Eleanor Stewart musical art

Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo.

Iguanas in Florida

My friend Roxanne and I were driving through a parking lot in Ft. Lauderdale when we came upon several large green iguanas basking in the sun. What a surprise!

Fern Hill

Fern Hill
-Dylan Thomas

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

Sumer is icumen in

When the rain stops, the season will begin...

one more very clever octopus

While we are examining the intelligence of the octopus, here's one mor!

Skilled Octopus Opens Bottles - Un Pulpo, Octi Abre Botellas - More amazing video clips are a click away

Oktapodi (2007) - Oscar 2009 Animated Short Film

I haven't been able to eat octopus for awhile now. No wonder!

life, etc.

I haven't been here in so long. It has become a question of "let it go" or "don't". For now, I say "don't give up just yet".

The past few months are a blur. The end of the semester was intense, I had 5 courses, 2 not in my area of expertise. Then just before finals my dad was rushed to the hospital with heart problems. Two more ambulance trips in the next month, 3 weeks in the hospital. Fortunately, he is OK now. Housebound and wearing a monitor, but OK.

I then went to check in with my mother in FL. She is up and about, but she has kidney problems and other ailments that come with age. All in all, she is OK.

Taki's doctors have assured him that he is cancer free, but he does not feel well at all. We were so hoping to get to Greece, but it would not be good idea while he is feeling as he is. So we wait.

It's time to revive this blog. If that means moving away from the Aegean, so be it. Last chance is now.