The Garden in Mid-Summer

Sunday,  July 31st, 2016

Great is the sun, and wide he goes

Through empty heaven with repose;

And in the blue and glowing days

More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull

To keep the shady parlour cool,

Yet he will find as chink or two

To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad

He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;

And through the broken edge of tiles

Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around

He bares to all the garden ground,

And sheds a warm and glittering look

Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,

Round the bright air with footing true,

To please the child, to paint the rose,

The gardener of the World, he goes.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun

The weather in June and most of July was lovely.  Not too hot, - little showers almost

every late afternoon, and sometimes the wonderful sound of raindrops on the roof, 

all through the night.

It caused the gardens and the grass to sigh with delight and grow by leaps and bounds.

However, this last week, as we anticipate August, the Sun has harnessed

all his golden steeds and they have a merry ride through blue sky and summer clouds,

while we, down here in the valley, rise early to enjoy

the coolness of the morning, water all the pots and 

do essential garden chores, and then busy ourselves with

blinds drawn, fans whirring and the A/C drying out

all the fresh summer air.

We had no air conditioning on the farm, but we set a sprinkler on the flat

roof of the house, and just the sound of water falling outside

the windows was enough to excite the imagination into some semblance of coolness.

Mornings see me out early watering pots and putting aside

pails of water for those plants that start wilting in the noonday sun.

The beds retain the moisture more efficiently, and there is the usual little jungle
that passes for an English garden.  Truly, it is too riotous
with tall yellow barn flowers and rudabeckia to qualify as a beautiful
pastel English garden, but where the perennial sweetpeas provide a background
for the purple bee balm there is a faint hint.....

Cast your eyes elsewhere though and it's mid-summer-madness-in-yellow, most everywhere.

The lilies have been lovely, - especially the Regals with their intoxicating scent.

Only this one red lily remains, - it surprised me one morning amongst all the yellow daisies

This last week the pink roses at the front gate have begun their second flush, but what really thrills me is the replacement  for the Abraham Darby, lost to the frost.

It is not vigorous, but very sweet and nicely scented, and I think it will do well in this more protected spot.

(the pretty apricot rose down below is the Abraham Darby, - blogger won't let me move it here where it belongs - and I don't suppose I will be able to squeeze Mister
Lincoln in here either, so I will add him down below, as he has been blooming continuously amongst the scarlet Bee Balm)

And the phlox - in full bloom in both the front and back gardens,  It makes me dream of a 'moonlight' garden, with its wonderful white virginity.

The oleander that spends the winter indoors is blooming its heart out this year, and has grown about four feet tall - it will have to be repotted.

The piece de resistance at the moment is the Rose of Sharon that guards the steps to the house.

Not the tidiest of shrubs as it drops its lovely blooms each day,

but spectacular and very eye-catching....

The little rainy season brought us some gorgeous skies, and by slipping out the back

I was able to get some nice pictures, - even here in town with all the wires and poles.

For those of  you who acknowledge the White Rabbit and are inclined to put any faith

in his ability to bring luck to the dog days of August, don't forget,

tomorrow morning, - first thing - toss him a verbal obeisance.....

Chopin

ABC  Wednesday
July 27, 2016
The letter is C for Chopin

In my quest to fulfill my Bucket List by playing once again all my many CD's I found in the stack today a cherished disc of a Chopin Program performed by Gwendolyn Moore, of Turtle Island, Washington, and I was immediately flooded with memories of the day my sister-in-law took me along when she went for a music lesson under Gwendolyn's tutelage.  A lovely day which ended with me buying two of her discs, one a program by Schuman, and the other a beautiful performance of Frederick Chopin's music  -  Chopin with a "C" - perfect!

Considered Poland's greatest composer, Chopin was born March 1st, 1810, growing up in a middle class family.  He was a child prodigy who  published his first composition at seven.

In Vienna, where he had made his performance debut in 1829, the audiences loved his highly technical "yet poetically expressive' playing.  In 1832 he moved to Paris, and although his delicate style didn't always enthrall the large concert audiences who were used to Franz Schubert and Beethoven, Chopin soon found employment as as recitalist and teacher.

Though Chopin had youthful love affairs and was at one time engaged, none of his relationships lasted more than a year, - until he met the French novelist Amantine  Lucile Aurore Dupin, aka George Sand.

But that's another story for another time......

Here is a lovely recording of Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat Major and I'm sorry I don't know the name of the performer, but enjoy her beautiful rendition.

For more exciting Cs visit here at ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Roger, Denise and all their Creative helpers.

A Bucket List?

ABC Wednesday
July 20th, 2016
The Letter is B, for BUCKET List

It's not that I'm closing up shop, but my Bucket List is strangely reminiscent of preparing to Close the Doors for good.

No, no, - what I am trying to do is make life more serene, - stuffing the bucket full of things accomplished and stressful decisions made....

My Bucket List doesn't contain any exotic wishes - like visiting the Taj Mahal, riding elephants in Africa or crossing Canada by rail - it is much more prosaic, but just as satisfying.....

In one corner, tucked in beside the piano, I have a chest of drawers full of music, a CD stand bulging with discs, more CDs in the tall stand Charles made to hold them and the myriad DVDs we gathered over the years,as well as the LPs that that we treasured when that's where beautiful music came from, to fill the home.  Some of them not sent twirling for years........

So that's No. 1 on my Bucket List - to listen to each of them at least once more, and keep the CD player hot on the go, from morning until evening, when occasionally I will watch a DVD, or even an old VHS that languishes towards the back.  Haven't watched On Golden Pond for years.......

And No. 2 would have to involve snapshots!  Have you any idea how many pictures you can accumulate in eight decades???  And the frames to fill them....?

Speaking of frames, how about all the pictures hanging on the walls, waiting for a little tape to be affixed assigning their final destination.  Oh, who would like what?  This will have to be No. 3 on the list, I think....

And the genealogy papers. All the emails and correspondence I saved when that was my great passion - the little notes that found their way into the family tree but still linger in files and notebooks.  No. 4, for sure....

Well, you get the drift of how my Bucket List is going to evolve into one great clean-up and when I come to the end of it I will be living a life of great simplicity and satisfaction.

Time to go and change discs on the CD - I have been listening to Louis Armstrong's Golden Jazz while I write.  Next in the queue is Nigel Kennedy's Violin Concertos...  the Concerto is too long to include, but here is a Kennedy recording that always brings tears.....

For more great Bs click here for ABC Wednesday,

 with thanks to Roger, Denise and all their helpers.

A for Auden

ABC Wednesday
July 13, 2016

The letter is A - Again
and it stands for W. H. Auden

The poet, Wystart Hugh Auden

Born in 1907 in York, England, to

George Augustus Auden and Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden

British from birth, but American from 1946,

he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

After toying with atheism he returned to Christianity

and the Anglican Church 

W.H. Auden died in 1973 in Vienna, Austria

he is a favourite.....

More 'As' as we start another round, here, at ABC Wednesdasy

with thank to Roger, Denise and Able helpers.

A Rainy Day

Saturday, July 9th, 2016

When I woke at six this morning, grabbed a robe and quickly opened the back door to the garden for Bruce to find a convenient spot to make himself comfortable (euphemism),  I discovered that the rain had been coming down in torrents and had created a great huge puddle in the back lane, - probably wide and deep enough to launch a small boat with a paper flag.....

I immediately thought of the Saturday Farmers' Market and my daughter-in-law with all her marvelous loaves of bread, and cheese sticks and cinnamon buns that she would would be transporting to a rainy venue.

However, within a half an hour, while I had my first cup of coffee, I saw a patch of blue sky high in the sky, westward, and soon there were sunny skies reflected in the waters of the mini-lake...

The rain returned about noon, - by this time I was quite nonchalant about it, and happy to have a cool day and so much welcome moisture in the garden and the hills and forests.  Last year was so dreadful for heat and wild fires.

For the rest of the morning I buried myself in Julian Barnes' "Levels of Life".


A small book, in size, - but both entertaining and heart catching in content.

Julian Barnes speaks of the levels of life, - the drifting and soaring of his account of ballooning in the first third of the book;  the photographs taken by those early ballooners that gave us the opportunity to look at ourselves with increasing awareness of the earth, and the realization that Icarus was not a warning that this particular level of the heavens was off limits....  and then in the mid section, a faux biographic story of a love relationship between Sarah Bernhardt and Captain Fred Burnaby, on the level.

It is the last desolate essay on grief and mourning that I found so meaningful.  Written in memory of his wife, it is not the first book I have read on grief, - this area of human life that is so often camouflaged with silence and evasion, and probably not fully understood until we find personally that 'what is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there'.

I have just finished reading Julian Barnes' book "The Sense of an Ending" and it still sits open and marked on my desk to pages I want/need to re-read.  A short book, - really a long essay on memory and aging.  How in our younger years if we are not too busy with the exuberance of living we might now and then give thought to the other end of life, - the 'likely pains and bleakness' that age might bring, and imagine yourself being lonely, your friends all dying, the loss of status and desire.  Well, I don't exactly remembering spending much time thinking that far into the future or being so melancholy about it......

He also speaks of memory - and history.  How to him the ancient history is more stable and believable, whereas history as it is happening now is most deliquescent (had to look that up) and hard to pin down.

And memory, I find that unless I am well ordered and AWARE of everything I do I am inclined to have a very short memory - but my long memory is fabulous!!  All sorts of things keep coming back to me from my childhood - how else would I have remembered when I was talking to my daughter on the phone (I have forgotten what we were talking about that stirred the memory)  the little ditty that  we used to replace the beginning of the Anglican Morning Prayer.

Dearly beloved brethren, the scripture moveth us in sundry places

 to go and watch the donkey races

and when the races have been run

 we'll go and see which donkey won..

There is also a story contained within the book but it was Barnes' comment on this last part of life that I kept nodding my head in agreement over - "discovering, for example, that as the witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration and therefore less certainty as to what you are or have been."  That gives one pause for thought.........

A quote from the book...  "We live with such easy assumptions, don't we?  For instance, that memory equals events plus time.  But it's all much odder than this.  Who was it said that memory is what we thought we'd forgotten?  And it ought to be obvious to us that time doesn't act as a fixative, rather as a solvent.  But it's not convenient - it's not useful - to believe this;  it doesn't help us get on with our lives; so we ignore it"......

Zorba the Greek

ABC Wednesday
July 6th, 2016

The letter is Z
Z is for ZORBA  the Greek

Enjoy!!

For more enticing Zs zip along here to ABC Wednesday,

with thanks to Denise and Roger

and their zingy helpers

This and that, but mainly remembrances...

July 2nd, 2016

Oh dear, - I have to confess to forgetting the White Rabbit as the calendar turned over into July!!!

Too late to do anything about it when my messaging son reminded me of the required obeisance!!

Nothing to do but turn three times, repeating the required imprecations, and hope for the best.....

I went out into the garden to perform,

thinking that might be a place dear to the White Rabbit's heart

where he would be most inclined to bestow the delights of July upon me.....

(my version of an English Garden with faint hints of the jungle!!)

That was yesterday.....

Today I was doing up the breakfast dishes when my eye caught 

the little calendar that sits over the sink..

The second of July, - my dearest Aunt's birthday, 

but alas, she is long gone.

Nevertheless the many wonderful memories I have of her

brought happy moments and

remembrances of times past.

How I used to hang on to her arm when we went shopping on

Saturday afternoons....

the time I spilled iodine on her tortoiseshell 

brush and mirror set, and she was so kind and forgiving....

the beautiful knitted negligee my mother made for her trousseau

and then her fiance turned out to be a cad

and she remained single until the end of her days

but so dearly loved by all her nieces and nephews.

Oh, this first week in July.....

In a few days it will be the anniversary of my sister's birth,

and she has left me too, with dear memories...

I thought about how much I miss her telephone calls;

how my house is blessed with her beautiful needlework

and pottery.......

how much I appreciate the close contact of her children on Facebook..

little messages and glimpses into their lives and those

of her grandchildren.

Well, Time taketh away, but Giveth, too...

Lovely moments to recall and be grateful for.

Things to laugh about, relationships that helped us grow

and were such a dear support.

To these two lovely ladies, my love and thanks....

Those hearts that we have treasured.......

And speaking of birthdays.....

our first born will be seventy this month....

Geez....

Yellow

ABC Wednesday
June 29th, 2016

The Letter is Y for Yellow

The pretty pastels of spring have retired from centre stage

and now that summer has arrived

the whole world glows with yellow!!!!|

At least  in my part of the World......

Lovely, - what is better than breakfast out in the morning sun

when all around you the garden  reflects

blue sky and YELLOW flowers and summer, summer, summer.....

Here's a little bonus, - a poem by Oscar Wilde

Symphony in Yellow

An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly,
And, here and there a passer-by
Shows like a little restless midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay
Are moored against the shadowy wharf,
And like a yellow silken scarf,
The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade
and flutter from the temple elms,
And at my feet the pale green Thames
Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

For more interesting Ys pop over here to ABC Wednesday
with thanks to Roger, Denise and  all who help them.

The Twelve Bar Blues

Friday, the 24th of June, 2016
as I pick up the Ukulele at the breakfast table
and practice the 12 Bar Blues......

Well, concerning the Ukulele, this is what I might aspire to if I were twenty years younger.....

....but this is what I aspire to now!!!

........and in reality, - here is where I am in my quest to entertain myself with the ukulele!!!

you can stop listening after the illustration.....

I chose this particular video to learn finger picking because the young man who teaches is so articulate and defines his words with the kind of clarity

an ancient pupil requires!

There are oodles of videos 

and all sorts of teachers

but many of them have had no lessons in diction

and I find their mumbles and slurry instructions

beyond my ken, alas, alas.....

sweet as they are!

Bruce looks at me quizzically when I pick up the Uke

tapping my foot while I try to keep the rhythm going as I slide 

awkwardly from chord to chord.

Callie just ignores this strange behavior.....

When I come to the end of the 12 bar blues I add the little connecting bit

with a flourish, - I have it down pat and it sounds quite jaunty, 

It adds a little zest to life....

X for Xystus

ABC Wednesday
June 22, 2016

The letter is X for Xystus

A new word to me, but though its origins go back to ancient Greece and the Roman Empire the name has been captured by a modern Dutch band, and it seems to me it is popular in this generation as a symbol for good health, positivity, exercise and well being.

Xystus, in its ancient useage, was defined as a long and open portico used especially by ancient Greeks or Romans for athletic exercises in wintry or stormy weather, or sometimes a walk,

 lined with trees.

In early Christian times Saint Xystus was a Pope who was chosen upon the death of St. Stephen

in 257, - the 25th from St. Peter

He was described as a peaceable and excellent prelate.

But now, in modern times, we find the name Xystus attached to a Dutch Band...

Formed in 1998 the band is described as Progressive Power Metal, but more Melodic.

The third album they released was a Rock Opera, Equilibrio

and here is one of the songs from the Opera (The Pact)

for those of you who are into heavy metal

(and I do not mean to be critical - just the wrong generation to appreciate it fully)

For more Xs cross over here to ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Roger, Denise, and all their xoxoxo helpers

Whispering

ABC Wednesday
June 15th, 2016

The Letter is W for Whispering

Whispering and Intimacy

a couple of instrumentals and a vocal

that take me back

in years

and sweet memories

well, maybe Red Nichols is going back a bit farther than that!

which appeals to you most?

and who else has tender memories??

For more Ws click here at ABC Wednesday, where there are all sorts of great Ws

with thanks to Roger and Denise and wonderful helpers.

Morning in the Garden

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

It is 6.00 a.m. when I put feet to floor and Callie stretches herself awake

at the foot of the bed, yawning widely.

Together we go to waken Bruce - well, Callie lags a little.

She still does not give Bruce her full confidence,

especially since he steals her food and

exhibits loads of hubris as he takes his place in the family.

I open the door to the back garden

and there is the faint odour of skunk permeating the cool air|!!

Bruce goes out by himself for a first morning bladder relief event

and I gather up the cushions that got rained on yesterday

while I was out and about celebrating Royal Purple Day

with Cake and Ice Cream at the Manor

(independent living for seniors)

What a welcoming rain...

I have safely shepherded pots of flowers and veggies

through an early and intense heat wave that has kept

all the fans and A/Cs in the valley

working at full speed.  

Unusual, but it has

happened before so I refrain from crying 

"Climate Change, Climate Change"

Of course it is changing and has been since time began...

hot to cold, cold to hot

the star that warms us and causes the plants to grow

has a life of its own that greatly affects ours.

Everything is looking perky in the cool morning air.

After I have had my first cup of coffee we all go out to investigate

what has happened since yesterday morning.

Oh look - lilies in bloom

and more to come 

Out by the backyard fence the tiger lilies put on a great show

with the little pin cushion flowers whose true name has gone done

my memory hole, alas.....

and there is one budding Bee Balm amongst a host of them.

It is Yellow time in the garden, and will be until frost arrives.

A blue delphinium reaches skyward against a backdrop of yellow daisies and the 

barnflower (not yet in bloom)

One pot of broccoli, and some cherry tomatoes that make my SIL green with envy....

On our way for the morning walk we stop to inspect the flowers

outside the front fence, (Bruce is not interested in the flowers

but their are some interesting smells to investigate).

and some lambs ears to nibble on...

We go in to have breakfast, and a second cup of coffee

content with what the day offers in the way of cooler weather!!!

V is for Video

AB Wednesday
June 8th, 2016

The Letter is V for Video

A Video my youngest son sent me

to lend inspiration to my Valiant attempts

to play the Ukulele....

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did/do

Will it be necessary to have a beach and palm trees 

to pick like this gal does, I wonder???

For a great Variety of Vs click here at ABC Wednesday,

with thanks to Denise, Roger and their

Veddy good helpers.

U is for Umbrella

ABC Wednesday
June 1, 2016

The letter is U - for Umbrella

No matter what you call them - a parasol, a brolly, a rainshade, a bumbershoot

the umbrella has its place by the door in those places where rain and sun are prevalent..

..

It also has its own songs!!!   Here is one of them!

For more U's do check in with ABC Wednesday, here, - with thanks to Roger, Denise and all ;umble 'elpers......

And the book stack only grows higher...

.......Even after I have removed the books that are due back at the library at the beginning of the week I am both dismayed and delighted at the treats awaiting me, and the time I feel comfortable with allotting to lolling around reading - and sometimes eating chocolates, when there are so many things I should be getting 'in order'.

The lovely long retirement that Charles and I had left me with zillions of snapshots, dozens of family, home and garden movies and videos and a great plethora of keepsakes - bits and pieces of china and jewelry that need a new home, besides all the current projects that keep me busy, busy, busy...

And the garden!

The results of a long and wonderful life are all this lovely chaos that needs be be dealt with!!!

So where shall I fit in the time to read Kate Atkinson, whose books I have just discovered.  Loved her "God in Ruins" and felt she could have spent an afternoon talking with Charles, so many of Teddy's tales  exactly matched his, - the method of choosing crews, the discipline in the air amongst the men, the tracers and the crowded streams of bombers.  I am half way through "Life after Life" but have had to leave it to quickly finish "My Name is Lucy Barton" which I am finding sensitive, but depressing......

One of the books awaiting me in the stack(s) is "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin.  I think it is right up my alley!!!  The subtitle is "Or, why I spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean my Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun".

The garden is growing by leaps and bounds.  When Bruce and I went along the fence on our evening walk I realized that passers by can no longer see me curled up with a book on the garden swing under the big umbrella.  Soon the barn flowers will be in bloom, and the little purple clematis is courting the lilac tree that leans against the fence, twining itself amongst her branches.

It has been such a kind year for the roses, - I can't remember them being so prolific.  The Day Lilies are flowering along the front fence and the delphinium are six feet high in the garden (although I lost the pretty blue one I had just planted this year??)  I tied together some old silk stockings to make a tender rope to keep the sweet peas against the fence and out of the neighbour's yards.  Great huge quantities of bloom, but these heritage sweet peas don't have the fragrance of the annuals.  The sweet allysum and the evening scented stocks join with the nicotiana to make the evening air heavenly as it slips through open windows and doors.

and June will be just as gorgeous as May

A rainy week-end forecast, - good reading weather!!!