“We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed . . . America has been tested and we have come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.”
#neverforget #quoteoftheday
Self visited Northern Ireland for the first time in April. She spent a month in an artists retreat called River Mill. The other residents were teachers, writers, photographers, film-makers. A few were from Belfast, others from England, and yet others from Dublin. What joy to be with fellow artists after three years of pandemic lockdown. We all promised to keep in touch.
In the evenings, we had dinner together, then gathered in the living room to watch Derry Girls.
Posting for Travel with Intent’s Six-Word Saturday.
Self has been suffering from lack of sleep lately, not sure why.
This afternoon, she dozed off (finally), with the television on. Suddenly, she sat upright, wide awake. Did she imagine it, or did she really hear Erin Burnett saying that a Russian general was overheard on the army channel saying, “There is no way we can win the war through conventional means. We have no choice, we have to use the nuclear option.”
Every cell in her body was lit. She looked at the screen.
There was Erin Burnett saying, “Tonight, air raid sirens are going off, all across Ukraine. And troops are on the move in Belarus.”
AARGH! NOW SELF REALLY REALLY CAN’T SLEEP!
The painters are working on self’s room, so she’s been hiding out in the library. She dozed off in a deep, plush armchair. She’s never dozed off in an armchair before! She must have been deeply asleep, because she had a dream.
Then she decided to watch the first episode of the new season of The Crown. Elizabeth Debecki is a dead ringer for Diana. And holy hell, did Prince Charles ever get a glow-up: this season, he’s played by Dominic West. Dominic West. The two little boys who play William and Harry are very cute (and look just like young William and Harry).
And now to Walking Squares!
She set off for the lake (her favorite destination). It was getting dark, there was nothing to steady her hand, so her pictures came out somewhat blurry.
On the walk back, she decided to take pictures of the studios and the Main House. She leaned on a gate, which made her efforts sharper.
Again, much thanks to Life of B for this month’s Squares Challenge: Walking Squares! So much fun to create a gallery of memorable walks!
In April, self finally crossed Belfast off her bucket list. She’d been wanting to go ever since she got into Game of Thrones, the HBO series. She was a huge Gendrya fan, and every time Joe Dempsie showed up in Belfast she would cheer!
She stayed at the Europa Hotel, which was fantastic, and each day she explored a different area of Belfast. One day, she went to Queen’s University and explored the botanic garden, right alongside:
Wowee! What a Fun Foto Challenge. Thanks, Cee Neuner!
I love Cee’s gallery. I decided to copy her movement: from “wide view” to “micro”
This summer of 2022 is really zipping along! Not to mention, she got a package delivered from USPS, and she very excitedly ripped it open (not her usual behavior) and found: a) it was the wrong item, and b) it was really addressed to her next-door neighbor. So she’ll have to get out of pajamas at some point today, and walk it over. BUMMER.
She finished reading Where the Crawdads Sing. She tore through it in four days, and read the closing pages while watching the Jan. 6 Committee Hearings. The novel would make a fine movie (which she’ll probably end up watching, just to see how it differs from the book), in fact the movie might possibly make more sense than the book, especially that ending! Don’t leave us all hanging, Dear Author. How did Marsh Girl engineer the whole thing? Down to the last minute and all? Even to the disguises?
She has so many books on her To-Read list, but after reading Where the Crawdads Sing, she seems to have selected History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, which was written thousands of years ago, but which begins with the author saying something to the effect of: We all thought this would be a great war, but it wasn’t, it was just an ordinary war, and it lasted 27 years. And the people who started off as allies ended up as antagonists. It was led on one side by Athens, which started compelling its “confederate states” to contribute to the war effort by providing money rather than ships, and continued to require this payment “even though Athens had years before ceased waging war with Persia.” In short, an alliance which had been formed to fight against Persia became instead the birth of the Athenian Empire. All the more remarkable was that this was effected while Athens remained “fully democratic.”
It finally ended this way (not a spoiler because, it’s history): “After the loss of her whole navy in the late summer of 405, in the spring of 404 an Athens stripped of her empire and starved into submission surrendered . . . “
As for the author, Thucydides, all we know about him is what he said about himself, which, according to the Introduction (by T. E. Wick, of the University of Wisconsin), “is very little.” He lived through the full twenty-seven years of the war, but his History only reaches Year 21 — “it breaks off abruptly, in the middle of a paragrapgh, in the middle of a sentence.”
Wow! Self loves history. Which is why she’s been glued to these January 6 Committee Hearings, which in her humble opinion should be nominated for an Emmy award, they are so riveting. Not only that, but the varying rhetorical styles of Chairman Bennie Thompson, Vice-Chair Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Jamie Raskin are really something! Rep. Thompson is sonorous and grave, Rep. Cheney is blunt and no-holds-barred, Rep. Adam Kinzinger is witty and ironic, Rep. Stephanie Murphy is patriotic and poignant, Rep. Zoe Lofgren is down-to-earth, and Rep. Jamie Raskin is eloquent to the nth! Any of them could run rings around that master of dumb-yet-emotional speech, 45.
So much riveting drama and etc., all in the height of summer. Summer 2022 is definitely one for the history books.
Stay tuned.
Weather today in Belfast is brilliantly gorgeous. There’s not a cloud in the sky. Amazing.
Self walked around, returned to her hotel just to dump her books (she ordered five books while she was in River Mill) and dashed out again. The best way to get one’s sea legs in an unfamiliar city is to walk, walk without a plan. She’s already seen a number of things. And signed up for an all-day Game of Thrones tour (Don’t @ self. Even though she is over her Gendrya obsession, come on: the Dark Hedges? the Giant Causeway? This might be her only chance!)
Posting this for Skywatch Friday.
Stay tuned.
My lovelies! Finished reading The Janus Stone, Book 2 of the Ruth Galloway series, last night. It was kickass! Self plans to buy Book 3 and Book 4 when she gets to Belfast.
In the meantime, she’s started a new book, The Magician King. It’s Book Two of the Magicians Trilogy. The SyFy adaptation is pretty good.
Sentence of the Day:
Eliot was not shit at horseback riding.
— The Magician King, p. 6
The Expanse — book and series — sustained self all through last year.
The first episode of the final season — Season 6 — just dropped on Amazon Prime.
And oh, what a beauty. What self loves so much about the series is that the quiet scenes are given as much weight as the action scenes. And, goes without saying, the gorgeousness of Chrisjen, Holden, Naomi, Amos, Drummer, Frankie, Marco, Filip and ‘Peaches’!
Kanlaon 