flowers — Page 54

Flowers, Books, Laptop

July 20, 2021 at 8:21 am by Claudia

I’ve never seen so many flowers on this particular day lily open at the same time. I happened to walk around the side of the house to this garden bed and what a sight to behold! If only day lilies weren’t day lilies, if you know what I mean. Shouldn’t these beauties be allowed to bloom for a week? Or longer?

Today promises to be sunny and hot, but where will I be? Driving over an hour to the Apple Store to finally take my laptop in. Reminder: the ‘t’ key isn’t working. All this time, I’ve been delaying appointments, either because of the weather or because of my shoulder/neck problems which made me uncomfortable driving. Or because I just wasn’t in the mood. I downloaded photos for the blog via my laptop and then wrote the posts on Don’s laptop. This morning, I downloaded several photos to the blog so I’ll have some available for future posts should I have to leave the laptop for repair – which seems likely. I forget how much I rely on my little computer.

Anyway, this will take up much of the day.

What else is new? I’ve been reading a book on Monet, which I’m enjoying. I’m reading an Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway mystery. We are watching the Swedish version of Wallander and, let me tell you, it is stunningly good. Far better, in my opinion, than the Branagh version. I really like Kenneth Branagh, but Krister Henriksson, who plays Wallander in the Swedish version is brilliant, beyond brilliant – as is the rest of the cast. Henriksson is Wallander. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

We’ve been watching so much Nordic Noir that I now want to visit Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. If only…

I’m not hearing quite as much birdsong in the morning, which always makes me sad. I know it happens every year, but oh, how I miss it. There’s still birdsong, but not nearly enough. I did hear a wren this morning, but it’s now clear that our ‘tenants’ aren’t going to have another brood in our little birdhouse. Mama robin, on the other hand, is still on the nest. I watched her yesterday and I think she was feeding at least one baby, but I can’t swear to it.

Okay. Have to go and start getting ready for the trek.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

The Scamp

July 17, 2021 at 9:37 am by Claudia

We mowed the front lawn and the back forty yesterday. Even though it was relatively early in the morning, it was so hot and humid that we were drenched by the time we finished. But we knew we had to get it done before the weekend, which is going to involve a lot of rain and thunderstorms.

I always love looking at the lawn after it’s just been mowed. Everything that wasn’t an early bloomer is blooming in the garden now. The brown-eyed susans just started opening. July in the garden is the best. By August, things will start winding down, but let’s not go there yet.

Anyway, we worked very hard and we were pooped for the rest of the day. I also yanked some weeds while I was at it.

This morning as I was sitting in the den, I heard a little noise on the porch. Couldn’t see anything. But I got up to investigate and sure enough, our little groundhog had been exploring. And by little, I do mean little, this one is on the petite side. He apparently felt rather scampish this morning because he was soon heading toward the edge of the big flower bed, where he munched on some weeds. When he got up on his hind legs and started to investigate a coneflower, I opened the door and told him to move on. At one point this morning, I heard Don say “What is he doing?” Apparently our unnamed groundhog had climbed up on the bench on the funky patio, where I have two pots of lavender and a brush that I use to clean out the birdbath. Don told me the groundhog actually put the brush in his paws and held it up! Boy, I wish I’d been able to get a photo of that!

We actually don’t see him very often and we’ve remarked on that. So this morning’s frolics were unexpected and amusing.

Because of all that activity, I had to go outside a couple of times, so I gave in and yanked some more weeds. In this unbearably humid weather, early morning is the best time to do that kind of thing and I often forget to.

Still haven’t begun a new painting. See: exhausted from mowing.

Hey, I have a favor to ask of you. We’ve noticed that when we google Don’s name, that box that appears on to the right of all the search results sometimes shows something from Rotten Tomatoes, which is a film site. And it says, “Don Sparks was…” We’ve written them several times about that and I finally got a response from a guy who said that their data provider always uses the passive tense. And that, despite Rotten Tomatoes challenging that, they won’t change. I investigated the passages on Meryl Streep and Harrison Ford, and sure enough, they are also in the passive tense. The problem on Don’s is that the third word is ‘was’ which most people would assume means that he is no longer with us.

So, we are wondering if clicking on Don’s IMDB site a few times would, in Google’s “mind,” make that a more active result for Don and eventually eliminate the Rotten Tomatoes reference. I hope this makes sense. Anyway, if you’re willing, you could search “Don Sparks” or “Don Sparks, actor” and when the IMDB site comes up, click on it. I’m going to do that several times today.

We just don’t want anyone to think he’s left us.

Sigh.

Thanks in advance.

Today, some painting, finally, and a lot of rain.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Thoughts On My Phone

July 15, 2021 at 9:46 am by Claudia

The David phlox I planted many years ago is in bloom. Just like coneflowers, it self-seeds, so I get to see it spring up here and there in the big garden bed. It’s a tall version of phlox so it has a lot of impact.

Speaking of impact, the crazy weather has had an effect on some of my hanging plants, and has yellowed some leaves on the limelight hydrangea. Here and there on the property, I can see some changes due to the extreme heat we had as well as all the rain. There’s nothing I can do, of course, but observe it.

Yesterday, much to my surprise, the sun came out in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe my eyes! And it’s out again today. We’ll make sure we appreciate it while it’s here because the dreaded ‘chance of thunderstorms’ is back on the docket for the next five days.

I’m over it.

I didn’t get any painting done yesterday. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood. And it was very hot and humid early on, so the a/c had to be turned on and I tend not to paint when it’s blowing air throughout the kitchen.

Don and I were talking about cell phones this morning and I’ve decided that I’m going to start turning mine off for a chunk of time every day. They’re too addictive. I’ve done it in the past, but I always fell back into old patterns. Really – how important do I think I am? Aside from phone calls and face time with my sister and nephew, the rest of it is designed to be addictive; instagram, twitter, games, photos, apps, social media. I managed to get by without any of it for over half my life. I don’t think I got a cell phone until my late forties and in that case, I bought it to be able to communicate with Don on our cross-country move. (We were driving separate vehicles.) When I was teaching I used to say the last thing I wanted was for my students to be able to contact me during my down time. Now, if you’re teaching anywhere, but especially at a university, students can text you and email you all of the time. I can’t imagine anything worse.

The cell phone has ruined much of the experience that is live theater. I’ve written about that before on this blog. It’s appalling. Not only is the experience ruined for the audience, but let me assure you, actors can see the light from the phones when they’re onstage. I remember when our biggest worries were someone coughing a lot or opening up a candy wrapper. Now, it’s the constant buzzing and ringing of cell phones because apparently no one can turn their phone off for two hours.

It used to be that the rehearsal room was an almost sacred space – a space for the actors and the director. No one came into the room who wasn’t part of the creative team. It was a space in which to create, to feel free to take risks without anyone else there. Now, every show has a social media team and those people are constantly invading the space, asking actors for a photo, for a quote, and then, once the show is open, there is the whole ‘takeover’ thing. The Instagram Takeover by so and so – whatever actor has been drafted into doing it for that night. It happens on every show nowadays. It happened on Margaritaville. I finally had to stop following some cast members because they were being sucked into generating social media content that looked exactly like it was – a hyped-up performance backstage. Another actor in the dressing room! Look at this actor backstage! Some of the dancers are warming up! I’m going to ask all the actors a question and share it with you! Aren’t we fun and silly!!

Oh, my heavens. I know I’ve officially become an old fart with this post, but why does everything in the theater have to be hyped on social media? Why can’t the actors and crew and production staff just do their work? It isn’t right. Furthermore, it strips the magic right out of the experience.

If you were in the room with me, you’d have heard a big sigh just now. Some days I long to go back to a simpler time. I certainly long to go back to the kind of theater experience I had for most of my career. It seems almost quaint now.

I have so much more to say but that’s enough for now.

Anyway. My phone will be turned off for a few hours today. I’m going to make myself stick to that.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Flowers, Books, Laptop

The Scamp

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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