Greetings from Concord

On Friday Adam had to work from home and Paul took the train into Boston to work from his company's office there, so Haley and I drove into Concord. We went to Orchard House, which was Louisa May Alcott's childhood home for many years and where she was living when she wrote Little Women; there's a film about her life and a tour of the house, which holds much of the family's original furniture and a lot of artwork by her sister May, who was an acclaimed artist during her lifetime. We also stopped in a couple of stores in town, including the British imports store. 

We picked up lunch at Trader Joe's and drove to the Acton Arboretum to eat it. Haley's parents (my friend Hildy and her husband) and sister Cindy came to meet us with Cindy's dog Rocky, and we walked around the gardens, where we saw frogs, chipmunks, and a rabbit as well as the flowers and trees. We went to Cindy's house to hang out with her and her husband, stopped at the Idylwilde Farm Store, and came back to Worcester to pick up Adam and Paul to go to dinner at Thai House of Holden, where we shared lots of veggie dishes. Now we're watching the second season of The Rehearsal.

Greetings from Oberlin

We had a very full, delightful Sunday, for which we woke up early so we could get to Peninsula and ride the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad on a train car that had donuts for everyone from Jack Frost (Adam got tickets for Paul's belated birthday). We had a nice ride and ate way too much, then we went to Brandywine Falls, where we walked down to the falls overlook and the ruins of the electric plant. We went back to the house to eat lunch and walk Pepper. 

Haley had some work to do afterward, but the rest of us went to Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum, which in addition to an excellent historical collection of global art has a special exhibit on Japanese mythology adapted in art. We had pasta for dinner, then walked Pepper around Oberlin's Tappan Square and looked at the flowers and academic buildings. Now we're watching Prince of Egypt for Passover, since I got outvoted on charoset and hard boiled eggs! A few photos:

Greetings from the Freedom Trail

Home! After a very nice but very long day (had an extra three hours for us) that started with a trip to Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, and several Freedom Trail sites with Cheryl, including the Old State House and Old South Meeting House. After she left to catch her flight, we also visited the Old North Church, Paul Revere's statue (his house was closed today), and Bova's Bakery. Then we met Daniel and Cahaya for coffee back at the market before we headed to Logan Airport, from which we flew home (sitting next to a Navy officer on the first leg of a flight to Japan) to our cats!

Poem for Tuesday and Folger First Editions

The Lady in 38 C 

By Lori Jakiela 

The Lady in 38 C

gets confused. She thinks I'm her nurse.

“Nurse!” she yells. “My finger!”

So I bring her a band-aid

and put it on even though she's fine.

“Oh thank you nurse!” she yells.

“You're a good one.”

She winks and smiles and the woman next to her

glares into her computer.

I think the old lady's charming.

She's 86, still pretty. Her eyes are blue.

Her hair is a cloud.

She looks exactly like what's outside.

She's the only air in this cabin, the only light.

“Nurse!” she yells, and I look back

over the sad heads, eggs in a carton,

faces pressed against

the mite-ridden blankets

and pillows they fought for,

and there she is, beaming.

“Nurse,” she says. “Where are we?”

I take her hand

and look out the window.

I scratch my head, smile

and say, “Somewhere

over Idunno.”

She's the only passenger

who's ever gotten that joke.

Up here, nearly everyone is miserable.

I count on small joys to get by.

The woman in 38C says, “Oh, Nurse!”

and the woman next to her

who probably thinks we're somewhere

over Idaho, that wonderland of Hemingway

and golden potatoes,

rolls her eyes and bangs the computer keys

until the seatbelt sign goes on

and the captain says,

“We'll be experiencing weather.”

which is what people say

instead of scary things like storm and turbulence

and pretty soon the plane is bouncing

and the woman with the computer

grips her armrest

while the old lady throws her arms up

like she's on a roller coaster and yells,

“They should charge extra for this!”

-------- 

My Tuesday morning was about unpacking, laundry, organizing stuff, catching up on correspondence, etc. It was foggy when we woke up but turned sunny before we walked to the park, where the sandy beach and the stretch of grass and trees surrounding the play equipment was closed to the public, even the bridges over the stream to reach that part, because of all the fallen trees and still-precarious branches. 

I came home to watch the atrocious "Human Error" with my Voyager group to much scorn, after which Cheryl  and I watched Star Wars: Skeleton Crew together -- great so far -- while Paul and I ate dinner. Then we caught up on Silo and Dune: Prophecy, both of which are very well done and enjoyable. Here are some of the rare items we saw in the Folger Library collection, from Holinshed to Joyce to Tolkien to Milne:

 

Canterbury Tales printed by William Caxton, first Englishman to use a printing press to produce books, in 1477. 

 

1505 Haggadah printed in Constantinople on the first printing press outside Europe to use Hebrew movable type. 

 

Holinshed's Chronicles, 1577, one of Shakespeare's historical sources.

 

James Joyce's Ulysses, numbered and signed by the author, from the limited first printing by Sylvia Beach in Paris in 1922. 

 

Galley proofs of the first printing of The Lord of the Rings with Tolkien's corrections and notes; "and in the shadows bind them" becomes "and in the darkness bind them" here.

 

1957 galley proofs of Ian Fleming's Dr. No with the author's corrections.

 

First edition of Winnie-the-Pooh presented in 1926 by A.A. Milne to his son, the inspiration for Christopher Robin, "For Moonest Moon and Poohest Pooh."

Poem for Monday and Derry Girls

Erin's Poetry on Derry Girls 

By Lisa McGee 

The bullets being fired on the streets as I lie in my bed 

Are nothing to the bullets being fired in my head. 

Be careful, child, of the doll made of glass, 

For if you hold her too tightly, she will break, and you will bleed. 

-------- 

Monday was just as gorgeous as Sunday -- 70 degrees and sunny -- though I was still finishing laundries in the morning and organizing stuff from the trip. Kristen and I caught up on watching Rings of Power together (we've both seen the whole series, but we just watched season two, episode four jointly). When we went for a walk in the afternoon, the frogs were out and a couple of eagles put in appearances. 

I was sad that the Guardians lost, happy that the Yankees lost, and bored with the Chiefs-Saints game though didn't really watch it. We just started the second season of Ridley on PBS, which thankfully so far isn't as dark as the first season. But speaking of TV, here are some photos from the Derry Girls exhibition in Derry's Tower Museum, which has costumes and props, some video clips, and background on The Troubles:

Greetings from Belfast

We woke up to rain on Monday that continued for most of the day, which was not a problem at all in the afternoon since we were mostly indoors at the massive Titanic Belfast museum, but made things slippery in the morning walking on the Causeway Coast! After a big breakfast at the Da Vinci Hotel, we drove to Magheracross to see White Rocks Beach and the views below, then went to Dunluce Castle -- the inspiration for C.S. Lewis's Cair Paravel in the Narnia books -- with dramatic open ruins overlooking spectacular rock formations and many cormorants at this time of year. 

Then we went to the Giant's Causeway, a bucket list place for me since I first learned of its existence: tens of thousands of interlocking basalt columns created by an ancient volcanic eruption, leading up into the hills and down into the ocean. Though the columns are the same shapes as the ones at Devil's Tower and Reynisfjara Beach, there is really nothing else in the world like the Giant's Causeway and though the rocks were slippery from all the rain, it was absolutely spectacular to see. We ended up eating lunch in the visitor center cafe, which had curried chick pea rolls. 

We drove to Belfast past the last remaining White Star Line vessel, the SS Nomadic, to visit Titanic Belfast, which is right next to the slipways where the ship was designed and built. The museum is excellent, with artifacts, a multi-level ride through a reproduction of the shipyard, reproductions of rooms and equipment on board, and displays about the sinking and the recovery, but it also comprehensively covers the design, building, and fitting-out of the ship, and I found it very sad: we all know about the loss of the passengers and crew, but there was a lot of loss among the builders too. 

It was raining again when we left the museum, so we didn't walk the full docks. Instead we took a walk around C.S. Lewis Square, which has murals and statues pertaining to Narnia and to Lewis's life as an Ulsterman, plus we drove by places he had lived and gone to school. By then we were hungry and still wet, so we went and had dinner at the Beechlawn Hotel, whose restaurant had a wedding -- lots of people in very fancy clothes, including the bride -- plus a 21st birthday party, a Sweet 16 party, and several other large family groups; we were surprised until we found out how good the food was.

Greetings from Northern Ireland

Sunday was overcast most of the day, with dramatic clouds over the hills, but again it only rained when we were in the car. We ate breakfast at the Sligo Park Hotel's buffet, then drove to nearby Drumcliffe Church to see W.B. Yeats's grave and the beautiful chapel. Then we went to another tomb, Creevykeel Court cairn, which is at least 3000 years old. Our next stop was Tullan Strand, a beautiful beach beneath ancient sea stacks whose wide gaps are called the Fairy Bridges and a Wishing Chair formation said to be magical. 

Continuing our tour of regional megaliths, we went to Beltany Stone Circle, a large Stone Age site marking the seasons...surrounded by sheep and cows, and also quite generously dotted with cow manure so walking in it was exciting but treacherous! And we went up into the winds to see Grianán of Aileach, a royal hill fort built before the 6th century high above sea level, with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside, Inch Island, and the lochs leading to the sea...huge, spectacular, and giving the impression one would be blown right off! 

Then we drove to Derry, though we were surprised that there was no sign or indication when we crossed the border from Ireland into the U.K. We went to lunch at the Scullery for sandwiches, salads, and pasta bowls (one of few places open on a Sunday) before visiting the Visitor Information Centre, which in addition to having information on local attractions and upcoming Halloween events has a short film about Amelia Earhart, who landed in the area at the end of her first solo flight across the Atlantic. 

From there we went to the Tower Museum, which in addition to Earhart artifacts has a permanent installation on the history of Derry from prehistoric time through the Troubles -- somewhat different perspectives on the English than at the Limerick museums -- plus an exhibit on the Spanish Armada including pieces from a shipwreck recently discovered in the water nearby, and the Derry Girls Experience with props and costumes from the show. After walking on the Derry city walls, we visited several Amelia Earhart murals and plaques, ending at the sixth hole at the Foyle Golf Club, which is what's now where she landed.