Imbolc Waxing Bridgit Moon
OK. Today is a new day. I do not plan to torture my computers anymore today in regard to my legacy laserjet printer. It has been a faithful companion throughout the last 19 years and I do not plan to give up on it yet. Even so, I’ve experienced my tolerance level of geek futility since I tried to convert it from parallel processing to usb, so it will rest on the sidelines for a while as I install the new multi-function printer later in the day. If I can find a new laserjet printer for under $300 I may just get one with a native usb connection. Not sure I’d do with old faithful. I might bring it in here (the study) and see if I can convince it to mate up with the Gateway in here. I might give it to somebody with a parallel printer port.
I know, too, that losing colonies is still common for beekeepers and that my experience is not unusual. In fact, as I said a bit earlier, I was not surprised by the deaths of two of the colonies. Only the package colony’s demise surprised me, since it seemed to have plenty of honey and a healthy group of bees. Another year is another year.
With temperatures above freezing the dogs are frisky, staying outside longer, bumping, running, tails held high. They both hunt between the honey house and the play house, noses to the ground, body alert. Kona still finds the outdoors a bit too cool and no wonder, she no longer has any hair on her butt. I know how it feels when there’s no hair on the head, probably a similar sensation. And it is hard for Kona to put a hat or a scarf on that particular location.
I’m inclining toward a Renaissance theme for the Titian tours. This exhibit showcases the High Renaissance in Venice from its beginnings in the early 1500’s through its end in the 1580’s. Venice held on to the Renaissance longer than the rest of Italy, though even its extension ended well before the Renaissance limped toward its end in the 1700’s in northern Europe. The Renaissance gave shape and content to our era, actually doing what those embroiled in it thought they were doing, ushering in the modern age, shifting from the ancien regime to the days of democracy, individualism, capitalism and science, days within which we still live.
Not often do we have the chance to experience such a clear visual record of this dramatic change in the lifeways of Western civilization, a record written not in words, but in the brushstrokes and vital imaginations of artists who distilled the time and painted it. On canvas. Using oils.
