October 19, 2018 at 3:14 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: discoveries, Fridays, Ireland, Irish writers, poetry
by Aine MacAodha, from her collection Landscape of Self (Belfast: Lapwing, 2015)
It was early November
I remember because of
How cold it was
A mini ice age it was said.
15 below zero; small towns
In the north stood still
Phone lines came down
From the weight of frost and snow
Burst pipes in the hundreds
And the drains unable to cope
Backed up.
I slid on the ice; tore ligaments
In my arm when I was helped up.
I feel the aches again as winter
Loiters like a threat.
Bones shudder under skin
A warning of another ice age to come.
It was the talk of the town all winter season
From the post office in market street
To the butchers in campsite
It was something different to talk about I suppose.
Aine MacAodha is from Omagh in County Tyrone.
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October 1, 2018 at 8:43 pm (Books, Recommended, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: Mondays, novel, Philadelphia, reading lists, Willa Cather
I walked home with Antonia. We were so excited that we dreaded to go to bed. We lingered a long while at the Harlings’ gate, whispering in the cold until the restlessness was slowly chilled out of us.
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September 30, 2018 at 7:42 pm (Books, Conversations, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, Traveling, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: novel, Philadelphia, reading lists
Self is reading My Antonia in Philadelphia.
A very warm, muggy Philadelphia.
And she’s in a section of My Antonia that takes place in the middle of a hard Nebraska winter.
lol
In Chapter XV we meet a new character, Anton Jelinek, who the narrator, Jim Burden, cannot help admiring for his “frank, manly faith.” Jelinek’s business is to make coffins.
- “The last time I made one of these, Mrs. Burden,” he said, as he sorted and tried his chisels, “was for a fellow in the Black Tiger mine, up above Silverton, Colorado. The mouth of that mine goes right into the face of the cliff, and they used to put us in a bucket and run us over on a trolley and shoot us into the shaft. The bucket traveled across a box cañon three hundred feet deep, and about a third full of water. Two Swedes had fell out of that bucket once, and hit the water, feet down. If you’ll believe it, they went to work the next day. You can’t kill a Swede. But in my time a little Eyetalian tried the high dive, and it turned out different with him. We was snowed in then, like we are now, and I happened to be the only man in camp that could make a coffin for him. It’s a handy thing to know, when you knock about like I’ve done.”
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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June 20, 2018 at 4:09 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Links, Places, Weather)
Tags: Cee Neuner, Events, exhibits, Garden, museum, Redwood City, San Francisco, Saturday, summer, weekends
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is: Horizontal Line(s). Self browsed through her photos and found these from Saturday, 16 June.
Went to the City to see the Rube Goldberg exhibit.
Lobby, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
Afterwards, self chilled in the backyard. It was a beautiful day!
Backyard, Redwood City
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May 30, 2018 at 10:57 pm (Links, Weather)
Tags: causes, Cee Neuner, Events, memories, Protests, Redwood City
Happy to be reminded (by Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Flags and Banners) that Redwood City, CA had an amazing event on March 24, 2018.
The weather was gorgeous and everyone was smiling and happy.
Redwood City, Courthouse Square, 24 March 2018
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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April 22, 2018 at 6:25 pm (destinations, Places, Sundays, television, The Guardian, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: adaptations, humor, indulgences, memories, review
Self is watching Versailles Season 2. She is so happy the series was renewed! It has proved extremely addictive.
The Guardian: With ladies in milky baths, ocular torture and piles of flesh, Versailles returns for more pre-revolution rumbustiousness (Shouldn’t that be rambunctiousness? Whatever). But is there depth beneath the bling?
Where were we then in Versailles, which returns for a second series? The palace is still under construction, and 1,000 workers have died so far. Versailles was clearly the Qatar of its day, and those gold gates are very Gulf State chic, no?
The writer is Sam Wollaston.
Self bows to your wicked wit, Sir. She bows.
From her visit to Versailles, May 2017:
Versailles, 28 May 2017: It was too bloody hot.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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April 20, 2018 at 12:11 am (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Links, Places, postaday, Weather)
Tags: concerts, Events, Mendocino, music, postaday, postaweek, seasons, Wordpress
It was another beautiful day in Mendocino. One thing about being here, there is always something self can take a picture of.
Right now, it is spring. So there’s an unbelievable amount of action going on, even in the vacant lots, and even if it’s just grass.
Hodder Field, One Block from the Mendocino Art Center
Self’s attention was caught by the swaying grass in Hodder Field.
And there are many, many spring concerts abounding, such as this one advertised on a poster tacked up to a fence on Ukiah Street:
Spring is a great time to be outdoors and just soaking up the sights in Mendocino.
Her friends are telling her to come back for the Mendocino Music Festival (July) but all accommodations are booked solid.
Never mind. She’s just happy to be here in April.
Other PROLIFIC:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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April 19, 2018 at 12:09 am (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: artists residency, California, inspiration, Mendocino, postaday, postaweek, seasons, Wordpress
It is spring. Self had a sudden hankering for shiitake mushrooms. So she walked to Corners of the Mouth Market on Ukiah. The vacant lots she passed were dotted with little white and yellow flowers, a whole profusion of them. She wouldn’t have stopped to take pictures if she hadn’t been thinking of this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge: PROLIFIC.
Kids lying on their backs, stretched out on the soft grass. School’s out, AYAYAYAYAY, such a beautiful afternoon.
She peeked over a fence and saw a shelf filled with whimsical ceramic objects.
Also PROLIFIC:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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April 12, 2018 at 2:44 am (Flowers, Links, Lists, postaday, Recommended, Weather)
Tags: Gardens, Mendocino, postaday, postaweek, seasons, Wordpress
It rained most of the afternoon. Towards 5 p.m., self took a big umbrella and her camera and walked around the Mendocino Art Center, taking pictures in the front garden. Colors are so vibrant in the rain! It was tough juggling the umbrella and the camera, but she managed to get a few decent shots.
Other Awakenings:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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April 10, 2018 at 10:16 pm (Food and Drink, postaday, Weather)
Tags: causes, indulgences, Mendocino, postaday, postaweek, Protests, Wordpress
The weather gods are smiling on Mendocino because the weather is just beautiful up here. So spectacularly gorgeous. And to think she worried about cold etc etc etc
Anyhoo, self’s favorite parking spot was not taken, she couldn’t believe her incredible luck. She sailed her 98 Altima into the space like, you know, she owned it.
SMILE SMILE SMILE
Also, she decided to treat herself to a cup of Mendosa’s clam chowder, MORE REASONS TO SMILE:
Harvest at Mendosa’s, a Mendocino mainstay on Lansing Street
On the way up (the trip took her five hours, including two stops to keep awake and five pull-overs on 128 to let faster vehicles pass and one ten-minute wait due to roadwork), she stopped by Big John’s Market in Healdsburg. A group was selling cookies for a dollar. Women got the 100% cookies, and men got the 80% cookies, good way to make the point that women should get EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. It’s really troubling that, in this day and age, women still get only 80% of what men get, simply because of their gender.
Outside Big John’s Market Today
The cookies were dee-lish! Put a big smile on self’s face, for sure!
More WordPress SMILES:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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