Don — Page 145

The Garden in Mid-May

May 15, 2015 at 8:38 am by Claudia

Some mowing, some weeding, some watering, some garden gazing = the recipe for a very nice day. Thursday was simply a beautiful day – sunny and coolish.

Don was gone for the day filming. He didn’t get home until 1 in the morning. Filming anything takes a long time. There’s a lot of waiting around; then the scene has to be filmed, usually with several takes, then it’s filmed again from one actor’s point of view, then again from the other actor’s point of view. He also discovered he was in another scene, with no dialogue on his part, so that scene had to be filmed. But it’s all ‘in the can’ now and he can sleep in today. Can’t wait to hear more about it!

Let’s take a walk around the yard and see what’s happening:

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The Bridal Veil spirea is blooming. This bush was here when we moved in; it’s down by the road.

5-15 bridal veil 2

5-14 yellowarchangel

Yellow Archangel (a type of lamium) is just about to burst into bloom. I planted it when we first established the large garden bed. It’s been a trustworthy early spring bloomer ever since.

5-15 garden ground cover

The catmint is growing by leaps and bounds, as is the sedum and the Veronica, also known as Speedwell. That chartreuse ground cover, Creeping Jenny, has nicely filled in the garden in the two years or so since I planted it. I love that splash of chartreuse in the bed.

5-15 poppy bud

I was wrong about my Oriental Poppy. It is going to bloom! You can see a bud tucked down among the leaves. There are others as well. It’s just a little late this year.

5-15 peony bud

Oh boy. You know what’s coming. My peonies have developed buds. This one comes complete with the ever present ant. Despite the late spring, it looks like it will bloom right on schedule during the first week of June.

5-15 garden

A sun-dappled view of the left side of the big garden bed.

And if you look closely, you’ll see Scout watching us from the mini corral.

I hope you’re having a good week. I’m so happy Spring is finally here.

The winner of a copy of Low Country Boneyard by Susan M. Boyer is Claudia E. Congratulations, Claudia. I’ll be sending you an email. (By the way, I always use the Random Number Generator to pick the winners of the book giveaways.)

New post on Just Let Me Finish This Page.

Happy Friday.

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This or That?

May 13, 2015 at 8:09 am by Claudia

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The temperatures dropped over 20 degrees overnight and today will be in the sixties. Then, back up to the seventies – maybe we’ll get a week or two of actual spring weather?

I’m in a bit of a quandary at the moment. I’d planned to go to Hartford on Thursday to watch a final dress rehearsal with the orchestra in the afternoon. Then one more visit on Sunday afternoon to watch a preview. Everything was planned and written in my calendar. Then in the mid-afternoon, Don read an email to me that said he’d been cast in an episode of a new series that would be filming on…Thursday. (He will also be in two more episodes that will film in the coming weeks.) Good news, yes, but you see, we have one car. And we have a dog who needs one of us around most, but not all, of the time.

Don has to have the car on Thursday. I, therefore, cannot go to Hartford. Should I go today, when there really won’t be run-through? If I go tonight, I have to drive home late at night because Don needs the car early tomorrow morning. I don’t want to be making a two hour drive home at 11:00. So, do I go this afternoon and hang around for part of the evening? Or, do I go on Saturday, for example, watch the evening preview, stay the night, and then catch another preview on Sunday?

I sent off a flurry of emails (too many) to the Stage Manager and her response today was what I knew it would be and should be: It is up to me.

5-13 flowering quince 2

Most of the time, having one fourteen-year-old car is fine. But at times like these, it’s a pain in the tush. I comfort myself by acknowledging that even if we had two cars, both of us could not be away for a long period of time on Thursday. No can do. Little Scout needs one of us around.

Sometimes making a decision like this one is extremely difficult for me. How do I do my job to the best of my ability? I owe them two more days of work. How should I handle it? How can I best serve the actors? And then my head starts spinning.

I remind myself: in the end, it’s not an earth shattering decision.

I’ll probably go hang out there today.

Or maybe not.

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On top of that, I had to look at timetables, etc., and figure out if I wanted to take the train or a plane to and from Chautauqua. I did both last year and each has its advantages. The train trip is five hours long and arrives in Buffalo and then there is an hour and a half trip from there to Chautauqua. Some planes arrive in Buffalo, some in Erie. If the flight goes to Erie, the commute to Chautauqua is much shorter. But all plane trips involve connecting flights which total about five hours flight time and, let’s face it, flying is a hassle, plain and simple.

I went with the train.

One decision down, one to go.

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And then Don has to sweat whether he can take the bus into Manhattan on Thursday or whether he will have a very early call and have to drive into the city.

When you freelance at our age, you’re faced with lots of days of ‘leisure’ and then you’re suddenly thrown into a whirlwind of activity and decisions that have to be made and you’re driving or flying here and there and you’re worrying about how many hours you are away from Scout and you work hard and then…it’s back to slothdom.

Sigh.

Happy Wednesday.

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A Triumph (Sort Of)

May 3, 2015 at 9:52 am by Claudia

As I write this, I see tiny leaves on the maple tree that I can see through the den window.

Leaves!

The past two days have been in the high seventies and sunny, so plant life is growing by leaps and bounds. Don took his first stab at mowing part of the front lawn yesterday. I was jealous, because I love mowing the lawn, so I took a few passes until I realized I was exhausted and just might be pushing it a wee bit. And Don gave me the ‘Time Out’ sign. But it felt good. There’s lots more mowing to be done, on spring green colored grass. It looks so pretty.

Since my brain isn’t functioning at its normal whip-smart level (I joke), I find myself aimlessly on the laptop and, when I get a spurt of energy, reading a book. Maybe watering a plant and running the vacuum. Letting Scout in and out. Feeding her. Or watching the last three episodes of the second season of Broadchurch. (Good, but not as good as the first season, in my humble opinion.)

I want to be doing much more, but simply cannot, so there you go.

This particular bug is a pain in the tush.

Don had to go into the city on Thursday and Friday. Late in the afternoon on Thursday, I received a text with a picture of Don pointing to something. It was this:

5-3 magnolia bakery

Yes, that sly devil bought four cupcakes. His audition was on the Upper West Side, and what was facing him as he exited the subway? A Magnolia Bakery.

Yesterday, in a fit of feeling sorry for myself, I ate one with yellow cake and chocolate icing (my favorite combination.) It was so scrumptious that I ate another; which, if I had been in my right mind, I would have refrained from doing. I overindulged.

I actually left a bit on the plate. Untasted. Unconsumed.

This is what happens when you’re housebound and your husband knows you’re miserable and wants to make you feel better. He brings you cupcakes. You see cupcakes and you eat them. Because, even with a stuffed-up nose and a less than sharp sense of taste because of said stuffed-up nose, you can taste that chocolate icing and, well….it’s really a sort of triumph over the debilitating side effects of a cold.

Right?

Happy Sunday.

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The Garden in Mid-May

This or That?

A Triumph (Sort Of)

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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