Benighted

It seems everybody is taking pictures of the night sky lately, I pretty much shrugged it off as a passing fad, mainly because my aging camera didn't have the ability.  Here's a great site if you want to learn the basics.  I particularly liked this quote, "unless you are lucky enough to live in a remote rural location with super dark night skies...," finally someone who envies where I live!

Hope amid the ashes

What is it with great writers and clinical narcissism?  Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters certainly have their prime examples (Lady Catherine in 'Pride and Prejudice' along with Jane's aunt in 'Jane Eyre' and the husband in 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,' just to name a few), but I seem to run across it in many famous or classic books.  I just read T.H.White's 'The Once and Future King' and it comprises the entire base of the story amongst the 'Orkney Faction:' Morgause and her sons.  It is scarily fascinating how he actually delves briefly into the issue, determining that it is the mother's relationship with her child that imbues him or her with courage and love for others, etc. rather than acquiring it externally from teachers or experience.  This is not to say such things cannot be learned later in life, but if no conscious effort is made to acquire them, and we merely live out our lives unconscious to our own failings as is the wont of so many, the result can be disastrous, as the tale goes on to show.

The scientific and sociological literature rarely touches on this subject, and if it does, it is only a brief and indifferent look at the havoc it can wreak upon the human heart, soul, and mind, especially when it is a parent.  But it is heartening to find that we are not alone, that it has been a social travesty down through the ages, and perhaps the suffering and grief involved in such relationships has produced some of the world's greatest writers and most renowned books.  The home is supposed to be safe and sacred, it is our first introduction to the world and our initial classroom, but what happens when it becomes twisted, broken, and cruel?  Certain authors have offered us a glimpse into such a hell and the demons it is wont to produce, but we also find that all is not lost, they have escaped it and proved that they have become stronger thereby and that gives hope to all who lived through just that, whether we yet realize it or not.

All's fair in love and war, but what about the county fair?

Ah Fair Season, to most people on the planet I suppose that really doesn't mean much, but here in the literal middle of nowhere, it is a very exciting and busy time...at least it used to be.  I've been taking stuff to the fair for as long as I can remember, first open class baking with my grandmother then a hundred different 4-H projects and later open class photography.  Now I'm taking a little of this and a little of that and getting my son involved too (his second year as Grand Champion in the youth Foods division).  This year was also my first year actually judging anything.  I've never judged radishes before, but I was in charge of the entire 4-H gardening division (consisting entirely of the aforementioned radishes and a clump of rhubarb).  Our fair is really, really small (I used to exhibit at the biggest county fair in the entire state, which was bigger than my current state's State Fair).   don't know how long it can go on or survive, perhaps it is just that our tiny community doesn't have the population to support a county fair or perhaps it is that it is a dying tradition, like so much else in this anti-social, technical, and politically correct age.

Small as it is, I have been satisfied with the judging at our little fair, at least until this year.  I entered a fair once where it was very obvious that the awards were based on the name rather than the exhibit and I never entered anything there again.  It takes time, money, and thought to get something together and what's the point if you are doomed to lose because you don't have the right last name?  The photography exhibit this year was a little like that (everything else was fine).  One person had about 29 pictures (they have every right to enter as many or few as they choose) and every one did great while the rest of the entries really didn't amount to much though several of the pictures were far superior to those of the person in question.  I would love nothing more than a healthy selection of excellent photos, but when a person with a display of mediocre pictures steals the show, it is rather discouraging.  Perhaps the judge just had different taste or a less scrupulous eye, but the pictures selected as 'excellent' were far from it, they weren't bad but they sure weren't great.  Perhaps that is why the county fair is languishing, when the judging becomes partisan, no one wants to take the time or bother to enter anything.  Which is a pity, for we need art and beauty and crafts and flowers and good food and creativity in this technical age of isolation and languishing community.  Perhaps it was a fluke, and we'll give it another try, somebody has to carry on the tradition if it is to remain one!

Intriguing thought indeed!

Having a rough time or wondering what it all means?  Here's quite a unique perspective on the situation!

How to catch a mouse?

I don't often have mice loose in the house, usually a teenager mouse off on his own for the first time sneaks in for about 24 hours every fall and then we never see him again.  But this one has been hanging out in the kitchen/laundry room for several days.  My son was the first one to see him behind the dryer, so I set a trap and caught him...only by the toe.  You know that old schoolyard rhyme about 'catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go?'  Well he squeaked a bit, got loose, and scampered off.  I set the trap in the pantry as I saw a few signs he had been in there but to no avail.  Hoping he had scampered off permanently, he then surprised me under the sink as I was throwing something away but he vanished down a hole before I could do anything.  I moved the trap and either he was getting smarter or the trap malfunctioned because he licked off all the peanut butter without setting it off.  One day I heard him crunching on something behind the stove.  Not sure what to do, I needed a brilliant plan but I was completely out of brilliance, at least for the next 12 hours.  I finally took matters into my own hands, quite literally, the silly thing was in my potholder drawer when I went to get an oven mitt so I quickly pulled out the drawer and he jumped up inside the cabinet on some of the little boards that hold it together.  Without a second thought I scooped him up and took care of the renegade mouse problem.  And yes, she was fine with it, it isn't the first time the little bugger has been handled.  Didn't I mention this was a white mouse?  An escapee from the fish tank in the basement?  I wouldn't recommend this method for wild mice, but for a renegade pet mouse it works just fine!