Musical Palindromes (and more)

In the minuet in Haydn’s Symphony No. 47, the orchestra plays the same passage forward, then backward.





The enigmatic Canon 1 and 2 from J. S. Bach's Musical Offering (1747). The manuscript depicts a single musical sequence that is to be played front to back and back to front.

An example of a crab canon (from Wikipedia):



There is also a palindrome in Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis: the Postludium is an retrograde inversion of the Praeludium.

A page from the original edition. Drawings are by Hindemith himself, for his wife.
More here: http://www.hindemith.info/en/life-work/biography/1939-1945/werk/composing-in-wartime/

Memory is an interesting concept

As you can see below, I obviously forgot posting the same thing, nearly word for word, on Monday. So here's some prime loquats instead:

Dewberry Season (Alright, blackberry)

With loquat season possibly past the peak, we are nearly upon dewberry season. The pickings this year promise to be better than last year's, in part because of higher rainfall. Here's a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewberry

Dewberry (Alright, blackberry) Season

Loquat season is in full swing, and now comes dewberry season, a bit late this year, almost upon us now:

What was found yesterday

After the synagogue in the area perniciously mowed down the blackberry patches two years ago just on the cusp of the year's picking season, all so that they could get to the eruv poles, the patches just haven't been the same again. The drought also really hurt them as well. Mowing continues several times a year, and I hope it won't happen for this next month, because the berries seem to be making some comeback. These were picked yesterday, while trying to avoid the large stands of poison ivy interlaced with the berries. They were very sweet.

Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

Potatoes keep on Growing

The potatoes just keep on growing. They've now reached nearly a full foot in height, and though 3/4 of a bag of potting soil went to hill them up it still wasn't enough.

The smart pot has now been fully rolled up and still the potatoes keep on growing. This might not be enough, I might have to build a pot around the smart pot and keep adding soil...

My Hydroponic Setup

Before moving to the new apartment I immersed myself in reading about hydroponics, realizing that growing plants in water lent itself well to small spaces and was also cleaner, without the mess of soil or soilless gardening. I bought a 5-gallon bucket, fitted it with a bulkhead fitting and clear tubing to measure water level, and tried to grow brussels sprouts in the winter. That did not work.

On the balcony, in the spring, I planted one cucumber plant in the bucket. An additional 14-gallon tote now houses five Juliette tomatoes, which produce Roma-type fruit. Here are two pictures:

Since the picture above was taken, the plants have nearly doubled again. String netting is tied to the balcony railing, and the plants will be trained and tied to it. Both are DWC systems. The five-gallon bucket has an up-to-20 gallon pump, which is probably the reason for the cucumber plant's exceptional growth. The 14-gallon tote has three air hoses running from a 3.7 litre/minute pump, spaced evenly along the bottom. I use a pre-formulated fertilizer made for water that has about 200-300 ppm, like most  tap water in Houston. The bag was expensive, but it will last for a long time. For cold nights there is a water heater for the cucumber, which keeps the water temperature at 68. Water ppm is currently held at about 1000, with pH between 6.0 and 6.8 (it varies).

As you can see, the tomato roots are growing really well. Later on in growth, the 3.7 litre/minute pump, which has a dial to modulate the amount of air moving through the pipes, might be replaced with the other pump, which has an awesome capacity of 15 litres/minute. I will see what that does to the growth. At this point the most important next step is to make sure that the low amount of sunlight the balcony currently receives is sufficient for fruiting, and purchasing a good bilge pump to be able to replace the water without plant root death.

Spring is in full bloom

This year, having moved out and left behind a few plants, I added to their number by planting 10 seed potatoes in large smart pots, which are fabric pots that can be folded over. They allow for effective growing of potatoes. Here's a picture of the rapidly-growing plants (with the spirit of sugarcane!):

Running out of soil with which to "hill" them

And here's a rare red passionflower spotted on a neighbor's fence:

Cooking for Shabbos (and a garden pic)

So Last night I started to cook at 8 and finished near 2. First came the baguette (first time ever), of which only one was made for lack of time. It went to a coworker today. Then came the Challah, getting ever better:

After that, or in between, as the resting period was so long, I prepared potatoes for the forager's pie, which Mom made for Pesach, and cooked onions with mushrooms. The coleslaw was prepared, and the loquat jam was made. Loquat jam came out alright, but much too thick. Sunday's version will be a bigger batch and will have more liquid. Gave away a pint to a colleague at work.

All lovely

The cucumbers and tomatoes will grow up a twine trellis attached to the balcony railing.

Pesach

Pesach was fun. I'd put more but work is getting in the way.