{"id":2340,"date":"2014-04-05T06:21:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T06:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2014-04-05T06:21:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T06:21:50","slug":"saturday-serendipity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/?p=2340","title":{"rendered":"Saturday serendipity"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in a week it is actually possible to see the horizon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A dreich haar has enveloped the Kingdom of late, and frankly it has been depressing.<\/p>\n

\"Sunrise<\/a>
Sunrise over Burntisland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Turns out to be jolly difficult to photograph in low light, through a window, without a tripod.\u00a0 Who knew? So the one below makes me laugh, the green light is Asda and the blue is the car wash.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/a>
City lights<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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In other news, the chaffinches have found the Nyger seed feeder after about a year, and I have just half blinded myself taking more pictures, so the typing may be a bit iffy from here on\u00a0 in.\u00a0\u00a0 The room was suddenly bathed in rich, rosy beams of light, as below.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/a>
Tree at dawn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I only know one poem about dawn, two verses from which follow below.\u00a0\u00a0 I am currently re-reading the Everyman Poems of New York<\/a> so I may remember more.\u00a0\u00a0 Viscerally evocative, it brings back the feeling of pounding those streets.<\/p>\n

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
\nHas flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
\nAnd Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
\nThe Sultan’s Turret in a Noose of Light.<\/p>\n

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
\nA Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread \u2014 and Thou
\nBeside me singing in the Wilderness \u2014
\nOh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer and writer, and he penned those words in 1120.\u00a0 I guess his algebra is famous too, in certain circles.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s birds, photos, Fife, poetry and now a song<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s not very cheery but it’s pretty obvious why I was reminded of it.\u00a0 When I\u00a0 was at Stirling Uni I used to listen to Tom Ferrie on Radio Scotland in the late evening and he would often play this, a counterpoint to a younger me,\u00a0 cudgelling my brain to come up with something – anything – to say on Piaget.<\/p>\n

Time for a big pot of tea.<\/p>\n

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For the first time in a week it is actually possible to see the horizon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A dreich haar has enveloped the Kingdom of late, and frankly it has been depressing.             Turns out to be jolly difficult to photograph in low light, through a window, without a tripod.\u00a0 Who knew? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,28,7,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-birds-wildlife","category-fife","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/banthewasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}