Seven million moments down to one

[sovay]

I fell asleep on the floor in front of a roaring fire and when I woke the fire had gone out and I felt like something out of a poem by Yeats.

We celebrated my mother's actual birthday with waffles and more books and me running my niece around the park and part of the reservoir in our two or three inches of heavy snow, after which we came home and built the fire in question. Actually we had to build it twice: the first time the wood was unexpectedly damp, the living room filled with mildew-smelling smoke and we threw the windows open and I taught my niece how to spell kindling while retrieving a new armload of it and dryer wood. The second time it blazed up beautifully, my father threw in a handful of salts so that it burned green and blue and violet, my niece desperately wanted to roast marshmallows over it, we thought maybe not with a garnish of copper sulfate. I hugged her goodnight when she came and woke me and drifted back to sleep. She had captioned the blankets "CAT'S BED" spelled out in Jenga blocks on the floor with an angular wooden-stick heart underneath. My mother really seems to be enjoying Christianna Brand.

When I sent selkie the news of the discovery of Endurance, she sent me back color photos from the Shackleton expedition. It has been a good week for, if nothing else, shipwrecks.



P.S. My father has just sent me an article about the history of superheroes and the Scarlet Pimpernel, with which I do not disagree. "Orczy wasn't the only woman who contributed to the birth of superheroes. Nor was the Scarlet Pimpernel the only pre-superhero hero with a double life, cape and calling card . . . But the elusive Pimpernel predates them all."

Comments

[nineweaving]

How perfect! A birthday, a snow day, and a hearth fire.

*hugs*

Nine

[skygiants]

I find it consistently fascinating to trace the two branches of the Scarlet Pimpernel's family tree through Lord Peter Wimsey and Bruce Wayne, respectively, and see where all those descendants end up.

(Happy birthday to your mom, and happy Ernest Shackleton Loves Me day to all of us!)

[luzula]

Oh, thanks for all the shipwreck links! How delightful.

[cmcmck]

I was amazed how well Endurance had survived down there.

[oracne]

Thanks for the Scarlet Pimpernel article!

[asakiyume]

I love the film footage of the Endurance: I love those little white ... what are they, anemones? I first saw the footage posted with commentary that began, "Found north of Antarctica... " which was prompting lots of hilarity in the responses. "Least specific locational information ever" etc.

Falling asleep and waking up with the fire out really is Yeats-like. Too early for a girl with apple blossoms in her hair, though.

Where does your dad get salts for different colored flames? (I assume plain-old NaCl wasn't all he was using)