Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 182

Howard Pyle Exhibit

I love the illustrator Howard Pyle (1853-1911), whom I knew as a child through his book The Wonder Clock. Currently, the Norman Rockwell Museum is hosting an exhibition of his work ("Howard Pyle: An American Master Rediscovered"), which has traveled up from the Delaware Art Museum. The exhibition will run through October 28.

Recently, we went to see it. Great fun! Here is Howard Pyle's "The Buccaneer Was a Picturesque Fellow" (1905) scanned in from a postcard of the painting:



Definitely Captain...

next, a story where I changed my mind, maybe, I think?

Last Friday's StoryCorps started out like this:

Across the western U.S., wildfires are fought in part by prison inmates.

Whoa whoa whoa. Whoa there.

Is that voluntary? my brain is asking. Because if that's not voluntary, that has got to be cruel and unusual punishment, no? And doesn't fire fighting take a lot of training? Can you just pull in someone who's never done it before and put them on the front line? Is that an effective way to fight fires? How do paid-and-trained fire fighters feel abou...

First, some poetry

I think I might post a lot today. As they say on Tumblr, I will be "all over your dash." So please do just scroll on by if you're feeling rushed/not in the mood to comment, okay?

I liked today's poem from Writer's Almanac, "Aware," by Denise Levertov, which Garrison Kiellor reprints with permission, but I, lacking permission, will merely quote:

I found the vine leaves
speaking among themselves in abundant
whispers . . .

Next time
I'll move like cautious sunlight, open
the door by fractions, eavesdro...

Scaling Mount Minivan

On my way into the center of town, I saw three small children erupt from a minivan and go inside their house. The smallest, barely a toddler, negotiated the two steps up to the threshold one foot at a time (one foot up onto the first step, then the other foot, then one foot onto the second step, then the other), using his hands to help him balance. Inside the door, I could see they had shelf for putting shoes.

On my way home from the center of town, the two older boys were climbing on the mini...

As to the true purpose of the Underwater Recovery Unit ...

For those who want to know what the underwater recovery unit actually does,
here is a link, and here is a quick summary:



Active search and rescue (Recovery or rescue of individuals who have been involved in "water-related mishaps.")
Evidence location and recovery
"This evidence may include, but is not limited to, knives, guns, ammunition, jewelry, tools, body parts, bones, and clothing. Special methods are employed by the Team to preserve evidence that has been recovered from water."
Body loca...

That second thought: Underwater Recovery Unit

I promised two additional thoughts, last entry, but the second thought spilled over to here. It's about the Massachusetts State Police Underwater Recovery Unit:



I did not know that the Massachusetts State Police had an underwater recovery unit. Now, I know I can probably find out exactly what it does with a quick Google search, but before I do that, I'll just speculate. Is it for retrieving pirate treasure from offshore? Or evidence in a drowning?

But why is it here in the Quabbin? What can nee...

a tea party, a pumpkin shell, and the moon

Earlier this summer, Little Springtime visited her grandparents in England, and when she came home, she brought along a coffee service of her grandmother's. It's very pretty.

Here are a few cups. See the flowers on the inside of each one, too?


Today we decided to have a tea party with it. Why tea and not coffee? I don't know. I think the ninja girl said it was a tea sort of day. Or maybe we're waiting to do coffee until wakanomori gets back--he is a coffee aficionado. Anyway, we made lemon bars...

The land of Golden Mist

Today I can show it to you, the mist pouring over the dam and flooding the valley on the other side:

The mist rising


and spilling


streaming down the other side


where it catches the gold of sunrise

on the other hand

The Milky Way is very milky and bright tonight, and the air smells inexplicably of hyacinths, and the katydids are discoursing.

notes scrawled while driving

I was mentioning on queenoftheskies ' journal that sometimes the only writing I do all day is scrawling down some notes. The past two days have been like that--I feel like I've seen so much and thought so much, but there hasn't been more than a moment to dash off a note or two.

Yesterday morning, very early, I dropped wakanomori at the bus station in Springfield, and then drove back out of the city on Worthington Street, one of its most depressing streets (very near where I used to work), and t...