Francesca Filanc

Tag: Traveling

  • Healing Garden

    Healing Garden

    grapes
    The Healer’s Healing Garden in Spain
    giverny
    A Photo of a Garden Reminiscent of the Healing Garden in Spain

    I just saw a beautiful garden photo on Facebook and it reminded me of friends of my daughter in Spain who have the most Beautiful Garden! The husband used to be a brick mason and now he is in the Healing Arts. He practices Craniosacral therapy and also massage techniques to help with physical and emotional health. His wife is a lovely calm woman too. She seems to be a healer in vibration. I have been to their garden several times and have enjoyed the garden immensely when Anushka was a baby and later with Mikaela, her younger sister. The husband is always gardening when he is not working. He has no outside help. He does all the work and in my opinion the garden looks like Monet’s garden outside of Paris, Giverny. One can even see a factory from the garden but when you are in this lovely garden you are entranced by its beauty and the industry in the background disappears. The wife has brought me tea and/or cafe con leches and an assortment of homemade goodies while I waited with the baby in the garden. The lady of the house is also an artist and when one is inside their beautiful eclectic home, unless you pinch yourself you might think you were in Santa Fe, New Mexico rather than northern Spain!

    Being in this healing paradise for an hour or two at a time with one of my grand babies I always feel an urge to paint! If the grand baby was awake I would drink in the moment and enjoy watching the child look with wide eyes at nature around her.  When one of the babies was napping I would sometimes take out colored pencils and draw what I was experiencing visually. But many times I sat with a huge smile fixed on my face drinking in the magnificence of nature directed by man.

    These luscious  moments of life where we are truly in the moment are treasures that we can draw on through our lives.

    I am thankful for beauty where I find it; in people in experiences in tragedy in beauty and ultimately in love.

    Here’s to having experiences that we look back on as ahhhh moments!

    Bye for now,

     

    Francesca

    Francesca_84
    Painting that Francesca painted from thoughts of Spain
    www.francescafilanc.com
  • ART IN MADRID AND HOW THIS PAINTER FINDS INSPIRATION

    ART IN MADRID AND HOW THIS PAINTER FINDS INSPIRATION

    BIRTHRIGHT

    Painting as well as other disciplines needs enlightenment and inspiration for the artist to make the opportunity to paint an inspired piece of art. It is paramount for an artist to view paintings in museums. Many artists, some who paint abstract and some who are traditionalists inspire me which can be seen through my art.

    The last few days I was in Spain visiting my daughter and her family, we traveled from their home in the town of Izcue by bus to Pamplona and then by train to Madrid.

    We stayed in a hotel that I would highly recommend. The prices were good. It was clean and lovely located in a residential neighborhood on a tree-lined street. AC Hotel Carlton Madrid Paseo de las Delicas 26 28045 Madrid. The hotel is in walking distance to all the museums and just down the street from the train station. Which by the by has a restaurant and a beautiful garden. The hotel seems to cater to the businessperson as well as the vacationer. There is a sumptuous buffet breakfast with everything from smoked salmon to deserts. After stuffing ourselves on the delicious repast we were ready to walk it off with plenty of museum viewing!

     I was thrilled to learn that we were in time to see the Marc Chagall exhibit at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Chagall’s art is childlike yet sophisticated. He paints cows, roosters, goats and lovers in the sky. Chagall was a colorist and he painted his feelings.

     I relate to Chagall because I am also a colorist and I paint my feelings.

    We walked to three museums that day including the Prado. We looked at works by Diego Velazquez, larger than life paintings, some looking to be ten stories high. The majority of people were clustered around Las Meninas. Las Meninas is famous in part because Velazquez painted himself in the painting. One painting in particular that I was especially attracted to depicted a magnificent white horse with flowing mane, snorting the air, high-spirited with a regal-looking man on his back. There were many such paintings with a similar theme. Velazquez is a national treasure of Spain. When you go to the Prado you see a multitude of his works.

    My son-in-law Iban and I visited Guernica by Picasso, depicting the massacre in a small Basque town during the time of Franco. They are working on refurbishing the painting at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía but it was still on display. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on April 26th, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.

     On my last night in Madrid we walked to dinner a few blocks away from our hotel. We sat on the street, drank good wine and had a culinary delight of several courses of tapas that my daughter took great delight in ordering for the table. We started with calamari and white asparagus, the dishes kept coming including lamb and ending with traditional deserts.

    Mikaela had fallen asleep in the stroller next to our table and Anushka stayed awake until we returned back to our lovely hotel. I asked for a cab to pick me up in the morning to take me to the airport. Yvette, Iban, Anushka and Mikaela enjoyed the day in Madrid and then walked to the train that took them back to Izcue, and yours truly traveled home to California. What a lovely memory of my last two days in Spain.

    Adios,

    Bye for now,

    Francesca

     

    PUCCI
  • 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AND A COUSIN’S BIRTHDAY

    75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AND A COUSIN’S BIRTHDAY

    Golden Gate Bridge ~ 75th Year Anniversary

    This past weekend I was in the San Francisco Bay area. Sunday was the 75th birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge. Check out the picture on the right and this video of the fireworks taken this last Sunday May 29, 2012.

    Last week on PBS Evening News a reporter gave some history on the building of the bridge. There was controversy surrounding the idea of building the bridge. There was even controversy on who were the true engineering architects of the bridge! On Sunday May 29th this was all set straight — after 75 years!

    “One aspect of the 75th birthday celebration that wasn’t in the plans was the rekindling of an old controversy. Who should get the credit for building and designing this spectacular bridge? The first design, from 1922, showed a bulky unattractive bridge, part cantilever, part suspension. It was the work of Chicago bridge builder Joseph Strauss, who had decided his legacy would be a span to rival the Brooklyn and George Washington bridges in New York.

    But Strauss wasn’t a civil engineer. He was a builder of drawbridges, a promoter and organizer. And he organized a decades-long campaign to get the Golden Gate Bridge approved and built by him. Before construction began, Strauss’ clunky design was scrapped, though he remained as chief engineer. In its place was a sleeker structure made possible by University of Illinois engineer Charles Ellis and Leon Moisseiff, who had designed the Manhattan Bridge.” (PBS New Hour Interview)

    Also Ansel Adams had photographed the space where the bridge now stands and was against the building of the bridge. He finally came to peace with the bridge when he photographed it in 1953. Click here to see Ansel Adams’ Before and After photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

    I will never forget the first time I was with my family driving over the Golden Gate Bridge as a little girl. Imagine a child’s dismay – the bridge was not gold, it was red! The fact that it was red instead of gold disturbed me for many years. Today I am just taken by its majestic beauty.

    Birthday Girl Lorraine and Sister Corrine
    Roses in Lorraine’s Garden

    My father used to rouse the family in a song of California Here I Come. During vacations with my husband, Pete, and our daughters years ago; I led the song, much to the horror of my children! To this day I roll down the windows and belt out the song as I drive over the bridge. I have the opportunity to see the Golden Gate Bridge often and to drive across. The experience always takes my breath away. If I am not driving, I am snapping pictures. Shrouded in clouds, in rain or on the occasional clear day the view is always magnificent!

    The Author, Cousin Jeremy and Lorraine

    This weekend I went to Point Reyes station and Inverness for my cousin’s birthday. Lorraine lives with her family on eight acres surrounded by verdant gardens and nature. Friends and family came with delicious food. A friend raised and roasted a pig for the event. Oysters were abundant, found locally, raw and cooked on the barbecue.

    Google weather fore-casted a cold rainy day but to the delight of the birthday girl and the rest of us there was sun to penetrate warmth on our backs and shoulders.

    Here’s to celebrating life with family and friends!

    Bye for now,

    Francesca

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  • MEMORIAL DAY IS ALMOST HERE. FESTIVALES ESPAÑA STYLE!

    MEMORIAL DAY IS ALMOST HERE. FESTIVALES ESPAÑA STYLE!

    Viva España! I just arrived home from Spain after visiting one of my daughters and her family. My son-in-law is Spanish Basque. They live in a delightful little country town about fifteen minutes outside of Pamplona in the Province of Navarre.

    I “Skype” from California to my family in Spain often, and I have seen the beauty of the countryside from Cyberspace, but being there!!!
    The landscape is Breathtaking!

    The town felt like something out of a fairytale. Izcue is situated on a hillside surrounded by fields of rapeseed, Images of Rapeseed Facts about rapeseedwheat and barley, sprinkled with vibrant red poppies. When the wind blows, in my daughter Yvette’s words

    the fields look like waves on the ocean.

    When I experienced the same sight it took my breath away! Different shades of green  and bright yellow folding over and over as the wind touched the fields highlighted with sunlight.

     

    Every town in Spain has festivales for the birthday of the town and Izcue is no exception. I happened to be there over the town’s birthday. May sixteenth the whole weekend had fun activities planned. Friday night was a potluck dinner at the clubhouse. Everyone brought their traditional dishes to share. Saturday was the big party that went all night long. Everyone was to dress like roaring twenties in the USA, authentic flapper and gangster costumes were abundant.

    On Saturday at 2:00 p.m. there was a catered lunch at the clubhouse. The meal started with bread and mixed drinks such as martini rojo, bread, white asparagus and pate followed by Ensalada Mixta (lettuce, tomatoes, olives, tuna fish, and red cooked peppers). While this salad can vary according to the region and maker, here’s a great example — Ensalada Mixta. Then the main entree was lamb, potatoes and vegetables, then a drink that is so amazing to cleanse the palette; lemon juice, vanilla ice cream or lemon sorbet and champagne. Recipe for Sparkling Wine Lemon Sorbet. Desert was fresh strawberries with bananas followed by the cafe con leche.

    After lunch music could be heard wafting in from outside. We all arose, led by the band, we paraded singing and dancing to the far end of the town. Making our way back, stopping at centuries-old homes we were served refreshments and pastries either in a lovely garden or in the grand home itself. After about four hours this activity was finished and everyone proceeded into a town hall where there was rock and roll music, dancing ‘till dawn.

    For the older generation and myself, we went happily, if not a little tipsily to bed.

    Ah, what a memory! Have a great holiday weekend however you celebrate yours!

     We remember those who have lost their lives to protect our own!

     

     

    Agur* for now,

    Francesca

    *Goodbye in Basque, pronounced a-oor!