Copied copy to copy to original

This is an attempt to reconstruct a previous thing from Centerphalange on Yahoo via Blogger, which is up to the task.

Every kid, well, speaking from experience, every boy (and probably every girl) once had, thought they had, or tried to make

a cave/fort/hideout/secret place.

Some never gave it up.

Some didn't have to.

This is a hole with no name. Every village, every small town has children of all ages who know where these places are.

The names they might carry are personal and unrecorded, just like the depths to which they have been explored and the depths

to which they have not.

I found these, one day. From the inside out and outside in ...Another time.

Another cave.

Mayan art

Art is usually sends a message or makes a statement, or maybe induces a feeling. I think, (and these are my own conclusions) art should do that on its own, not requiring a desertion to get its point [or lack thereof] across. Any offense I might inflict on any living seven hundred year old Mayan Artist is purely accidental, and is not the intent of the author.
The exceptions might be; across cultural platforms, or language barriers, or even to a small degree environmental influences.
Mayan art is enjoyable enough in its own right, in spite of the above possibilities. There are, however some factors that could improve upon its viewing without having to rewrite the archaeological record, learn a dead written language, or enroll in the Julian School Historical department.
One can see the carvings and statues are “full”, lack no empty spaces, and there is a name for that in art… …we don’t need to know it. Even as a child, drawing instead of doing homework in class, most of us made shapes on paper then contoured them … …say … … a star in a circle, repeatedly contoured until the points of the star and the edges of the circle met, leaving triangles which could also be contoured until the page was full and it looked … …nice, full, sent a feeling of some sort to the viewer. A phase of art many went through. The Maya as well. Some of the things I found enhanced my perception of the carvings and statues and sorted out the “fullness” are listed below.

In this rubbing one can see a dark line (painting or rubbing, deep incision in statues) down the middle of the image separating it into two parts.
That line signifies a “space” between the face of a man, and what can then be assumed to be a mask or ornament worn on the head.
Below is another type of combined image that I see as “callouts” or talk bubbles. As a child, drawing people, I made similar things, to denote that the subject was speaking or (in a cloud shaped talk bubble) thinking. Musical notes and pursed lips conveyed whistling. There are a variety of “callouts” shown. I don’t need to know what is being said to see some of the speakers are being very elaborate in subject, some, plain speaking, some I guess to be singing.
In the case of number 1 I see a tree with a callout and it appears the artist considered the tree sentient after some fashion, small and dark, the callout, it gives the impression that artist sees the tree capable of speech though he himself doesn’t know what it says and considers it lacking great volume. Number 6 looks to me like a fellow speaking about plants and trees.
Plants and vegetative forms, highly elaborated upon or stripped to basic lines are found on a lot of statues. Other creatures like the jaguar, fish, serpents, water, and human body parts also abound. As with the former, they may be elaborated or simplified or partially omitted with regards to a particular style of art, artist, or message. See a couple below.




Serpents




Fish




Falling Water

Reading … (What ever they tell us on TV commercials.)
…is not fundamental
There is no test at the end of a tour of the Mayan Arts World where we have to translate the full meaning of the works. These tips (my own, and possibly they will be proven wrong) are just to help see the general nature of the works, not a key to decipherment.

Mayan Art revisited

This is from mayanheavendotcom, where there are photos and an explanation of a few small articles of example.

http://www.mayanheaven.com/Mayan%20World.htm


Art is usually sends a message or makes a statement, or maybe induces a feeling. I think, (and these are my own conclusions) art should do that on its own, not requiring a desertion to get its point [or lack thereof] across. Any offense I might inflict on any living seven hundred yeaold Mayan Artist is purely accidental, and is not the intent of the author.
The exceptions might be; across cultural platforms, or language barriers, or even to a small degree environmental influences.
Mayan art is enjoyable enough in its own right, in spite of the above possibilities. There are, however some factors that could improve upon its viewing without having to rewrite the archaeological record, learn a dead written language, or enroll in the Julian School Historical department.
One can see the carvings and statues are “full”, lack no empty spaces, and there is a name for that in art… …we don’t need to know it. Even as a child, drawing instead of doing homework in class, most of us made shapes on paper then contoured them … …say … … a star in a circle, repeatedly contoured until the points of the star and the edges of the circle met, leaving triangles which could also be contoured until the page was full and it looked … …nice, full, sent a feeling of some sort to the viewer. A phase of art many went through. The Maya as well. Some of the things I found enhanced my perception of the carvings and statues and sorted out the “fullness” are listed below.
In this rubbing one can see a dark line (painting or rubbing, deep incision in statues) down the middle of the image separating it into two parts.
That line signifies a “space” between the face of a man, and what can then be assumed to be a mask or ornament worn on the head.

(Keep)The Home Fires Burning?

All about Oxlaju through the night burned huge fires, preparation for corn and rice plantings, by local peoples. Huge. Hundred acre fires out of control swept round the Inn.



Not certain whether is occurs to all the abnormally high heat (107°) daily also means abnormally low moisture.
The winds are constant in the thirty mile per hour range and dance about in terms of direction. Fire follows it.
Nearly over, the dry season, all will end this week with the new rains.

There is a commercial product called Liquid Smoke (not the meat seasoning) that can be applied to seeds to promote germination. I think it is made by passing vegetative smoke through water and soaking the circles of blotting paper in that liquid.
The air itself over the past week has had that much vegetative smoke in it, and the proof is in the Pudding. Date Palms and a few other hard to germinate seeds, part of the experimental Agriculture associated with Oxlaju suddenly began all at once to sprout. Thirty at a time, Dates and other fruit bearing palms have shot out their first growth. Seedling beds have been long prepared for the event, and months and months have past in anticipation of germination. (Date Palms are the example of the oldest known seeds to germinate, having been found and in the tombs of Egypt, subsequently grown) I knew they would sprout, but had no idea the full effect of -for lack of a better word- "Liquid Smoke"
The morning is spent planting and tagging the varieties recently sprouting.
Sun grown coffees, Dragon Fruits, Apple Cactus are already growing in their respective zones, and these Dates will join the sixteen types already growing.

Renewable roofsources [sic]

The cohune palm , the roofing of the masses, the construction material of the ages.
The roof
The roof
the roof is on fire.
(enough of that crap eh?)
This is the land of Thatch.
I am hoping these trees can renew themselves. The leaves can do so if only the trunks are not too damaged. Burned nearly through those will not come back. Some are Scorched only. Many are leafless after the fires.
Hope...
...springs eternal.

Slash and Burn (heavy emphasis on Burn)

Growing concerns in Belize






Within Central America is the natural propensity to farm with methods handed down through time. Fanning the flames of heritage are increases prices in things like rice, corn, cooking oil, and related products.
There were, last night, thousand of fires burning across Belize in preparation for the Rains and growing season. Some... ...not so easily contained, spread ... ...like wildfires across the country. These photos are of areas within one hundred feet of my home., contained only by a string of buckets filled with water, thrown on with drinking cups, and the wild swinging of machetes, into the remaining tall grasses.







Timestamped, these photos show the fire lasting twenty hours, having restarted with the morning winds, on the morrow.















They are burning my own corn, as well as my cattle pastures, and all the things I planted with more North American traditional methods.






























The Morning after...























And the ensuing hours.

Deglutition: Difficult.

Every kid, well, speaking from experience, every boy (and probably every girl) once had, thought they had, or tried to make
a cave/fort/hideout/secret place. Some never gave it up.
Some didn't have to.


This is a hole with no name. Every village, every small town has children of all ages who know where these places are.
The names they might carry are personal and unrecorded, just like the depths to which they have been explored and the depths
to which they have not.
I found these, one day. From the inside out and outside in ... ...mystery and curiosity. Every bend a milestone, every bend a footnote to the next milestone.
Thousands of caves are without names. Thousands are the former and current hideouts and secret places of once and current kids.
Thousands are the hideouts of kids yet to come. Waiting to be discovered. Looking for a secret occupant. Waiting for discovery.
Standing thousands of years in the jungles without witness
I forgot most of the terms once dangled before me. Karst. Graben. Cenotes. Some flood back when the batteries fade and the way back seems sketchy. Be Prepared. Boyscout memories seem all the more important.
Not that prepared, turning back.
Another time.
Another cave.

Name Search

Looking for a name to place on a palm tree with leaf not unlike the Russian Oil Palm in shape but filled with thorns over three inches long. This tree has so many and sharp.. ...its thorns, ......one could throw ants at it and impale every one. The fruit is called a Super, here, Belize, lending it the possible name açaí though oft here are things called what they appear similar too, and the true name is either lost to obscurity or is known only in K'ech'i Kechi Mayan and no right method of translation will render it. These things I hold to be self evident,
it is notAsynchronous Communications Interface Adapter
nor Arctic Climate Impact Assessmentnor is it...
...Arizona Court Interpreter Association.
if... ... if at all it is an A C A I tree

The Earth

Seeking and harvesting wild and cultivated (long escaped) Ginger in the earth of Toledo District, Belize, Central America. Along the fencerows of Oxlaju Inn grow, in wetter times, Yellow, White, Red and Torch Gingers. The yellow I seek for spicing and seasoning.
Soils here are of a completely different substance than elsewhere I have lived. The top soil has a square-ish dice like texture when dry, and when wet, allows the rains to just pass through unencumbered. Some days in the rainy season, (this is true Rain Forest) rains exceed twenty inches overnight. Morning comes, and on this place not even a puddle remains as witness.
Beneath the surface are two layers of clay. The first, red or Yellow, looks like the clay in all the world, but if shoveled out onto a bank it falls into those same square pieces, like spilling a Yahtzee cup.
Farther down the clay is a gray and heavy subsoil, with just the same difference as the yellow. Internal consistency, internal fortitude, forces it into dice like pieces moments after removed from the excavation.
There is a small city on this land, buried beneath the newest top soils and decaying trees. A Mayan site on the tail of the acreage here. Finding it while searching the gingers out. At least four large buildings of stone wait for a shovel and time to see the sun again.

Vanity, Shear * Vanity.

Rapunzel Rapunzel you half hearted fool
could have let yourself out with the use of a tool,




Even this tree when naught was available, climbed itself from a dark place.
A pair of Shears * (I suppose it was a pun) could have cut your stay short.

Fruits of Belize

Malay Apple.

The ripe fruit is eaten raw though many people consider it insipid. It is best stewed with cloves or other flavoring and served with cream as dessert. Asiatic people in Guyana stew the peeled fruit, cooking the skin separately to make a syrup which they add to the cooked fruit. Malayan people may add the petals of the red-flowered hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.) to make the product more colorful. Malay apples are often cooked with acid fruits to the benefit of both. They are sometimes made into sauce or preserves. The slightly unripe fruits are used for making jelly and pickles..

In Puerto Rico, both red and white table wines are made from the Malay apple. The fruits are picked as soon as they are fully colored (not allowed to fall) and immediately dipped in boiling water for one minute to destroy surface bacteria and fungi. The seeds are removed and, for red wine, the fruits are passed through a meat grinder and the resulting juice and pulp weighed. To this material, they add twice the amount of water and 1 1/2 lbs (680 g) of white sugar per gallon, and pour into sterilized barrels with the mouth covered soon with cheesecloth. Yeast is added and a coil inserted to maintain circulation of the water. The barrels are kept in the coolest place possible for 6 months to 1 year, then the wine is filtered. It will be of a pale-rose color so artificial color is added to give it a rich-red hue. In making white wine, the fruits are peeled, the only liquid is the fruit juice, and less sugar is used, only 1 1/4 lbs (565 g) per gallon, so as to limit alcohol formation over a fermenting period of 3 to 6 months.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/malay_apple.html

In Malaya there are many local names including jambu merah, jambu bar, jambu bol, jambu melaka, jambu kling and jambu kapal. In Thailand, it is chom-phu-sa-raek or chom-phu-daeng; in Cambodia, chompuh kraham; in Vietnam, man hurong tau; in Indonesia, darsana, jambu tersana, or djamboo bol; in the Philippines, makopang-kalabau or tersana; in Guam, makupa; in Tahiti, ahia; in Hawaii, ohia. In the French language it is jambosier rouge, poire de Malaque, pomme Malac (corrupted to pomerac), pomme de Malaisie, and pomme de Tahiti. Among Spanish names are: pomarosa, or pomarrosa, Malaya (Puerto Rico); manzana (Costa Rica), marañon japonés (EI Salvador), pomarosa de Malaca (Colombia); pera de agua or pomagás (Venezuela); and marañon de Curacao (Panama), though the somewhat similar plant in Curacao is S. samarangense Merr. & Perry, locally called cashu di Surinam, in Papiamento, Curacaose appel, in Dutch.

bark has been much used in local remedies. It is pounded together with salt, the crushed material is strained through coconut husk fiber, and the juice poured into a deep cut. "The patient must exercise absolute self-control as the liquid bums its way into the flesh and nerves."

In the Molucca, or Spice, Islands, a decoction of the bark is used to treat thrush. Malayans apply a powder of the dried leaves on a cracked tongue. A preparation of the root is a remedy for itching. The root acts as a diuretic and is given to alleviate edema. The root bark is useful against dysentery, also serves as an emmenagogue and abortifacient. Cambodians take a decoction of the fruit, leaves or seeds as a febrifuge. The juice of crushed leaves is applied as a skin lotion and is added to baths. In Brazil, various parts of the plant are used as remedies for constipation, diabetes, coughs, pulmonary catarrh, headache and other ailments. Seeded fruits, seeds, bark and leaves have shown antibiotic activity and have some effect on blood pressure and respiration.

"How to Get Chicks"

Get some eggs

Keep them warm,

for twenty one days.

Imprinting on the only

thing moving, I guess he guesses

I'm a chicken. (Really just never

cared for fighting)

but

maybe that's

another story.

Flowers Make a World of Difference...

No where like Central America are there
flowers so prolific.

Orchids uncounted





















































Jasmines.























































Tiger Striped Orchids








































Dozens of Hibiscus varieties.

All "Features" [sic] Great and Small.

Of all things, Wise and Wonderful...
...

Ideas Mayan and other of Cyclic creation, of ...

... of "ages the Earth has and mustpass through" The Aztec, ... ...to them this, the fifth such and we

are to be destroyed by earthquakes.

The Maya as well Five. and the long count dates
say the earth was born 3114 BC and will pass from this stage, On 23 December CE 2012. The end of the great cycle.

Five Thousand Two hundred Years.

I could see so clearly the eclipse, a picture had to be taken, if, even if, it is to last only three years, till the end of time.
In my hand a "volunteer" orchid as beautiful as the Moon.
Maybe both

are in my hand.

Knot in Belize

Things are Knot what they seem.....

Long necked gourds, are knot[ted] what they seem.

Warmth in Belize makes such a thing much

easier than Michigan, (Especially in February).

The most common descriptive terms here ...

... are "Pretty", and "Nice".

They are applied to many things, including

and not limited to Food items.

It seems at least in the south, that many things are ...

...well... ... most things are considered Food.

Even decorative gourds are eaten (Knot these)

and -while I've never heard an Armadillo called pretty,

they are called "Nice" and for the same reasons.
In truth, ... ...in terms of edibility...
...they are kind of nice.

In a Porkish sort of

"doesn't taste like Chickenish" sort of way.

They [armadillos] are nicer young, just like ornamental gourds.

* Keeping between the Lines...

...I don't like painting signs,
as I just can't *see subject.

This...

...to those of you who don't know,
Is my father and I working on the new well.
We have normalized water now, though, as a renewable natural resource,
and getting two hundred inches of it, Rain will never be replaced as a
source. Free, reliable, (sort of reliable) and in great profusion when
it comes. Two hours of rain supply me with eighteen days worth of water
in the collection system.

Electric power is the most inefficient and expensive commodity in
Belize, and if I can get water with no major power usage, I aid the
whole country as well as well ... ...as me.






On the subject, this is the water,
still muddy,
and me hhhmmmm ...

...still muddy a bit too.













The dry season will be a general dégringolade for rain water, (that's a word from grade school, in Freeport, Michigan, they were really strict about grammar)
The well... ... will supplement it then.