Tree Number One - The Larch
Today is Tuesday, which you would think indicates school, but yesterday was the day of Brazil’s Patron Saint, Nossa Senhora (or Our Lady, or Mother Mary - who I’m not actually sure is a saint), and Brazilians are reasonable about this kind of thing. What’s better than one day off? Two days off! So today is called Dia do Professor (Teacher’s day), and there is nao escola for me. Typically this would mean I’d have the chance to sleep in, but you try doing that with heavy construction occurring 10 feet from your bedroom window. It probably wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the workers were not all compelled to shout at each other constantly while they did it, but what are you going to do? I officially gave up on restfulness at about 8 o’clock and went in search of breakfast. Did you know that people eat ricotta cheese in solid form? There’s a round of it in my refrigerator. I sampled a bit, but found it quite bland by itself. Here’s something tasty you should try if you ever get the chance - take a mug of whole milk and heat it up in the microwave. When it’s done, fill up the remaining space with sweetened black coffee. It’s good, and doesn’t leave un-dissolved residue in the bottom like Nescafe.
Lilya came in and noticed me flitting around the kitchen with nothing to do. We had a stunted and stumbling conversation about baking bread, and then she gave me a tin bucket to pick the red fruit for juice. I know they’ve told me what it’s called, but I’m simply rubbish at remembering plant facts.
I’ve never been good at any kind of wilderness identification, but some things Brazil does make very easy. Eucalyptus, for example. While most of us associate it with Australia and koalas, they have it all over the place in Minas. It’s a common crop for farmers, who sell it to be burned for coal. Whenever you drive between cities, you will pass by huge swaths of narrow young trees growing in long neat rows. It’s a pretty easy tree to spot once you know it, with particular leaves and very distinctive bark that my father would probably refer to as ‘shaggy’.
Mango trees are a bit of a free-be this time of year, because they’re all full of fruit. The Rotarians laughed when I told them I’d never seen one before - they are growing anywhere you care to look down here. I mentioned this to Bruna once, and she smiled at me. There is one in every garden, she said, and in the summer there will be manga (what they call mango) every day, and even the men who live on the street will grow fat.
I have an excellent vantage point from which to watch the mango’s development - there is an enormous tree growing right next to my classroom window, and I like to stare at it and space out.
At the Rotary Orientation they went around the circle and asked us each to state one Portuguese word to sum up our exchange so far. Our vocabulary was pretty limited at the time, so most kids said things like ‘linda’ and ‘legal’ (a word that means both legal as we know it, and cool. I acknowledge the irony in that.) I say verde (pronounce that d like a j, remember), which anyone who’s ever learned a romantic language can probably figure out means green. They all assumed I’d misspoken, or that I didn’t know what the word meant, but I stand by it. Brazil has been many things, but the one thing that makes me smile every morning when I look out my window is the lime tree that grows there. More than half of the pictures I’ve taken here are of flowers. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them all, but if nothing else it means I have a fantastic variety of computer backgrounds to choose from.
P.S. As it’s getting hotter and wetter here, fall is coming to my home in Massachusetts. I admit that I feel a pang for fall. It’s my favorite season, and how could it not be when I grew up in the Berkshire Hills? My birthday will be at the end of the week, but it certainly won’t feel like it in this still air and sunlight. I’ve set the background on Gareth to a picture I took of a blown glass pumpkin that my Grandmother O’Brien gave me for a past birthday. Last night I went to sexy_mood_music’s community music sharing post for October and downloaded a fantastic number of Halloween themed and otherwise creepy tracks. The Ghostbuster’s theme and David Bowie’s “Bring Me the Disco King”? You don’t know what you’re missing. I also got my first Mars Volta song, which will never not make me think of Eunice’s (true) parents, so well done there.
Lilya came in and noticed me flitting around the kitchen with nothing to do. We had a stunted and stumbling conversation about baking bread, and then she gave me a tin bucket to pick the red fruit for juice. I know they’ve told me what it’s called, but I’m simply rubbish at remembering plant facts.
I’ve never been good at any kind of wilderness identification, but some things Brazil does make very easy. Eucalyptus, for example. While most of us associate it with Australia and koalas, they have it all over the place in Minas. It’s a common crop for farmers, who sell it to be burned for coal. Whenever you drive between cities, you will pass by huge swaths of narrow young trees growing in long neat rows. It’s a pretty easy tree to spot once you know it, with particular leaves and very distinctive bark that my father would probably refer to as ‘shaggy’.
Mango trees are a bit of a free-be this time of year, because they’re all full of fruit. The Rotarians laughed when I told them I’d never seen one before - they are growing anywhere you care to look down here. I mentioned this to Bruna once, and she smiled at me. There is one in every garden, she said, and in the summer there will be manga (what they call mango) every day, and even the men who live on the street will grow fat.
I have an excellent vantage point from which to watch the mango’s development - there is an enormous tree growing right next to my classroom window, and I like to stare at it and space out.
At the Rotary Orientation they went around the circle and asked us each to state one Portuguese word to sum up our exchange so far. Our vocabulary was pretty limited at the time, so most kids said things like ‘linda’ and ‘legal’ (a word that means both legal as we know it, and cool. I acknowledge the irony in that.) I say verde (pronounce that d like a j, remember), which anyone who’s ever learned a romantic language can probably figure out means green. They all assumed I’d misspoken, or that I didn’t know what the word meant, but I stand by it. Brazil has been many things, but the one thing that makes me smile every morning when I look out my window is the lime tree that grows there. More than half of the pictures I’ve taken here are of flowers. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them all, but if nothing else it means I have a fantastic variety of computer backgrounds to choose from.
P.S. As it’s getting hotter and wetter here, fall is coming to my home in Massachusetts. I admit that I feel a pang for fall. It’s my favorite season, and how could it not be when I grew up in the Berkshire Hills? My birthday will be at the end of the week, but it certainly won’t feel like it in this still air and sunlight. I’ve set the background on Gareth to a picture I took of a blown glass pumpkin that my Grandmother O’Brien gave me for a past birthday. Last night I went to sexy_mood_music’s community music sharing post for October and downloaded a fantastic number of Halloween themed and otherwise creepy tracks. The Ghostbuster’s theme and David Bowie’s “Bring Me the Disco King”? You don’t know what you’re missing. I also got my first Mars Volta song, which will never not make me think of Eunice’s (true) parents, so well done there.