Front Yard Flowers on Monday - Week 6

There’s been a rather copious amount of rain of late.  But there’s also been enough sunlight to get things going.  Around town, the forsythia are starting to bloom.  In my flowerbed,  have a cheery patch of crocus from bulbs I planted last fall.   They bloom early and set the stage for the flowers to come.

Everything else is coming along nicely and in the next few weeks there will be plenty of flowers for me to admire.

College Boys

My nephew C and his friend K flew East for their Spring Break and made my house their evening rest stop after daily trips on the train into New York City.  Most evenings, they were home in time for supper and our amusement, as these boys wrest everything they could out of the city, walking miles and miles every day.  They had a list of places and things to see and they visited both obvious landmarks and locations and also random places along the way.  My favorite story was hearing that they stopped by the New York Public Library, had a look at the famous lions, and then went inside with their books and read for an hour.  They enjoyed that so much, they made a trip to visit the Brooklyn Public Library for the same purpose.  Perhaps it’s because I am a big reader or perhaps it’s because they are 19 year old boys and such an hour seems unexpected, but I found that charming.  On Saturday night, I cooked up a fried chicken supper and T and I joined them as they polished off a good deal of food.  Then C, K, and JT watched basketball and offered the smart-ass commentary that I have come to expect.  

That’s happy!

Old Man Tree: April 1st

Careful readers will likely recall my steadfast pledge to spend at least some of Spring Break tearing the poison ivy off of this tree.  The break started promising on this front, with a sunny but cold day.  Then we got nearly a foot of snow and the cold weather to go with it and just like that, the poison ivy earned itself another month of life.  I have got to get after it this month, hopefully before the business of serious growth takes hold.  

And it is surely taking hold.  Though yesterday was cold and rainy, there have been enough warm days combined with the snowmelt and rain to give the grass the fresh green hue that signals Spring is about to take command.  Old Man Tree had some buds that fell in the rain; that's the signal that my tree will begin to green up very shortly.  

This stage of Spring has an expectant air to it that I always enjoy.  The anticipation of the splendid blooms that are on their way fills me with gratitude and excitement.  These branches will look quite different in just one month's time.

That’s happy!

March Book Report: Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell is a careful historian who gets her details right and retains a wicked clever sense of humor in the process.  I first found her work on NPR’s show “This American Life.”  Her essays there were always terrific.  Her books are just as engaging, placing historical time in the context of current events.  This weaving of our history has the effect of highlighting who we were and who we have become.  It’s thoughtful and engaging.  Vowell is fond of our American ancestors without being sentimental or cloying about them.  She isn’t afraid to call them out for their bone-headed decisions.  Reading her work is like having a conversation with your most clever friend.  I never cease to enjoy that conversation.

This month, I read Vowell’s book about the Marquis de Lafayette, the young French noble who was instrumental in bringing French support to the American Revolution.  Published in 2015, the book is part history and part political commentary.  At the age of 19, Lafayette came to the American colonies in search of adventure, hooked up with George Washington and never looked back.  Vowell tells his story by tracing Lafayette’s progress through the colonies during the Revolutionary War and his return visit to the young United States in 1824-1825.  She connects the story of a divided young nation in the 1780s to the divided nation of the contemporary political world.  

And she can turn a phrase.  

Writing of the Battle of Brandywine, which occurred on Quaker-owned land in 1777, she reflects on the monument to peace that area Quakers erected at the site and writes,  “A Quaker in a straw hat is standing next to that quote, so I say hello and we start shooting the breeze about Eisenhower.  I mention that Ike also said, “All wars are stupid and they can be started stupidly.”  I’m pretty sure the last time I made someone’s face light up like that was when I told my New Deal Democrat grandfather that I got a point taken off an elementary school test for failing to capitalize the word “Republican.”

Pondering the separation with England and its consequence for slaves, Vowell notes that Parliament banned slavery in 1833, 30 years before the Emancipation Proclamation and then she writes, “You know your country has a checkered past when you find yourself sitting around pondering the humanitarian upside of sticking with the British Empire.”

Like all of Vowell’s work, I found myself laughing and thinking about her words long after the story was complete.  In my book, that's a good read.

Real Life Texts with C: Family Humor edition

The backstory: My nephew C and his friend K are on Spring Break.  They came west to see New York City and each day this week, the college boys have taken the train into the city to explore the Big Apple.  On Wednesday, they went to the Bronx Zoo and we exchanged texts.

Me:  Enjoy the zoo.  Also, bring me a bear.

C:  A stuffed bear or are K and I about to hop this fence for you?

Me:  Hop the fence!

Sass is in our gene pool.

Seasonally Affected

My house has small closets and I compensate for that fact by using my upstairs attic closet to store sweaters and out-of-season clothes.  Twice a year, I swap out the closet in my bedroom.  My declaration of the hour of seasonal change isn’t entirely random, but in all honesty it is driven by my desire to start the next season.  Once I make the swap, I am fully committed to the change.  Mother Nature doesn’t quite turn one season off in order to switch to the next and her slower seasonal transition can rather trip me up, especially in the Spring, the season I most long to enjoy.

I manage to avoid facing the snow in sandals, but I am occasionally cold in the Spring.  This is what happens when you’ve packed away cold weather tights and wool sweaters and skirts in favor of linen and cotton clothing and summery sandals and shoes.  I guess my pride will have to keep me warm.

Front Yard Flowers on Monday - Week 5

There was enough sunlight to melt much of the snow leftover from the March 14 storm, but this flowerbed looks to the East and is shaded by the house, so it always takes its time to warm up.  One corner of the beds has bulbs that get a little more sunlight.

The rest are coming along nicely and most of the snow has melted.  There’s an old-fashioned saying that Spring snow is a poor man’s fertilizer.  It’s true that snow at this time of year is quite good for the garden.  That’s reason enough to patiently await the blooms that I will shortly enjoy.

Back in the Saddle

Our lovely two week Spring Break has ended and the students return to school this morning.  I expect they will be well-rested and energetic and that’s good; I feel pretty well-rested myself.  April and May, with sunlight, blooms, and warmth tend to make us all giddy with the season.  I’m excited for the coming summer myself, so the children can certainly be excused.  I spent my break getting things done and I’m pleased with the work I’ve finished.  

From here on out the time flies.  We’ve three weeks until Easter and just seven more after that and then the school year closes out.  The chores I completed during the break are a down payment on the insanity that surrounds the close of the school year and I feel rested and ready to face the busy days.

Here we go!

Visions of Spring

It’s a well-established fact that I love bedding and enjoy a seasonal change of my quilts and duvets.  I think we should blame my childhood, when my bed had a set of trellis-patterned floral sheets.  I remember the print and how much I enjoyed following the pattern with with a race car, up and down the rows on the sheets.  I loved those sheets and their arrival on my bed always made me happy.  I don’t play with race cars anymore, but I do enjoy a change of bedding.

Spring Break occasioned the changeover of my closet (more on that later) and if Spring clothes were in the wind then I wanted Spring bedding as well.  In an uncharacteristic display of practicality, I realize that though I long for Spring’s green and warmth, what I actually have is longer days that are still quite cold and often below freezing in the evening.  So the down comforter must stay.    But I have a fern-printed duvet to provide the longed-for green.

The duvet is warm.  So I’ll tuck into a warm, Spring-like bed in the evening.  That’s happy!

Front Porch in March

On the first of the month, eager for the warmth and sunlight of Spring, I headed to the front porch, set out some warm weather decorations, and made pictures to share on my blog.

Nearly at once, the wind began to blow and much of March has found the bunny flag at a horizontal.  I spent my time looking to keep the items on the table from blowing right off the porch.  It didn't seem right to post pictures of an idyllic porch in the sunlight.  Then it snowed and it’s remained cold enough for the snow to linger in my yard.  So much for my dreams of Spring.

Mother Nature hasn’t quite gotten with the program.  But April is just around the corner and Easter is on the horizon.  

And I always live in hope.