49°f/9.4°C, clear after a stormy night.
More gravel arrived yesterday, big stone to make a solid base over the new culvert. No stuck dump truck this time! But Larry had a lot of tractor work to do getting those boulders spread. It is going to be a rough ride until next week when we can get more gravel. Just dollars disappearing into mud, but it has to be done,sigh.
We had dinner with Derek and most if his family, and Sarah of course. Derek made his famous chicken and pasta salad, and one of his baked cabbage heads---this time wrapped in bacon and absolutely heavenly.
After she left, we did...nothing. Larry is exhausted from the tractor work, so he went to sleep. I read and cleaned sime silver then made dinner, a simple meal of chicken, baked potatoes,and salad. But eaten out on the deck made it seem like a feast
I am continuing to read multiple books at the sane time, and am really enjoying them all. I have added Culpepper's Complete Herbal since I finished Winter Morning Walks, reading one alphabetical section at a time. I miss the poetry though, so I will add another book of poems to my daily stack.
Reading The Assassin's Cloak has taken me down several rabbit holes, as I follow up on diarists' entries that catch my interest. Today it was Robert Falcon Scott, the British man who explored Antarctica in the early 1900's. The entries included in Tbe Assassin's Cloak have been stark, detailing the difficulties of his final attempt to reach the South Pole. As of March 21, 1912, the situation of the expedition was dire, and several had already lost their lives. I couldn't stand it; I had to look him up to learn more about him, and how it all ended.
Then I wondered, what about his wife? He had just married her in 2008. Who was she? How did she manage his absence and (spoiler alert) death? As I found out, Kathleen Scott was no weakling either. She was a well-known sculptress, an activist, a WWI volunteer, and was a single mother for a number of years.
Reading all this reminded me of the movie Shackleton, about yet another harrowing South Pole expedition, which thank goodness ended more happily.
These hardy explorers really puzzle me: why on earth did they do it? Was it really only for the glory and fame of getting there first? Granted that they did many scientific experiments along the way, and in Shackleton's case, there was an expert photographer, Frank Hurley, on board who recorded the trip in stunning photos, which are available today in a beautiful book. Perhaps it was just the times, when countries were exploring and claiming land everywhere (with really no right to so so). Even today, there are people like Musk, intent on going to Mars! I am sure someone will get there but at what cost? And how many lives will be lost in the effort?
Larry has cleaned up after our meal while I was writing this, so I better be getting busy too! No wild adventures for me today, just cleaning up outside. Fun, fun.
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