By Gerard Manley Hopkins
Caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.
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PerkyPaduan and I went to Chipotle for lunch to catch up on our gossip for the new year -- well, her gossip, since my only big news is Adam's haircut. Then we decided to walk to World Market, since it's right next door, and of course I had to stock up on tea and Asian simmer sauces while I was there. Then we went to AC Moore, which was just a few doors down in the shopping plaza, and of course I had to stock up on earring hooks, pins, and a little beading tool set (plus $3 Valentine's Day fuzzy socks). Then we went to Toys R Us, which was just a few doors down in the other direction, where I am pleased to report that I was entirely virtuous since I was anticipating making penguin earrings, even though they had Little Red Riding Hood Barbie in stock.
A penguin inside a witch ball made by Art of Fire.
And here are my penguin earrings -- not going to win any craft show awards, but hey, I put them on and I can wear them and that's all that matters!
Back to real art. Here are some of the vases in Art of Fire; I love the iridescent glaze on the ones on the lower shelf.
When Mount Vernon redid its visitor center, the designers included a model miniature of the mansion, furnished just like the original, only you're allowed to take photos of this one.
Here, for instance, is the dining room, which is the first major stop on the mansion tour. (I love the Smithsonian's dollhouse fishtank and I love Barbie; you had to figure I would love this!)
It has not been an eventful evening other than thinking we might have lost the confirmation ticket for Daniel's SAT when Paul had to have his laptop reformatted after a virus, though it turned out Daniel had it saved in his e-mail and now it's in mine, too. We finished the first season of Arrested Development and watched the first episode of the second, in which Tobias joins the Blue Man Group and utters the immortal line, "I'm afraid I just blue myself." And I discovered to my delight that the miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth will likely air on BBC America the same days as they will in the U.K. and possibly in high-def, though we are all sorry here that we cannot go to the St. Louis Zoo's Winter Penguin March, in which the gentoo and king penguins get to play outside.
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