Let there be light

 For my second attempt at simple watercolor paintings, I turned to a popular subject: lighthouses.  For me, it's a fitting source of material as my favorite place in the country is New England where beautiful lighthouses abound.  Another connection is through my brief association long ago with the US Coast Guard, the agency long tasked with maintaining such aids to navigation.  So for this painting, I broke out a few additional colors of paint after the simple green leaf in my first effort.  And once again following the online step-by-step tutorial, I sketched the simple, stylistic lighthouse in pencil.  This work now attempted to incorporate some shadows and depth not found in the simple leaf, which I replicated with indifferent effect.  But I did gain some experience and begin to understand the application of watercolor paint to both dry and wet surfaces.  Certainly a learning experience.

A cultured life

 

Today, as I was enjoying the sack lunch I usually bring with me to work, I pondered the expansion of one of my long time hobbies - puttering in the kitchen.  I have always enjoyed the whole process of preparing the food I eat, and for some of it, that involves the harnessing of beneficial microbes.  Most longstanding of these is the sourdough bread culture I have maintained for more than 20 years.  Most weekends, I bake two loaves of sourdough bread for use throughout the week in everything from sandwiches to croutons for soup and salads.  The venerable sourdough culture I have carried for decades contains a mix of bacteria and yeast whose metabolic activities produce the leavened bread that I have exclusively consumed for many years.  Home fermentation activities have not been restricted to bread: on a sporadic basis, I have fermented cabbage to make sauerkraut, and though I haven't brewed in some time, one of my earliest hobbies was making my own beer.  Beneficial microbes have always been welcomed in my kitchen!

More recently, I have expanded these cultural pursuits.  I revived a yogurt maker that I'd purchased several years ago, and I've turned out a few batches of very tasty homemade yogurt.  I've stepped up my sauerkraut production.  And just this week, I sampled my first batch of fermented dill pickles.  These are classic full-sour dill pickles in the best NYC deli tradition.  So with my home baked sourdough sandwich, I had a fermented pickle which was delicious.  I expect to expand fermentations even further after reading a book that I received yesterday, containing info and recipes to produce all manner of fermented produce and beverages.  About the only area of microbe-driven food production that I have not yet tried is making cheese.  Something to look forward to!

Ars longa, vita brevis

 As part of my daily doom scrolling, I recently happened to click on an ad link for an art supply store.  And naturally, my web pages were instantly full of all manner of similar vendors.  One product that caught my eye was for a tiny little portable watercolor painting kit.  This touched a poignant corner of my psyche:  I'm fascinated by the creative arts, yet long ago I accepted that I have absolutely no talent in that area.  In addition to so many other areas.  Nope, no athletic talent, no artistic talent- performing or creative arts, and no talent in business or any other human occupation.  And yet, I admire those who show ability in any of these endeavors.  My vacation earlier this summer took me to the Farnesworth Museum where I sat in awe of the works of the Wyeths - a whole family of gifted artists.  The cruel trick, of course, is that people with talent make it look so easy.  Shooting a fadeaway jump shot, painting a beautiful painting, acting in a play or playing a musical instrument- when done by experts, it looks so simple.  And in hawking watercolor paint kits, a multitude of online sellers play to my precise emotions and aspirations. 

So, with a firm self-knowledge developed over decades, I purchased one of these inexpensive kits.  Despite, I re-emphasize, having absolutely no artistic talent, I really would like to be able to create joyful little paintings.  So when the kit arrived, I daydreamed of the beauty I would create with it.  And a significant amount of joy was had via just the daydreams.  After several weeks of that, I decided I might actually try to use the kit.  A nice thing is that the particular vendor who provided mine, Tobios, does have some resources for abject beginners like me, to guide the first attempts.  Now, I don't know if it's possible to teach myself this craft, or if some more formal instruction would be necessary.  But today I made my first attempt, using the web page's step-by-step instruction.  The Wyeth family has nothing to fear from my artistic talents, but I did manage to produce a work that some astute observers might recognize as... a leaf.  From such humble beginnings, what will follow?  Stay tuned.

Coast Guard Day

 On this day in 1790, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton convinced congress to fund the construction of ten small sailing vessels, revenue cutters, to enforce tax and customs fees in the newly created USA.  This was the beginning of a maritime law enforcement service that would directly evolve into today's Coast Guard.  Since then, the duties of the Coast Guard have changed and grown, and today it is also responsible for fisheries management, aids to navigation, lifesaving and rescue, and in wartime, various combat roles.  After the American Revolution, the US Navy was disbanded only to be re-created in 1798, so the Coast Guard is America's oldest continual maritime service.

Also on this day, some 175 years later, I was created.  So it is a coincidence that I myself had a short-lived and not entirely successful service in the Coast Guard.  For me, last year was a landmark birthday, but this year, as with most of them, I indulge in a bit of retrospection.  My life can no longer be called a short one, though I hope it lasts for a while yet.  I was born in the midst of the early space race- in the middle of the Gemini program, when the USA finally surpassed the USSR in manned spaceflight achievements.  And four-year-old me was around to sleep through man's first steps on the moon.  (My talent for sleeping through major world events as they happened is considerable, with Princess Diana's death and OJ Simpson's slow speed car chase just to name a few.)  My life has encompassed the space race, the Cold War, the Chernobyl accident, the digital revolution and birth of the internet, a major worldwide pandemic, and the utterly disastrous Trump presidency.  So it's never been dull.  And for more than the past 12 years (longer than Samuel Pepys), I've kept a daily personal journal to record and comment on world events, both large and small.  I wonder if it will interest some historian in, say, a hundred years.

Anyway, Happy 236th birthday, US Coast Guard!

July stats

July was a quiet month for Postcrossing, with just 61 cards sent and 71 cards received.  This brings my all-times totals to 12,432 cards sent and 12,426 cards received.  I'm happy to see that cards are getting through to recipients in Russia- 3 cards sent there this month and 7 cards received- so the sanctions seem to be truly at an end.  Despite my lackluster activity, I did move up in rank and now am 25th of more than 83,000 USA members in terms of total sent cards. (Still #1 in Alabama, too.)  As always, I'd intended to be more active in sending cards, but life seems to persistently get in the way of plans.  Here's to more Postcrossing in August.  Write on!