dual personalities

Tag: plants

Nothing else but miracles

by chuckofish

Both of my Christmas cactuses are budding, right on schedule! Isn’t that something? This made me think of Walt Whitman. I agree with him about miracles.

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the
        ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?

Casual simplicity

by chuckofish

Yesterday was a perfect fall day and a lovely one wherein to drive down to the city to pick up some “stuff” I won at last week’s auction. Forest Park was beautiful, sparkling in the sunshine. I drove by my old university and sighed contentedly that I no longer work there.

How happy is the little stone
That rambles in the road alone,
And doesn’t care about careers,
And exigencies never fears;
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on;
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity.

–Emily Dickinson

I had lunch with a friend and then later in the afternoon the boy and the bud came over while Lottie went to her dance class. We caught up on world events.

Then I had a Historical Society board meeting after dinner–quelle full day! Thankfully such days are not the rule.

And, look, the last rhododendron!

The Ides of March are come

by chuckofish

Today is the Ides of March–famous, as you know, for being the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. “Beware the Ides of March” was a line we knew as children, long before reading the play in ninth grade. Well, I doubt if that is the case with kids anymore. But maybe we were just odd children.

Another famous person who died on March 15 is Benjamin McLane Spock (Dr. Spock). Besides being a world-famous pediatrician, Spock won a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics with his Yale University rowing team. No kidding.

Speaking of the 1924 Olympics, I watched Chariots of Fire (1981) on TCM the other night and was reminded what a really good movie it is. Here is Siskel and Ebert’s review from back in 1981.

I’m with Ebert on this one.

I also recently watched Captains Courageous (1937) on TCM. I had not seen it in a long time and I was impressed.

I am not a big fan of Spencer Tracy, but he is great in this movie as the Portuguese fisherman who saves spoiled rich kid Freddie Bartholomew’s life and then helps him become a better person. And Freddie gives 100%. The film bears the mark of a great director–Victor Fleming–and the cast is a wonderful mix of Hollywood regulars. The sailing scenes, probably filmed in a backlot tank, are very exciting. The first time I saw this movie was around 1966 when my DP and I went to see it at our local movie theater one Saturday afternoon with our neighbor Nancy and her mother. I loved it, but was very shocked by the ending and the way Spencer Tracy’s character dies–(spoiler alert) cut in half and all stove in and sinking out of sight. It was a lot for little kids to handle.

Today is also the birthday of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh president of the U.S.A. He is out of favor these days, but he was a man of his time. The son of Ulster Presbyterians who emigrated to America in 1765, his father died just weeks before Andrew was born. Then he watched his two older brothers and his mother die–all at the hands of the British. He had strong feelings about a lot of things. It might be time to dust off The Buccaneer (1958) to watch in his honor. (Charlton Heston played Jackson twice: in The Buccaneer and in The President’s Lady (1953).

By the way, I did make some progress in my office…

…luckily I can close the closet door.

And the Christmas cactus keeps on going…

Woohoo!

And I love that Dolly did this:

“They grumbled in their tents”*

by chuckofish

What a week! Besides the usual internet technical issues that delineate my life these days, this creepy thing happened after I had retired for the evening and was reading in bed. Out of the blue a large potted plant spontaneously fell off a table and shattered, causing quite a mess. There had been no earth tremor, no sonic boom, no truck rumbling by, nothing to precipitate this happening. We have no pets that wreck havoc. What was the cause that brought about this effect?

Well, we all know that plants do move…

…and I guess my aloe plant moved just enough to knock itself off the tippy trivet on which the pot was placed.

Anyway, I had to get out of bed and clean the mess all up. (I will say my Shark vacuum cleaner made short work of the dirt debris left on the carpet after I had scooped most of it up. It looked like one of those commercials.) I repotted the plant the next day.

The world is more than we know (and not always what it seems.)

In other news, the wee laddie learned a new word last Sunday. Bugatti.

It is rather novel to hear a four-year old speak about “his Bugatti.” As you can imagine, he “loves that car,” which belonged to the OM in his childhood during the Punic Wars. For the time being, he has forgotten about “his Cooper.”

And here’s a photo from Christmas 1996–24 years ago–which I found stuck in a book. Daughters #1 and 2 are sure stylin’ in their red corduroy shorts!

Daughter #1 was 12 and #2 was 6. In six years or so, the height difference was reversed. Swiftly flow the days…

Sigh. Well, it may snow today. We’ll see. But huzzah and hurray–it’s a three-day weekend!

*Psalm 106:25; read the whole psalm here. Yes, the Bible speaks to us, even today.

Call me crazy

by chuckofish

I like to go to estate sales on Saturday morning. Last weekend my son was home so I dragged him along to an estate sale at a large house in Ladue. It was a nice house with a vintage St. Charles kitchen complete with blue metal cabinets. I didn’t find anything really, but I did get this large schefflera plant:

I was glad I had a strong young man along to tote the plant to my car! It is now getting some sun in daughter #2’s bedroom. Here is another plant I found at an estate sale last spring. It is looking much improved after a long, hot summer in our Florida room!

Sometimes I feel like I’m on the Plant Rescue Team. I guess I was just deeply effected by this as a child: