Earthquake!!!

Yesterday the East Coast of USA had an earthquake.  It's very rare for earthquakes to happen in the eastern USA.  A 5.8 quake hit in Virginia, not far from Washington DC.  Some structures got some damage, but there was nothing catastrophic.  The National Cathedral lost one of its spires and the Washington Monument is now cracked and closed indefinitely.
Some people thought the quake was a terrorist attack because it's very close to the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 attacks.  The Pentagon and Capitol Building were evacuated, but people soon went back to work.
The quake was felt even as far north as Massachusetts and Toronto.  Some people in my state (Connecticut) felt it, yet nobody in my town did.  Government workers in Hartford left their places after the quake.
Well, it looks like it was uneventful, except the fact that everyone was shaken up by it.  And there is some damage that should be fixable for most structures.

Poppy by Lisel Mueller

When they stop reaching for the moon,
the children begin to reach for the poppy.
They know without knowing that death is red,
its petals thinner than the thin skin
of their crackling crepe paper fevers,
and that it has a dark center
in which they can disappear.

It is not that they want to die,
only to come as close to death
as anyone has who is still alive,
run through the fire quickly enough,
pull open the parachute just in time,
They want to taste one pollen grain
from the bitter bread that grows
among the yellow, ignorant wheat.
Years later they  will reveal to you
there was a time when they almost drowned
in the river that flows backwards,
the water that has no place to go.
They will tell you as gently as they can.

Fiction by Lisel Mueller

Going south, we watched spring
unroll like a proper novel:
forsynthia, dogwood, rose;
bare trees, green lace, full shade.
By the time we arrived in Georgia
the complications were deep.

When we drove back, we read
from back to front.  Maroon went wild,
went scarlet, burned once more
and then withdrew into pink,
tentative, still in bud.
I thought it only as we could go on
and meet again, shy as strangers.

Drawings by Children by Lisel Mueller

I. The sun may be visible or not
(it may be behind you,
the viewer of these pictures)
but the sky is always blue
if it is day.  If not,
the stars come almost within your grasp;
crooked, the stars reach out to you,
on the verge of falling.
It is never sunrise or sunset;
there is no bloody eye
spying on you across the horizon.
It is clearly day or night,
It is bright or totally dark,
it is here and never there.

II.
In the beginning you only needed
your head, a moon swimming in space,
and four bare branches;
and when your body was added,
it was light and thin at first,
not yet the dark chapel
from which, later, you tried to escape.
You lived in a non-Newtonian world,
your arms grew up from your shoulders,
your feet did not touch the ground,
your hair was streaming,
you were still flying.

Boston Again

Today my sister and I headed back to the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston again. Tickets are good for two visits, as long as the second visit is done within ten days of the first. I was happy to get back there. We also ate food at the Cheesecake Factory, a nice restaurant chain that has GREAT food. We also wandered around a mall.

We first went to the subway stop called "Alewife", which is named after a type of fish. The place has a huge parking garage with many levels. It's a common place for people to come off the highway and park their cars and take the trains into Boston.

The Museum of Fine Arts is right off the subway stop named after it. My sister and I were hungry when we got off, so we decided to find the Cheesecake Factory. We ordered salads. I got one with endive, raddicchio, pecans and cheese. It was to die for. It was so tasty I just savoured every bite. I can now die in peace because I have tried that salad. We also ordered pasta.

We wandered over to a mall that had many upscale stores. We walked into Saks Fifth Avenue, and we thought most of the clothes were gaudy.  I do admit that most of the fashion these days is ridiculous.  I walked around and saw so many expensive clothes that didn't look like they were worth the amount they were being sold for.  I wouldn't pay so much for clothes that weren't made of good material and were only fad items.  One store that did have good stuff was Burberry.  Their clothes are stylish, yet too pricey for me now.

I am not one of those people that spends a lot of money on clothes often. If I am to splurge on something, I want it to be something that will last and will look good on me for a long time.

At the art museum we went to the new "Art of the Americas" wing.  There were many paintings, furniture, and silver pieces, among other things.  There were many silver pieces by Paul Revere, since he was a silversmith from Massachusetts.  Boston is very proud of him, there is even a suburb called Revere.  The Old North Church, where he went to give the signal that the British were invading still stands today.  A portrait of him is mounted in the entranceway of the wing.

Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley

It was amazing how many of the paintings were in my history books when I was in grade school.  I felt that I was reliving my history classes.  That was fine, I liked history in school.

Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley

I remember seeing that shark attack picture as a child.  I think the painting is great except for the shark, which looks unrealistic.  For centuries, few people knew what most sea creatures looked like in great detail.  The subject of the attack, Brook Watson, lost his right leg.  He went on to become a soldier and politician.

This is an etching by Paul Revere.  It is of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770.  I had seen that many times in the books.  The massacre of five colonists by British soldiers did help make the colonists more angry at the British.  The first person to die was Crispus Attucks, a mixed-race sailor. He is considered the first martyr of the Revolution.

We saw many other paintings that were unfamiliar. The paintings looked so real that the fabrics looked touchable.  The lace on some of the gowns looked like real lace that was put on the canvas.  It was amazing how big the portaits were.  There was one that took up an entire wall.



Stuff

Last Sunday I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  It rained heavily when I arrived there with my sister.  It was to be the last day of the exhibit by Chihuly. 

My sister and I were met by big crowds.  The line was going down the block.  Neither of us had an umbrella.  We waited in line for a few minutes and then decided not to bother with Chihuly, just try to see the rest of the museum.  I felt that we could do that.  We ran ahead of the line and inside.  Nobody tried to stop us.  We found the room to buy tickets in and stood in line some more, dripping wet.

I got to the vendor and he said that anyone who had a Bank of America card on them would get free admission.  Thankfully I had mine on me and I got a free ticket.  I could also see the Chihuly exhibit after all.  So, my sister and I walked into the museum as line cutters.

First we saw the musical instruments.  The museum has some harpsichords, virginals, many stringed instruments and some very old woodwinds.  I liked the harpsichord that was painted with a lovely outdoors scene of Le Arc d'Triomphe as the most beautiful instrument there.

This is a 1736 harpsichord by Henri Hemsch.  It has real gold leaf on it.  It's still so beautiful.

There were also some lutes and an arch-cittern among other things.  The lute is such an old instrument, the forerunner of the guitar. That is an instrument rarely seen these days. It would be an interesting conversation starter to say "I play the lute".