Today, October 8 is Leif Eriksson Day in the U.S. About 1,000 A.D., Leif and his men sailed from Greenland to what is now L’Anse Aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, Canada. He beat Columbus by nearly 500 years to be verifiably the first European to set foot in North America, where he built an outpost.
The sculpture was created by Alexander Stirling Calder, father of Alexander “Sandy” Calder Read More
During a Community Residency in at Fowler Dune Shack on the Cape Cod National Seashore, Deb Carey pointed out this survivor organism to me. When the dune eroded, most of this high bush blueberry’s roots were exposed, yet it survived and bears fruit. I was impressed. Read More
As part of my research for a historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir, we went in search of one of the places she traveled to in the early 1,000s. It was more than intriguing.
Leif Eiriksson discovered something big around 1,000 A.D. You can still see the footprints of his longhouses at L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. He and his men are thought to be the first Europeans to build in North America.
But scholars argue about exactly where his VÃnland is, which is puzzling. Maybe they don’t have a GPS?
His sod longhouse at Leifsbudir, which means Leif’s booths (tents) – his ironic name for these buildings with six foot thick walls – was at least twice the size of his father’s house in Greenland. You know his father… Eirik the Red, pioneer of Greenland. Leif obviously inherited his father’s place-naming humor. Gudrid, the m.c. of my YA novel, was Leif’s sister-in-law and went to Leifsbudir a couple of years after he did. It is easy to imagine her there. The small spindle whorl found by archeologists might actually have been hers.
Clayton Colbourne
The nearby peat bog provided the blocks of sod stacked over a framework of timber from the nearby forest, which is the same form of construction in Iceland and Greenland at the time. Clayton Colbourne, who grew up in the contemporary village of L’Anse aux Meadows and as a kid played on what were thought to be Indian mounds until archeologists arrived, helped build the reconstructions. It was laborious.
Inside, Egill Egilsson (aka Wade Hillier) played a lyre based on one from a VÃking site in Sutton Hoo, then a flute with a single hole that elicited a lovely, lively melody, and lastly a small whistle made from a pig or sheep bone. He also had a wooden panpipe for use in a pinch. A local woman meanwhile did some mending by the longfire on one of the sleeping benches that lined the two long walls.
The blacksmith whose shop is next door showed the type of iron ore that the Norse dug from the nearby bog and a bar of smelted iron, a piece of which he then forged into a nail. 
In true Viking fashion, he did not bother with gloves while working the metal. Perhaps the Norse uncovered the ore while cutting the peat blocks they used for construction? The process of smelting the small, surprisingly lightweight, lumps of ore into useable iron involves felling lots of trees to make the charcoal that was used for firing up the forge. The paired bellows keep the temperature high enough that the blacksmith can work the purified iron into a nail or other item. Leif’s men made 100-200 nails in this way to repair an accident with one of their boats.
The views the Norse saw surrounding Leifsbudir are reminiscent of places in Iceland and Greenland, only better. There is plenty of fog, rain and high winds at times, and yes there are icebergs; this one is 175 feet tall by
600 feet long and grounded in 420 feet of water. But there was longer daylight and warmer temperatures in winter, and millions of flowers – irises, harebells, pitcher plants, baked apple (cloudberries), partridgeberries and some cotton grass. Dense forests called tuckamore grew near the shore and more mixed deciduous and evergreens Read More
On May 24th, after going to a magical book launch party on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, I did a post about the book Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston by Sheila S. Cunningham and illustrated by Kathie Kelleher. Kathie, who is an endlessly fascinating and Read More
For a number of years I have been collecting children’s picturebooks from other countries when I travel or friends and relatives do. It is good to be aware of the visual voices from other lands, so now and then I will post images of a few. The first entry in this series was Read More
Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston
Willow’s Walkabout: A Children’s Guide to Boston had a fabulous launch at the Agonquin Club on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston recently. This picturebook, written by Sheila S. Cunningham and illustrated by my friend Kathie Kelleher, is about a wallaby named Willow who goes on a walkabout from the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, MA to explore the major attractions in nearby, lovely Boston. She is well organized, making an Read More
Solidarity 74″ x 22″ x 22″ painted steel
Yesterday Egils and I transported my just-finished sculpture to the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine for the Invited New England Sculptors exhibit. Lindley Briggs has been curator for the show each summer for a number of years and I have been fortunate that she has the patience to include my work in the sculpture courtyard each year. She has a large wall panel of her own in the exhibit and there are also works by Antoinette Prien Schultz, Gary Rathmell, Michael Alfano, John Weidman, Nancy Sander, and a number of other good sculptors. These works range in scale from small to fairly large and include bronze, steel, clay, fiberglass, and other media. Within the gallery is an extensive group show that includes both 2D and 3D works by many known regional artists.
The opening reception was Saturday May 26, 5-8, but you have the entire summer and beginning of autumn to see these sculptures and more. Then afterwards you can go for a walk along the Marginal way, then have a lobster dinner at one of the many nearby restaurants. Art, the ocean, and fine food – what more can anyone desire?
History does begin with yesterday, after all. Nineteen seventy one, when cigarette ads were banned from TV, The Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar topped the charts, and Clockwork Orange and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory were playing at the movies, does not seem so very long ago. Then again, gasoline was forty cents a gallon.
During the book launch party for Susan Carlton’s new Love & Haight, which is about a seventeen-year-old, a smattering of colorful 1971 San Francisco hippies, love of several varieties, and an abortion that needs to happen, Susan was asked what kind of research did she have to do for this historical novel? I was helped by the fantastic librarians at the San Francisco History Center, she said, who brought out cardboard boxes of their Hippies Collection for me to use! She had a blast going over posters, scrapbooks, song lyrics and other memorabilia of the Flower Power, free love era. Her parents pitched in, sharing their Technicolor memories of Read More
goldfinch - Egils Zarins photo
As I watched the
Egils Zarins photo
goldfinches at our feeder today something in the next yard startled them. They spurted up and away in various directions. One unfortunate flew toward me and hit the glass of the atrium door, bang! She landed a foot away, wings and tail splayed on the new snow, each feather arrayed in perfect order. She was sitting up, looking to the left, breathing rapidly. But she was motionless.
I waited. She did not move. I went to find Egils and his camera. She still hadn’t moved. So, I went outside and picked her up. She did not struggle. I cupped my hands around her and brought her in where it was warm. A goldfinch weighs almost nothing. She was smaller than a sparrow. One feather was loose and dangled over her eye. She seemed comfortable in the warmth of my hands, almost sleepy.
After ten minutes or so, she looked more alert, though still calm. I brought her back outside and lifted my hand from above her. She sat, nested in my palm. Some noise startled her. She flew off, toward the trees.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Story for Children by Gabriel Garcia Marquez may be more for you and me than for children (at least American ones). But that is an assumption. An unfair one perhaps. But the old man has left behind a scraggly feather on the shore of my memory. It is a most famous story, but if you have not already read it, or would like to again, you can find it here.
Capitalism Works for Me! True/False - Steve Lambert
At the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum yesterday in pouring rain I voted my opinion into Steve Lambert’s Capitalism: It Works For Me! True/False, which includes a counter of the opinions cast. How would you vote?
This future/retro neon thingy was part of the museum’s biennial, installed in front of the entrance. Inside, hidden back of the greeter’s desk, was a video of Steve talking about his philosophical provocations that included a segment from a televised rant by a journalist on the topic of capitalism where he cites a German politician’s slogan that chants “we can do better than capitalism”, a slogan also used by Occupy Wall Street protesters. Here is one excerpt from the video and another, which gives you a hint of what Steve is aiming at. Also included are a few comments by “people on the street” and insight into how the piece was funded. For the real experience, you’ll just have to go to the DeCordova in Lincoln, MA or any other of the sites along the sign’s cross-country tour to see it for yourself. And cast your vote.
For the past year I have been working on a YA novel about a Norse teen from 1,000 A.D. I read about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir in two of the Icelandic sagas where she is shown to have had a truly amazing life. I’ve tried to show her in 3D in What Else is There? The story is in the beta reader stage, so I asked my Icelandic daughter-in-law Inga to read it, then brought a copy of the manuscript last week when we were there. When we arrived, she asked if I would like instead to have the pastor of a new church in Reykjavik, which is named after Gudrid, read it first. What a wonderful opportunity.
So, we went to meet Dr. SigrÃður Guðmarsdóttir at the GuðrÃðarkirja. She was charming. Naming the church after this strong, early Christian figure was Dr. Guðmarsdóttir’s idea. She was also Read More
Edinburgh feather cap
Alas, I have been so busy with life, so you have not heard from me. But here is something intriguing. My sister Norma alerted me to a certain delicate Edinburgh mystery. This NPR article by Robert Krulwich describes a trail of surprise gifts given anonymously to those with eyes, a heart, and a brain.
For last year’s NaNoWriMo I laid the groundwork for What Else is There?, my YA historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir. It is set in Iceland, Greenland, and America about 1,000 A.D. Approaching the end of the story, I am meanwhile exploring references to Norse mythology in books and other media. In the past two days I saw an intriguing juxtaposition of Thor, the Marvel Comics movie on that Norse god’s story, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Siegfried a sophisticated, but no less funky, narrative side by side. Read More
That is the first sentence of a new book that arrived on my radar just as suddenly. I should not be surprised at the power of buzz by now, but I am. Read More
Conley Harris, a Boston artist known for his paintings inspired by Persian landscape paintings, is organizing pop-up exhibits at his studio loft in Boston, in collaboration with the Joseph Carroll and Sons Gallery. Four sheets of small watercolors from my Etudes series, twelve of which are now in the Boston Drawing Project at the gallery, will be included. Mr. Read More
“The publishing industry has expanded in the past three years as Americans increasingly turned to e-books and juvenile and adult fiction, according to a new survey of thousands of Read More
Miranda and I went for a walk. She told me what she thinks about books. 
Here’s what she said.
Topics that some kids like (kids that I know):
The best rated stories have… Read More
Egils Zarins photo
En route to a two week trip around Latvia, during a layover at Keflavik airport in Iceland, I experienced Directions, a sculpture installation by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir.
Four life casts in aluminum are mounted on columns of basalt, a hard volcanic stone common to this seismic island. The figures face outward, toward the four compass points and therefore the ends of the earth, like Read More
You work alone developing something that has never before existed in the world. You see it from a unique perspective, but what about the rest of the world? Is this newly created entity ready for exposure? Is it balanced and complete? Does it say what you think it says?
What you need is a good critique group of peers experienced in the genre you are working in. They should be people Read More
