SNOW GAMES

Princess Pirate in her natural habitat, training dragons and defending against monsters from angry coconuts to hydra

Between the two of us, we almost didn't go out at all. The day had gone fast and the sun was setting.  We were supposed to get some exercise and we both wanted to do it outside. Princess Pirate was ready to go out when I saw that the snow had started to turn to rain and changed my mind. I thought about the options and the outdoors was the best place to do it. If we dressed properly, we'd be fine even with the weather. I sent her out the front to check if the sunset changed the sleet to snow. Now it was her turn to back out, but I started getting out our snow pants and the most rain resistant winter jackets before we could change our mind again.

I had the forethought to save her good parka and hat and a pair of mitts to stay dry for the next day at school. We went out to the local park dragging the toboggan. PP didn't want to sled, but she liked to be pulled around the paths and through the woods. I wished I could run for longer, but whatever I could do was going to be good cardio. 

We did a few rounds, climbed mountains of snow, and fell a lot. It was sticky heavy wet snow, and the walking through it was unpredictable. On moment we fell deep into it, with our boot stuck, leaving us to fall forward so that we could turn around to dig ourself out. I thought that if you could film us and then erase the snow, like the nighttime technology that makes it seems like day, it would be ridiculous looking, with us falling forward and sideways oddly and at random times!  The snow was so thick in the air it was cloudy in the light. 

We were about to leave, and my idea to go sledding was not popular enough to go to the school where the hill was larger. I had her in the sled and I tried to drag her up the tiny hill in the park before we left. Again, PP stated her dislike of sledding, so I tried to slide down but found it too slow to be fun. She had made a body slide in the meantime and told me to check it out. It was pretty good! I brought the sled up for her to try once before we left. She took it down and had a little fun. I came down, thinking I would pull her home but by the time I was at the bottom, she was going back up for another round. This is when the game began. 

Wait for me, I cried, as I reached the bottom of the hill, and as I raced up, she grinned and slid down before I could get to the top! I ran downhill as fast as I can, and she laughed and raced up the other side of the hill. I lunged after the sled, but was too slow, and laughing chased her uphill again fruitlessly. She jumped in the toboggan and laughed gleefully, keeping ahead of me, and taking run after run down the hill in the sled.

By the end we were breathless, laughing, and PP liked sledding again. It felt like a Laurel and Hardy skit! It was the highlight of both our weeks.  

We walked home happy and wet, surprised to see it was 2 hours later and we had forgotten to eat supper!

Another fond memory to remember on the days when it seems like the weather might not be a good enough excuse to go outside.

EMILY DICKINSON POEMS

In this short life

that only lasts an hour

How much

How little

Is within our power.

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If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching, 'Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

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I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!

They'd banish us, you know...

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

MNEMOSYNE

Today I was in a paper store called Note Bene, on Park Avenue. There was a lot of choice. My friend was admiring the pens, but I liked seeing notebooks from France (Clairefontaine), Germany (Leuchtsturm) and Moleskin. I saw a series of notebooks called Mnemosyne, and found myself googling the name that was so familiar, and likely a root to mnemonic.

Mnemosyne was the mother of the 9 muses with Zeus (his dwelling place is Mount Parnassus). She was the Titan goddess of memory and remembrance. She and Zeus created the goddesses of arts, literature and science. Each had a domaine, and are identifiable by their attributes seen in paintings and sculptures from the second to the twentieth century.

In alphabetical order, the nine muses (all minor goddesses) and their domains and attributes, in Greek mythology were:

Calliope (the superior muse, inspiring Homer to write the Iliad and the Odyssey- Epic Poetry, rhetoric, music, writing - Writing Tablet, also laurels in one hand and two Homeric poems in the other
Clio - History - Scrolls, also book in left hand and clarion (trumpet) in her right
Erato - Lyric (love) Poetry - Cithara (Lyre family) and love arrows with bow.
Euterpe - Song and elegiac (death, love and war) poetry - Aulos (flute-like)
Melpomene - Tragedy - Tragic Mask
Polyhymnia - Hymns, Geometry, Grammar - Veil, looks to the heavens
Terpsichore - Dance, Harp, Education - Lyre, wreath of laurels on her head, dances
Thalia - Comedy - Comic Mask
Urania - Astronomy -  Compass, Stars, Celestial Sphere


Pope Julius II commissioned four frescoes to represent the four areas of human knowledge for the Palace of the Vatican. Parnassus, with Apollo, the nine muses, and 18 poets, represent Poetry. The other three frescoes represent philosophy, religion and law.

POETRY WORTH MEMORIZING

LA PLUIE ET BONNE FÊTE CARO

Today it rained all day. From inside, it might have seemed like any other rainy day, but I spent the morning outdoors, running a "sled" station in an outdoor event that was, like soccer games, on, rain or shine. It was truly a rain storm. The wind blew the rain in every direction, so that my umbrella was useless. My rainjacket kept me dry, but I had no regret of wearing the same layers I wear cross country skiing in the winter. My thick tights were soaked by the end, but I was so grateful not to be in shorts like a few red legged kids I saw running in the crowd. My gloves were soaked through but served their purpose. My brimmed hat kept my glasses fairly clear.

It was actually a lot of fun, once we were so saturated that it made no difference. I did have rainboots on, so it didn't matter that my extra pair of socks were damp by the time I pulled them out. When the kids finished, the three of us giving instructions and turning the metal hunks of metal around had a race. I won the first, because my competition hit a dip in the terrain. The last race, I was so far behind, I don't even known which guy won.

The day ended early. I guess the grade sixes voted against the rest of the school going through the same experience they did. Some came around and did it again, some gave it their all. My daughter "hated" it, but she didn't look so convincing with that smile when she finished the job. There is something satisfying about doing something physical and succeeding. It's just hard to get out and do it.

The last show I watched was  the Dallas finals of America Ninja Warrier where he is the first to reach the highest 18" megawatt. The ending was the best. Daniel Gill, an incredible climber, shows up and gets it done. It was definitely inspiring to think how often these Ninjas show up to train, months and years before the event.

On return home, I stripped off all the wet layers and put on dry. I pulled out a blanket I had stowed away when I thought summer had arrived this past weekend, and made myself a hot chocolate for the first time in months. I watched a movie called, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, a beautifully set musical in the north of France about a girl in a shop. It's considered a "melancomedie" and it's been compared, and rightly so, to La La Land. It was the perfect film to warm up to, finish a few mending projects and curl up with a kitty. I think I like this genre much better than the usual tragedy, if it can't be a happy ending in a romance. It feels more like real life in any case. Just blue enough for the melancholy of a cloudy rainy day.

I leave you with a favourite French poem by Paul Verlaine:

Il pleure dans mon coeur
Comme il pleut sur la ville.
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénêtre mon coeur ?

O bruit doux de la pluie
Par terre et sur les toits !
Pour un coeur qui s’ennuie,
O le chant de la pluie !

Il pleure sans raison
Dans ce coeur qui s’écoeure.
Quoi ! nulle trahison ?
Ce deuil est sans raison.

C’est bien la pire peine
De ne savoir pourquoi,
Sans amour et sans haine,
Mon coeur a tant de peine.

It Rains in My Heart (English translation)

It rains in my heart
As it rains on the town,
What languor so dark
That it soaks to my heart?

Oh sweet sound of the rain
On the earth and the roofs!
For the dull heart again,
Oh the song of the rain!

It rains for no reason
In this heart that lacks heart.
What? And no treason?
It’s grief without reason.

By far the worst pain,
Without hatred, or love,
Yet no way to explain
Why my heart feels such pain!