A bony forest of iron and steel scratch against the blue of the sky. - Nevada Barr in Liberty Falling
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Nevada Barr writes mysteries set in National Parks - in this case, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island.
I haven’t visited Ellis Island so the sentence above dredged up another image for me: the ruins of the World Trade Center after 9/11/2001.
I bought a small pot of Italian parsley at the grocery store this week. This gives me greenery to enjoy now and then put in a large pot on the deck to enjoy all summer. The small shelf above my sink is the perfect place for it - there is great afternoon sun and I’ll notice when it needs to be watered. The store had similar pots of basil and cilantro. I have some basil seeds and decided to plant them (another small project for today). The cilantro plants looked too fragile; maybe I’ll get one some other week.
I’ve enjoyed Italian parsley previously. The plant tends to be hardy (as long as it gets enough water) and rapidly replenishes the amount I cut. I like it in salads, sprinkled on top of soups/stir fries, or in a veggie smoothie. The leaves are even large enough to use on a sandwich!
Dreams and desires haunted the mesa the way they haunted the rooms in old houses. Traces of unfinished lives caught in the ether. - Nevada Barr in Nevada Barr Ill Wind
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Nevada Barr writes mysteries set in National Parks - in this case, Mesa Verde.
We do feel ‘traces of unfinished lives’ in places that we know people lived before us whether or not we believe the place is ‘haunted’ or approach it more analytically with the tools of an archaeologist…or just our own curiosity and imaginings.
The strongest feeling I’ve ever had of this ‘traces of unfinished lives’ was a Chaco Canyon. It was early spring and quite cold. There were not many people around and most of the sounds were made by wind in the ruins. It was easy to imagine the walls roofed and clay plaster on the walls - decorated with designs seen elsewhere pecked into rocks. It could have been comfortable in those rooms even on a cold day. The wind sounds were mournful and gave the place a very lonely emotional impact.
Where do you feel the ‘traces of unfinished lives’ the most?
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:
Nutrition Data - a site that has the regular nutrition facts label with added graphics: nutritional target map, caloric ration pyramid, estimated glycemic load, inflammation factor, nutritional balance, and protein quality. Type your favorite food in the box labeled ‘enter food name’ on the right side of the banner line to see how it measures up.
Bed Bugs (infographic) - dramatic increase in this problematic bug in the US…everywhere
Images of Earth from Envisat - beautiful images from a satellite that has lived twice as long as planned…is starting its second decade this month.
Birdcast - a project of NOAA and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology…bird migration and weather forecast. Updated weekly.
Solar Grid Parity (with Incentives) - an animated map showing when electricity in major metropolitan areas becomes cheaper using rooftop solar than utilities (include the current tax credit). Lots and lots by 2020!
Top 10 Benefits of Green Smoothies - Better for you than juice
3 great ways to use salsa - a short video…sparks even more ideas of ways to use salsa
Penguin CAM - Penguin antics 24 hours a day through March and April
13 National Historic Landmarks Added - lots of variety….Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Florida Southern College…Deer Medicine Rocks in Montana…a parish church in Virginia
25 Wild Bird Photographs - National Geographic is posting a set weekly….this is the most recent
This year I am diving into spring cleaning more than usual - probably more than I have the whole 15 years we’ve lived in this house! I’m motivated too because the house is getting new paint. By June, it should be sparkling.
Spring cleaning is way beyond the week to week cleaning we do well. Here are the items on my list…most of which will need to sync up with the painting.
The closets need to be emptied and cleaned thoroughly (this could also result in donation or freecycling some items from the closets). This is probably the most time consuming activity of all.
It’s March….the perfect time to start Spring Cleaning!
After the printing press was invented in 1436, paper became affordable to nearly everybody. It took on a variety of uses – paper table coverings instead of fabric tablecloths, edgings for shelves, paper dolls, makeshift curtains, even Christmas tree ornaments. The Victorians really immersed themselves in the paper craze. As photography had not yet been invented, they cut out silhouettes of each other that functioned as pictures. Paper doilies became extremely common. - Emilie Barnes in The Twelve Teas of Christmas
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These days - the amount of paper in our house is actually decreasing. We read more books and magazines electronically. Books we only need to read once have been sold or given away. We read news online rather than in a newspaper. There are still lots of catalogs that come in the mail but maybe not quite as many as several years ago; they are the bulk of the recycled paper. We don’t print documents we are working on very often - sometimes they only exist in electronic form.
What about those other uses of paper? Haven’t we all made paper ‘snowflakes’ or cut hearts at valentines? Or folded paper to make an origami swan or geometric shape? For a look at elaborate stories cut in paper - watch the Béatrice Coron: Stories cut from paper TED talk video.
The story of the Indiana mother that saved her two children as her house collapsed around them from tornado winds has prompted me to think about the qualities that an ideal mother has.
This is not a complete list; it is just the first 10 things I thought of. My perception is that almost every mother has the natural inclination to strive for the ideal and most of us have a very similar concept of what the ideal is although our ability to actually do it varies widely. Part of the ideal is probably instinctual - part of our human heritage. In the end, we want our children to become healthy and productive young adults and shift our parenthood focus more toward the friendship end of the spectrum of motherhood.
Isn’t it wonderful that in today’s world, there is a strong likelihood that we’ll know them for more years as adults than as children?
On April 13, 1360, while Edward’s soldiers marched toward Chartres, the skies went dark. The air became bitterly cold. The heavens opened, and an apocalyptic storm sent hail stones the size of pigeon eggs smashing into Edward’s army. Tents were shredded. Luggage carts were swept away. Lightning electrocuted knights in their armor. Hundreds of men and more than a thousand horses died. - Bryn Barnard in Dangerous Planet: Natural Disasters That Changed History
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The event described above resulted in the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War….significant enough that it was judged to be a natural disaster that ‘changed history.’
What about the more frequent weather disasters that we hear about in the news and may even experience? They change lives of individuals and give virtually every family a cache of weather disaster stories that builds up over the years.
Hail has a place in my family history. My dad’s parked car was totaled by a hail storm in the early 1950s - a cautionary tale in the family supporting the ideas of parking cars in the garage and keeping yourself inside during hail storms…and having good car insurance.
In the mid-1960s I remember being in the backyard of our house on a semi-sunny day and hearing what I immediately thought was hail (not sure why I thought that it was) and ran to the cover of the large porch with my sisters just seconds ahead of the hail cloud coming overhead…and watching the small ice balls dropping on the yard from safety. It was over almost as quickly as it arrived.
Some 10 years later my husband and I were on a canoe trip; we were camped by a river. A storm came through during the night with howling winds. The tree tops were whipping around and it was raining very hard. We heard the canoes banging around but the stakes were holding them to the shore. The next day as we canoed on down the river we immediately noticed uprooted trees and debris along the banks. Later we heard that tornados have come through the area. The bluff we had camped beside had evidently protected our campsite.
My daughter just returned from a field trip to Death Valley....one chewed up steering pump and three flat tires later (and they didn't have to leave any of the 6 vehicles along the way to be repaired). The nights were cool enough for coats and zippered sleeping bags. I'm enjoying the pictures...and made a slide show of them below.
The old stone house, solid, substantial, and unadorned, suggested unlimited spaciousness and comfort within; and was redeemed from positive ugliness without, by the fine ivy, magnolia trees, and wisteria, of many years' growth, climbing its plain face, and now covering it with a mantle of soft green, large white blooms, and a cascade of purple blossom. - Florence L. Barclay in The Rosary
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Ivy covered stone….as appealing now as it was in the early 1900s when Barclay wrote. Sometimes the appeal carries over to the inside of the building if the windows become partially covered as well. Several years ago I toured a law library and the main thing I remember was the greenish color of the light coming through the large windows at both ends of the long narrow room. The space felt more like an outdoor bower than an enclosed, climate controlled room. The ivy was almost covering the windows…transmitting the light.
Ivy can damage walls after many years. Wisteria does not take as long to do damage and most of the time you see it on an arbor rather than a wall for that reason. The tendrils grow into any little nook and then expand. They tend to take their support apart. My mother once planted trumpet vine next to a fence because she liked the color of its flowers then separated it from the stockade fence with chicken wire for its support and trimmed it frequently to keep the fence intact when it became apparent how damaging the trumpet vine could be.
I found a spiral notebook of black paper and some gel pens as I did some house cleaning (spring cleaning is just getting started at our house). The collection had been left behind when my daughter went off to college several years ago. I was surprised that the pens had not dried up completely. I couldn't resist some doodling.
These were so much fun to do, I think I'll use up the whole book with doodles over the next month or so! In the past I've doodled in situations when I was bored - in a class or meeting. Now, I'm finding I enjoy doodling all on its own.
I'm glad the spiral will keep the doodles in the order that I create them because I think there may be some trends that develop. Stay tuned!
When I was 6 weeks old my father and mother went to Ireland on business and I went along in a bureau drawer of the old Cunard liner Umbria. - Thomas Barbour in Naturalist at large
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I know my grandmother used a drawer pulled out of the built-ins of her bathroom - padded with a blanket - when a small grandbaby was visiting and I always thought it was a clever idea. The quote from Thomas Barbour reminded me of it.
Would we buy something special for the baby now…even if it would only be needed temporarily? How much ‘stuff’ could we avoid accumulating if we thought of re-purposing what we already have first?
There have been times in my life that I have been challenged to get enough yellow/orange veggies…but not recently. It seems so easy now. Here are my top 10 ways to get at least one serving of yellow veggies every single day:
A fall favorite: Select a small pumpkin and bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes. Cut off the top, scoop out the seeds and fibers from the center. Stuff with applesauce and cinnamon…or just dust with cinnamon…replace the top and bake until it is soft. Serve as wedges drizzled with the applesauce stuffing or butter.
Shred a raw sweat potato in the food processor then use over the course of the next week
Beautifully illustrated books were prized possessions at the courts of Islamic rulers, and during the 15th century Herat (in modern day northwestern Afghanistan) became the center of book production. - Nicola Barber in Islamic Art & Culture (World Art & Culture)
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It is easy to lose historical perspective in the bombardment of current news. Then a single sentence prompts some quick research. This was such a sentence for me.
Found in a book for late elementary school children, it reminded me of the different perception the west has had of Persia and Afghanistan. Now our perception is of religious fanatics and isolationists - a people that do not want to move toward a future that is like the West. We forget that while knowledge bled away in Europe after Rome fell, the Middle East and Islamic world retained and embellished the legacy so that it was available to filter back as the foundation for the European Renaissance.
Can we develop a vision of the future where the diversity in the world can be a positive element rather than a source of conflict and atrocities?
Our yard is showing signs of spring.
The few crocus that escaped the squirrels are almost done for the year. The daffodils and hyacinths are taking over the show. The maples look flocked in red from afar but full of bursting buds on closer inspection (see my post from two weeks ago about the edge of spring to compare).
The deer are still hungry. I put some plant stakes around my day lilies and tulips to deter them but noticed this morning that they've nibbled the tulip leaves. The bottom branches of the maple tree have no buds remaining; it is very obvious how far the deer can stretch for food.
So, before the eyes of history has come a nation, from whence is unknown; nor is it known how it scattered and disappeared without a trace. – Nicholas Roerich, 1926 as quoted in Elizabeth Wayland Barber in The Mummies of Urumchi
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We challenge ourselves to learn about a nation from the artifacts they left behind. It is a mystery we set for ourselves to unravel. How like us were they? Were they healthy and long lived or did their bodies wear out very quickly? We overlay our values onto the artifacts and tell their story. It is the best we can do - but not enough. The artifacts are only a snap shot and the hole in our knowledge that implies that ‘it scattered and disappeared without a trace’ means that there is still something we have not found or do not understand.
Knowing there are unknowns means we have the opportunity to be discoverers.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:
National Cherry Blossom Festival - Washington DC is celebrating 100 years of the gift of trees this year. (picture is from last year)
Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. - Honore de Balzac in The Atheist's Mass
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Has our technology sought to change the scenario - to negate the ‘their talent leaves no trace when they are gone’ by capturing it on film (actor) or a technique that has been learned by others (surgeon)? Much has changed since the 1830s.
Perhaps our concept of genius has become more strongly linked to extreme deviation from the norm both in terms of result and day to day habits of the individual. When ‘genius’ is used today it is more likely associated with an Einstein-like person than a surgeon or actor. In fact - did Einstein somehow act as a pivot point for the changed perception of ‘genius’?
Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the March 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.
Notice that the first 4 are all related to space exploration. I am drawn to that topic because it aligns with the most strategic thinking we do as a society.
Items 5, 7, and 9 are about understanding our world - what has happened in the past and how what we do may have unintended consequences. We know more about these topics 10 years later but have not made substantial changes in our behavior in the past 10 years. We are more talk than action.
Items 6 and 9 are economy related. There were stories from 10 years ago that indicated the candle was burning at both ends…but the stories did not get a response from our government or institutions to avoid the crash a few years later.
And finally - the story about the British Queen Mother. She was a public person that I had known about for all my life. I came to think of her as a grandmotherly figure as I’m sure a lot of other people did.
Houses have personality. Have you never seen a dignified house looking disdainfully, critically down upon its frivolous bungalow neighbors? Or an old weather-beaten one trying to appear debonair in new shingles like a withered old woman in a wig? - Bess Streeter Aldrich in The Rim of the Prairie (Bison Book)
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Does the house or building where you live have personality?
My house has a dark hip roof and very dark green (almost charcoal) trim with lighter siding and brick. It looks more formal than its neighbors. It is different from the back where the deck, a full story off the ground, softens the overall contrast.
Is it possible to change the personality of a house? The architecture can be pretty overwhelming. Changing the trim color or just the color of the front door could make a difference.
I like the subtle personality differences of the houses in our neighborhood. It’s good that no extremes have emerged!
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
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