Spring Woodland Wildflower Walk

This long-awaited event usually happens on May 1st, the day after Beltane.  This year it occurred on May 2nd, due to wet weather on the 1st.  Beltane itself was a pretty good party, with music, our final indoor wood fire of the season, and Deb's highly anticipated return to normal eating by ordering a pizza from Armandos.  They offer several vegan style pizzas, and Deb had her first chew in many months.  Her jaw, which had stopped her from all solid foods, seems to be healing now, enough at least to have the occasional pizza.  In general her health has improved nearly 100% since Spring Equinox, including her bladder and kidney issues and those nasty blood clots in her lung.

 

The woodland walk was at a nearby conservation area that encompasses a large woodlot just northeast of the town of Essex.  This is a favourite location for our Spring walks, as it is usually filled with wildflowers.  This year was no exception, and we saw acres of them, with huge amounts of both wild ginger and jack-in-the-pulpits.  Of course spring beauties were everywhere, and violets in three colours.  A lot of buttercups were also seen.  The only important spring flower that this site doesn't have is the trillium.  At least in our adventures here we have never come across any of them.

 

 

Spring beauties up close.

 

A carpet of beauties surround a stump.  They seemed to be singing to it.

A sighting of the rare red-headed forest walker wildflower! 

 

 

 Wild violets up close.

 

 Wild violets not so close.

Wild ginger flowers are remarkably beautiful, but they are shy.  They usually hide beneath the broad leaves.

 

Things were happening in the woods today.

 

 

Part of the trail is on a boardwalk.  There was a lot of standing water today in places, and the mosquitoes won't be too far behind.

A buttercup. 

 

 

Part of our trail as it skirts open farmland.

There were some beautiful mosses seen today, always a favourite of mine.

 

In movie news there are a few to report.  Grand Tour is a Portuguese film from 2024 and directed by Miguel Gomes.  A man in Burma is about to meet his fiancee, arriving on a ship from England.  He gets cold feet and heads for the hills.  He goes to Bangkok, then Singapore, then into Chinese back country.  Though the year is 1917, the director uses modern scenes to describe much of the story.  In some cases budget restraints work wonderfully well if creatively handled, as does this film.  There is very little acting to do in the film, which is as much a travelogue as it is a story.  The narrator and filmed scenes of various cities and their street life present the story, often with much humour.  The film, mostly in b & w, reminded us often of the films of Guy Maddin, though this director's vision is far saner and more easily viewable.  Just when one thinks that are no new ways left to tell a story, here is a brand new and very effective way.  Highly recommended viewing.

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Next came five short films by Romanian director Radu Jude.  The Tube With A Hat is a heartbreaking story of a poor family trying to get their old TV set repaired.   From 2006 it features a father and son all day trek (in the rain) to visit a TV repair shop in the city.  They carry the beast all the way there and all the way back.  Hiking, hitch hiking, and riding the bus eventually get them there and back.  However, the man drops the repaired set as they near their home again, slipping in the mud.  Will the TV work when they get it back inside their leaky-roofed home?  The film is 23 minutes of pure father-son adventure.

Shadow of a Cloud is from 2013 and is 30 minutes long.  A Bucharest priest is called to the side of a dying woman.  He begins to administer the last rites, as the woman is clearly dying.  However, the daughter of the dying woman interrupts him and tells him no, they want a prayer of healing.  He complies and leaves.  When the woman dies shortly afterwards, the daughter blames him entirely for the death, and his second visit does not go well.  An odd but effective film, very slowly paced.

The Marshall's Two Executions is from 2018 and is 10 minutes long.  Using actual b & w footage from a 1960s 4-man execution by firing squad in Romania, the director pairs the actual killings (which were filmed at the time) with a later colour film that also recreates events as they happened.  Thus we get to see a very grim part of Romanian history not once, but twice.  Gruesome and sad.

Plastic Semiotic is from 2021 and is 22 minutes long.  It is an hommage to childhood toys, many of them plastic.  Instead of using stop motion, the director sets ups dozens of tableaux featuring the toys, including some hilarious ones of toys having sex with each other.  This is as very fun film to watch, and the toy variety and quality are astounding.  Worth many viewings.

Caracturana is a 10 minute film that highlights graphic works by Daumier in a very unique manner.  The director organizes the film around hand gestures of the characters in the prints.  Quite fun, especially the prints themselves.

The Potemkinists is from 2022 and is 18 minutes long.  More Romanian history is detailed, having to do with the crew of the Potemkin.  They were actually accepted into Romania during the revolution, thus thwarting Russia's attempts to bring them all to justice.  A giant monument to the men stands on a high hill overlooking the Danube canal in Romania, but the bottom parts have been vandalized and removed by scrap thieves.  The film is about the historical events, but at the same time we see a man trying to convince a female bureaucrat to get the government to fund a repair job.  She is not convinced at first, but he manages to alter his vision slightly and get her on his side.  A fascinating bit of forgotten history.

 

Following our enjoyment of his small films, we attempted to watch a feature called Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of Time, from 2023.  Despite its success in festivals and high ratings from critics, it was not our cup of tea.  We bailed after about 20 minutes.  I see a lot of positive reviews from male writers, but female critics (where I am looking) seem absent.  Small wonder.  The profanity and misogyny are off the scale here.  Sure it might turn out differently, but in the meantime who wants to sit around and listen to a "friend" of Andrew Tate spout off about what he "knows" about women.  Boys may laugh (though I sincerely hope not), but I highly doubt that girls would.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

AvantGrand Baptism

Saturday evening Deb and I hosted the monthly piano player get together.  Alde was out of town, but the other regular members showed up.  The piano was given a very good workout, beginning with Paula performing a short piece by C P E Bach, and a Prelude by Gershwin.  Next up, Jim gave a truly beautiful performance of a piece by Scott Joplin, and the piano sounded amazing under his professional sounding touch.  His brother had just passed away last week, but he had been able to record the piece and play it for him beforehand.  So he played it tonight as a memorial to him.  He followed up with the Grande Waltz Brillante Op 34 in A Minor by Chopin.  He returned at the end of the night to perform the Bach Toccata in E Minor, a major work that sounded totally incredible on the piano.  I could not have been more pleased with the sound.  Next up was Dr. Seski (our Rob Sr.), who played a Chopin Waltz and a piece by Schubert, followed by Dr. Ling, who brought the last two movements of the Appassionata  by Beethoven.  After a short break, we resumed with Rob Jr, Dr. Biswas, who played the final movement of the Waldstein sonata by Beethoven.  Again, the piano really shone here (as did Robert), as volumes of layered sound poured forth from the wide awake piano towards the small but appreciative audience.  I finished up with short pieces by Bach (on harpsichord) and Mendelssohn, and two by Alexina Louie.  And so the piano had a very good workout!  Best of all, I got to sit back and hear all different kinds of music performed on it.  Our next meeting in October will be at Jim's home, in the distant city of Chatham.

We are now deep into our final week of trail hiking preparations.  The mountains are calling, and we are nearly ready to heed those calls.  We have been fortunate in having a cool, mostly sunny month in which to prepare for the big times.  Our trip will have a prelude, as we head to Cincinnati (by invitation) to attend the film festival there next weekend.  Following that event, our vehicle will point west for several driving days.  Excitement is mounting here at the Homestead.

There are two films to report on today.  The first was Deb's main choice, a strange little film called The Eight Mountains.  It is about a lot of things, but mostly about a strong friendship between two men.  They met at age 12, one of them a mountain-raised lad, and the other visiting the Italian Alps for a month in the summer.  Filmed in 4:3 by choice (obviously), it seems to suit the film, which requires close framing some of the time.  The mountain scenery is splendid, and the film does well with the emotional bond between the two lead actors.  This could, in fact, have been a really great film.  However, the insertion of at least 6 folk guitar ballads (sung in English!) during the film is so in your face and poorly chosen, that I would have walked out of the theatre had I seen it there.  As it was, we had the mute on for at least 20 minutes of running time.  Luckily it is sub-titled, or we would have missed some of the dialogue.  Watch at your own risk to your ears.

Now showing on Criterion, with extras. 

 

My main film choice for the week was another strange little film, this one from Portugal.  Filmed in b & w, Tabu is from 2012.  It is actually two shorter films, split in the middle by a changing story arc.  The first part takes place in Lisbon.  A woman who lives next door is the only friend that a lonely and very elderly woman has.  The old woman has a live-in housekeeper.  The first story is about the woman who is the friend, but we follow the elderly woman until she finally passes away.  As she is dying she hands her friend a crumpled piece of paper with a man's name and address on it.  She wants to see this man before she dies.  Despite doing her best to find the person (he is in a nursing home), the older woman dies before they can meet up.  He does attend her funeral, and afterwards goes to a cafe with the friend, and her in-home caretaker.  There he begins to tell the story of the deceased woman, and the movie switches now to Africa, namely a plantation in Mozambique.  This is the better half of the movie, and takes place in the early sixties.  There is intrusive music here, but it is fit to purpose, as we watch a Portuguese rock and roll band perform and hang out, helping us date the time that events are happening in the flashback story.  We never return to the cafe, and the film ends when the African part of the story ends.  Of course the old man telling the story and the elderly woman who just died were lovers in Africa, even as she was married to someone else and pregnant with her daughter.  A tragedy finally separates the pair, and they are destined never to meet again.  Quite a good film, and recommended.  There is a crocodile.

 

Leaving Mubi in 3 days. 

 

That's all for now.  Iaido tonight, and back to hill walking tomorrow. 

Mapman Mike