3 Free eBooks – June 2020

So many materials available online…

The three I am featuring this month are a bit different. The first two are slideshows available on Internet Archive. It was hard to choose just two; check here for 300 or so of them. Each of the slide shows is accompanied by a brief biography of the artist.

Hussein Amin Bicar (1913 - 2002) – Egyptian. I enjoyed both the modern and the ancient depictions. I chose one of the modern images for the sample.

Josef Sudek (1896 - 1974) – Czech photographer. As I looked at the pictures – I thought about what made them most appealing to me and decided that there were multiple reasons:

• The way the photographer captured unusual light and arrangement of places.

• The historical aspect (I assumed that many of the damaged buildings were the aftermath of World War II).

• The pictures of office clutter. I’ve known people that had similar piles of accumulated ‘stuff’!

Another reason I liked this artist: Half of my ancestors were Czech; the families immigrated to the US in the later 1800s. The life span of Sudek was like my Czech heritage grandfather’s (1896-1974 and 1901-1976). My grandfather was younger by just enough that he did not fight in World War I; Sudek did and was severely injured (an arm was amputated). What a difference in the way they experienced World War II! My grandfather was farming in eastern Oklahoma; Sudek lived through the Nazi’s in Prague and then Soviet domination of the country. Sudek lived most of his life in a European city: Prague; my grandfather lived on a farm, a small city, then the suburbs of a large city in Oklahoma and Texas. In 1960, my grandfather was injured in an accident (a leg was amputated). As I read the short biography of Sudek, I felt that in the last decade of their life, they would have enjoyed knowing each other.

I selected the sample picture because it was an unusual collection for a still life. The peacock feathers reminded me of the peacocks my non-Czech grandparents kept. The shells are something collected in travels by people that ordinarily live far from the sea (i.e. Prague or Oklahoma).

The other eBook I chose this month was autobiographical…with names changed which I guess turns it into a novel. It was known as autobiographical when it was published so is usually discussed from that perspective.

Scott, Evelyn. Escapade. New York: Thomas Seltzer. 1923. Available at Internet Archive here. The parts that resonated the most with me were the author’s description of her pregnancy and the immediate aftermath. Her writing about her emotions and physical situation are so vivid. Her experience is often more intense because of the upheaval in her life early in the novel (eloping, moving from the US to London to Brazil) and then subsequent poverty and isolation. A brief biography of Evelyn Scott can be found here.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Bright heart of the forest. When I first went into my office at 6:10 AM, the sunshine was bright on a tulip poplar tree trunk that normally does not stand out in the shade of the forest. The glow lasted for a few minutes before fading as the sun continued its rise. It was a good start to the day to see the tree appear as if lighted from within.

Zucchini muffins. I used up some summer squash by making muffins at mid-morning. It’s an easy process using the food processor to do the shredding. I chose a recipe for Zucchini Spice Cake from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook…brought back memories of the restaurant in Ithaca when my daughter was working on her undergraduate degree at Cornell.

Finishing the deck drapery project. My husband and I put up additional hooks to hold all the deck drapery panels and I made tie backs for them. We were both hot and tired when we finished because the day was so hot and humid. It was not better by dinner, so we waited to have an outdoor dinner for another day.

Yard Work

The grass was dry enough to mow by about 10…and the temperature was in the mid-70s, an occasional breeze. My husband started out with the mowing while I picked up twigs/small branches that had blown out of our oak and sycamore…to take back to the brush pile. I took the small amount of kitchen scraps we’d accumulated to go back to the compost pile; it included some spent flowers I’d purchased…and some that I’d brought in from our own garden.

I decided to cut down some of the milkweed in our front flower bed. It is not beautiful…and I since I’ve discovered the meadow of milkweed near the neighborhood stormwater pond, I don’t need to have a huge amount. Last year I didn’t have a single Monarch caterpillar. After I’d cut some of the big stalks down, I discovered that there were a lot of day lily buds behind them. I hope that cutting the milkweed doesn’t make the buds more vulnerable to deer. I’ll cut the day lilies as soon as the bugs are large enough to open.

There are lots of other buds over by the bird bath and they are very exposed. The deer are not intimidated about coming up that close to our front porch! They’ve been like that for the past 4-5 days…so hopefully the deer won’t find them for another week or so. At least one stalk may be mature enough to get cut in a day or so.

Under the deck there are two kinds of ferns that are doing well this year. I was surprised that there is a small holly there too. Holly is an understory tree but I’m not sure it will do well in the deep shade under our deck. I’m leaving it alone for now.

I had plenty of time to look things over because my husband didn’t turn the mower over to me until he got thirsty. I got 3 or 4 rounds in the backyard before he was back. I’m glad he is feeling better but miss the workout of mowing more of the yard.

Unique activities for yesterday:

The 2nd CSA share. So many good things for a summer salad. I used a small amount a few hours after I got home: red leaf lettuce, summer squash, turnip, radish, arugula – a little chicken for protein. The crispers are still very full. I’m in the mode of having a huge salad every day while we have the huge amount of greens!

Since we have 2 pounds of summer squash – I’m letting my husband choose between custard and muffins. That will be a morning project since I don’t want to use the oven on a hot afternoon. Our air conditioning is good…but why make it work harder. I like cooking first thing in the morning anyway.