Musings

In principle, I’m a fan of historical fiction—just so it’s labeled as fiction. My current favorite is Farley Mowat’s The Farfarers. Mowat didn’t write pure historical fiction though, as the book alternates between archaeological and archival data chapters and his imagined version of the peoples who headed west from northwest Europe to Iceland, Greenland, and the New World (before they had those names, of course). It’s a masterful weaving, and makes the past come alive. He avoids expending much energy generating internal dialogue, instead concentrating on obvious material issues—watching weather, missing family, dietary concerns.

I had hoped Laura Esquivel’s Malinche would be a similar tour-de-force. The topic is right: contact-period central Mexico, and the turbulent times initiated by the arrival of Spanish plunderers and murderers and their not-so-noble men of the cloth. Esquivel completely captured my attention with her lyrical Like Water for Chocolate, and I hoped that her imagined version of the Spanish meany Córtes’s female translator’s experience as Córtes’s slave and servant would be similarly admirable. Early in their relationship, as Esquivel describes it, Córtes rapes Malinalli (aka Malinche, and considered a traitor by most Mexicans) and she is both dreamy and unconcerned. I tried to read more, but was too disgusted to continue. I expected far more from Esquivel. Don’t waste either your time or your money on this book.

The Farfarers, on the other hand, is worth every penny.

Posted at 5:39 PM | 5 Comments »

When I took this picture, I don’t remember thinking the water had this strange, distinctive, remarkable color, but this is what the camera shows it looked like, unretouched. Lake Cumberland, earlier this week. Also, admire the surface tension….

Stay tuned! Coming tomorrow: picture of the new kitchen faucet! Installed!

Posted at 7:17 PM | 2 Comments »

Yawn—morning on Lake Cumberland (sometimes Cumberland Lake), having parked overnight along a secluded piece of shoreline. The mist is rising (well, has risen by this time!), and we’re wishing we all hadn’t forgotten the coffee. We shrouded the coffeemaker so it didn’t remind us, sitting silently in the corner (poetic license here!). Anyway, here’s the most modest houseboat model on the lake, our home away from home. Under the latest layer of stickers, we see its last port was Reno, Nevada. Huh?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Reno port?

Not this one!

Particularly in the Midwest, when vacation comes, people head for water. Since we’re meeting Midwesterners for a spot of holiday, we’re doing that, too. And enjoying it from a houseboat!

Posted at 4:12 PM | 2 Comments »

Once upon a time in a well-established urban neighborhood in the urban Southeast (aka Midtown Atlanta), there was a Killer Tree. Of course, the tree looked perfectly normal when it was a little tree, way back when the houses and streets and sidewalks were being built. It also looked like a normal tree when it was a young tree, and even as it reached middle age. It grew tall and robust, and its branches reached high and needed no pruning. The Killer Tree, in its younger days, gloried in providing shade for the house below it, for the cars that parked along the street below it, and for the children who played in the yard it shaded.

One day, however, the Killer Tree awoke from its stupor of normality and began to contemplate its situation. The Killer Tree discovered that it could not move and could not find out what was beyond its viewscape. The Killer Tree found this very frustrating.

And, lacking any other means of showing its frustration, the Killer Tree dropped a branch.

And that is the story of how the Killer Tree earned its name.

Posted at 6:21 PM | 4 Comments »

Low clouds scattered the sunlight this morning, and Lake Clara Meer has taken on a summer algal decoration, which resembles marbled endpapers.

Apparently, installation of two pumps under the apron (aka pier) at the south end of the lake was supposed to eliminate this situation, but, walah! (as I read on a menu once), it returns!

I can happily report that the extreme heat wave is currently leaving us alone here, although most of the rest of North America and Europe are suffering.

Nevertheless, perhaps as a response to the heat, our backyard azalea is now in its second coming (reblooming). I lost count of how many blooming cycles it accomplished last year; I’ll have to be more attentive this year!

Posted at 4:52 PM | Comments Off on Algal lake

Rain last night changed the whole feel of the out-of-doors, although promised cells this afternoon have been missing us here in Virginia-Highland. All the plants seem quite happy to have their roots watered, and seem to have been awaiting the precip during our entire trek.

In the South, crepe myrtles sorta fit the landscape category that lilacs do in the Midwest—upright woody shrubs that are bedecked with color during “their time.�? They offer blooms throughout the hottest part of the summer, and cheery shades of pink at that!, but the rain brought down lots of the wee buds (not to be confused with Weebits—thank you, Gillian!).

Crepe myrtles also play a role in the lore of jcb and me, since we kept looking for them the day we met. But that’s another story for another time….

On another note, I’ve added another recipe to “Food Fun,�? this time Oatmeal Bread, for machines. Mostly, jcb has been making the modified version, with extra whole grain goodness, noted at the bottom.

Posted at 4:39 PM | Comments Off on Crepe myrtles

No moss growing on us! To take the sting out of a 390-mile drive (bye-bye UP!), we went sailing! On Lake Saint Clair! The open water was so exciting that I only have boat photos from when we were motoring out and in, sails furled. We saw all the wave action I’m interested in riding (measured in knots, of course, by jcb with the GPS), absent an emergency, and I even became accustomed to the occasional angle we tipped sideways.

Leaving the dock area, we also saw this gem of a boat name (a favorite of our hosts, The Word-Crafters), all the more precious with the little “poot�? graphic, no?

Posted at 10:22 PM | 3 Comments »

Yesterday’s adventure was a picnic and beach wander based at the mouth of Hurricane Creek, in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I find it difficult to pick one image to carry the beauty and loveliness of this place. We also walked down to the lighthouse, and checked out several shipwrecks along the shoreline. Looking at the size of the now water-warn timbers and the robustness of the metal pinning them together, it’s difficult to imagine the power of water and ice that incurs such damage.

The breeze was light, but enough to keep the insects away on the beach although not up in the shade where we ate at the picnic table (stomp stomp from those wearing shorts!). There wasn’t enough to make the water noisy, so the beach seemed almost quiet. I walked a ways out on the sandstone that’s beneath the water in that area, and marveled that the Lake kept it clean of cobbles, pebbles, and even sand.

As a bonus, when we were headed south bound for Seney, we passed through a downpour. As is often typical, however, the cell didn’t extend south of town (Hemingway was here!), so the farm remained dry.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

I know I recently did a sunset picture, but we’ve been having spectacular skies, and we were out last evening perambulating around the field, and caught this fine cross-field perspective.

Sorry for the run-on sentence….

Posted at 2:47 PM | Comments Off on Two tall trees