Since I last blogged we have had two snowstorms and one large rainstorm. The first storm left about 2" of fresh white snow. That was obliterated by an overnight rain storm that dropped 0.8" of rain. It melted all the snow, and filled up our creek very quickly. Then came the 2nd snowstorm, leaving about 6" of fresh white stuff on the Homestead. Our neighbour Kim plowed us out both times, and we are eternally grateful to him. In between all this, we celebrated the return of the light on Wednesday night, along with the full moon. There was a fire, an opera, a great plant based pizza, cherry pie with vegan cherry ice cream, and so much more. It hit 50 F that day, but we knew about the next upcoming snow storm, so the celebration was a bit tongue in cheek. We are back to full winter for a few days, but by Sunday the long awaited warming trend will finally begin. Can't wait.
The shipping lane is still open, and we get one or two ships a day passing by, with a coast guard ice breaker. When I awoke this morning (to all that blindingly bright new snow) I saw a ship passing, and stood and watched it for several minutes. Once outside I spent about 15 minutes (instead of hours) shoveling the parts Kim couldn't get to with his plow. Tonight we have a wind warning. What a world.
The opera choice this month was Tamerlane, by Handel. Filled with choice arias, especially for soprano, this is now my favourite Handel opera, even though we still have much of act 3 to get through today. The opera is on 8 LP sides, and is nearly 3 1/2 hours long. In reading news, I finished up my 8 Avon/Equinox novels for the month, and am now in free choice mode. I am starting out with a little known novel by Patricia Highsmith. I am trying hard to include female writers each month, since the Avon/Equinox series was all male. Last month I read novels by Sherri Tepper and Ursula LeGuin. This month, if time allows, I will read Highsmith and Anne Hillerman.
In film news, there is one to report. Before re-discovering The Great Beauty, my favourite film of all time was a tie between Antonioni's L'Aventura and Fellini's La Dolce Vita. My new favourite is called The Great Beauty, directed by Paolo Sorrentino. If it seems odd that all three of my top films are Italian, I would agree. But I have many films in my top list that aren't Italian (but I also have a few more that are). We had seen Sorrentino's film in June of 2016, having rented it from Netflix back in our Detroit mailbox days. At that time I had written glowingly of it, and from time to time since then I had flashbacks of some of the scenes. When I finally decided that I had to see it again, I had forgotten the name and had no way of locating it. However, I knew I had blogged about it at the time. So I began rereading all my old blogs, from 2009. Finally I came to 2016, then to June, and then....Success!! Next I looked up the title on Criterion. Success!! And it came with four extras, including a lengthy interview with the director. It is a long film, but exceedingly worth seeing. If possible, try to see it all at one sitting. I have never seen it on a big screen, but would make the effort to do so if it ever reappears. One of the best films ever made, and easily the best film ever made about a city (Rome). It is from 2013. Sadly, none of the director's other films are currently showing on Criterion. Toni Servillo is so perfect in the title role of a writer reaching his 65th birthday. It took two viewings for Deb to be convinced, but I was sold the first time, back in 2016.
More later.
Mapman Mike
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