Having noticed the beginning and the end of Pomerol at references 1 and 2 respectively, it is now time to notice the main course in the middle, delivered frozen from New Zealand, via Sainsbury's. One supposes by sea, although I have not inquired what gets put into the cargo holds of all the jumbo jets plying the skies between here and there. Flowers in the case of Central America, so not too much of a stretch for it to be legs of lamb here.
Apéritif in the form of a spot of white, Sauvignon Blanc from the Villa Maria vintage of 2019, appropriately from New Zealand and as will be served by Wetherspoon's when they reopen. Just visible behind the bottle.
No pink about the meat on this occasion, but pale and moist, and it went down very well, served with boiled brown rice, mixed cabbage and a little carrot. Note the use of the blue steel kitchen knife rather than a regular carving knife - with all our carving knives being stainless steel and rather harder to sharpen.
Date slice for dessert, visible in the background, BH having topped up the date supplies at some point, after the failure noticed at reference 1.
The Pomerol went down very well, our first red wine since the meal noticed at reference 3, four weeks previous. An occasional treat for the palette, white wine seeming to work better for everyday purposes. All done by the time that Polly got in on the act, as noticed at reference 2.
In the margins I turned the pages of our small book of Annunciations from Phaidon, noticed recently at reference 4. A book which was published in 2000, near enough the 2,000th anniversary of the important event in question, a publication which must have been at the height of the designers' fad for not using capital letters - a fad which I had always found rather tiresome, believing as I do in the improvements to legibility that capital letters bring with them. A bit like chucking away all the care that has been put into making type faces legible.
The reproductions are very small and, if this one is anything to go by, not very good. With this one, as it happens, having been noticed on several occasions in the past in connection with visits to our National Gallery. Nevertheless, there is plenty of interest, among all these annunciations - usually the Angel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary the result of her pregnancy test - but at least once telling her of her impending death and immediate translation to heaven (an unprecedented privilege). With one such have been noticed a few years ago at reference 5. And with 'annunzio' being the Italian for announcement or proclamation.
One of the odder ones, for me anyway, was one from one Beatrice Emma Parsons from the very end of the nineteenth century. An English painter who died in 1955, now known for her paintings of gardens, as evidenced here by the profusion of the symbolic white lilies, more often than not included in annunciations. Also unusual in that initially at least, Bing did a better job of turning the painting up than Google, although this not very good image does come via Google. Presumably not very good because it is in a private collection.
Not sure what business Andy Warhol had doing one. Not that I like his stuff anyway.
PS: still puzzling about why Van Eyck would go to the bother of faking a statue in paint, as a reference 4. As a technical tour de force yes, but was that the only point? Why did the customers go for this sort of thing?
Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/06/date-fail.html.
Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/06/fake-105.html.
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