Rocke-Fellow

It is not a secret, I am a City-Girl. May friends laughed when they heard where we were going to live... Although not entirely true, I call the area where we live: The Woods. Luckily, these woods are one train ride away, from one of the most wonderful cities of the world: New York. To avoid, starting to talk to squirrels, I make as many trips to the city as I can. To inhale some city fumes, enjoy all the noises, and to do my favorite thing: people watching. One of a few great spots in the city to do this, is Grand Central Station. I know some people get irritated, because tourists will stop at most unexpected places and times, to look up and around. Blocking the way of people rushing to get to work or catch their train. But I never get tired of looking at those faces... all smiles and in wonder. And then the people around the "Big Clock", their faces lighting up when they spot their friends, family or loved ones. Another great spot is Rockefeller Square. Famous for the ice rink and Christmas tree in the winter. I love to sit on one of those benches (preferably enjoying a nice hot coffee) and watch people walking by. I could sit there all day. Especially in the company of my "Hand-Bag-hippo"... or any hippo for that matter :-).

 

 

Portrait of a Hippo

This portrait is great at reminding me, why it is important to keep a record of all my hippos. At the moment, I still have pictures of the part of my collection, that is packed in boxes and stored in our basement. At the same time, my "while-living-in-the-USA" collection, is growing at an alarming rate. It is already becoming hard to keep up with my new ones... while not even half of my "old" ones are featured here on my blog. What is worse... when I came upon this picture, I could not even remember owning it... After a while, some memories came back. I bought it during one of my trips to Chatuchak (JJ) Weekend market in Bangkok, Thailand. Of course it stood out to me, because it was a hippo, but also because it was the only hippo... surrounded by colorful swans, gnomes and panda bears. I could not, and still can't decide what the expression means on his face. I think he is not even sure himself...

Counting Hippos

I am very proud to be able to feature another painting made by Anuchit Klinkulab, or "A". He already made my first and only round hippo painting (see post: Round and Round). One of his "signature" painting styles, is painting the outlines of portraits (mainly musicians) with white paint, on a white canvas. I already mentioned a few times, that it would be nice to have something similar, with (what else?) hippos. After some time of not selling much, I decided to help him out a bit by ordering my "hippos in white". I spoke with him about the option of having one of them, done in red. I thought it would look nice to have one stand out. I also told him it would be entirely up to him, as he is the artist. To be honest, I was very surprised when I saw the painting when it was finished. It was not what I had in mind at all! But it would not take long, before I would fall in love with this cute looking fellow, in the company of many friends, you can only see when you take a closer look. I believe every piece of art should be like that, making you want to take another look, and discover something new, each time!

Bep

Many of you have heard me say: "I do not collect plushy hippos anymore!" But what to do, when a plus-sixty-centimeter or two-foot furry hippo is staring at you, from a shelf above the lady's-coats-section at a local Goodwill store? Of course I tried: "NO, too large" and "NO MORE PLUSHY POS" and "NO SPACE"! But those arguments were very quickly defeated by "I believe Boris (see post: Boris), needs to have a girl friend" and "Excuse me, do I buy this for USD 4,99? What kind of question is that?" And so, Bep was accompanied to the car by my daughters, who tried not to look too embarrassed, (what is worse? People assuming it is their hippo, or knowing it is their mum's hippo?) and my parents in law, who are already far beyond the point of being surprised. Of course, Bep needed to have a bath (washing machine). It made her ears, feet and nostrils sparkly clean... minor detail: this adventure almost made her head fall off. Luckily, my mother in law is a specialist in emergency-plushy-hippo-attach-head-back-to-body-operations. Bep is as good as new... and already busy at work. Guarding our pumpkin, from evil squirrels, badgers and what-ever-else-eats-pumpkin-seeds.

 

Need to get this off my chest. It looks like this pumpkin is not going to become any larger. The package of the seeds promised 'Championship worthy Pumpkins"... whoever came up with that, must be a Minion or coming from Gulliver's Island... According to Bep, huge pumpkins are so overrated... locally-grown-organic-mini-pumpkins are the newest trend. I believe it is much more likely, our Bep had a spin or two, too many in our machine :-)...