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E-books and books Sunday, Mar 24 2013
Uncategorized books, history 12:00
a minor thought thereon…
I’ve mentioned before that Esperanza has a large library, between 12-16,000 volumes. Many of those books have inscriptions in them, as it might be: ‘To Carlotta, Christmas 1889’ or ‘with love, WWE’, or simply a name or date. When I look through my own books there is a combination of visual and tactile memory at play. I remember that this or that book was given to me by a certain person at a certain time. The connection, the memory of the relationship, continues to be recollected. It is not simply a book, it is that Particular copy of that book.
Now, I don’t have any e-books so I am not truly qualified to say. But it does seem to me that, because the e-books lack a physical presence, the memory of a relationship is less likely to last. We can’t relate to a file on a computer in the same way that we can an actual object. It is, in my view, part of the tangle between the virtual and the real. The virtual reality can slide away without leaving a palimpset, no traces which will modify either the present or the future. It is substantially harder to do that in the real world.
Or am I wrong?
Utter lack Saturday, Mar 23 2013
Uncategorized 12:18
of inspiration….so a whine instead.
It is snowy, cold, and windy. I think it is all a matter of expectations. Having had firmly in mind that March would be heading towards spring, it is difficult to be almost at the end of the month with snow on the ground. This, of course, wouldn’t have bothered me up in Ontario, where the rivers didn’t begin to thaw until mid-April.* It would be bizarre in Edinburgh, where the daffodils start up at the end of February. And farther south well… People get used to everything, we live happily in every climate. However, as individuals we quickly develop certain expectations about the weather. What is normal is highly individual and we adapt so quickly to a location that it is easy to get discombobulated. So we whine. And now in the great age of the internet, somebody can usually be counted on to pipe up with some comment about how ‘you ought to be in X!’
Of course, it doesn’t help me at all that the liturgical calendar is at its extreme this year; Easter is about as early as it can get.
*Nothing distracts one better from studying for finals in a quiet bit of the library than watching the ice floes come down river and slam into the concrete wall of the bridge and library. (Trent University, Peterborough; the library is built into the river)
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Children at Play Thursday, Mar 21 2013
Historic Photos photography 10:08
August 1911. I suspect that the baby on the sled is Eileen Creevey Hall at about a year old. The girl is Carlotta Creevey, the boy with the hat is Kennedy Creevey, the other boy is unknown.
The building in the background is Happy Thought. It still has at least the pump for the old well, the odd little rectangular object. It is interesting to note that the drive is not gravel at this date. The chair was clearly regularly used on the lawn, you can see the runners to avoid the legs sinking in. What looks like a large birch tree is not; it is the big central oak on the lawn (the shadows are odd). The very dark trunk just visible on the left is one of the big maples, they are long gone; but about where that one is there is now a young beech.
Hard to believe Wednesday, Mar 20 2013
Modern Photos gardening, photography 07:47
That two months from now the view might look like this….
That is a view of the west lawn taken last May, we are experimenting with not cutting the entire lawn, you can see the flowers in the grass on the left, all the faint yellow and pink. We just cut some paths through it, and then cut it down in mid-August. We will see how it works this year. Right now (well before it snowed again), it isn’t looking gorgeous; I suspect as soon as the snow melts, I’ll need to rake it in order to pick up all the leaves and sticks. The odd thing on the right is a cage for a young white oak. I am quite sure that Robin wants spring to come. He keeps forlornly going out into the field and looking for the grass.
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Distractions Tuesday, Mar 19 2013
Uncategorized birding, gardening, wildlife 12:26
It is currently doing the freezing rain thing. At least the several inches of snow didn’t stick to the trees, so the weight shouldn’t be too bad. But we are back to a white and grey landscape.
The distraction factor comes from several very disgruntled chickadees which are hanging out on the west porch, right out side my window. One of them just came and perched on a chair arm and gave me quite the look. They are clearly of the opinion that this oughtn’t to be happening. The cardinals are also of like opinion. The male cardinals have been quite busy chasing each other and any passing female. Several inches of snow topped with ice was clearly not in their plans. I suspect that the chickadee in question is the same one that was determinedly investigating the porch and house for any likely nesting holes a few days ago. Granted, this is less of a distraction than last year’s woodpecker, he attempted to enlarge a hole in a post right outside the window.*
….I now have three cardinals, two juncos, a titmouse, and several chickadees in the quince and forsythia bushes below the porch. Every year I think about getting rid of those forsythia, (they bloom for a week or two and then I spend the summer trying to keep them in control and below the porch railing)*, and every winter the birds remind me why I haven’t yet. The birds adore those bushes. I suspect that they are on the route between the tall trees to the north of the house and the bird-feeders on the south of the house. Some chickadees use the Japanese Maples and the redbuds to the east of the house as staging points between the tall conifers and the birdfeeders. Birds coming from the pines to the north and west probably use the forsythia and the apples. If I could tell the birds apart, I would bet that there are distinct patterns and territories used by the birds. There may be east side and west side families for all I know!
The perils of wildlife.*
*the porch posts are box posts, the hole is for the awning poles. I suspect the woodpecker gave up when he realized that this wonderful hole had no floor.
*The railing is a good six feet high, you would think that would be tall enough…
*Actually, it really is spring. The bear has raided the trash cans and I nearly walked into him late one night a few days ago.
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Picturesque Travels Monday, Mar 18 2013
Historical Events connecticut, history, letters 10:21
From , a letter by Edward Beecher Hooker, in Hartford, to Helen Yale Ellsworth, travelling in Europe, 1873:
“Miss Nellie Stanley gave a little party last Wednesday night. I drove over, with Sam, in the carriage carrying Belle Spence, Hattie Coit, and Bob Andrews. We had barely started, when in briskly going over a crosswalk, the carriage bounced and a spring broke. Luckily it was not the main leaf spring, but a minor one, so we went on though the carriage rattled and tipped considerably. It was lovely moonlight. Arrived at Miss Stanley’s about eight. The evening was passed in dancing and conversation, not forgetting the refreshments, oysters, coffee, cake, nuts, candy, and grapes. I danced the Boston, but did not find anyone with whom I could dance quite as easily as Lucy and you.
Left Miss Stanley’s some after eleven. The horse had not been put under a shed and a frost had fallen so the seats were icy and cold. The bridge and causeway on the other side of the river is often dangerous on account of robbers etc. but we were not molested. I was prepared for there was a revolver and slung-shot under the front cushion ready for emergencies. If anything had happened I, with great presence of mind, probably would have shot someone in the carriage and pitched the slung-shot in the river. I really wonder what I would do if I should be attacked. I am afraid I would run or surrender all my valuables and beg for quarter. No one can tell how he would act till he has been tried. I wonder what you will do if you happen to travel in Italy and fall in with brigands. Something heroic and grand without doubt.”
I think it is a sling-shot he is talking about here. Hartford seems to have had a plague of highway-men in the late 1800’s; at least once a robbery was fought off by the girls. Hooker’s letters, of which there are about 3o are truly entertaining. They have a huge amount of information about the social life, culture and education of college age men and women in Hartford at the time. They also tend to be at once dramatic and understated. Having finished discussing highway-men, this letter goes back to discussing literature without any histronics.
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Over-rated optimism Saturday, Mar 16 2013
I clearly should not trim the apple trees…every time I get going on them it starts snowing. I am a wimp, I admit. But the fact is that while I enjoy pruning them, it is hard enough when it is not cold and windy. All that looking up. The apple trees by the way are one of those ‘oops’ that sometimes happens. They should have been semi-dwarf. Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that they are not semi-dwarf. Now, I don’t mind standards, it’s just they are a bit harder to prune. I am actually going to see if I can prune the Wolf River from the second-story balcony with the pole saw…
I do wish that I knew more about how certain spring plants manage. The daffodils and snow-drops are just starting up, as are the crocus. None of these plants mind getting frozen. It got down to about 18 last night, but that doesn’t hurt these bulbs even if they are up with flowers. The snow-drops are quite happy to poke up through the snow and bloom. Living up to their name quite well. Some mosses seem to be able to do the same thing.
It is an interesting bit of evolution…
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Cleaning Old Glass Thursday, Mar 14 2013
Esperanza architecture, art 22:42
Cleaning a few kitchen doors today; both are multi-paned with exterior storm doors. It struck me that the old glass was more interesting to look at for any length of time. The small lights are much, much harder to clean, as they have four times the number of edges. The big outer panels are just flat pieces of glass. They are entirely forgettable. We generally assume that glass is supposed to be see-through, the modern triumph is invisible walls. And yet….they are most assuredly walls. I have to admit, I have always found the massive panels of perfect glass with minimal framing to be jaw-dropping, no doubt, but clinically cold.
I was admiring one of the door’s lights, about the size of a shoe-box. This small piece of glass had so much life in it. The bubbles, the ripples, the multitude of imperfections, every single one of them caught the light. At exactly the right angle and level a rainbow flashed and vanished. This wasn’t a see-through wall; this was an (admittedly inadvertent) celebration of the sun.
Now, I am sure that the people who built the house would spring for the modern, perfect glass; they went for modern whenever they could afford it after all. But, studying the old glass ignites the artistic sensibilities. Stained glass, painted glass, rippled, spun, blown, fractured; the possibilities are endless. It is a pity we believe that flat, flawless, colourless, and large is perfection.
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Early March Sunset Wednesday, Mar 13 2013
Modern Photos photography 22:56
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Acair Fearann 