Daily Archives: August 8, 2014

Dogs

Whistle Pig Disappears

Leave a comment

Lughnasa                                                        Lughnasa Moon

IMAG0452Sometime this morning the land-beaver scuttled down from the tree and made good its escape. I think.

His disappearance created a round of consternation for the dogs. So much so that three different times today they dug under the fence and went hunting outside the fence. I found two of the escape spots and wired them shut, but the third will have to be found tomorrow morning.

It’s about time for us to move because the large coil of baling wire I bought years ago is nearly spent.

Latin, Translating Metamorphoses

A Banner Day

Leave a comment

Lughnasa                                                          Lughnasa Moon

Today I went from verse 505 to verse 524 in Book I of Ovid, translating as I went, with only two errors and those both nuances I had not yet learned. My confidence grows now with each lesson.

We pay for 8 sessions at a time. Greg and I do a session every two weeks. Or so. The next session on August 23rd will be the 6th in this series. By the final one, the 8th, I’m planning on renegotiating our arrangement, moving toward more working alone, perhaps story by story, developing a polished translation and not contacting Greg until then. Something like that.

(Apollo and Daphne w Peneus.  Tiepolo)

Kate reminded me the other day of my original purpose in starting this journey. I wanted to challenge my own belief that I could not learn a foreign language. Translating the Metamorphoses was a goal I dangled in front of myself, a reward for staying with the work. Over time I began to believe that my purpose was to translate the Metamorphoses, but that was not it at the beginning. A metamorphosis, it just occurred to me.

Friends, Woolly Mammoths

Breakfast

Leave a comment

Lughnasa                                                             Lughnasa Moon

Breakfast with friend and Woolly Mark Odegard. While waiting for him at Keys (I was early.), I noticed many pairs sitting in booths, usually two women across from each other, but men, too. 8:30 on a weekday. Friends having breakfast, I imagined. It was good to see human connection, thriving.

Mark’s back from Voyageur’s National Park and a houseboat week on Rainy Lake. He’s also reproducing one of his visual journals, his idiosyncratic artform, for folks he and Elizabeth house sat for last January. Mark’s always got one design project or another underway or about to be underway.

Lunch with Margaret, then breakfast with Mark. A busy social calendar in my world. And the potential for even this many times with friends will diminish after the move. I’ll have to get at something out there.

 

Dogs

The Whistle Pig Story. The next day.

Leave a comment

Lughnasa                                                                   Lugnasa Moon

Not a great image, I admit. But as you can see, the land-beaver remains high in the tree where we assume he (or she) spent the night. This fact occasioned much barking this morning when the dogs discovered their playmate had hung around (groan) for another round.

BTW: Whistle-pig comes from the distress call, a high pitched squeak which we heard several times yesterday.

IMAG0470