fri 08-02
Morning shadow, geese dabbling in the lake, spiderwebs by the driveway, roses crossing the steps, hummingbird feeder near the window.
sun 08-04
Jocelyn's first bath.
wed 08-07
Left at seven this morning to drive down to Connecticut to see Terry before she went home. Arrived early in Coventry, and she gave me toast with Sue's homemade strawberry jam. Left for Bolton Notch and walked through a drive-in overgrown with russian olive trees and queen ann lace to a large pond with small lilly pads all the way across and swallows flying over it. Across it we saw a hawk flying above the notch between the hills, and on the other side of it a large bird flapping its wings that turned out to be a goose. Others joined it. We continued through the woods and saw mushrooms of many different colors and shapes growing up through the leaves: red, yellow, brown, white, and mottled. The trail led down to a wooden bridge over a stream, just upstream of which the roots of a fallen tree were sticking up in the air with plants growing in the dirt and a bird's nest in the top. Crossing the stream and tuning back west, the trail went by cliffs of layered stone with much mica in it. Next to our trail was a lower one in a cut made through the rock for railway tracks, so we backtracked a little and took that one instead. Little frogs plopped into one of the small steams that ran below the rock on either side of the trail. There was what appeared to a large root that had been cut off growing out of the solid rock, but must have been a tree trunk. In one place there was what looked like hanging moss growing on the rock face. Walking back along the highway for a short distance on the other side of the pond we found some puffballs. Terry said she could put them in with her slime mold to take them back with her. Then off to West Hartford for indian food, to the Wadsworth Antheneum to see Caravaggio and Dali and Hudson River paintings, and to the airport for Terry's plane home.
sat 08-10
I came home right after tai chi today. I had thought I would wander around Boston since I had not done so during the three week class break, but the wandering I did on tuesday seems to have been enough, and I decided I would rather come home and go swimming, which I did. Three sailboats when slowly by the end of the dock, but the water felt cool and wonderful, and I had no ambition to get out the rudder and sail. Then I listened to a Lammas Ladymass by the Anonymous 4, it being the right season for it, and slept till dinner.
sun 08-11
thin moon
evening star
last sail
mon 08-12
A haiku is supposed to have lines of five seven and five syllables, but in japanese every consonant has its own syllable, except for an occasional y and s after t. So "beef steak" expands to "bisuteki" when it is transliterated, as in the name of the steak house on Memorial drive in Cambridge, and I count "last sail" as five sounds and "evening star" as seven, though the former could be counted as six because of the diphthong. I don't know if anyone else looks at it this way.
tue 08-13
I can leave for my eight o clock tai chi class at three or six, before or after rush hour. I left early today and had an apple and roasted limas from Bread and Circus in the park at the top of Corey hill. It was hot but there was some breeze. A few people were lying on the burnt grass. One was watering her garden. Three large crows flew by, one with a missing wing feather. Then down through Coolidge Corner and the little triangular park by St Mark's condominiums. There is a lot of stone and brick in Brookline, and many trees. I listened to the cicadas in the trees by the trolley tracks after my walk, while waiting in my car.
wed 08-14
The air conditioning wasn't working very well at the prison
today. Halfway through fellowship some of the guys opened windows and the breeze helped. The inmates are only allowed showers between eight and ten in the morning and can have their windows open at night but not their doors, so it gets uncomfortable.
What sort of word is coddle? How is it used? What does it mean? The temperature outside reached one hundred and two today. Many of the inmates here are elderly and/or in poor health. If they knew how to take care of themselves they wouldn't have ended up in prison.
sat 08-17
After tai chi, I went up and walked along the Charles to Harvard Square. Not the Beatles were playing outside. Listened to a couple songs then looked at books and CDs. I used to like Harvard Square. I lived near there when I first moved to Boston.
sun 08-18
Went out for a walk around the lake yesterday morning before it got hot. There was a triathlon so a lot of people were bicycling the other way. When I got to the far end of the lake I could see a line of swimmers that had come out from the beach and were swimming across and back to the beach. Then apparently they had to run all the way back along the beach, turn around, and run back half way again, past where the bicycles were, picking up their own and not mounting until they got to the paved driveway. No more racers until I got to the end of Beach street, bikes coming while I walked down Foxborough, and a first runner entering from Lakeview when I turned onto it, the policeman yelling, "Runner entering from the cones." I walked on the other side from the lead runners, cars and a school bus having to go between us. There were kids outside and stacks of duffel bags piled up as we passed Horizons for Youth going either direction. As I turned onto Morse a man offered me a paper cup of water from the table. The three trash cans were full of water for filling cups, so the woman told me to throw my cup in the road, they wouldn't be able to tell which one was mine. No runners on Morse, a volunteer at the end telling runners to go up the small hill and take the next right, and a crowd of runners as I came back up Massapoag.
tue 08-20
In the shadows of late afternoon, off from the side of the dock, there seemed to be five mallards diving for snails. There were no males, but they had the purple wing stripe and looked too light to be black ducks. I had seen the five, then heard a splashing noise and looked back to see four and a disturbance in the water. Several seconds later one resurfaced. Then others dived, sometimes three down at once. They would come back up with something round in their bills and swallow it, if they didn't drop it.
wed 08-21
Paddled west across the lake and discovered the wind was northeast and stronger than I thought. There were a few student sailboats at the south end of the lake. I went across to the yatch club, and then north along the shore using the wind to help keep the canoe straight. Then back east with wind pushing me south toward home.
sat 08-24
My last tai chi class. I've completed long form level one.
jul |
home |
sep
sun 08-04
Jocelyn's first bath.
wed 08-07
Left at seven this morning to drive down to Connecticut to see Terry before she went home. Arrived early in Coventry, and she gave me toast with Sue's homemade strawberry jam. Left for Bolton Notch and walked through a drive-in overgrown with russian olive trees and queen ann lace to a large pond with small lilly pads all the way across and swallows flying over it. Across it we saw a hawk flying above the notch between the hills, and on the other side of it a large bird flapping its wings that turned out to be a goose. Others joined it. We continued through the woods and saw mushrooms of many different colors and shapes growing up through the leaves: red, yellow, brown, white, and mottled. The trail led down to a wooden bridge over a stream, just upstream of which the roots of a fallen tree were sticking up in the air with plants growing in the dirt and a bird's nest in the top. Crossing the stream and tuning back west, the trail went by cliffs of layered stone with much mica in it. Next to our trail was a lower one in a cut made through the rock for railway tracks, so we backtracked a little and took that one instead. Little frogs plopped into one of the small steams that ran below the rock on either side of the trail. There was what appeared to a large root that had been cut off growing out of the solid rock, but must have been a tree trunk. In one place there was what looked like hanging moss growing on the rock face. Walking back along the highway for a short distance on the other side of the pond we found some puffballs. Terry said she could put them in with her slime mold to take them back with her. Then off to West Hartford for indian food, to the Wadsworth Antheneum to see Caravaggio and Dali and Hudson River paintings, and to the airport for Terry's plane home.
sat 08-17
After tai chi, I went up and walked along the Charles to Harvard Square. Not the Beatles were playing outside. Listened to a couple songs then looked at books and CDs. I used to like Harvard Square. I lived near there when I first moved to Boston.
wed 08-21
Paddled west across the lake and discovered the wind was northeast and stronger than I thought. There were a few student sailboats at the south end of the lake. I went across to the yatch club, and then north along the shore using the wind to help keep the canoe straight. Then back east with wind pushing me south toward home.
sat 08-24
My last tai chi class. I've completed long form level one.