TravelMarx

Seattle Downtown Mural - Echoes of Sylvester?

2012-01-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

We’ve walked by this mural several times and we immediately think of Sylvester (1947 - 1988), the talented disco diva of the 1970s and 1980s. Or maybe it is just the 1980s-like look of this mural.

The mural is located in a parking lot near the Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle at the corner of Pine and 9^th. Looking back through Google maps the mural didn’t always grace this wall.

Sylvester’s album cover for the 1982 single Do You Wanna Funk captures the spirit of the mural.

The Mural Location – Before the Mural (Image from maps.google.com)
The Mural Today

Sylvester – Original Hits Album Cover

Etta James and Macklemore

2012-01-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

Requiescat in pace, Etta James (1938 - 2012). Listening to The Sweetest Peaches - The Chess Years Part One, the 1961 single Something’s Got a Hold On Me (1962 video) came on and we had a whoa! moment. Is that the same opening hook used on Flo Rida’s track Good Feeling? Seems like it. We knew that opening riff was classy when we heard it in spin class at LA Fitness in Ballard.

Speaking of reuse, in the same spin class we first heard the Macklemore track And We Danced (video). We may be the only people in the world who will acknowledge this, but is that song not a bit of an homage to Disco Tex & The Sex-o-Lettes and the songs I Wanna Dance Wit’ Choo (video) or Get Dancin’ (video)?

Disco Tex: “My chiffon is wet, darling, my chiffon is wet. My wig is wet, I am tired. I can tell you I am lost in all this, I'm overwhelmed, my darling.”

Macklemore: “I will not, I will not give a damn who watches me. I will live, I will live liberate the fox in me. I will be the discoball, freak and give my all. To whatever girl's booty I'm freaking on.”

Quito - Old Town Street Vendors and All Those Doll Outfits

2012-01-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

Street Scenes in Quito – Ice Cream on the Go, Micro-Candy Shops, Eggs, and All Those Dolls

As we mentioned in a previous post, it seems like you can buy almost anything in Quito old town right on the sidewalk. First, there are what we call the peripatetic vendors. They sell things to eat, lottery tickets, or reading material for example. Women in indigenous garb might have a baby in a sling on their back, holding another child by the hand, and holding a bowl of avocadoes in the other hand - avocadoes for sale. Want some fresh pineapple? Just stay still for a minute or so and someone will surely walk by offering it. Ice cream or something that looks like ice cream? Sure, two women are chatting as they carry mounds of it in Tupperware containers. The cones stuck in the top of the mounds give a clue.

The next type of vendor are the little shops set up in the “unused” spaces on the sidewalk. A small nook where, say, a church façade meets another structure is just the space to set up a micro-candy shop selling just a few types of candy and maybe newspapers. Sometimes it’s an old women dozing in front of a small display of various fruits.

The next level up the shopping chain is the stores in the old town. There are some larger stores, but by far, most store fronts are shoebox-sized shops selling merchandise not much different than the shop on the next street over. In particular, we puzzled over the candy stores that had huge sacks of animal crackers. Who buys those? The egg store, yes, we can understand that, but animal crackers?

But surely, the most puzzling item for sale everywhere - and we mean everywhere - were little “doll” outfits. It’s as if everyone in Quito has dolls that needed to look like kings and queens. It baffled us. We had a hunch and we confirmed with our hotel staff. These are outfits for the baby Jesus that each home or business has in its customized altar. (Approximately 95% of Ecuadorians are Catholics.)The baby is dressed for different occasions and sometimes passed to friends or relatives (god parents) to “watch” for the year. Wow that’s a babysitting chore!

Baby Jesus Altar – La Casona de la Ronda

When we were in the Fundación Guayasamín, we accidently stumbled into a tour of Guayasamín’s colonial collection of religious art. It was a tour in Spanish. We smiled and nodded, understanding about half of it. But what we did get out of it is that articulated religious figures were often produced to be able to dress them in different outfits. It is cool and festive when you think about it. The Guayasamín’s collection had a more or less life-sized Mary torso that had quite the range of motion. All the better to slip into something more comfortable.

Women Selling Fruit on the Sidewalk – Quito

Small Shops Selling Crackers, Baby Jesus Outfits, Eggs, Party Supplies – Quito

Note Dozing Fruit Vendor Over this Dazed Tourist’s Right Shoulder

Typical Street in Quito Old Town

Snacks: Nuts, Plantains, Candy

Quito

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Views from El Panecillo

Views from Basilica of the Nacional Vow

We spent ten days in Ecuador, seven of which were spent in the Galápagos Islands. This left just a very small bit of time to explore Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Therefore, we only spent two full days in Quito and small parts of two other days while in transit to and from Quito.

Reading Up Before We Left

Here are a few things we read before landing in Quito.

- Split Personality and City of Blood? The article Quito: Blood, Guts and Pizarro’s Bequest from the site Ecuadorial says that Quito has a split-personality. “Quito, like Ecuador itself, suffers from a split personality. To the south the old town, a Florence of the New World, all dreaming spires and towering belfries, gleams white in its valley beneath the high Andean sun. To the north, the new town, with its mirrored tower blocks, swanky hotels, overpasses and roundabouts, congested with grey, anonymous modernity. The contrast couldn't be greater, and at some 2,800 meters, clearer.”

- Safety? We made the “mistake” of reading the U.S. Department of State’s info on Quito. Seriously, you should read it, but, be forewarned, if you are the worrying type you may have the urge to throw your hands up in the air and just stay home. For example, we were worrying about “Secuestro Express” taxi assaults before the ink of the airline tickets was barely dry.

- Health Concerns? For travelers like us, unfamiliar with traveling in South America, there was some time spent puzzling over what health issues we should be concerned about. Would we get yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria or chagas? The descriptions of the diseases make a mugging seem preferable. Anyhow, the U.S. Department of State has some info on Quito health as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is worth reading.

- Florence of the New World? Quito was one of the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO in 1978. It’s a capital city. It’s in a stunning location at 9,000 feet and surrounded by mountains. UNESCO states that it is the “least altered historic centre in Latin America” and that the monasteries and churches in the historic center “are pure examples of the ‘Baroque school of Quito’, which is a fusion of Spanish, Italian, Moorish, Flemish and indigenous art.”

Quito Old Town Street Scene and La Ronda

Impressions on the Ground

Here is what we experienced in Quito.

- Split Personality and City of Blood? At first glimpse, Quito seems like an undifferentiated mass spreading in all directions. The view from El Panecillo is sobering: a mass of concrete and structures pushing up against the mountains. In fact it’s hard to see where the old and new town borders are. San Francisco de Quito, usually just shortened to Quito, has a metro area size approximately the same as Seattle, 3+ million people, but feels larger.

No, the split personality wasn’t one of the physical layout of Quito, rather, it was more one of our experience on the street, in the old town. One hand we were going through our usual tourist motions - make a beeline to the main cathedral, pop into this site, etc. etc.- yet something seemed decidedly un-touristic. The people on the streets seem disinterested or at most uncertain of their roles as players in our tourist game. I guess this is a thankful situation because it carries a degree of authenticity or untouched-ness? Life seems to carry on whether we visit or not.

In the old town, everything is for sale and it might just be heading your way on the sidewalk! Peripatetic vendors. There are the sellers of lottery tickets and newspapers announcing their items. Indigenous women with babies on their backs selling six avocados, fresh pineapple slices from a tray, or cherries in a basket. Ice cream on the go? Sure, two women are chatting as they carry mounds of something vaguely resembling ice cream in Tupperware containers. The cones stuck in the top of the mounds give a clue. Micro-candy stalls sprout on the sidewalks. And, there are more baby Jesus outfits for sale than you would think one city could support. All this while the traffic moves in fits and spurts and fumes pour out. Then, suddenly school girls in impossibly white socks walk by and lighten up an otherwise gray street, obvious to it all. This is the split personality we experienced and it was more of our problem than Quito’s. Our guide in the Galapagos, a resident of Quito, said that he and his friends say that Quito is bi-polar and we think he meant it on several levels but are still puzzling through the meaning.

- Safety? Thankfully, we did not run into any problems in regard to safety. We walked for miles around the old town during the first day. There were many police in plain sight. We walked back from a restaurant in the old town around 10pm and didn’t notice anything unusual. On the second day, we hired a taxi by the hour for the day - wisely suggested by our hotel staff and they also picked the taxi for us as one they worked with before. The taxi shuttled us between sites, dropping us off and picking us up at pre-defined times. For the whole day we paid $40 - well worth it. All transportation to and from the airport was arranged by our travel agent (Columbus Travel) ahead of time. It was especially nice to arrive at 12:30am in the morning in Quito and see Javier holding up a sign with our name.

- Health Concerns? In Quito and the Galápagos we didn’t have too much to worry about. All the scariest diseases were either not an issue or very low risks. We were surprised that we ran into almost no mosquitoes to speak of in Quito or the Galápagos. We could have just been lucky. Diseases from water are still always a risk and we did get “bit” by this. Thankfully it hit us toward the end of our 10 days in Ecuador so it didn’t stop us.

- Florence of the New World? We would say that Quito, especially the old town, has a ways to go to work itself into this nickname’s shoes. The structure of the old town has all the elements going for it, interesting structures, plazas for gathering, and a density of interesting sites to visit. However, it doesn’t quite all come together, yet. They seem to be working hard at it. Our hotel for example is an example of buildings being restored and attracting tourists.

The Roof of the Basilica’s Nave

What We Saw

Day 1: Basilica of the National Vow. We walked to this church from our hotel. The basilica is a bit run down and need of some basic repairs. It does have some impressive views from different balconies or perches you can reach by stairs or ladders (literally).

Day 1: The Church of the Society of Jesus or La Compañía de Jesús. After the Basilica, we walked back to the center of the old town to this gold-leafed-Baroque extravaganza. Inside an English speaking guide, Alex (studying tourism), gave us a short tour.

Day 1: Church and Convent of St. Francis, Museo Fray Pedro Bedón. First, we ate lunch at the popular Tianguiez at the foot of the convent. Inside the convent, the Museo Fray Pedro Bedón has a display of religious art that demonstrates the more gruesome depictions of Jesus that are favored by the Quito school. All the better to instill fear in and connect to the hearts and minds of the indigenous people to be converted. Again, we refer to the article mentioned above in the Ecuadorial for more background reading.

Day 1: Virgen de Quito on El Panecillo. We walked up to this city icon in the late afternoon. A series of staircases (some not finished) take you up from the old town. When you go by foot though, be warned there are posted notices about NOT walking there. The view from the top gives you another glimpse of the spread of the city and, if the weather cooperates, a glimpse of the mountains and volcanoes cradling the city.

Day 2: TelefériQo. We took a taxi from our hotel to the base of gondola (10,226 ft) and arranged for the taxi to pick us up after a couple of hours. At the top of the gondola (12,943 ft), we met misty weather so just walked around a bit and headed back down. There is little signage or explanation - that we could tell - that explains what you might see or experience up there. There are amenities at the top: café, restaurant, shops - but many were closed when we went up in the early to mid-morning. We would definitely like to go back to the top under nicer weather.

Day 2: Foundación Guayasamín. The Guayasamín museum contains the works and art collection of Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919 - 1999), a Quechua native and Ecuadorian artist. His work often features tortured faces and hands, like the series La Edad de la Ira (The Age or Rage). The museum combined with his La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of Man), located 5 blocks away, can take a few hours to visit and is well worth the time. Take a taxi to get to the museum - it’s not something you can easily walk to it. For more about our time in the Guayasamín museum see this post.

Day 2: Casa del Alabado. This is a new museum in the old town focusing on pre-Columbian art. It’s a beautifully done museum. You will see a lot of beautiful artifacts with a brief description of what the object is and the period designated by a particular culture such as Valdivia (4,000 a.C. - 1,500 a.C) or Chorrera (950 a.C. - 350 a.C.). On the second floor there is a room that helps visitors decipher these designations. It is probably best to visit this room first. There is documentary film about the construction of the museum that features the stories of the people who helped restore the building that houses the museum.

La Casona de la Ronda

Where We Stayed and Ate

We stayed at La Casona de la Ronda - a recently refurbished structure - and beautifully done at that. We stayed at the hotel two nights before visiting the Galápagos and two nights afterward. We would highly recommend this hotel. Most tourists seem to stay in the Mariscal neighborhood, but from what we saw, we’d pick the old town any day. From La Casona de la Ronda we could walk within five minutes to all the key sites.

We ate one night at our hotel and it was very good. Two other nights we ate at Theatrum Restaurante & Wine Bar (old city center) and La Gloria Restaurant (edge of Mariscal) - both upscale restaurants with good food. The dessert at Theatrum was especially interesting. It was assortment of different preparations of fruits of Ecuador. See this post for details of the dessert.

We ate one lunch at the popular Tianguiez, at the foot of the San Francisco complex and overlooking the Plaza de San Francisco. It is popular with tourists and safe if you don’t want to negotiate the intimidating food vendors and shops that are all over the old town.

Tickets from Quito Tourist Sites

Two Restaurants in Quito

Basilica of the Nacional Vow – Climbing to the Top

Agave and Staircase

Plaza de San Francisco

Inside Convent of San Francisco

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

Caution Sign – Walking Up to El Panecillo

View of El Panecillo from La Ronda

La Virgen del Panecillo

Plant Guide Books for the Galápagos Islands

2012-01-18T23:08:00.001-08:00

So you are interested in plants of the Galápagos? You are planning to travel there and you want to prepare and bring some books along? In this post, we share some of the books we used to prepare for a trip to the Galápagos in late December 2011 to early January 2012. Several of the books we took with us on the trip, physically or digitally. We used the books primarily to help identify and be able to talk about plants; however, all of these books are useful for animals as well. It is interesting to note that learning the scientific name of common plants ahead of time (e.g. Scalesia pedunculata for the tree daisy) paid off because the local guides we had on each island were well-versed in the scientific names of plants. Using the Latin name avoided potential confusion due to language barriers. We suppose this is one of the main goals of the binomial nomenclature: to avoid confusion.

The book list below is not comprehensive, rather, it is just what we happened to come upon.

1. Wildlife of the Galapagos by Julian Fitter, Daniel Fitter, and David Hosking. First published in 2000 under the title Collins Safari Guide to the Wildlife of the Galapagos.

This slim little book is probably the best book (if you are going to just take one) to throw into your daypack and take out and consult while in the islands. That’s how we used it. We often handed the book to our guides who thumbed through it to find a plant. This book saw a lot of use.

While not the most complete source of information about plants, this book will serve the interests for a broad base of people interested in understanding and naming what they see. There is a section in the back called Visitor Sites that describes the most common places visitors will likely visit. There are maps of the sites with lists of plant and animal that you’ll likely see at the sites. This was handy.

2. Flowering Plants of the Galápagos by Conley K. McMullen. Published 1999.

This book is probably the most complete of the books on plants being that it is just about plants. The book is interesting in that it provides a more accessible plant key as opposed to a full-blown dichotomous key. (We’ve had some exposure to those for plants of the Northwest with Hitchcock and Cronquist and they can be difficult for the plant hobbyist - in whose company we count ourselves.) The plant key in Flowering Plants of the Galápagos is based on simple characteristics you can easily observe: Type of plant (tree, shrub, herb, vine, cactus), leaf structure (alternative, opposite, whorled, clustered, basal), and flower color (white, yellow/orange, pink/red/purple, green, brown).

We did not take this book with us. If we go back to the Galápagos we probably would take this book. For analyzing photos of plant after the trip and making identifications, this book is indispensable.

3. Galápagos: A Natural History by Michael H. Jackson. First published in 1993.

Galápagos: A Natural History is more or less the standard reference for the islands. Our guide from Ecuador Adventure had the Spanish version of this book. We took this book with us as reading in downtime, but not into the field. The author provides a good understanding of the islands on many different levels: historical, geological, plant life, birds, marine life, and conservation. In the back there are handy lists of plants and animals by zone in which they are found. In particular, Table 6: Plants Typical of the Vegetation Zone (Chapter 3) is a list we printed out and used to get familiar with before leaving. It turned out to be a good strategy because we saw 80-90% of what is given in the table.

4. Galapagos: A Guide to the Animals and Plants by Nigel Sitwell. First published in 2011.

We purchased this book at Rancho Primicias in the Santa Cruz highlands. We fell in love with the drawings in this book. Almost all the plants depicted in the book were painted by Sarah Darwin, the great-great-grandchild of Charles Darwin. All of Darwin’s Finches were painted by Thalia Grant, the daughter of Peter and Rosemary Grant the subject of The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner. Another bonus of this book is that it is in three languages, English, Spanish, and German. It’s not a comprehensive guide, but with drawings and paintings you can often identify a plant more readily and see it in comparison to others. For example, the page on mangroves is one of the simplest and clearest to understand that we’ve seen.

5. Galapagos: A Natural History Guide by Pierre Constant. Original edition first published in 1994.

We purchased this book at the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz. Since we purchased it our last day in the islands we did not use it during the trip, but rather, after the trip. This book has great photos of a number of things we did not get to see firsthand. Also, there are a number of drawings of illustrating concepts and hand-drawn maps that are always nice- it gives it a more personal touch. For example, see the drawing below of the paths around the Interpretive Center near Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. The author, Pierre Constant, is a resident of the islands with an intimate knowledge of them and you can tell, especially in Part Three: Description of the Islands which has lots of handy information about the islands and main towns. The only negative - for plant lovers - is that there is only a meager chapter (Chapter 6 in Part One) on plants. It’s a good overview, but won’t help you identify much in the way of plants the field.

6. The Voyage of the Beagle (Illustrated) [Kindle Edition] by Charles Darwin. First published in 1838 as Journal and Remarks and revised in 1845.

This is the diary of Charles Darwin. Chapter XVII GALAPAGO ARCHIPELAGO is the chapter we read before departing. In this chapter, Darwin writes about what he saw and thought when he visited the archipelago. The text is surprising readable and engaging even today. Darwin visited the Galapagos from September 15^th to October 20^th 1835. He visited San Cristóbal (Chatham), Floreana (Charles), Isabela (Albermarle), and Santiago (James) Islands. Darwin records his impressions of the “wretched-looking little weeds” that he first encounters upon landing on San Cristóbal and his experiments to find out what frightens marine iguanas: he repeatedly throws them out into a deep tide pool and they return back to him!

7. The Galapagos Islands: Exploring, Enjoying & Understanding Darwin’s Enchanted Islands [Kindle Edition] by Marylee Stephensen. First edition 1989.

This is a quick read for getting you ready for traveling to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. There are good overall travel tips such as what to pack and what to expect. Chapter 5, Plant Life, will whet your appetite for more about plants as it is a very quick overview.

Theatrum - Fruit Dessert

2012-01-18T23:08:00.000-08:00

One dinner we had while in Quito (end of December 2011) was at the Theatrum Restaurante & Wine Bar. The restaurant space was once a theater and the inside still retains some of the theater feeling with dramatic lighting and plush curtains. We had the tasting menu with many good dishes, presentations, and flavors, but it was the dessert that we remember the most because of the fruits we had not tried before.

Guanábana, Annona muricata L. The preparation in the dessert was guanábana froth. Later, in the Galápagos we would have juices made all or partly of guanábana. In Campo Duro in the Isabela highlands, we sampled a fresh guanábana. The flesh was chewy but tasty.

Babaco, Vasconcellea x heilbornii. The preparation in the dessert was a babaco compote.

Guayaba, Psidium guajava. The preparation in the dessert was a guayaba jam.

Naranjilla, Solanum quitoense. The preparation in the dessert was a naranjilla sorbet. The genus Solanum includes the food crops S. lycopersicum (tomato), S. tuberosum (potato), and S. melongena (eggplant). We had fresh squeezed naranjilla juice several times during our stay in the Galápagos.

Chirimoya, Annona cheirimola Mill. The preparation in the dessert was a chirimoya ice cream.

The Theatrum Fruit Dessert

Guanábana Fruit at Campo Duro (Isabela Island, Galápagos)

Guayasamín Museum - Quito

2012-01-16T22:34:00.000-08:00

La Espera (1968-1969)

On our second full day in Quito we decided to spend part of the day at the Fundación Guayasamín. The foundation is a museum that contains the works and art collection of Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919 - 1999), a Quechua native and Ecuadorian artist. There are a few different parts of the museum to see: archeological and colonial art that Guayasamín collected and Guayasamín’s own artwork. Five blocks away from the foundation is the Chapel of Man (La Capilla del Hombre) designed by Guayasamín. The chapel contains more of his work, in particular large murals.

The museum combined with his La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of Man) can take a few hours to visit and is well worth the time. We had lunch in the small café on the main museum grounds. The café doubled as the break room for the staff. We had sodas and empanadas, which hit the spot. Take a taxi to get to the museum - it’s not a destination that you can easily walk to from any part of Quito.

Capilla del Hombre

Guaysamín’s work often features dramatic representations of the human figure, in particular, oversized, contorted faces and hands, such as those in the series La Edad de la Ira (The Age or Rage). Guayasamín’s art starkly details the social and political injustice of the indigenous people of Ecuador and South America, the violence of colonialism, and the pain and misery of all of humanity.

We had a good time with a guide, Tatziana, who wove the history of Guayasamín with her own as a person who left Russia, endured hard times, and experienced suffering. She peppered her speech with “you remember?” and “comrade” is what our minds filled in. The best soldiers, artists, and musicians? Russian of course. She points out that Guayasamín had two Russian wives out of three. A man of taste. Tatziana sings us a few bars of her favorite Russian patriotic songs and is surprised we haven't heard them before. I think we will remember this museum experience.

Guayasamín’s paintings of Quito, jagged patchwork-like and usually in a reduced color palette, really do capture the essence of Quito spread out before the surrounding mountains. His views are better than any photo.

Guayasamín – Seven Views of Quito

In a purely experiential sense and largely due to our brain wiring, looking at Guayasamín’s work - in particular Los Culpables (1963-1965) and Reunion en La Pentagon I-V (1970) both in the series La Edad de la Ira - reminded us of Pink Floyd. His imagery could have worked as album artwork for The Wall. As we walked back from the capilla, and as if to underscore the Pink Floyd connection, we saw a cow grazing in a field with Quito as the backdrop. Cue Atom Heart Mother, Tatziana.

A Cow Grazes with Quito in the Background – Atom Heart Mother Album Cover

Guayasamín Tickets

Guayasamín Biography (in Spanish)

Entrance to the Foundation Guayasamín

Reunion en La Pentagon III(1970)

McCoy Grecian Pottery and Holiday Greens

2011-12-11T14:16:00.001-08:00

In this pots and plants series entry, we have a two McCoy Grecian pieces with holiday greens. We take out the McCoy Grecian pottery around Christmas time. Its swags of embossed greenery and gold crackled finish seem Christmas-y without being over the top. Here, they are pictured with some purchased holiday greens (holly, spruce, pine, etc.) and yet more Skimmia foremanii. (See Weller Claywood and Skimmia foremanii for more information about Skimmia.) From the McCoy Potttery Collectors’ Society site, it says that Grecian line was introduced in 1957: “Ivory, with Green decoration and 24k Gold networking.”

Panettone

2011-11-27T00:31:00.000-08:00

Panettone seems to have exploded on the American market in the last few years. One can scarcely step into the local grocery store without being greeted with a floor-to-ceiling stack of panettone. Our beef is that many panettone for sale both have goofy flavors and endorsements that seem wrong. (Bauducco features it is made with Hershey. That's enough to make us go running and screaming in the other direction.) Or, when you buy the panettone and take it home it is dry and disappointing. So we decided this year, snobs that we are, to make panettone ourselves. Fatto in casa… as they say. See all those years of Italian language lessons have paid off.

The origin of panettone is not exactly known and it isn’t just an Italian holiday treat as many other countries have either adopted this sweet bread or have a variation that is very similar. However in our minds, panettone and Italy are forever intertwined terms. We spent the days before Christmas one year in Positano and the site of people hustling and bustling about carrying their panettone was memorable to say the least.

The panettone recipe we followed was out of the December 2011 issue of La Cucina Italiana - a recipe from the Tartine Bakery (recipe here). The recipe played out over three days. Day 1: Refresh our starter (we already had a sourdough starter). Day 2: Make the poolish (pre-ferment). Day 3: Follow the rest of the recipe. We used the Fingered Citron or Buddha’s Hand (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis) as the lemon zest called for in the recipe. See the post Annashaab Vase with Buddha’s Hand for a picture of this citron.

Panettone with Buddha’s Hand Citron

Panettone Waiting to go in the Oven

Panettone with a Slice Missing – Couldn’t Resist

Weller Claywood and Skimmia foremanii

2011-11-26T23:31:00.001-08:00

In this pots and plants series entry, we have a two small Weller Claywood pots with Skimmia foremanii looking very festive with its red berries.

Weller Pottery (1872 - 1948) of Zanesville, Ohio was a prolific pottery company that created pieces ranging from high-end art ware to functional commercial ware. 1910 generally marks the beginning of Weller's middle period, and the pottery's chief designer at this time was Austrian native Rudolph Lorber, who created some of Weller's most recognized lines, among them Claywood. Introduced circa 1910, Claywood, along with the related Burntwood line, features naturalistic design motifs primarily of flora and fauna, with the scenes divided into panels on the Claywood line. The Weller Claywood pieces shown here are smaller pieces, less than four inches high. For examples of more Weller Claywood pottery see the images from the 2001 Wisconsin Pottery Association and Show & Sale feature Weller Pottery.

Featured with the Weller pieces is Skimmia foremanii. Skimmia is a genus of a few evergreen shrubs and small trees in the Rutaceae (citrus) family. S. foremanii has been in our yard for about ten or more years. It isn’t watered but by natural sources and is in a shady location. The leaves are smallish and slightly waxy. The bright holly-like berries appear in the late Fall. We find sprigs (with berries) of the Skimmia scattered around our yard. Some animal or bird snips the end off and drags the berries off but occasionally leaves them for us to find. In our notes we recorded that we purchased both a male and female so we get the berries, but currently, the two look like one plant. S. foremanii is a dwarf.

The genus name Skimmia comes from a Latinization of part of the Japanese name for Skimmia japonica. The species name foremanii is named after one Mr. Foreman of Dalkreith, Scotland sometime in the late 1800s. Mr. Foreman exhibited the S. foremanii (a hybrid between S. japonica and S. reevesiana) in 1881 in Edinburgh. More details can be found in Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Volume III, April, 1922, Number 4. The journal entry is titled:
New Species, Varieties and Combinations from the Herbarium and the Collections of the Arnold Arboretum, by Alfred Rehder. The article is on page 211.

In the mantle photo,the painting in the center is Padre e figlio (1997) by Alessandro Gambetti, an Italian artist. To the left is a piece by AJ Power, a Seattle artist.

Richard Dawkins and The Magic of Reality

2011-11-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True is a book by Richard Dawkins with illustrations by Dave McKean. The book poses and answers twelve common questions about everyday life. First, possible answers to each question are given from myths and then, the real answer in the form of an engaging scientific explanation follows. The idea is that the scientific explanation is not only real but much more magical. You can experience the book as a book, as an audiobook or (magically?) as a digital book / application on an iPad - which is what we review here.

The Message

The message of the book is that science has it’s own magic and that magic is reality. Mythology - of all color and stripe - is not necessary to explain reality when you have science. The book’s message is targeted at an audience from early teens onward who are interested in science and understanding some fundamental questions like What are Things Made Of? (Chapter 4), What is the Sun? (Chapter 6), Are we Alone? (Chapter 9), or What is an Earthquake? (Chapter 10). The book tackles twelve basic questions about reality, answering them in an easy to understand language that uses analogies and illustrations, and audio and video in the iPad application.

Even though the purpose of the book is to dispel of myths in favor of science, the descriptions of myths turns out to be somewhat, shall we say, endearing. Yes, Dawkins dispatches with them as not necessary to explain the phenomena in question, but the presentation of them works both in word and illustration. The illustrations, some of them animated, are engaging and complimentary of the myths. Overall, experiencing the imagery and text woven together is quite effective. Maybe Dawkins and McKean should work on a book of myths. It could be interesting.

Image from Chapter 12 – Dave Hume

Unfortunately, the mention of Richard Dawkins is enough to raise the hackles of a good number of people and I’m sure he could care less. Richard Dawkins is, among other things, an atheist. To quote a recent study, Atheists As “Other”: Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society (AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2006, VOL. 71 (April:211–234)), that a friend sent us: “[u]sing new national survey data, it [the study] shows atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups.” So Dawkins’ outspokenness in his atheism automatically brings with it condemnation of any work from him, no matter how worthy. It’s a shame, because for readers who don’t invoke a higher power for describing events like rainbows or earthquakes, much of the book is informative and entertaining. Granted, for creationists or believers in miracles, the book will be hard to read. And speaking of miracles, they are covered (really, dispatched with) in the concluding chapter What is a Miracle? In this chapter, Dawkins discusses among other topics, the maxim from the Scottish thinker David Hume (1711 - 1776) regarding testimony and miracles is discussed. The maxim states “[t]hat no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish.” It’s a handy maxim to keep in mind for many things.

Overall, the content of the the Magic of Reality is going to be of interest to a young science-inclined reader or even an adult reader who might be embarrassed about his grasp of basic questions covered in this book.

The Medium

Image from Chapter 6 – Egyptian Legend for the Sun and Moon Cycle

The medium is the message is the famous phrase by Marshall McLuhan and we didn’t want the medium is the distraction to be the case with this book. Assuming that there is some base level of learning to extract from an effort like The Magic of Reality, we don’t know if “experiencing” the application on the iPad was better than if we had read the book or listened to the audiobook. (What is the right consumption verb for a digital book/application? ) Learning in our experience is quite situational and dependent on which combination of senses you get the most lit up on. The Magic of Reality application hits on the visual, aural, and tactile senses (taste and smell we’ll have to wait on) and so as conventional thinking goes it engages more senses, so has a greater opportunity for impact. The challenge is that the iPad is a medium that we typically used for fractured, asynchronous tasks like a little browsing, a little communicating, a little gaming, a little reading. Fractured tasks work against the immersive experience that a good learning experience requires. However, these temptations can be overcome with some discipline. Turn off the push notifications and resist the urge to play the next word in Words with Friends.

The iPad application blurs the boundary of what a book is as it naturally leverages interactive features (touch), audio, and video of the iPad. Images on the iPad can be especially vibrant, and in this respect the digital book/application works well because of the fantastic illustrations by David McKean. Some of the illustrations are static and some are “dynamic” in that they flutter or grow, weaving in and around the text.

Most chapters have some interactive part as well that is either a demonstration or a game to help drive home the chapters main question. Some of the games work, some don’t and we thought a few were not necessary. For example, in Chapter 3 (evolution) you are presented with a game to get some floating iguanas to shore by imitating the wind and blowing into the microphone. It felt a little silly. In Chapter 7 (rainbows), the game initially crashed the application. (It was later fixed with an update.) Can you crash a real book? It’s like every time you turned to a certain page in a real book it flopped out of your hands and on to the floor and you had to reach down and pick it up. Overall, the less successful interactive parts don’t distract from the text and imagery which really is the heart of the book.

Example Image from Chapter 7 Showing Navigation

Annashaab Vase with Buddha’s Hand

2011-11-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

In this installment of the pots and plants series we have an Annashaab vase with a Buddha’s Hand. The Annashaab vase was made in Lervarefabrikken Annashaab and was likely designed by Eiler Løndal (1887 - 1971) who came to Annashaab after the closing of Danico (another pottery maker) in 1929 - as described by Starkeld.com where we purchased the vase. The Annashaab Pottery existed between 1891-1958. This vase is stamped with an L in a A and Denmark and is incised 618.

The Buddha’s Hand is also called a Fingered Citron and has the scientific name Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis. The variety name derives comes from sarco, from the Greek sarx or sarkos meaning flesh, and dactylis, from the Greek daktylos for finger. Sarcodactylis refers to the unusual shape of this member of the citrus family: it looks like many plump fingers. The visual aspect of it caught our eye first in the local grocery store, but it is the subtle and intoxicating smell that sealed the deal. It turns out that scenting rooms is one of the ways people use this citron. And so the Buddha’s Hand sits in an Annashaab vase in an area we pass by frequently so we catch a whiff. So far we’ve only been enjoying the visual and olfactory aspects of the Buddha’s Hand and haven’t tried it in a culinary setting.

When you look at the imagery of Buddha, pay attention to the hand gestures or mudras. Each mudra has a meaning like gesture of warning, greeting, or reassurance. What is our Buddha Hand saying to us?

Annashaab Vase with Buddha’s Hand

Annashaab Vase Bottom Stamp and Incision

Kähler and Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’

2011-10-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

In today’s pots and plants series, Kähler meets Miscanthus sinensis ‘Variegata’. This Kähler vase we picked up a while back not knowing much about it, but the stylized leaves and glossy finish were, and still are, very appealing. For more on the history of Kähler, see this post: Kähler and Colchicum. The bottom is incised HAK and Danmark.

The zebra grass, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Variegata’ is been a favorite in the yard for years. Unfortunately, its position isn’t the greatest - north side of the house with limited sun - so it struggles a bit. Miscanthus is from the Greek mischos (“stalk”) and anthos (“flower”) referring to the spikelets [from Calfora.net]. The genus name refers to the fact that this grass is native to eastern Asia; sinesis is Latin for “of or from China”. The cultivar ‘Zebrinus’ refers to the conspicuous yellow spots on the leaves and stalks reminiscent of a zebra. An Asian grass with an African twist meets a Danish pot?

Curious Naturalists

2011-10-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Curious Naturalist is a book by Niko Tinbergen (1907 - 1988) that was first published in 1958. The edition discussed here is a reprint of the revised 1973 text. The book covers the time period from the late 1920s to the 1950s during which Tinbergen became an eminent Dutch ethologist (one who studies animal behavior) and ornithologist (one who studies birds). Tinbergen was a co-winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His prize speech of December 12, 1973 is interesting because in it, he credits observation - the central theme of Curious Naturalists and really of Tinbergen’s career - as a critical factor for winning the prize. The speech starts off talking about the “unconventional decision” to choose three men (Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch shared the prize) who were, in some sense, outside the field and whose work was that as “mere animal watchers”. He argues in the speech that observation can in fact bring a lot to bear in physiology (citing the then still relatively new ideas that became the Alexander Technique) and medicine (observations on autism). It’s not clear how the observations have held up in time.

So what is a naturalist? A naturalist conducts scientific research of plants and animals with observation being his main research tool. That doesn’t mean that the naturalist doesn’t experiment and test things, just that a strong emphasis is placed on observation. In fact in the book, the typical pattern of the research that Tinbergen presents starts with an observation period of an animal, followed by some rather simple, yet ingenious experiment or alteration to the animal’s environment, and further observation of the animal with the new environment. A typical example is the work he describes on the Beewolf, Philanthus triangulatum, in the first few chapters. At first, Philanthus is observed to understand the basics: each female Beewolf wasp has one burrow and returns with bees for the larvae inside. But how does Philanthus find its burrow entrance? Landmarks seem to be the key, so different aspects of Philanthus’s homing skills (finding their way back to their burrow) are tested by placing different objects (landmarks) around burrow entrances. The tests become more elaborate and the response of the insects is watched. In a few tests, all the natural landmarks near burrow entrances are move elsewhere to mislead the Beewolf and it works. Tinbergen writes “[a]t the end of such a series of tests I replaced the landmarks in their original position, and this finally enabled the wasp to return to her home. Thus the test always had a happy ending - for both of us. This was not pure altruism on my part - I could now use the wasp for another test if I wished.”

Some of the species discussed include:

- Beewolf wasp, Philanthus triangulatum, the spark that really got Tinbergen started.
- Sand wasp, Ammophila campestris
- Moths, Ennomos alniaria and Ennomos quercinaria
- Moths, Biston betularia betularia and the difference between morpha typica and carbonaria
- Grayling moth, Eumenis semele (Hipparchia semele)
- Black-headed Gull, Chroicocephalus ridibundus,
- (Black-legged) Kittiwake, Rissa brevirostris

It’s interesting to note that Tinbergen didn’t title the book Curious Naturalist, singular, and instead used the plural, Naturalists. I think it points to his desire that this book isn’t so much about him, singularly, but about us, plural, and that we could all benefit from being a curious naturalist. And upon reading this book, it would strike me as odd if you didn’t approach observation of your surroundings - be they an urban lot or deep-woods - a little differently and with a little more respect. But, I suppose if you pick up this book, you are already bent this way and Tinbergen just pushes you a bit more.

One fun aspects of the book are the many photos and illustrations. The photos aren’t glamourized, just naturalists poking around in the field. The illustrations often involve some form of abstracted field observation, observation setup, or results and are engaging to look at. Here is an example where two of Tinbergen’s students study the homing behavior of the sand wasp, Ammophila campestris, which climbs shrubs or small trees, takes a survey, and then jumps in the direction of her nest with prey (a caterpillar) in its grasp. The illustration below shows paths home for one wasp and that a strong learned “long” path.

Connections

I decided to read the Curious Naturalists after reading an excerpt of it in The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (2008) edited by Richard Dawkins, who incidentally was a student of Tinbergen. While reading the Naturalists I kept thinking of a bike ride on the Waterland route from Amsterdam to Marken we took in 2004. I remember being struck by the beauty of the polders, waterways, farms, and wooden houses. The route is across Zuider Zee where, on the south end (in Hulshorst) Tinbergen studied Philanthus.

Another point of connection is that I started the Curious Naturalists before taking a trip on the Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk and finished it when I returned. Chapters 7 - 9 are set in Ravenglass, in Cumbria. Ravenglass is just a few kilometers south from St. Bees where we started our walk.

After I finished the book it struck me how much room for improvement I have for making good observations. I went on the Wainwright walk with the goal of identifying plants (one a day) and while I was able to do that (see western botanical guide and eastern botanical guide), there were many cases that I didn’t do basic things like count petals, examine leaves, make notes on the surroundings and, in general, just take the time to observe.

On a related note, while on the Wainwright walk I saw many rabbits that succumbed to myxomatosis. Tinbergen mentions the disease in Chapter 7 in regard to the vegetation of the dunes of Ravenglass which seemed to be recovering because of the reduced rabbit (“undiscriminating vegetarian”) population - killed by myxomatosis.

Kähler and Yucca gloriosa ‘Variegata’

2011-10-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

In today’s pots and plants series we have Kähler meets Yucca gloriosa ‘Variegata’. We’ve had these three yucca in the ground for about 15 years now. Each year we trim off the bottom leaves and over time the yucca are now a foot or two off the ground and the trunks are visible. Yucca gloriosa has the common name of Spanish Dagger. If you ever have worked around these plants, you’ll know that dagger is apt. While trimming the leaves shown above, we got pierced several times. The daggers are sharp and quick, like a needle – when they pierce your skin. Another common name for this plan is Moundlily because it grows in mounds along the sand dunes along the coast and barrier islands of the southeastern USA (distribution map). In some of the pictures here bloom spikes can be seen.

This year’s trimmed off leaves are shown in - we believe - a Kähler pot created some time in the first half of the 20^th century. (Someday, we are going to buy a book that tells us what the true dates are…) The vase has is mostly tan with a green leaf motif. It has a mark that looks like HAK, but the mark is hard to make out. For more on Kähler, see Kähler and Colchicum.

Yucca gloriosa ‘variegata’ – Seattle

Java, Apache Ant and Hello World

2011-10-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

This post discusses the following tasks:

Task 1: How to create a simple Hello World Java application and run it from the command line
Task 2: How to build a JAR and use the JAR to run the Hello World application
Task 3: How to use Apache Ant to create a build file for the Hello World application
Task 4: How to build a Hello World application, using an external library (log4j), at the command line
Task 5: How to create an Apache Ant build file for a Hello World application that uses an external library
Task 6: How to pass arguments into the Hello World application using the build file

We must say that scarcely 4 months ago, this was all Greek to us. And through a recent job change, I was plunged into the world of Ant and Java. We are mostly documenting this because it was amazing how long it took to get these basics straightened out and we want a place to come back to and use as a cheat sheet!

(Once we saw a boat called Hello World in Shilshole Bay Marina. When we asked the owners if they were programmers one said yes, mentioning that not many people get the name.)

So Java is a popular programming language. And Ant is, from the Apache Ant Project site: “…a Java library and command-line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other. The main known usage of Ant is the build of Java applications.” Using Ant to build a Java application is what we show here. The tasks shown here take their cue from the Hello World with Apache Ant instructions on the Apache Ant web site. We created this post because we felt there was more room for clarification.

Testing environment for this post:

Windows 7
Java 1.7 for x64 (download)
Apache Ant (binaries, install instructions)
Environment variables set as follows:
- JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0
- JRE_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0\jre
- ANT_HOME=C:\tools\apache-ant-1.8.2
- Path={your full path};C:\tools\apache-ant-1.8.2\bin;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0\bin

After you have everything set up, you should be able to you open a command prompt and type

ant –help

to get the help for Ant.

Task 1: How to create a simple Hello World Java application and run it from the command line

1. Create the following directory structure (where [basedir] is some directory you choose).

[basedir]\src\packagename
[basedir]\build\classes
[basedir]\build\jar

2. Create a file HelloWorld.java and put the following inside of [basedir]\src\packagename directory.

package packagename;
public class HelloWorld {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Hello World");
    }
}

3. Compile and run the application using the following commands.

javac -d build\classes src\packagename\HelloWorld.java
java -classpath build\classes packagename.HelloWorld

The second statement runs the application by calling the class file.

Task 2: How to build a JAR and use the JAR to run the Hello World application

It’s more realistic to build a Java Archive (JAR) file which makes it easily to distribute your awesome Hello World application.

1. Create a manifest file.

echo Main-Class: packagename.HelloWorld>myManifest

2. Create the JAR. (Don’t miss the “dot” at the end of the command.)

jar cfm build\jar\HelloWorld.jar myManifest -C build\classes .

3. Run the application using the JAR.

java -jar build\jar\HelloWorld.jar

Task 3: How to use Apache Ant to create a build file for the Hello World application

The following XML file is a build file. Copy the text below and put into a file called build.xml at the root of the HelloWorld application ([basedidr]). To invoke the build file, type “ant” at the command line. This runs the main target in the build file. A target in the build file is a container for tasks. To run other targets in the build file type “ant targetname” like “ant compile” to compile. Note that the project tag defines the default task as main. The main task in turn depends on the clean and run task. The run task in turns depends on the jar task. Finally, the jar task depends on the compile task. So the cascade of dependencies catches all the targets.

<project name="HelloWorld" basedir="." default="main">
  <property name="src.dir"     value="src"/>
  <property name="build.dir"   value="build"/>
  <property name="classes.dir" value="${build.dir}/classes"/>
  <property name="jar.dir"     value="${build.dir}/jar"/>
  <property name="main-class"  value="packagename.HelloWorld"/>

  <target name="clean">
    <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
  </target>

  <target name="compile">
    <mkdir dir="${classes.dir}"/>
    <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${classes.dir}"/>
  </target>

  <target name="jar" depends="compile">
    <mkdir dir="${jar.dir}"/>
    <jar destfile="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" basedir="${classes.dir}">
      <manifest>
        <attribute name="Main-Class" value="${main-class}"/>
      </manifest>
    </jar>
  </target>

  <target name="run" depends="jar">
    <java jar="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" fork="true"/>
  </target>

  <target name="clean-build" depends="clean,jar"/>
  <target name="main" depends="clean,run"/>

</project>

Task 4: How to build a Hello World application, using an external library (log4j), at the command line

Now let’s jump back to doing everything by hand and let’s suppose we want to introduce an external library, log4j. Log4j is a library that provides a flexible logging framework.

1. Modify the Hello World application as follows:

package packagename;
import org.apache.log4j.BasicConfigurator;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;

public class HelloWorld {
 public static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(HelloWorld.class);
 public static void main(String[] args) {
  BasicConfigurator.configure();     
      log.debug("hi there from the logger");
      System.out.println("hello world" + args[0]);
 }
}

2. Add the log4j-1.2.16.jar (or whatever version you are using) to the \lib folder.

3. Compile and run the application using the following commands.

    javac -d build\classes src\packagename\HelloWorld.java
    Error. We need to specify the path to the log4j JAR.

    javac -classpath lib\* -d build\classes src\packagename\HelloWorld.java
    Successful compile.

    java -classpath build\classes packagename.HelloWorld
    Error. Again, we need to specify the path to the log4j library.

    java -classpath build\classes;lib\* packagename.HelloWorld
    Successful run.

Details about the command options for the java and the javac commands are on the Oracle Tool Doc site.

4. The final directory should look like this after successful compilation.

[basedir]\build [basedir]\build\classes [basedir]\build\classes\packagename
[basedir]\build\classes\packagename\HelloWorld.class
[basedir]\build\jar [basedir]\build\jar\log4j-1.2.16.jar
[basedir]\src [basedir]\src\packagname [basedir]\src\packagename\HelloWorld.java

Task 5: How to create an Apache Ant build file for a Hello World application that uses an external library

The next tasks is how to modify the Apache Ant build file for the external library we added.

Changes from above:

add property name lib.dir
add path element for classpath to include jars in lib.dir
in the compile target add classpathref to use the classpath which points to the extnernal library JAR. This corresponds to Successful compile above.
modify run task (and this is the crux of the matter) so that it refers to both the main-class and finds the project jar and uses the classpath with the JARs in the library. This is very different than just a simple jar with no external libraries.This corresponds to Successful run above.

The revised build file:

<project name="HelloWorld2" basedir="." default="main">
    <property name="src.dir"     value="src"/>
    <property name="build.dir"   value="build"/>
    <property name="classes.dir" value="${build.dir}/classes"/>
    <property name="jar.dir"     value="${build.dir}/jar"/>
    <property name="lib.dir"     value="lib"/>
    <property name="main-class"  value="packagename.HelloWorld"/>
  
    <path id="classpath">
   <fileset dir="${lib.dir}" includes="**/*.jar"/>
    </path>
    <target name="clean">
        <delete dir="${build.dir}"/>
    </target>
    <target name="compile">
        <mkdir dir="${classes.dir}"/>
        <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${classes.dir}" classpathref="classpath"/>
    </target>
    <target name="jar" depends="compile">
        <mkdir dir="${jar.dir}"/>
        <jar destfile="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" basedir="${classes.dir}">
            <manifest>
                <attribute name="Main-Class" value="${main-class}"/>
            </manifest>
        </jar>
    </target>
    <target name="run" depends="jar">
        <java classname="${main-class}">
        <classpath>
         <path refid="classpath"/>
            <path location="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar"/>
        </classpath>
     </java>
    </target>
    <target name="clean-build" depends="clean,jar"/>
    <target name="main" depends="clean,run"/>
</project>

Details on the Java task page in the Ant documentation. Compare, just a project JAR run task:

<target name="run" depends="jar">
        <java jar="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" fork="true"/>
</target>

With a run task using an external library:

<target name="run" depends="jar">
        <java classname="${main-class}">
            <classpath>
                <path refid="classpath"/>
                <path location="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar"/>
            </classpath>
        </java>
</target>

Task 6: How to pass arguments into the Hello World application using the build file

Suppose we change the HelloWorld program output line to include a passed in argument:

System.out.println("hello world :" + args[0]);

Compiling and running by the command line:

    javac -classpath lib\* -d build\classes src\packagename\HelloWorld.java
    Success.

    java -classpath build\classes;lib\* packagename.HelloWorld
    Error. We didn’t pass in an argument or catch the exception.

    java -classpath build\classes;lib\* packagename.HelloWorld "travelmarx"
    Success. We passed in an expected string “travelmarx” to give a value to args[0].

With the build file, we only need to change the run task and add an arg element.

<target name="run" depends="jar">
     <java classname="${main-class}" >
        <classpath>
        <path refid="classpath"/>
              <path location="${jar.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar"/>
         </classpath>
         <arg value="travelmarx"/>
      </java>
</target>

Passing parameters from the the command line to a build file is mentioned in the FAQ on the Apache Ant site.

TugBoat Annie

2011-10-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

This post is about the book Tugboat Annie by Norman Reilly Raine, a Dell Book copyright 1932, 1933, and 1934 and Dell 192. The book was loaned to us from a descendent of the real life inspiration for Tugboat Annie, Thea Christiansen Foss (1857 – 1927), the founder of Foss Maritime.

The Tugboat Annie Dell book is just a few stories from the series that was authored by Norman Reilly Raine (1894 – 1971). He wrote 60 Tugboat Annie stories which appeared serialized in the Saturday Evening Post starting on July 7, 1931 and continuing for a span of 30 years. (The essay that appears in The Pacific Northwest Forum, Vol.5, Number 2 says that there were 75 stories and the first story appeared on July 11, 1931.) Raine is also known for the 1937 biographical film The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and as the screenwriter for the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Speaking of film, Tugboat Annie (1933) was a film based on the series. The movie was followed by Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940) with Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan, Captain Tugboat Annie (1945), and Tugboat Annie (1957) a Canadian TV Series. Who knew that public’s appetite for a “magnificent, blowsy, canny, raucous, hard-boiled, and heart-warming skipper” was so big? Tugboat Annie had quite a run, from the Great Depression and almost up to the hippies. We can see it now, Tugboat Annie Meets Timothy Leary: “ye furry-headed sprat!”

The Stories

The book contains six “Exciting” stories: No Cure, No Pay, Ol Mefoozelem, A Man of Few Words, When Greek Meets, Greek, The Last Laugh, and Iron John. Each story is between 20 and 30 pages. The two main characters we meet in these six stories are:

- Tugboat Annie Brennan, “blowsy, raucous, hard-boiled” senior captain at the Secoma Deep-Sea Towing and Salvage Company. Her tug is the Narcissus. Captain Terry Brennan is the deceased husband of Annie. She keeps a picture of him in a “plush-and-gold oval frame” above her bunk. She talks to the picture when she needs inspiration in her hijinks to outsmart Bullwinkle. Annie is “large of frame and solidly built, with rugged features and shrewd blue eyes under beetle brows. Her elephantine energy is galvanic, her language is sulphurous, her ways are tough – but her heart is as warm and as soft as butter.”

- Captain Horatio Bullwinkle, Annie’s rival. He is the captain of the Salamander. All the stories revolve around Annie’s successful attempts to beat back Bullwinkle’s tricks for taking business away from her. “He is a self-confident, swaggering, contemptuous, and scheming” man.

The supporting cast: Alec Severn, president of Annie’s company; Big Sam, engineer on the Narcissus; Old Mefoozelem, a crusty old land-locked captain; Murdoch McArdle, a shrewd lumber dealer; Captain Esau Leroy, Annie’s old friend who loves a good brawl; Mr. Levanway, a bland, scheming first officer of a large ship; and Iron John McGinnes, Annie’s old and diminutive friend who always gets the last word.

The Language

Annie is the master of mixed-metaphors and colorful one-liners often directed at Bullwinkle, her rival. He often is just as clever in the comebacks.

The comebacks and one-liners reminded us of the The Snark Handbook, Insult Edition: Comebacks, Taunts, and Effronteries by Lawrence Dorfman. Annie’s dialogue would fit in with the samples in the short chapter Smarts (Or Lack Thereof). For example:

“Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”

“She doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear’, but then again, she doesn’t know the meaning of most words.”

“The twinkle in his eyes is actually the sun shining between his ears.”

Anyway, here are some samples from this TugBoat Annie book:

p. 10 The first meeting between Bullwinkle and Annie as they are racing their tugs.

“Think ye’ll know me again, horse face?” Tugboat Annie bawled, when she found she could not eye him down.
He nodded. “Once seen, never forgot, worse luck Anyways, I’ve seen ye before.”
“Where?” demanded Annie.
“In the Frisco’ zoo.” He grinned again, and added, charitably, “Though it might ha’ been only a near relation.”

p. 15 Annie, talking to her boss Alec Severn:

“That Bullwinkle carbuncle!” she exploded. “He’s takin’ jobs from us, right and left and hindways.”

p. 18 Annie to Bullwinkle on what he should do.

“Me? I’d recommend a faddom o’rope and a rafter, and I’m willin’ to kick away the chair!”

p. 22 Annie to Bullwinkle.

“When I look at you … I know why barmaids eats their young.”

p. 48 Morning greeting between Bullwinkle and Annie.

“How are ye this morning, Annie?”

“I was feelin’ swell up to a second ago,” Annie told him. “But now I got a nasty black spot afore me eyes.”

“You ain’t eggzackly a pick-me-up-yerself, Annie.”

p. 73 Annie passing Bullwinkle on a street in Secoma.

“Hi, there, Annie!” saluted the detested voice of Mr. Horatio Bullwinkle. “What are doin’ – trottin’ some o’ your fat off?”

“Seein’ you reminds me – I’m goin’ up to buy some dog biscuit!” she snapped.

“Doctor’s orders?” asked Mr. Bullwinkle with a grin. “We got a nice beef bone down on the Salamander. If it’s any good to ye, just bark!”

p. 87 Annie to Bullwinkle.

“Don’t drop over the side,” Annie told him. “Ye’d spile the sound for fishin’.”

p. 94 Annie to Murdoch McArdle a horse-faced lumber dealer after he threatens her.

“Sticks and stones butters no parsnips, McArdle. Ye’d best be civil.”

p. 99 Annie to herself.

“My goodness, I’m that hungry I could eat a horse and chase the driver…”

p. 102 Annie talking about a friend, Captain Esau Leroy.

“Trouble with Esau is, he’ll fight at the drop of a hat – and he ain’t so pa’tickler about the hat.”

Happy Days are Here Again

Annie’s “theme” song seems to be Happy Days are Here Again, written (or at least copyrighted) in 1929 by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics). The lyrics go like this: “Happy days are here again. They skies above are clear again. So let’s sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again.” Tugboat Annie’s version is: “Oh, happy days are here some more…. And, she roars it inharmoniously.

First Page of Tugboat Annie

The Thea Foss, A Motor Yacht.

The Bashing of Bullwinkle by Harold Von Schmidt [ref]

Tugboat Annie by Anton Otto Fischer – March 13, 1939 Saturday Evening Post [ref]

Roseville Mostique and Pears

2011-09-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

We went through a Roseville phase – it must be admitted – and hadn’t thought much about these pieces for a while until a friend brought over some local pears – three varieties. (Sorry, we don’t have the variety names.) The pears called out to us to be photographed with Roseville Mostique. Really. Mostique is a Roseville pattern introduced sometime between 1915 or 1916 (1915 given by the Roseville Pottery Information Center site and 1916 by the Roseville Pottery Information and History site). Plus or minus a year, they are fun pieces. And, a big thanks to Kerri for the pears!

Pears are part of the rose family (Rosaceae) and have the genus name Pyrus. According to Wiktionary, Pyrus comes from the Latin pirus for “pear tree”.

The Aurora Bridge Mural – A Fresh Coat of Paint

2011-09-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

A Fremont Resident Touching Up the Mural
When we last talked about the Aurora Bridge Mural (in Fremont) it was on a bit of a sour note. That was six months ago and the mural was accumulating lots of graffiti in the form of “tagging”. Well, some folks in the neighborhood are taking matters and paint brushes into their own hands and giving the mural a fresh coat. Thank you neighbors!

The 1982 Atlantic article Broken Windows: The police and neighborhood safety introduced the broken windows theory which put forward the idea that monitoring and maintaining an urban environment may prevent further vandalism and serious crime in that environment. From the article: “Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.” The theory has its defenders and detractors, but you can’t deny that a maintained environment certainly has a positive impact to those living there. In this case, seeing tagging on the Aurora Bridge Mural is ugly and depressing.

Before (left) / New Painting in Progress (right)

West End of the Aurora Bridge Mural

Before (left) / New Painting in Progress (right)

Organizing Volunteers

Waiting for the Bus at the Aurora Bridge Mural

Kähler and Colchicum

2011-09-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Another in the pots and plant series: Kähler meets Colchicum. In this mashup we have Kähler, a type of Danish pottery, and Colchicum autummale, called autumn crocus. The pottery is named after the Joachim Christian Herman Kähler and three subsequent generations of potters spanning from 1839 to 1972.

The plant shown here has the common name of autumn crocus, meadow saffron or naked lady. The genus Colchicum means of or from Colchis, an ancient region at the east end of the Black Sea. Also, colchicine is the name of an analgesic drug derived from this plant that is used to treat gout. Colchicum is part of the Lily family and is not a true crocus nor the source of saffron spice. Saffron comes from Crocus sativus and is part of the Iris family. We believe the plant shown here is autumnale.

Kähler Pottery shown here:
· Small vase (mostly matt brown), bottle vase (mostly turquoise glazed), and bowl in the characteristic 1960s manner of Nils Kähler. Incised: HAK, Nils. Impressed: Denmark. Note stamped fishbone pattern on bottle vase.We purchased two of the items at www.starkeld.com.

· A small, squat vase with blue leaf motif. We are guessing made before 1950, possibly 1910 to 1930.

An article on Ceramics Today gives the history of the Kähler clan as:
· Joachim Christian Herman Kähler (1808 – 1884) – establishes workshop in Naestved, Denmark in 1839.

· Herman August Kähler (1846 – 1917) and Carl Frederik Kähler (1850 – 1920) – two sons take over in 1872. Herman introduces the HAK signature.

· Herman Hans Christian (1876 – 1940) (son of Herman) – takes over in 1901.

· Nils Joakim Kähler (1906 – 1979) and Herman Joergen Kähler (1904 – 1996) – 4^th generation; the Kähler factory closes in 1974. Nils always signed his items with “Nils”.

Autumn Crocus In Situ (Seattle)

Kähler Tourquoise Glazed Trio

Kählder Blue Bottole Markings HAK, Nils

Kähler Small Vase

Gray Matter Gladiators

2011-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to walk for and with a friend in the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk 2011 at the Seattle Center. The walk raised $840,000 dollars. The name of the group we walked with was the Virginia Mason Brain Tumor Support Group aka Gray Matter Gladiators with a cool shirt to match.

The Walk Starts

The Space Needle Nearby

Travelmarx Music Picks – End of Summer 2011

2011-09-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long time since we’ve discussed music and our favorites. The Sonos system and the various services have becomes a routine part of our life and we’ve discovered a number of old and new releases through these services (Pandora, Last.fm, MOG, Rhapsody, etc.). Here are some of our favorites of the summer in the order that they appear in the associated composite album cover art image.

Row 1

Asaf Avidan: The Reckoning [2008] (Israeli)
A strange and endearing album. It’s hard to grok the first listen.

Broken Bells – Broken Bells [2009] (American )
Nothing broken about this release. It works well.

Caribou: Swim [2010] (English or Canadian?)
Engaging sort-of techno?

Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be [2009] (American)
Part of the New Weird America genre of music.

Vetiver – Tight Knit [2009] (American)
This album and 2004’s self-titled album are popular with us.

Row 2

Camille: Music Hole [2008] (French)
Favorite Track: The Monk.

Florence & The Machine: Ceremonials [2011] (English)
Favorite Track: What the Water Gave Me

Inara George – An Invitation [2008] (American)
Like crickets, starting with an Overture gets our attention. Also, having Van Dyke Parks as a producer helps too.

Kate Havnevik – Melankton [2006] (Norwegian)
Favorite Track: Travel in Time. An evocative song.

Cotton Jones – Paranoid Coccon [2009] (American)
Once, during the waning days of a work-from-home, going-no-where contract job, we listened to this album 50 times straight. That has to have an effect you think?

Row 3

Eddie Vedder: Into the Wild Soundtrack [2007] (American)
It was the yoga teacher at L.A. Fitness who first played the track, Hard Sun, from this album and then we had to hear more…

Gabin: Third and Double [2010] (Italian)
The whole album is great. Wikipedia calls it “nu jazz”. Love the double album with contrasting styles. Lies featuring Chris Cornell is a favorite.

Mezzanine de l’Alcazar IV [2005] (French)
A Pschent Music release. Compilations like this (think Hotel Costes) can be hit or miss. This one is consistently interesting.

Michael Franti: All Rebel Rockers [2008] (American)
We could listen to Hey World (Don’t Give Up Version) all day. Who cares if that chick-a-lina in yoga class doesn’t like it.

Sleepy Jackson: Personality – One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird [2006] (Australian)
We listened to this release for two weeks straight and overdosed. Addictive.

Row 4

The Great Lake Swimmers: Ongiara [2007] (Canadian)
Serious melodic folk – without the aftertaste.

Mike Snow: Mike Snow [2009] (Swedish)
Favorite Track: Sylvia

Telepopmusik: Genetic World [2001-2002] (French)
We remember this album came out, but not until this pass year did we start listening to it. Angela McCluskey’s voice is memorable.

Fruit Bats – Mouthfuls [2003] (American)
Favorite track: Slipping Through the Sensors. “Slipping through the sensors, tripping over rails and fences, superheroes fighting crime with love and broken fists.”

Trentemoller – The Last Resort [2006] (Danish)
Dark and melancholy – we like it!

Row 5

Elbow: Build a Rocket Boys! [2011] (English)
Favorite Track: With Love.

Iron and Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean [2011] (American)
Glad Man Singing gets us going every time.

Lamb: Between Darkness and Wonder [2003] (English)
There has been a lot of Lamb-listening at Travelmarx, this and other albums by this band.

LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening [2010] (American)
An odd album but strangely attracting album of dance-punk (that’s what this is called!?). Love I Can Change which we heard over the L.A. Fitness speakers of all places. It was the day they weren’t playing the teen-angst, sneer- rock station.

M. Ward: Transfiguration of Vincent [2003] (American)
Start an album out with crickets and you got us hooked.

The Perfect Playlist

Asaf Avidan: The Reckoning – Maybe You Are
Broken Bells: Broken Bells – The High Road
Caribou: Swim – Hannibal
Devendra Banhart : What Will We Be – Meet Me at Lookout Point
Vetiver: Tight Knit – More of This
Camille: Music Hole – The Monk
Florence & The Machine: Ceremonials – What the Water Gave Me
Inara George : An Invitation – Right as Wrong
Kate Havnevik: Melankton – Travel in Time
Cotton Jones: Paranoid Cocoon – I Am the Changer
Eddie Vedder: Into the Wild Soundtrack – Hard Sun
Gabin: Third and Double – Lies featuring Chris Cornell
Mezzanine de l’Alcazar IV – Twisted Cupid by Slow Train Soul
Michael Franti: All Rebel Rockers – Hey World (Don’t Give Up Version)
Sleepy Jackson: Personality – One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird – Miles Away
The Great Lake Swimmers: Ongiara – Changing Colours
Mike Snow: Mike Snow – Sylvia
Telepopmusik: Genetic World – Breathe
Fruit Bats: Mouthfuls – Slipping Through the Sensors
Trentemoller: The Last Resort – Evil Dub
Elbow: Build a Rocket Boys! – With Love
Iron and Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean – Glad Man Singing
Lamb: Between Darkness and Wonder – Wonder
LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening – I Can Change
M. Ward: Transfiguration of Vincent - Involuntary

Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview on VirtualBox

2011-09-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Windows 8 Developer Preview

In this post we show you how to install the Windows 8 Developer Preview on Oracle’s VirtualBox (a virtualization product for enterprise and home use). This is just one of many possible paths – one that we figured out. Hope it helps.

Our Hardware: We tried these instructions on a Lenovo T510 and T410s running Windows 7. Both with 8GB of RAM and greater than 30 GB disk space free. The T410 has a solid state drive (SSD).

Enable Virtualization

If virtualization is enabled already for you, you can skip this step. For our machines, virtualization was not turned on.

Before restarting, suspend BitLocker Drive Encryption. (This avoids BitLocker complaining about a system change.)
Restart and go to the bios setup. (For T510 and T410s hit F1. Your computer may use a different key.)
In the bios we went to Config > CPU and enabled "Intel ® Virtualization Technology” and “Intel ® Vt-d Feature”. The first feature allows the Virtual Machine Monitor to utilize additional capabilities provided by Intel Virtualization Technology. The second feature (Vt-d) is virtualization technology for directed I/O.
Save and restart the computer.
Resume BitLocker.

Install VirtualBox

Install VirtualBox if you don’t already have it. It should take a few minutes to install and didn’t require a reboot for us.

Get the Preview

Get the developer preview .iso (disk image) file from the link above. Here we are using the Windows Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64), which is 4.8 GB. Save the disk image where you can access it in subsequent steps.

Create a Virtual Machine

Open VirtualBox and create a New Virtual Machine.

Click the New button on toolbar. This starts the Create New Virtual Machine wizard.
In the VM Name and OS Type step of the wizard, name your virtual machine, select Microsoft Windows as your operating system, and select version as Windows 7 (64 bit).
In the Memory step, select your memory. We selected 3072 MB.
In the Virtual Hard Disk step, keep the defaults.
In the Welcome to the virtual disk creation wizard step, select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image).
In the Virtual disk storage details step, select Dynamically allocated.
In the Virtual disk file location and size step, keep the defaults (of 20GB).
In the Summary pane, review the details and click Create.
You are now ready to configure the virtual machine (VM).

Configure the Virtual Machine

The key configuration items are the System and Storage settings which are discussed below.

Select the VM (make sure it is highlighted) Click Settings.
Select the System icon in the left pane and configure Motherboard, Processor, and Acceleration tabs as shown below. The key settings are toe select Enable IO APIC on the Motherboard tab and Enable VT-x/AMD-V and Enable Nested Paging on the Acceleration tab.
Select the Storage icon in the left pane. Select Empty under the IDE Controller in the Storage Tree and to the right of the CD/DVD Drive select the drop down icon and find the disk image. If you haven’t previously used the disk image, select Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file… and go find the disk image you saved previously.
You are ready to turn on the VM.

Turn on the VM and Start the Installation.

Click the Start button in VirtualBox Manager to turn on the VM.
As you start, you will get a number of Information messages about mouse pointer integration, color mode, and auto capture keyboard. Don’t worry too much about these now. Just click OK on each.
The first install screen, click Next.
Then click Install now.
Select the license checkbox and click Next.
On the Which type of installation do you want? screen, select Custom (advanced) for a new installation.
On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, select the default disk and click Next.
Wait a few moments as the install happens.
Select the checkbox in the License terms window and click Accept.
Give your Windows 8 virtual instance a name.
Select express setting in the next screen. Express settings uses a Windows Live ID. (We do not show the path of using custom settings. It entails creating a user account.)
Provide the credentials on the next two screens.
Wait a few moments as it “prepares your PC”.
Viola, your desktop shows up!

Basic Navigation Around the New Windows 8 System

From the starting Metro UI, click the Desktop tile in the lower left to go to the “traditional” desktop.
Right click and select Screen resolution. Set a resolution.
Hit the Windows key (left of the space bar) to go back to the tile view (Metro UI).
Touch the user tile image to access lock, log off, add user, and change user tile functionality quickly.
Windows key + f brings up the search functionality.
Windows key + i brings up some taskbar/settings.
Mouse over the lower left hand corner to bring up a Start menu for Metro.
To suspend the the state of the VM, go to the Machine menu and select Close. Then select Save the machine state in the next dialog box.

LA Fitness Spin Sign Up Sheet

2011-09-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

She really tried to approach it nicely, the spin instructor that is, as she asked who forgot to sign up for the 5:45am spin class at the LA Fitness in Ballard. It’s okay. It’s easy to forget or not know you need to sign up if you are new to the gym or really sleepy.

The situation was this: the class was full – all bikes taken – yet two people who had signed up didn’t have a bike. The instructor asks several times (with everyone’s attention) but eventually is forced to go bike to bike and check the person on the bike with a name on the list. And, lo and behold the last two riders she checks had not signed up. Why did these two folks wait until the instructor came to them and asked them to give up their bike? It is a question that bothered us well into the namastes of the subsequent yoga class.

Brush McCoy and Dry Late Summer Flowers

2011-09-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Three Brush McCoy Pots With Flower Arrangements

Onyx ware was a line of pottery produced by Brush-McCoy Pottery. The history of the company is a bit complex with all its name changes and mergers throughout the years. The company started in 1848 as “W.F McCoy” and the pieces shown here were probably created probably sometime in the 1920s (a guess…exact dates we’ll leave for the experts) when the company was called Brush-McCoy. At The McCoy Pottery Collectors’ Society, there is an article on the technique that gave the pots their “onyx” look. There was an earlier and later technique onyx technique. The earlier technique involved introducing additional glaze colors with a brush at intervals around the piece. This produces a stippled appearance which the vases shown here – to our eye – seem to have.

Green Brush McCoy Pot is flouting some English lavender.
The green pot contains Lavandula angustifolia, but, possibly a subspecies, we don’t know. Sloppy record keeping is to blame.

Brown Brush McCoy Urn (with two handles) is sporting Phlomis russeliana of Jerusalem Sage.
Dave's Garden says that this mint family (Lamicease) phlomis is named“[f]rom the Greek word for mullein, perhaps due to the similarity of the leaves.” And, well, ruseliana is named after someone called Russell. What a great smell these dried leaves and blossoms have.

This pot was a gift of Wild Dingo.

Blue Brush McCoy Pot is holding spent Butterfly-bush blossoms.
Butterfly-bush is quite common in Seattle. The best specimens seem to grow uninvited, along roadsides in the unlikeliest of places. This intentionally planted Butterfly-bush is Buddleja davidii ‘Back Knight’. It was named for Adam Buddle (1662 – 1715) and Father Armand David (1826 – 1900).

Brush McCoy Onyx Pots

An Outdoor Table Setting of Brush McCoy

Arum Italicum and Orient and Flume

2011-09-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Arum italicum in an Orient and Flume Vase

When we purchased our house oh so many years ago, we didn’t realize how much Arum italicum was in the yard. Over the years, we’ve pulled up plants (making sure to get the bulbs) where we didn’t want italicum and generally allowed other areas of the yard to have clumps of it. Our neighbors don’t have any italicum in their yards so we are guessing that the movement of dirt around our yard has been the main spreading mechanism. Neighbors don’t exchange dirt typically – hence no italicum in our neighbor’s yard.

Right about this time at the end of summer, the spike inflorescences – called a spadix – and its dozens of bright orange berries are all that is left. The leaves have given up the ghost for the season. Italicum is part of the Arum (Araceae) family and is commonly called Cuckoo Pint and Italian Lords-and-Ladies. The genus name we are guessing refers to the fact that this plant grows quite well in Italy. The spadices are shown here in a late 1970s (?) Orient and Flume Tiffany-styled vase.

Ironically, we purchased this American-made vase in Venice of all places. The further Italian link to the italicum (and completely coincidental as well) is that behind the vase is a piece of the painting: Padre e figlio (1997) by Alessandro Gambetti, an Italian artist. We purchased this piece in Castellina in Chianti, oh some many years ago.

Arum italicum Leaves

Arum italicum Green Berries

The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art

2011-09-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: “So why do you want to work at the Bureau of Surrealist Research?”
Interviewee: “I’ve always dreamed about working here.”

The existence of the Bureau of Surrealist Research was just one of the interesting tidbits we learned about at the The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery May 28, 2011 – October 2, 2011. (On the drive up from Seattle we came with the interviewer/interviewee joke.) The brochure features Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954) in Self portrait (as weight trainer) (1927). The other iconic imagery used as part of the promotion for the exhibition includes Edith Rimmington (1902 – 1986) The Oneiroscopist (1947) and Joan Miró (1893 - 1983) Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves (1925). Oneiroscopist means a specialist in looking at dreams – appropriate for the surrealists - and Miró’s piece, with the translated title this is the color of my dreams, is the source of exhibition title.

Edith Rimmington – Oneiroscopist (1947) and Joan Miro (1925) Ceci est la couleur de mes rêves

So what is surrealism? Surrealism is a cultural movement (not an art movement or style) that began in the early 1920s and that the Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) describes as “[p]ure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.” And, that “[s]urrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of the dream, and in the disinterested play of thought. It leads to the permanent destruction of all other psychic mechanisms and to its substitution for them in the solution of the principal problems of life.” Automatism is spontaneous creation such as a drawing or writing with no conscious censorship. People, other movements, and events that came before surrealism like Freud, Dadaism, and World War I guided how the surrealist movement developed. It was a time of change and the surrealist motto was “Transform the World – Change Life”.

It is interesting to note that initially painting, as a surrealist activity, was emphasized very little in the manifesto; yet, it is painting that comes to mind most readily when talking about surrealism, especially the works of Dalí. Some early surrealists thought that the trouble with painting was that the expression (i.e. the mechanics) would get in the way of the automatic response so sought after as pure surrealism. The idea of letting automatism take hold and guide your creations is an intriguing one for those (like us) so used to executing a certain degree of control over our output – for work or pleasure.

A theme explored in the exhibition is the connection between First Nations art of the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska and surrealism. The surrealist artists Kurt Seligmann and Wolfgang Paalen visited the Northwest in in the late 1930s. Others like Andre Breton and Max Ernst purchased Northwest art. The surrealists were by accounts moved by the indigenous ceremonial art, drawn to the authentic nature of the work. However, as the essay Scavengers of Paradise by Colin Browne that appears in the exhibition guide points out: “…the surrealist relationship with the ceremonial objects of North America was complex, fluid and often naively idealistic. Many surrealist artists became collectors of primitive art but were unaware of the provenance or function of the objects they acquired …”.

The exhibit was broken into themed sections: Revolution by Night; The Colour of My Dreams; Behind the Screen; Spaces of the Unconscious; The Surrealist Object; Myths, Maps, Magic; The Lure of the Pacific Northwest; and Anatomies of Desire. On display there are several types of media: publications, photos, paintings, collage, sculpture, film, and objects. But, we confess it was really the paintings that grabbed us the most as can be deduced for the list of what we found interesting. Though, we do have a newfound appreciation of Man Ray (1890 - 1976); a number of his photographs and rayographs (really photograms) are included in the exhibition.

What we found interesting at the exhibition:

- Georgio di Chirico (1888 – 1978) was an important figure to the surrealists, a “haunting father”. The exhibit starts with de Chirico’s La cerveau de l’enfant or The Child’s Brain (1914). As a side note, it is interesting (for us) to see our reaction to di Chirico’s work in an exhibition in Palermo, La Metafisica continua. We did not like it.

Georgio di Chirico (1914) La cerveau de l’enfant or The Child’s Brain

- Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1873) seemed to flirt on the edges of surrealism.

- Kurt Seligmann (1900 – 1962): Seligmann’s The Four Temperaments (1946) or The Meeting of the Elements (1939) could have been easily at home on a Yes album cover. Roger Dean is the artist behind the Yes album covers. We wonder if he was influenced by Seligmann’s biomorphic forms.

- Joan Miró (1893 - 1983) Miró’s work Photo: ceci est la couleur de mes rêves. (1925) lends its name to the exhibition title. Such a simple and elegantly conceived work.

- Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954) was a woman. Not until after the exhibit did we realize he was a she.

- André Masson (1896 - 1987): Masson’s Meditation on an Oak Leaf (1942) is a crazy, contorted study. The information card describing the work said that Masson called it a “triumphant tellurism” style. Tellurism has to do with the hypothesis of animal magnetism put forth by Dr. Keiser. Masson’s The Metaphysical Wall (1940) was in the last room of the show and is a beautiful work.

- Wilhelm Freddie (1909 - 1995). Part of the Dutch surrealist movement, Freddie’s The Prayer (1940) is a stark, simple painting with a deflated figure praying at the very bottom of a dark purple canvas.

- Leonora Carrington (1917 – 2011). Carrington’s The House Opposite (1945) is a dreamlike scene not so different than the number of Renaissance domestic scenes we saw in Florence, just a little more surreal.

Leonora Carrington (1945) The House Opposite (detail left and right)

- Yves Tanguy (1900 – 1955). His work seems to have its own symbolic language, fragments of the symbols scattered here and there about eerie landscapes such as in The Doubter (1937) and Death Watching His Family (1927) – both in the exhibition.

- Exquisite corpse. Le cadavre – esquis – boira – le vin – nouveau or “the exquisite corpse will the drink the new wine.” is a method the surrealist used to create collaborative work. The works in this part of the exhibit were fascinating. Related methods included dessign collectif or collective drawing. An interesting example is the work Le jeu de’oie (1929) – The Game of Goose. The circular board game was created by André Breton, Suzanne Muzard, Jeannette Tanguy, Pierre Unik, Georges Saboul, and Yves Tanguy.

Le jeu de’oie (1929)

- Joseph Cornell (1903 – 1972) and his “poetic theatres” like The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Bernice) (1943 – 1960s). A fictional heroine Bernice, a young girl who performs ingenious scientific experiments inspired by the sights and sounds of the world.

- Hans Bellmer (1902 – 1975) and his arranged, life-sized, pubescent poupées (dolls) evoked a bit of wincing on our part and that fact alone made us wonder about the punch of his work.

- René Magritte (1989 - 1967) – L’Anniversaire (1959) or the rock in the room, from a distance is wonderfully deceiving.

Magritte (1959) L’Anniversaire

The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art – Brochure

Beauty and Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration

2011-09-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Albert Bierstadt: Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast (1870) [SAM collection]

The exhibition Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration is at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) from June 30 – September 11. We popped in Thursday night to catch it before it closed and had a good time. A well-spoken and engaging docent led a 7:00 pm tour that was awesome.

The exhibition includes landscape paintings and photos from the last half of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century that focus on how American artists reacted to and recorded nature in the still relatively new country of America. Nature and in particular, the West were sources of wonder, solace, and opportunity. Even as the country struggled through the Civil War (1861 – 1865), artists kept exploring and depicting nature. Several of the artists were key figures in the westward expansion of the United States. Many were instrumental in the formation of natural parks such as the landscape painters Thomas Moran (1837 – 1926), Albert Bierstadt (1830 – 1902), Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823 – 1880), Federic Edwin Church (1826 – 1900), George Inness (1825 – 1894), and John Frederick Kensett (1816 – 1872) – of which you see works in the Beauty & Bounty. One artist that stood out for us was Martin Johnson Heade (1819- 1904) and his salt marsh landscapes of the East Coast. Heade seemed to stand apart from the other landscape painters in his approach and we couldn’t escape being reminded of Andrew Weyth ever so slightly.

Martin Johnson Heade: Sudden Shower - Newbury Marshes (1865-1875) [Private collection]

Sanford Robinson Gifford: Mount Rainer, Bay of Tacoma – Puget Sound (1875) [SAM collection]

John Frederick Kensett: Naragansett Bay (1861) [SAM collection]

The first few rooms of Beauty & Bounty prepare you ready for the high point (or maybe low point for some) of the exhibit: Albert Bierstadt’s Puget Sound on the Pacific [1870] (shown at the head of this post). This large oil painting though it is titled Puget Sound was painted with Bierstadt never having seen the Puget Sound. Instead he relied on other’s writing and imagery (especially of Northwest tribes) and a dollop of imagination to create the work. This fact later caused a bit of a dimming of his artistic star.

We were impressed by a painting by Emily Inez Denny (1853 – 1918), the eldest child of Seattle pioneers David and Louisa Denny. In the painting, The San Juans and the Olympic Range (1888), she really captures the particular grey light of Puget Sound.

As a companion exhibit to Beauty & Bounty, SAM is also presenting Reclaimed: Nature and Place Through Contemporary Eyes. There are many interesting pieces in Reclaimed, two of which are Whiting Tennis’s Bovine [2006] – a camper made of found plywood (and a little bit of Hank Williams) - and Susan Point’s beautiful and sinuous carving The First People [2008] - made of red and yellow cedar that pays homage to her Salish heritage. In contrast to Beauty & Bounty, the pieces of Reclaimed instead of depicting nature like Moran or Bierstadt did, comment on the bounty of nature and often use raw materials in that commentary.

Whiting Tennis: Bovine (2006) [SAM collection]

Susan Point: The First People (2008) [Photo from www.susanpoint.com]

Thank You Fremont - Cat Found in Fremont

2011-09-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

We couldn’t pass up mentioning this sign. So often you see a poster for a missing pet and you don’t know if the pet was ever found. The loop is never closed. You are left wondering. Well, here is proof that at least one pet was found and the owner wanted to thank Fremont and close that loop.

Skyline Divide Hike – Flowers, Butterflies and Mount Baker

2011-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

We can’t believe we hadn’t done this hike before. We thought about the Chain Lakes hike but it still had too much snow, so we were advised to try the Skyline Divide hike. A great recommendation. We hiked 10 miles round trip starting from the trailhead (parking lot on FR 37) in about 6.5 hours with two stops to eat and lots of stopping to enjoy the flowers and vistas. The trailhead is at 4,300 feet and the highest we hit was about 6,560 feet on Chowder Ridge. Skyline Divide connects up to Chowder Ridge as shown below (taken from reference [1]).

From talking to various folks we learned that it has been a late summer up on Skyline Divide. That meant a little bit of snow to walk over or around, but not that much. Today it was 60-65F and wildflowers were out en masse. Before we get to the bulk of photos let’s address a few basics we wondered about before and during the hike:

· What is Mt Baker named for? Mt Baker was named by George Vancouver who named it after his 3^rd Lieutenant Joseph Baker of the HMS Discovery, who first saw the mountain on April 30, 1792 as described in Vancouver’s Discovery of Puget Sound [p. 82]

· Why is it called Chowder Ridge? From the Taylor and Douglas 1978 paper, Chowder Ridge is made up of sedimentary rock and the marine fossils sometimes found in the rock on the ridge are responsible for the name “Chowder Ridge.” This ridge is a special place in that it has several contrasting habitats in one area: steep, dry, southerly slopes and cool, snowy, steep north slopes. The former habitat is similar to the eastern Cascades and the northern Rockies. The latter habitat is characteristic of the western Northern Cascades.

· What’s a krummholz? A krummholz is a contorted often stunted subarctic or subalpine tree. The physical aspects of krummholz trees are formed by the severe conditions they grow in.

· Is that red snow I see? Why is snow red? According to Colored Snow Chemistry an article on About.com, the red snow is caused by the growth of algae and one in particular called Chlamydomonas nivalis. Sometimes the red snow is called watermelon snow and has a sweet-scent. (We did not go up and smell it to verify that!) The pigment causing the red color is red carotenoid , astaxanthin. Astaxanthin is found also in salmon, shrimp and providing the red color of salmon meat and cooked shellfish. This is “Chowder Ridge” after all.

A list of useful resources used to create this post is given below the images. In regard to references, we have to say that it’s been a struggle navigating all the different information sources in regard to naming. Years ago, a friend scolded us to stop using common names and use the established binomial nomenclature to ensure being understood. So, we did. Well that same friend came over recently and lamented about the unstable naming in the orchid world. And we find a bit of that when consulting different references for flowers we saw on Skyline Divide. At most we can say the genus with some degree of certainty. It makes you start to wonder if common names are not so bad after all.

Valerian sitchensis - Sitka Valerian

Phlox diffusa

Potentilla flabellifolia

Penstemon procerus

Skyline Divide Meadow

Achillea millefolium

Lupinus latifolius - Lupine

Erigeron peregrinus

Polygonum bistortoides - American Bistort

Claytonia lanceolata - Spring Beauty

Euphydryas anicia - Anicia Checkerspot

View of Mt Baker from Skyline Divide

Solidago multiradiata - Northern Goldenrod (?)

Penstemon davidsonii - Davidson's Penstemon
A very small leaved plant with oversized flowers.

Phyllodoce empetriformis - Pink Mountain Heather

Erythronium grandiflorum – Yellow Glacier Lily

Pedicularis racemosa

Luetkea pectinata - Patridgefoot (Rose family)

Eriogonum umbellatum - Sulfur Buckwheat Blossom

Castilleja parviflora (white)

Sedum lanceolatum

Sedum lanceolatum - in bloom

Saxifraga

Saxifraga bronchialis

Chowder Ridge Leading Looking to Mt Baker

Chowder Ridge Edge

Papilio zelicaon – Anise Swallowtail

Eriogonum (or Buckwheat) of some sort. Eriogonum umbellatum or a subspecies?

Mt Baker Backdrop. Chowder Ridge

The Classic Blue Layers Northwest View from Chowder Ridge

Dasiphora floribunda - Shrubby Cinquefoil. Syn. Potentilla fruticosa

Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii – Dwarf Lupine on Scree

Icaricia icarioides - Boisduval's blue

Pedicularis bracteosa – Towering or Fernleaf Lousewort

Clintonia uniflora - Queen's Cup. (Lily family)

Heracleum lanatum - Cow Parsley – Trailhead

Resources Used in this Post:

1. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska
We’ve had the book for a while and not until now did we realize how handy this book is. In particular, the notes sections of each plant is what is useful, giving a little history, a little folklore, a little about the etymology, or related plants. It makes the book especially useful, yet, it is a good, compact guide.

2. The Washington Trails Association articles on Spotting Butterflies: How, when and where to find Lepidoptera in the Cascades and Olympics.
A quick and easy read to help you figure out the most common butterflies you will see.

3. Washington Native Plant Society

4. Turner Photographics Pacific Northwest Wildflowers
You can look up plants by family, genus, color or flower type. Handy.

5. Taylor and Douglas’s 1978 paper Plant Ecology and Natural History of Chowder Ridge, Mt. Baker: A Potential Alpine Research Natural Area in the Western North Cascades

6. Burke Museum’s University of Washington Herbarium (WTU) Online Collection

7. Colored Snow Chemistry article on About.com

8. Vancouver’s Discovery of Puget Sound

9. Wild Flowers West
Sites like this make it easier to figure out what plant you saw.

Kissing Gates and Stiles – Wainwright Coast to Coast

2011-08-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

Day 2: Kissing Gate Outside of St. Bees

I’m still reviewing pictures from my recent Wainwright Coast to Coast walk and one thing I want to mention are the kissing gates and stiles. We passed through a lot of kissing gates, stiles, and gaps; a few are shown here. Why a kissing gate is called a kissing gate depends on who you ask. At johneckersley.wordpress.com a kissing gate is so called because “the gate merely ‘kisses’ (touches) the enclosure either side, rather than needing to be securely latched.” Okay, sounds reasonable. At the dating site kissinggates.com they invoke a legend to explain that “when the two are on either side of the gate, the person in front ‘refuses’ entry to the second person until presented with a kiss.” A little less reasonable in my mind, but it is a dating site. (No, we did not kiss when we went through the gate.)

The etymology of stile seems to be a little more straightforward. According to dictionary.com the origin is “before 900; Middle English; Old English stigel, derivative of stīgan to climb, cognate with German steigen.” (Yes, we climbed a lot using the stiles.)

In the event you cannot sleep with the meager information presented here, you can always consult the Gaps, gates and stile. Specification published by the British Standards Institute for something like £150.00.

To match days indicated in the captions with dates and the itinerary, see Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk – Overview.

Day 2: Stile, Near Mirehouse

Day 3: Stile, After Climbing Loft Beck Out of Black Sail Youth Hostel

Day 5: Stile, Near Shap Abbey

Day 6: Stile, East of Orton – Looking Down from the Top Step to Both Sides

Day 6: Gap, Outside of Orton Heading to Sunbiggin Tarn

Day 7: Passage, Under the Train Tracks - South of Kirby Stephen Rail Station

Day 7: Stile, Under the Train Tracks – South of Kirby Stephen Rail Station

Day 7: Gap, Along the River Swale Heading to Muker

Day 7: Gap, Outside of Muker

Day 9: Stile, Leaving Mount Grace Priory and Heading to Osmotherly

Day 11: Kissing Gate, Church in Goathland

Day 12: Kissing Gate, On the Cliffs Above Robin Hood's Bay

Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk - Overview

2011-08-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Day 7: Heading to Gunnerside. Turning around to catch late afternoon sun

Day 11: View from the Glaisdale Moor into the Great Fryup Dale

It’s been several weeks now since I went on the Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk sponsored by National Geographic. The walk started on July 24^th and ended on August 3^rd and included 14 of us and 2 guides walking about 140 miles in 12 days through spectacular countryside. The route we followed was not the full Wainwright trail, but selected parts, Wainwright-light we joked. I’m not a purist in having to complete every part of the trail. The real attraction is getting to know the country, its people and geography. And to that end, this tour was a success. The National Geographic overview of the tour starts with the succinct description: “[c]ross England on foot, trekking from the Irish Sea to the North Sea through three incredible national parks.” Here’s a summary of the itinerary we followed:

Part I - Western

July 24 (day 1) :: St. Bees (Arrive in town and get settled.)
July 25 (day 2) :: St. Bees to Ennerdale Bridge
July 26 (day 3) :: Ennerdale Bridge to Rosthwaite
July 27 (day 4) :: Rosthwaite to Glenridding
July 28 (day 5) :: Lake Ullswater to Shap
July 29 (day 6) :: Shap to Ravenstonedale
July 30 (day 7) :: Ravonstonedale to Reeth

Part II – Eastern

July 31 (day 8) :: Reeth to Richmond
Aug 1 (day 9) :: Richmond to Osmotherley
Aug 2 (day 10) :: Osmotherly to Blakey Ridge
Aug 3 (day 11) :: Blakey Ridge to Grosmont
Aug 4 (day 12) :: Grosmont to Robin Hood’s Bay

So you are thinking about this tour and are not sure about it? I recommend it. This was the first group tour I’ve ever done outside of a class trip to Paris in 1983 which I think can be ignored for the purposes of the discussion here. I was worried about whether I could hang with a group for a long period and what would it be like. In the end it was fine. You form a small family with a common goal: dipping your toes in the Irish Sea and then dipping them 12 days later in the North Sea. Along the way, stories are swapped, personalities revealed, and friendships forged. It helped that a guy who would have been my roommate cancelled last minute so I had a single which gave me some private time when we weren’t walking and eating together. During the day while you walk you can always find your space if you need it– by finding a place in the line of hikers. I preferred the back of the group. Typically we had one guide in front and one in back.

The tour includes dinners and lunches (and associated arrangements), transporting your luggage from hotel to hotel, any transportation, and other logistics. You carry just a day pack during the day.

We used the FootPrint maps, more or less, with some deviation when our guides led us on a more interesting route. The FootPrint maps break the walk into two sections, west (part 1) and east (part 2), and I’ve adopted that approach in most of what I posted about the trip.

Why is this coast to coast walked named Wainwright? It is named after Alfred Wainwright (1907 – 1991), a British fell walker, who published his book A Coast to Coast Walk: From St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay in 1973. For more information on this book see the first link below.

Some other Travelmarx posts related to the Wainwright walk which give different views of the trip include:

- A Coast to Coast Walk: From St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay (book review)
- The Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk – A Botanical View (Eastern Part)
- The Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk – A Botanical View (Western Part)
- Mxyomatosis – or – The Explanation for Flattened Rabbits
- Red v. Grey Squirrel
- Rothko on the Moors
- Grosmont and Goathland
- A Name in North Yorkshire
- Benches of the Wainwright Coast to Coast
- Kissing Gates and Stiles – Wainwright Coast to Coast

Footprint Map: St. Bees to Swaledale

Footprint Map: Swaledale to Robin Hood’s Bay

Benches of the Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk

2011-08-28T15:45:00.001-07:00

Day 1: St. Bees Ocean View

During this Wainwright Coast to Coast walk, I became interested in the idea of a bench set up for you to sit and take in a view. Ironically, we hardly did so. Instead we kept on the move, lingering only for a snack and lunch in places where there were typically no benches.

The secondary meaning of an empty bench is about missing someone. I was without the other half of Travelmarx for this vacation/trip for the first time in twenty years. So without further ado, here are a sample of benches (and bridges and a few other structures I saw along) the walk.

Day 2: High and Dry – South of Sandwith

Day 2: View To Whitehaven

Day 2: Cleator Moor - Wath Bridge, River Ehen

Day 4: Lake Ullswater from Inn on the Lake

Day 5: Shap Abbey

Day 6: Lime Kiln (outside of Orton)

Day 6: Petty Hall, Orton

Day 7: Ivelet Bridge

Day 7 - Kirkby Stephen Town

Day 7 - Kirkby Stephen Churchyard

Day 7: Ravenstonedale – Churchyard

Day 8: Leaving Reeth in the Morning

Day 8: Approaching Richmond

Day 9: Leaving Richmond

Day 9 – Osmotherley - Center

Day 11: Beggar's Bridge Glaisdale

Day 12 – Goathland Morning

Day 12 - Overlooking Robin Hood's Bay – The End of the Walk

McCoy Flower Pots and Crassulaceae

2011-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

These mid-century McCoy “shingle” flower pots and attached saucers are typically marked “McCoy, USA” on the bottom with the mark shown below. McCoy produced this style flower pot in a variety of sizes and bright colors like aqua, Kelly green, yellow, pink, plum, brown, white in the 1940s and 1950s. Were they used as floral gifts or did people buy them? The ones we’ve picked up over the years are very well-used so I figured why not continue to use them instead of stacking them on a shelf. Here three pots are shown on the Travelmarx deck with Crassulaceae: (left) Echeveria 'Perle Von Nürnberg', (middle) Echeveria ‘Nodulosa’, and (right) Crassula muscosa var. pseudolycopodiodes.

“Muscosa” is Latin for mossy, referring to this plant’s moss-like looks. SMGrowers.com says that “it has also been called Crassula lycopodioides which is in reference to the plant being like Lycopodium, a genus of clubmoss.” Just a step from this to pseudo-lycopodiodes? The genus Echeveria was named to honor Mexican botanical artist Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy in 1828 by the French botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (DeCandolle) who was very impressed with Echeverría's drawings.

What Macrovaldo Taught Me About My Technical Writing

2011-08-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

In our Three Things Italian class the other day we were reading a short story by Italo Calvino (1923 – 1985) called La pietanziera (or the “lunch pail” - loosely translated). The story is from Calvino’s collection of short stories Marcovaldo ovvero le stagioni in città (Marcovaldo or the Seasons in the City) published in 1963. In this particular story, Marcovaldo muses about the times of excitement and disappointment when he opens and discovers what his wife has packed for him in his lunch pail. In the story, Calvino uses many different, but related terms to talk about Marcovaldo’s joy for eating and his anticipation of the day’s lunch. For example, opening the lunch pail richiamare l’acquolina in bocca (to make one’s mouth water) and when it is open, Marcovaldo aspirato velocemente il profumo (inhales the scent) of the food.

During the discussion about the story, our instructor mentioned how Calvino uses the different words and associated imagery to approach the subject of the lunch pail and its contents. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. It is natural for me to write about a subject by approaching it from various perspectives, using different but related terms. Sometimes I do it well, sometimes I do it in a confusing manner. Figuratively, I like walking around the subject, seeing it from different angles. What’s more is that I have this tendency when I write technical documentation. I’ve worked for large companies producing technical documentation and I can tell you this: this approach doesn’t fly. When I decide to use different words to describe a technical concept, coloring outside the lines so to speak, I’ve most often gotten blank stares and demands for simplification and rewrites. I feel the approach is a way of mixing it up, injecting some excitement into otherwise lifeless (usually) technical writing. Ironically, a concern I’ve picked up on most teams producing technical documentation is something to the effect “our documentation stinks and nobody reads it”. Hmm. I say there is a rich area of exploration between story telling (like Calvino does and many, many other authors) and technical documentation. Why should there be a separation?

The Cherry Pitter and How I Learned to Love Cherries

2011-08-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Before the cherry pitter, I rarely ate cherries. The thought of popping them in my mouth, and then spitting out the pit never appealed to me. Without the pit, thanks to the pitter, cherries are enjoyable. I’ve often wonder if it is less the mechanics of spitting out a pit and really some taste profile imparted by the pit in my mouth (even if for only a few seconds). The bitter almond flavor of cherry (and other fruits of the Prunus genus like peach and apricot) pits is called noyaux. Some say: cherry pits, eaters beware. Others say: don’t worry so much. The noyaux flavor comes about by some combination of cooking, steeping and smashing up of the pits. Crème di noyaux is used in few classic cocktails such as the Pink Squirrel. (I must get out more and see the world because I’ve never heard of this drink before searching for information about noyaux.) The other, more culinary-savvy half of Travelmarx posits it probably doesn’t have anything to do with pit flavor, but rather the part of the fruit that attaches to the pit which might be slightly more astringent and you get more of that when you don’t remove the pit. Whatever the reason - and even if it is all in my head (or mouth as it were) - it’s a shame, especially in the Northwest, not to be able to enjoy cherries when they are in season.

A Coast to Coast Walk: From St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay

2011-08-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Alfred Wainwright’s A Coast to Coast Walk is a curious book. It was the first place I thought I should start when preparing for the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk. What happened is that I didn’t consult it much before and during the trip. It wasn’t until after the trip when I picked up the book did it start to make sense to me. Alfred Wainwright (1907 – 1991) published this book in 1973. The book I refer to here is the second edition and from the book flaps “[t]his is the first fully revised and updated edition of A. Wainwright’s unique guide to the Coast to Coast Walk which he devised in the early 1970s.”

The book is a wealth of details on how to get from point A to point B. There is a long tradition of this type of descriptive detail. In the Tower of London, days earlier, an exhibit discussed the history of the Ordinance Survey in the UK and its roots in military considerations (hence the name “ordinance”). This general cultural history, plus Wainwright’s interest in drawing and cartography I guess inevitably led to a very descriptive style where every gate, group of trees, contour line, and geological feature is called out and drawn in loving detail. To be honest, it was overwhelming at first, but makes complete sense now in retrospect having walked the land and seen what Wainwright describes, and more importantly, passed through and over numerous kissing gate and stiles - the very objects he describes. It still blows me away looking at the book as I write this that Wainwright created the 200 drawings and maps that appear in the book. Especially interesting are his precise depictions of views from key peaks where he shows direction and distance to other geographical features.

The book also contains lots of observational (non-navigational) passages that at times contain a good dose of humor or perhaps honesty, take your pick. Some of these selected passages are given below with some photos I captured.

Cleator
Wainwright: p. 8 Cleator is “an old village that expanded with the boom in the 19^th century iron-ore mining and in so doing sacrificed its charm and character. Some architectural pretensions are evident in its places of worship and a few older houses but completely absent in the long terraces of small cottages built to a common pattern.”
Travelmarx: Sort of true. The rows of houses have an odd aspect to them. A line from the peak of the roof to the pavement abruptly separates one dwelling from the other without too much thought for continuity. The church (St. Leonard’s) has a back area with a small replica of Lourdes which I understood to have been built when the miners were out of work and today is maintained by volunteers.

Cleator – Row Houses Split Down the Middle

Patterdale to Shap
Wainwright: p. 46 “This is a farewell to Lakeland, and farewells to Lakeland are always sad. What follows is anti climax – level walking instead of up and down, trees and fields and villages instead of rough and lonely hills: lovely, yes, but not excitingly beautiful as the crossing of Lakeland has been.”
Travelmarx: Lakeland is beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to cozy up in Rosthwaite ( Borrowdale) for several months? But, the rest of the walk is just as beautiful.

Sunbiggin Tarn
Wainwright: p. 64 “Sunbiggin Tarn has many regular visitors, but none of them would describe it as visually attractive: it is little more than a large reedy pond in the middle of a morass.”
Travelmarx: I had a lovely day walking across this area. The skies were blue, the heather, well, it was purple. It was 65 degrees and Kate Bush’s Big Sky kept playing in my head.

Milk at Sunbiggin Farms

Big Skies at Sunbiggin Tarn

Richmond to Ingleby Cross (Vale of Mowbray)
Wainwright: p. 110 “If you are fond of placid rural scenery and have an interest in farming, you might enjoy this section of the walk; but if your preference is for the high ground and rough hills you will find it tedious.” p. 116 “To walkers whose liking is for high places and rough terrain, this will seem the dullest part of the whole walk; those who believe the earth is flat will be mightily encouraged on this section.”
Travelmarx: Yes, this is where we saw fields of grain (barley?) and walked through potato fields. Flat it is, yet, it was still pleasant and I don’t believe the earth is flat.

Grain Field in the Vale of Mowbray

Carlton Moor
Wainwright: p. 131 “Carlton Moor was for centuries a place of work; more recently it has been a place of leisure. Gliding is a fine sport, a thrilling and graceful exercise, and it creates no noise or litter – but not even the most ardent enthusiast will claim that the landscape has been improved by its conversion to runways and some may even agree that a large tract of natural scenery has been despoiled.”
Travelmarx: Yes, you can tell something is slightly different there, but, maybe I was too tired to care, the sun was too hot, and I was too hungry for a bacon and egg sandwich at Lord Stones Café. Could also be that the land has rebounded a bit since Wainwright wrote about it since gliding activities were suspended in 2008.

Landing Strips in Carlton Moor

Gliding Club Buildings

Robin Hood’s Bay
Wainwright: p. 163 “Now you can rest on your laurels in the Bay Hotel with a pint, but (let there be no misunderstanding about this) you do so at your own expense. It’s no use saying ‘charge it to Wainwright’ as you could in days gone by at the Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm. No, sonny, that game won’t work here. Pay for you own. I’m skint.”
Travelmarx: I didn’t think to try to charge it to Wainwright. We did have a nice celebration dinner at the Bay Hotel. And, if you are wondering skint = broke.

The Bay Hotel at Robin Hood’s Bay

Personal Notes
Wainwright: p xiv “…I would feel I had succeeded better in arousing interest for the planning of private long-distance walks if the book induced some readers to follow instead their own star and find their own rainbow’s end.”
Travelmarx: We did see a rainbow while celebrating at the Bay Hotel. An appropriate end.

A Rainbow Over Ravenscar Caps the Journey

The Book Flaps of Wainwright’s Book – Second Edition

The Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk – A Botanical View (Eastern Part)

2011-08-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Day 11: Handful of flowers collected within 50 yards of dirt road outside of Egton Bridge

This post continues where the previous post left off. Recap: This post talks about some of the plants I saw on the second half of a recent Wainwright Coast to Coast walking tour sponsored by National Geographic. The walk started on July 24^th and ended on August 3^rd and included 14 of us and 2 guides walking about 140 miles in 12 days. The flowers mentioned here were all spotted trail side between July 31 (day 1) and Aug 3(day 7), what I’m calling the second part of the walk (the eastern part). The day designation will be used in the picture captions below.

July 31 (day 8) :: Reeth to Richmond
Aug 1 (day 9) :: Richmond to Osmotherly
Aug 2 (day 10) :: Osmotherly to Blakey Ridge
Aug 3 (day 11) :: Blakey Ridge to Grosmont
Aug 4 (day 12) :: Grosmont to Robin Hood’s Bay

In this part of the walk, I was also aided by the book Collins Complete British Wild Flowers which I picked up in Richmond.

Day 8: Ribes uva-crispa – Gooseberry
As we leave Reeth we pass by the Marrick Priory and someone points out this gooseberry plant.

Day 8: Geum rivale - Water Avens
As we walk up a steep part in Steps Wood I notice this plant. The dried flower heads are waiting to catch on to a bit of fur to be transported to some other location.

Day 8: Alchemilla vulgaris - Lady's Mantle
A house garden in Marrick.

Day 8: Dipsacus fullonum - Wild Teasel
Leaving the quaint Marrick and heading toward Nun Cote Nook and the Nun Cote Nook Tea Room (we call it Elaine’s after one of the owners). A welcome stop for snacks.

Day 8: Origanum vulgare - Wild Marjoram
Near Whitcliffe Wood as we make our way to Richmond following the River Swale.

Day 8: Lonicera periclymenum – Honeysuckle
We walk into Richmond and pass some houses with pretty gardens which include this honeysuckle.

Day 9: Veronica persica - Common Field-speedwell
Found this plant along the fields that Wainwright had deemed flat and tedious (in his dry way) that are along the Vale of Mowbray. This flower grows along the edge of a barley field. As we walk we heard carnival music in the distance.

Day 9: Inachis io - Peacock Butterfly
On our way to Catterick Bridge and above the River Swale we see this Peacock Butterfly. This one stands still long enough to photograph it.

Day 9: Impatiens glandufliera - Indian Balsam
We had not seen this plant at all until now and suddenly we encounter large areas of it along the River Swale as we approach Catterick Bridge.

Day 10: Macrolepiota rhacodes - Shaggy Parasol Mushroom
Walking out of Osmotherley toward Beacon Hill someone points out this mushroom.

Day 10: Arctium minus - Lesser Burdock
The day before, at the Mount Grace Priory, I try a Fentimans Dandelion (leaf) and Burdock (root) soda that is delicious. And so I start seeing burdock everywhere I look. So did the inventor of velcro (p. 14). This plant is spotted near Scugdale.

Day 10: Vaccinium uliginosum - Bog Bilberry
Scarth Wood Moor. Not too many bilberries to be found at this time of the year. I think at this point we are on the Cleveland Way Trail.

Day 10: Vaccinium uliginosum - Bog Bilberry
Bilberry heaven on Scarth Wood Moor looking toward Whorl Hill.

Day 10: Bog Bilberry (left) and Heather (right) on Round Hill

Day 10: Calluna vulgaris - Heather (also called Ling)
What mention of plants of this area would be complete without mentioning heather? We see heather from day 1 (St. Bees) in small bits here and there, but it isn’t until the Yorkshire Moors that we see large tracts of it in its preferred conditions of acidic soil. The term heather is commonly used to refer to plants in the Ericaceae family for both the Calluna and Erica genus. (Bilberry is also in the same family.)

Day 10: Two types of heather. Calluna (left), Erica (right)

Day 10: Erica tetralix – Cross-leaved Heath
What’s not shown are the leaves that identify this as tetralix.

Day 11: Pavonia pavonia - Emperor Moth caterpillar
The most common food for the Pavonia pavonia is heather. Pavonia is Latin for peacock referring to the moth’s spotted wings looking like peacock feathers. This one was spotted (!) crossing a road near Danby Head.

Day 11: Cirsium palustre - Marsh Thistle (white)
Dona, one my tour mates (always observant) spots this and at first I think it is a bleached out, spent flower. I am wrong. The Marsh Thistle can occasionally be white. We see white thistle as we leave Blakey Ridge (the Lion Inn) and head to Glaisdale. These photos are taken near Danby Head.

Day 11: Cirsium palustre - Marsh Thistle (white and purple)

Day 11: Eriophorum angustifolium - Common Cottongrass
These photos were taken on Flat Howe. We climb out of Grosmont, passing some quarries, and then through Flat Howe. Areas of cottongrass can indicate peat bogs to be avoided by walkers.

Day 11: Bibio pomonae - Heather Fly (male)
We had seen these flies, usually in higher ground – heath, for several days. Sometimes the air is thick with them. We did not know what they were. Finally, a request to the folks at www.WhatsThatBug.com resolved the issue.

Day 11: Euphrasia officinalis – Eyebright
A tiny plant that I see on the edge of Glaisdale Moor.

Day 11: Lyssimachia vulgaris - Yellow Loosestrife
This lysimachia is photographed in a garden in Glaisdale, up the hill from the train station.

Day 11: Epilobium angustifolium – Fireweed
Who needs another photo of fireweed? This photograph is taken outside of Egton Bridge heading toward Grosmont.

Day 11: Centaurea nigra - Common Knapweed
It’s easy to want to overlook knapweed especially when you see so many thistle species all day. It takes me a while to realize these were different. We are leaving Egton Bridge on a dirt road along the River Esk on a beautiful afternoon and the flowers along the road are incredible.

Day 12: Vicia cracca - Tufted Vetch
We see a lot of vetch over the 12 days. It’s not a plant that overwhelms other vegetation as the Common Cleavers (Galium aparine) does.

Day 12: Silene dioica - Red Campion
A plant that I don’t see that much on the trip, maybe I missed it. This photograph is taken near Hawsker Bottoms, on a shady spot on the side of the road, as we make our way to the North Sea.

Collins Complete British Wild Flowers

A Name in North Yorkshire

2011-08-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Lion Inn – Lion

As we were getting ready to leave the Lion Inn on Blakey Ridge in the North York Moors, I saw this poster in the hallway called A Name in North Yorkshire: Theakston. The poster discusses the origins of the name Theakston. But what caught my eye was the general information on the poster about Yorkshire names:

“Place names provide many clues to the origins of people in Yorkshire. BRITISH or CELTIC names have been changed or added to by ROMANS, ANGLES and SAXONS, DANES, VIKINGS and NORMANS.

BRITISH (CELTIC) NAMES
These survive for rivers, SWALE or SUELA meaning ‘rushing’ and for the hills, -PEN.

ROMAN NAMES
References to Roman occupation are found in names ending in –CASTER (e.g. TADCASTER) or –CESTER.

ANGLO-SAXON NAMES
ING is ‘INGAS’ abbreviated, meaning tribe or group. Usually pre-fixed by a leader’s name. Endings of –TON, -HAM, -LEY are very common.

DANISH NAMES
Spread north with the expansion of the Danelaw. Endings –KIRK (Oswaldkirk), -BY (Whitby), -THORPE, -TOFT, -GATE.”

A Name in North Yorkshire Informative Poster

Grosmont and Goathland

2011-08-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Grosmont

We walked into Grosmont on day 11 of our Coast to Coast walk and took the train to Goathland (one stop) where we stayed the night. The train is part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, a steam heritage line. The Goathland train station has a bit of a buzz about it because it served as the Hogsmeade Station in the Harry Potter films. Goathland is also proud of the fact that the TV series Heartbeat was partially filmed there. Early in the morning before we were to start out the day’s hike I walked the town; there were no movie stars or film crews, only sheep busy tending the grass.

On the Train Between Grosmont and Goathland

In Goathland Station, a Train Approaches

Train Leaving Goathland for Grosmont

Sheep in Goathland, Early Morning

Rothko on the Moors

2011-08-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

View on Glaisdale Moor

A Simplification of the View

Maybe it was the visit to the Tate in London days earlier and sitting in the Rothko (Room 3) or maybe it was just the environment, but on the moors I saw color and line. Swaths of green farmland in the distance, bands of purple (blooming heather) and reddish-green, mottled patches (bilberry) in the foreground, occasional blotches of off-white (sheep) floating in between the two, and gray-blue skies hanging over it all. Often devoid of people and with constant blocks of color and slowly changed site lines, the moors I saw evoked in my mind Rothko’s signature style, his late period. In his late period, his large canvases follow “a compositional structure that Rothko explored for twenty–three years beginning in 1947. Narrowly separated, rectangular blocks of color hover in a column against a colored ground. Their edges are soft and irregular, so that when Rothko uses closely related tones, the rectangles sometimes seem barely to coalesce out of the ground, concentrations of its substance.” [The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights]

In the Tate Rothko Room 3 there is a somber atmosphere. The walls are gray and the lighting dimmed to display Rothko’s large canvases in maroon, dark red and black colors. I sit for a while. Into my ears, courtesy of the audio guide, a bit of Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel – Why Patterns? is playing. Ah, I think I understand this thing called art for a moment, but it is fleeting. Back to reality and Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venere degli stracci or Venus of the Rags.

During the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk, the Rothko moments came in the North Yorkshire Moors as we climbed up and down over moors like Danby and Glaisdale moor (day 11) which I remember in particular as we made our way from Blakey Ridge to Grosmont . On the previous day on our way from Osmotherly to Blakey Ridge we went up over Carlton Moor past a (former) gliding club hut and then down to the Lord Stones Café (for a bacon and egg sandwich lunch!). The scenery was more spectacular than I had anticipated.

Part of the challenge on this trip was using my Canon Powershot SD1400 effectively. Perhaps it’s a user issue, but I couldn’t get the camera to capture the big open skies and expanses of heath. The camera seems to work well for macro shots and well-lit, smaller-framed shots. For the landscape shots, I found I gravitated to the Miniature Effect which the manual says “blurs chosen portions in the top and bottom of an image to produce the effect of a miniature model.” It tends to heighten the colors as well. My Canon Rothko effect; it captured the scene the way that spoke to me about what I saw.

The Rothko Room 3, Tate Modern

The Cover of Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel – Why Patterns?

Tate Modern, Venus of the Rags

View From Glaisdale Moor in the Great Fryup Beck

Mxyomatosis – or – The Explanation for Flattened Rabbits

2011-07-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

It took a while for it to dawn on me and my tour mates that something was amiss with the number of rabbits we kept walking past, dead and deflated, like flattened pancakes. Finally, we asked and learned that the rabbits likely succumbed to mxyomatosis – a disease which affects rabbits and is caused by the Myxoma virus, a kind of pox virus. The virus was discovered over a hundred years ago in South America, used in Australia in the 1930s to control rabbit populations, and then unintentionally introduced to France in the 1950s where it eventually spread to the UK. The photo shown here was taken just west of Richmond, near Whitcliffe Wood. This was day 8, July 31 when we walked from Reeth to Richmond on the Wainwright Coast to Coast. The second photo was day 11, Aug 3 when we walked from Blakey Ridge to Grosmont. The dead rabbit was found up on Glaisdale Moor.

The Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk – A Botanical View (Western Part)

2011-07-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Day 7: Impromptu collection of flowers along the River Swale

This post talks about some of the plants I saw on the first half of a Wainwright Coast to Coast walking tour sponsored by National Geographic. The walk started on July 24^th and ended on August 3^rd and included 14 of us and 2 guides. We walked about 140 miles in 12 days from St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay. The flowers mentioned here were all spotted trailside between July 24 (day 1) and July 30 (day 7), what I’m calling the first part of the walk (the western part). The day designation is used in the picture captions below to give a rough idea of where the plant was observed. This is just a sampling of what we saw and in some cases my identification of what we saw may be wrong.

The motivation for documenting the flowers? I thought it would be fun to get to know the country in a botanical sense which is quite natural for me. Originally, I thought I would identify one plant a day, but it turns out I couldn’t stop at one. The tools? A camera, a guide book, and an iPad app. The camera: Canon Powershot SD1400. The book: A Naturalist’s Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain & Northern Europe. The app: Interactive Flora of the British Isles.

Part II of this post is here.

Day 1: Convolvulus arvensis - Field Bindweed
We stay at the Seacote Hotel near the ocean and once settled, I wall back into the old town and saw this bindweed on a fence bordering a field.

Day 2: Armeria martima – Thrift
This photo is taken a few minutes before we start the coast to coast walk. It’s on the beach at St. Bees, looking south.

Day 2: Tripleurospermum maritimum – Sea Mayweed
On a rock ledge at St. Bees.

Day 2: Aglais urtica - Small Tortoiseshell
Our first real day of hiking and it starts out as a beautiful day on the cliffs north of St. Bees. There is a lot botanically and insect-wise to look at such as this Small Tortoiseshell butterfly.

Day 2: Campanula rotundifolia – Harebell
This is seen along the cliffs just North of St. Bees.

Day 2: Succisa pratensis - Devil's Bit Scabius

Day 2: Cirsium arvense - Creeping Thistle
This thistle smells sweetly. I pop the blossom off and walk a while with it, sniffing it. This picture is taken just after we leave the cliffs north of St. Bees and head east.

Day 2: Juncus effusus – Soft Rush
In some spots, we see large areas covered in rush, typically (over) grazed pasture.

Day 2: Digitalis purpurea – Foxglove

Day 2: Matricaria discoidea - Pineapple Mayweed
One of my favorite plants. It smells like pineapple when you bruise it.

Day 2: Epilobium hirsutum - Great Willowherb
A cousin of Fireweed.

Day 3: Dactylorhiza fuchsii - Common Spotted Orchid
Spot this as we just start to walk along Ennerdale Water near the weir at the west end.

Day 3: Dactylorhiza maculata - Heath Spotted Orchid
As we walk east away from Ennerdale Water along the River Liza I spot this orchid near the Low Gillerthwaite Field Centre.

Day 3: Narhecium ossifragum - Bog Asphodel
Along Ennerdale Water.

Day 3: Prunella vulgaris - Self Heal
A common plant this can easily be overlooked. Once you see it, you see it everywhere.

Day 4: Stachys sylvatica - Hedge Woundwort
Smells like sulfur when bruised. I see it in many locations, typically shady spots.This is photographed in Glenridding as we make our way to the Inn on the Lake.

Day 4: Epilobium angustifolium - Fireweed or Rosebay Willow Herb
Epilobium is quite common. On the train ride from London to Penrith I remember seeing quite a bit of it along the tracks.

Day 5: Ulex eruopaeus - Common Gorse
The dreaded Gorse. In reality, we don’t encounter it too much. If you’re a land owner I suppose it is a pain, but for hikers, the stinging nettle is more likely to get you.

Day 5: Geranium pratense - Meadow Crane's-bill
Especially common on the sides of small country lanes.

Day 5: Spiraea salicifolia – Bridewort
Don’t see Bridewort that much, only this one time.

Day 5: Jasione montana - Sheep's-bit

Day 5: Stellaria holostea - Greater Stitchwort

Day 6: Urtica dioica - Stinging Nettle
I was aware of this plant before Day 6, but Day 6 is the first time I feel its sting.

Day 6: Crataegus monogyna – Hawthorn
This tree is quite common found by itself in open areas.

Day 6: Myosotis laxa - Tufted Forget-me-not
I see this flower along a small stream as we made our way into Orton.

Day 6: Calvatia utriformis - Puff Ball Mushroom
The puff balls look so strange when you come across them in grassy areas.

Day 6: Achillea ptarmica – Sneezewort

Day 6: Galium aparine - Common Cleavers
Quite common and at times can blot out other vegetation. This is photographed just outside of Ravenstonedale.
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Day 7: Filipendula ulmaria – Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet has a nice scent that reminds me a little of baby powder, a subtle scent.

A Naturalist’s Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain & Northern Europe.

Red v. Grey Squirrel

2011-07-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

A Red Squirrel Road Sign in Ravenstonedale

As we headed into Ravenstonedale on day 6 of the Coast to Coast walk we saw a number of signs about the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). In a nutshell (!), the population of these mohawked-eared cuties has decreased because of the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), an American cousin. The grey squirrel out-competes the red squirrel for a number of reasons including: 1) the grey squirrel can readily eat acorns and the red squirrel can’t and there are a lot of oak trees; 2) the grey squirrel carries a disease that is often fatal to red squirrels; and 3) the red squirrels don’t breed as much when under pressure. More information can be found at the Northern Red Squirrels Site that works to support the reds and the Save Our Squirrels site which has some great information sheets about the plight of the reds.

Telling the Difference Between the Red and Grey Squirrel [ref]

From a book I read, The Diversity of Life, I remember reading that species that have evolved to specialized environments are in general more vulnerable to extinction than less specialized species. The reference to “black spot” in one of the photos, I believe, means a place in the road that is dangerous for squirrels, i.e. they get run over. As for grey squirrels, it is legal to kill them in the UK.

While we are talking about Ravenstonedale and on to more pleasant subjects, I must say that I had a great stay at the Old Vicarage. Tea and cake at 5:30 when I arrived. Most of our group stayed at the Black Swan, also very nice, but, the vicarage was just right for me.

Tea and Cake at the Old Vicarage, Ravenstonedale

Day 4: July 27 Rosthwaite to Glenridding; this sign spotted heading out of Grasmere

Day 5: July 28 Lake ullswater to Shap; this sign spotted near Bampton

Kate Bush – Director’s Cut and Joyce Seedcakes

2011-07-09T20:30:00.001-07:00

We were playing around with a new service, MOG (“…the next-generation music subscription service that delivers the highest audio fidelity: 320 kbps.”), on Sonos and found a new Kate Bush album! Woah. The new album is called Director’s Cut (2011) and features four tracks from The Sensual World (1989) and seven from The Red Shoes (1993) – re-recorded. The Red Shoes tracks seem more interesting in their re-recorded versions than we ever remember them on Red Shoes – which admittedly was our least favorite Bush album.

The big story on The Director’s Cut is that the song Flower of the Mountain (a re-titling of the track The Sensual World) now uses the original text from James Joyce’s Ulysses, which was apparently Bush’s original intent but the estate of Joyce didn’t agree to let her use the text back in the late 1980s. Now they have.

The lyrics for Flower of the Mountain come from the end of the novel, in the section called Molly Bloom’s soliloquy. The exception is what we’ll call the chorus part “Stepping out of the page, into the sensual world. Stepping out.” which is the listener’s response to the text. The text from Molly Bloom’s stream of consciousness is shown below with bolded text being what Bush uses in the Flower of the Mountain.

“…and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me [verse1] yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses [verse2] and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another [verse3] and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.” [text from Gutenberg.org]

Bush chose wisely.

As folks who didn’t really care much for the Joyce we’ve read – okay one book is not a good sample - this is really quite a bit of analysis on our part, isn’t it? If only Kate Bush would write more songs based on Joyce’s work, it just might persuade us to read more Joyce.

Goodbye Nib Brittle, Hello Salted Almond

2011-07-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Theo Chocolate seems to have retired Nib Brittle. We really liked the Nib Brittle bar, but Salted Almond ain’t no slouch. (The somewhat garish pink packaging is a little off-putting.) Goodbye Nib, we really did know ye.

The New Gal on the Block – Salted Almond

Goat Lake Hike and Flora

2011-07-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

Today we hiked to Goat Lake. We started from the parking lot off of Mountain Loop Highway (location). We took the lower Elliot loop up and the upper loop back (a road called NF-4080 that is no longer passable by vehicle). The round-trip for us was about 11.5 miles and it took us about 6 hours. We sat and ate lunch at Goat Lake and explored for about an hour. It was one of the only hikes in the area that was clear of snow or so they told us at the Verlot Ranger Station. (Can we just say that in a sea of really bad architecture in that area, the Verlot station is positively cute?)

One thing that really stood out for us on this hike was the different types of flora we saw during the hike and so we’ll make a mention of a few things that we saw and could reasonably identify.

On a Mass of Snow Looking Toward Foggy Peak

Alnus rubra (Red Alder)
Have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria Frankia that fixes nitrogen and gives a little to the tree and eventually the land – a good thing in nitrogen-deficient soils.

Alnus viridis (Green Alder)
Shrubby cousin to rubra.

Oplopanax horridus (Devil’s Club)
Panax is the genus name for ginseng, a relative to the Devil’s Club. Panax mean “all-heal” in Greek and oplo is the Greek word for weapon. So Devil’s Club is a horrible weapon that heals?

Veratrum viride (Indian Hellebore)
Vera “true” + atrum “black” refers to the plant’s dark rhizomes or flowers and viride means green, and the plant is quite green.

Valeriana sitchensis (Sitka Valerian)
We are going to have to go with the Jepson Manual etymology: Valeriana from the Latin for strength for its use in folk medicine or after Valerian, a Roman Emperor.

Thalictrum occidentale (Western Meadow-rue)
Thalictrum is name given by the Greek physician-botanist Dioscorides (circa 40-90 AD), author of Materia Medica a key pharmacological text for sixteen centuries. One source suggests that he derived the word from ‘thaliktron’ which mean a plant with divided leaves. And just when you think you can leave it at that, somewhere, in some corner of the internet you find Medica available (translated naturally) and you feel compelled to check. In Book Four: Other Herbs & Roots, there is a reference to THALIKTRON but there isn’t a clue to why the name was chosen.

Trillium ovatum (Western Trillium)
Always a pleasant site to see.

Aquilegia formosa (Red Columbine)
The genus Aquilegia name derives from the Latin word ‘aquila’ (eagle) referring to the shape of the flower petals (sepals in this case). Formosa is handsome and that it is.

Rubus spectablis (Salmonberry)
The wild cousin of the familiar raspberry. The genus name rubus is said to derive from the Latin word ‘ruber’ meaning red. For the berries or the blood drawn as you try to forage the brambles?

Lysichiton americanum (Western Skunk Cabbage)
Some of the biggest and stateliest leaves you find in Western Forests. Lysichiton derives from the Greek ‘lysis’ (meaning “a loosening or releasing”) of the ‘chiton’ (meaning “tunic, cloak or cover”) that is the spathe-like bract. [ref].

Matamuros Seattle Jazz-Blues Mural – Cascade District

2011-07-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Right Side of Mural

Noc On Wood Records / Woodshed Studios is located in the Cascade District at the corner of Fairview and Thomas in Seattle. This Friday night, after work as we walked to REI we stopped and gawked at this jazz-themed mural by the mural company Matamuros . But how to decode this mural? We think we see from left to right: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Etta James, Quincy Jones, and Ray Charles. On the left, Seattle natives. On the right, artists who worked in Seattle? What is the significance of the apartment building 206? Where is the setting? Is that Smith Tower we see in the background, left? Does the setting represent Jackson Street and Twelfth Avenue where Seattle’s jazz scene was born?

Left Side of Mural

Full Mural

Album Cover Inspiration?
Etta James and Jimi Hendrix

Ceanothus impressus ‘Vandenburg’

2011-06-25T12:47:00.001-07:00

Ceanothus impressus ‘Vandenburg’ is a variety of the California Lilac (or Santa Barbara Ceanothus) that was discovered at the Vandenberg Air Force Base – as some describe it. Other sources say it is a cultivar which implies it was intentionally cultivated. At any rate it is more dense and compact than the typical Ceanothus. We’ve had it in the ground in a sunny location for about ten years now and it has done very well. We water it little to none and throw a little mulch around the base once a year. We trim every year to keep it open enabling light to come through to ground covering beneath. We like to keep the Ceanothus at or about head-chest level so when you walk by you can enjoy it.

Ceanothus impressus ‘Vandenburg’ starts blooming around June 1^st for us and the bees love it. For humans, the shrub is beautiful to look it and has a smell that we would describe as a mix of honey and fresh green pasture, a subtle scent.

The etymology of the word Ceanothus (pronounced: see-an-OH-thus) comes from the Greek keanothus, a name used for a spiny plant. The word impressus (pronounced: im-PRESS-us) refers to the pattern of leaf veins that looks as if they were impressed on to the leaf.

Progress: Myth, History, and Origin

2011-06-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Recently we read three books on the subject of progress that are lumped together in one idea stew – for better or worse - in the Travelmarx mind. Two of the books, The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress and A Short History of Progress deal with the notion of progress directly. The third book, The Grand Design, deals with progress of our cosmological knowledge.

The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress (2010) by journalist, author, and war correspondent Chris Hedges is perhaps the most depressing read of the three. Yes we love Hedges’ insightful analysis and comments and call to action (really revolt), but it’s hard to escape psychologically unbruised from his writing and he does have a habit of invoking (at least in our minds) Marvin the Paranoid Android and his lament about a “… terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side”. That said, this collection of dispatches is essential reading if you think everything is hunky dory and humanity is just humming along swimmingly. Take this opening sentence from the “Calling All Future Eaters” dispatch: “The human species during its brief time on Earth has exhibited a remarkable capacity to kill itself off.” The state of progress: it’s a myth.

A Short History of Progress (2004) by Ronald Wright is a book that deals with where we’ve come from, where we are, and were we are going. Wright starts out by invoking Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and his 1897 painting titled “D’où Venons Nous? Que Sommes Nous? Où Allons Nous?” or “Where Do We Come From? What are We? Where are We Going?” Gauguin, a French artist, went to Tahiti and the South Seas to escape “everything that is artificial, conventional, customary.” [Noa Noa – Paul Gauguin, 1919 by Nicholas Brown] In A Short History of Progress, Wright is interested in shining light on the last question: “Where are we going?” by first answering the other two questions. The state of progress: in jeopardy if we don’t seriously change, “…Homo sapiens has the information to know itself for what it is: an Ice Age hunter only half-evolved towards intelligence; clever but seldom wise.”

The Grand Design (2010) by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow is a fairly accessible account of the design of the universe and how it came to be. The progress aspect here is our understanding of the universe’s beginning and end, or shall we say universes’. The first good thing we’ll say about the book is that, refreshingly, there isn’t subtitle on this book. The second good thing is that there are some simple explanations of concepts like model dependent reality or the double –slit experiment that in case you hadn’t seen explanations of them before might be worth it. But, other than that, this book reads like an extended essay that wasn’t exactly finished and overall feels disappointing. And, at times the writing is corny.

The Grand Design sets out to answer three questions. “Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other?” In the process, the book gives a quick review of the state of progress in cosmology over the last few hundred years. The state of progress: according to the authors, we do not need to invoke divine beings to answer these questions.

Of interest to those watching the progress of media technology, the Grand Design was the first book read entirely digital and all of these were purchased and read on with the Kindle application on iPad. The process for making notes and using the notes is different in this medium. You make a note or highlight in the Kindle application and then you go the Amazon Kindle site and retrieve your notes. Cloud reading. We are still getting the hang of it so you could say that there is a lot more progress to be made.

Lavandula Summer – Raspberry Ruffles, Madrid Blue, and Lemon Leigh

2011-06-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Lavandula stoechas ‘Lemon Leigh’

This season we picked up three different cultivars of lavender varieties: Lavandula stoechas ‘Mulberry Ruffles’ (patent pending), Lavandula stoechas ‘Madrid Blue’, and Lavandula stoechas ‘Lemon Leigh’ (patent pending). The first two are in the front yard where we don’t go so often to experience the plants. Both look great. The ‘Mulberry Ruffles’ has a nice deep pink color and well defined parent plants as detailed in the patent – it comes from good stock. It is part of a the Australian lavender ‘Ruffles Series’. The bracts on top look ruffled.

‘Madrid Blue’ is striking because of the combination of yellow (top, showy bracts), purple (flowers), and green (bracteole we believe) in the flower. It’s definitely different than your typical French/Spanish lavender which all three of these derive from.

The third cultivar, ‘Lemon Leigh’ we potted and placed on the deck where we often pass by it. This turned out to be a good decision because it’s generally a pretty plant and its foliage is nicely lemon-scented which is surprising at first. The flower spike is mostly green, due to those parts we think are called bracteoles, with white flowers and yellow top, showy bracts. They only negative we would mention about ‘Lemon Leigh’ is that the actual flowers tend to turn brown and hang around for a while. Though small, they don’t necessarily add up to a pretty spike, whereas some of your other stoechas age gracefully. The photos shown here of ‘Lemon Leigh’ were selected to not show the brown. According to the patent, ‘Lemon Leigh’ was “discovered growing in a cultivated area of Wairau Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand in 1998. The exact parents are unknown.”

Lavandula stoechas ‘Raspberry Ruffles’

Lavandula stoechas ‘Madrid Blue’

Lavandula stoechas ‘Lemon Leigh’

TravelMarx

Seattle Downtown Mural - Echoes of Sylvester?

Etta James and Macklemore

Quito - Old Town Street Vendors and All Those Doll Outfits

Quito

Reading Up Before We Left

Impressions on the Ground

What We Saw

Where We Stayed and Ate

Plant Guide Books for the Galápagos Islands

Theatrum - Fruit Dessert

Guayasamín Museum - Quito

McCoy Grecian Pottery and Holiday Greens

Panettone

Weller Claywood and Skimmia foremanii

Richard Dawkins and The Magic of Reality

The Message

The Medium

Annashaab Vase with Buddha’s Hand

Kähler and Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’

Curious Naturalists

Connections

Kähler and Yucca gloriosa ‘Variegata’

Java, Apache Ant and Hello World

Task 1: How to create a simple Hello World Java application and run it from the command line

Task 2: How to build a JAR and use the JAR to run the Hello World application

Task 3: How to use Apache Ant to create a build file for the Hello World application

Task 4: How to build a Hello World application, using an external library (log4j), at the command line

Task 5: How to create an Apache Ant build file for a Hello World application that uses an external library

Task 6: How to pass arguments into the Hello World application using the build file

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A very small leaved plant with oversized flowers.