What of the sailor and her spinning wheel?

[sovay]

Yesterday. Spent the earlier part of the day climbing around Purgatory Chasm in Sutton, Massachusetts with fleurdelis28 and Judith, which was as immensely enjoyable as a cyclopean labyrinth of Quaternary granite has every right to be. There were small children all over the place, but they could either be avoided or were entertaining to watch. We had to back off from the hiking trails after Fleur-de-Lis turned her ankle slightly, but this opened up the afternoon to a search for the other Purgatory Chasm; without a map; with the result that we became direly lost on Route 138, drove through Newport and Middletown from several different directions, rediscovered (at least as far as my traveling companions were concerned; I had no childhood memories connected with the place) the Newport Creamery, and eventually wound up in Jamestown on Conanicut Island. I fail geography forever, because I did not realize that this would place us at Beavertail State Park until we were pulling up to the lighthouse. No prizes for guessing, however, that this was the best part of the day for me. The sun was westering, glittering so brightly that the fishers on the farther rocks were silhouettes and the surf had a luminous, antique look, flowering out of deep glass on the rocks. I found a small dead fish in the bladderwrack below the high-tide line, drying in the wind like a discarded toy. I wanted more than anything to strip off and go swimming in the Coke bottle-clear water between two huge spars of phyllite on the island's western side, but Fleur-de-Lis does not keep blankets or beach towels in the trunk of her car. (The rocks were covered with tourists and again their children, but I could have left my shirt on. The trouble was that my hair might not have dried in time to get back into the car.) I stared at the kelp and sea lettuce instead, pleated like a Tiffany window under the tide. I rolled up my corduroys and carried my shoes and bound a ribbon of kelp around my wrist until it dried, dark salt-webbed green from glossy rust. Returning from Beavertail as it began to get dark, we discovered the Village Hearth Bakery and Café, which was having pizza night; we were there five minutes after closing, but they made us both a plain and a special pie (cubanelle peppers, scallions, kalamata olives) and they were amazingly good; we had banked on leftovers, but there were no survivors. The traffic on 95 24 was snail-mail gridlock at ten at night. We listened to a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan. I came home and finished a poem I'd had to leave in the morning when Fleur-de-Lis and Judith showed up.

Today. Shelved upwards of two hundred and fifty books, which was rather more than I'd thought I had lying randomly around my bedroom. Returned some others to the library, which at least got me three or four miles' walk. Discovered that while I cannot find my giant bilingual edition of Antonio Machado, my tastes have broadened considerably since 2006; I read quite a number of people who aren't dead now. I could still swear I own more plays, but I imagine some of them are in boxes. I am amused that I own exactly two cookbooks; one is for chocolate and the other sushi. I have just realized that I forgot to recover the biographies of Mervyn Peake and Aubrey Beardsley from the closet.

Was not as awesome as yesterday.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Glad you had such a lovely yesterday. I hope your friend's ankle is better now.

Sorry today wasn't as awesome, but it does sound productive, at least.

Good night!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a swimmer, but whenever I'm by the sea I like to take my shoes and socks off- and paddle.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

On checking the map when I got home, I discovered the problem - there appear to be two Rte. 138s in the same place, and we wanted the less obvious branch (probably what was labeled 138A in real life). Which is kind of mythically epic in its own right.

The amazing traffic was actually on Rte. 24, but 95 can certainly be equally inconvenient on a Sunday night in road-construction season.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I definitely want to visit either or both those Purgatory Chasms. What an awesome day!

And okay, no sea to stumble upon, but you and your cousins should come out here and explore the Horse Caves--or go further west to Monument Mountain, where the rocks in the small caves spark when you strike them. (This entry on the Robert Frost trail is more informative than the Wikipedia stub on the Horse Caves themselves.)

And while your yesterday does not match your day-before-yesterday for awesomeness, it's good to those ji days to highlight the awesomeness of the mon days. (ji = (back)ground; mon = pattern; it's a thing in renga that you don't just want to have a succession of mon verses; you need ji .... otherwise you get John Williams music---all climax)

P.S. And here's Monument Mountain

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

bound a ribbon of kelp around my wrist until it dried,

It feels like you managed to get into the sea even if you didn't actually get wet ... and thanks for giving us the gorgeous life of it as well here.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking of something. When/why did these Purgatory Chasms get named? I can't imagine there was too much awareness of, let alone belief in, the doctrine of Purgatory in the Northeast before the mid-19th century.

Although some of these New England names are just... unique. There's a Sodom Lane in Derby (or maybe it's Orange?), Connecticut. I've always thought there surely ought to be a story there.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Yesterday sounds like a perfect day. And as for today, spending quality time with one's books isn't half bad, either.