Monthly Archives: August 2006

Dinner at the Park

Becky, Catherine and I went to Lynch Park yesterday, with a picnic dinner. Lynch Park was beautiful, as always, and the weather was particularly nice. We took a few photos, but I especially enjoy this one that Becky took of Catherine and me:

ppp|Peter and Catherine|ppp

You can see the rest of the photos [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/dinner_lynch_park/).

Apparently, Catherine kept Becky busy all day today… so after we had dinner, Becky went out for an evening on her own. Catherine is hanging out here at the apartment with me, and wouldn’t you know it, but she conked out* to sleep just shortly after we got home. Go figure! I guess that she just looooooves to hang out with her mom! 😉

* Dontcha know, not 20 minutes after I wrote that, Catherine went nuts! I tried to feed her from a bottle, but she wouldn’t take it, so I put her in the front carrier and we cleaned up the apartment a bit. Then we went for a drive, and she did really conk out then, but she woke up when we got home, and just in the nick of time for Becky to feed her. 🙂

X

Little did I know that when I started this Z-A reading adventure that I would find a gem so quickly. But with book number three I found a story so beautiful that it took my breath away and made me want to move to Asia.

Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet by Xinran

The X section at the library offered two selections. One was set in World War II torn Europe and the other set in war torn mid century Tibet. The former is a pretty familiar setting to me, so I chose the latter. I am so glad that I did.

The title claims that the book is a love story. It is so much more than that. Based on a story told to the author it recounts the life of a Chinese woman searching Tibet for her missing husband. She becomes enveloped in the life and culture of the Tibetan people while searching and learns more about herself than about her lost husband.

The author’s descriptions of Tibet are breath-taking. More than once I was forced to stop and remember the years that this story was taking place in. One character saw an electric light for the first time in the 1980’s! That’s after I was born!

Sky Burial was a short, but satisfying read. Part of me wishes that it was longer so that I could experience more of the Tibetan culture. On the other hand, the tale was told so beautifully that stretching it out would only be watering it down.

Long Hill and the Friendship

fff|ppp|Long Hill

Long Hill

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Saturday was a day of spontaneous decisions. The first led us to a morning stroll at the Trustees of Reservations’ Long Hill. I’ve known about this site for years but had never gone over to see it. Located right here in Beverly, it turned out to be an unexpected retreat from city life. We wandered the grounds of the mansion checking out the flowers and views and taking some photos (of course).

Feeling a bit peckish we ended up at the Beverly Panera for lunch. We had our laptop on hand and while surfing we saw that the Friendship was docked in Newburyport and was offering free tours.

fff|ppp|Peter, Becky, and Catherine

On the Friendship

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Then and there we made the quick decision to head up to Newburyport for the afternoon. It turned out to be a great choice. We found a place to park fairly easily and joined the throngs of locals and tourists on the public wharf. I always enjoy activities like this but Catherine didn’t realize that going on her first tall ship was such an exciting event; She slept through the whole thing! See all the seaworthy pictures here.

Illuminati

[Grand Illumination](http://www.mvcma.org/grand.htm) is pretty hard to explain in words, and it’s not any easier to explain with pictures. It’s really something you have to experience for yourself to fully understand. It’s sort of like Christmas without the presents… but even that doesn’t do it justice. In any case, Catherine and I both enjoyed our very first Grand Illumination, as well as several more days on MV. You can check out all of the photos from our visit [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_august_14-20/). 🙂

Interview

Our Canadian friend and fellow blogger, Michelle, has taken on the third edition of her wildly popular “Random Interview Project.”

My interview was posted today, here.

To read interviews with some of her other readers, make sure to check out her blog Mikao’s World daily.

Y

The Poet by Yi Mun-yol

The Poet is an interesting read from out of Korea. Yi tells the story of Korean poet Kim Pyong-yon; his poems and his life while wandering around Korea. Yi offers insight as to how changes in Kim’s life affected his poetry style over time. He also touches on the universal themes; love, family, and prejudices. This is a novel, based on fact and national legends of Korea’s homegrown poet.

I found this book intriguing, but difficult to read. Perhaps it was just an issue of the flow getting lost in translation. Perhaps if I had read the poems of Kim Pyong-yon previously or had heard the legends of his life I would have had an easier time reading Yi’s novel.

I did appreciate the descriptions of Korea, the sense of Korean culture and the history that Yi portrays in his book. Despite the difficulties I had while reading, I am always interested in discovering new and different cultures.

To The Great Grandpa

ppp|Pop-Pop and Catherine|ppp

I’d like to wish a very happy (and apologetically belated) Happy 83rd Birthday to Pop-Pop! Sorry we missed you on the 11th! We’re glad that you and Nana were able to get to meet Catherine. I know that she loved getting to meet her Great Grandfather!

A Workend Post

fff|ppp|Peter, Becky, and Catherine

The Woods

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I’m posting from the middle of a workend. 🙂

This past weekend, Becky, Catherine and I went to Martha’s Vineyard with [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) and her parents. We enjoyed seafood and [sunset](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110146.JPG.html) in [Menemsha](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110107.JPG.html), lots of relaxing around the cottage, some [beach time](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110106.JPG.html), some [napping](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110042.JPG.html), and [fun with Catherine](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110131.JPG.html). As always, a restful and relaxing weekend. I came back on Sunday night while Becky and Catherine stayed down in Oak Bluffs. I was at work today and I’ll be going in tomorrow, and then Wednesday morning I’m headed back down to spend the rest of the week and next weekend on the Vineyard. This will be my first time experiencing [Grand Illumination](http://www.mvcma.org/grand.htm), and I’m very excited. 🙂

You can see all of the photos from this past weekend [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/).