Inexplicable Winds

You wouldn't say it was a windy day. But just as I was passing North Terrace House this morning, on my way to a lunch hour concert, a leaf blew up into my hand. No, I didn't catch it, it blew up from the footpath and lodged itself between two of my fingers, which at the time happened to be a exactly a leaf width apart. I thought it quite remarkable.

Later, in the concert hall, listening to the Wind Ensemble, I began to contemplate the inexplicability of winds. This came about because I was trying to match up the composers' intentions as set forth in the program notes with the actual sounds that were coming out of the instruments, and they did not seem to match up.

One of the percussionists was clashing the cymbals very close to her fringe. You would have thought perhaps the wind she created would have moved the fringe but no, it moved her ponytail instead.

They played The Dam Busters march. An old man in the row in front of me tapped his knee in time. Ahh, I thought, it'll soon be Anzac Day. He will probably be weeping by the end. But it was me who had a teary eye when everyone stopped clapping.

On the walk home it was still not windy. The sky was high and grey and a few little spots of rain fell on the footpath which was littered with fallen leaves.

The wind is like music, I thought, and the fallen leaves and gumnuts and blossoms are the applause.

I was pleased with this thought, and it did not matter one bit to me that it made no sense at all.

Pineapple: The Wow Factor

By now, the world knows that we are going to photograph every pineapple that we buy, before we eat it. We have created an album on Facebook for this purpose, and have already put one photo up.

There are as many reasons to photograph a pineapple as there are knobs on a pineapple, but I intend to list only a few.

Firstly, as it is extremely difficult to tell whether a pineapple is any good simply by looking at it, sniffing it, or pulling out one of the spiky leaves at the top, it will be very useful to have a record of what the best ones looked like, for future reference.

Secondly, it will provide us with a means of comparing the various sizes of the pineapples that we buy, which we know are always different, even when the price is exactly the same.

Thirdly, others may wish to comment on the magnificence of our pineapple. I note that someone has already commented on our first one, with the following comment : wow.

While this is most encouraging I cannot help being troubled by the lack of an exclamation mark at the end of the comment. It suggests a certain degree of underwhelmedness on the part of the commenter.

However, perhaps at this early stage of the project it is understandable.