A Picture is worth a thousand words!

I just opened up Internet Explorer, and as its default is www.msn.com, it opened that directly to a gorgeous picture of some earthlike planet of some far away star. Naturally I was intrigued.

As it turns out - the planet is infact about 5.5 times larger than earth, but on the cosmic scale still small enough to be considered earthlike. The vast majority of planes so far have been gas giants like Jupiter- no chance of finding our kind of life forms there.

They used a new method called "microlensing" which makes smaller planets easier to find- so I guess we can expect more of these in the future.


They were having people vote for their favourite astronomy pictures on MSN and these were some of mine

This one is of the star Monocerotis, taken by Hubble

This on was taken by the Spacecraft Cassini, and shows Saturn with its moon Dione


This is a view of the "Mountains of creation" in Cassiopeia where young stars are being born.
It was, by the way ,the one I voted for.

At the Farmer's Market

Every Thursday the Farmer's Market comes to Westwood. The end of Weyburn is closed off to the traffic. Small stalls spring up selling the famous California tangerines and Clementines and Naval oranges. And a fruity smell wafts beckoningly through the air. And invariably I find my feet almost involuntarily moving in that direction. And it's a rural atmosphere, people seem to slow the pace of their lives as they hang around, familiarly greeting friends and regulars at the Market, tasting the wares before buying them, getting a glass of juice while they're shopping, or something to eat... bringing their children out for the evening...

There's a man who sits at the beginning of the street and plays his guitar and sings. Warm notes of "Scarborough Fair" drift through the air, and appropriately I was standing by a herb seller who had parsley and sage. Further down where there are exotic cuisines, Korean ,Peruvian and Salvadorean, there is also a Jazz band that entertains the people eating there. And several small bakeries just pop up, selling scones and cookies and yummy pies and cakes and French bread.

I contented myself with a Salvadoren Pupasa and turned resolutely away from the inviting breads. But my resolve was not up to withstanding the temptation of freshly picked sstrawberries... I took a small bunch of them home and ate them with whipped cream... and now I feel replete and content. God's up in his Heaven and all's well with the World

An Anthology

Now, let me update you on the latest book I've read. It's been a while since my last "Book update" , so - there're quite a few of them on my list.

I'll go chronologically - mostly -

First - "Sophies' World" - another of my Intro to Philosophy type books- this was one I'd been searching for , and I found it among the ranks of German authors( howa was I to know that it was a translated book!?!) Any way that was excellent- even if it ended oddly- left me with a feeling of- "this story isn't over yet" .

Then Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music" - I finished it flying from LA to Pennsylvania- brilliant book - the man has a new fan in me- the next book on my list of things to read is "A Suitable Boy"

Then , there was the very readable and rather uplifting "Room With a View " by EM Forster"

And on my aunt's recommendation I read James Hilton's "Random Harvest" . Now most of Hilton's books tend to end sadly - this one had a very sweet ending though- although in terms of todays thrillers it seemed to take forever to get to the actual point of the story., but when it did ... well I heaved a sigh of contentment when I finished it- it was that kind of book you know? That doesn't leave you excited or confused or with your head whirling , trying to get your head around facts and leaps of logic, it just moves slowly and steadily , to a conclusion that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

Then I got on the SCi-fi brigade with "Dune". Well, I can see why Dune has such a cult following , although I don't think I'm going to be a part of it- I've seen too much of Prophecies and Strange orders that try to influence the Path of Destinies and Chosen Ones and so on and so forth.

The other one in the style of the whole "Prophecy " thingie was Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Well, I've read only the first one, but it promises to be a long and involved series , so I think I'm going to have to put off reading the rest for later.

The rest were not so noteworthy - A couple of LM Montgomery's (of Anne of Green Gables fame?) - one was a book called "The Blue Castle" and another was from the Anne series - nice stuff to read before bed- sweet dreams and all that.

There was a Mary Stewart- best known for her Merlin Series - the Crystal Cave and so on (I'm trying to get my hands on the Wicked Day- My library has a record of the book , but not the book itself- and no transactions on the book? They swear its not lost- it never existed - then what's the record doing? - No clue... Huh?) Any the book I read was Airs above the Ground. Nice one.

Oooh and before I forget there are two more notables I want to add to that list- one is Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451" -That was good although it might havfe been overhyped a bit- it gives you a good picture of what a dystopia would be like , where books are burnt, and it is illegal to own a book. (I actually loved the way he described people in front of the idiot boxes of the future- that part of dystopis at least, is looking alarmingly likely)

And the other one is Kramer vs Kramer- the one that the movie of the same name is based and on which Akele Hum Akele Tum was based . That was a good read.

So... that was my winter list. Now I'm just going to let them all mull around in my mind for a bit and hope that Paul Atreides doesn't change places with Rand al' Thor in my head.

Up and Down the East Coast Road

So... this post is in honour of the drive to Boston that we made... Now nearly a week ago Boston and Connecticut and a few forgettable state borders that we crossed in between as we made our way to the site of the great tea party.

Boston's a beautiful city... its got crowds that remind me of our great Indian cities, bright lights everywhere ...trees which haven't quite lost their fall richness , a lovely museum that has the largest Van de Graff geneator in the word( we were treated to a rather noisy show of indoor lightning) - anywa I regarded it as a bit of sacrilege that the said generator had been consigned to being a museum relic, instead of being in some hallowed research facility- but ah well, there's not a lot of scope for research left in that area is there?

Speaking of research facilities, Boston is the home of Harvard and MIT, and filled with awe and trepidation, tip-toed our way through the Holy Grail of Engineering Technology- MIT. (I thought the classes there looked like classes everywhere else- evidently they keep the Secret of their Successes out of the way of prying eyes)

On our way back we went through Connecticut, and I learnt to love New England and my home sometime in the future- after Venice , Paris and London of course- all said and done , the rustic countriside is all very well, but I'm a city girl.

New England has bookstores everywhere, (you can see where my love for the place sprang from) and it has very pretty scenery besides- that however, is incidental.

Anyway, that was one of the things I loved about Boston as well, a nice looking bookshop on every street, not the huge B&N or Borders, but cosy little Shop-Around- the- Corner like places. Not surprising I guess, since it is in every way a student town with over 90 Universities in and around the city.