Karmic-Dragonfly

I had taken the summer off from book club. Our numbers had dwindled, and I was either hosting the club myself, or providing a place for another member who is out of town, just a little too often. And I just wanted to have some time alone I think lol.

In any event, I came back for the September meeting and volunteered to host in October. The host responsibilities are to select the book, provide dinner, and give a brief intro to the book as we discuss after our meal together.

For October, I have chosen A Month in the Country by J.L Carr. The reason I chose it is that the idea of spending a month in the bell tower of a medieval church in the north of England, uncovering a mural of the Last Judgement, and shitting in a pit toilet seems like a perfect vacation to me!

A quarter way through the book, I was starting to doubt my choice. But I ended up liking it it a lot. It was a quick read -- short book -- with some twists near the end. And I came to like the protagonist. I have to say, I'm not up on my Yorkshire accent, so some of the dialog slowed me down as I deciphered.

Also slowing me down a bit was a bit of Middle English that popped up variously throughout the book. This was a verse from 2 Timothy. Now, I have never read anything in Middle English, but I dutifully gave a try at putting the text into Old English.

I actually tried to find a translation online, but either 2 Timothy (a relatively minor book) never got translated into Old English, or the manuscript didn't survive, or it's just not available anywhere online.

Middle English:
And he shal com with woundes rede

To deme the cwice and the dede.

Old English:
And he sceal cuman mid wundum reodum
Deman þa cwicu and þa deaþas.

New English:
And he shall come with red wounds
To judge the living ("quick") and the dead.

There's a slight gay sub-story, which fits well with this being a gay book club.

And it has a the feeling of "Fall". “The first breath of autumn was in the air, a prodigal feeling, a feeling of wanting, taking, and keeping before it’s too late.”

It's worth a read.

I used to listen to Better Than Ezra 25+ years ago! "Don't you look special; don't you look sweet"?

Somehow knowing they are still making music makes the timeline a little more endurable!

Never one to wait until the last minute and since today was a cool, rainy day, I decided to give Séan his Halloween makeover for the year.

The cool temps have made it feel like Fall since the end of July, so I've been thinking about Halloween early this year.

The US has so many shootings, but today's MN school shooting starts the new school year.

This TikTok showed up a few nights ago. It's painful to watch, and sad. But it's not wrong. And the Minnesota shooting just illustrates that.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8BLHDMW/

I made my annual pawpaw-gathering trek down to the river yesterday. They seem to have gotten ripe earlier than usual! Maybe because Fall has arrived early this year.

They are not for everyone -- mushy and have sort of an odd taste with big pits -- but I like foraging for wild food, and so I usually get a few each year.
""

Some people make smoothies. I usually just plop them in a bowl and eat!


Pawpaws are only ripe when they look and smell very ripe and are ready to fall off the tree -- generally, I forage for those already on the ground that haven't gotten eaten by insects and haven't rotted. I also usually give the trees a gentle shake to see if any will fall.

Years ago when I was first finding out about pawpaws, I mentioned them to my Mom, and she launched into an old nursery rhyme, something like "picking up pawpaws in the pawpaw patch and stuffing them in my pockets..." It also surprised me at first that I did not know about them since I grew up in a rural area and knew about the trees that grow here. I asked Dad about them, so he asked me to describe them. When he recognized them by my description, he said he didn't like the taste. So we never learned about them as kids because he didn't like them!

They grow in patches (hence the nursery rhyme's "pawpaw patch" reference). And often the patch is made up of the same tree because they can send roots underground to form new trees in addition to having seeds germinate.

Side note: evidently Australians use the word pawpaw for what I call a papaya, but that is not the same fruit. These fruits shown here are native to eastern North America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba

Here's a chart of comparative nutrition between various common fruits:
https://www.kysu.edu/academics/college-ahnr/school-of-anr/pawpaw/pawpaw-description-and-nutritional-information.php/#Table3

I went down to my favorite trail at the river yesterday.

Always nice to see a Cormorant. They are only migratory here, so another sign of Fall already approaching! And because they don't live here, it's fun to see them spreading and shaking their wings to dry them off.

I was just saying to a guy in my Old English class that I needed some swear words for one particular lesson (Ælfred the Great's preface to the Cura Pastoralis) because it was so difficult to parse!

https://youtu.be/S1y8cte-LGA

I have ordered the book for myself, and depending on how it goes, it might be my selection for the next time I host book club.

Out of fear for my friends, I waited until they were safely away before posting. This is dated from a couple weeks ago.

09 July 2025 - Postdated

Not feeling great emotionally today.

Some Brazilian friends who are very dear to me have decided to exit the US. They did not give a specific reason, but I believe it is for fear of them or their children being snatched by ICE, as so many others have already been.

These are people that I met before they even knew much English, and I still remember sitting in an ice cream shop, teaching them to make the "th" sound in English -- "put your tongue between your front teeth and blow".

I still have photos in my library of our very first message exchange, me in broken Portuguese, and him in broken English. It's kinda hilarious to read both!

For the last decade, I have watched them make a decent life here, very active in their church, having 2 children and sending them to pre-school and elementary school, and running their own business.

They have had me to dinner, introduced me to their friends, and I have had them to get-togethers with other friends at my house in return. I remember them asking for advice on a baby name that would sound good in both English and Portuguese. Right after each of their baby deliveries, they sent me pictures of their newborns (captioned as if the newborn was calling me "tio" - uncle).

After COVID, although we continued to message, we never really got back to many in-person meetings. I did see them a few weeks ago for ice cream. Today I got a voice recording, letting me know they were leaving in a couple weeks and hoping to see me before then.

He thanked me for my friendship and kindness, and I appreciated hearing that!

A few months ago, a guy in my class had had a dream in Old English and asked if I ever dreamed in Old English, and at that point I had not.

As I thought about it, I realized that I don't usually hear language in my dreams -- for me, dreams are most always communication through some sort of feelings/emotions, not language. Anyways, I filed his question away as interesting.

A few nights ago, I had a dream where I heard and spoke Old English. I ruminated on it a few days, then wrote a summary of it to send to my classmate. The summary is below with a "New" English translation following.

Seldcuþ Swefn

Hit me gelamp sum seldcuþe swefn ær!

On þam swefne, ic wæs ymbbutan minum huse, gewyrcende on þam wyrtgearde, swa swa hit me licaþ oft to donne.

And fram þære stræte, færlice gehierde ic sumes cildres stefn, and me þuhte seo stefn wære on Englisce spræcen!

Soþlice ic wundrode and locode forþ-rihte þaere stræte toweardes and geseah ic sum wer and his wif and heora lytle cild þe wæs binnan þam cild-wægne.

Sona ic astod and clypode þam cilde, “Hu, cild, spricst þu Englisc?” And þæt cild sona blissode and his ansien hwearf mid wundre.

Hie ealle me genealæhton, and se wer and his wif me ascodon hwæt ic spræc, for þam þe hie ne Englisc ne ongietan cunnon. Hie þohton þæt þæt cild wæs samwis for þam þe, he ne Niewe Englisc sprecan cuþe.

And þæt cild blissode eft þæt sum man æt nieshstan him ongietan cuþe!

And þonne ic awacode!

Weird Dream

When translating from Old English, if I can, I keep a good amount of the word order the same, resulting in a translation that sounds awkward. But if you want to look for the corresponding word above, it helps if the word order is similar.

It happened to me some weird dream!

In the dream, I was outside around my house, working in the plant-yard, just as it often pleases me to do.

And from the street, suddenly heard I the voice of some child, and it seemed to me that the voice had been in (Old) English spoken!

Truly, I was amazed and looked directly towards the street, and saw I some man and his woman and their little child, that was inside the child-wagon (carriage).

Soon I stood up and called out to the child, “Hey, child, speak you English?” And the child immediately rejoiced and his face changed with wonder.

They all approached me, and the man and his woman asked me what I said, because they not (Old) English not understand could. They thought that the child was slow (samwis = unfinished-wise = dimwitted. Cf. "Samwise" Gangee in the Lord of the Rings) because he could not speak New English.

And the child rejoiced again that someone at last him understand could.

And then I woke up.

I think the last of the birthday get-togethers happened today when a friend and I went on a walk at the river, followed by lunch at a local brewery. It has been good seeing friends and family!