Who cooks for you?

Today was a busy day amongst our neighborhood Barred Owls.  Maybe an election or something.  I just love to hear them call Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?  They were quite active this afternoon (it was warm and sunny) and again later at night.  If it wasn't for taking the dogs for a walk we would probably never hear these call.

Meanwhile, spring is well under way, Fulham are into the final of the Europa League Cup, Pixie seems to be doing better and life is good.

And, speaking of elections, across the pond, Gordon Brown has put his foot in it, politically speaking, in the run up to the General Election.  He called a woman he had just spoken to "bigoted" when he thought he was not being overheard.  This got me to wondering to what extent xenophobia is genetic (hard-wired) and therefore a product of evolution, and how much it is learned from our peers.  Nature versus nurture.

I think it's probably both.  There are good genetic reasons to be good to people that we know or who look/behave like ourselves.  That's because that person we are helping is likely to be genetically similar to ourselves, and by helping them we propagate some, at least, of our own genes.  But a "foreigner" is less likely to be carrying our genes and therefore is seen simply as competition.  Not too long ago, in our hunter-gather days (roughly 99.8% of our history as a species), anyone we saw and didn't recognize would be assumed to be up to no good and likely to be killed.  We were not tolerant of outsiders.  I think some of this is still with us, which makes it a tough political issue.  The woman was probably not especially xenophobic, amongst her peers, that is, but she was willing to speak her mind when the P.M. came by.  Brown himself can't appear to be xenophobic because there are already so many non Anglo-Saxon/Norman/Celtic people in Britain.  But he also has to look like he's tough on the (illegal) immigrants from Eastern Europe and elsewhere.  A very tricky political tightrope.

In fact, it's quite likely that the woman was suffering to some extent from economic xenophobia.  I and all of the other US-based software developers are feeling a bit of that too.  And we don't even get to see the foreigners that we're competing with.

Speaking of immigration, we just saw a British drama on PBS "Small Island" about a Jamaican couple who come to England in 1948, effectively the beginning of the wave of West Indian immigration.  Reaction to them was often extreme and, to our modern ethos, quite appalling.  I can attest to much of that attitude still being there ten years later.  It's a wonderful story which helps reminds us that, underneath our skins, we're all the same species.  In fact, studies have shown that the average genetic distance between someone of African descent and a Caucasian is surprisingly close – and significantly less than the typical amount of genetic variation within a supposedly homogeneous population.

Cornish Pasties

There are many good things which come from Cornwall, that part of England that looks like the bus driver's feet and lower legs. The beam engine, originally developed for the tin mines was its greatest contribution to the industrial revolution.  Devonian wits would probably mention "the road to Devon".  But foodies would might rave about such delicacies as Cornish Game Hen, Cornish Ice Cream and of course the Cornish Pasty.

But seriously, Cornwall is a wonderful place, although it can get a bit crowded for sure.  The coastline is magnificent and can be hiked relatively easily, if you have a lot of time on your hands. And it has great historical interest, especially if you're into Camelot, King Arthur and all that.

It's one of the Celtic parts of Britain or, to be more precise, Brythonic parts. And there has long been an independence movement, as they definitely do not consider themselves English.  Kernowek (Cornish) struggles to exist, although there are lots of efforts to keep it going.  For all intents and purposes, it went extinct over a hundred years ago but has been "revived". There are six languages that are generally thought of as the (extant) Celtic languages -- in two groups: Goidelic: Scots, Irish and Manx and Brythonic: Welsh, Cornish and Breton.  Given that for much of our human history, travel was easier by boat than over land, it is perhaps not too surprising that Cornwall and Brittany (Bretagne in French) are related culturally and linguistically.  It's not too far in a boat, as we're reminded by the sea shanty Spanish Ladies: From Ushant to Scilly is Thirty-five leagues.  [A league can have various meanings but here probably 3 (nautical?) miles.  In fact, the open-water distance is about 97 nm or 112 miles, not 105 -- perhaps it's no surprise that ships were constantly running aground at one of these spots].  I'm reminded that one day I want to read Barry Cunliffe's book Facing the Ocean.

But I digress.  On Wednesday, Will was coming over for dinner and I wanted to do something British.  I decided on Cornish Pasties, always one of my favorites growing up.  They actually came out remarkably well, although it took over three hours from start to finish (!).  Next time, I need to get the beef ground (rather than cutting it up myself as in the recipe) and I need to make the pieces of potato and rutabaga just a little smaller.  The pastry was remarkably edible, given that I haven't had much experience with pastry.  Not up to my mother's (or mother-in-law's) standards though.  Being in a hurry, I made four huge pasties instead of 8 or 9 more reasonably sized ones.  I couldn't get the pasty to knit together as well as I might, given that the filling was bursting at the seams.  See photo of one of the larger and messier ones (no, it isn't a Cornish game hen, or any other kind of bird).

But my vict.. er. guests enjoyed them, or so they said.  Too bad I can't serve them Steak and Kidney pie!

No bad dogs

As Mrs. Woodhouse used to say: "no bad dogs".  And this is what we find from our foster-dog program.  It's so rewarding to get to know the different personalities of the dogs.  And each one is so very different.


We're on our fourth foster now with Madison (aka "Pixie"), right, on my lap while I use my laptop.  Our first was Leta (now Leyla), left.  Leyla is in a terrific setting in rural Connecticut with an older "brother".  Just look at the marvelous photo that her mom took of her.

Each dog that comes to our house typically has a week or two "settling in" period.  This usually entails some number of "accidents" in the house.  An exception was our second foster, Cooper (now Spenser), right.  He didn't need much settling in and never had an accident.  He's living very happily not too far from us with two boy dogs each twice his size.

Our third foster dog, Miley (left), was perhaps the one that needed the most settling in.  One of the more traumatic events that occurred when she was first with us was the time when we lost her in the woods in sub-freezing conditions.  See Yeah, Is It a Chihuahua?  But, like all the others, she settled in very nicely and was a very loving friendly little dog.  She too got happily adopted.  We're pretty sure that she had more Jack Russell Terrier genes than Chihuahua genes, though.

That brings me back to our current little cutie, Madison/Pixie.  She's really filled out since we got her (she was just skin and bone then).  She has a healthy appetite, though she doesn't like drinking water from a water bowl (prefers it to be mixed in with her food).  She's the most loving little dog, always wanting to be on a lap if possible or, at night, buried way down under the covers.  Her left eye is still something of a concern.  She's going to go back to the vet tomorrow to see what he thinks.  But it doesn't appear to be bothering her.  One of her  most endearing traits is that she just loves to be sitting in her bed in the sunshine.  We have to move the bed around to follow the sun!  She's the sunbeam dog!  For more photos, see Madison.

Yes, we have no bananas

We eat a lot of bananas in our menagerie.  And when I say "we", I do mean all of us (two humans, three dogs at present).  The dogs get their slice of banana, which they love, at breakfast time.  Well, all except Cindy who's no longer allowed extra calories, including bananas, by order of the vet!

So, there was some consternation when it became apparent that we were banana-less this morning (we forgot to pick some up on our way back from Little Monadnock yesterday).  Consequently, I started singing the old song, which I had always assumed was a quintessentially British song.  But then I looked up the origin of Yes, We Have No Bananas and found, to my surprise, that it's wholly American, albeit with British associations along the way.

We had planned to hike Little Monadnock last year but the trails were too damaged from the ice storm.  So, with Kara and the "muppets", we set off yesterday for the relatively easy hike.  The photo, taken during a short, light hailstorm, shows Kim and the dogs atop Little Monadnock, with Mt. Monadnock in the background.  Unfortunately, Monadnock doesn't allow dogs (although plenty people ignore the rule), so we generally pick one of the other hills in the area.  There are lots!  Besides, at this point in our training schedule, Monadnock itself would be a bit too strenuous.  We last climbed it in 2004 and it's surprisingly tough, especially if you go up the Spellman trail as we did.  Besides, do you see what's on the top of Monadnock?  Snow! 

This (photo above) is not quite the summit, however.  The summit, such as it is, is about a furlong to the west, along the Metacomet-Monadnock trail.  It has no good views, although at this time of year we could see through the leafless trees quite far to the west, or could have done if the weather wasn't so bad.  We stopped for lunch there.  We continued on the four-mile loop, eventually coming down a couple of "roads" back to Rhododendron State Park where we had begun.  We may visit this again in July with Ella when the blossom is out.  On the way back, we passed a rather large beaver pond (see photo).

Next, we stopped at the crossing of a rail trail, which I hadn't really been expecting, quite close to the park.  The trail runs the route of the old Cheshire R/R.  For more information, see my new railroad blog.

And, finally, our second goal of the day: sampling the wares of Lickity Splitz in Winchendon, MA.  I was quite pleased with my maple walnut.  The portion, a "small", was huge.  The maple syrup flavor was excellent.  At first, I thought there was a paucity of walnuts, but they appeared lower down.  Compared with Kimball's, I'd say that it was almost as good.  That's very high praise!

Anglo-Icelandic Wars and Woodcocks

Relations between Britain and Iceland have never been really good.  Go back a millennium and the Saxons were fighting the same Danes/Vikings that were colonizing all of Scandinavia, Scotland and the various North Atlantic Islands, including Ísland (Iceland).  Then there were the Cod wars back in the 50s and 70s. More recently, there was the Icelandic contribution to the financial meltdown, particularly hard felt in the UK (although also causing huge problems at home).

And now, the ash cloud.  All of British air space is closed, as is most of Northern Europe.  I feel really sorry for all of those stranded travelers.

The Icelanders themselves seem like nice people, though.  Kim and I had a great time when we visited in 2005, including playing at the bridge club in Reykjavik.  I suppose we can't really blame them for the ash cloud.  Their volcanoes typically do a lot more damage to themselves, such as burying whole towns in hot lava.  One of these days, it would be nice to go back and spend more time there.  Though I think we may have to wait until the day that a tiny hotel room, about the size of a couchette on a train, costs less than $200.

Meanwhile, on a more positive note, I joined a Carlisle birding group this evening in quest of the American Woodcock.  I've seen its cousin, the (Eurasian) woodcock, doing its special display flight, called "roding", in England. But I had never seen the American version.  The display of this bird is reminiscent of the skylark.  Starting with quite loud "peeps" on the ground, the male flies up making a twittering sound, and then flies back down again with repeated chirps.  Although not technically a "lek", the idea is similar.  The females watch these crepuscular displays at a distance and will choose to mate with the male they like the most.  We had an excellent view of a male, just about 40 feet away, who did several flights..  It was a dull cloudy day so, given that the sun had set (as required) the image was dim.  But Tom, our leader, had a telescope which showed us quite a lot of detail, including the enormous bill.  It was a truly magical moment.

Magical Stone Arches

The stone arch bridge is one of those inventions, like the thermos flask, that just seems to work by magic.  There is no mortar in the bridge pictured above, which carried the Nashua, Acton and Boston Railroad across Stony Brook in Westford, MA.  This particular bridge was built in 1872 and for 53 years this bridge took the weight of trains.  For pictures of other stone arch railroad bridges in Western Mass, see The Arches.

Kim, Kara and I walked along the old line a week ago.  It's not really a rail trail, but it is a good and very pleasant walking path, at least until you reach the now absent bridge over the still active Stonybrook Railroad which runs between Lowell and Worcester.

The oldest known bridge of this type is in Greece and dates from 1300BC.  The design of these bridges owes everything to the fact that stone is extremely strong in compression.  Most modern bridges of course are built on the exact opposite principle: tension.  Stone obviously cannot be used for such a purpose.  But building such bridges had to await the development of steel.  Even the first Iron Bridge (at Ironbridge in England), which was built in 1779 from cast iron, which also lacks good tensile strength, was modeled on the same principles as stone arch bridges, i.e. compression.

Typical modern bridge design, such as the Zakim Bunker Hill bridge in Boston use steel cables which directly connect the roadbed to the towers.  Steel has a tensile strength of about 500 MPa (mega pascals) which is approximately half that of spider silk.  Other man-made materials can have much higher tensile strengths, in particular, carbon nanotubes which can have a strength of 10 GPa (giga pascals) or higher.

In case you're still wondering why the Thermos flask is so magical, consider this.  It can keep hot liquids hot, and cold liquids cold and you don't have to tell it which one you want!

Musical Cards

Opera and bridge: two of my favorite things.  So what could be better than an opera about bridge?  Yes, the world's shortest opera (9 minutes) is Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge with libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, himself a successful opera composer, including the world's first made-for-TV opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Barber was one of America's most successful 20th century composers.  Barber's music can be sensual and emotional.  His Knoxville Summer of 1915 (based on text by James Agee) is a wonderfully evocative piece and still firmly in the repertoire.

I finally got around to listening to the recording loaned to me by my friend Walt.  The opera begins thus: 1♥ 2♣ 2♥ pass 4♥ 5♣ 5♥ all pass.  Thereupon each of the four players (two married couples) soliloquizes about some topic.  Their lack of attention to the game at hand is anathema to us bridge players!  Some of their musings are also a little, shall we say, risqué.  It is not a serious piece but the light orchestration is inventive and witty, including some good bassoon parts.

Perhaps it was composed as the antithesis of the Wagner style opera, for example Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which takes four and one half hours to perform.  I imagine that A Hand... would be impossible to stage alone.  Nobody would want to drive into New York and pay $100+ for a 9-minute opera.  But I can think of at least one opera that it could be paired with: Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.  There may be others.  Cards also play important roles in several other operas that I can think of.  Top of the list, in terms of dramatic importance, would be La Traviata (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet) and no fewer than two Puccini operas: La Fanciulla del West and La Rondine.  There's also a ballet by Stravinsky: Jeu de Cartes.

It's also been noted many times that it is not unusual to find bridge players interested in music.  I know lots of musically inclined bridge players.  Many of us Boston-area players are acquainted with the principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Steve Ansell. Perhaps this correlation could be the subject of some fruitful research.

Railroad Maps

I'm continuing my slow work on mapping the abandoned railroads of New England (and sometimes beyond).  Yesterday, I was able to do a little more fieldchecking of the Lawrence to Manchester line, while up at the doggie meet and greet with Pixie (Madison) in Windham, NH.

Part of this old line is in the form of a rail trail (the Windham rail trail).  It runs between Route 111 (where there is a very nice bridge over the highway) and the old Windham depot area where the line intersected with the Worcester, Nashua and Portland line.

I found a rather interesting old railroad map: Map of the Montreal and Boston Air Line, etc., the kind that promoted the lines and stations of a particular R/R company, which brings to life some of these lines, including the route mentioned above.  Indeed, I only just discovered this site: David Rumsey Map Collection which has thousands of historical maps of all sorts, free and browsable.  Wonderful!  I note that this particular map is from 1887 and is extolling the virtues of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, in particular the route through the White Mountains of the Portland and Ogdensburg R/R, which is the line that the Conway Scenic Railroad uses.

If you look closely at the Windham area, you'll see that the WNP is shown as a thin line (i.e. belonging to a rival company).  I also see that at this time, the Lowell-Framingham line that served Carlisle and is now partly in the form of the Bruce Freeman rail trail, is marked as the Old Colony Railroad, running all the way from Lowell to New Bedford.

Note also their obvious pride in the comment at the bottom of the map (their capitalization):

All Through Trains Start from and Arrive at the Magnificent
BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD STATION, Causeway Street, Boston.

Postscript: there is now a blog dedicated to my railroad activities: http://robinsrailroadblog.blogspot.com/

Madison

We're taking care of a very sweet little Chihuahua called Madison until she finds a home.  As you can see from the photo she likes nothing more than to snuggle up on a cushion or, better, a lap.  She was found walking the streets of Worcester, MA.  She'd never been spayed (she's at least six years old, probably older) and she had some health issues so she's been having a rough time lately.  But she's doing lots better now.

But she really is a sweet little dog.  She's not a big fan of walking in the woods, to say the least.  She's definitely a stay-at-home girl.

On Saturday, we'll be taking her to the meet and greet for potential adopters.  It would be really nice for her to find a loving home soon. Her entry on Petfinder is here.  What do they do to the photos we provide?

Meanwhile, recent days have been very warm.  Spring is in full swing.  At night the frogs are as loud as I can remember.

I've been watching the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency recently.  It's great!  Precious Ramotswe is just right and Grace Makutsi is absolutely perfect.  It's so wonderful to see all the views of a peaceful Africa.

A la recherche de Marylou

Wow!  What a night to remember, for remembrance' sake.  A Celebration of Marylou: A program of music and words honoring the life and work of Marylou Speaker Churchill 1945-2009 – held yesterday evening at Jordan Hall – was a magical.  To say that it was a fitting tribute to a special person would be understating the case.  Almost always I find funerals and memorials very moving, from the simple to the grand productions of a "state" funeral, and this was no exception.  It was a primarily musical memorial service (the private funeral having been held almost six months ago) but it was closer to the grand production, as opposed to the simple, end of the scale.  I thought it was perfect.

From the precisely timed upbeat of the scherzo from Schubert's String Quintet to the gripping silence which followed the "end of time" notes (from Marlyou's own recording of the last movement of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time) the musicianship was superb.  This was no ordinary bunch of family friends pitching in to honor a beloved colleague and friend.  This was a cast of 60+ professional musicians of the highest caliber, including members of the BSO, faculty of New England Conservatory, and so on.  Most of the performers were either colleagues or former students of Marylou (or both).

In a night of superlatives, it's hard to pick out favorites, but I will offer a couple of observations.  For the Schubert and Boccherini string quintets, the core group was the highly acclaimed Amaryllis Quartet, who have been performing together professionally for more than fifteen years, and include two former residents of the Churchill household.  They were joined by Yo-Yo Ma who, if I am not mistaken, was playing 2nd cello in the Schubert.  In and of itself, that gives a clue not only to the spirit in which the performance was made but also to the musicianship of the players involved.

I expected to enjoy especially the Dumka from Dvořak's 2nd Piano Quintet and I was not disappointed.  Taking a single movement out of the context of a longer piece can have its advantages.  The performers, the core group here being the Simon Bolivar String Quartet, came at it with a freshness and vigor that I thought captivating.  The pianist, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, was marvelous, playing as if she was a regular performer with this group.

Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, perhaps the most technically challenging of the program, lived up to expectations as performed by Maryou's colleagues from NEC.

But the most poignant moment for me was the conclusion of Massenet's Meditation from Thaïs performed by the night's two youngest performers, representing Marylou's enormous roster of former students, Yuki Beppo (violin) and George Li (piano).  I'm well aware of George's emotional maturity (from the concerts he has performed with SPM since he was 11 – or was it 10?).  But the contrast between Yuki's young girl outfit and the depth of her playing was amazing.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening.  And why should it not be enjoyable?  Marylou's mantra was about love and fulfillment and, yes, having fun.  All three of those were in evidence last night.  Thank you, Mark, Emma and Julia and presumably a host of other organizers for such a wonderful experience.

Rain

It's finally stopped raining -- the last few days have been lovely spring weather.  The birds are singing, the buds are appearing and, no doubt, the bugs are emerging.

In March 2010, we experienced over 15 inches of rain!  Last years total (Bedford) was 44.0".  2008's total was 56.1".  2007: 37.4".  2006: 49.5"  You get the idea.  In just one month we received about a third of our normal annual total.  [I note that the Bedford station reported only 13.6" in March: Carlisle was either wetter or less accurate.  The result of all this rain is that the Concord River is now the Concord Lake and flooding is everywhere.  As usual, we have a dry basement :)

Meanwhile, we have a cute little Chihuahua (a real one this time) whose official name is Madison.  But we're calling her Pixie.  She's got some health issues (primarily, a tooth problem which is going to be taken care of on Tuesday).  But she's a sweet little girl (pictures to follow).