Back on the Mainland
Comments: 4
Back on the mainland, at home, but far from “back” in the full sense. It takes a while to really return from a week’s camping on a small island. The water was indeed cooler than it should have been, but the weather behaved itself almost perfectly and the jellyfish count was zero. Plenty of fish to be seen (and a pretty good variety to be tasted) as well as squid, cuttlefish, crabs, coral, anemones and urchins (which we didn’t poach despite temptation).
Only saw 3 snakes, all non-poisonous yamakakashi (at least I think they’re non-poisonous) — a little 2-footer crossing the road as we biked to the beach one morning, a 3-footer dead on the road, run over, and a healthy looking 4-footer on a disused road we explored above the campsite. The trick, I realised, to distinguishing snakes from branches on the roads as you ride towards them wondering whether to go over or around is that snakes have a slight specular highlight to them whereas branches don’t.
Spent a lot more time this trip biking around and exploring the little roads and streets that don’t lead anywhere. Life on that island, it can safely be said, is slow, peaceful and simple.
What strikes me most is the complete lack of pretension. Those doing a little better don’t ostensibly live any differently to those for whom the catch might not have been so good. Everyone drives cheap little minivans or compacts because the salt air (the great equaliser) will fill them all with rust before you know it. Almost every house has a kitchen garden with eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkin and whatever else can keep you going. The lady at the bike shop gave us a bag of vegetables from her garden and everything was delicious.
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Posted to General Rants • 2003.08.31 (Sun) • 11:43
Comments
Posted by MJ 2003.08.31, 12:19
Welcome home (^^)
Posted by Kristen 2003.08.31, 15:01
When I was a kid, we said snakes were shiny and sticks weren’t. I guess if I wanted to render one, I’d give it a specular highlight… :-)
Posted by jh 2003.08.31, 15:41
> When I was a kid, we said snakes were shiny > and sticks weren’t.
I guess a week away isn’t quite enough time to rid myself of computerese….
I did once catch myself thinking about how to simulate the effects of wind on water in a certain rendering app, but quickly admonished myself and went for a swim.
Posted by Suzanne 2003.09.02, 02:42
Can you post some pictures of the kitchen gardens?
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