coinage

last night i went to the car wash carrying only two twenty dollar bills. not very smart as you shall see. the first of the bills went to the $10 car wash. in goes the twenty dollar bill, out comes ten gold sacagawea one dollar coins. this was no surprise its happened before with my usual eight dollar wash. and i dont mind - i use the coins at drive thrus for coffee. after the wash i manuever around the side of the building to the vacuum section. one dollar for four minutes. so i insert sacagawea in the slot and she doesnt budge. i force it and jiggle it and meet with continued resistance. so i climb the vacuum pedestal to read the notice by the slot - quarters only. no problem. theres a change machine over by the armour-all wipes and the thirsty polishing cloths. but the change machine takes only bills not coin. after much muttering and cussing i deposit my second twenty and receive in change eighty (80!) quarters, eight of which are used for the vacuum. anybody need change for the laundry?

lost

about a year ago i rented the entire first season of the tv show Lost. i watched it in about week, three episodes a night. then i took another week and watched the entire second season online. and got totally hooked. so wednesday nights this season have found me glued to the tube at 10 watching the third season. tonight was the two hour season finale. ive been waiting for this for days now and even quit the red sox-yankees game in the fifth to watch it. i cried when charlie drowned (as desmond predicted he would), was delighted to see hurley become an unlikely hero, and was shocked to be looking at jacks future when i thought it was his past. other than possible summer reruns the show is over for now. until february. thats a long time to wait. for the next nine months on wednesday nights i think i may be lost without lost.

newt?

when i was about eleven i went to camp kirby for a week, with the girl scouts i believe. while i was there i caught a salamander that looked just like this one recently spotted in the yard. now that im an adult, i think it might be a newt but at the time it was a salamander. and his name was kirby. i kept him in the cabin, i smuggled him home somehow, and he lived in a shallow dish on top of the old upright piano. but not for long. one day i decided he must need water and i poured it on. kirby did a quick panicked dance then froze in place. dead. in my minds eye i can still picture it happening. other than mosquitos on extremities or flies on the walls, its the only thing ive ever killed.

apple blossom time

a shot of the crab apple in the yard. the one planted during the wedding weekend last fall. not only did it make it through the winter its in bloom. and quite beautiful.

such a deal

ive had my eye on this box since march. its been sitting in a crowded antique store under a table and behind a headboard. ive stopped to just look at it several times and have thought about buying it for months. obviously i dont make purchases like this lightly. but today i offered the woman what i thought was a reasonable place to begin the dealing. and she just said "sold". she never even haggled, never dickered, never negotiated. so now i wonder if its worth what i paid for it. i hope so because i sure do love it.

extreme serendipity

while most of the posts to this blog relate to things that somehow tickle or delight me (like the squinty faces on these posies), there are not many that are truly, in my mind, serendipitous. but something occurred this week and, after initial disbelief, i cant stop thinking about it. heres what happened. i was looking at the website of an online database of information that changes daily. activities, sites of interest, what happened in history on that day, word of the day, stuff like that. after i checked the present day info i clicked over to my birthday and started reading about the events of that day. now i happen to have a long-standing affinity for quotes, so i of course clicked on the quote of the day. and what appeared was one of my all time favorite quotations - the one ive had on the sidebar of this blog for so long, about the world being full of magical things. yeah, that one at the top right just above my profile. turns out the author and i not only share the same outlook on the world, we share the same birthday. and how serendipitous is that?

orange

in mid may just as the lilac buds begin to swell, i hang orange slices on the tree just outside the window. baltimore orioles feed on this fruit and now is when they return to our area. but the only baltimore orioles ive seen so far have been the ones in uniform during last weeks red sox games. that is until today. as i was leaving hand on the doorknob the orange movement in the lilac caught my eye. and there he was - enjoying a lovely lunch that just matched his striking color.

whine

the semester has ended and i need to get grades posted this week. assessing final projects, averaging semester grades, trying to be firm but fair. its a huge task for me. so ive been quite busy. no time for the fun of blogging. sob.

in the knick of time

night before last i was at a take-out place waiting for my lobster roll and diet pepsi when i turned to face the setting sun and found it brilliantly illuminating the seed pods on this tree at the far end of the parking lot. and did i have my good camera with me? noooo. so i grabbed the point-and-shoot and shot like mad to take advantage of the fading light. between the pixel size and the digital zoom, i managed to capture this. pretty nifty little camera, huh?

for all mothers

and for mothers-to-be. I heard this poem on npr this week. its pretty funny - but the message is lasting.

"The Lanyard"
by Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

the trio

in woods and in fields ferns slowly unroll up from the ground in may. there are special ferns out there called fiddleheads that can be sauteed lightly in butter and eaten. i dont think these are the right ones though. they all look like the head of a fiddle to me.

more money

on the wooded perimeter of the yard grows this lunaria. actually it was planted about a decade ago and has been long gone. or so i thought. here stands a solitary plant already in bloom. its a biennial so last year there were no flowers on the plant and this year its growing cycle will cease. but as it gets older it will form next years seeds in papery thin shiny silver dollar sized seed pods. they look like coins. thats why its called money plant. why its also referred to as honesty i have no idea. honestly.

change

im not a big fan of change. it can weigh you down. you can feel its presence wherever you are and in whatever you do. and no matter how you rearrange the things around it you still know it there. given my druthers i leave change behind. its just too cumbersome for me.

daffodils in & out

so i stand corrected (actually i sit corrected). all those daffodil bulbs i planted last fall are coming up after all. here the tiny volunteers from the compost pile on the windowsill - just outside a sea of yellow blooms.

rest in peace

today the cat died. he was very old very unsteady and very scrawny. he was diabetic and he may have been deaf. he slept under the woodstove and drove me crazy crying for food. he was always underfoot and it was only a matter of time before i tripped over him. and he hadnt caught a mouse in years. but he was always at the door when i came in. always at the side of the bed in the morning when i woke up. always ready to rub and purr like a kitten when he was petted. he was a pretty good cat. rip kitsa.

spring shower

a party this afternoon showered the girl and her soon to be baby with presents advice and well-wishes. the theme for the entire event was sweet peas - as in new baby as in flowers as in scents. i volunteered to make the favors - sweet pea scented candles in glass holders wrapped with ribbon and embellished with a baby charm. how charming.

undercover

with gas prices on the rise my days of joy riding may soon be over. regardless this morning a friend and i took off for parts unknown and traveled roads never before taken. a lovely ride with old houses and architecture and even a garage sale. a high point was coming upon this covered bridge and snapping pictures all the way through to the other side.

this buds for you

heres a lilac beginning to leaf out. and i have nothing prosaic or poetic to say about it. i just really love this photo.

sympathy and more

today i had to shop for a sympathy card for a family who lost a baby. it was so difficult. i cant imagine how devastated they all must be. the thoughts and questions that must go through their minds. what words, what image, what poor sentiment could ever begin to ease the burden of such tragedy? i cannot conceive of such a loss.

forsythia

forsythia is now in bloom. from a distance, the shrubbery looks like a beautiful cloud of sunny yellow. up close its not so pretty. just a bunch of funny little simple flowers running up and down a bumpy branch. it gets worse. when the flowers begin to go by green leaves appear and the plant is two-toned for a while. and finally it becomes an often scraggly plain old green bush for the rest of the summer. i could never understand the appeal of it - with the possible exception of these few glorious weeks in may.

may day

the first day of may. used to be that on this day kids would make those paper cone baskets and fill them with tissue paper and pipe cleaner flowers and hang them on doorknobs of loved ones and neighbors. there were those complicated may pole dances with the streamers. but now all may day is is the first day of may. and rabbit rabbit for luck.

'tis (not) the season

i am of the fervent belief that anyone who has christmas decorations still on public display after ash wednesday should be heavily fined (double the fine for icicle lights) and made to consume all thats left of last years fruitcake. what do you think?

books

here sits the pile of books i really want to read. ive even started some of them. i honestly do love to read and i always have. but do i do it regularly? no. too busy too tired too distracted by other things. do i miss reading? oh yes. so in an effort to get myself back in the reading habit i have added another component to this blogs sidebar - what im reading. see it there on the right? i am reading that book and i will read the others. hows that for positive thinking? just know that it may take me a while to get through them all.

a walk in the woods

early spring is a good time for such a walk. plants and trees are growing and in bloom but pesky black flies and mosquitoes are not yet out. but this spring has been an odd one. my walk today proved that. the insects are indeed not out. but neither are the wildflowers - trillium, lady slippers, canada lily, wild oats. the most impressive thing i saw on my walk was the creek coursing down the hillside - and this very rotten tree trunk.

a bloomin' shame

smack in the middle of the vegetable garden the first of the daffodils are almost ready to bloom. but these are old bulbs, the ones that have been coming back every april for years. and what of the new bulbs, those planted last fall? the fifty plus jonquils and daffodils scattered at the base of trees and in front of rock walls? thin green spiky leaves are all thats showing. i am not holding out hope for any buds there. what a pity. theyre not even remarkable enough for a photo.

leftovers

the bird feeders have come down for the season. if theyre left out thin and hungry bears will raid them looking for food after a long winters nap. in the process they could destroy not only the feeders but the poles theyre on and quite possibly the trees theyre near. all that and be really close to the house. its not worth the gamble to feed birds through spring. so when this suet cake is gone its gone. and this woodpecker may be the one to get the last of it.

crabapple tree

the day following the wedding last fall s&s planted their crabapple in the yard. since they dont live here ive felt somewhat responsible for its care. when it was planted it was october so the tree was of course headed into dormancy. in winter the apples coated with ice and eventually shriveled up. one day in spring robins made a meal of them. but at no time since it was planted has there been any overt indication that the tree was either alive or dead. until now. buds are starting to swell and leaves are just beginning to appear. i cant wait to see how it finally flowers.

the last of the snow

this is the spot in the yard that never gets sun. so its the last place for the snow to melt. in other years i have shoveled this particular area bare and tossed the snow into the street to hasten its departure. but this year natures doing the trick. with the temperatures weve been having im guessing this patch will be gone by mid afternoon. goodbye winter.

sweep!

in a three game series the red sox have swept the yankees. to sweeten the wins last nights game featured an incredible sequence of four home runs in a row. how euphoric is that.

jeepers creepers - peepers!!

the penultimate sign of spring - peepers! small frogs that reappear in the spring after a winter of hibernation under bark or logs. they lay eggs now and their mating call is at times deafening. and although ive been listening all week long tonight was the first time i heard them. play the movie. not much to look at certainly - but just listen!!

local color

finally the hardware store in town has pansies for sale. rows and rows of these sunny little multicolored faces waiting to be bought and taken home and planted in pots. so i did.

nuthatch

its not too often that this little guy sits like this. normally hes hopping up and down on the branches of the lilac sometimes upside down. he flits to the evergreen and back time after time. but this morning he just sat very quietly on the trunk for a few moments. just looking here and there taking in the sights and sounds of a warm spring morning.

more water

recent rains have left water where there previously was none. across the roads. in the woods. running down hillsides. look carefully and youll see the image of the kitchen window wreath and all reflected here in the lawn.

virginia

so hard to blog tonight about the trivial and mundane - weather, spring, the cat - when such tragedy has taken place on a college campus. i think of my own students the same age as those dead. promising bright happy lives cut short in such a swift senseless brutal act. and a dark mind so disturbed with an intent that will never be understood. never. i wonder - did teachers notice him when he was a little boy? did they listen to him and ask questions? were they gentle with him? did someone bring joy to his life? make him smile and laugh? dealing with students of all ages i pray that i have the good sense and the skills and that i make the time to try in some small way to touch the lives of those kids i meet.

water water everywhere

not an out of focus picture. just blurred by torrential rain thats all. the storm continued all day and created streams in streets downed branches covering roads and gales that whipped the tops of tall pines. the big army trenchcoat and my sturdiest umbrella were no match for the elements and around mid day i finally gave up trying to stay dry. tonight the rain has diminished and the air is finally still. a peaceful night for rest following a sleepless one with howling wind and pounding sleet all through the night.

nor'easter

what a difference a day makes. and even the few hours since i took this shot of the blueberry bushes covered with snow from our third winter storm this month. tonight the wind has picked up and as i write the sleet starts to batter the nearby window. the lilacs are so laden with heavy snow i worry that limbs may snap from the weight and the wind. its turning into one of those nights thats not fit for man nor beast. a tea by the fireplace in your coziest slippers kind of night. in mid-april. imagine that.

beginning to bud

i dont know what sort of tree this is. a maple perhaps. its pretty nondescript in summer. just a nice green leafy tree. but springtime brings a special distinction. every year its one of the first around to show any signs of new growth. and there it is. see those tiny stamens? those little anthers? this tree will soon flower and then leaf out. first in the area to hint at summer.

quote

"like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops." -kurt vonnegut (1922-2007). so it goes.

the ride home

they let us go home early. the afternoon stretches ahead of me. i do believe ill take a nap. its that kind of day.

take warning, sailors

red sun in morning, sailors take warning,
red sun at night, sailor's delight.
nothing looks delightful about this sunrise. another winter storm, headed to new england. should be here in a few hours. doesnt anyone remember that its supposed to be spring by now?

surprises in the compost

every spring something suddenly pops out growing in the compost pile. a volunteer if you will. some potted something that was tossed there after its flower went by and its leaves died back. one of those spring bulbs thats not supposed to come back because its been forced. yet there it is the next year. once it was a tulip. last year it was tiny little daffodils. and this year its this hyacinth. i know it will flower white and have a heady fragrance. i remember it well from last spring.

jellybean monday

today is jellybean monday, the day after easter sunday....so named because of the sugar content in the girl and other small folk on this day. granted that was a long time ago but isn't it a good name still? from the aforementioned girl we have black jellybeans my favorite. licorice flavor - the only ones ill eat. and part of the appeal is that my tongue gets all black when i do. wouldn't that have made an interesting photo!

easter sunday

the balloon says it all!!
happy easter!

holy saturday

tomorrow is easter. more importantly tonight is the night before easter. and on this night something magical happens. every year in the middle of the night an easter balloon mysteriously appears tied to my car. and always with a few carrots dangling from the end of the ribbon. i have tried my best to find out the identity of this "bunny". ive asked friends and neighbors. ive actually accused people. ive stayed up late. ive checked for footprints in the snow. one year i sat at the window all night and got up only once - and just for a minute - and when i came back the balloon was there. this balloon has appeared every night before easter year after year after year for at least twenty years now. maybe more. oh except for the year i was staying at a small inn in the english countryside on easter. then the balloon was delivered to my table at easter brunch!! truly! so tonight i wait, certain that in the morning my easter gift will be there. well, pretty sure it will be there. i think it will. i hope...

#11

the unanticipated photo op. flocks of robins have been around the crabapple all morning long.

the unexpected snow day

the top 10 things i love about this being a snow day:
#10: the excitement in my colleagues voice when she called at 5:30
#9: sleeping in
#8: no meetings
#7: nothing planned and all sorts of extra time
#6: the second cup of coffee - and maybe a third
#5: pjs and no make-up
#4: music all day instead of just in the car
#3: the anticipation of a nap on the couch
#2: time to read my novel
#1: being able to watch dice-k make his pitching debut at 2pm

evening song

last night i went out at dusk and listened to something i haven't heard since last fall. something that only happens when the weather is warm. birds high up in the pines were singing before they settled down for the night. quiet lazy calls to each other that echo and diminish and finally stop for the night. heres the video so you can hear. i hope.

keeping the home fries burning

sorry. i couldnt resist. fyi: ive been trying to upload that video and i still cant do it. i will persist. in the meantime we may all have to be content with still photos. and really bad puns.

oh phooey

so here i am about ready to branch out and expand my horizons (and yours) and upload not a photo but a video! or at least try to. i took one this evening and was looking forward to sharing. but the site is down and i cant upload the video. perhaps those are the ups and downs of blogging.

opening day

today baseball season begins. this years schedule stretches endlessly through spring then summer and into fall. today is much like new years day - or the first day of school - or the day after your birthday. only better. its a day filled with so much hope, so much promise for the future. play ball.