October Snow Beauty

We just started eating a locally grown watermelon, some of us eating more than others:

Then yesterday, after the morning turkey hunt and violin lesson and lunch, as Jay and Isabelle were leaving to go squirrel hunting (she shot two), Jay said “It is so cold for October.  This whole month has been cold.  There has been so little sun.”  While they were gone it started snowing–but nothing stuck.

Last night, as I got ready for bed, the infrequent car driving by the house had a deadened, dull sound that in this latitude is an aural indicator of snowfall.

And sure enough this morning we woke to

Looking towards the blueberries

Looking at the (formerly) tall perennials

The blueberries had to be shaken to remove the heavy, slightly ice-crusted snow;  many of the bushes still have leaves.

Walking up back, Hawthorne spent most of his time snuffing for voles in the snow-covered fallow field.  The sight of  the woods line and hedgerows of trees still in their metallic colors capped with snow  immediately reminded me of the highly crafted artwork or jewelry of finely colored metals worked by repousse and chased with silver.

Often, it is clear to me how artists gathered ideas for their creations from Creation.

For October 5th

Thou workest perfectly. And if it seem

Some things are not so well, ’tis but because

They are too loving-deep, too lofty-wise,

For me, poor child, to understand their laws:

My highest wisdom half is but a dream;

My love runs helpless like a falling stream:

Thy goodness embraces ill, and lo, its illness dies!

-George Macdonald , Diary of An Old Soul

A Real Circus

Saturday evening, thanks to a Very Generous Friend, three of us went to see Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria in Syracuse.  What an enjoyable, eye-opening, entertaining experience!

It was my first circus.  The sheer masterful physicality and incredibly complex technical aspects were more intriguing and as beautiful as the  fascinating costuming and music.  Colors, textures,  light and shadow,  layers upon layers of movement and sound.

Gymnasts, singers, musicians, contortionists, fire spinners, trapeze artists, silly skits, graceful, beautiful bungee cord and metal hoop dancing, a blizzard of paper snow.

I bought the Alegria DVD to share with family and friends.  It was filmed in Sydney, Australia a few years ago in a very large space packed with people.  We have watched 30 minutes of it so far.

Truthfully, what we saw and experienced Saturday was as good as and in most ways better than what is on record.  It seems to me that this show has been allowed to change and morph and develop as time and people have changed and moved.   Here is a review from the Albany show.  Alegria has been performing for 25 years!

The performers were obviously so pleased to be performing, so happy to be in front of an appreciative audience.  They were young, in their first physical flush, and proud that they could amaze and entertain and be paid to do what they enjoyed.  They were also mostly not from this country, so one wonders about available opportunities and freedoms here versus where they are from.

I wonder if Cirque du Soleil is the place snapping up new circus-type talent in the world today?

The set was huge, and complex.  Safety was in the forefront: I think one kind of clown (ridiculously costumed and masked persons wearing lots of extra padding to make them look fat and old) served the same function as clowns in a rodeo: they were there to ensure and help with safety.  The skills exhibited were near Olympian level.

To think everything gets broken down, packed up and moved to a new city on an almost weekly basis!  Feeding everyone, washing costumes, hauling it all, practicing in between times, what an undertaking.

Hope

The Butterfly Circus

Thanks to Kyriosity (on the blogroll).

Beautiful and Excellent

Those are the words the girl and I will be studying for a while.  They describe the public presentation recitation she gave at the State Fair yesterday in the State 4H Public Presentation competition.

This past spring she was required by her 4H leader and her mother to choose a subject and style of participation for the 4H public presentation in this county.  After exhaustive, excruciating deliberation she finally decided to choose four poems about horses from an anthology of horse poetry she found at the book sale and give a recitation.

A recitation includes an introduction, descriptions and discussions of what you are reciting and a conclusion.  She did all the writing and preparing with a modicum of motherly input.  She did well enough at the local level to go on to area presentations and did well enough there to be chosen for state level.

She had to present her recitation at the local, little fair in July where she received some good advise from adults.  A former State Gold Medal winner came and worked with her one afternoon on gestures, of which she had none.

She worked on her speech and wrote it out incorporating the gestures.  I had minor editing input.  I did listen and time her presentation frequently towards the end.  She gave it to relatives and friends–anyone we could coax to listen to her.

Yesterday about noon she gave her presentation in an incredibly noisy area, wearing a head mic for the first time in her life.  She did a superb job.  So superb that she was awarded a gold on her certificate.  It is the equivalent of a blue ribbon.  Her point total was only 6 shy of a perfect score.  It was totally unexpected.  Several persons who heard her in July said they were astounded at the progress she had made in the interval between then and yesterday.

There are three days of presentations for students across the state.  The last day is Saturday.  Then awards will be handed out for excellence in the whole population of  presenters this year.

She did so well yesterday she will not be allowed to come back at a state level with a recitation ever again, but will have to choose from other forms of public presentations: speech, demonstration, illustrated talk, or dramatic presentation.

Just Wondering

Who would want to knit a beet?

Next-to Last Supper

for Isaac at home was Wednesday night.  John , Audrey, and Heather came bringing the wonderful little plum cakes and their attendant chocolate cram sauce from Baking with Julia.

Audrey, Suzanne and I went to see Julia and Julia a week or so ago.  I read My Life in France in the weeks before–and not the movie tie-in version either!  It is a wonderful biography.  Cooking was what Julia found to “have something to do“  since they were unable to have children and her husband did not wish to adopt.  Her infertility makes me feel quite simpatico towards her and her work.  That and her love for butter.

In addition to cakes we ate

-Sungold tomatoes, both whole and cut in half for salad which could be dressed with Balsamic/Rice vinegar Good Seasons Italian home mix

-a finely sliced large Romanian striped cucumber with Balsamic vinegar

-sweet corn too large to eat off the cob, so it was cooked, cut off the cobs, and then mixed with chopped onion and tomato and cooked in butter.

-finely sliced garlic and kale cooked in olive oil and butter

-venison flank steaks cut about 1/3 inch thick and mixed with sesame oil, ginger, white pepper, salt and brown sugar then allowed to sit all day in the fridge before coming out an hour or so before being quickly pan sauteed.

Tonight I think we will have hot dogs for the first time this summer.