Royal Events

From my mother I learned to look at England as the "Mother Country." Long ago, she and I watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth - as if she would be our queen also - on the small, fuzzy screen of the black and white television in our living room. Today the entire wired world could watch another grand ceremony as her grandson Prince William married his beautiful bride. There is not much to say about it that hasn't been said already, but aside from the way it seemed to go storybook perfectly, I was impressed with the civility and national pride of the common citizens. Wouldn't it be nice if Americans behaved so well at big events. I think the country of America could learn a thing or two about manners from its "Mother."

Men at Work

I remember often hearing my mother say, “I just love to watch men work.” She liked to see manly men doing MANual work. Since girls learn from their mothers, I have always felt the same way. Today the nice landscaper and his hard working Mexican partner came to spend some of the day in my yard doing just. It was a good opportunity for observation. Alfredo, the small, happy Mexican worked for hours, raking, digging, spreading pine needles, hauling off heavy stuff, hardly broke a sweat, and proved to be much stronger than he apperared. I don’t know how he did it. The landscaper, who says he is actually an arborist, loves nature and can be a talker as well. As we wandered around the yard, he explained the proper way to prune, educated me on the sensitivity of dogwoods, and talked about some of the interesting birds he had seen. The day could not have been more perfect for outside work. Mother should have been here with me!

Happy Birthday to you!

to Connie:

None of us are as young
as we were. So what?
Friendship never ages.

WH Auden

Living above the status quo

Since I haven’t done anything new or different lately, I could say that my life may seem to be about maintaining the status quo, but that is not really true. Life on earth, even in my own little corner of the world, is always happening, always exciting. Sometimes it comes in seeing the tomato seeds I planted in a tiny makeshift greenhouse poking up through the damp packaged soil and feeling hopeful they will grow big enough to plant and then produce some wonderful summer tomatoes.(I can taste 'em now.) Sometimes joy comes in conversations, hearing great music, accomplishing a task, taking on a new day, learning something new, having something to look forward to, or in counting my many blessings. Life is always lively!

What is wrong with this picture?

Ouch! Where is the editor? The proofreader?

pretty pop-ups

I have noticed that the yard is a bit like time. If you don't decide what to fill it with, something will come along and fill it for you. Like time, sometimes it is something surprisingly good things that come along, like these pretty little wildflowers growing perhaps where grass should be.

This year's dandelion picture

Dandelions are wondrous little flowers. I took quite a few nice photographs this morning but settled on this single free floating floret for my blog.

Today's picture

For many years I have enjoyed writing and considered it my creative outlet, but now I have an intriguing new love, watercolor, that has replaced it. As I have posted, it is much harder than it looks, but I am thinking that is a good thing. When something is difficult and you really want it, you work harder for it. I am going to give myself a couple of years to get decent at this form of art. After all, I need to have something to do the next twenty-five years. This design of this little picture is not my own. I patterned after one that I saw on line.

Weathering the Storms

In the early spring about ten years ago, after we had been in this house for three years, I was surprised to see a few tulip leaves pushing up through the ground almost under the foundation plants in front of the house. They produced three pretty red flowers that year, and during the following years as their roots started spreading, the flowers grew in number; last year I had sixteen. I kept count. But last year was also when the landscaper came to pull out the overgrown foundation plants and redo the entire front area. I feared I would lose those colorful flowers. But this spring, the pretty little cluster of tulips popped back up. I was so happy to see them and even cut a few to use for a watercolor subject. Last night much of the South including Greenville experienced a violent storm, heavy rains and winds that tore limbs off trees, but this morning the tulips were strong and blowing in the breeze like cheerful red flags on flexible green flagpoles. They have weathered many storms of life. Their bulbs and roots must go deep down into that nourishing red clay for them to be as resilient as they have been. Once again, an analogy between plants and people.

Perfect timing

In my house, the clock I depend on the most is an atomic clock that hangs in the most strategic position for frequent checking. It is one I am not responsible for setting either fast or slow, but one that a transmitter in Colorado perfectly takes care of for me. However for the past three weeks it has been an hour behind time requiring some simple math on my part. How quickly our minds adapt. This morning when I saw it, I thought I must be late! Then I checked my old faithful pocket watch that I also use as a telephone, and it had the same time. Now I feel like DST has officially started and the timepiece in the sky and I are in sync.

welcome!

What a beautiful day! I think that all around the past week, it has been drizzly and chilly and allergen provoking, and enough is enough! Yesterday the sun came out and today is once again lovely. The dogwoods are in bloom, grass is growing, birds are singing (I even saw a bluebird), a breeze is blowing, and it's a good time to soak up some Vitamin D. Whatever we call it - weather, climate or the atmosphere - it definitely has an effect on our moods, whether we are out in it much or not. I prefer the mood that results from a beautiful day. Now it feels like spring.

haha

We are coming to the end of a great day if you happen to be a practical joker, and if you happen to work with some people who are, a non-practical joker can get in on some of the fun. There were a few purple gloves twisted into ridiculous shapes and calls made with (erroneous) info that a few of our least favorite patients were coming in. How nice to have some playmates on April Fool's Day.