tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post1716690671952079487..comments2024-03-27T02:55:10.109-07:00Comments on Irish Papist: Some Purple Notebook MomentsMaolsheachlannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-11032870387578443122018-03-26T14:51:19.383-07:002018-03-26T14:51:19.383-07:00Thanks for that, Optatus. I can easily believe tha...Thanks for that, Optatus. I can easily believe that intensely hot summers would be so much worse than a cold winter. I agree with you that winter is a pleasant kind of discomfort; especially coming into the warmth out of the cold. I love everything about it; people dressed in layers, steam rising from a hot cup of tea or coffee, getting up while it's still dark...it's deliciously cosy.<br /><br />You know, the summer I was thinking of in this post isn't really an Irish summer or an American summer or an Australian summer...it's a kind of dream summer, like a picture in a school-book or a holiday brochure. It's an idyll...<br /><br />I wrote a poem about my love of mist and mistiness, called Dreams:<br /><br />Why does she tell him them, every day?<br />And what on earth is he meant to say?<br />In forty-five years-- much more, it seems--<br />Not once has he spoken about his dreams<br />If he has them at all; for they fade away<br />And disappear in the light of day.<br /><br />His daughter stares into the misty street<br />And butters toast that she will not eat.<br />A convent of nuns that must feed on blood;<br />He wonders how that should be understand.<br />She had no nuns at the private school;<br />No fairy tales, was his golden rule.<br />No stories of angels to fill her head<br />Or telling her dead people weren't dead.<br />No men in robes when her mother died;<br />The only father who never lied. <br /><br />But nothing is true where nothing is lies<br />And nothing can happen behind closed eyes.<br />He looks at that mild face, that auburn hair,<br />And wonders if madness is hiding there.<br />Those soft blue eyes, and that soft red blush,<br />A tender flower that the world will crush.<br /><br />Elizabeth looked in her father's eyes<br />So stony grey and so worldly wise<br />And thought about offices full of men<br />Who lived there lives in the there-and-then<br />Their faces touched with a deep regret<br />For something they couldn't quite forget<br />But gone forever. Would she go, too,<br />To that cold world of the real and true?<br />The kitchen filled with a gentle dread;<br />She was already drifting where all life led.<br />From the garden that every soul calls its own<br />To the world of others, the place of stone.<br />She hugged her knees to her body's heat<br />And gazed back out at the misty street.<br />Why did they fear what doesn't exist?<br />The world is beautiful, seen through mist.<br /><br />I love getting comments, by the way! Thank you!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-8444887587094244372018-03-26T14:38:04.095-07:002018-03-26T14:38:04.095-07:00I wish I could internalize the love of summer. Com...I wish I could internalize the love of summer. Coming from a hot and dry climate, Summer is simply the norm. But it isn’t just the norm, it is actually somewhat hostile and forbidding: things dry up and die, the local authorities open up air conditioned “cooling centers” for the poor and elderly, and drought looms as a constant threat.<br /><br />Even when I go to cooler climates, which I do whenever I can, I can only appreciate the coolness and wetness of their summers. Ireland’s summer is similar to California’s winter in many ways. Occasional rain, coolish temperatures, green landscapes. (The only really hot day I’ve experienced in Ireland was also the day I climbed Croagh Patrick...great timing...I got a terrible sunburn.) Oregon and Washington are similar: I love going there during the summer, but only to pursue an “endless winter.”<br /><br />I’ve lived in Ireland in winter, and visited Washington and Oregon in winter, and Boston in autumn. None of them were bad: they all just felt normal. I find cold to be a pleasant kind of suffering, assuming there’s a place to get warm.<br /><br />The one thing I do like in my Central Valley climate is the fog. As far as I know, it’s the only place in the world where school is regularly postponed a few hours due to fog (which is a wonderful thing for a teacher: I get to either sleep longer or have a generous breakfast and a cup of tea on a cold foggy morning). The fog is extremely thick, and actually very dangerous. A few years ago there was a 103 car pileup (that isn’t a typo) in which people were killed. So objectively I know the fog is not a good thing. But the feeling of a completely still, foggy morning, where all you can see is misty whiteness and the fields across the street aren’t even visible, is evocative.<br /><br />In the Central Valley, the time that feels like the summer I would want is early spring. The orchards bloom white and pink, the hills are still green from the rain, puffy clouds float from west to east, where they shroud the tops of the mountains and (hopefully) produce snow. But unfortunately, rather than this season being a brief and beautiful respite from cold, it’s the precursor to the hellish heat.<br /><br />Now, the “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” does have some appeal to me (and the haze is real here...kind of an evil counterpart to the clean winter fog). Even though I hate the heat, there is a certain excitement of the possibilities of the summer time. For instance, I like places like Hawaii, even though I would never be able to live in constant heat like that, for precisely that feeling of “lazy, hazy, and crazy.” The appeal of a margarita or a mai tai on the beach is understandable, even if I aesthetically prefer a pint by a fire in a pub with rain pouring outside. <br /><br />Sorry, I’m just rambling about climates. Your posts almost always call to mine my own experiences and preferences and it’s hard not to say everything I think. Maybe I need my own blog, but when I have tried I end up at a loss for anything to say. Optatus Clearynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-80713296639126542272018-03-25T04:08:37.910-07:002018-03-25T04:08:37.910-07:00I wonder why a German based company decided that a...I wonder why a German based company decided that an Australian was better for advertising in other countries?<br /><br />Some (European/ northern hemisphere) visitors like Australia; others find it a bit boring, especially if they didn't quite comprehend the distances. I had an aunt who lived in Melbourne (she emigrated after my parents, unlike them she never re-emigrated and re-re-emigrated) when two other aunts came to visit then and us... They,sort of, saw it as Dublin to Belfast, in reality it's more like London to Moscow, they weren't prepared for that.<br /> With regards to seasons though- some ' Irish things' have perhaps a better feel in the Australian winter, like reading DORIAN GRAY at nightfall or listening to Clannad's FROM YOUR HEART at dusk, in a dimly lit room.Séamusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-52985665529876328312018-03-25T00:29:45.556-07:002018-03-25T00:29:45.556-07:00Well, many things must be the opposite way round i...Well, many things must be the opposite way round in Australia, at least from a European perspective. Christmas especially. I don't have much of a wanderlust, but I wouldn't mind seeing Australia. The land of Joh Bjelke Petersen and the Trivago girl.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-11774405491645199342018-03-25T00:08:15.227-07:002018-03-25T00:08:15.227-07:00Autumn/Winter had a special feel when you live in ...Autumn/Winter had a special feel when you live in a dry, hotter climate. Rain has a nice feel, even when it comes too darn heavy, when it does come. Holy Week arriving when the weather cooling and darkening might seem like a complete reversal of the proper symbolism- and so it is. But it does have it's own ethereal aspectSéamusnoreply@blogger.com