The Widow Judy and Friend

The Widow Judy took off on her own today!

I've been wanting to go to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and just sort of hang out there. It's a lovely venue - 66 acres in toto - with one of the top 20 art museums in the U.S., a circus museum, the Ca d'Zan (KAH duh zahn) mansion which was the Ringling's home in Sarasota, a couple of education centers, the Florida State University Center For The Performing Arts, and lots of gardens for sitting and contemplating one's navel.

I bought an associate membership so now I can go as often as I like!

Because the campus is hugh they have a dozen or so oversized golf carts to tote you from one area to the next. I REALLY like that even if the drivers tend to be loquacious and madmen besides. I don't know how fast the carts actually go but on all the twisty paths it feels almost dangerous!

I like a little danger with my art.

I've been there three or four times in the past but always with other people; going alone made it an adventure for me. No one knew what I was up to... not even me... and I could take as much time as I liked with the life-sized naked statues in the courtyard!! Tom's been gone for two months now and, frankly, I have been missing seeing a naked man.

I got the recorded casette but gave up on it after Gallery Nine. It was just too sensitive for me to operate and, also, I didn't actually care all that much what other people had to say about the art collection. Like many people, I don't know a lot about art but I know what I like and that was enough for me for now.

The museum itself is very lovely, very impressive. So is the collection. I could sit in any of the gallery rooms and simply 'be' quite happily. I don't paint but I would like to. My sister Karen and I planned to take art lessons together when we retired but she up and died at 45 leaving me, now, to my own devices.

There are lots of natural outdoor areas perfect for sketching. I'm thinking I might just get a pad and some soft pencils, sit myself down and see what happens. One of the drivers, not Stan, told me HE started art classes when he retired four years ago....

If I could live at the Ca d'Zan, I would. You've probably seen it yourself and never even knew it because it's been featured as a locale in a goodly number of movies. The Ringlings supposedly built it in the Venetian Gothic style having loved homes they'd seen in their travels on the Continent but to me it's less Venetian and more North African influenced. There are spires and domes and porticos and all manner of arches; the colors are hot and strange and sun-baked; the windows are squares of pastel-hued glass that make everyone look harlequinesque as they pass by; the ceilings are a miracle of inventiveness and have unique pictures encompassed within, many circus-inspired.

Altogether it's a strange and wonderful place.

I sat on the vast marble terrace this afternoon and enjoyed the view without and within. There are 25-30 umbrella tables out there each with 4-6 heavy armchairs; I took just one chair for myself and turned it so that I was looking at the house enjoying the architecture and watching the people and their outfits add diamond pastel squares when they walked by the windows (so amusing!). I was giggling to myself because I was sure the people inside had no idea they were clowns when something very strange happened. It was a windy day and the terrace is directly on the water so it was even blowier there than elsewhere in Sarasota. One chair, ONE CHAIR of all the hundred plus on the patio, spontaneously moved crosswise for probably 50 feet until it came to rest directly beside mine. I reached out and patted it saying, "Hi, Tom. Glad you could be here with me." Then I turned both chairs to face the water view and just sat there for a few minutes being still. It was a moment.

That was my signal to Say Goodnight Gracie so I headed around to the front and rode back to the entrance with "John" behind the wheel. He was chatting and I know I answered him and smiled while he talked but I have no idea what he said or what I said. I was thinking about Tom and his being with me on my adventure. It was very nice having a pal there after all.