Footnotes to a Conversation, January 10, 2022
“Gemweed on the waves
Washing neither out to sea
Nor in to shore:
Floating all a-tangle in the tide
Will my love drift on across the years?”
Kokin Wasashü XI:532 Anon
Seaweed
I’ve never given much thought to seaweed, perhaps because I don’t dive or scuba dive. Reading about it, I’m fascinated, especially to learn how popular seaweed picking/collecting was from 1750-1840 and how often it appears in poetry and art. William Kilburn “designed a costly fabric for Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III. The design was based on different types of seaweed, printed on cotton in seven colours” (Seaweed: An Enchanting Miscellany, Miek Zwamborn). Kilburn’s watercolour textile designs are absolutely exquisite – here is a slideshow of them prepared by the Victoria & Albert Museum. Some of his seaweed designs are shown on the Celadon Art website.
Racial Tension
I’ve been reading The Language of Secrets, a thriller by Canadian author Ausma Zehanat Khan that seeks to capture some of the racial tensions that divide our society. As a police officer and Muslim, Esa Khattak has one foot on either side of the divide – a divide he seeks to bridge in both his personal and professional lives. His partner, Rachel Petty, loves winter and hockey and comes across at first as a stereotypical Canadian, but she has her own internal battles. The books are well written and tell a good story as well as exploring political issues. The most recent addition to the series is A Deadly Divide. Khan also writes fantasy novels featuring female warriors.
Weeds
Nowadays, weeds and wildflowers are viewed very differently. Weeds are obnoxious and must be destroyed; whereas wildflowers must be treasured and protected. That wasn’t always the case. “Egyptian, Sumerian, and Assyrian cultures did not have a parallel word for ‘weed,’ because all plants were considered useful … Otherness could be appealing. Romantic 18th and 19th century British poets often preferred wild gardens over manicured ones. They also often praised common agricultural weeds for their beauty.” [JSTOR Daily]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew. Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.