Can you see me? I'm still here, just off to play in sunny Finland. No, really. Well it was sunny for the first week, on and off. I landed on Saturday, Oct. 15th and will be returning on Halloween night. Last weekend I had the distinctly odd pleasure of watching a category 3 hurricane wallop my city, my neighborhood, etc. while sitting in a hotel lobby in Riga, Latvia. It was my birthday and I was sitting there watching a German TV station broadcasting their reporter live from ground zero in Naples, FL. It was beaucoup strange, let me tell you.
I hear from friends that my house is ok but the yard and trees are trashed, of course. My mother's house fared ok and she even got power back yesterday. My office is on Brickell Avenue in the financial district and it has power as well despite the debris and skyscraper destruction all around.
Though the authorities are once again embarrassing all Americans with their extreme ineptitude and finger pointing (think Keystone Kops stoned to the gills), Miamians and probably all Floridians are helping their neighbors themselves and pulling it together. Will FEMA and the State and Feds ever get past the clusterfuck approach? stay tuned. Hurricane season is not over till November 30th. Argh.
On the 'fiddle while Miami gets blown away' side, I've found beautiful yarn, learned to weave yesterday on a large floor loom, learned all about how you buy yarn in Latvia (more on this later, it's quite a process), and saw a pair of wild swans heading south overhead on their way from the small wetlands around the lake across the road from the house where I'm staying. Just breathtaking... Nature is very close in Finland. Tonight (it's 6 pm as I write this, 7 hours later than Eastern Daylight Time) we had mushroom salad with mushrooms Gomez picked a few weeks ago in the forest around her house. And drank juice from some berries that have no English name also picked in September. Yesterday I had lunch with a Finnish couple, friends of Gomez (Gomez & I have been best friends since age 12 or so), and we had cloudberries and also fresh cranberries picked by Raine, the husband, in the forest park adjoining their apt. in Tampere. These are not the large, dark, hard berries we know, but smaller, thin-skinned little luminous red orbs that get a generous helping of sugar on them before spooning them up.
Yum. And we had Forest Chanterelle soup, probably the best mushroom soupn I've ever had in my life, from mushrooms harvested earlier in the week by Raine. If the CEO of Campbells had any honor at all, s/he should shoot the company in the corporate head for daring to call that glop mushroom soup...
When we came home from picking the girls up at school this afternoon, there were fox tracks in the snow all around the house. Love it.
Le sigh. Well, just wanted you to know I'm alive and well. Will post a multitude of pictures when I return, assuming I ever get power back... I hope all of you are fine and if in So. Fla., that you survived the blow in good shape. I send you snowy hugs...
Feed My Head 2010
Andrea Camilleri: The Wings of the Sphinx (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)
The wonderful, irascible Inspector Montalbano of Vigata, Sicily is at it again. Did I mention he's wonderful? And there are 10 earlier ones in the series.Ariana Franklin: The Serpent's Tale
The very wonderful Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar (prepare to die!) continues her work. Who knew that the wretched pit that is present day Salerno once housed an amazing and Europe-reknowned medical school? Where even women were allowed to become doctors...Ariana Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death
Wonderful. And amazing as a first novel. There are some inevitably cringe-worthy scenes (if you're going to be true to the middle ages) but Franklin's ability to bring those times to life is spot-on. And she is amazing with the first of the Plantagenets. Makes me want to jump his unsavory little bones.Nicholas Blake: The Worm of Death
Vintage 1960 British murder mystery. Good if you'd like to learn quayside shipping vocabulary for the docks at Greenwich...Kent Haruf: Where You Once Belonged
Well written but depressing. Very depressing. His others are better.Kent Haruf: Eventide
the sequel, sort of, to the wonderful Plainsong. I know that he's the father someone related to a knitblogger I read regularly. She mentioned him one time and the prior book Plainsong. Who? dunno. I'm not sure I would have appreciated Haruf as much had I not moved to a small, rural town. Go find him. He's quietly wonderful.Ray Kurzweil Ph.D.: Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
Another state-of-the-research book from Kurzweil and the longevity physician, Terry Grossman. I liked Fantastic Voyage better, but for sheer quality of information relevant to our health today, it's hard to beat. You can get a free (but for the shipping cost) copy at Ray and Terry's, their website that sells the supplements key to the program. As they say, they don't care if you get the supplements from them or not, just get them, take them and make the lifestyle changes. Then we'll be around to benefit from the next geometric progression of the health research paradigm.Mehmet Oz M.D.: Healing from the Heart: A Leading Heart Surgeon Explores the Power of Complementary Medicine
so far so good. the ego required to succeed in the star-system world of cardio-thoracic surgery is only minimally present at the half way point in this book. In his world this is no doubt radical, radical stuff. Interesting to see the highest towers of traditional western medicine allow alternative therapies in.Diane Ackerman: The Zookeeper's Wife
Love Diane Ackerman. Just started this, I'll get back to you...Dana Stabenow: Whisper to the Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel (Kate Shugak Novels)
Another keeper. All is not well in The Park. The Aunties have taken matters into their own hands. Be afraid. another bit of wonderfulness from Dana Stabenow. Once again I'll be tapping my fingers for another year till the next Kate Shugak mystery shows up. Sigh.Byron Katie: A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are
Loving What Is continued on...tough Work but is there really a choice about it? heh.Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Alrighty, I'm late to this game but if you haven't read this, go forth and read it NOW. It's a wonderful tale and it's not over yet. As we ramp up the war in Afghanistan why not join the Dept. of Defense and do your required reading? As Rep. Mary Bono (yes, that one) says, you'll learn more about the region from this book than you will from months of Pentagon briefings. Go Dr. Greg!Andrea Camilleri: August Heat
Camilleri's latest Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicilia. Just wonderful. Now I have to wait a year for the next one. Crap.Janwillem van de Wetering: The Japanese Corpse (Soho crime)
Two Dutch cops sent to Kyoto to solve a murder in Amsterdam involving the Yakusa. Van de Wetering is a 'voice' like no other. He spent several years in a Zen monastery in Kyoto himself. The entire series has been re-issued by Soho Crime and is totally wonderful. And the cover design by Cheryl Cipriani is awesome. Yes, I'm a cover art ho.Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic
The hardback has an illustration taken from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Proserpine. Much nicer. Hoffman's a great storyteller. And I always want her characters to go forward to the next book. But they never do. Go read this one anyway. You're welcome.Tony Hillerman: The Mysterious West
This is a REALLY wonderful short story collection edited by Hillerman. Lord, I'm going to miss that man. All of the stories are set in the west or midwest, small towns and large. They're quirky and somewhat unexpected, especially relative to the usual work of the authors like J.A. Jance, Dana Stabenow (a bit darker), Lia Matera (chilling), etc. The true find for me is Wendy Hornsby. One of the best written stories, independent of genre, I've ever read. I've never read a more skillfully built exposition of the backstory built into the actual story. wow. I'm off to see what else of hers I can find.Charles de Lint: The Wild Wood
Re-reading this bit of loveliness from de Lint. Among other things, it's about an artist who's lost her mojo. It's apropos given that I've re-started The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.Elizabeth A. Lynn: Chronicles of Tornor 3: The Northern Girl (Chronicles of Tornor)
Found this as I was repacking ancient boxes of books. It was written in the late 70s and is flat out wonderful. It's the third book of a trilogy (the 2nd one is Dancers of Arun) I highly recommend all of them. It's Fantasy with an incredibly drawn world worth of an Ursula LeGuin, deep and quirky characters, and stay-up-all-night story telling. go. find them.Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]
A birthday gift from the Gomez. Starting this once again after years of hiatus. Wonderful.
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October 27, 2005
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Good to hear you're enjoying Finland, and that you didn't get much damage from the latest hurricane.
And now, I'm off to daydream about Forest Chanterelle soup and cloudberries....
Posted by: Liz | October 28, 2005 at 08:08 AM
Sounds like the food is well worth the trip alone! So good to hear that you are fine and your home is, too. Have a super good time!!
Posted by: margene | October 28, 2005 at 10:14 AM
So, so great to hear from you (see if you can't bring some of those yummy mushrooms home with you) :-) Have a safe trip back, and see you soon!
Posted by: Neena | October 28, 2005 at 10:24 AM
Wild berries and mushrooms from the forest? Sounds like seasonal cuisine for the gods. Happy birthday, love, sounds like you're in a mesmerizing state to ponder massive issues like what comes after life in the financial district. Are you writing? Weaving, tres cool. Do you have enough wool sweaters? Sounds like you're in a good place to prepare for the upcoming transitional weirdness.
Here, la la land rights itself, partially, with today's indictment of Scooter Libby. And I was too intoxicated by paint-frustration to properly celebrate.
Well. Happy Birthday, and safe travels home on Halloween.
Posted by: mari | October 28, 2005 at 09:39 PM
ooooh, sounds like you've been having a wonderful time. good for you! all that real-life crap will be there when you get back. I'm so glad you had a relaxing vacation!
Posted by: Jeri | October 31, 2005 at 01:57 PM