Poem for Friday

Age Moves
By Liam Rector

Age moves in the hound
As it was in me moving
Through forest I found

As to dog I went
That year scrounging
Through Manhattan....

The wood opened out,
Unlikely in the city,
As to boy slandering

To leave his fitful home,
Bright he might survive
With his pen-knife only.

--------

I'm exhausted just from watching the news today so I can only imagine how people more directly affected by it or living closer to some of the events must feel. Had the kids home in the morning, tried to work around them -- not very successfully -- then my in-laws came down, we all went for kabobs for dinner and they took the kids back to Pennsylvania with them, so and I watched the first half of the BBC-A&E Pride and Prejudice miniseries which I have been putting off for years because I resented the book so very much, first in high school and then in college. And I am still unable to get quite past the inherent class snobbery and liking Elizabeth's younger sisters much better than her, but I really like Jennifer Ehle, and am completely infatuated with the music and the dancing, and Colin Firth has finally, finally made me understand what people see in Darcy; I still don't like him exactly but what an utter doofus, sabotaging himself at every turn! In some twisted way he reminds me of Snape. I can see that after resisting him, too, for so long, I am going to be infected with Firth-love and have to sit through both Bridget Jones movies (particularly now that I have gotten over my dislike of Renee Zellwegger, courtesy Cinderella Man and the far greater odiousness of certain other overhyped actresses). I will probably have more to say on the miniseries itself after watching the second half, but I am very grateful to Alan Rickman and The Barchester Chronicles convincing me that I really ought to give the Beeb P&P a chance. And also to Bride and Prejudice, out on DVD this week, for making me realize that there are aspects of the story I like in spite of myself so long as they're presented as inherently over-the-top rather than in the deadly serious context of lit crit.

Since I missed doing them last week and it's Friday again already:
: Photos:
1. Photo albums or picture frames?
Flip-boxes, though these days I favor digital slide shows. We have stacks of unfiled photos on the shelves with the albums that ruined many of our photos before we learned not to put them in whatever sort of plastic pages it is that distorts the color, and since I got my digital camera we have only printed a very small number of the photos I take. There are a pile of baby photos in frames on my dresser, often hidden by laundry, and almost no recent photos in frames at all.
2. Digital camera, disposable, or point-and-click?
Digital all the way -- I am never going back, unless I become very rich and can play with darkroom technique. I avoided photography as a hobby for years because of the time and expense of developing photos.
3. What facial expression (of yours) is usually captured in pictures?
I'm a big wide smiler. Probably not my best look, as it makes my eyes beady, but I generally do look happy.
4. What's your favorite picture and why?
Of myself? Probably the wedding photo over my bed, because we both look very happy and quite comfortable. Of my kids there are several -- falling in leaves, playing in the ocean, playing with the cats...
5. Do you take the picture after you say "1, 2, 3", or after you say "2" and right when you say "3", or do you use another method or not count?
The only way to get a sincere smile out of my children is to say something naughty, so it's often "Say PENIS!" or, if we're in public, "Think something bad!"

: Movies:
1. What movies are you fannish about?
Amadeus, A Beautiful Mind, Caravaggio, Dangerous Liaisons, Days of Wine and Roses, Evita, Field of Dreams, The Grifters, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, House of Games, The Indian Runner, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Lion In Winter, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, The Miracle, The Natural, Proof, The Prophecy, Star Wars...I'm sure there are others. If I've written fan fiction based on it, I am fannish about it, even if I didn't exactly like it.
2. What upcoming movies do you expect to be fannish about?
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, maybe The Island, maybe The New World, maybe The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe...it's really hard for me to predict this in advance unless it's something in a series.
3. Movie adaptations of your fannish tv shows: good idea or bad idea?
Ambivalent. Have loved several of the Star Treks, was fine with The X-Files film...hated Mission: Impossible, refused to see The Avengers. It really depends on the project, who's involved and how I felt about the original.
4. If they have to make a movie of a fannish tv show, do you want the original actors and premise, or is an updated premise acceptable?
If it's an updated premise it's not really a movie of the TV show so I'm rather unconcerned. I don't dislike the new BSG for not being the old BSG, it just hasn't interested me on its own merits. Have liked several different Doctor Whos and been bored by several others. On the one hand I don't want to see a reinvented Star Trek that warps canon to date but I would watch a new cast in new roles, and I'd see any Sharpe movie whatsoever so long as Sean Bean was in it.
5. Would you rather have a made for tv fannish movie or do you want the big screen?
Once again...depends on the project. I can't really see how the things I don't love about Firefly are going to go away on a big screen in Serenity so a TV movie would have been fine with me for a relaunch. I want Horatio Hornblower on the big screen with the TV cast and a movie budget.


Crescent Lake now sits over part of the area carved out by the glacier that once covered the mountains. Its water is so blue from runoff from still-active glaciers on the higher peaks.


Here you can see one of those glaciers -- this is Mount Olympus from the visitor's center at the top of Hurricane Ridge.


The puffy black rock coming out of this Hurricane Ridge mountainside is called pillow lava. When basalts erupt underwater, they form mounds of lava by repeatedly oozing and quenching of the hot material. The fact that this is here means that these enormous hills were once underwater.


Tree-covered mountainsides provide cover for several spectacular waterfalls. (I need to learn more about how to adjust for the light to have any hope of doing justice with photos.)


The Elwha River flowing through the valley. Removal of dams is encouraging the return of salmon to these waters.


In some places it was necessary to blast a tunnel through the mountainside to make the road traversible (and not only because of the fog -- the dropoffs were very steep). This was shot through the front windshield, so sorry about the dashboard reflections.


Foxglove blooms in gorgeous shades of purple and iris at the roadside all along the lower hills. Unfortunately it's not supposed to be here and is crowding out some native wildflowers. Still, at this point its growth is so extensive that it seems to be here to stay.