Benjamin Harnett (@benjaminharnett) · DIRTY

Benjamin Harnett

@benjaminharnett

Sometime poet, historian, software engineer, novelist, union man.

698 Folgt3.649 Follower6.815 Posts

Website Website Bluesky

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Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jul 10

Three late additions including one by @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social which just arrived

Three more books in the stack including the reivers by William Faulkner, tom cox’s everything will swallow you, and Jane austen’s bookshelf by Rebecca Romney.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jul 10

The most important vacation packing is done. I guess I can start thinking about clothes now.

A stack of books: we lived on the horizon by Erika Swyler, two books of poems by Luis Garcia montero, bly on the eight stages of translation, a history of goblins by Matt king, the United States 1830-1850 by Turner, the economic growth of the United States by Douglass north (two books to get mad about), the blazing world and other writings by cavendish, and the public scholar by David Perry, and a book of poems and photographs by Greg slick.

Another stack of books: Very short introduction to animal behavior, light while there is light, the political economy of growth by Paul baran, the magus by John fowles, Italian cuisine doesn’t exist by grandi and soffiati, the cheese and the works, esoteric mysteries of the underworld, and municipal administration in the Roman Empire.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jul 10

That? That’s my emotional-support photo of a young Brigitte Bardot.

A photo of an original black and white photo of a young Brigitte Bardot pensively standing behind some shrubbery.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jul 9

Got my first beach read sorted

The book a history of goblins by Matt king.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jul 5

The setting sun is casting forth bright rays above the horizon through a line of pencil-thin clouds into the growing twilight. The hill, fringed with trees, is blacker than night.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 29

20 seconds of fireflies

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 29

What’s up?

The sky is a perfect pastel sketch from grey-blues that linger through a brief haze of yellow to peach and deep pinkish red at last, with a nodding cloud or three while the grass on the hill is thin at the horizon like a man losing his hair; a few dark shrubs are lilacs while a young elm is shaking its leaves blurry. The moon is almost full and huge for a phone photo. Like the white eye of a tiger staring out from a primitive painting. The near hill is frothy with bedstraw flowers.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 29

Night for day for night

If you look closely it’s a very day-for-night looking sky (thanks to the iPhone night mode) with piercing dark blue and big fluffy white clouds. In the clearing though, so you know it’s real night are the stars of the Big Dipper.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 27

You all were not forthcoming with Italian or French book recommendations (and I forgive you) so I am back on my bullshit again:

A photo of the book La Cucina Italiana Non Esiste by Alberto Grandi and Daniele Soffiati.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 27

Last, but not least.

The meadow is dark and its plants seem to rise up against the sky, protest, perhaps. The big sloping hill is even darker. Another hill nods approvingly from a distance. Some purple clouds rest upon them, while above the sky is cracked like the underside of ice in the arctic sea. There but not visible the thousand fireflies winking in syncopated rhythm.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 27

Look closely for some really primo dog ass.

A big mown part of the meadow, then some tall grass and behind it a low hill and a copse of trees getting pretty tall now (they were young when we first got the land), and then just a sky of ponderous big clouds; it sprinkled a bit and was threatening rain all day. There is a small black and white Boston terrier in motion, after a ball, his ass at a focal point of the picture.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 27

A different view of the elm

Just a field with tall grasses and goldenrod (not yet in flower) and it rises up to a young elm tree now about thirty feet tall. I planted it myself. In the distance some clotted white clouds and then a vast swath of uncertain moisture hazing out the sky. A low dark hill is thinking about rising up on its four legs to lumber off.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 27

My abundance agenda

A very messy garden mainly
Not quite flowering yet, except for some cosmos and some deeply purple and bursting bee balm; behind it a wall of blackberry bushes and behind that tall grass and meadow flowers and then a dark green hill and then the sky glazed, cloudy and white.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 25

But cat can see you

Close up of the cat staring into your soul from behind some flowers.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 25

You cannot see cat

A meadow dotted with yellow flowers and daisies, white clover, etc, and sitting staring out from between some of the wildflowers a white and grey tabby cat absolutely convinced you cannot see him.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 25

Wild columbine

A photo showing three different stages of a wild columbine flower in one shot. The flower itself, fully emerged on the right is beautiful and strange, red with pink, some petals jutting up like arm bones while little dainty leaf-shaped petals make a short skirt out of which the pollen-encrusted lower parts dart exuberantly.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 24

Everything gets a little lazy as the sun falls behind the hill.

The field is tall and stretches out with its mix of grasses and weeds; flowers flash surprisingly from between the spaces—and so the whole is filled with bees and wasps and other pollinators getting a last drink. The slashing clouds are pink and violet, others scud along front gray and blue.

A splash of daisies, the tops of shrubs and trees just clearing high grass, a cedar building with high pitched roofs, two blank windows, and the sky nodding pale pink, yellow, lavender, blue.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 24

The moon continues to grow.

A photo dominated by the sky. The sky is deep blue around a bright white first-quarter moon. Some clouds drift and dart hear and there while lower clouds are more deliberately stretched and darkly dotting and dashing over the pale pink and orange verge. The hill is dark, the lawn slopes away from meadow. A young elm tree is standing alone.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 24

Just a boy and his ball

A newly mown stretch of lawn with the field encroaching on all sides. A flower bed is just beginning to blossom out with deep purples. A small stretch of sky is pearly with clouds but all is bright and the shadows stretch long. In the shadows a Boston terrier happily lies, licking his face while an orange and blue ball rests between his white and black paw.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

Bird fren

It’s a turkey vulture hanging out in a dead tree.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

Yeah

Absolutely dramatic shot of a small flower garden at the edge of a field. There are some very blight flowers that are early while the other flowers are still growing. The distant hill sleeps while a nearer hill has the aspect of an extinct giant lizard. The sky is purple and the clouds swirl like ostrich feathers.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

Halo around the moon: we got rain all day today.

A shot of a small house with many rooflines and a single light shining above the door. It is silhouetted black along with the hill behind it. Meanwhile a half-moon shines behind a halo. The clouds stretch languidly through the evening.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

The hillside is at the base of this photo like a torn edge, perfectly silhouetted. The pale horizon darkens as you look up while some random clouds scud here and there. Meanwhile the largest block of clouds is diffuse, like dark smoke, and shaped like a great bird bending down with pink and red beak to snap at a poor sailor.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

Lost world sunset

A torrid sky, with bright pinks and reds and all shades of blue and purple. The trees are silhouetted and dark green behind while the field is lush. Sumac trees looming on the left give the whole scene a genuine prehistoric feel.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 22

I guess daisies will have to do…

Wildflowers photographed from above at dusk—an assortment of daisies and other smaller flowers. The daisies are scattered like stars in a constellation. It feels like part of a pre-Raphaelite painting or a Wm Morris print.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 16

Project #897657 complete! Bookshelves in the stairwell.

A view of our stairwell with a bunch of books and Lego and games and a model boat and a ceramic pheasant and more on the ledge. It looks very messy.

This same area photographed from a different angle showing it now with the bookshelves I built. All orderly and neat.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 14

Really?

A photo of my manuscript with “Martin nodded.” circled and the word really and a question mark scratched accusingly next to it.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 13

Had a bit of a storm yesterday afternoon. During a break in the storm a rainbow formed. Here is a picture of a huge lilac tree (200 years old, maybe) with a broken down old house with dirty white siding. The lilac tree is tall with a strong squiggly trunk and a second trunk fallen is growing outward from it. Lilacs form groves of genetically identical individuals linked by roots. This is probably that. The rainbow is a perfect arc connecting one part of the lilac to the other. The sky is gray with a sort of inner light.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 11

Google Drive: this is unacceptable behavior. I will not tolerate it.

Text from my gmail tab flashing that Google Drive has messaged me.

Benjamin Harnett@benjaminharnett· Jun 10

I think we are ready for a final pass—just a few typos to correct. (This goes on like this for 300 pages.)

Heavily marked up text.