esprit de l'escalier

Thursday treats

Tonight I headed up to my parents' house for the night. I was due to check in on our friends' pool, they've been out of the country and I've been checking the chemicals, etc. for them. And our friend and neighbor was giving a talk on urban planning differences between the US and Europe (he was born in Germany and is a landscape architect). After his talk, his wife and I had a spirited discussion about the history of cities, which I loved. They are such nice people. She insisted next time I'm up that I need to come down to their house for a proper visit. (She's a weaver, too.)

I had a surprise waiting for me at the house. My Tuesday Bassen dessert plate had come in the mail! I get the Buy Some Damn Art emails and was instantly smitten with Tuesday's work and had to buy a plate. I love it. I need to find a good spot for it. Oh, and Tuesday wrote the sweetest note to me, which was in the box. So sweet and talented. I hope I can buy some more of her pieces. (See the plate below!)

The night ended with my mother and I wandering the yard in the growing darkness, her hobbling with her broken foot in a big black boot. We walked the yard with her pointing out different plants, showing me their progress. This might be what I miss most about living with my parents. I love our spring and summer end-of-the-day walks around the yard, with drinks in our hands, admiring how the garden is growing. Some photos below. (Spoiler: more peonies. And a guest appearance from Kobe, the piggy-wig* maltese, guarding the garden.)

*My nick-name for Kobe is "Piggy-wig" because he makes porcine grunting noises when he's excited. It comes from "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" by Edward Lear, a favorite poem from childhood.

More flowers

Tonight Esther hosted a stitch and bitch at her house. I ended up getting too caught up in the Korean drama she pulled up on Hulu to pay much attention to the blanket I was attempting to crochet. (So much intrigue!) Before that got started, though, I wandered her yard to snap some photos of their roses, and their neighbor's clematis. Oh spring. I do love you.

A spring evening

I love being able to spend a spring evening in my parents' yard, stalking the dying light and the blooming flowers. It is so calming to bring the camera to my eye, compose an image, and capture a moment. There are so many more peonies this year. I am in thrall to them, as always. Mom broke her foot last week, and can't be working in her garden as much as she'd like. (But she went slugging yesterday with much success.) We both miss Frank as we wander the yard. He would love the new flowers and beds that are planted this year. I think I am always half waiting for him to run up to me to say hello. I hope you enjoy the photos I made this evening.

Spring has sprung

Here are some of the blooms I spied on my way to work last week. My favorite tulip/magnolia trees have lost their pink, as have the cherries. Such fleeting beauty, but it's hard to resist the charms of spring. Yesterday was much brisker than last week, and there was the smell of woodsmoke mingled with the perfumed trees as I walked home from work. Lovely.

Animals on Christmas

My family and I have been traveling down to Lexington for the past several years for Christmas, and when we do, we've gotten into the habit of going to Pleasant Hill on Christmas day. Pleasant Hill is a restored Shaker village, and we like to walk through the grounds and say hello to the animals on the farm. Here are a couple of animals we visited this year.

Happy weekend!

I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend. It looks like we're going to get a break from the monsoon season we've been having - it's supposed to be hot and sunny! I miss being a kid and loving the first day of pool season. This weekend I am looking forward to some barbeques with friends, the farmer's market, and maybe hit the parade.

Here's a photo of one of our tree peony plants. I'm obsessed with these flowers. The blooms only seem to last a week or so, but I love them. If they were people, I think they would get a restraining order on me. I took about a dozen or so photos with my Pentax, the same with my Nikon, and several Polaroids. I haven't uploaded all of them, because I can't choose favorites and am a little embarassed.

Evening purple

My mother bought these Siberian iris plants and planted them this month, thinking they were not going to bloom in their first year. Luckily for us, she was wrong! They bloomed and are gorgeous.

Spring greens

Here are some shots from the yard from a rainy day in April. I couldn't tell you which rainy day, since almost ALL of the days in April were rainy. (Ditto for this month, but we're supposed to get some sun this weekend!) The rain means lush greens in the yard, but delays for farmers. I hope it dries out so the farmers can get in their crops.

Saturday yellow

Yesterday I took Frank to the vet. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweets about it. I couldn't find our cat carrier and managed to lash together two laundry baskets to use as a very poor substitute. It was humiliating for the both of us. I need to buy a new carrier, because I think our 13 lb 1 oz friend is a little big for our old carrier anyway. El gato is *not* feeling himself today. He looks tired and under the weather, but yesterday evening he was feeling okay. Here's him and some yellow on our hill. I did not post yesterday because my netbook got some malware and I've been working on it to get it fixed (pain in my ass), so there will be a second post this evening.

Living the good life

Frank is currently taking on new students in his life lessons on taking it easy. Please inquire within.