by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
yesterday i traveled with fuji and korrina again . . up to connecticut to see my dad (yes! i was just there on saturday!) it was a rainy drive but at least it wasn't dark out . . the headlights on my car are so bad.
this is the beautiful view of hartford from the hospital window . .
the hartford capital building always shines beautifully even on a cloudy day. the dome is made of gold leaf with marble from east canaan, connecticut and granite from westerly, rhode island.
waiting in the chilly air for the car (we used the valet parking). it was cold out!
cuddling with toby . .
we had stuffed shells for dinner with rolls that korrina and i picked up from a local restaurant (bertucci's in glastonbury . . under seven rolls were free!)
waiting while i helped nana get ready for bed . .
this morning toby watched wide-eyed while a big backhoe rolled by. the neighborhood is having sewers put in.
we got breakfast to go at guida's . .
i had a fried egg and cheese and bacon sandwich and she had the breakfast special (it comes with home fries).
it was a quick and smooth ride home . . no traffic or rain . . only sunshine . . and i found a parking spot (after driving around for almost an hour) next to obi wan kenobi.
chanda had finished up her metals lesson page.
i thought it came out really nice . .
i like the drawings of the metals . .
korrina went off to work and chanda and i had lunch.
(they are all laughing here because their clothes and the way they are lined up reflect a ph paper test!)
the class first presented two movement exercises and recited a poem . . (one of the exercises i was able to help with, which was a lot of fun!)
a spell for creation
by kathleen raine
within the flower there lies a seed,
within the seed there springs a tree,
within the tree there spreads a wood.
in the wood there burns a fire,
and in the fire there melts a stone,
within the stone a ring of iron.
within the ring there lies an O,
within the O there looks an eye,
in the eye there swims a sea,
and in the sea reflected sky,
and in the sky there shines the sun,
within the sun a bird of gold.
within the bird there beats a heart,
and from the heart there flows a song,
and in the song there sings a word.
in the word there speaks a world,
a world of joy, a world of grief,
from joy and grief there springs my love.
oh love, my love, there springs a world,
and on the world there shines a sun,
and in the sun there burns a fire,
within the fire consumes my heart,
and in my heart there beats a bird,
and in the bird there wakes an eye,
within the eye, earth, sea and sky,
earth, sky and sea within an O
lie like the seed within the flower.
they then chanted their continued collaboration on the geographic fugue and also presented an oral report on two elements that they had picked from the ninety one known today. they shared how there were initially seven metals discovered in mesopotamia in the years prior to 400 BC that helped shape our history and evolution. these metals were gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, mercury and tin.
chanda talked about mercury and how it is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. it is rarely found uncombined in nature, but when it is, it will be as droplets in the ore cinnabar. china and kyrgyzstan are the main producers of mercury, though it is found in twenty-five known minerals which can be found on all continents except antarctica.
she also chose titanium, which was first discovered in 1791 in cornwall, great britain by william gregor (a very interesting man who was also a vicar, a landscape artist and a musician besides being a mineralogist with a degree from cambridge) and named after the titans of greek mythology by martin heinrich klaproth (a german chemist who lived in the early nineteenth century and discovered uranium, zirconium and cerium). titanium is as strong as steel but only forty-five percent of the weight and is found in airplanes, medical equipment and sunscreen (titanium dioxide!). it is the ninth most common metal in earth's crust and found in almost every igneous rock. in 2011 a satellite map of the moon's surface revealed clusters of rocks with ten percent titanium, as compared with the one percent typically found in earth's rocks.
metals lesson pages (i haven't posted c's yet as it's not finished . . hopefully this week!):
julia included a poem she had written about her metal:
little mercury
by julia
all the metals were getting together
but little mercury just couldn't get there
it wasn't that his feet couldn't move -- no! that wasn't
the trouble
no, little mercury was stuck in a puddle
for little mercury it was much too hot that day
so as a liquid mercury must stay.
sharing about the experiments that were done on combustion . .
coal fire
by louis untermeyer
and once, in some swamp-forest, these
were trees.
before the first fox thought to run,
these dead black chips were one
green net to hold the sun.
each leaf in turn was taught the right
way to drink light;
the twigs were made to learn
how to catch flame and yet not burn;
branch and then bough began to eat
their diet of heat.
and so for years, six million years, or higher,
they held that fire.
and here, out of the splinters that remain,
the fire is loose again.
see how its hundred hands reach here and there,
finger the air;
then, growing bolder, twisting free,
it fastens on the remnants of the tree
and, one by one,
consumes them; mounts beyond them; leaps; is done;
and goes back to the sun.
reciting part of a poem by francis g. thompson (1859 - 1907) from the mistress of vision:
. . all things by immortal power,
near or far,
hiddenly
to each other linked are,
that thou canst not stir a flower
without troubling of a star.
another wonderful end of session presentation . . thank you so much svetlana and girls!
a beautiful violet flower blooming in my friend's kitchen . .
and the cyclamen in the bathroom getting ready to open . .
after a delicious lunch, there were a few more experiments to be done.
in this movie chanda is pouring white vinegar onto baking soda. the chemical reaction between the two produces carbon dioxide. these are the bubbles that you see coming out of the tube into the water. julia is capturing the bubbles in the cylinder which is then capped. chanda and her friend sylvie capped a second cylinder with scotch tape as it had holes in the top and they didn't want the carbon dioxide to escape.
in this second movie, they uncap the cylinder with the carbon dioxide and lower the splint with a flame into it. the flame is smothered by the carbon dioxide. they then blow some of the carbon dioxide away from the top of the cylinder and once more lower a burning splint. the flame is again extinguished deeper in the cylinder, showing the that carbon dioxide is a heavy gas and will sink low.
this final experiment shows the heaviness of carbon dioxide and how it first extinguishes the lower flame and then the upper flame.
the exciting part about these carbon dioxide experiments for all of us is that we personally related to them through laura ingalls wilder's little house stories. in little house on the prairie, pa begins to dig a well with his neighbor. he strongly urged the neighbor to always check for gas before beginning the day's digging by sending down a candle. if the candle flame was extinguished they knew they could not go down. if it still burned, they could continue to dig. one day pa was ill and the neighbor began to dig without him, and he didn't send the candle down. as he was lowered into the well he passed out. of course pa, somehow, comes to the rescue and all is well, but we learn a wonderful lesson about digging into the earth's crust and carbon dioxide!
chanda still has to finalize some notes for her presentation at waldorf class tomorrow . . we both had affogatos at the cafe this evening so we're very wide awake (an affogato is a double espresso poured over vanilla ice cream) . . i'm keeping her company and knitting on a cotton napkin.
burning charcoal which gave off carbonic gas (the smoke you see rising past the match flame).
they burned copper which reacted with the oxygen in the air and turned pinkish red, then grey and then appeared black. the chemical equation: 2Cu + O2 becomes 2CuO. this black coating of copper oxide can fall away leaving unreacted copper exposed underneath.
they also placed magnesium directly on the flame where it sparked very brightly and then dimmed and turned into white ash.
i couldn't resist taking a picture of one of their crafts from a homeschooling family get together. i actually made one of these but left it at my friend's house . . i keep forgetting to ask her where it is.
on the way home we stopped at the new coffee shop that only opened this very day. they were doing a good business. people were constantly stopping in. they had cheese cakes and this napoleon in a cup which was incredibly good. their main selling item was french toast. it seems they serve it with many different toppings. i didn't see anyone ordering it though. the main items i saw being bought were coffee, tea, savory rolls and croissants. i did notice that several loaves of chocolate brioche bread that had been there in the morning when i had peeked in were gone in the afternoon.
it was my turn to make lunch for the monday waldorf class. i had the kitchen to myself as my friend (whose apartment we have class at) had an errand to run.
today i decided to make minestra di pasta e fagioli, which we had with a salad. i made a light vegetable broth to which i added sauteed garlic, onion, green pepper and tomato. the final additions were gluten free elbows and cannellini beans. parmigiano was sprinkled on at the table.
svetlana discussed acids and bases for the lesson today.
they all took turns dipping ph paper into different substances to see how it changed.
there was salt water, vinegar, milk, coffee, baking soda water . .
and pineapple water.
bases, such as baking soda and salt water, turned the ph paper an indigo blue. acids turned it slightly green. acids have a sharp, sour taste, slightly sour and turns blue litmus paper red. bases are more dull tasting with little odor. they turn red litmus paper blue. litmus paper and ph paper are very similar but use different colors to indicate acidity. litmus paper is a water soluble dye extracted from lichens. a ph indicator s a halochromic chemical added to a solution on paper to test for hydrogen ion concentration.
