translating ones way to fortune....

ok, so this from the nytimes....for family and friends with a talent for learning languages........

rain

ok,so.......my plans to finish up the cutting down of bushy honeysuckle and other undesirable flora was stymied by rain.....lots and lots of rain.....i managed to trim back growth on the other side of the fence that was obscuring the rambling rose with glossy leaves....i cannot recall the name,what with my shortterm memory loss.....yeah, well i admit that several of the roses i can't name have been in situ for five or more years.....hardly recent.....but with the rain i opted for plan b...a book read curled up on the bedroom loveseat......to read perchance to nap......i am working through david sedaris......i finished naked and started in on barrel fever....no idea why i am just now reading these books other than than their ownership.....the middle child is highly protective of his library, and i read his books with great care lest i break the bindings or crease a page......after naked i know of at least two more volumes .......allthe while not working on the bookclub selection...wallace stegner crossing to safety......which i put down when te dialogue between two dysfunctional couples became too painful to read.....not like i had much in common with either the husbands or wives...but the plot was driving in a direction that i wasnt ready to ponder let alone ride along......lame excuse, but then again most of my failures to finish books are feeble......closure was an emotion i had hoped to feel after an afternoon of hard work.......funny how i can manage to finish backbreaking feats with drt and stone, but give up easily on emotional discomfort when it is set to words......

story count......

ok, so i find amusement on most mornings by reading the news as collected by google, as well as by the counts of stories on any given subject......this morning, for example, there were 409 different news outlets with stories about keith richards falling from a tree....410 about ellen getting an emmy.....432 about the harvard girl who got caught plagerizing most of her book.....and 544 about rush limbaugh's indictment for drug fraud....nice to see republican blowhards get their due....or at least in 544 newspapers/websites.......no idea if keith richards falling from a tree was drug-related......i don't actually read the articles unless there is some compelling subject matter.....like the harvard sophomore......i have read numerous pieces about her debacle, and i sought out the harvard crimson piece that started her fall from grace.....i was impressed that her own college newspaper outed her as a fraud.....in this age of googling one could hardly expect to get by with lifting entire passages from somebody's work and pretending that you wrote them.......on the other hand.......my readership is welcome to lift any and all riveting anecdotes from this blog........i would be most flattered.......should your creative efforts earn you an oscar, don't forget to thank the meanmamma......

tasty rumors......

ok, so......i heard today that the restaurant is set to reopen as jerry's diner.......no word on the identity of this particular jerry, but i have a pretty good guess..............

not a lick of sense.....

ok, so i heard the mounrful cries of the cat as i walked up the hill to get the newspaper.......from across the road.....and inside the neighbors heinous metal building with no doors to hide all of the junk he has accumulated in the 20 years aince he put up the monstrosity.......had he put doors on it the cat might not have gotten herself up in the rafters.....way, way up.....no clue how she managed it......but there she was.........until my spouse came home from his saturday morning run and dragged a ladder over to her perch.....whereupon she clung to the metal frame with her back legs as he was pulling her front parts.......what an idiotic cat.......our best guess is that something spooked her last night on her prowl, and she took refuge in the highest spot she could find......a coyote?......but after all danger had past she couldn't quite recall how to put herself in reverse, and come back down.......ah well.......she is now curled up under the small caned bedroom chair.......sleeping off her wild night out.......as for me......i finally came in from the rain, but not until i had chopped down most of the scraggly bushes and honeysuckle vines that were choking the roses beyond the box hedge.....the rain started just as i was making serious progress.....and as i was already wet i continued on as far as i could before i felt dangerously close to the edge.......the conundrum of living on the side of a hill is the reality that one can actually fall or slide off.......had i a lick of sense i would be up showering off....given that i glimpsed some poison ivy......but i am waiting for the rain to subside so that i can finish the project before i clean up for the reat of my day......maybe if i try to cut some bushes down from the bottom reaching up..........

another iris for peace.....

ok, so this is the louisiana iris that stephan planted in our little pond, blooming gloriously.......just wanted him to be able to see it....... 

ok, so....i cannot trump goo goo dolls for peace family reunion.......but.....this skinhead for peace has always been my favorite......i think the grannies had these t-shirts on under the polyester......... 

ok, so this from the bbc.........A US court has acquitted a group of 18 grandmothers of disorderly conduct for staging a rally against the Iraq war outside a military recruiting centre.

The defendants, known as the "Granny Peace Brigade", were arrested in October and charged on two counts.  

be careful what you wish for......

ok, so i will admit that in my newish role as a public health practitioner.......i see many tatoos.....and the thought has crossed my mind more than once, particularly with tattos placed lower than one would expect to see in polite society, how awful that said tatoos would look in the event of pregnancy-induced stretch marks.........omg....today i saw all too clearly just how heinous a stretched tatoo could look.......and i am here to advise those who have tatoos, and who have babies...to give away all of your lowriding jeans, for the sake of public decency................

reprise......

ok, so i haven't taken the time to do the newyorker cartoon thing in a long while....but this week's installment brought so many chuckles that i have opted to blog about them straightaway..........i actually read sashe frere jones critical piece on the dixe chicks new album twice..once for the highlights, and the second time in disbelief.......i did appreciate the specifics of the dixie chicks history of activism......to be honest...their song goodbye earl was seriously more dangerous than their comment about dubya being from texas......the notion that abused women should poison their abusers could be taken too seriously....maybe should be taken seriously........but i digress...........there is an article abotu a miscarriage that i should read but cannot read......that is what i value so much about this magazine.....it deals seriously with issues that i still avoid......so that when i am ready to confront them i will have a source for healing.......

lo, a rose ere blooming......

ok, so my rose therese bungnet (sp) will bloom today if it receives the slightest flash of sunshine...it has been unfurled for days to show its fuschia petals....but has not yet burst open into double ruffled splendour..........any year with roses blooming in april is a very good year.....and cause to call my brotherinlaw nick to compare notes........alas, early roses also mean that the show may be over by the time the middle child returns home next month.......surely the robin hood roses will still be in bloom........

confirmation......

ok, so this morning first thing a nurse drew 3 vials of blood from my arm.......to send to the state lab for confirmation that i have had measles, mumps, chicken pox and whatever else lab techs can discern afterthefact.....not that i remember having any or all of these diseases.....they simply became lore over the years........i only rmember when the middle child had chicken pox because we were visiting carlsbad caverns and because it would be dark we hoped nobody would notice the virulent contagion in their midst.......i assume that the eldest had them at some point, but i truly cannot put a timeframe to that assumption because it must have been neither dramatic nor inconvenient.......the implication is that in the event of an epedemic i would be coming on to work.......no problem......i consider myself immune and believing is the majority of reality, right?

now that you're fifty.......

ok, so the mm spent a few spare moments on the telephone making appointments for everything checkupable.....eyes, teeth, privates (times 2)...ain't taking any chances with the female parts.......and it was the lady at ukmarkey center who explained that i qualified for the ovarian cancer screening program...now that i was fifty.......and told me all about ovarian cancer and then told me that i'd have to wait til midjuly to find out if i have it.......omg.......it wasn't something i worried about until i had to wait to find out i don't have it........thank heavens i do not have suspicious moles, lumps, or symptoms more specific than being beyond the useby date.......i'd never sleep at all until the results are all in.......a client i saw just yesterday is a mere 2 weeks younger than me and already has lab data suggesting kidney failure........omg......do we just deteriorate rapidly after the midpoint?.........or does it just feel that way on cold rainy mornings in april........

cruise directing from the lido deck.....

ok, so my beloved family unit gave me grief yesterday when i mentioned that i was planning out some of the memorial day week time slot when the middle child will be home........'how do you know he'll want to do those things on those days?' i was asked with great suspicion and somewhat sinister lears.......true, i do not know what he will want to do, but unless i take the time to let others know he will be available, he may be home all week with nobody else available, because they made other plans not knowing he was only to be home those 5 days.....got it????????.....and frankly, i do not call making vague references to a potential dinner on 2-3 optional dates as anything more than wholesome preplanning..........and the only way that i will know just which indian restaurant makes the best carryout is if i ask......given that i am traveling to lex tomorrow and could pick up a carryout menu if i happened to know where to look...........

ok, so this photo of the nixons riding bicycles under the cherry blossoms near the washington monument almost made me like dick....he, whose watergate scandal marred my graduation year......but then again......dubya's crimes outshine trickydick's by a longshot.......so maybe i can find something to like about dick after all these years........ 

downloads.....

ok, so if there were a support group for those who have become fascinated with downloads......well....i wouldn't join because i would never admit to such things.......but i will admit to finding great pleasure in listening to the treasures available to me online....archives opened up for my enjoyment....at this very moment i am listening carefully to eric idle reading an excerpt of charlie and the chocolate factory......eric idle, of monty python fame......does a creditable job with roald dahl's classic work...... so very unfortaunate that only 11 minutes of this story was downloadable.......might just have to find the rest......and then there is the langston hughes poetry.......3 pieces read by...langston hughes......to come is eecummings.......wow.......the music is nice.... but poetry read by the poet is just marvelous............

quicktime.....

ok, so i downloaded itunes and quicktime so that i could listen to salon.com podcasts......and now everytime i try to download free songs from 3hive......quicktime plays them rather than allowing the download.......oh, sultaness of song......must i ditch quicktime?.......or is there a simpler solution?.......

paul prather

ok, so this from the lexington herald leader's faith/values section...

Posted on Sat, Apr. 22, 2006


Musings on flap over gay student

By Paul Prather
HERALD-LEADER CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

The University of the Cumberlands, a Southern Baptist school, has found itself in a public relations cyclone ever since it expelled sophomore Jason Johnson, 20, because he'd disclosed information on a Web site about his gay relationship with another man.

The university's policy for student behavior bans homosexual and extramarital sex.

Johnson's expulsion drew outrage from gay activists and liberals in general. It may also have endangered accreditation for the university's proposed pharmacy school; the national accrediting board refuses to recognize pharmacy programs that discriminate against homosexuals.

Like everyone else, I've been reading about this brouhaha in the newspaper. Here are my scattered -- and perhaps self-contradictory -- thoughts:

• I believe private religious schools should have the right to make whatever rules they want (short of mandates to torture or behead heathens), in keeping with the tenets of their faith. As far as I'm concerned, Christian schools can bar gays, fornicators, smokers, Jews, cheerleaders, Druids or Martians. Similarly, Jewish schools should be free to reject Christians. Liberal schools can ban fundamentalists.

• If you can't obey a school's code of conduct, common sense dictates that you might not want to enroll there.

• On the other hand, the same principle holds true for the school itself. If the University of the Cumberlands hopes to earn accreditation from a secular agency, it must be prepared to abide by that group's secular standards. You can't have it both ways.

• I grew up on the campus of an ultra-conservative Southern Baptist college, where my dad was dean (and later vice president) for student affairs -- the administrator whose duties included enforcing a straight-laced code of conduct. In the 1970s, I returned to that same campus as a freshman and lived in a dormitory before transferring to the University of Kentucky.

Despite the Baptist college's regulations, I couldn't tell an iota's difference between the lifestyles of many students there and those of the kids I met afterward at UK.

Baptist students drank, smoked dope and fornicated about as enthusiastically as those at the state school. There was even a clique of gay students that included several guys studying for the Baptist ministry; it was the worst-kept secret on campus.

I see no reason to think human nature has changed in 30 years. If any Christian college expelled every kid who violated its code, it could assemble the remaining student body in the administration building's lobby, with room left over for the Georgia Tech marching band.

• Thus, Johnson's main mistake wasn't simply being gay. It was calling undue attention to his orientation. Christian colleges might have been the originators of the don't-ask-don't-tell philosophy.

Intentionally or not, Johnson forced school leaders to take action. Wave a banner announcing your violation of the rules, and administrators have little choice but to discipline you. If a straight student had, say, posted photos of himself and his girlfriend in flagrante delicto on the Internet, he also would have been expelled.

• Homosexual activities and extramarital heterosexual sex indeed are contrary to biblical and historical Christian standards. Yet, they're about equally as errant as pride, gluttony, stinginess, temper tantrums, disrespect for parents and lying.

But when have Baptist schools ever disciplined fat people for ignoring biblical prohibitions against gluttony? When have you seen a Baptist professor reprimanded for getting caught up in the hubris of his Ph.D.? When has a Christian student ever been expelled for pitching a conniption fit on his roommate?

It seems that whenever religious organizations decide to exorcise the sin in their midst, they invariably go for sexual impropriety. They tend to enforce their laws selectively. Very selectively.

• One question raised by the Johnson case is this: How should Christian groups react to sexual misconduct? All religious organizations are made up of human beings who, in my observation, tend to fail miserably a fair amount of the time. Sadly, Christian 20-year-olds are wont to act like idiots. But then, so are Christian 40-year-olds.

Maybe Christian administrators should consider reacting the way Jesus did. I never can think about an incident such as Johnson's without remembering the time Jesus was confronted with a woman who had been caught "in the very act" of adultery and was about to be stoned for it. (No word on what happened to the man she was involved with -- but that's another column.)

Jesus said, "Let the one who is himself without sin throw the first rock." That ended the stoning. Then he addressed the woman. "Neither do I condemn you," he said. "Go your way. From now on, sin no more."

What a beautiful response. I think Jesus said this knowing full well that the woman likely would sin again -- and that he'd end up forgiving her the next time, too.
Former Herald-Leader religion writer Paul Prather is a Mount Sterling minister and author of three books. Reach him at pratpd@yahoo.com.



© 2006 Lexington Herald-Leader and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.kentucky.com

why?.....

ok, so i had a dear friend call this evening to ask why i sent him the dixie chicks video....he had no clue as to the hx of the situation....the dixie chix boycott...the anti-american slurs.....i suppose for those who do not follow pop culture channels.....but then again.....natalie maines took a major whipping in the press for anybody to miss the meaning of her comeback lyrics.........and that is why the video is a blend of black and white....no issue is ever either one or the other......

top 100 adapted screenplays.....

ok, so....we are beyond the top movies and books...and on to the books made into movies...the list posted by people who make such lists contains the usual suspects.......to kill a mockingbird tops the heap, followed by gone with the wind, wizard of oz, and the shawshank redemption.....gigi is way down there near the bottom, but still made the cut.....good for madame colette.....of course, there is no accounting for just bastardized the movie made from the book became........how does one qualify the good movie which bears little resemblance to the good book from which it sprang.....frankly, i am not sure that i have seen many films better than the books used for inspiration.....maybe the lotr trilogy....if only because the movie was so much easier to watch than the books were to follow......and that example made it only to #69 on this list.....go figure....these days the trend appears to be in publishing books after the movie comes out, this happens quite a lot with kiddie films.........a book springs forth that is essentially a screenplay tweaked into prose......ah well......now that this list has been sent out into cyberspace....what ground is left to be rated?.......100 best opening lines....100 best closing comments........100 best kissing scenes?........100 best dog films?.........

plants......

ok, so aside from paris and my own yard there are few places that i'd rather be on any given afternoon than in a nursery.....and today i ventured to lexington to w.b. pemberton and sons, a 125 year old nursery off georgetown road just inside new circle road with my friend bettie....not a glorious day for plants......torrential downpour...but luckily this place has several acres under cover in greenhouses.....and plenty of the unusual to pique my interest and open up my pocketbook.......i bought a geranium that likes to be trellised, along with a copper form, some peachy trailing verbena, a white plant that resembled larkspur were it not an annual.....lots of wonderfully different things.....including a shrimp plant, very similar to the one we loved at krohn converatory in cincinnati......spent too much money, but not enough to keep me from going back soon for those plants that i wished i had gone ahead and bought...............i love plants, did i mention that?

jane austen action figure.....

ok, so before book club started this evening.....my good friend leslie presented me with a gift she bought in portland, oregon while visiting her daughter........a jane austen action figure.....complete with writing desk and quill......i was thrilled to tears...not just because i love anything austen, but also because i was so touched that she knew that i would be pleased with such a gift......and so jane has taken up residence on the newly repaired cpu.....the tiny version of p&p will not stay in her clasped hands.....but that is just a minor detail.....the packaging was similar to the usual genre of action figures, warning that this product may not be suitable for children under age 3.......there are those in my bookclub who consider jane unsuitable for those over age 3......but i digress......from the bookclub itself......which digressed from a lively discussion about who liked or didn't like the characters in ed mcclannahan's the natural man, a novel about high school basketball in a small northern ky town...to who finished it or didn't finish....i purjured myself, in wanting to show some solidarity to those who disliked it....i said i made it only to page 51, when in fact i finished the whole book and only wished that i had stopped at page 51........don't tell............the host's wife also failed to finish the book, which made me feel better, but did spur the host to make a snide comment about he slogged through to the lighthouse and the least i could have done was to finish the book he chose......at the end of the book, the big brawny basketball player who was recruited to play for this small town basketball team ended up dying in viet nam....which led to a discussion of the current war, which led to a comparison between the current state of white house affairs and watergate/nixon....which then collasped into raised voices....and the host's wife reminding us all that politics and religion are poor choices for discussion in public......in this crowd i rarely get a word in edgewise.....so please understand that i said more in my mind than i was able to interject into the conversation.......ah well........back to jane.....i will leave you with selected j.a. quotations from the packaging.....

'for what do we live for, but to make sport of our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?'.....pride and prejudice, spoken by mr. bennett

'it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'......pride and prejudice spoken byu elizabeth bennett

' there are people who the more you do for them, the less they do for themselves'....emma, spoken by....emma

'if there is anything disagreeable going on, men are always sure to get out of it'.....persuasion, spoken by sister mary

'people always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them'......sense and sensibility, spoken by fanny

'a large income is the best recipe for happiness i ever heard of'....mansfield park, spoen by miss mary crawford

'i do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them'.......jane austen herself.....and words that i seem to live by.............

god bless those dixie chicks....

ok, so i have been a big fan of the dixie chicks ever since they took a stand against the war.....and took such heat from redneck southerners over what was seen as disrespect by those like toby keith and those who blindly follow the leader......and i am so very proud of their new single......the video can be seen on youtube.....i was quite moved by the video, btw, and may just watch it again after this blog publishes......

I'm Not Ready to Make Nice

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

I'm through, with doubt,
There's nothing left for me to figure out,
I've paid a price, and i'll keep paying

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I know you said
Why can't you just get over it,
It turned my whole world around
and i kind of like it

I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I'm not ready to make nice,
I'm not ready to back down,
I'm still mad as hell
And I don't have time
To go round and round and round
It's too late to make it right
I probably wouldn't if I could
Cause I'm mad as hell
Can't bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I'm still waiting

pop quiz

ok, so what is the mean mamma's preferred literary device ....1,hyperbole 2,simile 3,aliteration 4, exaggeration.....i would use a question mark in this query, could i locate one on the symbol screens.......

the violet vase

ok,so....i have launched a major home search for the diminutive waterford violet vase that my friend amy gave to me impetuously years ago......it may have been before she explained to me that she was gay.....an awkward conversation in that she covered the salem witch trials but failed to address my fundemental lack of understanding what she was telling me.....in my little sphere, everybody was looking for the perfect man......and the other option was not on my radar screen.....how embarrassing to admit to being so out of touch......but i digress from the violet vase.....which i cannotfind during the brief but briiliant ky violet season...maybe it has allen under my bed.....or tucked in a drawer after our housefire.......must continue the search....

wi-fi

ok,so.....wifi works even when the pc's motor is shot.....of course, our pc requires a motor that must be ordered.....but with this palm i can still do most of my habitual cyber-rounds.....except for hotmail, which is curiously going under a buildasitevolves makeover and now uses pages too cumbersome to open on a handheld....oy...

working offline.....

ok, so our home computer had a message referring to fan failure just before it died altogether.......my spouse is taking it to the shop's computer guru......hopefully we will not be offline too long.....some of my best blog ideas pop up when i am least able to commit them to cyberspace......

mortarboard.....

ok, so i am doubly impressed that the l.o. will graduate in may of 2007.......well ahead of either of the sons of the m.m.......now that the fellowship has been accepted......i can appreciate the urge to put off graduation until the last drops of nectar have been squeezed from the proverbial vine.......maybe another pewter cup to go along with the secession goblet?....... symmetry is always a good thing......

pondering new cars and colette

ok, so i drove up to louisville after work with my spouse....to a courthouse open late on this particular monday...to meet up with the seller of the car he is buying....a toyota echo that gets 40-50 mpg....in turn he will sell our beloved toyota siena...the last of the automatic shift vehicles......i have lamented that this is a shameful joke to play upon those children that he(the male in the duo) has failed to teach how to drive a stick.......and so i sat in the parking lot of this govt centre in middletown listening to my book on cd.......frances mayes traveling around the world......for an hour....then nearly two hours......when finally the former owner and his spouse erupt from the door....and there is the shaking of hands....and the starting of engine.......only one....for the engine on the honda is quite dead......seems that i had overlooked the airconditioner fan as i wore down the battery with the cd player for such a long time........and so.....my spouse pushed the car out of the parking spot, and headed down the meager slope....then leaped in while i pushed and gosh darn if that spouse o'mine didn't jumpstart that car........wow......on the way home....driving in th precise manner of those whose batteries have been resurrected...i was thrilled to hear madame mayes leave her endless drones of the shadows of fez......and move on to the burgundy of her personal literary hero....madame colette.......and i was gratified to hear her evoke sweet lines from her favorite book break of day....an outofprint volume that she considers a classic......she has researched the entire pilgrimage to burgundy....places mentioned by colette versus the house she grew up in.......foods she has mentioned in prose....flowers she recalls in loving tones.......while i sometimes find mayes redundant.....i am touched by the awe in which she approaches the locales that colette called an earthly paradise........

orange patent leather maryjanes....

ok, so....as the sun shone through the white wooden venetian blinds at the far end of the church balcony this morning....my mind strayed far from the sermon.......to a vision of buying orange patent leather shoes.....at a poll parrot shoe store in parmatown mall.......the day before easter oh so many years ago......i have no recollection of the dress that the shoes were meant to accent......most certainly a dress that my mother made for the occassion......i was not to have a storebought easter dress until many years later, and only then because i was out with my dad and he bought it without first consulting with my mother......but i digress........it has been a long road from those orange shoes.....from a self-conscious stretch where i wouldn't have been caught dead in orange anything....to now, when i could see myself buying some sort of springy flats in orange if the price was right and i had something specific to match.......well...maybe......we are into unfamiliar easter everything these days.......especially today, the first without either of the eldest at home for the occassion........and while we did have a decent lunch of honey ham and scalloped potatoes......there were no eggs to hide, and the easter baskets were literally handed off rather than placed carefully to be discovered by little boys in big-boy jackets and bowties.......the couple who sit in back of us at church now with their 2 young sons smile cautiously when i complement their growing children, and advise them to cherish these sweet days whiel they last.....it is so hard to believe at the onset that one's children will grow up and move away as speedily as it seems in retrospect.......if i should be so lucky, a car may pull up for easter lunch......on some spring day far in the future.....and maybe a grandchild sporting orange patent leather maryjanes will hunt for eggs amongst grandmamma's daffodils and grape hyacinths........

back to baseball....

ok, so what do the san diego padres, the washington nationals, the texas rangers, and the pittsburgh pirates have in common with the new york yankees?.......they each have lost more games than they have won at this point in the season.....granted, the season is not yet 30 days old......but i must admit delight in the fact that the best team that money can buy is thus far woefully behind in the standings........there are other humerous tales to be told.....for example......the cincinnati reds traded their premier fielder willie mo pena to boston for their contraversial pitcher bronson arroyo.......and so far this season, arroyo has not only pitched 2 winning games for the reds.....he also home runs in each of those games......wow.....pitchers don't usually factor in the game winning offense.....and what about willie mo pena.......no hits to speak of......go figure.......granted, boston is at the top off its division, but only because the other teams in question have had their share of troubles.....cleveland seems to have a great lineup this season.....despite a trade of their cereal guy named....get this.....coco crisp.....to boston........one does need a scorecard to keep track of who plays for whom this year......as in any year........and it is not like i actually watch any games.......without cable i can only watch what fox 56 opts to air....nothing this weekend.....or peek in on game progress through mlb.com......which is about as much as my aging attention span can muster.......no peanuts, no crackerjacks......ah well.........

rose redux......

ok, so i spent the better part of saturday moving roses, trimming roses, or in major overheaul of....roses......the out-of-control roses are growing madly beneath the side deck......along with a snarl of wintercreeper that has trapped fallen leaves, dead branches from the oak above, and sundry newspapers that surely blew away when i was reading on the back deck.....at first glance the eglentine rose (an old rose that has leaves that smell strongly of apples....delicious!...when shakespeare mentions roses, think eglentine......).....had numersous dead shoots.......i must interject at this point that the dead shoots in question were over 6 foot in length....for these are no diminiutive plants......several hours of snipping, pulling, untangling later, i had removed most of the vines, most of the deadwood, and discovered 2 clematis vines and a third rose......maybe climbing cecille bruner.....i moved the rose elsewhere, did my best to prop up the clemetis......and went off in search of rest and recovery.......even without the rose, the removal of the vines was a struggle.......vines amke such an ideal ground cover because they grow by underground shoots....and the underground network must be removed if the removal of above ground shoots is to last longer than a week or two.....such a huge job........that was met with the quizzacle (is that a real word)) gaze of a spouse who asked......is that all you did today?.......that is the thing about gardening.....to the nongardener it looks all too easy......i assure you, gardening is not for the old of body or faint of heart......

the pull of perennials

ok, so i had every intention yesterday of lounging about til noon in my pajamas......but by 10:00 i could feel the pull of perennials.....i wasn't sure where they were for sale, but i was certain if i called around i could find them....i first tried durham's in stanford.....a nursery/whatnot place that i have frequented these many years....'no, this is a bit early for us...check back the end of april'.......huh....rather than making more calls i opted to head toward lowe's...i hadn't been there in months....and with a sheltered plant area that store might feel more secure with perishable plants.....not that perennials are perishable....but we have not yet reached the frost-free date......and so by 10:20 i was scurrying for a trolley to load up....lowe's had just that morning recieved a goldmine shipment of decently priced perennials.......coreopsis in a variety different from mine, a black columbine, foxglove (large and not completely bloomed out)......palace purple coral bells, yellow primula, pinks, wallflowers, yellow snapdragons.....clematis for the rose trellis.....it goes without saying that i spent more than i ought.....but the day was perfect for planting, with the rain early on...and it was also a perfect time to transplant some shooting stars from the woodlot (what we call our property outside of the fence)....there is already a blooming shooting star under the pear tree and i opted to move a few similar plants in the same bed to make a nicer showing.....my rule is that i can dig up wildflowers that are in the path and risk destruction by virtue of their poor location...i found 6 that fit in that exemption category...they were easily dug with the fork given the moist ground......the only thing missing from my planting day was snakes.....i did make plenty of noise as a way to warn the serpents to go elsewhere.....but at no time during my forays in and out of the yard did i see a sunning snake.....the weather was warm enough to have triggered the urge for snakes to come out from under their rocks.......i do not like snakes, but i feel that all is well with my microcosm when snakes and amphibians are present and healthy........today i shall continue to look for signs of snakes......i must admit that i had also intended to clean my house in anticipation of my guest.....however, i did know that she was herself at home cleaning her own house in anticipation of her bunko party later in the evening.....and i decided that 2 women cleaning houses in the same general area might just tip the cosmic balance with disastrous results.....so i worked in my yard instead.......just doing my part for world peace........

ok, so this billboard was seen today in nyc by the holland tunnel...jesus returns 06-06-06....look religious.......hmmmmmm......... 

r. steves redux......

ok, so those who i have traveled with this me these many years know that i use r. steves backdoor books as gospel on trips.....despite the problems with maps....and so this afternoon's revelation was with more than the usual horror...keep in mind that i have been listening to frances mayes a year in the world for many days.....with no ruffled feathers from misquotes/poor directions as compared to available guidebooks......until frances mayes and her spouse arrive in granada......to listen to frances mayes text.....every site is an homage to frederico garcia lorca....the nationist poet matyred by the franco republicans.........to read r. steves on granada is to be unaware that a poet ever lived there, let alone a poet murdered by rightest troups......how does this work?.....either lorca lived here or he didn't........picasso and guernica were mentioned at the renia sofia...in passing......but nothing else to do with the civil war......i am so disappointed that the r.steves guidebooks are so......rightest.....as to leave out an entire war......at least the leftist side........as well as to pretend that the murder of a gay poet never happened.....

y.d.d.

ok, so.....my y.d.d. neighbor came by for wine and savories....and we couldn't get over that we get together so infrequently...given that we are both y.d.d.....living among those who are not.......and she with a son (alex) who is marrying a girl from kazachstan this fall.......who is learning russian to be able to speak to her parents when they arrive........the daughter-in-law to be is earning her masters degree in criminal justice this spring from eku.....lee thinks they will stay in the u.s.......but back to lee.....we had a marvelous getogether over wine and olives and a bit of cheese..........we have made plans to see jane fonda and sue grafton in lexington if she can get me a ticket........cannot wait...........

turf rebate.....

ok, so......since i am off work today i have opted for the ultimate in leisure scenarios.......pajamas til noon.......which means to me a slow crawl through the online papers.......the nytimes had a marvelous piece on cactus rescue groups who arrive prior to bulldozers when roads are to be widened or golfcourses built in arizona......to move the cacti.......and the sale of the cacti is then used to fund more of such rescues......prices asked are far less than commercial nurseries...allowing many homeowners to completely revamp their yards into mini-desert low-water landscapes.......so many have made this switch that the city of scottsdale now offers a turf rebate up to 1500 bucks for homeowners who will take up their grass and turn it in to the city........wow.......the joke around here is that i will eventually extend planting beds to take up all of our meager stand of greenness we call a lawn......but here grass does serve some purpose.....to withstand erosion.......though our soil doesn't seem to cooperate with the support of desirable grass varieties.......the bald spots in our yard are larger and more numerous than on any year previous......i would gladly take up all of our turf.....and lay down purchased sod........that may just be the first thing i do if my lottery habit ever pays off........or maybe just give into the ivy....and allow it to take over instead....it is lowgrowing....and requires little maintenance.......and would hold down what soil there is....though i am not quite ready to follow through on this notion......it still crosses my mind when i read of others who have chosen to allow nature to take over......

a year in the world

ok, so.......this week i have been listening to frances mayes a year in the world on cd as i drive to and fro.....and though i am disappointed that the author no longer reads her own books aloud.....it is still soothing to hear someone verbalize such luscious descriptions of place, of food, of flora and fauna......the first section was of her travels in spain......including a january visit of madrid and it's many plazas and museums......sound familiar?........she seems to have had a mixed experience....her spouse was sick, and the weather was cold......but her notations on the paintings she found memorable at the prado and the thysssen were so evocative of our trip.......she remembered goyas that were not the cats......and was especially enthralled with the bosch piece....how could one not be fascinated......and she failed to notice the scrawny baby jesus similarities between so many northern european painters, nor the madonna-with-breasts-in-her-throat favored by so many painters of the age........well, she was distracted, i suppose...........as i pulled into my driveway this evening she was wrapping up a meandering drive through rural portugal.......next to france?..........as i mentioned before, i was somewhat letdown that the author herself didn't read this book aloud, as she did the first book about her home rennovation in tuscany.....her south georgia accent was crucial for the reflections- on-childhood whiffs that were maybe overdone......as opined earlier......only david sedaris can muse about his childhood memories without me taking umberage after the second or third trip down memory lane.........alas, frances toured neither the barcelona area, nor the basque region......though she did eat in a bar that hemingway made famous in the sun also rises....a bullfighter hangout.......one of these days i will return to spain...when the weather is a tad warmer and i have more leeway with accomodations and itinerary.......if for no other reason that to find the places that frances has described with such elan.......

author envy......

ok, so.....last night my middle child called....returned a call to his dad, actually.....but since the m.daddy was not yet back from the wednesday bikeride....the m.mamma would have to do.....he told of the book reading he had attended...the one with dave eggars......we had brought up our copy of a heartbreaking work of staggering genious to washington in hopes that stephan could get it signed by the author.......the event was made more immediate to me by virtue of the venue.....we had attended a reading last spring break in the very room by a poet and a novelist, neither of which i had ever heard of prior to that event.......the only person in the room that i could pick out of a crowd of j.carol oates, a most prolific auther who teaches at princeton.......i was therefore amused to learn that ms oates actually dozed through most of mr. eggars reading.......which cannot have escaped his notice as she appear to prefer to sit right up front and center......those who keep score of such things will recall that i have actually heard mr eggars read before.....on the day that stephan and belgian boy returned from ....well.....belgium.......we had already picked up jon and had several hours to kill before stephan's plane arrived.....so we headed toward the joseph beth in the hydepark/oakley area of cincinnati.......when we stepped out fo the cafe after dinner, the place was packed, and there was dave eggars reading from the book after heartbreaking work......you will know us by our velocity.......but i digress........i would have enjoyed an hour or so listening to a writer who was clever enough to include diagragms of the sock-sliding course that he and his little brother toph created in their subleased apartment.....i also learned that stephan chanced to hear david sedaris recently as well.....he of the scant but cutting use of ascerbic wit......i envy his residence on the left bank in paris almost as much as i am jealous of his talent for recalling poignant moments in the past with such vibrancy and relevance.......i never think to myself...enough of when you were ten...move on!......when i read/hear his pieces........so there you have it....dave eggars, david sedaris, and a sleeping j.c.oates.....all in the same week.......but not for me....the envious mm figure living vicariously on the newest newyorker and online newyorktimes book reviews.......but don't cry for me, argentina......i have wild flowers in bloom, the onions all weeded out, and a three=day weekend ahead of me.....from where i sit....the glass is completely full...........

coming clean

ok, so one of the more interesting parts of our trip to washington was watching tv prior to one of the final 4 games......and in random cable surfing we recognized my cousin marilyn's husband, who hosts a television call-in talk show on the all-catholic allthetime network......the topic of the curing of gays.....and the guest professed to being cured of his gayness through celibacy and prayer and devotion to the eucharist.......which my cousins's spouse commended with great solemnity....as did the call-in folks.....and it was all that my spouse and i could do not to laugh out loud at this notion that one's orientation could be changed thusly.....particularly when the talk turned to how the bible is against homosexuality....after nearly 2 decades of teaching sunday school i have yet to find these reputed verses.....there are numerous ones about divorce, which my cousin's spouse must have overlooked- previous marriages involving he and my cousin were not in the catholic church and didn't count....let me get this straight.....this guy sits in front of this camera with divorce on his plate, a state that jesus himself likened to adultery, and lowrates folks for something that jesus never, ever mentioned, even in passing.....takes a lot of nerve, don't ya think?......we were hesitant in that our in-laws are catholic and while we hope them to be tolerant folks, you never can tell with relatives.......one tends to choose friends based on a common liberality of ideas........but with close kin one can never be sure until the shouting if someone agrees with your positions.......and so it was heavy hearts that we read that the university of the cumberlands is kicking out a gay student, citing the need for higher standards.....huh?.......i recall jesus himself stopping the stoning of a prostitute, admonishing the crowd that only those without sins could throw stones.....u of cumberland must have overlooked this part in their higher standards policy........i venture to guess that the cumberland staff boasts more than one person who has a divorce on the books....let the administration start there....with issues on which jesus actually had an opinion before starting in on orientation......

too old to move......

ok, so i was so lazy/shiftless/fatigued this evening that i watched tv without bothering to exercise....and i sat through pepper dennis after gilmore girls because it was easier to just sit through it than it was to get up.......maybe life does go downhill fast after fifty.............

howl.....

ok, so today was the 50th anniversary of allen ginsberg reading his most famous poem...howl.......and salon.com offered this reading as a download......a 70 minute piece that will not be emailed even in compressed form.......those who will return home briefly in may/ear;ly june must remember to listen to this...or got to salon.com daily download......and must listen past the curious chanting at the beginning...........

phi beta kappa....

ok, so my eldest will be inducted into phi beta kappa honorary society on april 27.....i am so very proud of all that his has accomplished and grateful for his recognition......our familiarity to this most auspicious of greek groups dates back to our once yearly treks to monticello, williamsburg, washington d.c.......i can see clearly the visits to the raleigh tavern in the restored Williamsburg historic area.......and the docent describing how students of william and mary had founded the society in the Apollo room.......neither i nor my spouse managed such a feat......certainly not me.......given my limited mental capacity....i mention this as a response to knowledge that at supper tonight....in my absense...my mother brought up one of her current discussion topcs.....about how my brother is the one with the real brains......she and i have had this conversation before......this was the first time she delighted my assembled family with my shortcomings.......and so my pleasure at the news of andrew's phi beta kappa membership comes as a foil to my mother's disappointment over my failure to acheive such rewards.......i am humored rather than horrified by her recent focus on this IQ descriptive......i have spent a lifetime focusing on what is right with what i have done rather than dwelling on what i was too lazy or shiftless or timid to do......and while brainpower factors in there somewhere.......i must always return to the reality that is was the path i chose that brought me to this very moment.....and it is this house/family/friends/job/community that i feel blessed to call mine......jane austen has a really good quote to interject here.....but with my current short-term menopausal memory loss...i cannot quite recall what she would have said.......

yardwork......

ok, so i have pondered a bit too often about all of this feverous spring yardwork...but these sort of tasks are so tiring....and my body so aging.....that i cannot help but think about just how i wish that everything there is to do was already done.......i have not even begun to think about mulch.......oy........or started on the beds in the back of the house.......and since i so next to nothing in the way of yardwork when the summer heat ensues.......it is not like this kind of heavy labor will continue much longer........so allow me to whine and garner sympathy for a little while longer........

the window......

ok, so i failed to mention the new window.....the window that will be in the corner of the front room....beside the woodstove.....exactly where i have mildred bogg's watercolor atop the winslow homer print of small boys in a field....not the technical name but it is a good-enough identifier on this sunday evening.......my spouse has been wanting to put a window here forever......and taking down the useless chimney that covered the spot on the outside was his means to that end.....ii have already moved the small bureau that has stood under those pictures these may years.....i expect to come home from work anyday and find the window already in place.....light to the front room......what a concept........it may turn out to be the best place to sit on a saturday morning to read the paper.......summer or winter.......

mm milestone.......

ok, so i figured out how to collect all of my favorite downloads into a playlist...and then onto a burned disk.......nothing much to the cool kids.....but to this aging hipster such computer feats are worth crowing about......i can now listen to my songs on my pda, and in my car....and in a sequenced playlist while i cook supper......life is good........

judas.....

ok, so sunday school was small this morning....mostly due to the spring break...and those who were there were either completely unaware of the newly translated gospel of judas iscariot....or were unwilling to embrace the notion of a good judas.....in fact......one classmate discounted the document as fake, as judas is reported to have committed suicide afterwards, and could not have written it.......i find this ironic.....that the more information becomes available, the more some cling to what they have always believed to be so....even if events were spun to make them fit into a theologically correct framework......and while i am not accusing matthew, mark, luke and john of being spin doctors.....it is clear that along the line some folks have been vilified to suit the times.....mary magdelene is a good example of the smear campaign carried out in the 3rd century......so why cannot judas have also been portrayed in bad light to suit somebody's agenda.....as for me.....i prefer to believe that jesus was a married man......and that he probably did give himself as sacrifice to prove a point......ah well......enough for one sunday.......

the good judas....

ok, so the revelation that a new gospel, one according to judas iscariot, has been translated and published by national geographic was timely....given that today is palm sunday...and that is the day when the sunday school lesson usually involves the betrayal by judas......this newly revealed text contends that jesus asked judas to betray him.....which makes sense in that jesus already knew that judas would betray him at the last supper.....what better way to know this than having asked him to do so yourself......i would be interested to read the entire document at some point......as for the rest of the christian world......hopefully the source of the info...national geographic...will lend some credibility.......those folks do their homework before publishing a word or a picture.......

comparative lit......

ok,so.....i was reading a library book on the deck...after an exhaustive afternoon of weeding.......and i stood up with a feverish revelation........this opening chapter was not anita brookner...but colette's the break of day.........few in my limited readership could discern between colette and her detractors......not from disinterest but rather from a general lack of appreciation of madame colete....or from a sad lack of translated works........surely anita brookner has read/absorbed...break of day....i intended it to be my bookclub choice a few years ago.....but it was not available in general print....we read cheri instead......a compelling work made into gigi with audrey hepburn.....but nothing like break of day.....the opening chapter evokes the author's relationship with her mother.....i thought of colette when i read random opening chapters available at nytimes.com book section.....i reread the opening chapter to never let me go...by KAZUO ISHIGURO.......i detested this book......mostly because i found the reality more than i could stand..............may be even more than emma thompson could stand were she in the film version..............but back to brookner....leaving home is a poor woman's break of day....and i am sorry for brookner in her peevish attempt..............

weeding as catharsis

ok, so.......i had an hour or so to kill between getting home from work, and joining my workmates for an evening out....dinner at freddies and then she show at the regional arts center.....i am loathe to mouthe the name of the show for fear of being mocked.....so only those who live in danville and who pay attention to these things know of what musical i attended......but i digress.....from my hour to kill......beginning the weeding process.....starting on the right and working left.......why?.....because that is the way i have always done this progression.......i will admit to being much more brutal in this task as i have gotten older.......ripping out perennials that are encroaching on the rose bushes.......weeding is also a bit discouraging......to think that i have been pulling wild onions from the same beds for 24 years without extinguishing their kind.......i recall a book on gardening that martha stewart published early in her career.....martha actually dug up her top soil and baked it in her oven to kill both weeds and other undesirable plants........what a dichotomy......weeds versus obsessive/compulsive behaviors that could lead one's family to call 9-11........and then there is the lawn.....the actual grass is lush.....which only makes the bald spots more noticable......i attempt to coax grass to grow on these spots every year.......fluffing up the topsoil, and sowing seed and covering the spots with straw and avoiding the areas with the mower.....a reasonable person would dip up the entire front yard and lay sod......but i am not quite ready to cry uncle.......not quite yet.......think bill murray in caddyshack....battling with the groundhogs....or was it chipmunks?.......its me versus it (the bluegrass......).....and i aim to win....eventually.........

musique noveaux

ok, so......only a few of the downloaded songs on my desktop are french, but i have shoved them all into a folder so named......just to make room for more music that may come along before i have passed judgement on what i have already acquired......these decisions are not as easy as one would imagine......some tunes have slow starts.......and could be better than expected if given a chance.......the best so far (of recent downloads that includes some from sxsw and 3hive)are as follows:

glen phillips......released
khris delmhorst......under the waves
annie stella....breathe through
ben taylor......nothing that i can do
joseph arthur......speed of light
the weepies.....world spins madly around
adrienne young and little sadie.....my love will keep
pink......dear mr president
david ford.....state of the union
piers faccini....picture of you
the chapin sisters....don't love you


there are so many more in my new file......but so little time.........

immigration issues.....

ok, so the first new yorker cartoon in the newest issue pretty much says it all........

hypocrisy........

ok, so an excerpt from my day in public health......a mamma-to-be who was kicked out of her christian school when she became pregnant and 'had' to get married.....seems that babbymammas are not welcome in the bosom of the believers......gee.....so if she had aborted and not told anybody it would have been ok for her to stay?......or if she had gotten married and then told she was expecting it would have been ok?.....or maybe she should have pleaded immaculate conception and challenged them all to disprove her assertion.......as it is......i imagined myself calling out the hypocrits over this issue of premarital sex........under the banner of wdjas( what did jesus actually say)......as i recall he said....he(she) who could has commited no sin shall cast the first stone.......or words ot that effect.....wise words......given that most folks cannot claim chastity for themselves legitimitely........but i digress.....i truly felt ashamed of the christian community in talking with this girl not much younger than my own children.......hoping that if the shoe was on my foot that i would act better.........

abloom.......

ok, so my yard is abloom with the quince tree, the pear, the forsythia.....and the redbud just beginning to burst forth.......and then there are the tulips, the daffodils, the narcissia, the grape hyacinths........too bad the grass has bald patches, and has not yet been mowed......eventually i must learn to mow......but i am resisting the temptation to learn.......at least until there are no other options......at least 2 roses didn't seem to make the mild winter.......mrs. hardy and a tranplanted rose that may be reine de violette........but with old roses one doesn't get too worked up too quickly....these can come back from roots if the roots are still vital.....and i am willing to wait a bit longer before i get out the shovel.......ah, but i love springtime in the garden...........

you men are all pigs......

ok, so the chance to see a cross-section of humanity over my washington dc weekend was fruitful......there was thr asian wedding party all dressed up and taking formal portraits near the jefferson memorial.....and the ponytail family of 15 previously mentioned...and then there was the singular woman who had camped out on a park bench with the banner that read....you men are all pigs.......not men are all pigs....but you men....again...no idea what she meant by all this....i couldn't quite make out her sideline signs.......but then my feet hurt at that point in the afternoon......and the pain i felt was my own and not hers...........

ok, so my middle child and i really liked this small piece by cezanne........which was not available in poster or postcard form......it seemed quite the impressionist masterpiece......done in rapid strokes with fervor and emotion of a moment to be remembered.......the kind of painting one wanted to reach out and touch.......... 

dear mr president....

ok, so these song lyrics are by pink...but the backups are by the indigo girls....and the song is tearjerking....i downloaded it from perezhilton.com...scroll way down the page........

Dear Mr. President"
(feat. Indigo Girls)

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
How can you say
No child is left behind
We're not dumb and we're not blind
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pay the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you

backsliding.......

ok, so the mm has slid a tad.......the pull of a restful trip....the packability of my old floppy pillow......or that is what i told myself when i stuffed it into my suitcase......it is so easy to pack......i'll sleep so well on my vacation.....and now that i am home i cannot give it up (again).....or at least....not yet.........

ok, so this is the newish baby panda att he national zoo......so very cute....roley-poley cute....... 

ok, so we are home safe and sound.......and with a few photos to share......we enjoyed the cherry blossoms immensely....all these years of traveling to d.c.to see family and friends....and we had never seen the cherry trees.....so lovely....... 

medical volunteers needed....

ok,so....the washington post has a special ad section.....for recruiting medical volunteers......makes sense that the numerous gov't research facilities would recruit locally.....for folks with no health problems as well as for niche groups.....cocaine-users between the ages of 18-45, folks with acid reflux, people who have hepatitis, folks who sleep too much and people who cannot stay asleep, people willing to test an anti-dengue fever vaccine, people willing to skip theircholesterol meds.....compensation provided.....a person lucky enough to have all the right conditions and/or gutsy enough to contract new ones could almost make a career out of medical 'volunteering'..

panda tickets

ok,so.....our trip to the zoo was postponed til this morning...seems that the pandas are viewable with timed tickets.....which were fully booked until 9:10 this morning.....and since the zoo is a 30 minute walk from the metro....and we must line up tickets in-hand 20minutes ahead....and the metro ride is 35 minutes from nicks.....this entire adventure involved getting up at 6:00 am.....a lot to ask a woman who weeded for 8 hours yesterday.....i feel so sooooooo old atthis moment.....all for apanda viewing that won't appen if the pandas stay in their den......oy......

absolutely exhausted

ok,so.........i weeded flower beds today.......all day.......i find weeding a completely satisfying endeavor......though not as peaceful as one would expect.....the frogs in the nearby lilypond were courting....the national geographic kind of spectacle complete with the bulging throats and a frantic song..

making martha proud

ok,so.....yesterday we launched into gardening projects with nick rather than sightseeing......i sorted his collection of empty pots......by size and transformed their original mound into an orderly lineup......when i say 'collection' i must also add that nick has a rose growing business.....and he has accumulated thousands of containers for use in the process.....the new lineup spans thirty feet along a fence.......most gardener stores have fewer pots in stock.......meanwhile, ernst,nick, and ayle filled a truck and a flatbed trailor with junk in order to make room for a shelter for his kabota and its accessories.....i like that sort of work......clearing nd organizing....it brings pleasure to see immediate results.....today i plan to take cayle to the zoo.....maybe i can get a smaller project or two done after we get back......

a newspaper in the hand....

ok,so i am thoroughly enjoying a peaceful sunday morning .....no agenda except to relish a real rather than vitual copy of the washington post along with my coffee...this after already enjoying the walk to the road to fetch said paper....a route past numerous boxwoods....the aroma of moist box in the mornings is like madeleines to proust.....but i digress from the newspaper......articles beheld firsthand are much more compelling in person......today's art piece on shifting colors in paintings was fascinating....and a day late.....two of the pieces held up as examples were seen yesterday but without this critical knowledge i fear i appreciated them less .....ah well.....and the spring book reviews........read from paper spread over the coffeetable rather than from a glowing screen .....you know what i mean......online can never replace the pleasures of paper......

peak

ok,so.......we arrived on the tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms at peak bloom....us......and 100.000 others......a cross section of humanity.....including a wedding party taking formal photos....and a family of 15 all sporting ponytails drawn into buns....boys and girls......we surmised some sort of cult.....then off to see cezanne in provence at the national gallery....the best of the expo was a small piece called sugar bowl, pears and blue cup.....the brush work was so palpable we envisioned the meandaddy of the l.o. reaching to touch the canvas.....we savored the old masters while we had the opportunity....an exhibit of frans van mieris.....a marvelous still life with flowers that included a blue satin curtain drawn to expose the painting beneath......the fabric was so very wrinkled and lustrous and ever so real.......a nice afternoon......but now there is basketballto savor.......adeiu...

safe and sound

,ok,so......the plane trip from start.....as in leaving the house....to finish.....as in walking in nick's front door.....took 6 hours......as opposed to 10 but it felt so leisurely as to be less the time.....of course, we arrived at the louisville airport 2 hours early.....and our baggage pickup was complicated by a clog on the conveyor.....oy.....stephan was ith nick, having arrived by train earlier in the evening......roseanne was waiting up and was kind enough to let us all eat and unwind before suggesting we all turn in....i awoke this morning refreshed and eager to have my ritual tour of the garden with coffee in hand whle the dew is still on the boxwood.....nick's garden is a multi-acre showplace with 2 massive lilyponds, gazebos, gravel paths, and 'rooms' separated by 12foot box hedges or trellises.....his box have suffered from voles who burrow in their roots.....he has received a crate of ferral cats from a rescue group called friends of the felines to catch the voles.....they are currently confined to the stone springhouse.....they must be confined for two weeks to assure that they will stay......tommorrw is the day for the door to be left ajar...and we may be able to catch sight......seems cats , ferral or otherwise, are the thing with local gardeners....his friend karen has 14, which nick termed cat saturation.......he is hoping that the cats will catch the voles.....and may go so far as to acquire a terrier to catch groundhogs......we suggested a deerhound for the deer......but he won't commit to a full complement of varmint-chasing pets.....go figure......must motivate the vacationers to go downtown....the day is getting away from us