The Incredible Egg & Maria's Birthday

Today was my friend Maria's birthday, and we had a loose plan to have a birthday party this afternoon; but it all got called off when her group got delayed at SFO. A birthday is a birthday, and so I told her I wanted to leave her gift and party contributions at their doorstep anyway: a chocolate souffle cake topped with fresh fruit, two packages of fresh ravioli, a packet of lemon pesto, two little Coronitas (to keep it all cool) and a gift basket I made with Araucana blue and pale brown eggs. All local, all hand-picked from the three farmers markets I was at this weekend. I wouldn't gift a carton of eggs, no way-- these arrived at her door in a make-shift nest of raffia in a mossy basket with ribbon.

While I love the subtle colors of the Araucana eggs, it's the form I am after. I can't look at a good egg and not think of Salvador Dali. On his house in Port Ligat on the Costa Brava Spain (third photo-- longtime residence for Dali and his wife, Gala--fascinating, as is the coast and Cadaques) and his Museum, his burial site (first photo), Dali used the Egg Form. R and I visited the Dali house a few years ago, and the eggs are very unexpected and memorable. Dali used eggs in his works, sometimes in the form of fried kind of eggs, see "Eggs on a Plate without the Plate" (his memories before birth); there is another one with a Velasquez dwarf; I think to Dali eggs symbolized hope and love and birth, but I have never found a really good explanation. I also find it strange how he moved between an egg in the shell and a fried-type egg. Now I won't pretend to completely understand Dali....he's totally in a class of his own. But I do love that his inspiration for The Persistence of Memory (his most famous work, the one with the melting watches) was actually a piece of Camembert cheese on a hot day. That's true. Inspiration is found in everyday objects, and don't you forget it.

I took a few shots in Maria's front yard (since she was away!). I want to build a folly in our side yard and top it with egg finials. Wouldn't that be unusual, even for Laguna?