One of the diversions that has kept me from my routine this summer was a short trip to Belgium. Having taught Art History since the previous millennium, I have made it a point to see most of what I teach in person and this year I wanted to close the gap on one of my favorite works of art...the Ghent Altarpiece. And so I went to Belgium to see the Ghent Altarpiece. Now you might think making a trip to Belgium just to see the Ghent Altarpiece might seem a bit obsessive, but keep in mind there are some other things in Belgium other than the Ghent Altarpiece. Now having said that I will admit that I spent two days in Ghent and for four or so hours each day that I was there, I sat in the little room where the altarpiece is and just looked at it, which may qualify as obsessive I suppose. But in my defense, it is actually many paintings, but because it is not permitted to photograph it, I would suggest a Google image search to get an idea of its complexities. Above is an image that will give you an idea of what it looks like in general, but in real life it is much larger, say about 11' by 15'.
Anyways, I had a delightful time and was able to experience some of the finer things of Belgian origin. My daily lunch was a baguette with a chunk of Belgian cheese washed down with a cold Belgian beer and some Belgium chocolate for dessert. Dinner was pretty much the same thing, which you might think would get monotonous after 10 days, but I avoided that by simply eating them in a different order each day. But what of breakfast you might ask? And here I have to confess that I purposefully avoided eating a Belgian waffle the entire time I was there and instead had a baguette, a chunk of cheese, some chocolate and since it was morning I substituted some fruit saap for the beer. Why avoid waffles? Well, just in case I ever go back, I didn't want to leave myself nothing new to experience.
Anyways, it went about as smoothly as a vacation could go. I saw a ton of great art, saw some beautiful places, took some great walks, ate some great food, drank some great beer and rather than say anything more, here are five pictures. And let me conclude by saying if I had just spent the entire vacation looking at the Ghent Altarpiece if would have been worth it.
I also made a quick stick circle as the sun was setting, but I didn't finish it in time to get a good picture. You can however just make it out at the bottom of this picture as the sun was setting.
In this case a transluscent fish...
...or a section of wall gets gilded. It is always a pleasant evening light with which to experience the beach.
I did a little sketch on our expanding beach. As lake levels lower a bit and a three day blow from the east, probably thanks to the hurricanes rolling up the eastern seaboard, deposited a goodly new stretch of beach I have inherited a bigger area to play. So here is the first of the fall eforts. It turned out OK, but was just something to get me back into the addiction. Everytime I do one of these little stone ones I'm newly amazed at the range of colors these beach cobbles come in.
These two pictures were taken from the platform on the wall. The waves were coming in with impressive force and regularity and while sitting there watching them it was easy to get the sense that you were on the edge of everything or nothing.
Twice during August I was visited by a Bald Eagle. A sight more common these last years. It perches in a dead tree just down the beach and scans the shoreline. The last time he visited, I was out in the water and I decided to go get my camera and see if I could get a picture. As I got the camera he took off over my head so I took this picture. He headed past me out over the lake about 30 yards past where I had just been in the water and then he took a dive. It was a very picturesquely eagle-like kind of maneuver on his part and I tried to capture it camerically, but when I hit the button I was informed that my camera card was full. While I was busy swearing, it pulled a pretty good sized fish out of the lake and then flew back over my head about 20 feet off the ground and then up over the bluff to partake of his catch. As it passed I swear I heard it chuckling at my failure as a paparazzi.
I am more fit to take pictures of things that move in a more patient and deliberate manner, like these subjects below. On this day the water was very clear and there was a good sun. On the littoral there was a swath of pebbles of a good size and varied color and as they were regularly being washed by gentle waves their colors were being brought out by the glaze of the wetness. I just walked up and down the beach like a shorebird, bent over and looking for little bits of edible shorebird repast, but in my case it was some out of the ordinarily colored stones. And this was the resulting little eye-feast.
Step number one, remove the east tower and re-stack the stone someplace out of the way. My solution was to make little stacks on the retaining wall, but also to put some on top of the center tower, just to see how high I could go.
Then, remove the west tower and put that stone someplace. So I put some more on the middle tower and made more little stacks on the retaining wall, but after having learned a lesson from previous re-stackings, I stacked them based on size, so I could use the bigger stones as foundation stones. Good thinking, me. Thank you , me.
I would guess that the central tower was close to 14 feet high, before I stopped adding to it, as it was too hard for me to get the stone up there and I have no great love for precarious perches.
Second tower down to the ground and now I am forced to think ahead to new forms. I must admit that the stones have not been very clear in their expectations for this year so I am hemming and hawing a bit to see if I can pick up any clues as to what happens next.
In the mean time, I was also stacking some stone on the serpentine wall that connects to the big basin. And during this two week time we had three magnificent storms that contributed to this Maya being the wettest May on record in Erie. They also contributed about three feet of eroded soil behind the retaining wall.
This wall is now almost completely filled with soil eroded from the bluff. I don't know what will happen after a few more big storms, but whatever it is it is going to require me to rethink some things. In the meantime the wall looks kind of cool filled up like a terraced field.
I have started the new foundation, but since this photo was taken I reset it to be more smoothly curved. It is upward from here.
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