miscellaneous small pleasures and treasures

[asakiyume]

On my walk this morning I was thinking how on a walk some days ago, I'd found a robin eggshell. I looked down and found a cardinal eggshell. Further along on the walk I found a luna moth wing: it was a morning for sweet finds.



In the evening, as the sun was setting and streetlamps were lighting up, a cardinal came and perched on one. From newly hatched to adult in one day.

Later in the evening, when it was quite dark, I went to pick some cilantro, and the first firefly of the season was in the cilantro patch, lighting up the underside of the cilantro leaves--and he paid my hand a visit, too.

Earlier in the day, some kids were playing soccer on the common, and one of them was wearing a Brazilian flag as a cloak. I had only my cell phone to take a picture with, but:


Viva Brasil!

I guess we know who he's rooting for in the World Cup!

I am writing a little something with bridges in it, and almost every day I walk along a bridge, and as I walk, I think about bridge folktales--mainly bridge battles: the three billy goats and the troll, Robin Hood and Little John, Benke and Yoshitsune. Can you think of any more bridge battles in folktales or legend?


Benke meets Yoshitsune on Gojô Bridge, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Source)

Comments

[aliseadae]

I'm writing something called "Bridge" right now!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hi fives, fellow bridge writer!

[zdenka]

There's Horatius at the bridge. Besides the Classical versions, Lord Macaulay wrote a poem on it in his Lays of Ancient Rome.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Excellent--thank you!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I thought of him too.

[sovay]

it was a morning for sweet finds.

That's absolutely beautiful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I felt very lucky.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

Horatius at the Bridge. The Bridge at Remagen. The Bridges at Arnhem.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I don't know the second and third; I'll have to look them up--thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ah, they're both actual battles. For the first, I skimmed an article about a movie about the battle, for the second, I looked first at a Wikipedia article and then at a history website article, but both of them (but especially the Wikipedia article) immediately got into very detailed reportage of the blow-by-blow when I was hoping for an overall summary. But I guess an overall summary would be something like, there were insufficient resources for the strategy they were trying to use, and they met with much stiffer resistance than they had been expecting?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

How did you get those beautiful fragile finds home without crushing them?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I carried them very carefully! I made my hand a cup. I must have looked a little odd if anyone caught a close view.

[duccio.livejournal.com]

The Milvian Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge) is an actual bridge conflict, but there is a lot of important, world-changing folklore connected to it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I didn't remember the name of the bridge, but I definitely remember the Latin phrase in hoc signo vinces, and the story of its significance. Thanks!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Not a battle, but I know a very sad story about bridges, called "A Terrible Prospect of Bridges", which begins with the bridges across the Tyne and ends ... otherwhere. And yes, of course I wrote it. If you send me a snailmail address - to chaz at chazbrenchley dot co dot uk - I could send you a copy.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Done! And thank you.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Utterly achingly lovely things. Birth and death are both bluegreen.

Nine

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Isn't it arresting, the similarity in color.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

A certain person of the male persuasion is watching what seems like an awful lot of footie atm!

Lovely things. :o)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Does he have a favorite? I guess people cheer their national teams, right? The boy in the photo has a Brazilian mother :-)

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Regarding robin eggs. I used to ponder why the robins in America laid blue eggs, while the robins in Europe didn't. Took me a long time to figure out that it's not the same bird. :p

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My husband always says that the British colonists must have been VERY homesick to name the American robin after the British one, as they are such different birds!

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

They grow fast, but that's because moths are such a good diet...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Especially whopping great moths like luna moths!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of Brazilians here in Hudson, and they're a popular choice in these parts. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's fun to see everyone so excited by something!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I tend to write about a lot of bridges. Only noticed that a few years ago. Still haven't decided if that is an oops. (I may have to change the title of "Bridges", tho, which comes before "And Felt Along the Heart.")

Love the pic of the kids on the green. Oh, greens are so wonderful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Given the connection desperance articulated between bridges and liminality, I'm not surprised that you do! And I don't think it's an oops.

[noachoc.livejournal.com]

Robin Hood and Little John (though I'm sure someone else has mentioned it already by now)

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

That's a great one.

[oiktirmos.livejournal.com]

Not a legend but a movie. In Hot Rods to Hell Dana Andrews and his family are driving through the southwest. They are chased and harassed by hot rods driven by college age thrill seekers. In the final minutes of the film the driver and passenger of one of the hot rods try to kill Dana and his family by running him off the road by driving straight at him at night, forcing Dana to swerve into the desert to avoid a head on collision. After a couple of passes and near misses Dana pulls his car onto a bridge, leaves the lights on and takes his family into a ravine. When the hot rod makes its next pass the driver sees too late that the car is driverless on the bridge and rolls the hot rod trying to make a last second evasive maneuver.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That sounds *very* intense.

--And I got your other message too, and do send an email, as it's very likely (sadly) the case that I've misplaced the memory :-(

[avalonestel.livejournal.com]

I don't really have anything to comment with, but I love these posts of yours so much. They give me some brightness and beauty to think about. <3

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I have something else I want to send you, but I haven't had the chance yet! Maybe later tonight….

[coldhighmountai.livejournal.com]

Luna moths look so ethereal.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They are very beautiful!

[oiktirmos.livejournal.com]

I hate to add to the number of responses, but how did none of us mention Monty Python's Bridge of Death?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

No worries--I like lots of conversation! Actually, noachoc did mention it upthread a bit.