flowers | dual personalities

May 31, 2013

You can see it in the trees; You can smell it in the breeze

by chuckofish

June is bustin’ out all over!

Look around! Look around! Look around!

The feelin’ is gettin’ so intense,
That the young Virginia creepers
Hev been huggin’ the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin’ glories on the fence!

This may be true in New England, where Carousel takes place, but sadly, things have been bustin’ out all over our flyover state for a month already. Indeed, everything starts to droop here in June. The peonies have gone by as have the irises. They were lovely.

We put off as long as we can turning on the old AC, but finally the heat gets to be too much for us, and we seal off the house. Sigh. It won’t be long now.

Oh well. I have a new calendar page for the new month–with sparkly fishes!

I have roses inside.

And roses outside.

Plus…

It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside. (Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib, 1941)

Have a good weekend! A dear friend is visiting our flyover town from the east coast this weekend and my old man is celebrating his 40th high school reunion, so this introvert will be working overtime.

Happy Birthday to Clint Eastwood who turns 83 today! I do not think I own one of his movies (except a VHS copy of Paint Your Wagon!), but if I did, I’d watch one! Here he is singing “I Talk to the Trees”. I spent a good deal of 8th grade daydreaming about him. Can you blame me?

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April 10, 2013

To-whit! To-who!—a merry note

by chuckofish

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

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February 25, 2013

Eastward in Eden

by chuckofish

After our snowy end of the week, it seemed like a good idea to visit the wonderful Missouri Botanical Garden and check out the annual orchid show. Lots of people had the same idea, of course.

All manner and kind of orchid was arranged for our viewing pleasure, but it was very crowded with people taking pictures with their cell phones. Have you noticed that people do not seem to enjoy things in the moment any more? We walked over to the Climatron and saw more hot house flowers arranged with helpful signs.

There was plenty of neat-slash-weird stuff.

Even Chihuly glass sculptures, which always seem to me to pale in the presence of the real thing. Who needs these geegaws, I ask?

Grilled cheese and tomato soup topped off our visit, plus a stop in the Garden Shop to purchase a succulent for my terrarium.

I also rescued a plant from the sale table, because, as you know, that is what I do.

“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.”
― John Calvin

“Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?”
― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

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February 11, 2013

Send me no flowers

by chuckofish

As Valentine’s Day fast approaches, I would just like to say that I hope I do not get a dozen long-stemmed red roses. Nothing says “thoughtless, auto-pilot gift” like roses. Do you know what I mean? They are expensive and let’s just admit it, not so great-looking.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, and my intention is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. I have friends who will say, “Roses are better than nothing!” But I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong. I would like something. Tulips from the grocery store. Daisies. A book. A plant. Booze. Red wine, just not red roses.

Okay, yellow roses would be okay. White even. Just not those big honking red ones.

I didn’t mean to rant, but it is just a pet peeve of mine.

Since it is Monday, I will leave you with this adorable picture of the kiddos all dressed up for Valentine’s Day in the not-too-distant past.

I miss those days of the handmade Valentines and the school essays. “I love my Mom because she makes my lunch…”–never very creative, but earnest anyway. I suppose the red roses are the earnest gift of a spouse, and we should not sneeze at that.

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January 25, 2013

Retail therapy

by chuckofish

I am all about buying myself a present now and then to keep my spirits up.

I love tulips from the grocery store or a vintage Vera scarf from eBay.

Used books are a good splurge.

But still, the best things in life are free, right?

What is your idea of good retail therapy?

8 Comments

November 12, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

It’s that time of year again. Leaf piles abound.

The neighbor’s Burning Bush is blazing again.

And last year’s hastily planted leftover chrysanthemums have come back and bloomed on the patio!

Best of all, various Christmas cacti in my home have budded and started to bloom.

Clearly a sight to cheer the soul.

Also to be noted–there are berries on the volunteer holly trees.

We are already well into November. Sigh. Can Christmas be far off? Gadzooks. Meanwhile the rhododendron keeps carrying on.

A lesson for us all.

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October 9, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

On Sunday morning I was the second lector in church and read the second lesson which was from Hebrews and included the following:

But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”

I love the vague attribution by the writer. The quote is, by the way, from Psalm 8. You may remember the less politically correct and gender-neutral version:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet…

King James Version (KJV)

And while we’re on the subject of humans being crowned with glory and honor, let’s give a big shout out to Mike Matheny, the new skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals.

You’re doing a great job, Mike. And you’re cute. But I’ve always been partial to catchers.

On a side note, the rhododendron bush in our yard has thrown out a few flowers. It normally blooms in early April. What a crazy year!

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October 8, 2012

Embarrassing picture Moday

by chuckofish

Well, it’s that time of year again when the old Halloween pictures come out, much to the chagrin of some people. Here is a picture of daughter #1 (age 5) and the boy (not quite 3) in 1989. Daughter #1 is (yet again) a witch, wearing the costume my mother made for her a few years earlier. The boy is (of course) a super hero. He is happily wearing his sister’s leotard and tights and her old white snow boots, which he loved and wore frequently–and why not? They were the next best thing to cowboy boots. He is also wearing the Batman kerchief (as a cape) that he wore every day to school that year. Yes, the boy always displayed a unique personal style.

P.S. I also want to let you faithful readers know that the concert I went to on Friday night was possibly the best ever.

I have seen Dylan, Springsteen, Sting, Haggard, Knopfler, Lyle Lovett (several times), and Guster (to name a few), but Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives were awesome. It didn’t hurt that I was sitting in the fourth row of a smaller venue. But it was wonderful. Great musicians all, they were in fine voice and having fun. Priceless.

And earlier that evening the Cardinals beat the Braves!

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September 20, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

Last night for the first time in a long time it was cool enough to take a walk after dinner. I walked past my favorite magnolia tree.

And I checked out the flora that had weathered our hot, dry summer.

I’m telling you, there were times this summer when we thought it would never cool off and that the rain would never come. But…It’s getting dark earlier. Sunrise comes later. Autumn approaches. Sweaters are necessary–not just a fashion accessory! Can pumpkins be far behind? This is my favorite time of year.

Best of all, I have a whole pile of new (and used) books to read.

A couple of these are replacements that I bought at The Strand because members of my family had borrowed them permanently (Dylan, Banks), but the rest are new reads! How good is that?

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June 8, 2012

We’ll be coming willy-nilly, Lily

by chuckofish

Tiger Lily:
Beat on a drum
And I will come

Peter Pan:
And I will come and save the brave noble red skin

Ugga wugga wigwam! I have always been a big fan of day lilies or, as we say in our flyover state, tiger-lilies. They are all over the place and they bloom for a long time during the hottest of weather. As a small child I was jealous because we did not have any in our yard. I really felt deprived. (Not that I ever verbalized this to my mother who no doubt would have gamely tried to add them to our garden.) Anyway, I have made sure that we always have them in any yard that we have lived in since I had any say in the matter.