A Bluestocking Knits

This — which is Rembrandt Peale’s "Rubens Peale with a Geranium" (1801), from National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC — was supposed to be my Show and Tell a houseplant last week, since I had been so busy watering my family during the brief but blistering heatwave a few weeks ago that I forgot to water my houseplants, and they are both looking more than a little peaky at the moment.  The Peale boys’ father hoped that they would all be great artists, hence the names like Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, and Rubens — from what I’ve seen of dad, I suspect they hardly dared not to.  I like Rubens — he has a sweet Hugh-Grant-ish look to him, and I warm to the fact that he needs two pairs of glasses.

But hats, something we wear in the summer, that’s what we’re supposed to be doing — I have a rather disreputable straw thing which I wear in the garden when necessary, but to be honest, I rarely go out in the sun.  I can’t find my hat at the moment — hence the photo for last week’s — a few days ago it was being used as a kind of boat/hot-air balloon basket to carry Little People from one side of the living room to another, and I haven’t seen it since….