Tufted and gray in the drizzle

Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.
Allen Klein


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Tufted Titmouse


Now to the Merry Making evening at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum last Friday evening. It was really wonderful, a fairly warm clear evening, perfect for the short walk to the museum after parking. The interior of the old palace was glowing with soft lights, and small groups of people were gathered, standing or sitting at cocktail tables or red velvet cushions on the low walls bordering the incredible courtyard. Roman mosaics and plantings carpet the courtyard floor. The skilled gardening staff (I've visited the extensive greenhouses with Garden Club)had artfully placed seasonal plantings in the courtyard, including cut white amaryllis blooms and potted red poinsettias. Music by Sonic Brass filled the museum. Serving staff with trays offered savory and sweet hors d' oeuves in the cloisters surrounding the courtyard. Champagne, mixed drinks and a beverage special for the evening, the Balthazar, a mix of champagne, pear juice and ginger flowed from a table placed in front of John Singer Sargent's incredible painting, El Jaleo, in the Spanish Cloister. The pace was slow and our table company enjoyable, an older couple who return to the event annually. We then moved upstairs to the second floor with seating in the Tapestry Room where Paavali Jumppanen mesmerized us with Mozart's Sonata No. 7 in C Major, K. 309 on pianoforte. A second pianoforte was rolled into place and he was joined by Elaine Hou as they played, Sonata in D Major for two pianos,K.448. Incredible. That was followed by Scottish piping from the Dutch Room balcony as we once more settled in downstairs at seating surrounding the courtyard. Tiny cupcakes, and festive singing from the Lexington, Ma High School Madrigal Singers rounded out the evening. The last musical event was joining that group in carols of the season. The celebration left us smiling. What an evening, soft lighting enhancing the building, inspired and designed by one remarkable and innovative woman. Isabella threw these galas all the time, roll back the clothing styles and we could imagine her bursting into a room as she is in this Zorn portrait, long ago in Venice...

Isabella, by Anders Zorn

Isabella's biography