a seasonal muse

Once upon a time, in a land, yes, so very far away, there was a little house upon a bit of a hill.

Upon a rise.

Upon a sliver of land, surrounded front to back by water. It was called Wynacht’s Point, the sliver of land. To the front of the house was the gravel lane, and on the other side of the lane was broad water.

Water which was landing sloop to crooning loons and solid ground to little shacks which sprung up early in the season for the fishing of eels.

Down the slope to the back of the little house there was more water and a flurry of rocks. This water was narrow, and across the way one could hear boys, always, putting heart to wood, fashioning their sloops.

And every night we would walk Uncle Ben [a tubby, slothful sweetheart of a tabby, named so he could be pronounced, appropriately, “Bean”] and Ms. Jemima [she of the ebony color and white apron tuft] down to the rocks. After dinner, after coffee, in the endless winter night, we would walk them down to the rocks and listen to the narrow slice of water.

Jemima would, as women will, engage the local minks who lay claim to the rocks. She begged to differ. And despite their greater number and their ruthless, savage nature, she almost always emerged unscathed.

The house was very small.

I painted it, to claim it.

And there was a fine Christmas dinner once upon a time, with Liptauer cheese redolent of anchovy, a rack of roast prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and biscuit tortoni, and the boys built the deepest of snow forts in the deepest of snowfalls.

It was Nova Scotia, up the road from Peggy’s Cove and much too far from Halifax. An island, and I should have listened to my father’s words, once upon a time when he came to visit, that it reminded him of Ireland.

But the boy with whom I walked the cats had been the first to set me on his knee and read me Wordsworth [yes], and we had both decided that Arcadia it was to be, despite the endless Winter night and the narrow slip of land.

And despite all that came before and after, it was home, my first, and, as the poet knew, waters on a starry night seemed so beautiful and fair.

Tis the season

Yes, still here.

Four new translations have been posted in the Library since yesterday, and there are indeed more to come.

Delegado Zero's tour is to commence on Sunday, New Year's Day, with an event in San Cris and departure on Monday. Tune in.

And I'm still waiting for a tad more information concerning the difficulty with the list sign-ups. Given the season and upcoming events, we might have to wait a bit.

No good reason...

For being absent, that is.

I'm posting all the new communiques as I do, in the Library, as I do them. I am warned that there shall be a fair few of them, as well.

And I will try to answer the various questions and requests in the Comments that have been accumulating during my thoroughly unacceptable absence.

Help with the new EZLN page

Since someone just asked in the Comments for help with navigating the new EZLN/Other Campaign site, here's some help:

Go to www.ezln.org.mx and click on the right upper graphic ["zezta internazional"].

If you wish to subscribe to the list, click on the third option ["suscríbase"].

Once you do that, there's a language option at the top ["ver esta página en"] - open the drop-down box to the right, highlight English [or your language of choice] and click to the left ["Ver esta página en"]. The English isn't great, but it's perfectly understandable and will get you subscribed to the mailing list.

The zezta page also allows two other options. The first is registering your support by email, the second is registering or commenting on a forum page. The third being the one described above, subscribing to the list.

Anyone still having problems, keep asking, and I'll keep helping.

Cheers for now.

Media mastery

Yes, darlings, just a brief note about the premiere of the new EZLN Other Campaign website.

Well, I must say it was worth the wait. Sleek, moderne [almost mid-century in ethos, in a good way], professional and very user friendly.

In case you missed it in the communique, it's at www.ezln.org.mx

Once you get there, the zeztainternazional pic will lead to the page where one can, once again, register one's support or not and also sign up for their email list. If anyone has any trouble navigating the list sign-up, just let me know.

The other pic [and do check out the sinuous graphic which somehow reminds me of the horchata word] leads one to the heart of the site. Everything is there, including most of the current translations.

Enjoy.

Tomorrow we might toss around the idea of embracing the concept of forming a very "otherly" intergalactic committee.

Seriously otherly.