Can You Spell Kauai?

I FINALLY learned how to spell it by Googling it enough times - about 17 majillion. I still don't know how the natives pronounce it, but I aim to find out.
There were so many choices on where to go for vacation, but when it's two people deciding there's always a flaw and it takes twice as long.
It has to be warm. It has to have beaches. It has to be interesting. It has to be relaxing.
So it was finally decided: Kauai it was. I will have pictures when I get back and hopefully the time to post them. I have been a really bad blogger lately, and since this is my journal (she reminds herself) I had better do a lot more writing and posting.
February has been a busy month, with lots to do at work and a lot to do at home. It snowed again on us and the temperatures have been very cold. I told the tree peonies not to leaf out yet, but they never listen to me. Year after year, they just keep getting more and more frisky and can't wait for spring. They have to sprout out those lovely green leaves that spread themselves in the sun and waggle in the breeze. In the fall they turn gorgeous colors. And the flowers!? Well, search this blog for "peonies" and you'll come up with lots of finds, I'm sure.
Here is one more picture and then it is time to do something non-electronic. I know, it's hard to find that nowadays, but I want to find a book to read, so off I go to my "library" - femminismo

Let's Go On, Shall We?

LET'S leave that video behind and speak of events that have lifted us up into this great new spring we're embarking into. (Sorry if I've been away a bit.)
I guess I like to think of us on some big boat - all together - emerging from the winter storms into a calmer, more energizing sea.
A Sea Change! That's what we've gotten, with the birds trilling at twilight. The Mister and I heard one bird last night, giving three whistles and then a warble. Three whistles, then a warble. (Anyone? Anyone? Anyone know what this bird is?) Some other bird with the same call, but further away, trilled right back at him/her. Courtship going on all over the place and the leaves on the trees obligingly filling out to hide those nests way up in their branches. (No one will ever find us here, my darling!)
Long after we thought it would never end, winter has yielded and seems set for a better course. Today (Sunday) there were torrents of rain and more expected tomorrow, but Saturday was a glorious day and our hoes and rakes got no rest. Neither did our backs, arms, legs and shoulders. The Mister hacked vile weeds from the yard and I went around with the rake and wheelbarrow and hauled them to the compost barrel. (good riddance)
I planted sweet peas in a tray, inside, to let them root and then place those seedlings in the ground outside. This method is from a magazine article and since my sweet peas tend to mysteriously disappear (hungry sharp-eyed birds?) I thought I would try this and grow them up a bit before planting. I'll let you know how it goes.
The mossy culvert pipe is from our trip up to the property last weekend. This pipe used to be part of the old bridge (I think) before it washed away after beavers dammed the river. Looks like a glorious hideout now doesn't it, if a sudden downpour should strike.
Our area is bursting forth in blossoms - on the trees and bushes. This flower was so sweet-smelling, it reminded me of daphne. The shrub was very large, however, and the flowers were there first with little leaves coming out now. Anyone know what it is? Three blooms perfumed my whole office.
This lush ornamental tree is close to my office, too, and is a very nice shape. The flowers are translucent - the pink and white so pretty it makes a little ache in your throat. I absolutely had to share them.
Spring makes me remember the little valley where I grew up. It could have been England, the hills were such a verdant green, and in the afternoon when the golden sun was setting and the smell of lilacs and cherry blossoms perfumed the air, it was all you would want for a magic kingdom.
We now have peonies blooming in our own back yard and I will (again) hate to see the petals fall once they are done. For now, here is just a sample - femminismo
p.s. Tuesday night I start "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"

The Light Is With Us A Bit Longer

THE DAYS are staying a little bit longer it seems and signs of renewal are all around.
Mushroom compost decays in the garden, promising a rich beginning for our summer garden. Tulips are rising from the flower beds and magnolias have fuzzy coats over the blossoms to keep them warm until next month. The Star Magnolia will unfurl first, with delicate white blooms. Then the tulip tree magnolia will burst forth in pink, with petals so thick and voluptuous you could serve them for dinner filled with Russian caviar.
The flowers come first and then the leaves. It's the same with the forsythia and cherry tree.
Tree peonies have dark green leaves unfurling too and we hope no February ice storms will head our way. Lenten roses are the saving grace of our garden, appearing early on with lovely blooms such a magnificent purple (in this planting anyway) and bullet-proof foliage.
The moss I brought down from the woods and placed on top of the bird feeder has flourished during the drippy winter weather and is a rich, bright green.
The small gray bird will not need the feeder, however. It has not lasted through our winter. Brought down from the skies to fall beneath the redwood tree, he lies there until he too becomes part of a little bit of everything. Insects, small mammals and soil.
I can't wait to smell the first breath of spring. Already we are hearing the noise of frogs awakening down at the creek at the foot of our street and they promise a quick return to the backbreaking work of weeding the flower beds. But it's exciting at the same time, and old promises of planting a greater variety of beautiful flowers to last throughout the summer are heard once more throughout the land.
I hope you see small signs of spring wherever you are - femminismo
p.s. The cat in the window was a photo I took at random from the movie "Love and Other Catastrophes." (please come visit me in jail)

Sunlight On Fragile Petals.

TONIGHT I am feeling as fragile as these white petals. Waiting for a breeze to knock me loose, hanging on the only way I know how - through instinct and the longing to belong.
I feel as if I am in the middle of something - a place in life halfway in-between - where everything will either get really good or really bad.
Maybe it's because I edited 19 obituaries in the past two days and I'm wondering what I will leave behind.
Will it say "avid blogger" in my obituary? Will it say "she liked to tear apart books and let them rot in Oregon's winter rain"? Will it say she could cry looking at flower petals? Will it tell the truth and say "she only liked to cook for parties"?
Click on the picture and enjoy every nuanced shadow of every petal and let me know if you feel the same way. Do you feel temporary, transitory, transient?
A big "T" for me tonight - femminismo

May Day and the Eerie Wind

THIS AFTERNOON, if we lived in California, you might have thought the Santa Ana winds were kicking up a storm. But it was just an odd sort of very warm Oregon wind loping through our local area. It felt so very good after a week of cool temperatures, with mornings in the frosty 30s just a couple days ago.
But this isn't the Weather Channel, so enough about the wind. How about some "Animal Planet"? I was over by the window and could still hear the birds chirping away outside and it's almost 9 p.m. Do you suppose Mama and Papa Bird have to do 3 o'clock feedings? Well, someone was making themselves heard outside in the camellia bushes!
Speaking of birds - and one subject does seem to lead to another - I was outside in the garden earlier and, between the mourning doves cooing and the empty spot in the garden where the Disintegration Project used to be, things seemed a little mournful. That is, until I noticed how very well my transplanted lupine is doing and how the Solomon's seal is forming its floral pendants. And how very lusciously lovely the tree peonies look.
Now the project that Seth started among 123 artists, in many parts of the world, has ended ... sort of. The Disintegration Discovery - DisCo - begins, and we'll see where we go from here. Here is a bit of what the tied pages look like after four months outside laying on the ground. Can you see the glittery slug trails? Click on it to make the picture larger. Not too lovely, are they, these aged things? Have we learned something about the ravages of time here? But look at the character! They made it through rain, wind, snow, hail and freezing weather. Does this tell us something about perseverance?
Here is the project on the very first day, laid out in the garden, pristine and white with just a touch of gesso to protect the pages a bit.
OK, just a couple more pictures of the loveliness from the garden and then I'm off to bed. Tulip petticoats in yellow with a touch of red.
And this white fluted-edge tulip does look like a white slip a lady might discretely reveal by crossing her legs oh so graciously.
Flowers are such sexy things! - femminismo
p.s. Here's a lady who knows it's true.

Unfurling And Pushing Up

MAY is on its way, and soon these luscious tree peony petals will be layering the sidewalk. This is always a sad moment of spring because I would so like to save all of these pink petals just as they are, so ripe and juicy with this great color. (The branches are over my head, about 6-7 feet tall.)
However, it's never to be. Time cannot stand still for any man ... or any flower. Here they are reaching up into the April sky. Behind them is the copper-topped trellis that supports the clematis. I don't happen to know its name, but I may post a picture of a bloom when it happens. Maybe someone else out there has one and knows the official nomenclature.
It's been cool and rainy and the day is fast approaching - May 1 - when our Disintegration Projects, inspired by Seth, will come in from the weather and submit themselves to our human hands, rather than Mother Nature's. I have been considering what to do with my rotted and withered pages, but have decided "persactly" what to do.
I had a lovely April birthday with these glorious flowers picked from my daughter's own yard. She is now in her "own" first house since she left home and there may be a purchase in the offing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her - femminismo
p.s. Speaking of flowers, anyone know what these small yellow daffodil/narcissus crossbreed are? The scent is lovely, like something you'd want to eat!