Francesca Filanc

Author: Francesca Filanc

Art San Diego and Spectrum Art-Miami

As this year 2014 draws to a close I wish you all the healthiest, happiest and most fulfilling of New Years!

Painting On Live Television

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activities. Aside from the traditional holiday events I was fortunate to have been selected to participate in Art San Diego 2014. I was also thrilled to be juried into Spectrum Art-Miami.

In Booth Art San Diego Two Paintings I Painted On TV Large One To My Left And Small One To My Right

Art San Diego In My Booth

In conjunction with Art San Diego 2014 I was asked to make guest appearances on KUSI, NBC and the Fox Morning Show.

Art San Diego Painting In Progress On KUSI News

Francesca Painting on NBC News Art San Diego

As well as being interviewed I created works of art while being filmed for these live TV shows. Francesca Filanc Being Interviewed and Painting on TV

View From Bench Under Arbor Where I Ate My Lunch Every Day At Art San Diego in Balboa Park

Looking Up At Arbor From My Bench Balboa Park
Art San Diego 2014

Arbor Art San Diego in Beautiful Balboa Park San Diego

Being a part of Art San Diego was exciting and thrilling. The show took place in the Activity Center in beautiful Balboa Park. Parts of Balboa Park are reminiscent of Italy, Spain or parts of France as well as San Diego! I would eat lunch each day in the adjacent beautiful gardens! They were quiet and gave me a chance to reconnect with nature and amazing architecture before returning to the show. ‪Francescafilanc.com

Setting Up Art Miami

Miami proved to delight me more than my wildest dreams!

Miami In My Booth

It wasn’t just the people and the shows, but the experience of being around so many amazing artists and their energy.

Art San Diego With Kelsey Giusta

Students In My Miami Booth

The show was a week long and in a very large tent. The tent was the size of several football fields and about 20 stories high! It was estimated that between seven and fourteen thousand

Looking Into My Booth On Left Miami

people a day came through to view the works of art.

A View Into My Miami Booth

Stargazer With The Painting’s New Owners – Miami

Stargazer With A Child Clothing Designer

There were 29 shows going on simultaneously throughout the town of Miami.

Spectrum Art-Miami with
Cirque du Soleil Performers

There is an expression used to describe this event; Art Takes Miami. Miami houses the largest collection of art fairs in the world. The largest art fair during the time of Picasso used to be in Basel, Switzerland. Since then they have expanded and now the largest is in Miami, Florida. Since 1970 twenty-nine art fairs have sprung up all over the city. Spectrum Miami is one of these.

Metaphysical In My Booth Miami

The history of Art Basel is as follows:

Art Basel was founded in 1970 by Basel Gallerists (also known as art dealers and connoisseurs of art) Trudi Bruckner, Balz Hilt and Ernst Beveler. Three years after its launch, Art Basel welcomed 281 exhibitors and over 30,000 visitors. While other emerging art fairs partnered in the 1970s, specifically in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Art Basel remained independent.

In 2002, Art Basel was launched in Miami Beach, under the leadership of former director, Samuel Keller.

Art Basel debuted in Hong Kong in May 2013. In July 2011, MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd. – the parent company of Art Basel – acquired 60% of Asian Art Fairs Limited, which launched ART Hong Kong and has the option of acquiring the remaining 40% in 2014.

Miami With My Friend Nora

These art fairs provide opportunity to new emerging and established artists to be set on the world stage with collectors, galleries and individuals interested in purchasing fine art. This has become the way to expose fine art of all prices from $50 a painting or sculpture or photograph to half a million dollars and up in price.

This was my first time visiting Miami and I did not know what to expect. The extremely friendly people blew me away and so many cultures, each with their own traditions.

See If You Can Find The Baby Alligators In This Photo Everglades

I was busy working the whole time but took the opportunity, staying an extra day after the show, to discover Miami and environs. My last day in Miami started with a tour of The Everglades in an airboat. Viewing baby alligators in the tall grasses and egrets. After the boat tour we had a show at the Everglades Park that included having the opportunity to hold a baby alligator.

Holding The Baby Alligator

In the spirit of the moment, I added an informative bus tour of Miami which also included a two-hour boat tour of Miami’s famous harbor including viewing shipyards, cruise ships and the homes of many famous people! Among the areas we visited by bus were: South Beach, Little Haiti, Little Havana, and Coral Gables to name a few. South Beach teemed with nightlife, eclectic varied restaurants with myriad aromas wafting through windows and doors onto the street, new quaint and older established hotels, night clubs galore with the delightful sound of Latin music. Visiting the area known as Little Havana where we had the opportunity to visit Cuba Tobacco Cigar Co.

Hand Rolling Cigars

Cigar Shop

While there I met the great-grandfather legendary tobacconist Pedro Bello Sr., holder of the cigar industries most prestigious leaf award. Great grand-pa sits outside smoking, they say, sixty cigars a day and drinking sweet Cuban coffee! He is 85 years old! We watched a man hand-roll cigars in the traditional old-fashioned way! People had the opportunity to purchase cigars. The district Coral Gables homes and environs were reminiscent of Pasadena and Beverly Hills, California;

Driving Under Banyan Trees Lining An Avenue in Coral Gables

even housing the famous Biltmore Hotel on one of its grand avenues. Kings, Queens and Heads of States have enjoyed the old world opulence and elegance of this famous hotel.

After Coral Gables the bus finalized our tour taking us to our waiting boat. In Miami’s harbor we sailed past three islands; Star, Palm and Hibiscus that are each privately owned by the homeowners of the islands. It is interesting to note that people of such high profile have or had homes right next to each other that can be viewed from the harbor! Several of the homes are now empty or have new owners which makes sense to me during this time of paparazzi! Some of the people whose homes we passed by: Madonna, Miami Sound Machine, Ricky Martin, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Taylor, Bacardi Rum Family, Frank Sinatra, Don Johnson, Johnson & Johnson, Sylvester Stallone, even Al Capone had a compound and died there years ago! May I also add that many of these mansions had large expensive yachts docked right out front of their properties!

View From Our Boat In Miami Harbor

We sailed past a magnificent estate with Italian Gardens, including Italian Cypresses, parterres and vegetables. Docked at the water’s edge was an elegant yacht backed by romantic woods on either side. The joke is that this is the house that Viagra built, but in reality it is owned by an important person on the board of the company (Pfizer) that distributes the drug.

One Of The Grand Homes Seen From Miami Harbor

I was amazed that all these very famous people chose to live or have homes right next to each other in an area accessible by boat to onlooking tourists. Perhaps this is why several of the homes were vacant or recently sold!

I ended my day with a most delicious meal at Joe’s Stone Crab! An elegant restaurant dating back to 1913.

Joe Weiss opened up a small lunch counter on Miami Beach. Back then, Miami Beach was just a quiet, backwater town. Folks stopped in to chat and for a top-notch fish sandwich and fries. This, of course, was only the beginning, and what happened next is a story worth telling.

Joe’s Stone Crab
Yummy!

Sitting in Joe’s Stone Crab eating a delicious dinner while sipping on a up Gray Goose Martini I was lost in thought. It was so reminiscent of days gone by, viewing a traditional Christmas tree with tinsel and all — it took me back to my childhood!!

Bye For Now,

Francesca

January 7, 2015
Fly Fishing is Big Fun!

I married a Huntin’ and Fishin’ man when I was very young. Sadly Peter passed away of cancer over seven years ago, yet I still love to fly fish! It is a Spiritual experience for me!

Fly Fishing at 7 Lakes Lodge, Colorado

The bug for fly fishing all started years ago when Pete and I were at Alisal Ranch in Solvang, California. There were many activities to choose from; horseback riding, playing tennis, golf and fly fishing. I thought it would be fun to learn how to fly fish! The ranch had a lawn as long as two football fields. Those learning how to cast were able to practice without any obstructions! We practiced for about an hour and then we were able to go try the sport.

Horseback Riding!

It was very hot outside and the fly fishing was not very good but I caught one little fish! I was hooked! Pun intended! After that trip Pete and I got the bug to go fly fishing regularly!

Fran & Pete Fly Fishing!

When I started writing this blog about two and a half years ago my handle was Rippin’ Lips and one of my early blog posts was about fly fishing. (Fly Fishing Blog)

Pete loved to hunt and we went seven years in a row to Seven Lakes Lodge in Meeker, Colorado. It is now privately owned by Greg Norman. At the time it was owned by Henry Cravats. He had his own private residence and we stayed at the lodge. While Pete was hunting I would go fly fishing on the lakes and along the seven miles of river frontage. During that period of our lives we also went to the San Juan River in New Mexico. People come from all over the world to fish on the San Juan! All of the fishing I am speaking of was catch and release.

I have also had very successful fishing trips in blizzards, believe it or not, catching one after another! This is a fish story, but I have the pictures to prove it! This fishing was done in Yellowstone National Park and environs of Montana.

Fish Story Proof!

When Erica, our younger daughter, was an exchange student her junior year at UC Davis, she spent a year at the University of Santiago, Chile. I went to visit Erica in December of 2011. While there Erica and I took a three-hour plane from Santiago to Puerto Varas in Patagonia! We stayed in a beautiful Inn reminiscent of Switzerland. A huge volcanic mountain topped with snow served as a backdrop to this fantastic location. It was right on the ocean. We had to keep pinching ourselves because we were on the ocean and not a lake! While we were there we went fishing on a huge river that was so wild and large! Our guide had just guided President Jimmy Carter two weeks earlier! He found us a wild orchid! This part of the world is so amazing. There are so many undiscovered areas!

I have also been fly fishing many times right outside of Bridgeport, California. The park system stocks some of the streams and lakes with fish every year. Peter, the girls and I caught many native trout while backpacking.

Just recently I had the opportunity to fly fish in New Brunswick, Canada. My brother-in-law suggested I check out Orvis recommendations for the Best fly fishing. The Lodge I chose was second best because the one Orvis recommended (voted best in the world for 2013) was sold out at the time, so I chose “second best” and had a first best experience at Wilson’s Sporting Camps on the Miramichi River. This body of water is world wide famous for Catch and Release Salmon Fly Fishing! However I wanted to fish for Trout! That worked out great because I was too early for the large catch and release Salmon fishing. Brook Trout is what one can catch late May early June. I only caught Salmon Pars! Those are the babies and I put them right back in the water. I caught many Brook Trout every day!

The Miramichi is world famous for catch and release salmon fishing. I was trout fishing. The Native Canadians coined the river Mystical Miramichi! I caught forty brook trout in four days (but who is counting?!). One is allowed to keep five a day. I just kept what I could eat! I was eating brook trout for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Stay tuned for the rest of my fly fishing adventure in the next blog.

The author/artist with the Miramichi Catch! Canada June 2014

Rippin’ Lips

Bye for now,

Francesca

July 16, 2014
Summer Time 2014 and Memories of Growing Up in Old Del Mar!

The Author and Artist Francie – Del Mar Beach

Now that summer has arrived I am swimming in the ocean almost every day! The water has been especially warm this season, in the 70°s F most of the time.

Usually these days I go to Swami’s in Encinitas CA to swim. Two days ago, not having as much time as usual, I went over to Old Del Mar and found a great parking space on 27^th Street (a real find nowadays) and walked down for a dip in the ocean in the late afternoon.

It was the last day of June and we were having what we call June Gloom which we don’t seem to have much of these days! The water looked rough, the waves were big and the air had a slight chill to it. I was meeting a friend for dinner and my hair looked good so I almost did not go into the water! Then I thought, Oh I will just walk in the shallows and then I decided to go for it!

I was the only swimmer in sight, save for a lone surfer off in the distance catching humungous waves and riding them expertly, one after another! At one point it did cross my mind the immense power the ocean has that one needs to treat with a healthy respect. While the ocean teems with life, it can destroy in an instant. Only six years ago a swimmer was taken by a shark not two miles from where I was swimming! A very rare event in southern California. While living in Hawaii I was warned by the locals not to swim before 8:00 a.m. or after 5 p.m. because that is when the sharks come in close to shore to feed. I suppose that would be good advice to heed anywhere!

The water was so WARM it felt like Hawaii! The really warm current amazed me, so much so that I thought

I hope this water is clean!

I got busy body surfing, riding the waves, not always that successfully, and all of a sudden the sun peeped through the clouds and I felt ecstatic happiness! I was a little girl again, reliving the experiences of swimming at beach parties in the early evening. I recalled swimming with my father and I could just hear his voice in my ears

Francie with Her Daddy

Isn’t this fantastic!

And then Daddy throwing his head back with a look of exuberant joy on his face, scanning the horizon for the next big wave!

My body felt deliciously wet and satisfied in the warm salt water! A funny thing, I love the feeling of water going up my nose! It reminds me of learning to swim as a child and also swimming in the ocean as a child on Del Mar Beach!

Have Fun this Summer Enjoying one of your passions!

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

Meteror Shower By Francesca

July 2, 2014
Jan’s Shangri-La

Jan in Her Beautiful Garden

Last week was the end of the year party for Olivenhain Garden Club. We were blessed to have our party in Jan Casado’s garden. Once in her garden one felt like one never wanted to leave. A few of us ate lunch at a table under a pergola looking out at the view– it felt like Shangra-La.

Jan has her degree in horticulture from Cal Poly Pomona. She was originally an art major but switched to horticulture. This is evident from Jan’s garden. Jan is also a Garden Designer.

Male Hooded Oriole like the one that stopped to get a drink from the birdbath!

I am not a perfectionist. My credo is from the Amish, Perfection is for God. If I had become an artist I would have been a realist.

Jan’s paintings are her gardens. The garden is her palette. Birds and butterflies fluttered by in profusion as my companions and I sat transfixed in her Shangra-La. Jan grows the Asclepius, commonly called milkweed. This is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. Butterfly blog

At one point a male hooded oriole stopped to take a drink from the birdbath, spotted us and quickly flew away before I could snap a photo. When I asked Jan her favorite garden to design, her response was “English wild garden.”

When you first climb the steps to Jan’s little piece of paradise you are greeted by a carpet of Dymondia margaretae. Dymondia is slow to grow but when established is softer and more inviting than grass, not to mention drought-tolerant. Jan enjoys walking barefoot on it and occasionally practices yoga on the Dymondia. Jan has three Duranta erecta about 12-14 feet tall painting a purple backdrop to the garden.

Seated Under the Pergola
Birdbath in Background is Where Oriole Landed

When I started designing my garden, my idea was to have it all blues and purples. As the garden progressed I added complementary colors. I am very proud of my Kniphofia uvaria (Red-Hot Pokers).

Why do you love to garden Jan, what does the garden give you?

Jan responded in a thoughtful manner,

Gardening gives me peace and tranquility, serenity and beauty. I garden two or three hours a day. I very seldom sit in my garden.

Duranta erecta

Jan is also a beekeeper by happenstance. One day bees planted a hive in her garden so Jan read up on being a beekeeper and now has three hives. Jan is a true renaissance “pioneer” woman. Jan made the rebar structures for her tomato plants, twelve feet tall. She remembers gardening as a very young child with her father. She learned how to use the chipper at the young age of eight. She is a truly hands-on gardener and does everything that a garden needs. Jan also composts in the bin method; very large trash cans that she moves the compost from bin to bin until it is done.

Jan has also brought some beautifully shaped agate rocks from her property in the Sierra Nevada.

I’m really a mountain girl at heart. I am most at home in the mountains and we are building a home on our property and will eventually live there full time.

Jan is an amazing cook. She makes everything from scratch, even making all the food for their many back-packing trips in the Sierras. Jan is a Pescetarian (a vegetarian who eats fish) and she eats very little dairy. What follows is Jan’s amazing recipe for sweet potato tacos.

Because this is a staple in our diet, I cook four pounds of pink beans at a time.

Prepare the beans.

Soak 4 pounds pink beans in a large canning pot with plenty of water because the beans will expand. Add 3 tablespoons baking soda (helps with flatulance). Change the water twice in an eight-hour period.

One time I left the beans too long and they molded and I had to throw the whole thing out. You can tell by the smell.

Thoroughly rinse beans at the end of the day and put in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, put back in a large pot with plenty of water
Add three potatoes Jan likes Yukon with their skins on
8 carrots
28 ounces canned tomatoes Jan uses her own from the garden
Add lots of salt, 3 or 4 T
4 T dark chili powder Sprouts Market
1 heaping t celery seed
1 t curry
Pepper about 1/2 t

Sauté one onion and ten or twelve cloves of garlic. Cook four hours or longer. The longer one cooks the bean, the less flatulence. Once cool freeze in zip lock freezer bags, quart size.

Ancho Chilies (from Sprouts Market)

Cook ten at a time, remove the skins – Jan cooks hers over a gas stove, but it can be done in the oven. Put them in a ceramic bowl with a plate on top for twenty minutes or longer and then skins peel easily. Jan also freezes these to take out when needed.

Prepare your sweet potatoes (1/2 sweet potato per person) Peel and cube, steam until done.

How to Assemble Jan’s Incredible Sweet Potato Tacos:

If any ingredients are frozen take out ahead of time to defrost at room temperature.

Wet tortilla, (Sprouted Corn— Food For Life, available at Sprouts Market) spray small amount of non-stick canola oil on both sides and then put tortilla in frying pan about ½ minute each side.

Layer the taco in this order
Beans
Ancho Chilis
Sweet Potato
Jack and Cheddar cheese
Homemade salsa (Jan’s homemade salsa recipe below)

Put filled tacos in a casserole dish and keep warm until ready to serve, about 200 degrees. Serve with homemade guacamole, lettuce and homemade salsa.

She makes her homemade salsa in a Vitamix blender. If you don’t have a Vitamix, hand chop or chop in your Cuisinart.

½ red onion
½ red bell pepper
1/2 to 1 1/2 jalapeno
½ bunch cilantro
1 T lemon juice
6 small tomatoes or three large
heaping T dark chili powder (more is better) Sprouts Market
4 or 5 cloves of garlic
heaping t salt
1/2 t pepper
3/4 T celery seed
Dash of curry

If using Vitamix , mix on level 2 for 30 seconds, level 5 for ten seconds.

In conclusion Jan is a Pioneer Woman who has created a true Shangra-La for her family and friends! Jan’s Realism Art is evident in Jan’s gardens, her own and those she designs for others. I, and I venture to say everyone, was deeply inspired in Jan’s garden. I for one was inspired to go pick up my paint brush and pen to write!

Happy Summer and making art in whatever form that takes you!

Bye for now,

Francesca

Dancing Stars by Francesca

June 20, 2014
A Visit To An Artist’s Studio

The artist, Tom Leedy, in front of his painting “Horses Aqua”

Earlier this week I got a call from a friend. Fran I’m calling to invite you over to see my artist studio. I was thrilled to receive his invitation!

Here are a few excerpts from my interview with Tom—

Tom: There were two things I knew when I was growing up: one, I was going to marry and have a family, and two, I loved Art! . . . the most amazing achievement and expression of what humans can do! To me there is nothing better than making a good piece of art! I built this space two years ago and I am thrilled with the studio!

Tom has his bachelors in fine art and was a professional artist for many years. He concentrated on stained glass because it was big in the 70s.

Having four children is a lot of mouths to feed so Tom went into the computer industry. He thoroughly enjoyed his work in the corporate world traveling to Japan among other countries.

Tom is a well-rounded individual with many passions; sports, all sports, but running daily and playing tennis two to three times a week, reading, traveling to Hawaii and excursions to see his grandchildren just to name a few.

Fran: Tom, I see a photo of your dad. Did your father’s love of art influence you to be an artist growing up?

Tom: I suppose it did subliminally. I remember looking at a portrait my father did of my brother Dave and I thought, I’m going to do that when I grow up. I was interested in all the things boys are interested in growing up: sports, rockets, cars, but I knew that art was my thing!

Tom has been painting throughout his life but when he retired he started a routine of painting every afternoon.

I will never forget the date I retired, May 31 2013, etched in my memory forever as a very Happy Day!

I couldn’t wait for the time in my life when I could be doing art every day. I realized one day talking with Martha that we could survive without a corporate salary. Then I did it. Kids were raised, out of school and on their feet. I was then free to go back to my first love and passion. I felt liberation, freedom to return to that! I feel like a kid in harmony with the world. I am grateful.

Now my days are my own –I take a run either up here in the hills or down on the beach. I think about painting and inevitably images come to mind that I want to capture on canvas. Then I come home, have my lunch and head out to the studio in the garden.

The creative process —If you could only do one thing to leave a piece of art, that is great, that would be Success! Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great to be a businessman and build corporations -–awesome achievements in the business world, but great art. . . !

The struggle–I am maybe too much of a perfectionist to look at one of my pieces and say WOW, that’s it! The danger is that you are so examining of yourself that you overwork it! Not to leave it soon enough, know when to stop.

Tom has this quote on his wall from author John McPhee:

People often ask how I know when I’m done – not just when I’ve come to the end, but in all the drafts and revisions and substitutions of one word for another how do I know there is no more to do? When am I done? I just know. I’m lucky that way. What I know is that I can’t do any better; someone else might do better, but that’s all I can do; so I call it done.

Tom: I love that one by McPhee. Especially the part about knowing that he can’t do any better even though someone else might; I find that very liberating, very helpful in accepting one’s own work. I try to remember that!

Lately Tom has also started sculpting again. He is trying something new, carving in granite.

Fran: It seems to me Tom, that you are not afraid to start new things, to jump in with both feet and start something new.

Tom: It’s not scary for me to start a new process because I’ve never done it before. I am not afraid because it’s just for fun and to learn something new. I have confidence that I can draw and make forms and shapes! Can I do it again for a painting, to me, is the struggle because painting for me is the foremost form of art. I am a painter before a sculptor, a drawer before a painter, less scary to mess with sculpting. Like almost easier to excel when your expectations are lower, not so high.

“The Wave” in Granite

Tom: I carved a wave in stone – I find this amusing, cracks me up. Stone has seams and stuff like that. The process of working in stone is almost delicate in a way, even though it is granite! When you start to do something new you know how amazing it is and the amazement for the people who do that kind of art goes up! Blows me away!

Fran: Who are your mentors?

Tom: The guys who could refer to the real world not just the mind. I respond to it. Nobody touches Matisse in color, line and expression. Vermeer is a sheer marvel and Goya to name a few.

Tom’s studio is large, organized and light filled. He has photographs of people and relatives whose beauty or differences inspire him to paint. He has several pictures of his beautiful wife and his daughter. Look, wasn’t she a beautiful woman?! Tom exclaimed as we looked at a photo of his deceased mother-in-law.

Pressfield says it well:

Steven Pressfield, author – If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist? chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

Tom: What I like about Pressfield’s statements is that they reflect the almost compulsive love artists must have for their work – something they can’t not do, regardless of how hard or scary it gets for them.

Tom: I am free again, back in my own skin and I am in the journey, I am starting the run. I think people who can do it well are amazing!

I came away from the morning with Tom totally inspired to get back into my own studio! As I left I couldn’t help but notice this inspiring quote on his studio door:

Art is not a thing. . .it is a way~! Elbert Hubbard

Bye for Now,

Francesca

The artist in his studio

February 20, 2014
Halloween Today and Revisited!

Yesterday was Halloween and I was impressed as I drove through down-town Encinitas on Highway 101 at the numbers of families, some with grandparents in tow. The young parents of

Pingui!
My daughter and her family

the small children were all dressed up too!

This is a lovely new expression for the parents of young children! I have been thinking about this and how the expression of why people love to dress up in costumes. Traditionally, today, November 1, is the day of the dead in Spain and in Latin American countries.

Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where the day is a bank holiday. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the Christian triduum of Hallowmas: All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.[1][2] Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.My daughter’s mother-in-law in Spain puts fresh flowers on loved ones graves every November 1st. (Source: Wikipedia)

In America, for the most part, Halloween has become a huge event from parties to parading in towns through neighborhoods to see your friends and neighbors all dressed up. Many families in Fairfax, California, decorate their gardens and homes to reflect the Halloween spirit. Artists and collectors in Fairfax open their homes to the holiday revelers.

A friend of mine used to own a hotel with a restaurant and bar. Halloween was their most fun event of the year and biggest money maker! The locals enjoyed coming to the bar. My friend and his wife had fun thinking in advance about upcoming Halloween and who they would be enacting.

Human beings love to put on plays. We love to pretend we are someone different from ourselves! Real or imaginary! Aside from witches and goblins and ghosts or fairy princesses there is always that excitement and FUN to be someone or something we would never really want to be…. Our alter ego if you will!?

Here’s to Halloween in the USA!!! How FUN this day is in our society!

Bye for now,

Francesca

November 2, 2013
Joys of Gardening With Grandchildren

The author/artist granddaughter picking tomatoes to eaThis past summer my daughter who lives in Spain came with her husband and children to California for a five-week visit.

Their oldest daughter Anushka loves to garden. She is now six years old. Every time the family comes to visit Anushka and I have fun gardening. While they were here we planted some vegetables and seeds together, picked tomatoes and strawberries, and pulled out vegetables that were spent. Anushka was able to experience the cycle of the vegetables; lettuce, purslane and arugula. She had the experience of planting them as well as seeing them regrow from seeds in the soil after we had pulled the old ones out.

Monarch Butterfly on Asclepias curassavica

This summer people have been amazed by the multitudes of butterflies in Southern California. My granddaughters and I had so much fun gardening and playing in the garden all the while butterflies and dragonflies floated as if “lazily” overhead. For months I have been curious as to this fabulous phenomenon. I was thinking that it was possibly due to so many of us planting the plants that caterpillars love to eat and build their chrysalis on such as Asclepias curassavica. Also the fact that many of us through the years have become organic gardeners. And many more people plant vegetable gardens which also may encourage a variety of colorful butterflies and dragonflies to our gardens. Gardeners have been planting milkweed to encourage the Monarchs to their gardens. My grandchildren got to experience seeing the magnificent and beautiful chrysalises of Monarch butterflies and then the butterflies just emerged and still wet on a branch. This is a link to a blog post that I wrote on butterflies. Butterflies in Our Gardens

Monarch Chrysalis

I checked the Internet to find the answer to this interesting phenomenon. The article below speaks of this fascinating development in England also this calendar year 2013.

Britain’s butterfly population seems to have exploded this year, the buddleia bushes are bursting, the veg patches are teaming and there seems to be an invasion happening in my home.

Every day for the last week or so I have had to rescue at least one trapped butterfly from my cottage. They seem to appear from nowhere and crash desperately and repeatedly into the windows leaving their precious wing powder behind. I was always taught not to hold a butterfly as the powder comes off on your hands and that’s what helps them fly, I’ve no idea if this is true or not, but I like the idea of magic flying dust so I find myself leaping about with a pint glass in one hand and beer mat in the other trying desperately to channel Gerald Durrell and catch the frightened insect.

British butterflies have been in decline over the last 10 years with a 24% decrease in the common garden types like the Red Admiral and Cabbage White.

My childhood was full of butterflies and then they all seemed to disappear. British butterflies have been in decline over the last 10 years with a 24% decrease in the common garden types like the Red Admiral and Cabbage White so how come we are seeing this year’s butterfly boom?

Despite being around for at least 50 million years butterflies are fragile things that are hugely affected by environmental factors, their habitats are disappearing and more and more pesticides are being sprayed around the countryside which has resulted in our summers seeing fewer and fewer of these beautiful winged creatures fluttering about their business.

Peter Eeles, Chairman of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch of Butterfly Conservation attributes this year’s boom to three major contributors – the first is that we had a ‘proper’ winter (i.e. cold) which suppresses the ability for parasites and mould to kill off any stages that are overwintering. The second is that we’ve had a good summer and the fine weather has allowed the caterpillars to rapidly feed up – which gives less time for predators to find them (especially birds). And thirdly the sunny weather has allowed butterflies to maximise the time spent finding a mate, and for females to egg-lay – and for multi-brooded species we’ll see the second or third hatches and in good numbers.

So it’s excellent news for Britain’s butterflies this year and you can do your bit to encourage them into your garden by planting butterfly friendly flowers like buddleias and marigolds or visit the butterfly plants website for a list of their favourite plants to feast and lay on and let’s hope we continue to see them flourish and flutter by. Metro Newspaper.

Anushka and I also planted a succulent planter. Check out a blog post that I wrote on this subject. Create Your Own Wall Succulent Hanging Planter

My granddaughter was having fun playing with her fairy princes and princesses in the planter before it was finished as you can see from the photo.

I just recently read an article in First for Women Magazine that talks about how gardening alleviates stress in a person. Our lives are so stressful these days. Every time I go out and work in my garden my stress goes completely away. And I think, why didn’t I do this sooner!

The #1 Way to Nix The Stress of Daily Pressures:

When too many demands leave you feeling exhausted, take a time-out to tend your garden. Researchers in the Netherlands discovered that subjects who spend thirty minutes outdoors pulling weeds and planting flowers experience a significantly greater reduction in levels of acute stress—the kind created by rushing from one to-do to the next—than those who stayed indoors and read for a half hour. The authors of the study explain that soil contains a bacterium (called M. vaccae) that boosts the production of the happy hormone serotonin and relieves anxiety.

Sometimes I forget to get into the garden. Now is a great time to buy the winter vegetables to plant in California. We are so lucky here to be able to garden outdoors year round! I am so thankful for the blessing of working in the earth.

Succulent Planter That Author/Artist Granddaughter Created

Have Fun Gardening!

Bye for Now

Francesca

South Beach
https://francescafilanc.com/gallery/#lightbox/28/ FF

September 25, 2013
Growing and Maintaining a Garden Hedge

Francesca’s Garden Hedge

January of 2007 we had an unusually severe winter in San Diego County. Peter and I traveled to Spain for the birth of our first grandchild. When we arrived home from Spain in February several trees and shrubs had died on our property, or so we thought.

Since I had been to Ireland with my mother on a garden tour four years earlier I had longed for a garden hedge like the kind I saw all over southern Ireland! They are filled with all kinds of plants. In this way, the freeze in my garden in California was serendipitous for creating a new interest in the garden; a garden hedge! My gardener and I started to let all the plants that survived the freeze grow together. Then an amazing thing happened; some of the plants and trees that had supposedly died miraculously came back to life! Those branches that didn’t recover acted as support for the other climbing shrubs as they grew skyward and formed a solid hedge. As the plants, shrubs and trees grew I was enthused each time Sergio pruned the hedge. My mother came over one day to videotape a segment on properly pruning a garden hedge. The Correct Way to Prune a Hedge. The hedge consists of Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis), Periwinkle (Vinca minor), Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina), Mock Orange (Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’), and Abutilon.

If you check out Pat Welsh’s video above, Pat teaches one the correct way to prune a hedge. Looking at this hedge now, it needs to be thinner at the top than it currently appears in the photo. Back to the drawing board!

The hedge is now three stories high and creates welcome shade on a hot afternoon!

Happy gardening and painting!

Bye for now,

Francesca

Frost by FF

September 4, 2013
Summer Visitors

Grandchildren’s Room and
Francesca’s painting in the hallway

This evening my older daughter and her family will arrive from Spain for a visit. I am so excited to see the whole family! The grandchildren’s room is ready and I look forward to the patter of little feet running up to their room to see what outfits Mimi has on the wall for them. The Pink Grandchildren’s Room

Pixies and Fairies
Painted by the Author/Artist when she was seven years old

Two paintings that I created years ago when I was a child myself are framed and hanging on the wall . My mother had kept these paintings and had them framed for my oldest daughter’s first birthday.

For those of you, like me, who have grandchildren who live miles away, you know the feeling of feast or famine with the family.

I have been gardening in the children’s garden seeing that it needs attention! There is a jungle gym for the children to play on as well as many little gardens for them to dig and plant in.

The Wisteria

A song came to mind that I heard years ago that matched my mood and excitement of the day. Michael Franti – Say Hey For years I searched for it on the internet and suddenly discovered it again.

Enjoy July whatever fun events or happenings you might have planned. I will look forward to being back in touch mid-August!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

Elephants at The Circus
Painted by Francesca When She was Seven Years Old

July 9, 2013
Summers Growing Up in Del Mar

Del Mar was a sleepy little beach town when I was growing up, coined Gasoline Alley by some. There were at one time thirteen gas stations in our little town when Highway 101 was the main thoroughfare to the City of San Diego. The County Fair was a big deal for folks when it came to town! Within a few days of the County Fair closing the Races would start. WOW! Movie Stars all up and down the beach! Summer Days in Del Mar

Lucy and Desi Had a House on The Beach!

I remember summer mornings swimming in the ocean, warm, sleepy afternoons painting and playing with our Barbie and Madame Alexander Dolls and plastic horses with my sister and friends. Our step-grandpa was John Lloyd Wright and we lived right next door to him. We called him Grandbot. Grandbot invented five toys. The most famous one was Lincoln Logs. He also invented a toy called Wright Blocks. They were sooo much fun to play with!!! Wendy and I loved making horse corrals and pastures on the grass for our plastic horses to run! The most fun part of our play for me was setting up the elaborate houses and pastures and placing our plastic horses in them, dressing and undressing the dolls in different outfits!

We also loved playing Indians (Playing Indians) and I loved playing Queen and Geisha girl. I would get bored of those two games quickly because once I was dressed up there was nothing for me to do except sit on the throne and be waited on. I remember one time my sister and our friends bowed down in front of me and said Salami Salami Baloney Baloney! We all fell into gales of laughter! My mother would help me get all dressed up to be a Geisha in a kimono with an obi. But once I was dressed up all I could do was sit, the outfit was so binding! After all that I would ask my mother to please help me get out of the outfit!

As a child I would become bored with some of the games. Looking back on it I am so happy to be an adult! Sometimes with all the stresses of adult life we may look back on childhood as an idyllic time of endless freedom and happiness.But in actuality many of us have more freedoms as adults. I guess what I am saying is even with all the seriousness, grief or traumas that we go through, when immersed in happy work, exercise, helping others we can free the passion of life!

Happy summertime! On that note I am going to go take a swim in the ocean!

Happy Swimming or whatever you love to do for exercise in the summertime.

Have a safe, Happy Fourth of July!

Bye for Now,

Francesca

“Beauty”
By Francesca

July 2, 2013