Amaryllis sillyramA

Magnolia bud

This morning I finished Bel Canto. One of the main characters in the book is a soprano, a diva. A diva in a good way.

And, by sheer coincidence, a few weeks ago I found a podcast of nothing but opera. At the time I subscribed to the podcast, there were several pieces available to download. I decided to listen first to a Bellini opera, Norma. Been listening to it in bits and pieces for the last week or so (not ideal, but I’ll take it over no opera). Act II finished up just as I arrived at work this morning, and I finally remembered to look and see if I could find anything about the story line. Here’s a quotation from the first paragraph of the first hit on the search bellini norma story:

Prepared for all lovers of great opera, including the serious undergraduate music student, this bibliography is structured to help its users develop and all-around appreciation of Bellini’s operatic masterpiece Norma. Materials chosen include biographies of Bellini, recordings of the opera by the greatest contemporary sopranos, reviews of the recordings, articles about current stagings, copies of the score, and discussions of Bel Canto singing, the style in which Bellini was noted.

—L.R. Most / G. Frost

Bel Canto singing! I had no idea it was a style of singing or notation. Now I understand the book that tiny bit better. It is a good book and I do recommend it. It is not for the faint of heart.

Still looking for the story, I fumbled around in google for awhile longer, then finally figured out to check Wikipedia. Bingo!

I’d like to see that opera someday. The story sounds quite wrenching.

Also. Looking up the word Norma on Wikipedia brought these lovely results:

Norma is a constellation of the southern sky. See Norma (constellation).
Norma is an opera by Vincenzo Bellini. See Norma (opera).
Norma is a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy. See Norma arm.

I heart Wikipedia.

We had a lovely, too-short trip to Lake Wenatchee the last few days. Back to the Allen’s cabin, where we used to vacation when I was little. It was so much fun! We might try to go earlier and catch the Perseids next year.

And this is only Part I.

Ah, the weekly box from Oxbow Farm. We’re already midway through the season with them, and it just keeps getting better. This week’s box included what looked like an entire bush’s worth of edamame (yum!) and some lemon cucumbers and squashes and many various other things. This gorgeous head of red-tinged lettuce was so pretty I had to take a picture.

We heart Oxbow.

Neptune State Park

Ach, it’s been too long since my last post. Since then we’ve been to the Oregon Coast for a week of excellent family reunioning, and since then we’ve been getting ready to have a house full of guests of our own… somehow I’ve had time to read a few books through it all.

The latest one, and the one that prompted me to get posting: yet another great story from fearless author Christopher Moore, entitled The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. Two words: weed whacker.

Before that, had a chance to re-read E.B. White‘s Stuart Little, and it was quite enjoyable. I’d forgotten it was a funny book.

And more from Laura Ingalls Wilder — Farm Boy and On the Banks of Plum Creek — courtesy of the lovely Chanzara, of course. I have to say again that I love these books. I will be very sad when I’ve read them all.

While in Oregon, I finally read Stephen Fry‘s first book, The Liar. By a lucky coincidence, on the drive down to the coast we listened to the recent audio production of Douglas Adams‘s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’d been putting off listening to it, since I haven’t seen the movie yet and didn’t want to ruin it. But I couldn’t resist anymore. See, in this version — unabridged — all the voices are done by Stephen Fry, who is naturally one of my favorites. So by the time we’d arrived, I had many of the characters’ voices planted in my brain, and was able to hear The Liar in Mr. Fry’s voice instead of hearing it in my own boring northwest-no-accent voice. However! Even without the benefit of the accent, it’s a great read, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is a big fan of Stephen Fry’s acting.

And now I’ve started on Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. So far, the style reminds me of Saramago‘s book Blindness, which is strange since I read Blindness as a translated work. Perhaps I am actually reminded of the style of the translator, whoever that may be.