Another storm rolled in a little later, this one even more violent than the first and tornado warnings were issued. The storm ended as quickly as it arrived, and now the sun is out again.
Monday, April 13, 2020
The pond between the storms
The weather was complex today. There was constant overnight rain which had not stopped when I walked this morning. Later in the morning a storm came through with heavy rain and thunder. As the photo below shows, the sun came out afterwards:
Another storm rolled in a little later, this one even more violent than the first and tornado warnings were issued. The storm ended as quickly as it arrived, and now the sun is out again.
Another storm rolled in a little later, this one even more violent than the first and tornado warnings were issued. The storm ended as quickly as it arrived, and now the sun is out again.
The Paint Branch Mills
My friend Kurt called me a couple of days ago to tell me of the ruins of an old mill he found along the creek near his home. I told him about a couple of markers that the Park Department put up along the creek. This is one of the markers:
The text on the marker says that Edmonton's Mill was built on the creek in 1763. Further upstream there is a similar marker for another mill, Snowden's Mill, which was built 40 years earlier. Neither marker was specific as to where exactly these mills were located, so I wondered if either could be the ruins Kurt found even though from his description those ruins were miles downstream.
The text on the marker says that Edmonton's Mill was built on the creek in 1763. Further upstream there is a similar marker for another mill, Snowden's Mill, which was built 40 years earlier. Neither marker was specific as to where exactly these mills were located, so I wondered if either could be the ruins Kurt found even though from his description those ruins were miles downstream.
Easter Message on the Trail
The holiday was yesterday, and someone was busy with chalk before that.
The walker first follows a trail of eggs as shown above. Then comes the big message:
The walker first follows a trail of eggs as shown above. Then comes the big message:
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Deer trio (final catch-up)
For the past few years the park authorities have been thinning the deer herd by shooting them at night. Here are three that have eluded the shooters:
The pond from the bridge in early April
Although I've taken many photos from this location over the years, this vantage point is slightly different.
Tree reflection, early April
This shot was taken at the "other" pond, and although it was taken later it's essentially a close-up of the same scene I photographed in February.
Next catch-up, from mid-March
Although I don't consider this a very good picture, I'm including it because I assume when I made the photograph I was struck by this flowering tree. Now, a month later, I have only the vaguest idea of where it was:
First catch-up, from late February
During this Covid-19 quarantine period, I've become lazy about posting on this bog, but today I'm playing catch-up. This photo of two mallards was actually taken in late February which was before the quarantine. The ducks were swimming in the small pond next to Randolph Road that I've passed by without noticing many dozens of times walking and probably thousands of times driving.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
The other pond
I've posted dozens of pictures of the closest pond, but I've neglected another pond in the park which is in the Paint Branch section. It's smaller than the pond in the Martin Luther King section and is nestled in among wooded hills. Although the location provides some protection from wind, wind wasn't much of a factor this morning anyway.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Maryland now 17-4
After they beat Iowa on Thursday night. I really like the pageantry of Terp basketball games. The students were back from semester break and turned out enthusiastically. The unfurling of the state flag is a colorful part of the rituals:
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Maryland beats Purdue
Got a big lead in the first half, and then the Boilermakers came back in the second. Not enough though, and we got the win.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
FGP Brunch
FGP = Future Grandparents, according to Rebecca's mother-in-law, Zenny.
Pam and I met Zenny and Tim at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria for brunch on January 5th. The main topic of conversation was the announcement over Christmas by Rebecca and Sean that she is pregnant, and we will all be grandparents.
Above L to R is Zenny, Tim, Me, and Pam. Rebecca's due date is June 28.
Pam and I met Zenny and Tim at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria for brunch on January 5th. The main topic of conversation was the announcement over Christmas by Rebecca and Sean that she is pregnant, and we will all be grandparents.
Above L to R is Zenny, Tim, Me, and Pam. Rebecca's due date is June 28.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Visit to the University of Maryland Chapel
Despite the snow, yesterday a small group from our Golden ID program had a tour of the chapel. Pam and I were married in the small chapel which is now called the garden chapel, and I've been to the building a number of other times over the years. Even so, I saw parts of the building and grounds I hadn't seen before.
Before we left I took this picture of the main part of the interior:
Before we left I took this picture of the main part of the interior:
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Terps beat Indiana
Great game to attend because the team played well in front of a full house of enthusiastic fans.
Here, freshman Donta Scott, number 24, battles defenders:
Our big man, Jalen Smith, is called "Sticks" by his teammates because his legs are skinny. This is Jalen shooting a free throw:
Here, freshman Donta Scott, number 24, battles defenders:
Our big man, Jalen Smith, is called "Sticks" by his teammates because his legs are skinny. This is Jalen shooting a free throw:
Another misty morning with geese on the pond
The Canada goose in the foreground was standing on ice. The photo was taken a week or so ago when the pond was partially frozen.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Geese on the pond
There's been 150-170 on the pond some days recently which is about as many as I've ever seen at once there.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
The Arthurian Legends
King Arthur has been on my mind since I've taken a class on this subject this semester. The course has made me aware of the popularity of these stories that continues to this day. This popularity of the tales of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot, and rest of the members of the Round Table goes beyond the English-speaking world as they have been told in French, German, Italian, and other languages.
The question that I continually ask is: Why? What explains this popularity?
One of the first books among the extensive reading list for the course was The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth that goes back to 1136 which is about 600 years after Arthur is thought to have lived. Geoffrey devotes much of the book to Arthur and portrays him as a great warrior. Britain in the fifth and six centuries was chaotic following the withdrawal of Roman troops and invasions by other Celtic people and German tribes from the continent, and the little documentation of those years was performed by monks, often much later. Some of those monks mention a great warrior who rallied the native Brits to some important victories against the German Saxons, but he was not a king since the society was too fractured for a single monarch. Although the book is more Welsh folklore than actual history, it is a start to the study of the Arthurian legends.
The oral Arthurian legends were also written down in France during the twelfth century, most importantly by Chretien de Troyes and a poet named Beroul. These authors expanded the roles of Lancelot and Tristan as opposed to concentrating on Arthur. Tristan's romance with Queen Isolde became a tale retold in many variations including an opera by German Richard Wagner in the nineteenth century.
Published in 1469, Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory has become the main source for subsequent accounts of the Arthurian stories. Although an Englishman, Malory follows the French authors by concentrating as much on stories of the Knights of the Round table as on Arthur. Maybe that's why he gave his book a French title. The great battles between armies that were so prevalent in Geoffrey of Monmouth's book have been crowded out by individual conflicts often depicted as tests for the knights. The many scenes of jousting tournaments would not have taken place during the years the historical Arthur is presumed to have lived but were more indicative of the age that Malory wrote.
King Arthur's character faded so much into the background in Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, written the nineteenth century, that he seems wooden and colorless in comparison's with his subordinate knights. In his memoirs, Tennyson explains that his Arthur was intended to represent the human soul while Lancelot, Tristan, Gawain and the rest added the human element.
The popularity of these stories did not diminish in the twentieth century as the success of the musical Camelot on the stage and screen demonstrate. The Arthurian legends remained common settings for other modern movies including, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail whose authors must have been very familiar with the written versions that were lampooned hilariously in the film.
Okay, I believe I've demonstrated the popularity over nearly a millennia, but the question remains as to what is the explanation for the continuing appeal of the King Arthur stories?
I think that part of the reason, especially during the Medieval years, was religion. The historical Arthur probably was a Christian, and the theme of a Christian hero prevailing against the pagan Saxons would have a receptive audience. The tales increasingly included Christian elements such as the search for the Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus drank from during the Last Supper, and King Arthur took on Christ-like attributes including prophesies of his eventual return from the dead.
However, there were other heroic defenders of the Christian faith, so I decided there must be additional explanations and found some ideas in the introduction to Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain. The author of the introduction Lewis Thorpe dismisses the criticism that the book fails as political history as irrelevant because Geoffrey of Monmouth should be read as romanticized history that has more in common with epic poetry such as Virgil's Aeneid which is mentioned more than once by Geoffrey. The History of the Kings of Britain was printed many times for a medieval text, and even though our modern view of the Arthurian tales owes more to Malory's Morte D'Arthur Geoffrey should be considered, in Thorpe's words, "as a source book for the imaginative writings of others, as an inspiration for poetry, drama, and romantic fiction down through the centuries that has few equals in the whole history of European literature."
By the time of Geoffrey's writings, the Britons that Arthur had commanded lived on in what we now call Europe's Celtic fringe- Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany in France where the oral tales of King Arthur flourished and combined with existing Celtic myths. Merlin's magic in setting the scene for Arthur's conception and Arthur's transportation to the mystical island of Avalon following his mortal wound in his final battle establishes, again in Thorpe's words, "the air of other-worldliness and mystery."
Moreover, Geoffrey's identification of Arthur with the new ideal of chivalry in Western Europe and the attractiveness of Queen Guinevere and Arthur's favorite knights all contributed to subsequent authors using Arthur and his court as models for expanded stories.
Despite all my emphasis on the importance of Geoffrey of Monmouth for the popularity of the Arthurian stories, I wouldn't ignore Thomas Malory because the picture he presents of Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable reflects, I think, a universal yearning for wise and just leaders ruling over a stable and peaceful land.
I don't know if my ideas are correct or not, but I've certainly had fun thinking about them.
The question that I continually ask is: Why? What explains this popularity?
One of the first books among the extensive reading list for the course was The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth that goes back to 1136 which is about 600 years after Arthur is thought to have lived. Geoffrey devotes much of the book to Arthur and portrays him as a great warrior. Britain in the fifth and six centuries was chaotic following the withdrawal of Roman troops and invasions by other Celtic people and German tribes from the continent, and the little documentation of those years was performed by monks, often much later. Some of those monks mention a great warrior who rallied the native Brits to some important victories against the German Saxons, but he was not a king since the society was too fractured for a single monarch. Although the book is more Welsh folklore than actual history, it is a start to the study of the Arthurian legends.
The oral Arthurian legends were also written down in France during the twelfth century, most importantly by Chretien de Troyes and a poet named Beroul. These authors expanded the roles of Lancelot and Tristan as opposed to concentrating on Arthur. Tristan's romance with Queen Isolde became a tale retold in many variations including an opera by German Richard Wagner in the nineteenth century.
Published in 1469, Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory has become the main source for subsequent accounts of the Arthurian stories. Although an Englishman, Malory follows the French authors by concentrating as much on stories of the Knights of the Round table as on Arthur. Maybe that's why he gave his book a French title. The great battles between armies that were so prevalent in Geoffrey of Monmouth's book have been crowded out by individual conflicts often depicted as tests for the knights. The many scenes of jousting tournaments would not have taken place during the years the historical Arthur is presumed to have lived but were more indicative of the age that Malory wrote.
King Arthur's character faded so much into the background in Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, written the nineteenth century, that he seems wooden and colorless in comparison's with his subordinate knights. In his memoirs, Tennyson explains that his Arthur was intended to represent the human soul while Lancelot, Tristan, Gawain and the rest added the human element.
The popularity of these stories did not diminish in the twentieth century as the success of the musical Camelot on the stage and screen demonstrate. The Arthurian legends remained common settings for other modern movies including, of course, Monty Python and the Holy Grail whose authors must have been very familiar with the written versions that were lampooned hilariously in the film.
Okay, I believe I've demonstrated the popularity over nearly a millennia, but the question remains as to what is the explanation for the continuing appeal of the King Arthur stories?
I think that part of the reason, especially during the Medieval years, was religion. The historical Arthur probably was a Christian, and the theme of a Christian hero prevailing against the pagan Saxons would have a receptive audience. The tales increasingly included Christian elements such as the search for the Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus drank from during the Last Supper, and King Arthur took on Christ-like attributes including prophesies of his eventual return from the dead.
However, there were other heroic defenders of the Christian faith, so I decided there must be additional explanations and found some ideas in the introduction to Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain. The author of the introduction Lewis Thorpe dismisses the criticism that the book fails as political history as irrelevant because Geoffrey of Monmouth should be read as romanticized history that has more in common with epic poetry such as Virgil's Aeneid which is mentioned more than once by Geoffrey. The History of the Kings of Britain was printed many times for a medieval text, and even though our modern view of the Arthurian tales owes more to Malory's Morte D'Arthur Geoffrey should be considered, in Thorpe's words, "as a source book for the imaginative writings of others, as an inspiration for poetry, drama, and romantic fiction down through the centuries that has few equals in the whole history of European literature."
By the time of Geoffrey's writings, the Britons that Arthur had commanded lived on in what we now call Europe's Celtic fringe- Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany in France where the oral tales of King Arthur flourished and combined with existing Celtic myths. Merlin's magic in setting the scene for Arthur's conception and Arthur's transportation to the mystical island of Avalon following his mortal wound in his final battle establishes, again in Thorpe's words, "the air of other-worldliness and mystery."
Moreover, Geoffrey's identification of Arthur with the new ideal of chivalry in Western Europe and the attractiveness of Queen Guinevere and Arthur's favorite knights all contributed to subsequent authors using Arthur and his court as models for expanded stories.
Despite all my emphasis on the importance of Geoffrey of Monmouth for the popularity of the Arthurian stories, I wouldn't ignore Thomas Malory because the picture he presents of Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable reflects, I think, a universal yearning for wise and just leaders ruling over a stable and peaceful land.
I don't know if my ideas are correct or not, but I've certainly had fun thinking about them.
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Friday, November 29, 2019
Faculty Recital at Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts.
Only made it for the last 15 minutes, but what I heard I enjoyed. The photo shows a string quartet with a piano accompaniment. The piece was by Brahms.
Maryland Basketball
I went to an early game against Oakland College of Michigan which we won.
We've won every game since, and as of today we're 7-0
We've won every game since, and as of today we're 7-0
Monday, November 11, 2019
Some nice November days
Photo came from this past weekend, and we've had a number of recent days like this. Tomorrow, however, is going to be cold, windy, and probably rainy with snow a possibility according to the forecasts.
Monday, November 4, 2019
World Series Parade
Saturday I went down to the Mall in D.C. for the parade celebrating the first Washington baseball team to win a World Series in almost a century.
I've lived in this area my whole life, for all practical purposes and have been a baseball fan since I was about six years old. That adds up to a lot of disappointments. The team in the 1950's was terrible, and when it started to improve moved to Minnesota. The major leagues give us an expansion team immediately, but they weren't very good either. After that team moved to Texas, we were without a team for over thirty years. I didn't pay much attention to baseball for a while and eventually began rooting for the Baltimore Orioles. Although I still follow the O's, my heart when back to Washington when the Montreal team moved here. The new team, the Nationals, have had some very good seasons but never quite good enough to make the Series until this year when they came into the play-offs as the underdogs but managed to prevail each step along the way.
Some years ago, I think it was during the time Washington was without a team, I somehow obtained a baseball jacket with the name "Senators", the name of the old team. When I wore the jacket to the parade it attracted some attention. In fact, a young women who said she was a reporter for the Washington Times newspaper interviewed me and took my picture. I guess she thought an old guy who's apparently seen a lot of baseball might be worth a feature story, but I looked a couple of times on their website and didn't see any article on me.
Buses like the one above carried the players. I'm glad I went but didn't stay for the whole thing
I've lived in this area my whole life, for all practical purposes and have been a baseball fan since I was about six years old. That adds up to a lot of disappointments. The team in the 1950's was terrible, and when it started to improve moved to Minnesota. The major leagues give us an expansion team immediately, but they weren't very good either. After that team moved to Texas, we were without a team for over thirty years. I didn't pay much attention to baseball for a while and eventually began rooting for the Baltimore Orioles. Although I still follow the O's, my heart when back to Washington when the Montreal team moved here. The new team, the Nationals, have had some very good seasons but never quite good enough to make the Series until this year when they came into the play-offs as the underdogs but managed to prevail each step along the way.
Some years ago, I think it was during the time Washington was without a team, I somehow obtained a baseball jacket with the name "Senators", the name of the old team. When I wore the jacket to the parade it attracted some attention. In fact, a young women who said she was a reporter for the Washington Times newspaper interviewed me and took my picture. I guess she thought an old guy who's apparently seen a lot of baseball might be worth a feature story, but I looked a couple of times on their website and didn't see any article on me.
Buses like the one above carried the players. I'm glad I went but didn't stay for the whole thing
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Monday, October 21, 2019
Afternoon Bach Cantata at the University
Last Thursday's was the second performance for the semester. The first took place in one of the theaters, and although the seats were more comfortable I like the informality of this one's lobby setting which is what I'm used to.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
The pond this week
Nice lighting on my Wednesday morning walk:
A Great Blue Heron visited. Their visits to the pond are rare which surprises me because when I was fishing a lot in the Potomac River and other waters in the area I would usually see at least one of these impressive birds.
A Great Blue Heron visited. Their visits to the pond are rare which surprises me because when I was fishing a lot in the Potomac River and other waters in the area I would usually see at least one of these impressive birds.
Monday, October 7, 2019
October days at the Addy Sea
For years I wondered about the name of this Bethany Beach bed and breakfast. When Pam and I first stayed there, I learned that the house was originally a family beach house owned by the Addy family, but the name still seemed odd. For a variety of circumstances it dawned on me when we were there last week that the name could be a pun on the Odyssey, but I don't know if that's correct. Whatever the origin of the name, we always enjoy our visits.
In addition to a big spread for breakfast, the Addy Sea offers an afternoon tea. Pam took this picture of Friday's dessert to go with the tea:
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