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It’s trout time again

Trout season in Pennsylvania begins today for young people who want to be taught to fish; and fishing for the general public in stocked streams and rivers starts on April 4, 2026. 

 

 

Pied Beauty, 1877 

Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844-1889, British poet and Jesuit priest

 

Pied as in piebald horse = 

speckled, freckled, mottled, stippled, flecked, spotted, splotched, blotched.

Brindled = brown or grey with streaks or patches of  a darker colour; usually describing the fur of an animal.

 

 

Glory be to God for dappled things –

 

Korean Rhododendron fronting Spike winterhazel (Corylopsis spicata), Winterthur, Delaware, April every year

 

Chrysanthemum corridor at the Longwood Conservatory, Pennsylvania

 

 

 

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow

 

Funeral Group (Kuerner Hill 1), c. 1991, watercolour on paper

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American.  Family collection on display at Brandywine Museum, Chadds Ford in 2025.

The artist envisages his own funeral at a place in Chadds Ford, PA, his birthplace, which had large meaning in his life and work.

 

 

 

 For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

 

Brown trout.  Photo from the web

Brown trout. Photo from the web

 

 

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

 

Chestnuts, Philadelphia, every Autumn

 

 

 

 In a vintage shop in Philadelphia in 2018

 

 

 

   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;

 

The Road Across the Wolds, 1997, oil on canvas and detail.

David Hockney, British born 1937.  Private collection on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017/18

 

 

 

Bulls waiting to be led out to work, 2008, western Gujerat state, India

 

 

And áll trádes, their gear

 

Machine tournez vite, 1916-1918, brush and ink with watercolour and shell gold. 

Francis Picabia, 1979-1953, French.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

         

Carpenter or Cabinet-Maker’s Trade sign, 1868, pine, Eastern US. Signed H.A.DOE/Carver. Winterthur, DE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Gear, c. 1922, oil on canvas.

  Arthur Garfield Dove, 1880-1946, American.  Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

Automotive Industry, 1940, oil on canvas.

  Works Progress Administration,  Federal Art Project, mural for the Detroit Public Library.  Marvin Beerbohm, 1908-1981, Canadian American.  Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

 

 

                                                                                           and tackle and trim.

 

Pentecost, 1989, egg tempera and pencil on panel

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009, American

Fishing nets drying on Allen’s Island on Muscongus Bay.

 

 

 

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

 

 

Made entirely of plant material. 27 species. Philadelphia Flower Show, 2017

 

 

Tulip, 2nd and Pine, Philadelphia, 2024

 

 

Throne of Laurel, mountain laurel, mixed paint, 2024

Ellie Richards. On exhibit at Winterthur, Delaware in 2025

 

 

 

Rose petals, bamboo, mung bean, macadamia nut, lentils, mustard seed, corn husk, crape myrtle seed pods, rosemary, birch bark.  Philadelphia Flower Show, 2014

 

 

 

Soundsuit, 2010, dogwood twigs, wire, upholstery, basket and mannequin

Nick Cave, American born 1959.  On exhibit at the Solomon R. Guggenheim in 2022

 

 

 

   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

 

 

Samurai toad lily.  Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia

 

Fern in seed

 

Sneezeweed (Helenium), Mt. Cuba Center, DE

 

A monarch feeding on native Echinacea.  Mt. Cuba Center, DE

 

Leaf of a native oak leaf hydrangea in late November, Mt. Cuba Center, DE

 

Native variety of Turks Cap lilies, Winterthur, DE

 

Asian orchid.  Longwood Gardens Conservatory, PA

In Midnight’s Garden various insects displayed on walls painted with cochineal; 2015.  

Jennifer Angus, born 1961 Canada. Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC

 

Native, carniverous Pitcher Plants (Saracenia) with dazzling biomechanics to invite and trap insects. Mt. Cuba Center, Delaware

 

A swallowtail feeding on native phlox. Mt. Cuba Center, Delaware

 

native Sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) at the Jenkins Arboretum, Wayne, PA

 

Hinoki false-cypress bark.  Winterthur, DE

 

 

 

      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

 

A raptor over a meadow at Winterthur, Delaware in late autumn

    

 

Praise him.

 

 

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things –

   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;

      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                                Praise him.

 

 

 

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