A kinder, gentler world

I am so blessed to have received this acknowledgement from the one and only Sherry from Ediemariesattic.blogspot.com. She is the Angel of Blogland! Merci ma belle! In the next post, I will pass on this touching award to three other friends that have touched my heart.



There is something innocent and magical, if you will, about animals. For those of you who are not inclined to observe the behavior of beasts both great and small, then use your imagination and think about an ideal place where you would find wonder, kindness, laughter and peace. We are pretty hard-pressed to find such a place unless we create it ourselves, and in our circle of kindred spirits, I have encountered a sweet place where I often go to speak to the animals. The woman who has breathed life into a mouse who takes tea every afternoon, a frog who is a gourmet chef and a bear that goes to the theatre in a top hat is the recipient of the Angel Award for the month of April.



The home site for these lovable creatures is thegardenofthedutchess.blogspot.com and if you need to slip into make-believe mode to decompress from the “reality” of life, then pay her a visit. The “Dutchess” is creative and bright and her choice of music and art fits the antics of her beloved creatures. Even if you are not partial to little rodents, reptiles or bears, you just might become infatuated with the likes of Miss Moussie, Gustave and Mozes, who possess a distinct personality thanks to the animated writing style of their mistress. The three of them got together with pen in paw and decided to put their writing abilities to the test:

Dear Dutchess,
We were taking our tea this afternoon and decided that it is high time that we thanked you for giving us the gift of life and a glimpse of a true angel. So, Gustave baked some biscuits, Mozes made a fine pot of Earl Grey, and me, Miss Moussie, I took to the pen and wrote you a poem:


Swirling whirling cooking clanging
Pots and teacups all around

Gustave cooking Mozes dancing
Listen to the haunting sound

Creatures singing speaking dancing
Mice and birds in the garden play

Angels writing drawing laughing
Give us something sweet to say

Now we wait for another chapter
In our book of tales tall

Oh Dutchess dear we wait in silence
For the life you give us all.

– Miss Moussie as told to her by Camille Benoit©

The Angel of the Month goes to The Dutchess, a sweet spirit that has made my blogging experience a kinder, gentler world. Merci, Madame.



Don't forget, if you are interested, send in a paragraph or two for the final act of La Diva! The give-away for the winner is a handmade book of the play. A la prochaine!

SCÈNE 3: Le Point Culminant

Please make sure your volume is up and please click on all images to see the details.


Bienvenues à tous! Welcome everyone to act III of La Diva. Critics and playwrights, please be ready to think about the final act. You will have the opportunity to write act IV and submit your work for a chance to determine La Diva's destiny! Please feel free to take some time to make a cup of tea or café, relax and think about how you would finish this play. Two paragraphs are all that is needed; three if you wish, but no need to carry the final act until the middle of the night; there is a cast party to be had! Please submit your ideas by next Saturday, April 4, 2009. Your ideas will be posted that weekend, and you will vote for YOUR favorite version. The winner will have their work included on the final post of La Diva, be acknowledged along with the author Camille Benoit as the writer of the final act and will receive...a handmade book of La Diva©, from the Atelier of Castles Crowns and Cottages.


Let us begin...

It had been several years since Isabeau left the woods. The little girl who had loved her grew up into a fair but sad young woman. Her piercing eyes told the story of the forest; the once verdant home of the beautiful songbird stood still and quiet. No longer was the air filled with the song of angels, long gone was the sweetness of the lavender scent that wafted in the gentle breeze and forgotten was the sparkle of blue gossamer skies. Both beast and mortal longed for the soothing waters that rained from the sky at the beckoning of Isabeau's sweet voice. For you see, Isabeau was the soul of the forest.

Meanwhile, in Anastasie...Isabeau continued to bring a certain beauty to the stage; faint and almost colorless, she had become like the make believe trees and painted skies that stood lifeless on stage. The scent of burning candles from the glass chandeliers that hung from the ceilings was unlike the perfume of the flowers in the meadow that smelled of life; the dripping wax burned away all hope of burgeoning life and truth and left Isabeau void of passion. As her sweet song once surged from the joy of being a beautiful blue songbird, her now insipid vibratos dimmed in the pale, brown dusk.

Night after night, she was escorted to the theatre in a golden carriage. She was no longer able to spread her wings and fly freely from branch to branch to sing; she was a feathered soul trapped in a mortal body and a dark box of pipe dreams.


The inevitable came one day; she was taken to the Hall of Divas where she was shown a display of all of the Divas that had ever sang in Anastasie.


There, stood lifeless a multitude of chanteuses frozen in a moment of glory. Donning vestiges of their former lives as magnificent song birds with great plumes and delicate wings, they were locked in a distant memory in this cold yet mesmerizing hall of stone. "It is your time, Isabeau" said her companion. "You will be immortalized in this hall as a tribute to Anastasie under one condition; you must promise your soul to the kingdom and to no other. If you betray your vow, you will be forgotten forever, as if you had never existed." That night, a messenger came to the window as the Diva contemplated the decision set before her. "Come and sing for us in the woods one last time so that we may live Isabeau, for if you do not return to your birthplace, the forest will die." Isabeau was troubled by the words of the feathered harbinger. "Why one last time?", she thought as she lay on her gilded bed of gold and cried herself to sleep.

La fin de scène 3

What will Isabeau do? It's entirely up to you. Submit your ideas by next Saturday, April 4 and the voting will begin. In the mean time Mesdames et Messieurs, happy writing and long live the theatre!



All text and new photography the property of Castles Crowns and Cottages©
Paintings: John William Waterhouse, "Destiny"
William Adolph Bouguereau, Unknown title and "Italian Girl Drawing Water"
Frederick Sandys "White Maiden" and "Iris"
Vintage photography: "The Opera House" courtesy of Lisa Kettell's Photostream on Flickr.com

SCÈNE 2 Anastasie

Mesdames et Messieurs, please take your seats for act 2 of La Diva. Curtain is rising!Please make sure that your volume is up so you can hear the sweet sounds of La Diva and click on the photos to see the details. And don't forget to use the sidebar French vocabulary for the theatre so you can keep up! Enjoy!

It was a face that time forgot. Isabeau and Hermione the rose fairy were greeted at the garden gate by Hortense the garden spirit. "Her age is unknown for she has been here since the beginning, pouring forth blue-green waters from her soul to nourish the land" said Hermione. " Isabeau had never seen the likes of such a person or place; an enchanted water garden as blue as her feathers, a face as timeless as eternity, but pale was the landscape on the horizon outside of the gates. Great, still buildings of stone replaced gently swaying trees that loomed over her delicately feathered head as they left the enclosure. The structures appeared as little miniatures from a distance, but their stature suddenly swelled to an unimaginable eminence as they approached. "We have arrived." whispered Hermione.



"I will show you to your chambers" said Hermione. There was a strange beauty about the palace, unlike anything that Isabeau had ever seen in the forest or in the water garden. She was mesmerized with the golden chairs and looking glasses and crystal droplets hanging from the ceilings. These unusual baubles were unlike the gentle tears of rain that fell from the sky in joyous harmony, but rather like dew drops caught in a moment of beautiful silence.


There was a chasm however, between her and this new beauty. Unable to touch the objects with her wings or sit on the sumptuous chairs, a new emotion pierced her heart; she was unable to sing. Hermione led her to another garden of thick grass where lay a beautiful, old box. Hortense appeared and said, "Before you are able to reside in the palace and sing before the world, you must do something very important, Isabeau. You must lay in this sarcophagus and die. You will lay down as a simple creature of nature but rise up from the great waters as the Diva you were meant to be.




After one day and one night, Isabeau arose from a burst of clear water as a beautiful maiden with wheaten hair that reached to the ground. She no longer shimmered in the blue of gossamer dust, but twinkled in the pale, translucent fragility of a spring rain.


She was escorted back to the castle and was given a special place in the residence filled with luxurious furniture worthy of a Diva...



and made her debut on stage accompanied by the most harmonious instruments.



She dazzled her audiences on stage with grand operettas; the more she sang, the more intense the color of her hair became. She was the Diva that the kingdom had been looking for. She was passion itself.





Isabeau was a success. With hair as red as the roses of Hermione's dress and long and endless as Hortense's rivers of water, she was the most beautiful Diva that ever sang in Anastasie. However, when she looked at herself in the looking glass, she had forgotten who she once was for she was overwhelmed by who she had become.

La fin de scène 2

Entr'acte

More champagne and hors d'oeuvres in the lobby! Curtain goes up in one week for act III. Start thinking about how YOU want to end this play in act IV. So come next week with your playwright thinking caps and pens in hand and take notes; someone is going to be the author of act IV and the winner of a give away, to be announced next week. Alors, A votre santé et à la prochaine!

All text and photography (as silly as it is!) is the property of Camille Benoit of Castles Crowns and Cottages!
Paintings by:
Rosetti "Lady Lilith"
John William Waterhouse "Undine", "Invidiosa" and unknown name

BIENVENUE À SCÈNE 1 - Au Commencement

I dedicate this play to little Bronwyn, a true lover of nature, beauty and truth.

Le Petit Théâtre de Chimères vous présente une pièce de théâtre en 4 scènes d'après l'auteure dramatique Camille Benoit AKA, Madame Anita! Make sure that your volume is up so you can hear the sounds...


Il était une fois une fillette...Once upon a time there was a young girl that lived in a little cottage carved out from an old oak tree nestled in the heart of the forest.



Her most beloved possession was a magnificent blue bird, whose feathers sparkled by the kiss of the morning sun and shimmered by the rays of the nocturnal moon. When the little creature sang, the sky would shed tears of joy, sending dainty droplets of sweet rain to nourish the forest while the sun would immediately follow suit in a symphony of warm tones and vibratos.



For long ago, the little songbird and her kind had been visited by the infant fairy Condelezza who blessed her with sweet harmony and sprinkled her wings with the blue gossamer dust of angels.




One early morning as they stepped out to the garden to pick wild lavender, the little bird's heart was overtaken by a desire to sing graceful melodies heard only where fairies dwell. Simultaneously, a magnificent being suddenly appeared; she was enveloped in roses as red and intense as passion itself.




She murmured to the little duo, "From where does this gentle music flow?" The child responded, "My lady, the sound you hear issues out from the soul of my sweet Isabeau." The lady slowly knelt on the mossy earth and whispered faintly, "I have found La Diva and she is destined to greatness; Isabeau shall come with me to present herself to the outside world and she will have all of Anastasie at her feet." The young girl's heart broke for she loved Isabeau greatly and could not bear the thought of being separated from her, for the sun was always warmer and the sky forever blue with the song of Isabeau in her soul. However, the child knew that she could not keep Isabeau from the great city of Anastasie, whose name signifies "resurrection. " And though it was painful, she made her farewells. Isabeau then flew away on the shoulders of the messenger in the direction of the great kingdom, while the young girl's eyes followed the waning trail of blue gossamer dust in the ashen morning sky.

La Fin de Scène 1



Entr'acte

Champagne now served in the foyer. Scène 2 will begin next week so take your time and sip your bubbly slowly!


Painting by Charles Amable Lenoir - La Bergère

La Diva© is the creation and property of Camille Benoit of Castles Crowns and Cottages and although it is very amateur in nature, we would ask that you respect the author's copyright of all text and photography. Merci beaucoup!

Pipe Dreams

I can't help myself; it's in my blood. On both my mom's and dad's sides of the family, there was a undeniable propensity towards the theatre, dance and music. The handsome couple you see in the first photo (please click on all photos to see their beauty) are my maternal grandparents; they were ordinary people who lived rather simply, in fact according to my mom, Abuelo drived a delivery truck for Whitman's Candies and Abuela worked in a thrift store. But when the entire family got together, there were lively costumes, music, dancing and great memories; many souvenirs recorded in photos such as this one where they are posing rather elegantly are abundant in my collection. As I was looking through my mother's album one day, I saw photos of my aunts, uncles, and distant relatives dressed up in various costumes. I had seen these pictures throughout my childhood but this particular day as I was flipping through the musty pages, I was struck by a revelation. I said to myself, "This explains a lot." You see, I was a dancer and had acted during my teens and early 20s. But the love for dressing up, assuming the roles of my favorite characters and dreaming of fairy tales has never left me. Some of my more left-brain friends and colleagues find my artistic bent rather amusing, but I live and breathe creativity through the theatrical. I realized that day as I studied my family's photos, that the whimsical approach to my teaching and even home decorating revolves around my love for the fantastic. And like my father, I adore miniatures, especially vintage style trinkets that shimmer in muted golds or little crowns meant for tiny fairies. My father was a genius at making something wondrous out of junk from the garage and I don't know if I possess the degree of his abilities, but I do enjoy creating small things. I have had this itch to construct a French-style puppet theatre and using things I had around the house, here is the result.

I took a small bookcase, painted it white and nailed on some vintage tin trim that I got from Julie at gildedmoons.blogspot.com. I glued on a small gold frame at the top and small gold corbels on both sides.

Welcome to Le Petit Théâtre de Chimères. The French word Chimère means, "wild or pipe dream." Welcome to my world. Stay posted for the first act of the debut of my original play featuring some characters that I have collected through the years, who have been sitting unanimated in my curio cabinet. Therefore Mesdames et Messieurs, put on your mink coats, tails and top hats and amble on down the aisles and find a seat; the next post and le Petit Théâtre de Chimères will present to you,

La Diva©

I dedicate this work to my beautiful grandparents; Gracias Abuelos!

Tickets Please

Good evening...please hand over your tickets to the usher and take a seat on the plush velvet seats. Curtain will rise at 7:00pm this evening for the first act of La Diva. Please click on the pictures so that you can see the details better! Merci.

A word about Le Petit Théâtre de Chimères; this original little play will be in four acts. It will be an "Interactive Theatre"experience. That means that I would like for you to follow the sequence of the first three acts and then, all of you wonderful readers will have a chance to become playwrights!! After act III, I would like for you to submit an ending to finish the piece. I will post all of your ideas and one ending will be chosen. There will be a give away prize for the winner and your name will go up in lights with the author (moi) and we shall have a good time!