Friday Flowers: Damned Yellow Composites!!!

Asteraceae: Call it an aster, call it a daisy, or call it whatever you want. It's just a DYC!!!

No poem for today. I spent all my free time this morning attempting to classify this flower!

I think of Paideia as a light-hearted education blog, generally with an "arts" focus. I like provide interesting information to my readers. Sometimes, when I'm unfamiliar with a topic, I need to do a bit of research before posting. As regards flowers, I especially want to give proper identification so that readers can engage in their own research, perhaps to add something to their own garden.

Well, here's a post on "Damned Yellow Composites" which frustrate botanical categorizers to no end!!!

Asteraceae: Damned Yellow Composites!!!

Anyways, if you need some poetry, Rudyard Kipling was born on this date in 1865. I'm not a fan, so there ain't no way I'm filling up the front page with a gajillion lines of imperialistic "white man's burden" rhymes. ;-P

Victorian Christmas at the Banning House

Clipped Hedges in the garden at the Banning House

This weekend, I was able to pay a visit to the Banning Museum in Wilmington, near the Port of Los Angeles. The museum was throwing a "Victorian Christmas" event, with a horse-drawn trolley, period dancing, hot cider and snacks, and general holiday cheer.

Phineas Banning was a 19th-century Los Angeles businessman, specifically involved in transportation, freighting, and the stage coach industry. His drive to establish a world-class port in Los Angeles was instrumental in laying the groundwork from which the city would grow into a major center of global commerce.

Victorian dancing, featuring the Yesteryears Dancers


The Banning House is now a museum, showcasing California Victorian style and culture. It's an interesting place to visit. And the hot cider was a nice touch. ;-)

Half Sick of Shadows

The Lady of Shalott (1888) by John William Waterhouse

Alfred Tennyson was born on this date in 1809. His works have become the paragons of Victorian poetry. To commemorate his legacy of beauty, here are a few stanzas of my favorite Tennyson poem.

The Lady of Shalott (Stanzas 2-5)

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott."

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.



The Lady of Shalott (1905) by William Holman Hunt

 Absolutely beautiful.