Venetian Lagoon 2016

 "Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;"

from September 1, 1939
W.H. Auden

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/31/wh-auden-september-1-1939-poem

A favourite shop in Venice selling wonderful journals

“All night, after the exhausting games of canasta, 

we would look over the immense sea, full of 

white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us 

leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far 

away, flying in his own aircraft to the stratospheric 

regions of his own dreams. There we understood that 

our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity 

along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, 

looking into everything that came before our eyes, 

sniffing out each corner but only ever faintly--not setting 

down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the 

substratum of things the outer limits would suffice.” 

from

The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey

Ernesto Guevara 

Empire of Light by René Magritte, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

"My streetllamp is so glacially alone in the night,

The small paving stones lay their heads down all around

where it holds up its lightumbrella over them

so that the wicked dark will not come near."

                                               Light Pole

                                                     Rolf Jacobsen

Box in a Valise, Marcel Duchamp, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice

Helen and I love art galleries, and we always find something new, 

something impressive, something unexpected, something to love.

"I don't believe in art. I believe in artists."

Marcel Duchamp

Imaginary Journeys in isolation

"Suddenly Tom’s talk left the woods and went leaping up the young stream, over bubbling waterfalls, over pebbles and worn rocks, and among small flowers in close grass and wet crannies, wandering at last up on to the Downs. They heard of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills. Sheep were bleating in flocks. Green walls and white walls rose. There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and defeat; and towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the sky. Gold was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone doors were shut; and the grass grew over all. Sheep walked for a while biting the grass, but soon the hills were empty again. A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind. Stone rings grinned out of the ground like broken teeth in the moonlight." (LOTR)

Why Italians Are Growing Apples for Wild Bears (see link below)

"Bears are made of the same dust as we, and they breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart pulsing like ours. He was poured from the same first fountain."

John Muir

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/what-wildlife-really-looks-like/609721/

Grizzly Bear seen in Banff National Park Canada (2011)

Dog in Venice

One thing I enjoy especially on vacation is photographing dogs.

And here you can speculate on doggy dreams

"Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."

Wallace Stevens

Venice

  "And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yes, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."

Hecht’s “Venetian Vespers” 














And recommended http://gregorydowling.com/my-walk-across-desolate-venice/

Venice Sept 2019

Anyone who follows this blog knows how much Helen and I love Venice. So we are quite sad to see that after problems with terrible flooding, the coronavirus has now emptied the city of tourists. We have met many wonderful people who rely on tourists for their livelihood in our trips to the city. We can only hope things will improve for them. Guy and Helen

"and you were the sound of the serenade
being sung outside for me, the words
of which, I know now, are of freedom
cast in stone forever."

from Stone Bird

Pattiann Rogers

Venice, Oltre il Giardino

“One of the saddest realities is that we never know when our lives are at their peak. Only after it is over and we have some kind of perspective do we realize how good we had it a day, a month, five years ago. ”
― Jonathan Carroll

This week I heard a noise on the porch, luckily the dogs were having a nap with Helen. When I looked out the window a black squirrel was walking along the porch railing with a huge mouth/armful of grass before leaping into the spruce. So renos are in the air. 

Venice

"The day was now departing; the dark air
released the living beings of the earth
from work and weariness; and I myself
alone prepared to undergo the battle
both of the journeying and of the pity."

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

Florence and Venice

 

"Day was departing and the darkened air 

released the creatures of the earth

from their labor, and I, alone,
prepared to face the struggle-
of the way and of the pity of it-"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Jean & Robert Hollander) 

Venice - Masks and the night. (and Walking New York)

"Day was departing, and the darkening air
Called all earth's creatures to their evening quiet
While I alone was preparing as though for war

To struggle with my journey and the spirit
Of pity,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Robert Pinsky)

Last night Helen and I watched a great film called the world before your feet. From Rotten Tomatoes.

"There are 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City and for the past six years Matt Green has been walking them all - every street, park, cemetery, beach, and bridge. It's a five-borough journey that stretches from the barbershops of the Bronx to the forests of Staten Island, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square, with Matt amassing a surprisingly detailed knowledge of New York's history and people along the way. Something of a modern-day Thoreau, Matt gave up his former engineering job, his apartment, and most of his possessions, sustaining his endeavor through couch-surfing, cat-sitting and a $15-per-day budget. He's not sure exactly why he's doing it, only knowing that there's no other way he'd rather spend his days. Executive produced by Oscar (R) nominee Jesse Eisenberg, The World Before Your Feet is a tribute to an endlessly fascinating city and the freedom to be found, wherever you live, in simply taking a walk."

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_world_before_your_feet

I loved this film, New York has always fascinated me and I love walking around cities taking photos and generally observing things. Venice is a perfect place for this, no cars. Green has a lovely blog detailing his walks. It is found here. 

https://imjustwalkin.com/

Venice - Dante visited Venice shortly before his death ( & Soviet Photos Link)

     

"Day was departing and the dusk drew on,
Loosing from labour every living thing
Save me, in all the world; I -I alone -
Must gird me to the wars - rough traveling,

And pity's sharp assault upon the heart - "

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Dorthy L. Sayers)

Helen sent me this link, we loved the photos.

The Village Genius: Astonishing Photos Of Soviet Life Found In An Abandoned House

https://www.rferl.org/a/astonishing-photos-of-soviet-village-life-discovered-in-abandoned-house-in-moldova/30383072.html

Venice Sept 2019 Reflections

“White swan of cities slumbering in thy nest…
White phantom city, whose untrodden streets
Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting
Shadows of the palaces and strips of sky.”


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Venice 2019 Thinking of you.

Murano Italy (Art Glass)

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Florence and Venice to be met by a big snow storm. While visiting Venice we took the water bus to Murano the island of the glass blowers. We collect art glass but we did not buy any there. The number of stores was overwhelming and the quality varied wildly.  According to signs in some shop windows lots is imported rather than produced locally. One rule of thumb we adopted was to avoid shops with glass clowns in the window. Murano is lovely, a sort of mini Venice and well worth a visit even if you are not shopping for glass. Instead we visited the glass museum. 

https://museovetro.visitmuve.it/en/home/

Then we ate probably the best meal of the trip while sitting next to the canal people/dog watching and visited a church that boasts, as well as the normal saintly bits, dragon bones. My wife and I love to visit old churches when we travel and this was a beautiful example with a two story Byzantine exterior.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dragon-bones-of-santa-maria-e-san-donato

As on our previous trip we bought our glass at the shop of Vittorio Costantini in Venice. His wife Graziella is also on hand to chat with visitors and display the pieces they have for sale. (his personal collection, also on view is incredible). They are two of the nicest people you could meet and his lamp work sculptures of birds, fish, insects and other denizens of the microcosmos he finds so fascinating, are outstanding. 

http://www.vittoriocostantini.com/en/home-2/

Murano Museum 

The Patron Saint of Undisturbed Reading Time

"and somebody would come and knock 

on this air long 

after I have gone 

and there in front of me a life 

would open"

from A Door

by W.S. Merwin

I think our trip to Venice was the greatest vacation we ever took, the Galapagos may be close. But for visual memory, the Venice trip is still fresh enough, that the photos that can be found on the Venezia blog brings it all back.

As a man with an absurd number of books the photo below struck a real chord.

http://veneziablog.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-patron-saint-of-undisturbed-reading_15.html

“It doesn’t do to read too much,’ Widmerpool said. ‘

You get to look at life with a false perspective. By 

all means have some familiarity with the standard authors. 

I should never raise any objection to that. But it is no good 

clogging your mind with a lot of trash from modern novels.” 

from A Question of Upbringing

by Anthony Powell

Lagoon Part Two

Here we are visiting the Island of Torcello for lunch.

both quotes below are from Wikipedia

"Torcello is a sparsely populated[ island at the 

northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy.

It is the oldest continuously populated region of Venice,

and once held the largest population of the Republic of

Venice."

One of the most popular site is,

"The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (Cattedrale di 

Santa Maria Assunta) is a basilica church. It is a notable 

example of Venetian-Byzantine architecture, one of the most 

ancient religious edifices in the Venetto, and containing the 

earliest mosaics in the area of Venice."

We were blown away by how lovely the island was and 

the mosaic's in the church were amazing. We hoped to go 

back for a second visit but ran out of time.

                               

We did climb the church tower, but most of my photos

were not great, it was still a bit foggy. Someone has found

a way to shorten the commute.

The boat driver took us to a family fish farm. This farm was not stocked 

with a single species like ours are, they open metal gates so the fry can 

enter and then close them and feed whatever enters.

Helen loved this small building that was built on an

old barge that was then floated in and sunk.

Hunters were busy building duck blinds.

"On the far shore

a white bird is standing

like a white candle —"

from At Great Pond

by Mary Oliver

The lagoon was very quiet and peaceful, we saw egrets, herons, 

cormorants, gulls, terns, a Kingfisher, swallows, and shorebirds,

but none of the sparrows and blackbirds we expected.