18 March 05
Backyard Fowl
When I got home at dusk today, Pica was talking to our landlord about springtime trips to the desert. He went off, circling around the north side of the house. Then he shouted at us from outside — there’s a turkey under the walnut tree!
The Swainson’s hawks are back, though not in large numbers yet: I saw and heard one over the creek as I was riding home.
17 March 05
Morphing
This entry marks the 700th since Numenius and I started Feathers of Hope back in March 2003.
We started out thinking we were going to do lots of political entries. There have been very few of those, and not much film or music either. Plenty of nature and place, which IS one of the things we wanted to write about.
Our blogday is coming up soon, just a few days after Beth’s… I might submit a new masthead in honor.
16 March 05
Requiem For This Land
So in one day that fine body of scalawags known as the U.S. Senate voted to a) allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and b) defund Amtrak. The only motivation to this is that Bush’s friends, cronies and sycophants will get even richer than they already are — you can only lose one’s soul once, I suppose. Oh, and gas will be 5 cents cheaper for about two years. The one marginally satisfying thing about the ANWR vote is that seven Republicans voted for the amendment to disallow drilling. Alas there were three Democrat turncoats — just see if I plan to go to Hawaii again!
We wrote compositions this evening in Spanish class, about vacations actual and dreamed-of. I do long for northern latitudes, and for the latter I thus mentioned Iceland. Here’s an amazing photograph from that northern land of fire.
15 March 05
Randomnesses
The following are strings that have led people through search engines to Feathers of Hope, in no particular order. (Tom of The Middlewesterner is keeping a list of the best ones, World Champion Search Strings. Be sure to send him yours.)
somerville gates
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countin crows
buying a goat
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pink saucepans
venezuela snakes
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opposite of ghandi (sic)
achilles tendon pop alternative
squat formica
name of a pop group with a name of a California city
cultural differences us britain pregnancy misunderstanding world war ii marriage
portuguese government and feathers
how to take a good shower
jean cocteau fresco de lady of paris in london priory
how many pens are in a pica
kryptonite biro
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men who are hollow from within
church of satan robby rust evangelist
dichotomous key for ducks
plagues and pleasures on the salton sea
In other news: I am very proud to live in a state where a Catholic Republican judge deems it unconstitutional to deny full rights to marry to all its citizens. Yes, we, a straight couple, did get married. But we had no intention of ever having children. Does this render our marriage invalid, according to the religious right, as invalid as it thinks gay marriage should be? Probably. I know several gay couples who have children and they are MUCH better parents than I could ever aspire to be. We’re watching this one…
14 March 05
Turkeys By The Bridge
I was cycling to work this morning, heading up the rise to the bridge over Putah Creek, when I saw a flock of seven tom turkeys crossing the road. They were most of the way over on the east side of the road, but were indecisive and had thoughts about heading to the west side. When I came closer on my bike, six of them flew off west, joined shortly by the seventh who was already in the brush, and landed about 75 meters west from the road, just south of Putah Creek.
13 March 05
Returning
Some friends who live in the hills above Winters had their annual picnic today. The brodiaeas were out, almost past; the poppies up there are smaller and more yellow than the ones down here.
We ended up at the table with the pomologists and mathematical ecologists (hey, it was in the shade).
It’s an informal gathering, one where it’s completely acceptable to wander off for a hike or a sketch, which we did.
A year and a half ago, we got married at this spot. It’s a lot greener in March!
12 March 05
Bookstore Luck
Returning from a trip into town on this glorious spring day, we stopped by the used bookstore near the food co-op. And we found three Terry Pratchetts we’ve not read yet — Lords and Ladies, Small Gods, and Jingo. She never gets them in at the bookstore, she told us, and she didn’t really expect them to last the four days on the shelf that they did. We’ve pretty much exhausted the library’s collection, so there we go.
11 March 05
Swainson’s Hawks Return
And then, they were back.
I saw four Swainson’s hawks today, three of them over my office. They’ve been far, possibly as far as Argentina. It’s spring now.
10 March 05
Daffodil Summer
The daffodils in our back yard are already getting past their peak. The one I’ve sketched here is the same one Pica was sketching a few days ago; it lasted quite well with a little water in the vase outside.
9 March 05
Exploring negative space
Kurt over at A Blog is a Happening has an interesting piece today on erasure. He was working on a charcoal portrait last night and he started with a darkened sheet and erased highlights to form the image. It’s an interesting piece on the challenge of self-knowledge.
My own exploration this morning of the negative spaces between these rose leaves is prompting thoughts about edges, and how edges can more exciting than essence (or actually define the essence). Nothing about this is original, but it’s satisfying to come to these realizations by means of graphite.
(The ground squirrels outside my window are very conscious of edges; for the males, most of their life is happening on the edge just now, as they guard it with their lives. I’m starting to see wounds: it’s a bloody business.)
And then a look at the Incomplete Manifesto by Bruce Mau makes me question my work, and how I often opt for a safe design because I’m in a hurry. Best not, I think. Tarry in the negative spaces a bit more… Get a bit bloody. I think… our life depends on it.