Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 117

languages

This morning in the car I was listening to the Cantares Latino-Americanos program on WTCC and repeating words and phrases I liked, which were mainly ones I understood... and it struck me that while I don't speak Spanish or claim to know it, a fair number of words and phrases are actually in my vocabulary, and I bet this is true of a lot of Americans.

In the United States, lots of people for whom English is a first language feel very uncomfortable about learning a foreign language. They set it...

A champion jump

The steps leading down from the library to its lower-level exit. A mother is holding open the heavy wooden door. Her son, about four years old, hesitates, six steps up. I'm behind him on the landing. I don't want to rush him.

He takes a step down, then steps back up.

"Come on," his mother says. "Don't play around."

He steps back down one step, then JUMPS over the remaining four steps and lands beside his mother.

"WOW!" I say. He grins broadly.

"That was a champion jump," I say to his mom, who's h...

We're melting, melting!

I still can't seem to bring myself to talk about all the ideas bubbling around in my head, so instead, here's something fun. Topatoco sent me some things I ordered in a box filled with packing peanuts--but not evil, styrofoam packing peanuts. No: these packing peanuts were made from corn starch.



The thing about them is, they can dissolve in water.


How can you learn a fact like that and not want to try it?



Yeah, they smelled like popcorn as they were dissolving. Makes me **almost** want to try t...

snow and ice

I've had a number of thoughts I intended to share here, but somehow time has gotten away from me. I owe a lot of people comments on journals (e.g., yamamanama !) I will hope to come journal-visiting tonight or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, have some photos. . .

an oak leaf made of snow



snow on pine needles--like a web or net


And an ice cataract forming on a skyward-looking eye

how the sun comes and leaves, what the rain does, and two other things

Here is how the sun comes in winter: its light inches its way down the trees. And it leaves the same way, rolling back up those trees:



And this is what the rain does: it makes a stream across the common



And it makes the marshlands claim to be ponds



Two other things

Thing one is a link to a brief video about Hans Panschar, a German artist who puts tiny sculptures in bottles and then throws them into the sea, along with a letter, asking people who find them to get in touch. So far three people hav...

full moon, gibbous moon, half moon, crescent

The full moon is a golden coin at the bottom of night's pocket, and the black tree branches are the seam of the pocket.

The gibbous moon is an egg, in the nest of the night hen. Her black feathers are speckled with white stars.

The half moon is a thimble on the black finger of night.

The crescent moon is a fingernail from that same finger.

a family in church

There is nothing to this entry but a description of this family that I like to see in church, whom I saw today. And it's a long description! But for some reason I wanted to write it down here.

They tend to sit a few rows in front of where we tend to sit:

A beautiful mom who never ages (maybe ten years younger than me, though?), with long black hair and always a brilliant smile. She is curvaceous: narrow waist and big hips and big bosom. Today she was wearing a tight-fitting charcoal-gray pullov...

Take him out

You know there's this movie out, a comedy where two guys are going to North Korea and the CIA tells them it want them to assassinate Kim Jong Un?

To be precise, in one of the trailers, a CIA operative says, "We want you to take him out," and the dudebros say, ".... like for drinks? Like for dinner?" And then they realize the operative wants them to kill him.

So, the funny thing is, in real life, I had exactly the opposite conversation with someone. Back in 1997, someone I know (hereafter SIK)--...

narrow path in the far north

I walked along this path and didn't stumble.

A place I love

It's hard to get to now, because the former entryway has been turned into houses, and due to its being swampy, it's pretty much inaccessible except in winter. I found it again yesterday, though:



The snow is sparkling ♥

And there is hoarfrost growing on top of the snow:



(Speaking of hoarfrost, here is a leaf with a melting veil of it)



... goodbye November... hello December