A life of bloom and brilliance

Memorial day, hot and sunny, spent well in a most civilized setting - and beautifully scented - the New York Botanical Gardens, where we wandered through their Emily Dickinson exhibit - and while she is often painted as a strange recluse never leaving her room, it is nice to note the sign telling of her roaming the eleven acres with her dog, of her pleasure with flowers and nature. Little signs, big placards all carry her poetry throughout the exhibit which features flora grown in the gardens and land about her house. I love the little sign about hiding.

Sunday Quote

The Heavens are wide, exceedingly wide.
The earth is wide, very, very wide.
We have lifted it and taken it away.
We have lifted it and brought it back.
From time immemorial, the God of old bids us all abide by his injunctions.
Then shall we get whatever we want, be it white or red.
It is God, the Creator, the Gracious One.
Good Morning to you, God, good morning.
I am learning, let me succeed.

-African Tradition, Akhan Drum-song (Ghana). The Oneworld Book of Prayer.

le temps perdu

more BEA

It was so hot in NYC today - 95 degrees plus - that they pulled the horses off the street by noon. What was cool? This giant, if nonworking, typewriter, a princess promoting the "next Harry Potter", a book called The Last Princess and the cup of Immortality (who knows, points for dressing up) next to yrs truly looking beany. What's scarier than that? Having to wear the banana costume - a good sport. By far the winner of takes chutzpah to show-up award goes to Fergie signing books for people in a line that never ended...say what they will about recent flurries of low rent behavior - showing up where one is expected and doing the job when the paparazzi dogs are on the scent is a courageous act. I'll be going through my stash of catalogs and gathered pamplets etc on my (infrequently posted upon) library blog in a couple of days - although a shout-out right now to the Storey people - I used to purchase their little how-to books on making wreaths (and did so) and raising chickens and bees (as if) back in the day when we thought we might grow up and be farmers...I wanted to own every book they had out - and got a great signed book by Sherri Brooks Vinton called Put 'em Up! She assured me even I cannot poison my crew. Hmmm... pickled kirbys, anyone?

BEA @ NYC

Once again folks in the book biz hit the booths at BEA...I love the steel and glass of the Javits center. KC and I in shadows on the floor. KC getting a book signed by Dorothea Benton Frank (me,too!). Came around a corner to see a happy fan (have no idea who) getting her photo taken with Rick Springfield as many ladies beamed on. A good day, decent loot, and racked up wowza steps on my pedometer.

Robin vs. slightly whacky man

The flora and fauna of Florida is the biggest drawing points for my husband and myself - four years ago in Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, he said the air, the plants, smelled like his childhood, that open wild green smell even the endless buildings can't eclipse. So of course, this time the man brings back a handful of Spanish Moss and has it hanging from a small tree in our back yard. He assigned spray bottle keep-it-moist duty to the youngest son, and he has been determined to have it grow through the summer even though he knows the first frost will do it in.
One prob...the large male head of an extensive clan of Robins decided that nothing quite suits a nest like Spanish Moss. So he has been stealing it - from little snatches to big scarves of it. It has not been uncommon to see the husband running at the large window, slamming open the back door and yelling at the entirely unimpressed Robin. Moments after the door is shut, the bold bird is back with more moss in beak. This has almost been as entertaining as watching the husband in seasons past charge out the garage to run at the squirrels eating seedlings from the Elm tree, lobbing cans from the recycling bin (with no effect, aim not his strong suit when outraged). I think my favorite reaction is the near non-reaction of the ten year old, a smile, a shrug, "that's Dad". Yup.

Sunday Quote

Front yards are boring. Backyards tell stories.

- James Stevenson, "Backyards", Popcorn.

mood mingus

This song by the brilliant CM hit the mood right tonight...

Sunday Quote

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

- Will Rogers

Friday Round-up

...the British writer Nick Hornby wrote: “...With each passing year, and with each whimsical purchase, our libraries become more and more able to articulate who we are, whether we read the books or not.”I love this quote from this article in Utne even though my stacks of books sometimes make me feel overwhelmed.
The always a pleasure Toymaker has a mermaid up...some little child may enjoy it, I will, of course, want it for myself with my love of mermaid things.
and finally, a recipe for a favorite Indian dish I plan on trying shortly - anyone cooks it up first, let me know how it came out!

I'm a poet ...

...and I don't know it, but my feet show it. Longfellow.

That's one of the many old sayings popular in my house growing up. Fortunately, that one stuck. My most recent poem is actually a bit of prose that felt poem-like so prose/poem if you will, in the just released today Alice Blue Review to be found at this very click.

Sunday Quote - and Happy Mother's Day

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.

- Elizabeth Stone

Gulf thoughts

News coverage has swiftly moved on to the Times Square attempted bombing and the ridiculous way the airlines nearly let the suspect get away (you make my ten year old take off his shoes and empty his pockets, but you don't check the no fly list until after the plane heads out towards the runway?), and the usual news of greed, mayhem, and bad behavior in general, not to mention a strange obsession the news has with Lady Gaga (whose entire Madonna wannabe only not as much fun career leaves me feeling that I am too old for these times because I find her redundant and curiously dull)...and what about the Gulf? Hard to find a line of information about the BP teams trying to cap the well, the oil slicking out, the wildlife and coast, the dying sea turtles...well, the news media may have moved on, but many people I know are holding concern and heartache for the area uppermost in their minds and hope that the powers that be are putting every effort into trying to save the coast and the wildlife, people and creatures whose lives are so intertwined with the sea.

See the world spinning 'round...

Day after day, alone on a hill,
the man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
but nobody wants to know him,
they can see that he's just a fool,
and he never gives an answer,
but the fool on the hill,
sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head,
see the world spinning 'round.

Well on the way, head in a cloud,
the man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
but nobody ever hears him or the sound he appears to make,
and he never seems to notice,
but the fool on the hill sees the sun going down,
and the eyes in his head see the world spinning 'round.

I have always loved this song - when they get to the round and round and round part it makes me remember how it is as a kid on a swing when you lean your head far back and close your eyes and you are still swinging but nearly upside down, sunlight and shadow splashing light and dazzle through your closed eyelids...(and if I tried that now I would most definitely black out!).

Sunday Quote

Been on a train and I'm never gonna be the same.

-Laura Nyro