Abundance

The daylilies are outdoing themselves. Surprising because I didn't feed them as heavily this year, but they are full, the blooms on some are so heavy they're warping the stems.

I've had an enormous blue hosta in the corner of the shade bed for years--six or seven, at least--and this is the first summer it's bloomed. It's nothing that spectacular but I'm hoping to get some seed and start some new ones.

~*~

The last couple of weeks I've gotten together with a couple of other people and we've workshopped, ate dinner, had some drinks and just enjoyed one another's company. It's been lovely--and I've gotten some serious work done on revising and rethinking some of the poems I wrote earlier this year. It's also been good prep work for Los Angeles. It's been about nine or ten years since I was in a formal workshop and I've been a little worried about having lost the ability to talk about a poem in an intelligent helpful way. I still feel like I need to brush up on terminology but I feel more confident I can talk about a poem in an analytical way.

~*~

The neighbors had a cow escape last week. A bull actually. Summer is here.

Good God...

What the hell happened to the month of June?

I'm behind on gardening--well I'm behind on lots of things--I still have about a dozen things in their pots from the nursery waiting to be sunk in the ground. It's pathetic. I swear to god I'm planting them all tomorrow morning.

What's been planted is thriving. The shade/semi-shade bed close to the house is filling in nicely. The dogwood is sending out new leaves (that was touch and go during the heat wave. I was sure I'd lose it.) My favorite find of the year is some sort of Hyssop, "Acapulco"--little bunches of tiny trumpet shaped blooms, a sort of cantaloupe color that changes to pink as the flowers spend. Really lovely. The hummingbirds love it.

Finally got around to reading J. Allyn Rosser's Foiled Again. It makes me want to keep writing sonnets.

Plane tickets bought for LA. Now if I can just get that prescription for Xanax I've always wanted.

Finally

I got to do serious gardening today. I cleared about 5 wheelbarrows of old leaves, clumps of grass and weeds from the semi-shade garden beside the front porch. I usually leave a light layer of old leaves for mulch--but since the slugs have already been out and chewing up the spiderwort and hosta I just decided to go for it and clear it all.

I've made two nursery runs and just bought like crazy: two huge japanese painted ferns, two smaller cinnamon ferns, three columbines (burgundy and creme colored), two mourning widows cranesbill geraniums, four coral bells (silver scrolls and midnight rose), four alumroot (snow angel), two white bleeding hearts, and a rosey colored astilbe. I transplanted the chartreuse leaved lungwort from its original bed along with a giant bleeding heart (which divided nicely into four), a large creme astilbe, and a nice clump of hellebore. I still need to transplant some hosta sometime this week, but for now I'm happy.

Two Lips and Happy

I'm going to hesitate before I declare it truly springy here. Sure it was 80 today and sunny and clear and lovely. But that doesn't insure it'll stay that way. Snows in April are not uncommon. But for now it's beautiful. Windows wide open and I don't even mind the twittering birds.

The chartreuse leaved lungwort is coming up in little clumps, so my dividing and transplanting last year apparently did no damage. The purple butterfly bush is finally on its way to being a full-bore shrub. No cutting it back to the ground this year, old growth from last year is budding. Things I don't even remember planting last year are coming up and I can't find my little diagrams to help me remember.

I'm not usually a fan of either: a) tulips once they're out of the bud stage or b) yellow flowers, but these I got last year on clearance for .25 a four pack and bedded are surprisingly jaunty. I think it's the little blush of pinky red

The Week that Was

Oy. Vey. Shmir.

Here's a quick recap of the week:

Monday: Bad mail day. Rejection packets. Completed application for a summer retreat went into the mail.

Tuesday: Normalish day off. Fletcher brought a large mole-like thing to the welcome mat. Mucked out the beds a little bit. Worked on revisions. Attempted to track my Amazon.com order.

Wednesday: Got to work, discovered there had been a drug bust in the hotel the day before. Arrests in the parking lot. Attempts to escape, then the dumbass local criminals return only to be arrested in and near the parking lot. Stupid employee fired. Discover that my schedule for the rest of the week is changed and that goes double for the rest of the month.

Thursday: Training new person. INSANITY from the get-go. I didn't stop moving for the first three hours. The rest of the time was just sort of slow and off-kilter. I like her though. She repeatedly called someone I loathe a douchebag. I never feel closer to someone than when we hate the same people. Missed a poetry reading on campus that I'd been looking forward to for a couple of weeks. Repeatedly sang the "Numa Numa" song because of the previous night's South Park episode. Hotel drug bust hits the local media: tv and print. Yay.

Friday: Slept til after 1 pm. Loved it. Played a little with the plants outside. The fire red tulips are blooming like crazy and I snipped a few daffodils to put in an old jelly jar on my desk. I can't remember what half of the plants coming up are right now or when certain ones come up again. I fear I killed several last year when I tried separating and transplanting. Napped a bit after dinner.

Next week looks better. There are several things I'm anticipating. But we'll just have to see how that goes.

Lung(wort) Transplant

Sideswipes and T-Bones

I've been in no mood to read poetry for the last several days. So I've dug into my long boxes and read comic books instead. I've enjoyed this break from the tyranny of thought and feeling.

~*~

Tulips budding, lilacs sending out new leaves, and the lungwort transplants are blooming their little pink blooms. It's clear today. 60 and breezy. I wish I was in the yard instead of at work.

~*~

I slept stupid the other night and am trying to convince my left shoulder that it's not pinched and painful. I am failing in this. It's time to call Dr. Oshi. I need adjusted.

Blossom Bloggin

I started cleaning out the flower beds today, mucking out the old spent stems and seed heads. The white crocuses are finally blooming (thanks for the heads up on that Pamela), the daffodils are budding and the teeny tiny tete-a-tete daffodils are in bloom. They're ridiculously small, but spread and naturalize like a dream.

Last of the (faux) Pioneer Lesbians

Ach. I struck a blow today for freedom from agricultural tyranny! All of the tomato plants and their last unripened, rotting, blighted fruits are now festering on the compost heap. Huzzah. It's hard to describe the mild pleasure I felt as I yanked each plant and tossed it in the wheelbarrow.

All that's left now is to harvest the peppers to dry and turn into braids and wreaths (that is so totally not my idea, but that's what I'm doing.)

A few weeks ago I took god knows how many pounds of peppers and made jelly and pickles..pretty tasty...but not something I'm going to do again. (When handling peppers...make sure to wash your hands before you go to take a leak...that's all, I'm sayin.) I also ended up making and canning 20 quarts of vegetable broth. That's really what sent me over the edge about never canning again. My ambition and newly found tendency toward thrift got the best of me. The broth's delicious...it's perfect for soup and stews...but never again in such quantities.

~*~

Went last Thursday to a United Methodist Rummage Sale with Ashley, Eric and Tommy...and had a great time. However...when dealing with acronyms for organizations, one should think about adolescent thirtysomethings who giggle when they see signage reading: Make checks payable to BUM Women. This was a serious rummage sale...at least 3,000 square feet of stuff. I scored a copy of the New York Times Cookbook for a buck, a verrrry 70s french press (also a buck) and some vintage/retro fabric remnants for this lap quilt I want to make this winter.

Drudgery Report

Brian told me last night I needed to post something here since it's been several days. Alas, the boy's right. There's just not much to write about. Usual round of things: gardening, reading, trying to write, etc etc etc.

~*~

It's the damnedest thing, really. It's fall now, we've had the equinox and everything, but it's still pushing 90 degrees here. Leaves are coloring and crisping and littering the yard but it's still frigging hot. Crazy. I want it to be autumn. I want to wear sweaters, cook soups and stews (but no those hideous Rachel Ray "stoup" things.)

~*~

It appears as though I'm tapped to read again next month, this time in concert with my friend Eric. I need to haul ass and get these new poems worked up.

~*~

My friend Minda sent me this list of "real life plot twists of famous authors" from Mental Floss. It's not a bad diversion. Some of them I knew, some I didn't think were necessarily "twistish" but some are gold.

2. Horatio Alger, Jr.

Apparently, the author of more than 120 "rags-to-riches" books featuring hard-working, highly moral young heroes was also an admitted pederast.

Before finding success as an author, Alger was a minister at a Unitarian Church in Brewster, Massachusetts, where he was accused of sexually assaulting two young boys. Alger admitted his guilt, but left town before the news hit the street.

Later, he wound up in New York City, where he penned hundreds of best-selling books for and about young boys, which went on to grace the shelves of homes, schools and church libraries across America.

Caesurae

I've been fixated on pause and breath and rest and space, not just in terms of poetry but real life. It's getting to be that time--almost autumn, when it seems everything is space and rest. The gardens are giving up their last, though some determined plants are hanging on--there are a few zinnias in the beds that are as strong now as they were in early August. I need to work out a plan for dead-heading and collecting seeds from certain annuals for next year.

~*~

Harvested the last few salvageable tomatoes from my home beds last night. By this point I'm sick of canning and cold-packing. So I decided I'd make some tomato soup. I opted to make it with vegetable broth instead of purely cream (this also helped me get rid of some produce from the fridge that I needed to deal with (parsley, shrooms, bits of onion, celery and carrots.)) It turned out better than I'd hoped. Today is grey and drizzly--so it made a perfect lunch.

The Bitch is Back

A mature blue-tailed skink--not to be confused
with the more populous big haired skank.

I'm back to blogging now that the festivities of last weekend are over and I'm not chained to the kitchen. Overall the party last Saturday was a success...the food was good, people ate and drank and it was a good time. That all said--I don't think I'm ever going to attempt such an ambitious undertaking any time soon.

~*~

Brian and I went to Pittsburgh on Monday and did some shopping and had dinner with friends. It was a nice little day trip and so much more comfortable weather-wise in Pittsburgh than here. Nothing really notable happened except an elderly woman stared at my fauxhawk when we walked into Boscov's. I'm not sure why...I saw much more objectionable hair during our visit.

~*~

I am seriously sick of harvesting vegetables. So far this week it's been about 25 gallons of tomatoes and an unknown quantity of beans...I'm ready for this all to be over. I'm much more entertained and enthused by coaxing the plants into vigor and thrive than I am dealing with their product. It has made me think of my grandmother, though. She would load every available flat space in her house with produce and be the closest to proud I remember seeing her.

~*~

I was shifting around empty planters and pots on the back porch last night and I spooked a blue-tailed skink from its hiding place. I was really surprised to see one that close to the house...I knew they were indigenous here but I'd never seen one before. It was a juvenile, about the length of a toothpick and very slender. Its tail is startlingly blue...much more intense than the photo allows.

Kulinary Kudzu

Behold, the patty pan squash...my botanical bete noire, the bane of my gardening existence. Sure, the zucchini gets a bad rap for its sheer bounty, but nothing I've ever seen compares to this particular squash for its unwelcome exuberance. The squashes seem to go from unripe to overlarge and inedible in a matter of hours. With most veggies I can accurately gauge how long it will be until they're ripe enough. Not these bastards. What one morning is a cute wee squash has become by the next tough and the size of a discus. And even though its been throwing out squashes for weeks now, the patch is still thick with blossoms and embryonic squashes. The large ones, though relatively worthless for dining make great vessels for flower arrangements. I made about 10 this morning for the dining room. But I know that there are more out there in the patch, sucking up the sun, engorging as I try to forget them. I want to napalm the whole damned lot.

Evening

I went and cut the acidanthera and am now enjoying it in a big glass vase as I type. They're one of the only "high maintenance" bulbs I keep. They don't winter over well here so I dig them up every fall...but I think it's worth it. The perfect tigridia is no more. I went out to cut it as well and nothin to be seen...not even a spent bloom...curious. I had a few starts of a striped purple prairie mallow on the back porch in a terra cot pot that I've been nurturing the last couple of weeks to set out this weekend...went out to water this morning and something had dug up the dirt in the pot. Out of the six I had...it seems like only two will survive.

~*~

I finished up a "curb appeal" grouping at the front entrance of the hotel this morning. Two large pagoda umbrellas and four planters. Very pretty...but very very heavy. Arbor vitae that are 6 feet tall are a bitch to move. In the middle of appraising the effect and spacing, the owner and I were in the parking lot, a woman stops her car in the middle of the street and yelled out to us that she loved the colors. It was one of those peculiar positive small town moments.

~*~

Have been pinging back and forth between Ripple Effect and Misery Prefigured the last few nights before bed.

Flourish and Yield

It amazes me how long it takes tomatoes to ripen--even the "Early Girls" are proving tardy. The plants are so weighed down they're taking the stakes with them, but the fruits are still that tomatillo green...I grow impatient. And the impatiens are full and bushy, as are the alumroot, all six varieties of cleome, the scented geraniums (rose & citronella.) The crocosmia are ready to transplant this weekend....intense little orange and red buds like a kindergartener's sketch of a flame. The acidanthera are ready to cut and bring in to my desk. And there is one intense, perfectly red tigridia in bloom. I want an hour just to sit and enjoy the whole sprawling mess...but so much needs done...trimming, deadheading, weeding...maybe after this weekend I can. I've missed the daylilies entirely. All their blooms, spent; hanging like soggy socks.

~*~

Sometime soon I'll be starting new poems...I can feel it. But I want them different. I want rush and word drunkenness and pause and...and..and....I want ecstacy.

After

The run of the show went well overall...bigger crowds than I'd expected (esp. since there were few to no roles for younger children and that seems to be what really puts asses in seats here)...but I am seriously glad it's over. More time for my own life and I can tend my garden which is getting rebellious on me.

~*~

Dreamt this morning that I woke, looked out the window and saw it raining. Never realized it was a dream at all until it was pointed out to me that it was dry outside. It's raining now though. Slow and drizzly.

~*~

Bought and finished the last Harry Potter this weekend and I'm left with a "this is all there is?" sort of feeling. Not wholly negative, not wholly positive, either.

~*~

Catching up on comments from the last couple of days here...feel free to skip this lot.

Peter: Excepting Saturday's night from hell, the run of the show was excellent. There was some sort of total cast meltdown Saturday--no one could focus and the audience was just useless...totally low affect and near-t0-unresponsive. Hard to generate energy if there's nothing to work from.

Aaron: It's not so much I'm secure...it's more I've hit this sort of Zen about things...I just don't give a feck.

Radish: This show has grown on me as I've done it...and it's all due to the music. I'm still wandering around singing tunes from it.

Snippets

We open in two days...and it finally feels like we have a real show. I left rehearsals early last night because it felt like I was coming down with bronchitis. I took some Mucinex and ended up falling asleep on the couch last night about 9:30 and slept there until 7:30 this morning. Woke up feeling fine.

~*~

The rest of this week should be easier--all the print design stuff is finally done and at the printer's, so I don't have to deal with that or last minute design meetings or any of that stuff. I can just concentrate on acting and singing and all that jazz.

~*~

There is a little girl in the show who is inarguably the rudest child I've met in my life. She reminds me of Samara from The Ring. Perhaps that's only because I want to throw her down a well.

~*~

Brian got his exam results yesterday, he passed both. I'm thrilled for him. He also gets to go to a special screening of Hairspray on Thursday (I'm only a little jealous...the John Travolta thing really makes me want to avoid this movie like the plague. Part of me hopes that since it is Baltimore that John Waters will be there...) Saturday he's driving in for the weekend and to see the show. It's almost obscene, getting to see him twice in one month.

~*~

Harvesting like crazy at work right now...tons of squash, cukes and green tomatoes.

South Pacific and Other things.

The show opens in 10 days...it doesn't seem possible. I'm supposed to be off book tonight, but I don't think it's gonna happen...I'm crap at memorization. I'm one of those types that really learns more from repetition of the lines tied to action than from sitting and reading. I'm going to do my best though. In my favor is the fact that a) I've got the songs cold and b) I've got the choreography down as well.

Spent all day yesterday designing publicity materials. The initial poster design was going to be influenced by the WW II homefront propaganda posters but it just didn't work. Too dark, too dreary. So I went with something more in line with the era's painted postcards. I'm pretty happy with the finished results. It's different than how I usually design, much more pretty and lyric, but it seems to serve well. I consulted with the printer this morning and just finished the final tweaks about an hour ago. A larger version of the image can be found here.

~*~

We had our first harvest from the hotel's garden today, two nice pie pan squash. There's going to be tons more...the squash and tomatoes are loaded and full.

The home garden's just as crazy. The tomatoes have had to be tied twice in the past week.

~*~

So much poetry to catch up on and more books coming. I've flipped through J. Allyn Rosser's Misery Prefigured over coffee the last couple of mornings and I can't wait to sit down for a good close reading. Beautiful stuff. Elaine Equi's Ripple Effect also came in the mail and I'm looking forward to it as well. But before that I have to a) free up some time and b) get through all the other stuff in the bedside stack. The delirious tyranny of options.

(I don't even want to think about when I'm going to be able to actually write.)

Name That Bloom

I saw this tree (well several of them, planted around Brian's building) while I was out of town and I love it...problem is, I don't know what it is.

I know plants and flowers but when it comes to trees and shrubs I'm pretty well clueless and lost. I'm wondering if anyone out there has an idea.

Here's a closer picture of the leaves and one of the flower bunches.

They had it in three flavors: white, light pink, and this darker pink. I'd love to get a couple of the darker pink ones for my own garden. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

And Lo

The skies broke and the rains came down...kept having flashes from the Wasteland running through my head yesterday afternoon.

Very productive morning in the garden for me--transplanted and separated purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, nicotiana and hibiscus. Even got the newest bed weeded, watered and mulched. Got everything fertilized and now don't have to worry about being gone the next several days. I still need to get the beetle traps out...they seem particularly heavy this year.

~*~

Rehearsal went very well last night--we now have more than enough men to fill out the chorus! Every year it's a fight to get men involved and I was more worried this year than most (we can't really recast sailors, marines and seabees as women), but we managed to recruit some excellent singers who can move well. The songs last night sounded really full...we're having a crash course in the parts tonight but I'm really excited.

I remembered my choreography for "Honey Bun" much to my (and the choreographer's) delight. There's a bit with a passe and then a step ball bit that had given me trouble tuesday...we're running it again tonight so hopefully I'll have it all locked in.

Took twice as long to get home last night as usual...there was an accident on my way home. I'm not surprised...there were a lot of stretches of standing water, heavy rain and mist. Sitting in traffic with the strobing lights of the responders' vehicles lighting the trees, the rain and dark made me feel very anxious. I was really aware that a panic attack could exert itself if I wasn't careful.

~*~

Lots of last minute errandy things to do today...run to the bank, renew my car license, clean out the car (with the rain this might just have to be a slapdash effort) making sure I have everything on my list. I only hope I remember all my stuff and don't show up without my underwear and toiletries like last time. Or forget Brian's birthday present like I did last time he was in town (it's only 3 months late at this point.)