The Beekeeper's Daughter

“In burrows narrow as a finger, solitary bees
Keep house among the grasses. Kneeling down
I set my eyes to a hole-mouth and meet an eye
Round, green, disconsolate as a tear.
Father, bridegroom, in this Easter egg
Under the coronal of sugar roses

The queen bee marries the winter of your year.”



“I am nude as a chicken neck, does nobody love me?
Yes, here is the secretary of bees with her white shop smock,
Buttoning the cuffs at my wrists and the slit from my neck to my knees.
Now I am milkweed silk, the bees will not notice.
They will not smell my fear, my fear, my fear…

…I cannot run, I am rooted, and the gorse hurts me
With its yellow purses, its spiky armory.
I could not run without having to run forever.
The white hive is snug as a virgin,
Sealing off her brood cells, her honey, and quietly humming”

(Sylvia Plath)

Dragonfly

The dragonfly is very much a creature of the air and of the sun. Although it has legs, which are spine-bordered and bunched forward, so it can cling and climb, it never walks. But in the air, a dragonfly is as graceful as a ballet dancer, while it swoops, turns, and zooms about at will. It can dive like a small plane, or hover like a helicopter, as long as the sun is shining. The dragonfly has eyes that contain as many lenses as the eyes of several thousand men. Its head is attached to the slender body in a way that the dragonfly can turn its head almost completely around, so it can see below as well as above him. The wings, which are veined and transparent, can move as much as twenty-eight times a second, carrying it through the air at speeds of about sixty miles an hour.
The nymphs of the dragonfly, which usually live in water, are carnivores, even devouring each other and destroying newly emerged adults before their wings had a chance to harden and fly off into the sun. Most smaller dragonfly nymphs spend a year in the water, the larger varieties can be there for as long as two to three years. The transformation from underwater nymph to dragonfly is amazing. Usually it happens in the heat of the day, with a few exceptions. The wet dragonfly climbs from the water and clings to the bank, or a stick, or weed. As it does so, the suit of chitin armor splits and the damp, crumpled wings unfold. Then, as the glistening coat hardens in the bright sunshine, the dragonfly darts into the air, leaving behind a brown translucent shell. As much a miracle of Nature, as the transformation of a butterfly. The adult dragonfly has a short life span. It lives just long enough to mature and mate. Usually the first cold of fall kills them off. Only the nymphs remain in their underwater home, carrying on the chain of life, just as they had in the long ago past. For a dragonfly, life and death are simple and direct, and the glittering wings cease beating in the numbing of autumn cold. But through the miracle of Nature, the nymphs will again shed their armor, and take to wing in the sunshine, and we will once again reap the benefit of their voracious appetites.
Yesterday morning I witnessed the slow death of a dragonfly and – while taking these photos - I felt an uncomfortable amount of guilt.

"This is not a hotel room... it's a vagina"

I watched this movie yesterday and am wondering why most people hate it so much? Is it because Al Pacino is everything but glamorous in playing a drug addict New Yorker Jew on his way to hell with no way out or simply because most people are just too cozy with the mainstream Hollywood trash – it is hard to tell. Despite its obvious faults I loved this film and recommend it to anyone who values Al Pacino over Ryan O’Neal or Téa Leoni over Kim Basinger for that matter. By the way, she was great in this movie as well. What can I say – I am a sick puppy…


(When Al Pacino wanted to film a scene in my mom's bathroom, she welcomed him with open arms - Suzanne Brouillard)
“The offer came in a "Dear Resident" letter slid under the door of my mom's Greenwich Village apartment. The letter said a movie company was looking for a hallway leading straight into a bathroom with the original 1950s fixtures intact. My mom, Mildred, a retired schoolteacher who taught in the South Bronx for 30 years, responded quicker than the cops in "Serpico."
What woman is going to tell Pacino - who still looks dashing at 60 - that she doesn't want him to take a shower in her bathroom? Plus, Mom would get a nice location fee. …Then it was quiet on the set. His shirt-tail out and hair tousled, Pacino arrived, speaking in the Southern drawl of his character. A method actor par excellence, Pacino reportedly had been using this accent for months on and off the set.
"Take One and roll." The sound of tinkling, moaning, and an occasional swear word could be heard for 40 seconds. Pacino zipped up and staggered down the hallway before turning into the kitchen.
"Cut," said director Dan Algrant.
"I had to pee like an elephant," said Pacino.
"You forgot to flush," somebody said.
"Make it a shorter experience," said Algrant. "And ... action."
They filmed the scene again, taking 35 seconds of toilet time. Pacino, dubbed "Al Cappuccino" for his love of caffeine, was wired. But how many doubles had he gulped? On the next take, we learned Pacino's secret: He had a hot water bottle filled with cranberry juice in his pants because he was supposed to be urinating blood. We knew because he forgot to shut off the valve and the juice dribbled all over mom's oriental rug.
Pacino shook his head sadly. "Why do I have the feeling that the woman who owns this apartment is gonna sue me?" he asked.
"Oh, no, she's not," said my sister, Sandy, a lawyer, as the crew laughed.
"Well, you're one of only a very few then," said Pacino.”

New knife

I felt naked without my S&W so bought another knife. I wanted to get a Gator but when I saw this one there was no question about it. I would’ve been happier if it's slightly smaller but it’ll do just fine. Huge and heavy but the blade is nice. The knife is 26cm long, the blade is a straight 12 cm. A real beauty.

More Greek Olive Oil

Robert’s olive oil finally got delivered to me. Thanks to him I am using the most exotic – and probably the most expensive – olive oils available. He went island hopping with Michelle, Crete, Santorini, Paros, Mykonos, Athens, Korfu. One lucky bastard. I am the one who placed the bug in his ears about Greece maybe a year ago and he’s been going there every time he gets the chance to do so. He brings me one or two bottles of olive oil as a token of appreciation. May God make this habit stick for a few more years…
This last one is from Paros and the kalamata from Messinia.
Organic extra virgin, of course...

"Don't mess with nature"

Marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau said Tuesday that while he mourns the recent death of "The Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, he disagrees with Irwin's hands-on approach to nature television.
While promoting his new two-part TV special, "Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures _ America's Underwater Treasures," Cousteau called Irwin's death "very, very unfortunate."

He had "a lot of respect" for Irwin, who he didn't know personally, and his "environmental message," Cousteau said.

But, he added, Irwin would "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years _ a lot many more years that he's been alive _ and I don't mess with nature."

Finally, somebody had the nerve to say it out loud...

Bahrain

I took this photo about a year ago while staying at the Radisson in Bahrain but didn't pay much attention to it. I just realized that the innocent snapshot of the bridge has some nice qualities to it corresponding with the heron's neck and the architecture. I like the overall composition so here it is...

Epidaurus

The theatre of the Asklepieion of Epidaurus 2

I am tired of creating new posts for the same subject because the server screws up the load...

The theatre of The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus

We left Poros early and headed to Epidauros. Orlando seemed to be in a good mood and we were both looking forward to this trip. Virginia supplied us with all the reading material which I gratefully accepted because telling her that we want to buy the same books for ourselves seemed pointless. The new road on the shore was supposed to be open but later we had to find out that it was not.



The theatre of the Asklepieion of Epidaurus is the ideal specimen of the achievements and experience of the ancient Greeks on theatre construction. It was already praised in antiquity by Pausanias for its symmetry and beauty.
It has the typical Hellenistic structure with the three basic parts: the cavea, the orchestra and the stage-building (skene). The longest radius of the cavea is 58 m while the diameter of the orchestra is about 20 m. The lower of the two diazomata (sections) is divided with 13 stairways into 12 cunei (with 34 rows of benches) and the upper with 23 stairways into 22 cunei (with 21 rows of benches).
The stage-building included a main room with four pillars along the central axis, and one square room at each end. The proskenium had a facade with 14 half-columns against pillars. Two ramps on either side led to the stage while monumental double gates stood at the two entrances.
The theatre was built in two stages. During the first, at the end of the 4th century B.C., the orchestra, the lower diazoma and the stage-building (in its "pre-hellenistic" phase) were constructed. During the second, at the middle of the 2nd century B.C., the cavea was enlarged at the top, and the stage building was given its "late-hellenistic" shape. The theatre was used for musical and poetical contests and theatrical performances.
For centuries the monument remained covered by thick layers of earth. Systematic excavations started in 1881 under the direction of P. Kavvadias. The cavea was brought to light quite well preserved apart from the tiers at the edges and the retaining walls. On the contrary, the stage was found in ruins levelled to the ground.
At the beginning of the 20th century the gate of the western entrance and the contiguous retaining-wall were restored. Large-scale works were undertaken from 1954 to 1963 for the reconstruction of the destroyed sections and partial restoration of the monument.

Mykenae 2

The Acropolis of Mykenae

Mykenae

Gold mask of Agamemnon, 1580 - 1500 BC

Six miles north-east of Argos, on a hill, lay the "rich in gold" ancient city of Mykenae (Mycenae). Founded by the hero Perseus and becoming favorite residence of Pelops and his descendants, it became the most important city of Greece at the times of the king Agamemnon.
Master seafarers, they traded in the whole eastern Mediterranean sea, until the 12th century.
In 1375 BC, they invaded Crete and conquered the Minoans, who had influenced them in the art, from as early as the 16th century BC. The Mykenaean people build cyclopean structures, but at the same time they created the finest works of art.
These were the heroic and adventurous people of the Iliad, the romantic poet warriors, the purest and best of Hellenes.

The Lions Gate at Mykenae.
It was the main entrance to the Acropolis and
its opening was closed by a double door with sheets of bronze.
The relief consists of two confronting lions, their heads made from different
material. The structure is dated to 1250 BC.


The Acropolis of Mykenae

The Miracle of Life

Most of us begin our days with a continuous list of things we need to do to keep our lives running smoothly, but we rarely take time to note all the things we don't need to do. For example, we don't need to figure out how to breathe. We don't need to find a way to make sure the earth continues to revolve around the sun. We don't need to concentrate to ensure that our heart beats and our cells regenerate. All of these things, and many more, take care of themselves without our having to think or do anything at all. This is the miracle of life on earth.