I’ve been thinking about my two favorite blogs, why I like them so much and what makes them so special (to me anyway). First of all they are written by friends. One blog is by one of my oldest friends, the other by a fairly new friend, but in both cases their blogs let me know more about them than I ever would otherwise. Secondly, both blogs are very creative. One reads like a novel. I can’t wait for the next post, and think about the most recent post often; wondering what is going to happen next. The other reads like a non-fiction book, but it also has that continuity of purpose, and a consistent storyline, like a good essay. Its entries are more to be savored and studied. I learn things from this blog, on a subject about which I’m not very familiar. Thirdly, they are both beautiful. Both writers are gifted photographers, but one specializes in people, especially children, and the other specializes in flowers, insects, and the natural world.
The first blog is Ottworld, by my friend Sherry Ott. Two years ago Sherry left the corporate rat-race and started traveling around the world, writing and taking photographs as she went. She doesn’t stick to well-traveled paths and she often travels alone. She goes to countries and places where I would be uneasy or downright scared, and experiences both the beautiful and the ugly, the frightening and the mundane. Through it all her abilities as a story-teller and photographer shine through. Earlier this year she returned to the US, but just long enough to tie up some business, give up her apartment in New York City, and find a job teaching English in Vietnam for the coming year. After a two week detour volunteering in a remote Nepalese village, she is now residing in Ho Chi Minh City. Her blog is www.ottsworld.com.
The second blog belongs to my dear friend Gail. I have known Gail since college and her friendship has been one of the most constant in the last thirtyfive years of my life. This winter Gail’s mother passed away, and Gail began a blog about her garden in Nashville, Tennessee. It shames me that I could have known Gail for so long and not realized what a WONDERFUL writer she is! Gail’s writing reminds me of Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) in some ways. Her stories about her flowers and her yard are often metaphors for whatever is going on in her life at the moment. I learn all sorts of things from Gail’s blog, the scientific names of flowers and bugs, why certain plants do well in the southeastern United States, why she favors some plants that others call weeds. Gail’s blog is www.clayandlimestone.blogspot.com.
Sherry is an accomplished photographer. She has gone on a photojournalism adventure in Laos and she has had a show in New York. If you go to her blog it provides links to another blog that is just her photos, which can be purchased. I want to buy one, but I can’t decide which one to buy!
I don’t know if Gail has any photographical training, but her pictures sure look like she does! She can capture the smirk on the face of a caterpillar (really!) like something out of Alice in Wonderland. She can make a field of coneflowers vibrate, and wring the melancholy from a wilting stem of grass. Sometimes I just look at her pictures, and save the writing for another time. Because she is such a good friend, her blog makes me feel like I have been given a special gift.
Oh yes, the wine! Well, on our way to the US for this latest trip we decided to spend a couple of nights in Napa Valley and go on a wine tour while we were there. The wine tour was fun, but I do have a few comments on the experience. First of all it’s really hard to pace oneself when going from one winery to the other and tasting a variety of wines. I started out with my own tastings, but by the end of the afternoon I was sharing with Lee, and I often just took a few sips of a wine before pouring it out. We both liked the small family wineries the best, particularly the Frank Winery and the Graeser Winery (these are both close to Calistoga, which is where we were staying). We both agreed on which wines we wanted to buy at Frank, but I had to take the lead at Graeser, because Lee couldn’t taste anything anymore. By that time he couldn’t decide if everything tasted great or terrible so he let me decide.
So now we have four bottles of wine to drink and share with family and friends. I’m not sure if any of them will make it back to Hong Kong, but that’s okay. If we really like some of them we can order more online.
We also visited a crazy winery where some rich guy had built an exact replica of a castle from the middle ages. The castle was authentic, but just ridiculous. I’ll eventually post pictures of it though. It was just too much!
We dedicated my dad’s headstone today. It was a beautiful clear blue sky September day in Missouri. There were small stones on many graves because Jews put them there as a remembrance when they visit cemeteries and this is the time of year when people visit their relatives graves, right before the Jewish New Year. Once again I am seeing the parallels between Chinese and Jewish culture. Well we’re not making effigies of money and cars and burning them on the graves, but in a sense it’s not that different. We strive to remember those that are gone, and hope that in whatever comes after death they remember us as well.
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