Today is a "camp" day, or "Lake Penage" day. It is mild, rainy, and very grey. We happily survived many such summer days at our camp on the lake west of Sudbury. We built the camp when I was ten, and I spent all my summers there, including the first several years Deb and I were teaching school in far away Southern Ontario. Indoor activities were limited in those days. Later there was TV, but before that there were playing cards, and bad board games. Of course reading and writing were popular with us, as was sitting on the screened porch and looking out at the lake and distant La Cloche Mountains as the all day rain came down. So today, watching the rain out our front windows, I am think about camp a lot (it was sold by my father many years ago).
The previous two days here at the Homestead were sunny, very dry, low humidity, and cool (low 70s F). These I refer to as New Mexico "high altitude" days. The weather in late August above 8,000' is very much what is was like here on Friday and Saturday, a break from the stinky heat and humidity we have had recently. Those days are simply called "Windsor" days. They are uncomfortable and usually unhealthy. Other simile days around here include "London" days (chilly and very damp), "Detroit" days, grey and low visibility (when Detroit does not look its best), "tropical" days, with heat, storms, and heavy rain, and, of course the several "Arctic" days we get each winter. So far we have escaped a major storm here (though the flooded Detroit freeway from ten days ago just reopened), and severe heat (usually 100 F or above). But the summer is young.
In music news, our listening program continues. We are finishing up with all the Haydn records we have (a slew of them), still working on the Baroque LPs (Vivaldi currently), the complete works of Beethoven (CDs), of which we are currently at Biamonti #153 (of 849!). We are currently amidst the Opus 9 String Trios. And then there is the complete works of Bach on CD. Every Sunday we listen to a Cantata during breakfast, and during the week randomly listen to different sections of the enormous box set.
With Phase 3 of Ontario's reopening plan coming this Friday, I will feel comfortable inviting people inside again for a recital. I need to play these pieces very badly, having had them on the back burner since October. Hopefully I will be performing again before July is finished.
Turning to art for a moment, here is another graphic art landscape from the DIA. Early Flemish painters often used a popular religious scene as an excuse to paint a beautiful landscape. The Flight Into Egypt falls neatly into this category, as we get to witness a Bruegelesque mountain landscape of breathtaking scope and imagination. If this were in a Dover colouring book, I wold set out with my pencils to colour it.
Lastly we turn briefly to movies watched recently, all on Criterion. La Notte is a 1961 film by Antonioni starring Marcello, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti. It's another almost Zen-like movie where nothing much happens for much of the film. Marcello and Jeanne have lost the spark to their marriage, and Jeanne wanders the city of Milan for an afternoon, exploring the city alone, much like a modern woman might do (though this wasn't done very often in 1961 Italy). Marcello flirts with Monica at a large party, but she rejects him as he is married. A very strange film, like its predecessor L'Avventura. It strikes out into new cinema territory, and you will either like it or you won't. We both liked it.
Next time I will talk a bit about some of the games I have been playing lately, including card, board, and computer types. Till then, adieu.
Mapman Mike
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