Monday, 24 April 2023
The Botanist once described the result of this type of horticultural distortion as frustrated plants. The golden color, a nice contrast to the original green of other garden plants (and its parents), shows the plant has seriously diminished levels of chlorophyll, and thus reduced healthiness.
Sunday, 23 April 2023
I thought I had a good idea of a blog topic. Couldn’t remember it.
Thought I had a decent idea, but I couldn’t articulate it.
Instead, I just whine. Or am forthright.
Friday, 21 April 2023
Off the cuff in my personally distorted sensibilities, it seems early for the peonies to be open here…my read on the season is probably distorted by being in snow country within the last two weeks….
Thursday, 20 April 2023
I found this oblique golden morning light at nine, which seemed late to me…perhaps because I have no firm natural sense of the time zone I’m in (at the moment).
Wednesday, 19 April 2023
I’m still parsing an article* in the NYTimes about the pieces of the kylix that curators at the Met began collecting in the 70s. Over the years the Met obtained pieces from multiple art dealers.
A kylix is a kind of stemmed drinking cup. This one is made of terra cotta and thirteen inches in diameter. It has a nice decoration of a man and woman partying in a circular panel on the interior. The exterior has a band of multiple male figures, described as older fellows chasing younger guys.
The last fragment of the kylix arrived at the Met in 1994, and the restored vessel was on display until last fall, when the Manhattan DA’s office seized it as a looted item.
As near as I can tell, the prevailing opinion is that the vessel was intentionally broken, and the pieces essentially funneled to the Met’s purchasers and curators. This is not the only vessel in the Met’s collection that may have received this treatment.
Remember: to archaeologists pottery contributes to a complex story, while to art historians pottery has aesthetic, and, yes, monetary value—even broken, when an intact vessel would be worth more, the pieces have monetary value.
* The article is “The Kylix Marvel: Why Experts Distrust the Story of an Ancient Cup’s Rebirth,” dated today, by Graham Bowley and Tom Mashberg.
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
How many times have I been in Powell’s and not noticed this? Actually, there are several staircases, and this is on the landing of just one, so it can honestly and easily be missed.
I just checked their website, and the bookstore dates back to 1971. I think the first time I entered its doors was in 1979.
Our country might well be improved if we had a Department of Literature.
Monday, 17 April 2023
Dry-tolerant yucca in Santa Fé.
Moist, juicy fennel in ATL.
Of course, you can also nurture yucca in ATL.
Saturday, 15 April 2023
Frosted morning.
We drove away from the mountains. We did see a herd of perhaps three dozen pronghorns about a half hour after this stop. This was the only antelope sighting on our eastbound leg.
Busy wind farm.
It’s so windy here in western Oklahoma that the rest stop garbage cans have tie-downs, and it’s that windy today. This is better than in TX, where the “rest stops” had neither garbage cans nor toilets. [Ick warning: they were toxic waste sites that reeked of urine and were festooned with trash that was small enough or heavy enough that it didn’t blow away.]
Friday, 14 April 2023
I began my afternoon perambulation here, as it is close to our hotel.
That’s a Rail Runner Express on the right, with the active track to the right of it. The parked train must be a backup? I don’t know what the deal is with the blue-purple train, decorated in a pseudo-graffiti style from nose to tail.
Feeling like I had “done” the depot area—now a Saturday Farmers’ Market—I proceeded into a residential area…
…and then looped to the central plaza area. This is the Loretto Chapel (privately owned)…
…and this is the active Catholic cathedral basilica.
Looking at the churches, followed by this “Settlers Monument” (2003), by sculptor Donna Quasthoff (1924–2021), I could not help but think about the arrival and “good works” of the Catholic priests and Euro-American settlers, who upended the lives and health and cultures of the people who lived in this area. Notice how the incomers are atop their beasts of burden and invasive species. Kinda creepy and definitely an ethical downer. I’m glad it was sunny and that we had leftover red-chili ribs for dinner to cheer me up.
Thursday, 13 April 2023
Came across this apparently life-sized elk statue posing street-side. I “say” apparently because I’ve never been this close to an elk before. Heavy overcast made for strange lighting.
This lighting, however: fabulous. It lasted not even two minutes….
Dear friends treated us to a tasty dinner, and yummy as it was, the conversation and camaraderie was even better. These ribs were roasted with a red-chili paste just before serving; never had anything quite like this. Show-stopping. The waitron said the recipe is on the restaurant website. I looked; it’s not—their secret…I understand.