This spring is going to be glorious. First of all, the rain! California’s blooms are blooming like never before. Self’s potted hydrangeas are exploding out of their pots. Today, self will head to the nearest plant nursey, not only in search of soil amendments, fertilizers, and all that good stuff, but also to buy snail repellents (because snails are so happy this time of year, yes)
Posting for Travel with Intent’s One Word Sunday.
An hour past midnight. Finished the glorious Samuel Pepys biography a half hour ago.
Still craving a read that will definitively take her out of herself, she’s decided to tackle this novel, recommended by a member of self’s writing group:
Almost a mile off the starboard bow, the gigantic floating ice mountain that hides Terror’s sister ship, Erebus, from view seems for a brief, false moment to radiate colour from within, glowing from its own cold, internal fires.
— The Terror, by Dan Simmons, p. 4
Well, here it is: self’s annual Halloween appreciation post! She walked north along Hillview, to Whipple Avenue, then turned east to Hudson Street. The neighbors do go all out. Some of these are positively inspired!
Posting for Jez’s Fan of . . . Challenge.
One of the greatest pleasures of the summer just ended has been the new roses self bought in the spring. All Dressed Up (pink) is just starting to bloom again, and her Chrysler Imperial (deep red) is getting ready for a spectacular show.
Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day.
A tweak of the reading list, because the Katherine Addison novel is so short. So self is putting off reading it to prolong the pleasure of anticipation.
Besides, the movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing is hitting movie theatres on her birthday. She’s got to finish reading it by then!
The improbable happens: Kya’s (usually drunk) father takes her fishing.
. . . she felt a tug, jerked her line, and raised a thick bream, flashing silver and blue. Pa leaned out and snatched it in the net, then sat back, slapping his knees and yahoo-ing like she’d never seen. She grinned wide and they looked into each other’s eyes, closing a circuit.
Before Pa strung it up, the bream flopped around in the boat bottom and Kya had to watch a distant string of pelicans, study the cloud forms, anything but look into dying fish eyes staring at a world without water, wide mouth sucking worthless air. But what it cost her and what it cost that fish was worth it to have this little shred of family.
— Where the Crawdads Sing, p. 55
A
This is a book about four pretentious little s**ts who call each other pretentious little shits (See above) and pride themselves on knowing the correct way to pronounce the Diane in Diane Arbus. But reliable sources tell her it’s going to turn into a real weep-fest later — which means she’s going to wish she died or was never born.
Self is no stranger to weep-fests (See her prolific posts about Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy. Note also that she just finished reading — last night — Chris Offutt’s mournful tale of family justice in Eastern Kentucky, The Killing Hills.) But she’s getting genuinely anxious. Any minute now she may start tearing the pages of her magazine into tiny confetti.
Nevertheless, she resolves to tackle this massive tome, because she knows/hopes all that emotion it calls forth will prove cathartic and free-ing.
Stay tuned.
It did not turn out to be the super-spreader event that we all feared it might be.
Today, CNN reported that the Olympic Village reported 358 positive corona cases. While not insignificant, when considering the thousands who congregated in Olympic Village, this is an achievement. Kudos to host Japan!
For two weeks, self watched in awe as athletes battled their personal demons and PUT ON A SHOW.
Will never forget:
and so many, many other stories, impossible to list all here.
Hidilyn Diaz, Filipina weightlifting champion
AND they even got a Belarussian sprinter her freedom.
Can’t wait for Paris 2024.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Chapter IV is about Ammonites, Discoscaphites jerseyensis
Kolbert meets a geologist from Brooklyn College in a parking lot next to a baseball field. They strike out through the underbrush to a shallow creek.
Its banks were covered in rust-colored slime. Brambles hung over the water. Fluttering from these were tattered banners of debris: lost plastic bags, scraps of newspaper, the rings from ancient six-packs.
In the “creek bed, a few inches above the water line,” was an exposed iridium layer, evidence of the six-mile wide asteroid that hit the earth in the late Cretaceous, wiping out the dinosaurs. A scientist digs out a piece of ammonite.
Kolbert goes on to describe the prevalence of ammonites: “Pliny the Elder, who died in the eruption that buried Pompeii, was already familiar with them . . . “
That mention of Pliny the Elder dying at Pompeii . . . This Sunday, self is going to see the exhibit Last Supper at Pompeii at the Legion of Honor. The exhibit traveled from the Ashmolean, where self first saw it in November 2019. It was a fantastic exhibit, she wanted to see it again but ran out of time. She didn’t think she’d have another chance, but here it is, in her own backyard!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Finished reading Oak Flat: The Fight for Sacred Land in the American West, by Lauren Redniss, early this morning. Wow. Blown away by the polyphonic voices. And by the simple yet so-moving illustrations (by the author herself).
It joins two other books as self’s five-star reads of the 2021 reading year:
Mary Robinette Kowal is one of the authors participating in this year’s SiliCon, which will be happening this August at the San Jose Convention Center. Self rushed out and got her tickets. She can’t waaaaait for August.
Have a great summer, dear blog readers.
April is proving to be quite the month.
April is Bright Squares month. The host of this photo challenge is Becky of The Life of B. And today is her birthday! So let’s all give her a big Hip Hip Hooooray!
Today, the theme of self’s Bright Squares is Bright Smiles! Just look at these people who began lining up in front of Horn Barbecue in Oakland about half an hour before opening (11 a.m.) It was rather chilly, but no one complained. Because Horn, which opened just before the pandemic, is definitely a success story. The best melt-off-the-bone spare ribs, the tenderest brisket, the BEST mac’n cheese, the BEST bread pudding.
Before you go, diet for a week. You order by the pound. Self’s friend Nikki is one of the assistant cooks (and she is a fabulous cook). There she is, standing beneath the sign. It’s a very industrial area of Oakland, with huge warehouses and also homeless encampments. But there are also cheerful corner juice stands, and other intrepid food trailblazers like June’s Pizza, just a few blocks away.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
Kanlaon 