Jan Poston Day

@jpostonday.bsky.social

2926 Followers 1752 Following

Customer-obsessed community builder, Airedale owner, beekeeper, and DC Statehood NOW advocate. I work for AWS and my opinions are my own.

Cover of the illustrated book “Masquerade” (1979) by Kit Williams. It tells the story of the Moon who fell in love with the Sun. She entrusts Jack Hare to deliver an ornament made of gold in the shape of a hare and decorated with gems to the Sun. Along the way he loses it. The illustrations hold clues to where the real-life golden, bejeweled hare ornament was buried in rural England. The author promised the ornament to the first person who wrote to him with the correct location. It was found in 1982. My tween self was so sad and also amazed by this news.
Closeup of Black-eyed Susans on a background of green leaves
A closeup of a pink and cream colored peony flower in my Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington DC.
The interior of my Honda Fit with 15 ten-frame medium honey supers stacked up post-harvest. I was returning them to the hives for the bees to fill up again. These supers take up the entire rear seat and trunk area. This car is like a TARDIS it can fit so much stuff in it!
A sculpture in reddish bronze of a man’s unsmiling head. His right eye appears to be bandaged.
This ~30x20” oil painting shows scene of grey skies, and a marsh with a copse of silver birch trees reflected in the water. The trees are bare. The ground is wet and turning brown but some green and gold grass remains. The painting is framed by a 6-inch deep, sparely decorated gold gilded frame.
Hoarfrost, Peasant Girl Making a Fire 1888 Oil paint on canvas Hasso Plattner Collection, Museum Barberini, Potsdam, MB-Pis-02 By the late 1880s, Pissarro was experimenting with a neo-impressionist technique of short brushstrokes in pure hues in the pursuit of greater luminosity. Here, he depicted a young woman who has kindled a fire in a field on a windy winter day. The contrasts work together harmoniously: light and shadow, dampness and dryness, and the tension between the steadiness of the branch the woman holds and the unconstrained flickering of the fire. A finales de la década de 1880, Pissarro estaba experi-mentando con la técnica neoimpresionista de pinceladas cortas con tonalidades puras, con el objetivo de conseguir mayor luminosidad. Aquí, representa a una muchacha que ha encendido un fuego en un campo, un día ventoso de invierno. Los contrastes funcionan en armonía: la luz y la sombra, la humedad y la sequedad, y la tensión entre la firmeza de la rama que sostiene la mujer y el movimiento libre e indómito del fuego.
Two burgundy-colored Lenten Roses with yellow stamens at peak bloom.
From the label at the Denver Museum of Art where this painting was on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art “Marie-Adeline Larchevêque, Pissarro's 56-year-old neighbor in Pontoise, also called "Mother Larchevêque," sits quietly in a contained and meditative pose, showing the wisdom of her age. The painting challenges the expectations of an audience used to portraits of well-to-do sitters-not workers. Pissarro displayed the painting under the generic title Laveuse, étude (Washerwoman, Study) at the 1882 impressionist exhibition. By not identifying the sitter, he turned the work into the depiction of a type.”
Scottish cranachan - a dessert made of a layers of whipped cream mixed with tangy soft cheese alternating with a layer of raspberry and a layer of granola (or toasted oats) mixed with honey.
A small jar sits in a table. It holds a small Christmas cactus cutting with two bright red flowers. In the background is a Christmas tree with multicolored lights.
Cover of the book The Most Awful Responsibility” about Truman and the secret struggle for control of the atomic age. The cover is burgundy with a black and white photo of a very serious looking Truman, seated at a desk, wearing a suit and tie, reading a document.
An assortment of caffeine-free teas available during the conference afternoon refreshment break.
Flying eagle logo of the United States Postal Service
A brown gravel path receding into the distance bordered by trees and stone and marble grave markers. It is an allee! The trees on either side have formed an enveloping canopy over the path. Their canopies of yellow leaves turned glowing gold by being struck by the light of a setting sun during the golden hour. The light inside the allee made for a magical feeling despite the wind and cold.
Small sign in a garden reads “Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.”
Silhouettes of two 18th century tall masted sailing ships with the wind billowing out their sails. Both are flying the Jolly Roger (aka pirate Flag). The text above them reads “19 September International Talk Like a Pirate Day”
Close up of a white bowl containing homemade tagliatelle noodles with lump crab meat, salmon roe, and clementine zest.
Oil painting masterfully showing the play of light along a narrow staircase in Capri. Sargent has chosen a challenging perspective to paint - looking up a very narrow walled staircase between two buildings. At the top of the run of the stairs captured in a range of vibrant white and pale grey tones, the viewers eye is rewarded with contrasting.rich, dark green vegetation. One can feel the coolness of the walls in shade contrasted with the growing heat of the sun. I imagine it is morning and Sargent is relishing the bright light and the challenge of capturing the subtleties it reveals as it plays along the whitewashed walls and steps. I would steal this painting in a heartbeat if I had the courage and cunning.
Homemade Pasta formed into the shape of small möbius strips set on a pasta drying rack.
Text on image is an excerpt from the Washington Post article and reads “What are they trying to do? They don’t have a strategy. They don’t have a clear goal for these policies,” said economist Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a right-of-center think tank in Washington. “I think what we’re seeing is incompetence.”
A large (~ 20 feet wide by 12 feet tall) Banner at the entrance to the exhibition reads “Elizabeth Catlett a Black Revolutionary Artist”
An image showing the four carved heads of Presidents on Mt. Rushmore. Above the image the text reads "President's Day, February 17, 2025." Posted across the heads of the Presidents is the text "This is the day we're supposed to protest Trump, right? Where and when is the meetup?"
The cover for the Album Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite number 2. This last 5-min of the 20-min piece lifts my spirits every time I hear it.
View of the Mall from the west lawn of the US Capitol. The Grant memorial is in the foreground with the Washington Monument in the distance with the Smithsonian Castle appearing in frame on the left.
Newell post carving of a sea turtle in the stairwell at Liberty’s of London.
Snow piled up on fence and trash bins.
Formal half-length portrait of a confident, fine-featured William Vans Murray wearing a black jacket with white lace neckerchief. The then 27-year-old Murray stands in front of a scarlet curtain background. He wears an impressive-in-volume grey wig. This portrait was painted in 1787, the year before he began his political career. Murray served in the Maryland House of Delegates, then as a representative for Maryland to the US House of Representatives, and then as the US Ambassador to The Netherlands. He died at the age of 43. Portrait by Mather Brown (1787), gift from the Andrew Mellon Collection.
Array of different marbled papers arrayed in a fan-shaped display
Sour cherry and blueberry pie with Christmas tree shaped cut out in pie crust.
Three different styles of locked letters based on examples -one from the 1580s, one by 1602 by poet John Donne, and one from the 1690s. Each is secured with a gold wax seal.
A photo of a ~30 foot tall Christmas tree lit with white lights and festooned with garlands of Norwegian flags. The base of the spectacular tree is surrounded by a ring of red poinsettias. The tree stands in the grand hall of Union Station, Washington,DC. The arched ceiling of the station is painted cream and decorated with gold leaf covered medallions that glow and glisten as they reflect the light from the tree.
Image taken over the shoulder of a dc metro rider wearing a red coat sitting in a seat working on a 3-inch sized embroidery hoop needlework project.
Photo showing in-wall aluminum mail box Labelled US MAIL.
Our Airedale terrier is pictured lying on the sofa her back, rear legs akimbo, completely and utterly relaxed. Her head is thrown back resting on a sofa cushion. She appears to be fused to the sofa.
AWS SWAG at each team’s table.
A mackerel sky over the Capitol building in Washington DC turns fiery orange as the sun sets. Photo taken in the 200-block of East Capitol St. Parked cars line the streets in the foreground. The bare branches of trees are visible on the right backlit by the orange sky. The Capitol dome is on the distance. the majority of the image features the stunning orange mottled sky.
Allie, a four-year-old Airedale Terrier on the beach her head turned to watch the waves. Beach houses are visible in the background.
The golden hour illuminates the headstones at Historic Congressional Cemetery
Photo of multiple pairs of hand-dipped taper candles hanging from a wooden rod.
Image showing the energy production of a residential rooftop solar array on its first day in service.
Cover of Physics Today magazine with black background showing the whiskers, nose and the wide open mouth with a bright red tongue of a big cat mid-roar.