travel

late summer trip north

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We’re leaving this week for a trip to see our families, and won’t be back for a couple of weeks. Time and energy has been taken up preparing for the trip, and writing has taken a back seat. I have a log of half-written posts piling up, most of them book reviews, and I’ll clear them out when I’m back. I’ll have my wee clamshell with me, of course, so I may write as I go. We’ll see.

On this trip, in addition to collecting some of the world’s best blueberries, I’ll be birding at Point Pelee. I haven’t been to the park since I was a kid, but it was always one of my favorite places. I look forward to revisiting the boardwalk and trying to catch a glimpse of some of the songbirds that have eluded me around here.

As a final preparation for our trip, I’ll be stopping at our garden plot and collecting any peppers—hot and sweet—that have survived the drought through the benevolence of strangers. Thank you, strangers!

See you down the road.

late summer trip north

5 year anniversary

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Today is the five year anniversary of when we moved to DC. I can tell you exactly where I was at this time five years ago: on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A few hours from now, I was pulling into a motel outside of Hagerstown, an hour or so away from DC. But before then, I was on the Turnpike and then I was on I-70. I have driven that stretch of the Turnpike many many times over the past 15 years. To and from college, and then to and from grad school. On that night, we’d been driving all day, and it was dark, and we’d been packing the truck until late the night before and we were tired; pretty much the same story as all the other moves from the Midwest to the East Coast or back in the other direction that we’d made before then.

I refer to that night, only half jokingly, as the time the Friends theme saved my life. I was listening to the radio, because I’d gotten tired of the tapes I had in the car, and I had the windows down (no air conditioning, since I was driving the Mustang), and it was a beautiful night. Coming over the mountains where I-70 drops down from the Turnpike to Maryland is my favorite part of the drive, the way the valley just opens up and you get this beautiful panoramic view of the area. That night, there was a bright moon, and after spending the whole evening with truckers, there was no one on the road but us. At one point, I caught a turn in the road just right and I was the only one there. I couldn’t see the headlights of the truck on the road behind me, there was no one coming in the other direction, and I turned off the car’s lights, just for a few seconds, just to see what it was like to be out there, in the mountains, with just the light of the moon. It was spectacular.

It was later, about a half hour down the road, when I had been lulled into a daze, driving out of habit. I don’t know if I was really asleep at the wheel, or just in a road coma, but I remember being jolted fully awake by the unmistakable sound of the intro to the Friends theme. I wasn’t really sure where we were, or how far I’d come from the earlier moment when I had been fully alert and convinced I could drive all night. But, clearly I couldn’t drive all night, and on a mountain in the dark is no place to be falling asleep at the wheel. So we stopped, and everything was fine. Well, as fine as they could be while staying in a $35/night motel, an experience that I won’t dwell on here.

I don’t think I’ve heard the Friends theme since then, but I can call it up and see the road appearing in front of me, the shock of having been drifting off, and the relief of realizing that nothing bad had happened.

So, happy moving-to-DC anniversary to us! And, thank you, Rembrandts, for making it all possible.

5 year anniversary

The Annapolis Pottery

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Today was the first really sunny and clear day of spring, and we took the day off to visit Annapolis. My partner had never been downtown, so we had fun walking around and reading the plaques on houses. Besides the food — of course, the best fish and chips I’ve had in years is to be had at the pub on the dock — my favorite part was The Annapolis Pottery. The shop itself was filled with beautiful things, and the potters were hard at work creating wet pieces. It was fun to be able to see masters at work, and remember how quickly things take shape in their hands. I can only dream of someday being half that good on the wheel.

We didn’t buy anything to take home with us, but several things caught my eye: the spherical nest ‘box’ and bird feeders (of course), the French butter keepers, the covered baking dishes, assorted pitchers and carafes, and a particularly vibrant red wine bucket / utensil container. The series that involved pressed leaf forms was beautiful, too.

I love going into shops like that one, even (or especially) when I know I won’t be buying anything. They’re like a mini gallery visit. And, the colors and shapes always give me something to think about for my own creations.

If only I could learn some tricks from simply watching the potters’ hands, I’d be golden.

The Annapolis Pottery

book challenge 2007 progress report

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At the end of month two, I have faced two major hurdles in my efforts to not buy new books this year, and come over them slightly battered. Vows were meant to be tested, right? Slips are an opportunity to get back on the wagon, right? Right.

In January, I visited Powells for the first time, and managed to limit myself to the purchase of used books (mostly poetry volumes) only. The whole category of previously owned books is an admitted gray area in my challenge: they are new-to-me, and they constitute more books that will need shelves in my home. In terms of managing the numbers of piles of books, then, it doesn’t get me there. In terms of managing the percentage of our budget that flows into book purchases, it improves the situation somewhat, although of course isn’t as good as just not buying anything. I hesitate to invoke that stalwart truism of consumer capitalism, ‘I could have bought even more, so what I did buy is small by comparison.’ Nonetheless, when it comes to visiting the most well-known independent bookstore in the country, I have to say: it could have been worse.

This past week, I smacked head on into my second hurdle, and it gave me a Texas thumpin’. Having chosen to attend an in-store reading, I was unable to resist buying the new book by one of my favorite authors, as I didn’t want to miss the chance to have it signed. In this instance, my vow to not spend money on books was in open conflict with my long-standing vow to purchase the books of authors I want to support when those books come out (rather than as remainders). In the end, the latter won out, and I was similarly unable to resist buying his book analyzing international law using Marxist theory, as I’ve been eager to read it and waiting for the less expensive trade paperback version to become available. And then, well, it became a matter of damage control, and I managed to leave the store with only an additional two books: his collection of stories that I’d not yet picked up, and a book on competitive birdwatching that hooked me in the first pages of the introduction.

Moral of the story: don’t go to bookstores, especially not well-stocked independent ones, and definitely don’t pick up books from the sale rack to leaf through while waiting in line for the loo.

book challenge 2007 progress report

birds in Oregon

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One of my favorite parts of any trip to a new region is seeing birds I’ve never seen before. My trip to Portland last month was no exception, and I was happy to catch sight of even the common regional birds. I’ve updated my lifelist to include the birds I saw out there, bringing my total of birds seen in North America up to a whopping 104! I’m still working on gathering photos of the European birds, but the list itself is complete.

birds in Oregon