Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance that marks the beginning of Lent.

Since I'm usually rambling on about weather, birds and casseroles, T.S. Eliot is a bit much first thing in the morning.

Eliot's poems can be hard and confusing. But as the years pass, they mean something different each time you read them. About forty-five years ago, I randomly pulled The Collected Works of T.S. Eliot off the shelf in our tiny high school library and since then he's been a part of my life.

The long poem Ash Wednesday was written by T.S. Eliot in 1927, right after his conversion to Anglicanism. It deals with someone who lacked faith in the past, but now struggles to move toward God. It is an ambiguous and strange poem about hope and human salvation.

A few lines from Ash Wednesday:

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are...

Things you can do with a toaster oven

Eggplant Parmesan.

Teriyaki chicken wings.

Tater Tots. Yum.

Tony Roma ribs.

Homemade granola.

Store bought (little) cherry pie.

The house cook has been wondering, what does she need a fancy new gas oven for, anyway?
Well, there is that day called Thanksgiving, when folks show up and you want something on the table bigger that a Cornish hen.

The house cook has noticed that when she runs her toaster-broiler oven, a certain man takes a special interest in hanging around the kitchen, peering inside and asking constant meddling questions about the progress of his dinner. I guess some people are naturally attracted to gadgets.

Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also known as Mardi Gras Day or Shrove Day. It's a day when people eat all they want of everything and anything as tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

So the February days have been going by like a string of Fat Tuesdays. In case you were worried, no one is wasting away in this house for lack of an oven.

Tahiti in February

Tahitian Women on the Beach
Paul Gauguin
1848-1903

Sounds good, doesn't it? We went downtown yesterday to the Seattle Art Museum to see their special exhibit called Gauguin and Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise. It was a blustery cold weekend and a good time to be inside looking at tropical paintings.

In 1891 Gauguin sailed to French Polynesia to escape "everything that is artificial and conventional." This included his wife and five children. He died and was buried at Atuona on the Marquesas Islands at age 54, from alcoholism and other diseases.

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Paul Gauguin had a rocky friendship with Vincent Van Gogh. It didn't help that both suffered from depression and suicidal tendencies. In 1888, Gauguin and Van Gogh spent nine testy weeks together painting in the south of France, but Gauguin was disillusioned with Impressionism. They quarreled and the famous episode with the razor blade and ear followed.

The SAM show was crowded yesterday but good. All those reproductions of the famous Tahiti paintings only give a sense of the Primitivism and subtle colors of the originals. Gauguin's work was an important step in the development of modern art, and young Picasso was especially influenced by him. As often happens to the artist, his work came into vogue right after his death. Much of it was immediately bought by a Russian collector and is now on display at the Puskin Museum. The paintings we saw at SAM are on loan from collections all over the world. Gauguin paintings are rarely for sale and get snapped up for $40 million dollars or so.

The World Discoverer on Bora Bora

So all of this tropical paradise sent our minds happily wandering back to the mid-1990's when we took a cruise through French Polynesia and the Cook Islands on the World Discoverer. We flew from Los Angeles to Tahiti and the cruise started from there. Our small ship could maneuver into tight harbors and channels and it also had inflatable dingies that took us to remote shorelines, atolls, beaches and tiny islands along with the expedition naturalists. Near Papeete, Tahiti, we toured the Gauguin Museum on a dripping wet warm day. The original Gauguin paintings are long gone from the tropics, which is probably a good thing. His museum in the countryside only had a few reproductions, but was one of many interesting experiences on that trip.

The World Discoverer today

We have our happy memories, but the World Discoverer did not have a happy ending. In April 2000, the ship struck a reef near the Solomon Islands. Unlike the recent disaster in Italy, this rock really was unchartered. The same German captain and crew we had a few years earlier were congratulated for their heroic and professional actions during the crisis and there were no injuries. I remember the rather serious "abandon ship" practice drills we had on our cruise, so it must have paid off.

The closest ship salvage yard was in Australia, and when they finally arrived the World Discoverer had already been boarded and stripped by locals. Now the wreck is somewhat of a tourist attraction and cruise lines pass by so people can gawk at it. Society Expeditions refurbished another vessel and launched it in 2002. Two years later the ship was seized by creditors and the company declared bankruptcy. So I'm glad we went to paradise when we did.

Here's John sharing the SAM elevator with a couple of Tahitian beauties.

Wonderful horses

One of the Family

Frederick George Cotman

Their Christmas Eve
John Sargent Noble

The Gardener's Daughter
Richard Ansdell

The Unicorn at Bay
Unicorn Tapestries

by Walter Georgi

Don Juan movie poster

Black Beauty illustration

Wild ride vintage postcard

The Barnum and Bailey Wonder Horse

Frank Cheyne
"She put her good steed to the walls and leaped lightly over them..."
Russian story

Wrens

Bewick's Wren

Seattle weather is about as dreary as it gets this week. When isn't raining the sky is overcast and the temperature is stuck in an 24 hour range of 40-45 degrees. That might not sound all that cold, but it's bone-chilling in a way only Seattle can be. Spring is trying hard to break through, and the sparrows are already fussing with their first nest of the summer on the old garage. Despite the weather I'm heading up for a riding lesson today. Seeing some friends and being on a big, warm fragrant beast might cheer me up.

Wrens are secretive little creatures, so when I went out the back door the other day I was surprised to see a Bewick's Wren just hanging out on the deck railing. Maybe he was cold. He even stared me in the eye for a bold second before he flew away. Bewick's are year-round residents in Seattle, but in the winter we hardly know they're there; they don't have anything to sing about. But in early spring I hear them about 4:15 along with the robins.

All the birds (except thankfully the crows) like hiding out in the laurel hedge and overgrown ivy tree in the messy corner of our yard. When I'm out working in the garden I've made myself almost crazy trying to sneak up on the source of some lovely, random singing. Of course they shut up and/or fly away as soon as you get near or run inside to get a binocular.

A wren would fit in the palm of your hand, but the song that comes out of those tiny vocal cords (smaller than a grain of rice) can carry for a quarter of a mile. In Seattle this time of year, a male Bewick's Wren has between 15 and 20 different songs which have been described as "prolonged, varied and expressive, sweet and exquisitely tender." Bewick’s Wrens learn songs first from their fathers, just two or three weeks after hatching. Later on they plagiarize from other males in adjacent territories (i.e. content scraping) until they have a large repertoire.


Unfortunately you don't have Bewick's Wrens in the East. But then you do have all those warblers and cardinals that never cross the Mississippi.

Here's a link with free birdsong from the English countryside called birdsong.radio . Thanks, Candi!

Methow Valley family fun

Nova taking her dad out for a Sunday drive.

A chilly ring-around-the-rosy: Gina with Baby Finn, Amanda, Nova, Adelina and Roger.

Best friends Adelina and Nova...

Amanda, Adelina and Nova group hug...

All of the above taken by Papa Michael at Northrup Canyon.
For more of his excellent pictures click HERE.