July 2006

My KTC Secret Swap package is mailed, my bags are packed, and I’ll be gone for a week to San Fran — see ya after Aug. 2!

I’ve been neglecting the computer entirely because of Seattle’s record-setting heat. I know it’s hot in other parts of the country too, but I reserve the right to complain because (1) In Seattle it’s supposed to rain all year, (2) We don’t have air conditioning and we don’t even have enough fans in our apartment, (3) The entire city is sold out of fans and a/c units, and (4) I’ve been a heat wimp since birth. Luckily we are heading to the City by the Bay on Thursday — we’ll be visiting my stepsister Christina and her husband who live in San Mateo, and spending six days deeply ensconced in a thick San Fran fog (this sounds simply dreamy right now…).

Perdita, the name of the pattern, seems to fit A Passage to India, because so many of the characters seem “lost.” In a way this is a coming of age novel, not in an adolescent way but rather the next passage of life, in adulthood but where you are learning more about the world. It never actually says how old Adela or Dr. Aziz are, but I imagine them in their mid to late twenties, a period of intense struggle to find your place in the world.

Also, I have a really awesome KTC Summer Swapper who has already sent me a bookmark and two cards!! I feel so spoiled already!!

Yours meltingly, from HOT HOT HOT Seattle (I want my rainy city back!!).

I’ve been thinking of writing about Seattle’s parks. My personal life is less than thrilling these days, since I’ve been in a bad funk, but I still enjoy the natural beauty of my hometown. There are over 400 parks in Seattle, amounting to 5672 acres (thanks mrk.!).

Here is the sunset I caught the other night at Golden Gardens Park. This park was created in an area called Ballard, northwest of Seattle, which was first settled in 1853. Those early settlers were Scandinavians who plyed their native trade, fishing, in the waters of Puget Sound, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. In 1907, Golden Gardens Park was created as a countryside jaunt from Seattle via the new electric car lines. Realtors hawked properties along the way! Later that year, Seattle annexed Ballard. Today this area (my neighborhood) is still considered a scandinavian area.

As Seattle grew exponentially, Golden Gardens is now quite the urban park, jam-packed with people in summer. Many kids love to “construct” in the area of the beach where a small stream crosses the sands to flow into Puget Sound. When I was a kid, the area was less attractive, but in recent years they reconstructed two wetland areas, making some ponds and paths at the north end of the park. The beach is still popular with the teenage kids who hang out together on the long summer nights — bonfires are allowed although strictly regulated these days.

The sky is still free to display bonfires as it wishes!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I’m well into July’s KTC book, but keep thinking about our June read, Wuthering Heights… I enjoyed the book a lot despite its dark nature. I couldn’t figure out why other readers at KTC seemed to hate WH so much. Or, why do I like it despite agreeing that a lot of the characters behave dreadfully? It has taken some time for me to mull this over and sort out my feelings about this classic novel.

Life comprises both light and dark. If you don’t want to see the dark side, go read a fluffy contemporary romance novel! Part of why these novels are “classic” is their timeless portrayal of life in all its many facets.

I’ve been wondering if my own past is what enables me to relate to the emotions of this novel. My family of origin was dysfunctional (not as bad as in WH, but I can sort of relate), and I also experienced what I consider a great and tormented love, an extremely complicated and ultimately thwarted one (probably because of my dysfunctional upbringing) which led me to do things I knew and know were not sensible. Without those two experiences, I probably wouldn’t understand the emotions of WH very well — emotions which are “so very deep and vivid,” as Lady Jane wrote.

I also wonder that other readers disliked all characters (except Nelly Dean) — including the younger generation, in the second half of the book. I at least found the younger generation more sympathetic. In particular, the young Catherine seems very likable to me, only hindered by her extreme isolation and lack of opportunity. She was innocent and born into the situation without choice. Overall she behaves very well, with just a touch of teenage rebelliousness. After she is imprisoned by Heathcliff she certainly gets warped a bit, but I can hardly blame her for that. By the end of the novel her bright spirit reemerges and the novel ends with this lightness.

My experience reading WH with KTC occasionally brought me back to that old feeling in school — being the nerd who actually likes the classic novels while everyone else merely endures them. Wuthering Heights is definitely a difficult read, emotionally, so it took me a while to sort out some of my complicated feelings about it.

We take this moment to flash back to June’s blue month (Project Spectrum). I received a sewn blue postcard from Martina over in “the Republic of Newfoundland.” I don’t sew (yet) so I’m not sure, but this may be quilted by hand! And she added some beads over on the right side.

Isn’t it cool? Thank you very much, Martina!

It’s funny that both “postcards” I’ve received for Project Spectrum have been sewn. Maybe the universe it trying to tell me something? (You can see Sara’s quilt for April Orange here.)

Now I can also show the card I collaged for Martina since she said she got it!

It is cut-paper collage. I would change some things about it now (isn’t that always the case), but I had a lot of fun making it. In case you can’t read it, it says “Man eating lions, stampeding elephants: Piece of cake! (As the French would say.)”