May The Best of Your Todays Be The Worst of Your Tomorrows
Musical practice for Saturday’s extravaganza.
Among a few other things.
Beautiful Day For a Sail
And dinner.
Tonight roasted chicken with rosemary here. Last night Sartu di riso at Pinebox.
Nothing but haute cuisine around here.
Feeling Fallish
Clear and cool, with wollybears
And the quiet has returned—just jays, nuthatches, crickets in the grass and a breeze in the treetops.
The marina closed, only one car at the coffeeshop and two at the falls.
The Longest Drive Ever
Seemingly endless, but we did eventually arrive and were treated to a tasty light repast at Pinebox.
Did I mention the soup?
Day Fillled With Music
What a wonderful thing.
The new York Times ran a story recently ( https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/arts/music/5-minutes-that-will-make-you-love-classical-music.html ) in which musical people were asked to suggest a 5-minute bit of music that would captivate those unfortunates not familiar with classical music, and bring them into the fold.
Wow, is all I can say. While I didn't like all the selections, most blew me away. And then there were the comments, now up over 600. Almost all thanked the Times for such a great idea, such a relief in this time of darkness. And almost all suggested other things to listen to. Which I have been doing for a good part of this day. It's quite a musical education, and I've only just begun.
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It's also helpful to consider what Nietzsche said regarding learning to love music:
"One must learn to love — This is what happens to us in music: First one has to learn to hear a figure and melody at all, to detect and distinguish it, to isolate it and delimit it as a separate life. Then it requires some exertion and good will to tolerate it in spite of its strangeness, to be patient with its appearance and expression, and kindhearted about its oddity. Finally there comes a moment when we are used to it, when we wait for it, when we sense that we should miss it if it were missing; and now it continues to compel and enchant us relentlessly until we have become its humble and enraptured lovers who desire nothing better from the world than it and only it. But that is what happens to us not only in music. That is how we have learned to love all things that we now love. In the end we are always rewarded for our good will, our patience, fairmindedness, and gentleness with what is strange; gradually, it sheds its veil and turns out to be a new and indescribable beauty. That is its thanks for our hospitality. Even those who love themselves will have learned it in this way; for there is no other way. Love, too, has to be learned."
Big Party...
...at the Nies residence in Oconomowoc.
Rosemary Gone Wild
The potted rosemary has spent the summer under the spreading backyard apple tree. Apparently it has found the location congenial, though I think it was too shaded. This particular plant is about four years old, I believe, and, of course, spends the winter indoors. Anyone need a bit of rosemary?
"These are extreme times; these are dangerous times." —Barack Obama at the University of Illinois, 9/7/2018.
With the elections coming up, these are important words, and we will need to vote as if our lives depend on it. They do.
Prairie Walk and...
Fox Point Bike Ride...
...while Sue was away taking care of responsibilities.
Flat Out Flood
An excess of moisture.
Whitewater Creek this morning before today's deluge.
Bumper apple crop. Quite a few tomatoes, too.
Shopping trip to Fort after my 1 P.M. haircut treacherous with visibility down to zero and road runnels throwing the car all about. Bark and Rock rivers well out of their banks. Shopping trip necessary, though, because prior to that, with no food in the house, I was dependent on apples and tomatoes for sustenance.
Global warming is rapidly giving us a different world. (I liked the old one.)
Tropical Rain Forest
Too hot and humid. Impossible to sit absolutely still in the shade without melting.
Traditional dog stop at Manistique
Whitewater susans and hosta under the redbud.
Twelve hours and fifteen minutes, with rain all the way to Manistique, and then occasional downpours coming south through Wisconsin.
Scum On The Bottom...
...which is the reason why the new green boat went faster than the white boat and the yellow boat.
Still, a great day of sailing, including a trip out around Gooseberry.
Three Tris
Busy day messing around with boats.
Caves
The Caves are here.
Gone To Seed
Asclepias, that is.
And another sign of the advancing season, the bottle gentian. This year an entirely new cluster over by Morgan’s Meadow.
Can never have too many gentians.
Meldrum Bay
Excursion, exploration, and then delectable dinner at the Inn with J&ME and Murray & Elaine.
Rain...
...and lots of it. Another dark and stormy night, with extended stretches of rather heavy downpours. Some erosion on the driveway, but no runoff and no water in the swales—the parched forest just soaked it all in.
Best time for kayaking is in non-standard conditons.
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
At least Pax thought so. Beautiful, clear moonrise, featuring a big orange moon. But then sometime in the wee hours, a few flashes and some rumbling—certainly enough to get Pax wedged under a bed...and to disrupt the sleep patterns of everyone else in the house. In spite of the severe warning nothing really amounting to much.
This afternoon, a Windrider sail with fluky winds (still rather fun). And then, observed with cocktails from the Zen spot, a brisk, cool northwest breeze, telling me that front had gone through and we were now into a period of pleasantly cool and dry. But NO.
Pax did not agree. So, takling Pax at his word I checked the forecast and the radar, and it turns out that we have another severe thunderstorm warning for tonight. Hard to believe.
Fire Ban Lifted
Occasional bursts of rain throughout the day were apparently sufficient to convince the authorities that fires were once again okay. Premature in my opinion, but then more rain is forecast.
And now a nearby tree frog has decided to chirp loudly, which I take to mean it agrees with my position. Incredible, surprisingly loud vocalization.
————
From the apprehensive present, from a future packed
With unknown dangers, monstrous, terrible and new —
Let us turn for comfort to this simple fact;
We have been in trouble before … and we came through.
Reset
Slowly transitioning back to the spring/fall setting.
Time to look forward.
The Ending of Summer
A damp but busy day.
