Sunday, May 25, 2008

And Then I Cut It

I’ve worn my hair long for most of my life. At this point it’s a major trait of my personality. I don’t care what people sometimes say about long hair making women look older, I like the way my long hair looks and feels.

I must admit it’s been getting on my nerves a bit lately. The ends are kind of ratty, and I have to stand up in order to brush it out. It’s gone from being a personality quirk to being a major inconvenience.

It’s pretty damned long:

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It’s making me crazy:

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I’d been thinking idly about cutting a goodly amount of it off, and then last Monday I zipped a big hunk of it into my jeans. Yeah, that’ll wake you up for sure, lemme tell ya.

Enough already; obviously the universe was trying to tell me something. I called my salon on Tuesday, and to my great shock they actually had an opening on Friday.

So I had eighteen inches of hair cut off:

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My hair is still long:

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But I bet it doesn’t give me headaches anymore.

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I had this done of Friday, 23 May. The commenter who accurately guesses which day my husband finally notices that I cut off eighteen inches of hair will receive a bag of chocolates and some random sock yarn from my stash.

Good luck!

Monday, May 19, 2008

I Wish I Had A Picture

Driving to work this morning I saw one of my favorite sights: an osprey in full dive towards a pond on the east side of the expressway.

I love birds of prey. They have such an air of dignified menace about them, and seeing them drop out of the air just takes my breath away.

I just wish that I'd been able to take a picture.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

A Day In The Sun

It’s springtime, I know it is. But I would have had a tough time convincing anyone around here of that yesterday. It felt an awful lot like summer. It got hot, and do I mean crazy-hot, in the upper 90’s and humid. It was extremely unusual for this time of year, we don’t usually see temperatures like that until late July or August.

On a day like that there are really only so many things you can do. You can stay inside with the air conditioning running, kvetching and moaning and waiting for sundown... or you can get on the back of your husband’s motorcycle and cool off at 60 mph.

North of here along some lovely backroads is a little town called Brownsville. There’s a pub there where Joey swears they serve the best steak-fries on the planet... I think he might be influenced by the fact that every time he eats them he’s on a motorcycle ride, but they are mighty tasty. Brownsvilles a pretty little town, with some lovely old homes, and some equally lovely old trees.

Like this one.

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Several years ago, the first time I saw this tree, it puzzled me no end. I couldn’t figure out what it was, or how it happened to bloom in such an unusual pattern.

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And then one day when we were walking through town, I actually got close enough to see what was really going on.

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On the left is the tree trunk. On the right is a wisteria vine. Here, look again.

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When you plant these two things close together, give them plenty of water and light, and exercise lots and lots of patience, you eventually get something that looks like this.

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Not only is is beautiful, but it’s a great way to keep the tourists coming back to your little town to eat steak fries and take pictures.

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I have to say it was a wonderful day. Beautiful twisting roads, a nice lunch at a pub, a chance to photograph one of my favorite things. And that’s not all...

If you follow cute cowboys around, eventually they might just lead you to the yarn stores...

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Monday, May 5, 2008

Makes You Wonder

Seen at the grocery store yesterday morning:

A young man in front of me in line buying:
  1. A 6-pack of high quality beer.
  2. A large box of chocolate.
  3. A huge mixed bouquet of flowers.
Did he do something wrong, or does he just understand her really really well?

Thursday, May 1, 2008

I Think It’s A Garden

I’m beginning to think I’m the proud (and tired) owner of a front garden.

Sunday was a perfect gardening day; it was a little overcast, but warm enough to be comfortable. My best friend came over and goodness did we get a lot of work done.

Two more yards of compost and we were ready to go buy some plants:

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We laid the pots out on the beds. This provided plenty of time for dithering about placement.

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And then we planted:

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Obviously, we’re still looking for some plants. For instance, this corner bed is waiting on rosemary and sage to go with the oat grass and dianthus.

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And this corner is waiting on fuchsia and something else, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

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This bed is in two levels. The lower one in the front will be given over to the ground cover you see here, and also to pots of various things.

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Now for the detail pictures:

There are three of these in the front. We’ll be putting in more plants which will pick up these colors.

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This is a black viola along the bed by the deck.

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A glorious maroon columbine, next to the viola.

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Yet another columbine in the layered bed.

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Geraniums in the front bed... I wonder what color they are?

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Ground cover on the steps leading to the roses.

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A long shot of the front bed, with some beautiful irises. The buds on these were closed tight when they were planted on Sunday.

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And finally, a dwarf lilac in the front bed. Hopefully it will grow well and serve as a good anchor point.

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It’s so wonderful to open the front door and see all this. There’s still a lot of work to go, what with the bed by the porch needing some daphne and herbs. Then the paths will get a layer of gravel and some stepping stones. But at least for this week I get to rest on my accomplishments.

You have to admit it’s a huge change from this:

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And this:

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As ever, there are people to thank.

Thank you to Teresa, visionary and slave driver.
Thank you to my mother, who brought her own shovel, however small.
And thank you to Joey, my patient husband, shoveler of compost, beer sherpa and fetcher of chinese take-out when it was obvious I had no energy left to make dinner.