Returning from the heat

Yesterday I returned to Portland to 85 degree temperatures from Alexandria, Virginia where the highs were 104 degrees and high humidity. One lives in air conditioning all the time in the summer in a place that has this kind of heat. I feel so badly for the people there that are still without power. How in the world do they exist in a heat that is so immobilizing? The last day of my visit, my husband and I took a two and a half hour drive to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

We simply could not absorb everything in the small amount of time that we had, but what we did see was memorable as well as conflicting in some ways.

I love perspectives that show angles and lines that are interesting. In this house there were many. I was also surprised by its relatively modest size when you think of the huge chateaus in France and the dimensions of the rooms. Jefferson's home was really cozy and beautifully designed.

Tomorrow on my day off, I will show you some of the colors in the house. I could not take photographs inside, but the memory of the colors are vivid in my mind, and I will find a way to show you what they were and how and why they were used. One of the colors I actually discovered in this flower in the garden. It was a canary yellow that was unmistakably warm and inviting.