Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 112

The problem with the two-dollar challenge

I read a really good blog post about the "Do-Gooder Industrial Complex," which offered alternative outlooks on aid, poverty, volunteerism, etc. (specifically in an international context) to the ones fostered by the Do-Gooder Industrial Complex. I was nodding vigorously as I read. But the article ended with a link to the "Two-Dollar Challenge." Almost half the world's population lives on less than two dollars a day, the site says. It exhorts readers to try living on two dollars a day for a cou...

off the beaten track

The other day I made a small footpath to the snowmobile trail. I'm so grateful I did: today, by comparison, I struck out from the street toward another section of snowmobile trail, across open field. It was exhausting, each footstep an effort as it plunged through layers of snow, compacted to different degrees by wind and cold. I made very slow, lurching progress until at last I reached the snowmobile trail--and then I positively floated along.

(I did see these lovely, light foot- and wingprin...

Tell-a-Fairy-Tale Day

I really loved this entry from cecile_c, both for her retelling of the tale itself and for her evolving thoughts on the message. Share your thoughts on it there, for her to see.


Originally posted by cecile_c at Tell-a-Fairy-Tale DayFebruary 26th is Tell-a-Fairy-Tale day, a fact I discovered two years ago on asakiyume 's blog. I loved the idea, although I didn't take part last year (I think I remembered that I wrote my story two years ago on a day of fine, warm weather, which made me thi...

a curl of dragon breath

I saw the blue jays' exhaled breath, rising from their nostrils, as they carried off the peanuts I put out for them. Their internal furnaces are hotter than humans', around 105F (40.5C)--more than 120 degrees hotter (in Fahrenheit) than the outside temperature, so it's no wonder it was visible in curling plumes in the cold air. Little dragons.

I blew some soap bubbles and watched them freeze. This one got caught on the snow mound, and its deflated back rose and fell and rose and fell in slight...

curtains open or drawn?

In a northern town, it's snowing again. The sun has set and the wind is up, raising dancers from the loose snow. It's very cold outside.

The children are at their father's parents' house. "Don't forget the curtain over the window on the kitchen door," Grampa Joe says.

At Grammy and Grampa's, on stormy winter nights, you make sure all the curtains are drawn and the shades are pulled down, eyelids closing against what's out there.

At Mémé and Pépé's house, it's the opposite. "Look at this snow. Be...

path to the snowmobile trail

The snow's between two and three feet high on the ground, which means it's not easy to walk through without snow pants, which means you're confined to roads. I like walking on the snowmobile trails, but it's a matter of getting there ...

So I shoveled a path--the path I'd normally take--from my neighborhood road to the snowmobile trail.

It is a thing of beauty! Behold, its entrance:



Unfortunately, the snow plow, in widening the road, knocked snow into it...



But I brought my shovel as well as my c...

the water-covered world

We know this is a water world, three-fourths covered in water, and we know the waters can drink up more land--rains can cause rivers to lap up flood plains, climate change can make oceans gulp down shores. And in winter, in the north, dry land becomes flooded, and the floodwaters stand. Right now my world is covered in nearly three feet of water--in the form of snow. And Boston is flooded by some six feet and more.

Here are some more photos of the waves....

more toboggan run

Here's the toboggan run from two-thirds of the way down, looking up at the top.



And here is the remaining bit, heading into the swamp:



Wakanomori and I went down this lots of times this afternoon. His dream is to have the path lead eventually to the apartments on the other side of the swamp. ... I don't think we can get enough momentum to travel that far, but I like how far we do travel.

Here's a path through the backyard. I bet in Boston they could make mazes, shoveling paths in the snow.

Three things on a Friday

Ed Ou: The North

I've been wanting to share the amazing photo essays of Ed Ou--in particular, one of life in Nunavut. Never have I felt I got to know life in a distant place so well merely from pictures as I did from looking through this collection. Warning: There are scenes of hunting and its aftermath in this--which is part of life in Nunavut--so don't go to the link if that will upset you.

Ed Ou: The North


Ed Ou: The North


The choices Ed made in who to photograph, and where, really give such a...

winners for the StoryBundle giveaway

I wrote the handles of all the folks who entered the StoryBundle drawing onto tiny slips of paper and folded them up:



Then I drew out five. The winners are:

queenoftheskies
mnfaure
silberstreif
yamamanama
Twitter user @krisycollins12

Contact me at forrestfm (at) gmail (dot) com, and I'll send you a download code.

Some of you may already have the storybundle--in that case, feel free to pass it on to a friend.

Thanks for commenting on the entry, and I hope the books in the bundle tickle your fancy!

PS:...