Musings
One of the notable things about today: it was rather windy with no hurricanes around. That’s kinda strange for these parts.
I didn’t have any good ideas for illustrating wind, since a tree with leaves flipped over by the breeze doesn’t necessarily look like it’s been affected by a strong airflow. That lead me to think about waves, and I sure have wave pictures. Then I thought I’d like to have a twist on the concept, so, voila!, here’s an original painting done by my grandparents’ friend Harry Surrell in 1966. He was a dentist (I think) in Newberry, and this is our beach, with the big point I remember from my childhood. Now, the beach configuration is somewhat different (last year; the water’s higher this year…), and there are ever so many more houses on the far shore….
Posted at 6:13 PM |
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Today’s milestone* is white bean soup, the beginning of winter eats. Mostly I use white beans or split peas, rarely black beans or a bean mixture. I almost always add barley and wild rice, making the soup into a complete protein food. Love assortments of amino acids!
This particular version is augmented with carrots and garlic (out of onions) and seasoned with fresh sage and thyme from my herb garden, plus a few pieces of ham and a splash of worchestershire sauce.
Through the winter, we almost always have leftover soup around, which makes for easy lunches, and a lowered grocery bill.
* This milestone is related to turning on the heat, mentioned yesterday by the Marquis, as a seasonal marker.
Posted at 1:16 PM |
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Sorry, I have no Lang Yao sang-de-boeuf pictures….
Pomfret went to a combination tantalus and electric refrigerator and procured necessities. Fox, glancing around, saw a Lang Yao sang-de-boeuf perched on a cabinet in a corner, and a large deep peach bloom on a table against the wall.
Tecumseh Fox is a lesser-known detective created by Rex Stout, and portrayed in three novels published in 1939–41. This is from the final volume, The Broken Vase. I know it’s a minor concern, but what the heck’s a tantalus?
Answer: lockable stand for liquor decanters, in which they remain visible (same root as tantalize).
And: Lang Yao sang-de-boeuf. This refers to a particular shade of deep oxblood red, produced in Chinese ceramic glazes by additions of copper oxide. The term melds the Chinese and French terms.
Later, Fox is told that this precious vessel is “a Hsuan Te.” This apparently means that it dates to the Ming dynasty, ca. 1426–1435. BTW, the “peach bloom” is another contemporaneous decoration style (I gather).
Bow down to the power of the internet…and consider whether your domicile needs a tantalus….
Posted at 8:58 AM |
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Resurrection fern (Polypodium polypodioides). As I mentioned before, one of my favorites….
Somehow in my twisted brain, this fern matches my sentiments at the moment…dried, curled tendrils, maybe….
Posted at 10:51 PM |
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I guess, given our recent experience with rehabbing our house, I’m rather sensitized to the problems of updating older structures. Actually, I guess it doesn’t really matter how old the building is, it’s simply the updating that sets it all into motion. Thankfully, we didn’t have to figure out how to cleverly electrify our house, just to rebuild what had been there….
Posted at 9:33 PM |
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…you may have noticed that I’ve been on the road lately. Although yesterday we returned home (yeah!)—and it is MOSTLY our Home AGAIN (double yeah!)—today I was traveling again. To Rome. Not the Italian or even the New York one, but the one in northwest Georgia, where I attended Society for Georgia Archaeology semi-annual meeting events.
There, I got stuck in the parking lot of the Chieftains Museum (also the home of Major Ridge, a prosperous Cherokee who was forced to endure the Trail of Tears ethnic cleansing/removal to lands that became Oklahoma over the winter of 1838-39*), waiting for a parade of modern wagons drawn by pairs of mules escorted by myriad riders on horseback to pass by. I estimate there were perhaps two hundred non-human critters involved in that mini-migration….
* Ridge, whose name in Cherokee was Ca-nung-da-cla-geh, was murdered by other Indians in 1839 for having signed the Treaty of New Echota (then the Cherokee Capital, in Georgia) in 1835, along with a minority of other Cherokees and without the permission of the tribal government. The treaty was an agreement by the Cherokees to leave their southern Appalachian homeland in return for monetary compensation and lands to settle out west.
PS If you’re bored with the above, perhaps you’d be interested in this NYTimes piece on worm grunting aka worm charming? BTW, the full PLoS article by Kenneth C. Catania is here….
Posted at 6:06 PM |
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Downtown South Charleston, West Virginia: where the locals let their Great Danes do what they do best right there on the lawn…and walk away. Pheww-www. Gross. But true….
…an Indian Mound…. First, add two sets of steps spiraling up the flanks. Then, add a circular walkway on the top. After all, it’s a circular mound (now anyway). Then add a bench facing directly up the main street that’s perpendicular to the river. Then, since many bench-occupiers are piglets (some with lipstick), add not one but two trash containers.
Finally, stand back and admire your municipal pi__-marks.
Posted at 9:42 PM |
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Tune in your imagination: this is the house you call home. It’s maybe 1890. From your front porch you see the hustle and bustle surrounding the town wharf of Wellsburg, West Virginia, and watch the boat traffic move up and down the Ohio River. The doctor’s house is across the side street. Your family is wealthy.
Now, things in Wellsburg? Not so bustling. The commercial wharf is gone, replaced by a well-tended narrow park and docking for pleasure craft, which mostly seems to be used by fisherfolk. The economic downturn hit here a generation ago, and the current situation is sharpening the agony. Fishing is a wise plan….
Posted at 10:22 PM |
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I swear, just when you think you’ve figured out the aesthetic of the central Midwest, someone (or someones) collect a big pile of detergent containers and makes…a lovely fish!
Posted at 6:07 PM |
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Back to the garden today, and we finally determined that the pond has nine fish. For some time we didn’t see the black one that often swims off by him/herself. This one was feeding aggressively amongst the rocks….
Posted at 10:22 PM |
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