some photographs

It's been nearly two months since I've posted, for which I once again feel like a very bad blog mommy. But such is life for me in New York; and I am beginning to simply accept this aspect of myself and my life and move on. We are knee-deep in fall colour right now, and I do have some pictures, with which I am rather happy:





In addition, I have two very unusual discoveries to post, one which I found exploring my bedroom ceiling several weeks ago:

To put this fellow (or lady) centipede into perspective, suffice it to say that his body alone was about an inch and a half long! Needless to say, I carefully captured him in a cup and deposited him outside where he belongs.

Here is another surprising thing:
This is the appropriately-named Phallus ravenelii, a type of stinkhorn fungus that I was lucky (or unlucky, if you count the stench these things produce) enough to stumble upon in a stand of Beech trees near Lynd house. The smell is obvious by the large fly that seems to think the sticky black pollen is some sort of rotting food item.

This semester is proving itself to be a truly hectic one-- I have undertaken a huge conference paper on the taxonomy of green algae for my botany class, as well as the writing of a long allegorical poem for yet another class with Bill Shullenberger. In addition, I've joined the equestrian team, which means I have horse shows every weekend from now until the end of time. But I plan on making it through this semester alive!

I know that I am, indeed, awful at this whole diligence thing. I must make this resolution right now: Once a week, at least, I promise to post here, even if it's just a few words. I feel I am becoming careless.

This morning , I awoke to this splendor:




Unfortunately, the lovely snow affected a late opening on campus this morning, which means that my new philosophy class was cancelled; while this class already met once on Tuesday, today was the second portion about which I am rather curious--the class is an integrated Chinese philosophy/movement class, and we have yet to meet for the movement aspect.

As the daylight grows longer and longer each week, I find myself once again in a terrible poetry slump. It seems that every January it hits me like this--So beautiful, so inspiring, and yet I am without inspiration.

Off to conference now, but more in the next week, I PROMISE!

A Happy Samhain to All, and to All, a Good Night

Yesterday was Halloween, the overwhelmingly favourite holiday of myself and my peers. The holiday this year was made particularly pleasant by the presence in New York of my own darkling, one Mister Michael Benjamin Herndon. We spent the day at the New York Botanical Gardens, in the Bronx, with a couple of all-garden passes and pic-nic for two. It was a beautiful, mild, drizzly day and we ate a delicious lunch of goat's milk brie, baguette, tortellini salad with cherry tomatoes, and Bartlett pears before we meandered about the garden taking in the phenomenal autumn colours. Here are some photos--







You can see how bleakly beautiful October is here. I wish I could just bottle it up.

And, of course, it simply isn't Halloween without a party or two! My lady friends here on Campus invited me to a party at the Harlem apartment of a friend of theirs, so M. Benjamin and I dressed up (he as a Red Hat Lady, and I as Artemis, the goddess of the hunt) and went with Jamie into the city for the evening. We met Dana, Annette, India, and her boyfriend Nick there and stayed till nearly one before heading back home. Here are more pictures for you:


There's Michael Benjamin as a Red Hat Lady. Stunning, don't you think? I particularly like the post-menopausal whiskers he has going on there...


India and Nick getting sexy with the pizza.

The MacCracken Ladies, from left: Dana, India, me, and Annette. Jamie had already left and Parisa hadn't come along, but with those two, the six of us plan on living together next year.

So that's it! Hope your Halloween was as much fun as mine!

L'Automne Vive!

Today was the most beautiful autumn day that I have just about ever seen. It was brilliantly sunny and clear, around 65-70 degrees all day--just perfect for a light cardigan--and the colours were all freshened and brightened up from yesterday's rains. I enjoyed some lounging about on the North Lawn, reading The Poetics of Natural History, and feasting on a sack lunch of first-crop California almonds (thank you, Grandpapa and Grandmama!), figs, radishes, clementines, ginger-lemon cookies, and a petite peanut-butter-and-strawberry-peach-jam sandwich. I sipped oolong from the TeaHaus (don't you just love it when you can pay for something entirely in coins? It makes me feel one part starving artist and one part Regency maiden...) and reclined at a pic-nic table to enjoy my reading. I've finished the first essay, on father-and-son naturalist duo John and William Bartram, who lived in the Eastern US during the later half of the eighteenth century. I daresay this book is a fantastic read, and turning out to be a perfect source for my Photography conference paper on scientific illustration and photography.

Anyhow, I must say I indulged myself once again with the foliage through my lens, so here are a few more photographs--





Here's the leftover compost of my lunch:

Overall, a lovely afternoon.

Jamie and I went to see Bright Star at the Bronxville Clearview Cinemas last night. It was an indulgently beautiful film, one which entranced me from the opening close-up of a needle and thread weaving carefully in and out of a sheet of fabric. Bring hankies, ladies (and gentlemen). It's lovely, but tragic...

Oh Rivulets, Oh Juniper, Oh Dipping Sparrows...

I awoke to a mild, grey morning, with everything all silvered from last night's rains. Seeing as Bronxville is smack dab in the middle of a season's change, I thought I'd take advantage of the cool, wet light this day had to offer me. Here are some of the results of a walk about campus, under the cover of my umbrella, as it began to sprinkle--













And then, the rain began...

I may take advantage of the rainy campus to gather some natural materials for some sort of craft project. My world is swimming with acorns, berries, leaves, and chestnuts presently! In fact, my literature professor gifted each of us with freshly gathered chestnuts yesterday--it's said that they have a bit of magic in them. I plan to drill a hole in mine and string it on a cotton ribbon woven with twine. We'll see how it turns out...

For now, I leave the warmth and comfort of my dorm for another foray into the wet weather. Dear reader, wherever you might be, enjoy your own autumn, and begin your gathering-up for winter-time!

2009 Saw Mill River Parkway BIOBLITZ

On this past Saturday, I journeyed with several other resident "nature nerds" here at college to the campus of Pace University, in Pleasantville, New York, just outside of Sleepy Hollow (I know, right?!) for an interesting nation-wide event known as the BioBlitz. Held locally at the Saw Mill River Parkway, it was a two-day event in which many local scientists, naturalists, and ambitious students arranged in teams sought to identify and report as many species as possible within the area. They focused mainly on animals, plants and fungi, and I volunteered for the tedious, but rewardingly fascinating job of data entry; I took the lists from the various teams and entered the lists of species, locations, and scientific names into a computer database. It was long, but after much counting, categorizing, and re-assigning, we came up with a conservative estimate of at least 636 species in that little area! Go Hudson River Valley! It was wonderful to be on the job of data entry, if only to be able to familiarize myself with the still-unfamiliar wildlife in this beautiful area.

Perhaps out of this recent interest pique, I've begun reading a collection of essays called The Poetics of Natural History, a birthday gift from the best friend, which is blowing my mind with its beauty and thoughtfulness. Thanks, my dearest and loveliest lady friend, wherever and whenever you may be reading this!

Merry Mabon, Everyone!

Today is the first day of autumn, or Mabon, according to Celtic mythology. Here in New York, I can feel the season approaching more and more quickly--the wind is restless, the cicadas are slowly being silenced, and even the dogwoods are turning pink and showing off Christmas-red fruit. It is still sundress weather in the daytime, but at night it cools into something smooth and playful, and the two resident skunks here on campus are taking advantage of the mild weather. I see them scrounging in the rubbish bin outside my dormitory almost every night.

I finished the David Attenborough BBC series, The Life of Birds yesterday on my Netflix online account. It was thoroughly enjoyable, although I've endured no end of teasing from Jamie and the others for being such a nature dork. Speaking of which, I've found out about the hiking/exploration group here on campus--GORP, which stands for something of course, but the R eludes me. So far, the groups I have joined or am looking to join are that one and the SLC Stitch N Bitch (so I can learn to knit!).

I'm off to my history of photography class now, so I shall leave this post, but I thought I'd drop in for a hello. Once again, a merry Mabon to everyone, and I hope it cools down in Modesto soon!

17 Reasons Why Iceland Roxxors my Boxxors

17. Iceland Ponies--super cute, hardy, and fun to ride; bred to be loyal and soft on the move.

16. Geologic activity--tons of volcanoes, hot springs, earthquakes. Plus, it is one of the "youngest" lands on Earth and one of the only places where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises out of the ocean, making it integral to geologic historians.

15. Tundra Climate--not only stunningly beautiful (think cold, Northern Tolkeinian Middle Earth) but also surprisingly mild, dipping only barely below freezing during winter in capital Reykjavík. Despite its chilly name, the climate is often described as similar to that in Northern Scotland, mostly because of an ocean current which heats the West coast of the island.

14. The Sagas and Eddas--some of the most important works of Scandinavian folkloric literature, these histories were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, describing the earlier histories and mythologies of Iceland.

13. Turf Houses--houses covered in grass or built into hills for better insulation. Tell me these aren't the most charming things you've ever seen!
12. Birches--once the most commom native Icelandic tree, and appropriately pale and delicate.

11. Reykjavík--this beautiful capital city (and the most populous in the nation) has fewer inhabitants than Modesto, CA.

10. Arctic Foxes and Puffins--two of the cutest animal on Earth, which just happen to coexist in this magical place.
9. Scandinavian Sweaters--they keep you warm stylishly.

8. Fjords--okay, so you can find these all over Scandinavia, but tell me they aren't that much cooler in Iceland!

7. Environmental Concerns--Icelanders as a people tend to be very environmentally concerned. When you live in a place that is so directly affected by global warming, you have to be. A majority of the manufacturing processes use geothermal energy, wind power, and even tidal energy to operate.

6. Quality of Life--although it has made the news in the last year for a minor financial crisis, Iceland has, for the last five years, overall been rated in the top ten nations for quality of life in the world.

5. Reindeer--not originally native to Iceland, they were brought to the island in the 1800's, and are the largest land mammals in Iceland.

4. Jónsi and Alex--mostly the cutest couple who has ever lived, the lead singer of phenomenal band Sigur Rós and the artist who does much of the band's record design.

3. Vikings--Iceland's first settlers. Enough said.

2. Icelandic--the most beautiful language in the world, full of whimsical rolled R's and reminiscent of epic poetry, Icelandic is the closest "living" language to Old Norse. While incredibly difficult for English speakers to learn (especially if they are incapable of rolling their R's), this language imparts on its native speakers a most charming accent. Check out my earlier video of Cute Couple Jónsi and Alex to hear Jónsi's.

1. Music--Okay, just in case those who know me didn't see this one coming, let me enlighten my readers as to the magic and beauty of the Music of the North. Icelandic music tends to be all at once poetic, melancholy, epic, delicate, sacred, and fanciful, orchestrally full and climactic, yet intensel personal and quiet. Some amazing performers, the reasons why music is the number one reason Iceland roxxors my boxxors, are: Sigur Rós, Björk, Emiliana Torrini, the Sugarcubes, Bang Gang, Amiina, Ampop, and múm. Check them out--you will not be sorry!

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

It has come to my attention that one of my favourite places from my childhood, one Calaveras Big Trees State Park, is under danger of being shut down. This place is one of so much magic and beauty in my memories that I can hardly come to terms with this unfortunate threat. My family and I took a day trip to the park, which lies just outside of Arnold, CA, on Sunday, and here are a few of the photos I took of these magnificent giants.