Counting Sheep

How funny is this? I was going through all the photos I took this summer and there was a series where I documented all the artifacts on the cottage walls, the graffiti, my grandfathers old lumberjack tools, the old motor and this painting I did when I was a kid of...sheeeeeep.

I Like the One on the Left

In reference to leslie's question about whether my aunt's sheep are Suffolk's I did a search and stumbled across this:Suffolk Sheep Society There's so many things wrong with the image they use on their front page that it's almost masterful.

Why Geography is Useful Reason #12

"Of course we offended Kurds by doing this but we had offended the Turks more and they were a much more important market for our products"

Cottage slide show

I added a slideshow of photos from the cottage to the gallery today.

Some Sheep For Leslie

These are some of my Aunt and Uncles' sheep. They used to have a tame one named Dolly who would come when you called her name. Jack was afraid of the big guy and his buddies (not seen), in the second picture. This guy was almost 5 feet tall.

Restless Rain and Rustling

It's three in the morning and I can't sleep. The rain is pattering in the leaves. It's a nice sound. It makes me think, for no reason at all, of a night in Lille. Nikki and I stayed in this haunted hotel. Everything was covered in sticky film of dust, voices muttered down the halls and coughs came from behind the walls. It was an old building with a narrow staircase that twisted like a coil of a rope. An old man ran it. He wrote our names down in his ledger in a room whose only light filtered through threadbare curtains. We only stayed one night and only because we were sick. Perhaps because my throat is sore this evening I'm remembering this. We had been out wandering the ramparts of the old town when a storm whipped up. It was fierce and we had to dash from one doorway to the next until we made it back to our room. We huddled on top of the sheets with a blanket trapped in the gauze of the flu while the lightning cracked and the rain poured. I also remember that in the morning we had a fight. I was ready to leave by myself and go back to Milan. I don't remember what the fight was about. We rarely argued over practical things, or maybe they were to her and that was part of the problem. I only remember loving her and hating her passionately. Her bitterness burned me like acid and her tenderness in it's turn made me forget that we were being scarred over and over again. Somewhere in my heart I knew we weren't meant for the long road. Nonetheless I learned things I couldn't have otherwise. That sounds like a rationalization for a mistake and maybe in part it is, but with the years apart growing ever further I see how much I learned from her, about being myself, about forgiveness and unconditional love and about being passionate about the things that are meaningful to me without embarrassment.

I'm going to Montreal next week to see Sophie who will be visiting from Boston. It will be my first trip back since I moved. I'm not sure that it's a good idea since I'm still trying to place myself in my new environment, which is not easy. Right now I'd love a job where I was travelling all the time. I think I will go back to Boston with her for a while. I'm avoiding standing still and not going anywhere. The apartment doesn't smell like home. Not yet. The last place had four years to develop. Seems like a strange dream if I think about it.

It's still raining and I'm listening to Van Morrison singing Hymns to the Silence, I'm getting sleepy afterall. I just realized that I'm uncomfortable not having a history here. I feel displaced, which is probably why I want to be in motion. I'm not usually into late night ramblings here, but it's serving me well. It's a space I can occupy that feels like home. This blog, this digital glob. I guess this is the wail.

Stem cells

University of Wisconsin - Madison

One woman, for example had hepatitis C, a viral infection. But when her liver repaired itself, it used cells that were not her own.

"Her entire liver was repopulated with male cells," Dr. Bianchi said.

New Glob

I'm still setting things up with the new blog template. I made the links page and the archives today as well as an empty gallery page which will link to my photographs, drawings, paintings and such.
Then I have to rehaul rocketbooster's page which now lovingly says "Testing".

River dreams

My favourite song these days is Miss the Mississippi as sung by EmmyLou Harris
It was published in 1932 and was written by Bill Hailey which I just learned.

I'm growing tired of the big city lights

Tired of the glamour and tired of the sights

In all my dreams I am roaming once more

Back to my home on the old river shore



I am sad and weary far away from home

Miss the Mississippi and you dear

Days are dark and dreary everywhere I roam

Miss the Mississippi and you



Roaming the wide world over

Always along and blue, so blue

Nothing seems to cheer me under heaven's dome

Miss the Mississippi and you



Memories are bringing happy days of yore

Miss the Mississippi and you

Mocking birds are singing 'round the cabin door

Miss the Mississippi and you



Roamin the wide world over

Always alone and blue

Longing form my homeland, muddy water shore

Miss the Mississippi and you

Last Sunset

Usually I look forward to the autumn. I prefer the warm afternoons and cool evenings to the summer swelter. This year I feel sad as though the early darkness signals the end of something. I think this has to do with the move to Ottawa and seeing a lot of my family. In fact I've sen more of them this summer than the last three years added up. I was really struck by Rick and Kerrys father's illness. That's got to be hard and my thoughts are with you.

To add to my general downer of a mood the first new friend I made here is moving next Tuesday.

Songs About Change

I scratched out this doodle with a list of songs for a CD called Songs About Change last Friday so I was happy to see Jack's suggestion for a CD sideburn along these lines.

Frogs and Snakes

It's good to see so many frogs and snakes this year. It means the river is doing better than it has in years. When I was a child back in the 1970's it was much worse. It was a time when environmentalism was starting to take hold and years before recycling was an everyday thing. We still have a long way to go but I think people are generally more conscious of what they consume and the waste they create. It's relative though and hopefully we will improve on this as we go.

It was very sad to leave today. It's hard to watch your parents get old. My parents are now older than relatives who seemed ancient to me as a child. People get cancer, they have heart attacks. It's grim and I'm not getting any younger and Luna, who really is my baby, is now 8 years old which means she won't be around for many more years. It's all gone by too fast. Sorry for being on a downer. Life's still beautiful.

Closing the Cottage

We started to close up the cottage today. I put away the dock with Dad. I don't want to see him doing that again. He's getting to old to be doing that. it was a cold weekend almost like October. We ended up burning wood every morning it was so cold. I'm glad I got a couple of more days in though even if it was cold the sun was shining. I learned some more local gossip and realize I might have to re-jig my novel as real life is quickly outstripping fiction. Yikes.

Speech

This is for Korak or whoever has his e-mail. I quote myself here, "Dude, I was showing Secretion & Speech to some folks the other day and they loved it. We must continue once you are settled."
Please forward this message to the man. Thanks.

You Say Label, I Say Libel

It sems that the Bush brigade has tired of the "flip-flop" tag and are now trying to Howard Dean, Mr. Kerry by uttering "loose his cool" repeatedly, because Kerry is now responding to the lowdown dirty weasels attacks.

Globalization Means the Export/Import of Doctrines Too

Perhaps Mr. Bush is being trod on a little too harshly these days. After all the Bush doctrine is something that is gaining popularity in other nations.

Reading Ready

I've had a long time fascination with pirates. With the fantasy and imagery, the mythology and legend that is. Actual pirates are rapists, sadists and murdering thieves. They are and were scum. The latest book I picked up examines the images we have of pirates and the historical figures that these images grew out of. It's called "Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates". I'm finishing up King Leopold's Ghost before I cast off with Blackbeard and company.
As I delve deeper into the nightmare world of the Congo Free State I wonder why this isn't as well known as other 20th century horrors. Apparently the Royal Museum in Belgium that still harbours an enormous collection of African art and artifacts pillaged at the time of the colonial exploitation and that it is a very touchy subject to this day.

Grapefruit Magic

I've posted about the strange and positive reaction I have when I eat grapefruit before. This evening I was hungry for something faty, chips or pizza or something along those lines instead I ate half a grapefruit and that not only satiated my hunger I felt something that I've only ever felt when I eat this fruit or when I have warm feelings towards someone ie love. Weird. It could be psychosomatic I guess but it's to distinct and sneaks up on me. I think it probably has something to do with my metabolism. Well obviously it does as I'm metabolizing the grapefruit as I digest it, but no other food has anything like this effect. For this reason it's definitely one of my favourite foods.