Sun & Moon

Raise Your Hand by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd and Al Bell. I really do like James Jamerson's beautiful, intuitive and visionary bass lines on Motown. Still, I've always clearly been more into Stax soul. I love Dunn's earthy, sturdy bass work. This Southern soul/gospel groove is great fun to play. It has a special feel to it, as Stax songs in general.

(This song could easily have been on my 27 song list for the summer, since my teacher is a soul music lover, big time. But I somehow came back to Eddie Floyd after many years a few days ago and decided to learn how to play this tune. The whole album Knock on Wood is full of classics. And the Stax catalogue is wide, so I will have a great time digging deeper into Duck's grooves. )

5 hours ago, Rhyta said:

Sounds positively idyllic...lucky you

Thank you, Rhyta. This is heaven on Earth.

Yesterday I watched a few gulls fly after a big common buzzard high in the sky. It was almost an air fight. My dad has a pair of good quality binoculars (mine are in the city), and I could see the chase very clearly.

Fried & strongly seasoned chicken with yasmine rice, topped with fresh tomatoes, a spoonful of teriyaki sauce and a handful of almonds and pecan nuts. I cooked by myself on the porch.

On 6/14/2023 at 1:29 PM, Blue J said:

So my father passed away last year. Confident, positive, physically active and very healthy, all the way up to age 75. And then metastatic prostate cancer took two years to completely waste him away.

 

I was on holiday with family last week, including my mother and stepfather- my mother is not doing well. Lots of mobility issues, and she has a condition called CAA (cerebral amyloid angiopathy)- the effects of which basically mimic Alzheimer’s disease. Proteins build up in the brain and cause the blood vessels to rupture. I honestly don’t think she has very long. Another year or two, maybe. (And that might be optimistic. Or it might not. I really have no idea). 
 

So that would be both parents, in a relatively short period of time. And my sister died, close to 15 years ago.

 

So then it’ll just be me.

 

I’m a very positive person. But I’d be lying if I said that nothing ever gets me down.

I'm sad to hear of the loss and illnesses of your loved ones. Take care of yourself, these must have been tough times for you.

I spend as much time with my parents as I can without ending up in a burnout again. We have a distance of around 400 kilometers, and with a work in two shifts and with only the option to travel to my parents by using public transportation is not very easy for me. I see my father taking shorter steps year after year and my mother losing bits of her concentration. They've both stayed in a pretty healthy condition, but having reached their early eighties comes with changes that make me feel sad and confused. We never know how much time we have left, but this is a new chapter in life. I still don't know how to relate to it.

Right now I'm sitting on the front porch of our summer house in the countryside. The porch is 10 meters wide and is aligned with the river which runs another 10 meters from the house. A summer day could not be any more beautiful than this. A warm wind feels soft and refreshing on my skin, and there's no cloud in the sky. I hear the constant, soothing sound of the nearby rapid and many kinds of birds singing.

Common house martins have at least one nest under the eaves, and probably one more under construction. Common sandpipers, ducks, curlews, European pied flycatchers, chatfinches, common buzzards, Northern lapwings, swans, cranes and many owls can be found here among other species. There's a tiny wetland area a few hundred meters from the summer house, and it's a perfect place for small hawks to catch something to eat. Butterflies and bumblebees easily find nectar in the flowers and the blossoming trees. I spent an hour playing my Geddy Lee bass on the porch while surrounded with all this. This verdant river valley that is my childhood home is a place where I feel the most connected with the land and the water, and with myself.

On 6/14/2023 at 1:20 PM, Blue J said:

I don’t often post in these threads (made your day, made you sad, made you facepalm)- and as it’s 6:15 in the morning, there’s not much that has happened for me yet TODAY…but I’ll put a few things in here:

 

I was accepted to graduate school, about a month ago.

 

My son was accepted to the Fisher College of Business at THE Ohio State University, just yesterday. He’ll start on the second year of his Bachelor’s degree in August.

 

And last week I got to vacation in a tropical paradise. 
 

So 🤷🏼‍♂️ Not bad, right?

Congratulations! Sounds great!

Cannonball Adderley: Mercy Mercy Mercy. One of the 27 new songs that I'm happy to learn to play during the summer. My bass teacher has a very good taste in music, these are all great summer jams. Come August and we'll see how many of these I've nailed. 

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

On 5/8/2023 at 3:47 AM, TheAccountant said:

Thats a lot more than I knew about any fighting in Lapland during WWII.  My dad was in basic training when the bomb was dropped which forced Japan to surrender.  He was eventually in occupation troops in Germany.  I certainly don't like the idea of the A-bomb being used but if it had not been used my dad would likely have been sent to help invade Japan and lord knows what might have happened.  

 

As for WWII, I know the USSR attached Finland and provoked the winter war of 1939 - 40 and I have read that the invasion was set in motion by the Fins (rightful) refusal to allow the USSR to station troops at a number of locations in Finland.  I believe the USSR had also demanded a swap of some land.  As I understand it the USSR was actually willing to give more land then they would have gotten but the land the USSR wanted was militarily sensitive (basically the Manerheim line) and what they were willing to give us was not of great military importance.  After epic resistance Finland lost that war but kept its independence.

 

After the winter war Finland (as I understand it) got involved in WW II when Germany attacked the USSR, reclaimed the land it lost in the winter war and then stopped any offensive actions.  Finally in 1944 the USSR launched a major offensive against Finland which forced Finland to a less then satisfactory peace treaty but at least Finland kept it independence (unlike eastern Europe).  As I understand it, part of that treaty was that the Fins would expel any German troops from Finland.  But unfortunately I don't know anything about that.

 

I have read one book on Finlands involvement in WW II but it was more about the winter war then the latter (post 1941) Finnish involvement in the war.  It only very briefly mentioned what happened after the 1944 treaty.  I had not idea that the efforts to expel the Germans from Finland were so bloody.

 

Thanks for opening my eyes to a part of history I did not know much about. 

It's easy to see that you have interest in history. You summarized the events of those wars nicely. The amount of casualties of the Lapland War in comparison with the Continuation War was dramatically smaller but the duration of the war was significantly shorter as well. The German troops burned down or otherwise demolished pretty much every building, bridge and railroad in most of the vast Lapland area, leaving great masses homeless. It took more than a decade to rebuild everything - except the broken, war-torn minds of the locals and the soldiers. It starts to be the generation born in the 2010s that no longer is haunted by the memories and reflections of the three consecutive wars.

What you wrote about your father, and the story of my grandfather both show the coincidental nature of life. If my granddad hadn't been seriously wounded on the 12th July 1941 in the very beginning of the Continuation War he might have been killed a few days or months later in the battles. His brother, a very clever young man, died in the war. The majority of the soldiers were reservists. The families were not the same when the war ended. They never are, no matter when or where the war takes place.

By the way, I got the Sisu book you recommended. Seems like an easy read with a comfortable layout.

19 hours ago, Derek19 said:

I watched "John Wick: Chapter 4", "Scream VI (2023)", and "Renfield" recently.

How did you like the latest Wick? I've not seen it yet.

Carrots. They are of the sweeter variety.

This positive science news "Researchers discover a potential cause of Parkinson's disease": 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-potential-parkinson-disease.html

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1181315/full

Aaaand the Scudetto goes to...

It's been a bit of a ruckus in Naples.  I hope not so many more people will be joining the company of Maradona during the celebration.

Haribo Stjerne Mix sour.

They should be sour but to my taste, they're not sour enough.

On 5/3/2023 at 4:50 AM, TheAccountant said:

Your welcome.  Hope you enjoy it.  I will be curious what you think of it and look forward to any review you post of it.

 

Thanks also for mentioning Sisu.  I had no idea their was a movie with the title.  If I get the time I will have to check it out.

I'll give the book a try as it arrives. Maybe I'll learn something new, or get a new perspective.

In the movie the power of sisu will be demonstrated in it's most extreme. Not quite an accurate depiction of how the German troops were expelled from Lapland, the north of Finland.  The director was inspired by the first Rambo movies and didn't forget the tongue-in-cheek humour. The music is composed by Tuomas Wäinölä who's a helluva guitar player himself but also composes a lot of other stuff.

(As a possibly triggering sidenote, being a granddaughter of a Lapland war veteran I never heard any stories about the war. Both of my grandpas fought in WWII, and what happened was widely not talked about in post-war Finland. The veterans could only share their stories with each other. My other grandpa was seriously injured by a grenade in the stomach and was literally rescued from a pile of dead. A guy from the neighboring village fighting in the same group happened to notice that my grandpa was still alive. Without that guy I wouldn't be writing this, as my father was born a few years after the war.)

6 hours ago, Principled Man said:

 

I can't put out enough food for all the birds.  They have returned en masse!

 

Finches, sparrows, cardinals, woodpeckers, robins, blackbirds, grackles, crows, the occasional bluebird and blue jay, and a few special appearances by a falcon and hawk, looking for a morning treat!     

That's awesome! I love birds, and as BigMontanaSKY wrote, it is such a joy to watch them build nests. A few weeks ago my spose and I saw two pigeons making a home in a nearby linden tree as we were having a breakfast. The first one collected the sticks and flied them to the building site, the other carefully placed them in the nest. They ended up abandoning the nest very soon, however. I wonder if a squirrel took the eggs, or there might have been other disturbing things in the surroundings.

18 hours ago, Laurabw said:

Pristine. I'm not a super religious person or anything, but it was really cool.

She's actually one of 13 "pilgrim statues", but still really something to see in person.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02mgbDitHVqQbWtrYfzJNKv22LEPZc5ycx2ogL5Xa6sNCc9DAGtFeFeMq8xLuatK3bl&id=100006897733556&mibextid=Nif5oz

She looks beautiful. Thank you for sharing a link that shows the picture of the statue. It's always interesting to see how people are connected to the traditions.

4 hours ago, TheAccountant said:

 

Overall I enjoyed it.  A lot of emphasis on cycling everywhere (and throughout the year, even the dead of winter), sauna's, swimming in all weather and all seasons (including swimming in the ocean in the winter), spending as much time as possible outside, purchasing localy produced / grown & used / recycled.  Based on our friends recommendation I had read "Teach Like Finland" first and I though this was much better written.  Not great but enjoyable.  Decent.  A fairly quick read.  Worth the time.  Would I purchase it?  I guess.  Maybe.  Once my mom finish's it up I may take another look at it before we return it our friends.  That may make my mind up one way or the other.  Dad also though it was decent and better than Teach Like Finland.  I was surprised that age 96 he enjoyed it as mush as he did.  He has always been one to read about how to do something.  This is not normally his type of book.  

Thanks for the review. It's so cool that your father still has a spark for reading about new skills and areas of life. I haven't read books about hygge, lykke, ikigai or omoiyari, for example, and I thought the sisu book would be of the same type. Hard to tell, but I found the book in the collection of the library group I work in. My reservation should arrive within a few days. Although printed books are not very accessible for me I'm curious to take a look at it.

Speaking of sisu, I haven't seen the new Finnish old school action movie of the same name yet. It seems like the right time to export sisu, since the box office in the U.S. has been pretty good. 

A cup of hot peppermint tea with a big teaspoon of local honey. A few slices of toasted oatmeal bread, also topped with honey. This will warm me up on this freezing day.

On 4/30/2023 at 8:25 AM, TheAccountant said:

Katja Panzer - The Finnish Way

 

A book about Finland and its culture some friends suggested we read.  Rather enjoyable.

As a Finn, I'd like to know how to find "courage, wellness, and happiness through the power of sisu".  Seriously speaking, sisu (determination, grit) can be both a well of extreme stubbornness leading to desperate attempts in making it in the society, and a serenity that leads to individual, unconventional decisions and well-being. How was the book, textwise?    

On 4/29/2023 at 5:33 AM, Laurabw said:

My church has Our Lady of Fatima for the weekend and I got to see her in person today. 💕 

How was she like?

On 4/25/2023 at 7:40 PM, pjbear05 said:

Walk out of the house to go to the store.  On the swale across the street, partially hidden from view is a white wooden post.  Oh shit.  I walk down the driveway and my fears are confimed, the house across the street is back up for rent.  4 BR, 2.5 BA, 2300 sq. ft. on a large corner lot.  3 sales with 5 separate renters since the original owners sold in January of 2018.  The place is big, large back yard, and wide open-no fences on the property.  Relator is the same as the last 3 parties that rented,  but now I' m wondering what kind of new neighbors I could be getting.

I hope it will be some peace-loving persons that will create a feeling of safety in the neighbourhood for their part.

On 3/17/2023 at 2:11 AM, Bahamas said:

You go Girl!!!!!

I am still waiting for the day, we'll see. No history and nothing to sound an alarm but I am getting to the "every two years" or so age.

A friend recently described the exact same thing - watching what is going on and realising the acres upon acres of places for a chicken nugget or another plate of french fries might linger. 

 

And I just looked up iron deficiencies (as one example). It's a wonder any of us retain iron at all!

Sorry for a late response. A part of getting prepared for colonoscopy for me was to try think the whole thing as a privilege (as it really is). Somewhere else, say, in the countryside of Afghanistan, I probably wouldn't be examined. I've found any positive thoughts and especially practicing visualization helpful in advance. And during the preparation and the examination self-soothing words play a great role.

A large bowl of Gabalong tea. I love the green, fresh, sweet taste and scent of it. I often brew the leaves two or three times to enjoy the changing taste. For my breakfast I also have a cup of fat-free cottage cheese and a big slice of traditional thin, unleavened oat bread with Emmentaler.

Lately, I've listened to some audio books by Jenny Colgan again in Swedish. Swedish has become The Language of Colgan books for me for some reason. I've felt like reading some entertaining feel-good stuff recently. 

The Quiet American has remained untouched in my audio book app almost for months. The story seems not to make any progress, and I'm feeling a little frustrated. I may give it a try some day, anyhow.