Wednesday
March 21, 2001

The Best of Times

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Here are a few of my favorite online haunts:

REALTOR.ca
[This is the site I visit to fantasize about living in Toronto again, which is almost every single day during the winter]

Jonathan Cainer's Zodiac Forecasts
[This is where I visit in the morning, when I need a positive spin on things past, present and future.]

Living Local
[This is where I go to see what Canadians are up to, sometimes I even buy things from the businesses listed there.]

Environment Canada Weather
[This is the site I visit every morning, and before every road trip during the winter]

Yesterday was the first day of spring. Although the weather has been warmer and much of the snow has melted, my body does not recognize that spring has arrived. Spring is something I have felt very deeply since I was a small child. The feeling is impossible to describe other than to say it is a stirring and a joy. My body does not recognize the season yet as spring.

Monday the sun shone brightly out of a blue sky. The sidewalks are once again clear allowing the freedom to walk, and walk I did. The perfect excuse presented itself in the form of borrowed items from the local library, CDs. Our library is closed Mondays, but no matter, the drop box is always open for returns. Along the way, in one well tended garden, a small cluster of Snowdrops struggled and bloomed in the surrounding snow. The strength of the sun has beckoned them forth despite the temperature and the snow cover.

Now, if only the strength of the sun could stir my ambition and get me out for my walks with the regularity I had achieved last fall.

Tuesday the sky was bright but not blue. Thin clouds iced the sky as freezing temperatures slowly rose. The squirrels and birds in our back yard seemed not to mind the cold. They appeared intent on their foraging of the well-gleaned landscape. As the snow retreats, new sources of food present themselves.

Attila and "The Teenager" both had trouble getting started this morning. Attila's alarm clock inexplicably failed and "The Teenager" did not set hers. I am in the unfortunate position of waking bright and early each morning without an alarm, and so was able to rouse each of them in good time.

Waking early in the morning, each and every day, is both a blessing and a curse. Morning is a lovely time of day and I enjoy it very much. However, if up late into the evening, I do not sleep longer in the morning to compensate. Therefore, a series of late nights result in a sleep deficit and insomnia ensues. This inability to sleep-in seems to be an unusual characteristic, as I have not encountered anyone with similar sleep rhythms. I attribute it to growing up on a farm, where one arises daily with or before the light.

Our company left this evening; Steve Paul wound up his traveling minstrel show and headed for home. It has been a real pleasure to have him here. There has been a warm ambiance about the house, similar to the glow of Christmas. From all accounts, we were not the only ones that thoroughly enjoyed his visit. Those who had the pleasure of attending his performances enjoyed hearing familiar tunes sung beautifully.

Attila has finished reading Thomas Carlyle's "The French Revolution in Two Volumes". At various times over the past weeks Attila would seek me out to read aloud excerpts that he found particularly well written and well conceived. One of my favorites follows:

"Know this also, that out of a world of Unwise, nothing but an Unwisdom can be made. Arrange it, constitution-build it, sift it through ballot-boxes as thou wilt, it is and remains an Unwisdom, - the new prey of new quacks and unclean things, the latter end of it slightly better than the beginning. Who can bring a wise thing out of men unwise? Not one." (Carlyle, Volume 2, p 471)



Top of Page
RECIPES :: Cast

Worldly Distractions


Blue Sky and Tree Branches
Monday's Sky



By the Easy Chair
Toy Soldiers, A Guide to preventing lead rot,
by Susan Stock
in Rotunda:
Volume 33, Number 3, Spring 2001




Airwaves
Celtic Harp:
The Music of Turlough O'Carolan
performed by Patrick Ball



On the Screen
Random Corridor:
iTunes Visual Effect



Weather
11:00 PM EST
Temp: 3` C
Humidity: 75%
Wind: NE 7 mph
Barometric: 30.02 in

Sunrise 6:18 AM EST
Sunset 6:27 PM EST
 

Page by Page: A Woman's Journal
Photography
Poetry
by Maggie Turner

Canadian Maggie Turner writes and publishes poetry, photography, and a personal journal online. Her work reflects the current way of life in Canada, embracing Canada's past, present, and future in a unique portrayal of everyday life. Maggie's voice is one of the many that actively depict the rich diversity of Canadian culture.

Photography: "a term which comes from the Greek words photos (light) and graphos (drawing). A photograph is made with a camera by exposing film to light in order to create a negative. The negative is then used in the darkroom to print a photograph (positive) onto light-sensitive paper.
Source: University of Arizona Glossary

Poetry: "a form of speech or writing that harmonizes the music of its language with its subject. To read a great poem is to bring out the perfect marriage of its sound and thought in a silent or voiced performance. At least from the time of Aristotle's Poetics, drama was conceived of as a species of poetry."
Source: Creative Studios

Journal: " "Though a journal may be many things - a treasury, a storehouse, a jewelry box, a laboratory, a drafting board, a collector's cabinet, a snapshot album, a history, a travelogue..., a letter to oneself - it has some definable characteristics. It is a record, an entry-book, kept regularly, though not necessarily daily.... Some (entries) will be nearly illegible, written in the dark in the middle of the night.... Not only is it a record for oneself, but of oneself. Every memorable journal, any successful journal, is honest. Nothing sham, phony, false...." (Dorothy Lambert from Ken Macrorie's book, Writing to be Read )
A journal is a way to keep track of your thoughts about what you read... as well as what you did on any given day."
Source: Journal Writing

A Blog is an online journal created by server side software, often hosted by a commercial interest.

"The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger[4] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.[5][6][7] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging


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