It's been a very busy time for me here at the Homestead. The main reason is that I have been out with the telescope for the last four nights out of six. Those in-between nights were also clear, but I needed to rest my eyes and body a bit. All in all I had the best month of observing so far in 2026 and tried to make the best of it.
There has also been Iaido training, a piano group get-together and a visit from Amanda. With clouds settling in for the long term, astronomy is likely over until November. Being our Thanksgiving weekend there is no Iaido training. It appears I may be able to catch up with myself and my blogging at last.
In astronomy news I am tracking down galaxies right now in two constellations, Pisces and Cetus. Neither constellation is very impressive to the human eye, but add a decent sized telescope and suddenly there are hundreds of objects to look for. I've added over 12 pages of notes to my observing log this past week. My drive to dark skies is 50 minutes each way, so I've also been driving for 400 minutes (at night). Harvest season is just beginning, but I managed to dodge the worst of the tractors so far. They now use headlights so bright that even if they are two miles away I can see my shadow.
In piano news Jim P. and Rob B. came by last week. We haven't been together for ages. It's always great for me to sit back and hear my instrument played so well. Jim played a long piece by Bach, followed by an etude by Philip Glass. Rob played the Chopin Barcarolle, a piece that he has had for a long time, but is always appreciated when he does perform. I played three short pieces, one each by Haydn, Beethoven and MacDowell. We will try one more meeting before Christmas.
Amanda came by last weekend for a five hour catch up. Since we last saw her in early Spring she has been to Scotland and London and we have been to London twice. She has also moved into her own apartment in Toronto, finally escaping a house-sharing situation with others over many years. Her place looks and sounds really great! She also brought us some sacred coffee beans and pencils for my collection from Loch Lomond and the Tate.
Amherstburg has a fairly new conservation area open to the public and we paid our first visit earlier in the week. It's adjacent to River Canard, which we drive over each time we go to Windsor. For 35 years we have driven past this vast marsh, once in private hands but now open to the public. The trail is just over 2 km long and it was a surreal experience to see the highway bridge from this perspective. The marsh and small lake are filled with water birds and turtles. We will be back, especially when the water lilies bloom in the Spring. Here are a few snaps of our first walk here. It is a very short drive from our house to this location.
The trail circles the area,which is quite large.
Turning now to films, there are three to report. Most recently we watched Close To Vermeer, a documentary from 2023 detailing the preparation for the world's largest gathering of paintings by the master. Only 34 or so are known to be by his hand, and the Rijskmuseum managed to snag 27 of them for the exhibit. This is an excellent film, on par with the one we saw recently about the Bosch exhibit. While the paintings speak for themselves, the dialogue is informative and often entertaining. This was showing on the Kino streaming channel.
From Criterion we watched Aventurera, a Mexican film directed by Alberto Gout. It is from 1950 and stars the queen of Mexican cabaret Ninon Sevilla. Here is the blurb from Criterion:
"A darkly glittering feminist revenge tale played at fever-pitch delirium, this oft-cited pinnacle of the popular Mexican cine de rumberas genre—dizzyingly plotted “fallen women” melodramas studded with showstopping musical numbers—stars Ninón Sevilla in one of her defining roles: as Elena, a young woman whose happy life shatters abruptly when her mother walks out for another man and her father commits suicide. Reduced to poverty and taken merciless advantage of by a villainous nightclub owner (Andrea Palma), Elena reinvents herself as a cabaret star. But she never forgets the people who wronged her, and when a chance to exact vengeance presents itself, Elena seizes the opportunity."
The plot is a bit dizzying, and while Sevilla can sing and dance, she does both with a sort of almost clumsy ungainliness that brings back memories of Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street. Filmed in b & w. While usually at the heart of every wronged girl's problems there is a cad of a man, this girl was mostly wronged by her mother and her eventual mother-in-law. A weird but likable movie, like the starlet herself. Poor Rengo, who saves the girl but loses her to her true love.
We also saw another film staring Joanne Woodward, starring alongside Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter (Captain Pike!) and Cameron Mitchell in No Down Payment. From 1957 this b & w CinemaScope film was directed by Martin Ritt. It's a suburban soap opera, as several post war couples share alcohol and BBQ in their newly acquired homes and adjoining back yards in a subdivision in LA. The writer, Ben Maddow, was blacklisted in Hollywood back in the good old days, and another writer fronted for him here. The story is rich in happenings as we get into the lives and marriages of four main couples. Woodward plays an emotionally wounded woman who had to give her baby up for adoption. She is married to brutish Mitchell, who actually rapes Hunter's wife when he is away. There are some hard hitting moments, but alcohol and cigarettes get top billing here. Randall is suitably pathetic as a used car salesman. A peek into late 1940s lower middle class LA, if anyone is interested.
That's all for now. Happy Thanksgiving! Except for the remnants of Hurricane Isaias, Sunday should be a fun day. Lots of cooking and baking going on here tomorrow.
Mapman Mike
