ABC Wednesday

The letter X

X is for Xanadu

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree,
And here with forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!


Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an excerpt

lKubla Khan is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep in 1816. According to Coleridge's "Preface" to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium influenced dream after reading a work describing the Tartar king, Kublai Khan.. Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by an individual from Porlock. The poem could not be completed according to its original 200-300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. Although the specific details of Coleridge's "Preface" are debatable, he most likely composed Kubla Khan during autumn 1797 and let it lay unpublished and kept to private readings until 1816 when, on the prompting by George Gordon Byron, it was made available to the public. - from Wikipedia

In modern times the poem inspired a 1980 romantic musical directed by Robert Greenwood and starring Olivia Newton John, Michael Beck and Gene Kelly.  XANADU is the Chinese province where Khan established his enchanted pleasure garden.

For other takes on the letter X, well X marks the spot where you should hop over to ABC Wednesday.

A recent report from the Official Inspector of Rural Lines Instituted and Maintained by the Chinese Lantern Underground Railway.....

I am out in the garden deadheading roses and pushing aside this great vibrant growth in an attempt to clear the garden paths that were first such an important part of ny original penciled dream plan - beautiful artistic stepping stones (that I have since discovered cost an arm and a leg) winding through the garden, separating the delphinium from the bee balm and the roses from the lilies, - leading through scented plots of nicotiana and spidery cleome.

Alas, can you find them - these beautiful orderly pathways....

A marvelous garden for a cat's meandering, through shady undergrowth (chickweed)  and errant sweet alysum that tickles a cat's whiskers with delightful fragrance.

After a great deal of staking and pruning it is possible to corral the most vigorous and splendid plants, but the shoots that dismount from the Chinese Lantern Underground Railway Stations and push their way up through daisies and peonies and poppies and any other plant that takes their fancy are impossible to control.  They tower above the peonies and shade the Sweet William, and much as I love the beautiful orange lanterns they produce in the fall, a whole garden of them is just too much.  Their railway lines are long, straight white pencil thin roots - miles and miles of them that traverse the garden, back and forth, back and forth,  and sometimes crosswise.

It is a lethal Corporation, and one intent on establishing itself in the vicinity of anyone who innocently plants and tends this vagabond who goes under the name of Physalis.  Well organized too, as I am sure the Company maintains an army of Inspectors who ensure that the line runs efficiently and enthusiastically.

I am led to believe this by a small scrap of paper I found in the garden whereon it was noted, in tiny cramped handwriting, that the Line was being vandalized repeatedly by a bedraggled human who searches out the various stopping stations and destroys the lovely green shoots who depart the train and who want nothing more than peaceful co-existence with the other inhabitants of the garden, and to light up their brilliant orange lanterns when Fall comes, and with it the more sombre colours.

Should I feel guilty?

Skywatch Friday

Thunderheads in the Similkameen on Saturday, the 19th of June.

In the end it was all a big bluff, - the clouds went thither and the skies grew friendly again.

For more interesting skies from around the world visit Skywatch Friday here.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is W

And I have turned to Sesame Street once again and one of their interpretations of the Letter W.

Enjoy.....



If you want to hear about more of the wonderful letters that start with W, like wind and wave and who and why and where and whither make your Way to to ABC Wednesday, Which is found Here.

Where, oh where did this glorious jewel of a day come from. 

The weather forecast said clouds and showers, but this morning I was first up and 'what to my wondering eyes did appear' but an upside down bowl of pure blue with just a few wisps of white like the remnants of whipped meringue dropped from a heavenly spoon.

After turning on the percolator the camera and I flew down the steps and into the garden.  Such bliss, - faint fragrances, long shadows and poppies shimmering in the morning sun.

Around in the shaded borders the delicate volunteers that have taken up residence crowd

 together in delicate cheerfulness.

The Abraham Darby catches the morning rays

The lovely new yellow rose lies shaded under its bright green leaves

A few new Stargazers open their petals to the sun

Down the path a little way, and the remnants of the peonies gathers itself together

 for a surprise day of sunshine.

The Philadelphia Orange flings its creamy blossoms against the heavenly bowl

I stop to admire the last of the iris to bloom 

and then to go in and retrieve a cup of fresh perked coffee to enjoy with

the quietness, the lovely mystical air of the morning garden

and the wonderful serendipity of this gift of sunshine

amidst days of lowering clouds and showers.

Skywatch Friday

Variable Similkameen Skies

Sunday evening, as the sun slipped away the skies to the north resembled an approaching forest fire....

The next morning blue sky and pure white clouds promised a fine day.....

By mid-afternoon things were looking troublesome to the south ....

Though the evening sun in the west lit the pasture a few miles to the south it was dark and foreboding.

and it's been raining off and on ever since!   The Optomist  amongst us watches the cherries ripen and knows by the time they are ready to pick the skies will have unloaded all their moisture and sunny cherry picking weather will be with us again....

For more worldly skies visit here at Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is the veritable V

V is for Vanity

One of the Seven Deadly Sins.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, Vanity is the conviction that one's own attractiveness to others exceeds reality.

This was not always the meaning of Vanity, - at one time before the 14th century it merely meant futility, and perhaps in the end that is what self idolatry is all about.

"The stories of Lucifer, Narcissus, and others attend to a pernicious aspect of vanity" - resulting in one becoming divorced from the graces of God(s).

Two famous painting depict the peculiar self-pride that is vanity, one by Frank Cadogan Cowper and the other by Titian.

Cowper

Titian

And poor Narcissus "As divine punishment he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing it was merely an image, and he wasted away to death, not being able to leave the beauty of his own reflection."

But perhaps the picture that most morbidly depicts the reality of Vanity  is that of C. Allan Gilbert.

His picture is an optical illusion in which what appears to be a large grinning skull reveals itself to be a young woman gazing at her reflection in the mirror, reminding us that the passage of years will rob one of shallow vainglory.

An unsettling thought, but one that speaks to the virtues of humility and its comfort in old age.....

I am sure there are more cheerful aspects for the letter V at ABC Wednesday and you can visit them by clicking Here.

A Lark in the Garden, with Pictures

"O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing." -   Dinah Maria Mulock Craik,

click to play

Skywatch Friday

June 11th, 20100

Sunset in the Similkameen Friday, June 4th, 2010

For more lovely skies - Skywatch Friday HERE.

Nature by Numbers from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

I had planned to incorporate this video with some garden pictures, but was so entranced by it I felt it could stand on its own as a beautiful interpretation of the Fibonacci principle and the Golden Ratio.

Tomorrow we'll stroll through the garden, if all goes well.

The flower is the poetry of reproduction.  It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.  ~Jean Giraudoux

"Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare

And left the flushed print in a poppy there." -   Francis Thompson

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is the UBIQUITOUS U

We are sitting on the back step, Charles and I, having morning coffee.

I am pondering the letter U....

What do you think is a good word for the letter U, I sez to Charles.

Quick as a wink Charles sez to me "UNDERWEAR"

I ponder some more and I wonder what avenue of research I should follow?
Did he mean 'historically', or was he referring to underwear from a practical point of view - or was that a faint reminiscent gleam in his blue bedroom eyes I saw?

After cursorily Googling images of modern UNDERWEAR  and old time UNDERWEAR with my blinkers on I decided that I would make the following my contribution to the Letter U.



To enjoy more interpretations of the letter U visit ABC Wednesday here.

In the last few days I have been putting in time, waiting for recovery updates of a loved one who has had major heart surgery.

I haven't been able to settle to anything.  I pick things up and put them down, - knit a few rows and then check the computer for news.

A basket of miscellaneous papers caught my eye, and while riffling idly through them my mind was distracted, first by those old familiar lines of Omar Khayyam typed on yellow copy paper in the days of the Underwood typewriter and Carbons.........

I sometimes think that never blows so red

the Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;

That every Hyacinth the Garden wears

Dropt in its Lap from some once lovely Head.

And this delightful Herb whose tender Green

Fledges the River's Lip on which we lean -

Ah lean upon it lightly! for who knows

From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!

Ah, my Beloved, fill the Cup that clears

Today of past Regrets and future Fears -

Tomorrow? - why, Tomorrow I may be

Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n Thousand Years.

I picked up a few more pages and came across an article by George Jonas on the subject of 'losing your past to the memory hole', and I remembered the rueful thoughts I had when I first read this...

"........what really irks is the gradual loss of the one thing that was supposed to be definitely yours: the past.  Well, whatever the good news, the bad news is your past is trickling down what George Orwell called the memory hole."

I remembered being amazed at my grandmother's memories of her early days and now I realize that the most recent memories are the first to slide down the memory hole so that you can never be sure if you are going up the stairs or down when you stop on the landing to contemplate what you are going for, but you remember with great clarity the name of the boy who kissed you in Grade One (Walter Ewenson)

I checked the computer again, - no news.

Here is a green folder with seven sock patterns, - I leafed through them curiously and admire some marked EXPERIENCED - terribly intricate, but nevertheless I dream.

I am getting a little bored with knitting the same pattern over and over for my Christmas project, - even changing the colours of heels and toes hasn't illuminated my interest, - but wait, - here is a pair knitted from  toe to top!!  I will go and look for the right size needles in a little while, if my enthusiasm lasts.

There are some knitted on one circular needle, and some knitted on two circular needles, but I think I will not push my luck, - I learned to knit socks when I was young and  the memory retrieval was at it's highest point!!

I dug a little deeper and came across some 10 pages graced with a three holed punch and held together with a large paper clip.    It is entitled "in the beginning:  two stories of creation"  and the pages are divided into two columns, one for each story.  I set it aside with plans to revive my memory and help sort out the ideas that beset me about traditional and post modern Christianity.

Time to check the e-mail again, and this time there was news, - not perfect news, but reassuring -  so that I felt energized and able to take up the day and leave my basket of papers for another time.  

My thoughts turned to the date - June 6th, the Anniversary of D Day, and the memories of that day when I was young and we were all aware of the bravery and courage and sacrifices the day demanded, as we left our work and went to the Cathedral to pray for the young men who held freedom in their hands, the freedom of the people of Europe and ultimately the freedom of the world.  And I gave thanks....

Skywatch Friday

An evening shower in the Similkameen, June 2nd, 2010

For more wonderful sky pictures from around the world click here and visit Skywatch Friday.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is the elegant T

T is for Tarantella

Continuing the musical theme from last week, here is a wonderful video of David Harris and Jelani Eddington   playing Gottschalk's Grand Tarantella.  These two musicians have graced this Blog before, but they give such a great performance I couldn't resist adding them again for your enjoyment....



And here is a gypsy version of the Tarantella Calabrese that should make you want to dance!



For more T's visit here at ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kind helpers.

The last few days have brought a little of this, a bit of that, a smidgin of nostalgia, an earthy fragrance

redolent of the garden, and when I contemplated them all together

behold!  a lovely potpourri!

I was tidying the book shelves at the Bargain Centre when I ran across a book which

immediately leapt into my hands, and stirred up memories of days when I read avidly the author's

views of life, of marriage, of love and friendship.  Small notes in the margins, underlined paragraphs,

and where had these cherished books disappeared to?

Merle Shain, the Canadian journalist and author, died in 1989, about the time we left the farm and moved to town and life changed.  I can remember giving a copy of her book "Hearts that we Broke Long Ago" to someone I felt would benefit from it, but how did she disappear from my heart's radar screen with only a faint trace of lavender for remembrance until this book came once again into my hands?

"People who are loving toward each other set up their marriages so that it is possible for both partners to get what they need from life and so that no one is expected to give up his needs to meet those of his spouse. And when their partner meets one of their needs they accept it as a gift, instead of viewing each unmet one as if it were a betrayal".

When I read this particular quote the sweet smell of roses drifted up from the basket of potpourri.

Today we took the car to Penticton to have its oil changed and we seemed to be bathed in an aura of the still tender greens of the grassy hillsides and the springtime shades of new leaves.

May has been wet, but our reward is these lovely green hills

and gardens that are bursting with delight at the cool weather and draughts of water that feed their thirsty roots.

I think this special gift of green hills and burgeoning gardens must account for the lovely smell of bergamot....

A birthday visit with a granddaughter who 'lives away' and who we don't see too often any more was especially precious this afternoon, and it must have been the aroma of the lilies of the valley that enveloped me as we talked and embraced and as I enjoyed her happiness with life.

I came home and made my favourite stir fry, - chicken and onions and colourful strips of peppers, with a hint of lemon and pineapple on a bed of rice, - hoping that Charles will adopt it as one of his favourites too.  It adds that beautiful fruity fragrance to the potpourri.

My nose is twitching in anticipation of tomorrow's addition to this mix of lovely smells.

Skywatch Friday

A variety of skies in the Similkameen this week....

On the 21at a brilliant rainbow with pots of gold at both ends!

Showers in the distant hills

Painterly early morning sky

A gentle sunrise

Moody, brooding skies that turned on the taps of heaven...

For more interesting sky pictures visit here at Skywatch Friday.