Don — Page 184

What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

September 9, 2013 at 7:54 am by Claudia

morninggloryupdate

The latest morning glory update from Don’s iPhone. It changes daily as those pretty blooms only last one day. Seems wrong, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t they last weeks at a time? I’m thinking there might not be any left when I get back home.

This faint thread of melody (from Bye Bye Birdie) keeps going through my mind:

What’s the story, morning glory?
What’s the word, hummingbird?

Which resolves to:

Have you heard about Hugo and Kim?

It’s from the opening number, The Telephone Hour, where lots of teens are on the phone with each other passing on the news that Hugo and Kim going steady. Ah, a more innocent time. I directed a high school production of Bye, Bye Birdie many years ago, pre-moving away from my hometown and going to grad school. I’m still in contact with several of those kids, who are, ahem, in their forties now.

What? How could that happen? They were 16 and 17 years old when I met them and they are still that age in my mind.

Speaking of productions, Don tells me his American Experience won’t be aired until January – something about starting off the new season with this episode. He learned this when he was doing some voice-over work in the recording studio the other day. Oliver Platt, who was also in the studio, is doing the narration. Just keeping you up-to-date!

The weather has been pretty spectacular around here lately and on Friday, when Don drove me back to Hartford, the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue with lovely wispy clouds. Here we are on a local road we often use:

drivetohartford

I made Don stop the car so I could take a picture of the yellow barn and the vine-covered silo.

yellowbarn

silo

yellowoutbuilding

How often do you see a yellow barn? I wonder how old this farm is? I’d love to explore the innards of that barn.

We stopped at Trader Joe’s along the way, of course, and Scoutie worked her charm on a fellow shopper:

scoutcharming

Everyone loves that girl. By the way, in the “Don’t assume things about a person of a certain age” category, that lovely lady and her husband were driving that red Jeep. Unexpected and, I must say, delightful.

This is shaping up to be an all-iPhone photo post. Today is my day off and I have to run some errands this morning. Hopefully the air conditioning in my apartment, which is not working at the moment, will be fixed today. Please. And I think I’m going to meet my former student for coffee, which makes me very happy. We have a lot of catching up to do.

It’s still summer, by the way. I repeat: it’s still summer.

Happy Monday.

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A Glimpse of Blue

September 7, 2013 at 8:40 am by Claudia

No sooner had I published my post yesterday morning (using photos I had taken on Thursday) than, while on a trip to the kitchen for some more coffee, I glimpsed a bit of blue in the Chicken Wire Fence Garden.

I went to the door and looked out the window. “You’re seeing things!” I said to myself, wherein I promptly sat back down in my blogging chair for another hour or so.

Fast forward an hour. Don is up, drinking coffee. I keep thinking about that mysterious flash of blue. Still in my pajamas, I put on some shoes, go outside and see this:

morningglory1

What??? It’s as if the Universe listened to my pleas for “just one morning glory bud to open before I leave for Hartford.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. A big fat, gorgeous morning glory had opened in the early morning hours.

morningglory2

Perfection.

I ran back into the cottage, yelling to barely-awake Don.

“Oh my god, you have to come outside! You have to come out now! One of the morning glories has opened! Just come outside, now!!” I grabbed my camera and hightailed it back outside.

Wait…what do I see? Another bloom.

morningglorysmall

I had to pull this one through one of the openings in the chicken wire. It was sort of hidden. Hello, bloom! Get some sun!

And wait….what do I see on the other side of the fence?

morninggloryback

Another bloom. For Scoutie’s viewing pleasure.

Three blooms for Claudia on a Friday morning.

Don, to his credit, emerged somewhat sleepily from the house about 5 minutes later. Bless his heart. He couldn’t believe how big the flowers were. His assignment? Take a daily photo of the morning glory progress, because there are lots and lots of buds ready to pop open.

morningglory3

I’m so friggin’ excited! I know that many of you are saying, “Claudia, what’s the big deal? Morning Glories are a dime a dozen. Some ‘experts’ even call them invasive.”

Well, my little heart is pumping with pride because I had just about given up on any bloom this year, since I sowed those seeds a little later than I had planned. (The first batch didn’t take.) It’s September. Everyone in blogland is chatting about fall, though it’s still technically summer, my friends. And I will keep celebrating summer until the first day of autumn. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s summer as long as things are blooming in my gardens. End of story.

Invasive? Have at it. Go for it. Make yourself at home.

morninggloryside

Such old-fashioned, cottage garden gorgeousness.

Why did I have to leave when all of this wonder is popping out along my fence? Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

On the other hand, I think Mother Nature took pity on me and said, “She’s leaving again, you know. Give the girl a thrill. Open up a few of those Morning Glories.”

Thank you, Mother Nature. (My mom taught me to say please and thank you. I’m nothing if not polite.)

morningglorywideview

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

Walt Whitman

High praise, indeed, from Mr. Whitman. Here’s to the glories of the Morning Glory.

Happy Saturday.

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The Chicken Wire Fence Garden

September 6, 2013 at 9:06 am by Claudia

zinniagarden

This little garden gives me enormous pleasure. I call it by various names; the garden next to the dog corral, the narrow garden, the zinnia garden, the chicken wire fence garden. It’s just a little strip of soil that I carved out last year in order to grow some flowers from seed. This year the whole thing is rather late blooming. I think that’s why I like it so much. When the rest of the gardens have declined and I’m thinking summer is over, along comes this little show-off.

morninggloryscout

The dog corral is made of chicken wire. It’s about as basic as you can get. Planting these flowers along the fence line adds a casual, farm-like feel to the property. This year I added some morning glory seeds and there are buds all over the place, soon to be blooming. But not until I’m back in Hartford, I fear.

Don has instructions to get out his iPhone and take lots of pictures.

I also have a sunflower that will bloom soon. I planted a lot of sunflower seeds and only one came up.

zinniagarden2

zinniagarden3

greencritter

Hello, little guy.

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Next year I want to add more of these narrow beds next to the fence line. I dream of morning glories blooming all along the chicken wire fence. It would certainly add a lot of charm to Scoutie’s dog corral, wouldn’t it?

I like old-fashioned plants. Old-fashioned in the best way, of course. Lilac bushes, rose bushes, zinnias, morning glories, hollyhocks. I like gardens that look like they sprang up and went a wee bit crazy much more than carefully manicured spaces. I admire those gardens and love looking at them, but they’re not me. I’m a cottage gal. And that means, for me, a bit of joyous abandon.

Scout and I spent the day together yesterday as Don had to go into the city for a little voice-over work for the American Experience/PBS program. By the way, we think it’s going to air sometime in November. I’ll keep you posted, of course. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day and my little girl and I had a lovely time. She doesn’t eat right when I’m gone and I’m just now getting her back on track. But it’s sort of pointless as I am returning to Hartford today and it will all go out the window. She was so happy yesterday when Don returned and all three of us were together. It breaks my heart to have to leave her again. It’s too much for her, all this coming and going.

It’s too much for me.

house

Goodbye little cottage and sweet family. It’s back to work for me.

Three more weeks to go.

Happy Friday.

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What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

A Glimpse of Blue

The Chicken Wire Fence Garden

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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