Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 77

slow gin

Actually it's sloe gin, after the dark berries ("her eyes were sloe black") that flavor it, but I've always liked thinking of it as slow gin, moving so leisurely, like this phantasmagoric swan metamorphosing slowly, genie-from-a-bottle style, from? I guess? the still in which the gin was made?

Wakanomori brought this bottle back--full--from England, and I did drink it slowly, in tiny sake cups, but somehow now it's gone! Maybe that means the swan is now free, but I missed its triumphant depart...

Classrooms around the world

The British Journal of Photography has a post featuring classrooms around the world, taken by Julian Germain.

I found them so attractive and thought provoking that I went to his page for the classroom project, which includes photos not included in that article. The international photos start around image 9.

They conveyed a lot not just in what each photo contained or lacked (though my eye was drawn to the stamp "donated by Ogean Energy" on a desk in a captionless photo--donors always having to...

La Niña: Post Two of Two

Needless to say, watching La Niña has made me curious about Colombia. My knowledge of it until now could be described by catchphrases from TV shows ("Colombian drug lords" "Cali cartel") and NPR headlines ("Colombia's FARC rebels [verb]" "Referendum on peace with FARC rebels"), plus an article on "biblioburros"--the project of a guy who acts as a bookmobile--only by donkey--bringing books to isolated communities--and the travels of someone I follow on Twitter, who visited there with her young...

La Niña--post one of two

I was searching for something good to watch in Spanish on Netflix and had the amazing good fortune to discover LA NIÑA, a 86-episode Colombian telenovela from 2016.


Source

It's about a girl who was kidnapped by guerrillas as a child (more accurately, as a tiny child of like eight, she nobly asked the guerrillas to take her rather than her epileptic brother--so they do) but who gets demobilized and is now trying to reintegrate into society. Opportunistic former comrades are out to get her becaus...

some things for the senses

Apples--they are coming ripe, and they taste good. In sunlight, they feel warm in your hand.



When I doubt my contributions to the world, I look at this apple tree and feel proud.

Here are some cosmos flowers. Did you know they have a fragrance? I didn't until I tried sniffing one just today. Then it was me and the bees fighting for who was going to get to put their face in each flower ... You know, they are so much prettier than this photo. They grow by the road, but when you look at them, ther...

B'town one-community, no-hate picnic

A few weeks ago, my neighborhood had a bunch of KKK newspapers dropped in it. Very upsetting. So, a group of us in town organized a community picnic so everyone in town could reaffirm what sort of town we want the town to be.

Here's a video** from the event. You can see me attempting a bean-bag toss I designed. (I was going to make it an eclipsed sun but decided on a sunflower instead.)



(Here's a picture of just the bean bag toss, after i finished painting it. It has a black piece of tissue pap...

snatches of conversation

I went running on the rail trail today and caught these bits of conversation as I passed walkers or was passed by bikers:

" ... since the last election ..."

" ... nice, don't have to worry about cars..."

" ... can talk to anybody ... "

" ... was really awesome, like from the dawn of time ..."

At an area with a port-a-potty:

Mother: "No, I'm going to use the toilet."
Kid: "Then I'll just bike in circles here."

ETA: Only just remembered: two girls, one singing chords, going "Drunnn, Drunnn, Drunnn, Dru...

calendars and Ninefox Gambit

Something you notice very quickly when you start reading Ninefox Gambit is the importance of the calendar. It’s the foundation stone of empire: things that subvert empire cause “calendrical rot,” and, conversely, things that cause calendrical rot are subversion, or, as the story terms it, heresy—like rebellion but even more rebellious.

This focus on calendars is a stroke of genius. Calendars **are** powerful mechanisms of cultural control. Think about how the international standard calendar fo...

dappled half-moon suns

We let the leaves be our pinhole camera and saw these suns at the half-moon stage.



ETA... there are many, many beautiful photos out there of scything crescent suns dappling the ground--go take a look. Love this eclipse so much. Good job, sun. Good job, moon. Good job, eclipse enthusiasts ♥

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Czech'rd past

I want to do a post about the power of calendars, in honor of yhlee 's Ninefox Gambit, which I just finished, but first I want to share with you this great beer label from a small New York State brewery:



Red-lipped woman with a smoking gun! And this text:

From behind the iron curtain comes our Czech'rd Past. We're not ashamed, and have nothing to hide. No regrets with this classic Bohemian Pilsner. Served cold, like revenge, it cuts to the chase. It's the choice to make when you can't afford any...