Your mind working out this salty little scene
The water ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rushthatspeaks and I found was at Castle Island. It was brilliantly cold and almost deserted, the crushed mirror of the waves as harsh and richly blue as the dissolving sky. We identified the planes coming in to Logan as predators or prey by their countershading or aposematic coloration.
The cranes of Conley Terminal. The new ones, shipped last summer from Shanghai to service the Neo-Panamax container ships which the channels of Boston Harbor were dredged to accommodate. Close to, they were bleached almost as pale as the winter sky.
Beneath the pavilion out on the causeway that loops in Pleasure Bay. It looked like Escher from underneath.
I suppose this transparency of water is too green to be glaucous in English, but in classical Greek it could describe the eyes of Athene.
The banded iris of the shore. I have no close photos of the assorted waterfowl we saw bobbing among the reflections all around the bay, none of which we could name. With recourse to the internet, I am reasonably confident of the American black duck, the harlequin duck, the brant, and the bufflehead, with a lesser degree of certainty regarding the common eider and the white-winged scoter. A friend of mine who is a serious birder refers to this time of year as "weird duck season."
We collected dinner on the way home from Mamaleh's: a corned beef Reuben for me, a pastrami Reuben for Rush-That-Speaks, a 50/50 forspatch and the fortuitous discovery in the freezer when I had to wait around for our order—not ideal from a perspective of avoiding other people, but at least they are enough in demand to backlog the kitchen—of a quart of borscht, because Rob and I had just been watching The Talk of the Town (1942). We can eat it with sour cream when the polar vortex cracks the mercury on Friday. I just wish in all this broken-glass brightness it would snow.
rushthatspeaks and I found was at Castle Island. It was brilliantly cold and almost deserted, the crushed mirror of the waves as harsh and richly blue as the dissolving sky. We identified the planes coming in to Logan as predators or prey by their countershading or aposematic coloration.
The cranes of Conley Terminal. The new ones, shipped last summer from Shanghai to service the Neo-Panamax container ships which the channels of Boston Harbor were dredged to accommodate. Close to, they were bleached almost as pale as the winter sky.
Beneath the pavilion out on the causeway that loops in Pleasure Bay. It looked like Escher from underneath.
I suppose this transparency of water is too green to be glaucous in English, but in classical Greek it could describe the eyes of Athene.
The banded iris of the shore. I have no close photos of the assorted waterfowl we saw bobbing among the reflections all around the bay, none of which we could name. With recourse to the internet, I am reasonably confident of the American black duck, the harlequin duck, the brant, and the bufflehead, with a lesser degree of certainty regarding the common eider and the white-winged scoter. A friend of mine who is a serious birder refers to this time of year as "weird duck season."
We collected dinner on the way home from Mamaleh's: a corned beef Reuben for me, a pastrami Reuben for Rush-That-Speaks, a 50/50 for
spatch and the fortuitous discovery in the freezer when I had to wait around for our order—not ideal from a perspective of avoiding other people, but at least they are enough in demand to backlog the kitchen—of a quart of borscht, because Rob and I had just been watching The Talk of the Town (1942). We can eat it with sour cream when the polar vortex cracks the mercury on Friday. I just wish in all this broken-glass brightness it would snow.
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Also, I am very bad at watching movies and hardly ever manage it, but I do love The Talk of the Town and have watched it multiple times. <3 Borscht!
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They may not be all that common around here exccept seasonally—I have seen them before, but I don't have their plumage committed to memory and I don't think of them as ubiquitous in the same way as mallards or even wood ducks. I associate them with winter after the new year. I might just not spend enough of December by the sea.
Also, I am very bad at watching movies and hardly ever manage it, but I do love The Talk of the Town and have watched it multiple times.
It's a wonderful movie! I hadn't seen it since high school—when I had loved it—and was reminded by Festivids that I wanted to show it to
Borscht!
My grandmother used to make it. I should learn myself.
[edit] In the interests of accuracy, I know how to make borscht, but it's not in the category of dishes that I can make without reference to a recipe and I like it enough that it should be.
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That sounds to me like a perfectly cromulent borscht, and very tasty.
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As is the weather. When they talk about crystal clear, this is the sort of crystal they mean.
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We were definitely commenting on all the ducks we didn't recognize!
As is the weather. When they talk about crystal clear, this is the sort of crystal they mean.
I love winter sun. I like more snow on the ground, but I love this white honey light.
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I also googled definitions of glaucous, and two had green in there (Merriam-Webster's and Collins)in a way that seems consistent with your water there, so: go for it! Glaucous!
What was the ratio of predator to prey planes at Logan?
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We saw so many ducks that looked as though they were wearing avant-garde evening wear.
I also googled definitions of glaucous, and two had green in there (Merriam-Webster's and Collins)in a way that seems consistent with your water there, so: go for it! Glaucous!
Thank you! Homeric Greek γλαυκός has more to do with gleam and transparency than color.
What was the ratio of predator to prey planes at Logan?
More prey than predator, which was reassuring, otherwise we might worry about the stability of local populations of, say, JetBlue.
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XD
Lovely photos, and really beautiful descriptions. I love 'weird duck season'—eiders are one of my favourite waterfowl (I think that'll be the same species we have here—they're a widely distributed bird), and harlequin duck is a very cool sighting.
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Thank you!
I love 'weird duck season'—eiders are one of my favourite waterfowl (I think that'll be the same species we have here—they're a widely distributed bird), and harlequin duck is a very cool sighting.
They were delightfully attractive weird ducks. Do you have any other favorites (which may or may not appear on our shores)?
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That's a good question! I'm quite fond of the goldeneye (moderately common here and also found in N America—and looking it up you have two more, similarly snazzy-looking goldeneye species as well, that's very cool) and the smew (rare here and not found in America). And I also like the winter swans—whooper swan and Bewick's swan here, and I think the trumpeter swan would be the equivalent for you.
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Thank you for answering it!
I'm quite fond of the goldeneye (moderately common here and also found in N America—and looking it up you have two more, similarly snazzy-looking goldeneye species as well, that's very cool)
The common goldeneye was one of the weird ducks I reluctantly decided we hadn't seen at Castle Island—it looked right-ish, but not quite close enough.
the smew (rare here and not found in America).
Oh, nice! The males look like Mondrian paintings.
And I also like the winter swans—whooper swan and Bewick's swan here, and I think the trumpeter swan would be the equivalent for you.
We have swans all over the place. There's been a returning population on the reservoir behind my parents' house for years. I am always happy to see them.
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There's been a returning population on the reservoir behind my parents' house for years. I am always happy to see them.
Aww, that's lovely. I don't get to see wintering swans very often (though I do often see the much more common, and resident, mute swan), and it's always a treat to see them.
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From your lips to God's ears.
But I am glad there was ocean!
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I don't need a blizzard! I just want it to stick.
But I am glad there was ocean!
Thank you!
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Ah, gorgeous.
That feels like the beginning of an elegant and elegaic sfnal story.
I liked the pictures!
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By M. John Harrison, possibly.
I liked the pictures!
Thank you!
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Thank you!
Do you get mandarin ducks over there?
Not personally—the internet tells me there are some isolated, feral populations in the U.S. resulting from zoo escapes, but we don't live near any of them. They look spectacular.
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I was prepared to eat a jar of Manischewitz borscht if I had to, but Mamaleh's was much better!