never knew that before.

Two great resources that I found while I was there, the first was a book that was out by a bench in the ancient Greek and Rome section: Pandoraby Robert Burleigh. (Happily, the story of Pandora's Box was also part of the Greek Storyteller performance that we saw by Seth Reichgott). It was wonderful... if you can imagine a one-man show/Greek Mythology performance. I have adored everything I've seen by this profoundly talented writer, actor, and storyteller. His link includes a YouTube video. Enjoy!)




The second book I found today that I was very pleased with was a book in the gift shop: Vincent's Colors

Author: Vincent Van Gogh



I quite like it because it has Vincent Van Gogh's actual words that he used to describe his paintings (he wrote extensively to his brother Theo, among other people). You can buy Vincent Van Gogh's collected letters for $650.00 (my cousin got this as a gift from her husband last year, the lucky duck) but this book simplifies things a bit.

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition (Vol. 1-6)