Tulips: Perfect Love

Hanging on to spring tulips...I can never get enough.
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"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars." ~ Martin Luther

Yesterday, while I was off to meet Beverly of Lacoochee Kid, my parents went to a wedding. Dad was the pastor at the church for several years and he has seen those he married together become parents and now their children are also marrying. It was a beautiful wedding that expressed all the joy and love and hope of the two young people for the future. That is what weddings are all about... I love you and trust you with my future. But what has this to do with tulips, you ask?

The flowers at the wedding were all tulips. The attendants carried bouquets of tulips in all colors. Small tin baskets of tulips hung from the end of each pew and arrangements of tulips adorned the candelabras. Mom didn't say what color the bridesmaids dresses were but just that it was beautiful.

A Turkish legend tells of a prince named Farhad, who loved a maiden named Shirin with intense passion and fidelity. When he learned that his beloved Shirin had been killed, he was so stricken with grief that he impulsively rode his horse over the edge of a cliff, thereby killing himself. It is told that a scarlet red tulip appeared from each drop of his blood, and thus its meaning, "perfect love." Of course the other colors have their own meanings with the yellow tulip reflecting simple joy and cheery thoughts, the white reflecting forgiveness and the purple, as always, reflecting royalty....all aspects that will be needed in a successful marriage.

As for me, I simply love their variety and simplicity and the quiet dignity of the gently waving globes on those thin stalks... if I ran the world, tulips would bloom year 'round.

These lovely tulips will do nicely for today's Mellow Yellow Monday.

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SPH: A Good Book Has No Ending

Cookbooks..for some, instructional..for other, light reading.
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"Half the cookbooks tell you how to cook the food and the other half tell you how to avoid eating it." ~ Andy Rooney

My mother reads cookbooks like some women read romance novels or mysteries. She had the world's largest collection of cookbooks before we moved and it was with great heartache and much angst that she painstakingly went through each one and decided which to keep and which to sell or give to the library. I had a lot of cookbooks as well, though I never read them as books, only as instructional manuals. Combined we probably had 20 boxes of cookbooks....now, only two large six shelf bookcases full... oh yes, and two shelves in the kitchen. I gave a lot of them to Nyssa when she moved away... probably too many. She most often gets her recipes on the internet... but there is still something about having that open cookbook with flour and drops of batter adorning a favorite recipe page....all the stains and tears reflect a memory.

Music books bring inked notes to life.

"My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence."
~ Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964)

We have music scores, opera scores, piano books, hymnals... even books about music history. This happens when one member of the family is an accomplished pianist with over 70 years of experience and another is a globetrotting Helden tenor, specializing in Wagner operas. We have at least one full bookcase with just music.

Yearbooks. Old Books. Really old yearbooks!

"Popularity ends on yearbook day, but respect lasts forever."
~ Gordon B. Hinkley

I can't find my college yearbooks..this is probably because I packed them away in the very back of the storage unit. I've never been fond of yearbooks... it almost seemed like a contest to see who could get the most people to write their name over their picture or write a note. And what do you write in these? What can you write in the yearbook of someone you barely knew in one class when you were a freshman and haven't seen them once in the hall since? It seems pointless as the years go on and you find yourself slipping further away from all the faces lined up in rows on the page. In twenty years, you probably wouldn't recognize them if they passed you on the street anyway.

Mom and Dad met at their college, Asbury. They have kept up with those in their class over the years and have returned for reunions... and have already had their 50th. Aren't the hairstyles something? Of course the Farrah Fawcett hair cuts in the 70's when I went to college are just as funny today!

Nyssa's Sweet Sixteen memory scrapbooks.

"As we turn the pages of time, we discover hidden mysteries and triumphs in each new chapter." ~ Flavia

When Nyssa turned sixteen, I sent blank paper to all of her friends, family, teachers... everyone who had had a part in her life. They wrote letters filled with memories of childhood, events, fun and silly times and heartfelt thoughts of pride and joy at her accomplishments. The response was amazing... even from the teenage guys. For two months I collected them and put them, along with pictures from my archives, into two large scrapbooks. I worked at my lab where large bench tables would hold all the scraps of paper and stickers and other embellishments... weekends mostly or when she was busy with things at school. I didn't get it done in time for her birthday, but a couple of weeks later we went to eat with one of her friends and I gave them to her then... She was totally surprised and started crying and the two girls spent the evening looking at all the pictures and reading all the letters. I think... I hope it was one of the best presents she ever received... I know the letters were full of love and encouragement and the book was put together with all my love.

This week the Saturday Photo Hunt theme is "books".... so remember....

"No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books." ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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PhotoHunt

All By Myself

"All by myself!"
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"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."
~ Lao Tzu

It's a wide, wide world out there and a thin shell doesn't do much for protection... but this beetle set off, alone on his way into the world..one step at a time. This little insect kept on going and going and going and after a half hour, he had walked the entire distance from the patio near the door of our house to the yard. On the patio, the beetle stood out from the background... openly at risk to be the next visiting bird's supper; but, in the yard, he blends with the grass, more protected... Perhaps a birds-eyed view could still find him in the grass... but, I couldn't.

This shot also represents persistence with purpose, something we can all use more of in life.

Carmi's photo theme for this week is "single".

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Revel In The Reds

Fiery rubies of spring. Norfolk Botanical Garden.
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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

I cannot decide which season is the best for visiting our botanical gardens. More varieties are blooming, the grasses and trees are green and the roses are fabulous in early summer, but the daffodils and tulips abound in the spring. Then the fall colors, particularly in the oriental gardens and around the tranquil pond and fountain are magnificent and in winter the 1200 camellia bushes are in full bloom and even the bare crepe myrtle trees have a fabulous camouflage-like trunk with such a smooth texture. Who can choose? Thanks to my brother who gave me a membership.. I can go any time I wish!!!

These beautiful tulips are all but finished for the season.... the roses are in full swing....still... they bring such warmth. This year has been a very strange spring with short bursts of very hot weather, followed by plunging temperatures and rain. It feels as if we are on a teeter-totter or perhaps more aptly described, a roller coaster. Now, the hot weather is here to stay... into the lower 80's all week and now the rain isn't followed by days of low humidity and light breezes... it is humid and muggy and calm. Summer is almost here.

For now, I'll just have to revel in the reds of spring... captured in time.
More beautiful reds can be found at this week's Ruby Tuesday.

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Whiskers Of A Different Sort

Clockwise from top left: Morning glory curls, wild grass,
bearded Iris, enjoying a pumpkin flower.
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"Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn't room for any other thought...." ~ Sophie Scholl

One of the main characters...of the feline variety... in the mystery series The Cat Who.... books is Koko, a Siamese who yowls when mayhem is happening elsewhere, who always seems to know when the phone is going to ring bearing bad news and whose acrobatic antics result in books falling off the bookshelf with titles that have an uncanny relationship to the crime. His owner, the other human main character, is convinced that the intelligence of a cat is directly related to the number of whiskers... and of course Koko has a disproportionately higher number than most ordinary cats. (Aside: Yes, I know these are not great literature and would be classified as "fluff", but one can only read so many scientific articles and Russian classics with over 2000 pages before it is imperative to add a bit of fun "fluff" just to keep sane. This is my "fluff".) At any rate, whiskers preoccupy the cat... they groom them, keep them straight, twitch them and go nuts if a small piece of sticky tape attaches to one... (no, I never did this on purpose)

But, whiskers are also found on other forces of nature... plants and flowers. The morning glory shows off its delicate, translucent tangle of whiskers in a bloom ready to open... in just another day this flower will have been radiant and then gone. Then there are the whiskers on this wild grass... more sturdy and staid.. each one attached to a small seed, waiting for that strong gust of wind to propel its precious cargo to adjacent soil.

Of course, I love the iris and ours are the bearded variety. This fuzzy little caterpillar growth of whiskers make a platform for the pollen to cling to. This iris was a pale lavender color. My grandmother didn't care for them so she dug them up and threw them over the back fence where they took hold on the bank of the drainage ditch, thrived and multiplied. I brought some of these to our new place as well as the golden yellow variety.

Lastly, the pumpkin flower blossom. I grew pumpkins in the flowerbed at our old house... it was a saga for sure. A bee was gathering the pollen and you can see all the tiny whiskers along the sides of the bloom... the red-eyed fruit flies seemed to enjoy these flowers too. (If you ever took a genetics class in college you will be familiar with these critters... and no, I never saw any white-eyed varieties on the bloom.) If you are interested in a fairytale pumpkin saga... you can find the links to the series here.

These are all whiskers of a different sort and my post for MacroMonday today.

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SPH: A "Better" World Through Chemistry??

(Clockwise from top left) Bath scrunchy, bubble wrap, plastic kitties, decorative bead drops.
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"There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic." ~ Lily Tomlin

Have you seen that commercial... I believe it was for Dupont... all the items containing plastic in your home, your car.... the plastic begins to melt away, dissolve and disappear? The remnant parts simply fall to the ground and scatter. It is amazing and a bit disconcerting to realize how much of our lives rely on plastic. Television cases, radio cases, parts of the iPod and cell phones... yep... plastic. We wrap our food with it or store our food in boxes made of it. Our children drink their formula from plastic bottles, sippy cups, unbreakable drinking glasses, fast food drive through large drinks; even outdoors enthusiasts and health nuts drink bottled water that is really served up in plastic bottles, or more environmentally conscious folks drink their water out of nalgene refillable plastic bottles. Now we find out that chemicals in plastic may leach out into the water.... see... glass was better all along.. and reusable!

"In the next century it will be the early mechanical bird which gets the first plastic worm out of the artificial grass." ~ William E Vaughan (American Writer, b.1915)

Is anyone out there old enough to remember when plastic flower arrangements were all the rage? Back before "silk plants" came into vogue? (Although I really question how much silk is really in silk plants.) When I was in sixth grade we had a large wood planter placed behind my mom's organ... no, not a keyboard, a real-honest-to-goodness-musical-piece-of-furniture, organ... in our living room. In some parsonages it was positioned across from the piano with the planter in between. Mom had an arrangement made... a plastic arrangement of greenery, green flowers, green leaves, green grape clusters.... all green. Well, apparently sometime between the school eye tests they used to give each year... between the fifth and sixth grade.. I went blind... not totally blind, just legally blind in one eye... 20/200; very nearsighted. There is nothing like having to get glasses with plastic frames when you are almost ready to go into junior high. I remember that first day... the day I got my glasses... it was so surreal... the things I could see. I could see street signs and the colors seemed brighter and then, when we got home and walked into the living room, my mouth dropped open and all I could say was....."Look! That plastic planter has grapes! When were the grapes put in?" I had never been able to see well enough to distinguish the different parts of the arrangement... it was just a plastic blur! I wonder what ever happen to that planter and the arrangement.... no, I really DON'T want to know.

Plastic "Smiley Face" travel coffee mug.

Poor Harvey Ball who neglected to patent this iconic face...a happy face. But was this his invention...or, as depicted in Forrest Gump... simply an imprint of his mud-coated face on a white T-shirt? Who cares? I personally like him in a square setting rather than his typical round shape. So, in the spirit of this bright and friendly fellow, I leave you with one last quote and a cheery....."Have a nice day!!"

"Don't assume you're always going to be understood. I wrote in a column that one should put a cup of liquid in the cavity of a turkey when roasting it. Someone wrote me that 'the turkey tasted great, but the plastic cup melted.'" ~ Heloise

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PhotoHunt

Signs: Information For All

"Let's see. P-R-I-V-A-T-E...Hmmm. Must mean food!"
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"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."
~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Seagulls always amaze me; actually, they are a bit scary at times. I was running some errands one day and drove through that big "M" fast food place for a quick snack, having not had breakfast or lunch. It was near the edge of a strip mall and as there were still places to go, I simply pulled out into the middle of the vast empty parking lot to stop and eat. Have you ever been absorbed in a task and suddenly feel as if you are being watched? Sitting there, this feeling came over me... someone is watching me... but no cars in close proximity. I glanced out my window and there on the pavement was a lone seagull... standing perfectly still and staring up at me. We made eye contact as the burger hung there within inches of my mouth. It was a piercing look, an accusing look.... an Alfred Hitchcock The Birds look....a look that said..."a quarter inch of tempered glass is all that stands between me and that burger and that is not enough to keep me out!" So, of course I rolled down the window and threw out part of the bun. What else would I do? I didn't sign up to be in any horror film that day!

This sign reads... "no boats/rafts" and is obviously meant for human consumption; yet this seagull seems quite intent on the meaning of these words. Even though I know birds can't read and their brains are pea sized... still, they have a look of intelligence... when signs and hamburgers are involved..

By the way, while Alfred used a lot of crows in his movie... there was a scene where the seagulls went "postal" and attacked the phone booth... wasn't there?

Carmi's photographic theme this week is "signs"... as in signs of Spring or as here the more literal translation....posted signs. And this greedy little gull... he flew on over to Friday's Ark... what would you expect from such a forward animal.

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A Touch Of Ruby Dust

A touch of ruby dust... spice amid the green.
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"Painters use red like spice." ~ Derek Jarman (English Film Director, Stage Designer, Artist and Writer, 1942-1994)

In summer, the woods and brush in the preserve is thick with green leaves of all shapes and sizes... maple, oak, sweet gum, even a few fig leaves from the two trees we've planted. Here the fall foliage doesn't show up until mid-October so you can imagine my surprise when I saw this splash of red spice in late August. One limb with perfectly formed leaves... all done up in red.... surrounded by a sea of solid green.. no yellows or oranges or other splashes of red anywhere; just one branch, slightly ahead of its time. I thought it was worthy of a photo...

Of course, it is all an illusion... the green leaves of summer. The pigment that produces the glorious colors of autumn are there all the time... inside the individual cells of the leaf.. reds and yellows... all forms of chlorophyll. They are just hidden and over powered by the green form. Sometimes we are like that... something special and spectacular hides within us... over powered by circumstances, but there none the less... waiting for just the right time to explode in glorious color. Isn't life amazing?!

It's time for another Ruby Tuesday!!!

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Longfellow's Yellow

Delicate iris...fair among the fairest.
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"Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest,
Who, armed with golden rod
And winged with the celestial azure, bearest
The message of some God."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Iris

The iris bloomed this year. My mother and grandmother planted the original bulbs in the flowerbed of their home years ago. Each spring they spread and bloomed, becoming thicker. Each year the roots were separated and plants placed further along in the flowerbed until... the entire back corner of the house was surrounded by these big delicate blooms. The flowers were so thick and crowded that the blooms began to suffer, but no amount of thinning prevented their return to the same thickness of the previous year.

In 2008, we sold their house and before closing, I dug up several dishpans of these iris. We live on the edge of a preserve... what I would call swampy wetland. The bamboo-like cane and a variety of wild vines encroach on the free space behind the fence. My interpretation of the "free space" is that it is not our property but we have to maintain it anyway. So I tried to till up a bit of the hard black clay and mix it with sand and soil and here, just at the edge of the preserve, I transplanted some of these iris. We didn't know if they would take hold or die. But here are the results... big, lush blooms just as before.

Now, if I can only find a small tiller and get the rest of them out of the plastic dishpans and into the ground before they multiply too much to separate the roots again. Next year I might have a whole line of defense against that wild stuff in the preserve!

This will be my entry for Mellow Yellow Monday and Macro Monday. I love the little tongue of papillae the iris always have, so that is my macro shot.

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SPH: Painted Wings And Giant Rings

Painted egg ornament... from Salzburg, Austria
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"If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor." ~ Neil Simon

Salzburg, Austria is a beautiful small town best known around the world as the setting for "The Sound of Music" and the birthplace of Mozart. The streets in the old town are narrow and cobblestone, lined by small apartments and shops. I visited here with Nyssa and my brother in 2001. We happened upon an intriguing shop with hundreds of what looked to be eggs in the window. And they were eggs... painted eggs. Thousand upon thousand, rooms filled with painted eggs... chicken eggs, goose eggs.. even the rare ostrich egg. The eggs had been emptied by blowing and cleaned; then artisans painted the outside and a ribbon is attached. It was an amazing place, eggs with all sorts of themes; poinsettias for Christmas, Father Christmas, snow covered churches and others. There were also other themes: music, cats, dogs, animals, birds, flowers; any thing you could possibly imagine... they had it! I bought two dozen and watched as they packed them in cardboard egg cartons. With great care I brought them back to the states and they grace my "European" tree each year. Somehow I managed to only break one and crack two others. Someday... I would LOVE to find this shop again.

An artist at work...Norfolk Botanical Garden

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." ~ Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

The botanical garden explodes in endless shades of pink and white and green in the Spring; many of the flowering trees are planted in a small grove bordered by the field of native wildflowers. This artist was busy and engrossed in her work, a painted rendition of the trees just beyond her canvas. I wish I could capture the beauty of nature this way!

Three little clowns with painted faces...

"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?" ~ Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

The little girl in the middle is the birthday girl, now grown up and recently married. My little clown is on the right... she too is grown up, but not married. She is currently chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma with other graduate students. Anyway, a neighbor did work as a clown on occasion for churches and she painted their faces and helped them make balloon hats and animals. It was January and during the party, the snow began to fall... a rare treat in Mississippi. The clowns quickly changed clothes into warmer duds and headed out into the snow..... a strange sight indeed. You see, they kept their painted faces on... scaring all who were out and about.

A young artist... well, sort of. (Nyssa, age 4)

"Life is a big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can." ~ Danny Kaye (1913 - 1987)

Uncle Stephen gave her this easel for Christmas when she was three and she loved to paint... with water colors... but I never was sure if it was the painting she loved or the wearing of the apron and the messy hands. But, I still kept several of the masterpieces.... for posterity, you know.

The Saturday Photo Hunt theme for this week is "painted". This should be fun!

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PhotoHunt

We're Only Human

How many of us have done this... or at least wished we could?

"If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own . . . how much kinder, how much gentler he would be."
~ William Allen White

It's a hot sultry day in the city..the air is heavy, no breeze; it's been a long day of work. Walking home from the subway, perhaps a short cut through the park to see some cool green grass and beautiful flowers or a fountain or two.....she spots an empty bench and stops to rest a moment. Maybe the warmth and the smell of freshly tilled earth reminds her of her childhood in a small town far away; her eyes close... just for a moment... to remember that place and time, the people she loves. That's all it takes, just a few seconds and sleep takes over, the worries of the day fade and dreams abound. Oh, that we all could have such blissful, quite moments in the midst of our busy days!

Carmi has picked "human" for his theme this week. I took this picture a couple of years ago, in Brooklyn. I loved how relaxed this woman looks and have often wondered what her day was like, was she in the park for a specific reason, was she waiting for someone? It just seemed like a special moment, captured unawares... waiting for the perfect time to be shared.. that would seem to be now.

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A Blue Macro Monday

Centaurea cyanus, blue cornflower
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"Blue thou art, intensely blue;
Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?"
~ James Montgomery

It is definitely a "blue" Monday here. The rain that moved out and gave us a glorious Mother's Day is back... and along with it a gloomy, cloudy, drizzle of a day. With is has come the north winds and the high today of 62 was reached in the wee hours of the morning.... temperatures have been falling all day. In fact it is currently down to 55 degrees... so I am about to scrounge through my closet and pull out a light weight winter sweater to wear this evening. Brrr.... Not to worry though... it will be back up into the 80's by tomorrow, I'm sure.

So, since I missed Macroday's topic "blue" last week and since this has been a "blue" day... and, simply because I love blue flowers... this is my choice. When thinking about coneflowers, this shape is not what first comes to mind. Most cornflowers have the raised gumdrop center with more daisy like leaves. This one, while related is just a bit different. I have seen a variety with more purple in the center and fewer flowers.. they are all beautiful!

Macro Monday photos can be viewed here.

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SPH: Today I Remember

Nyssa and Max saying the last "good-bye".... October 2007

Miss Clover (July 1993 - October 2008)

"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love."
~ George Eliot

Through the years, a lot of dogs and cats were loved in our home; some came to us from friends, others were rescued from deplorable conditions in a pet shop and many simply found us on the street or on a college campus. We have lost many too... most from old age ailments, but a few from cancer and accidental mishaps. Each loss is traumatic as these creatures are loved as family members and always give more love than we can ever give them back.

Miss Clover and Max are the two most fresh on my mind so I choose to remember them today. Max was one who found me... a stray, in terrible shape, he never was able to overcome all of his inner demons left from mistreatment at the hands of humans and yet he was the most happy-go-lucky guy in his own space and he knew when to sit quietly by and just "be" with his human. He has been gone two years this November... no longer in pain or suffering from his cancer, but always remembered. This was one of the last pictures I took, Max nose to nose with Nyssa... saying their last good-byes. Max's full memorial post can be viewed here.

Miss Clover came to us with her sister, Miss Chloe as kittens. They loved each other, fought with each other and made all of us laugh. Clover had the most amazing eyes that could look into your soul or shoot daggers at the other cats. Though her eyes remained clear and cool... she lost her sight, probably due to some other aging process. Though she seemed to waste away in front of me, she was still up for giving me her usual raspy tongue lashing, even on that last day. I'm glad it was a sunny day, a day she could feel the sun on her back and the grass under her feet. She left us almost a year ago now... October 2008. Miss Clover's memorial post is here.

Both of these friends gave more love than most, both were loved deeply and both are missed terribly. Today, I remember them once again.

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PS: I understand that there is technical difficulty at the home of the hunt so we are winging it today.

Birds At My Feeder: Part 3..Drama In The Sky

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
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"The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak
And stared with his foot on the prey."
~ Lord Alfred Tennyson, The Poet's Song

Hawks hang around our house... loving the tall pines and oaks of the preserve. I've seen them perching high in the branches and gliding smoothly on the warm updrafts around the golf course, occasionally taking time to settle on our fence for a short rest. One afternoon, I was sitting on the patio and a small warbler flew in front of me, head high not more than four feet away... right behind him was the hawk, head high and oblivious to me. I could feel the wind turbulence from its wings and in open space the warbler would be toast, or at least breakfast. Fortunately, for the warbler, he weaved in and out through the branches of the preserve where the hawk could not maneuver as quickly and was safe to fly another day.

The successful hunter poses........

But, on another day, we were sitting in the den, resting, relaxing.. when suddenly at the upper windows looking out over the patio there was a slight thud and the wild fluttering of wings much too large for the usual feeder visitors. When I ran in the living room to get my camera... there he was; the large majestic Cooper's hawk with his captured prey, a hapless red-winged blackbird. I like the red-winged blackbird and would rather he had caught one of those pesky boat-tailed blackbirds or grackles. But, there he was, a foot off the patio in the grass, posing with his supper.

..."I'm ready for my closeup"

A magnificent bird, he sat stately still, as if waiting for me... I took seven or eight shots from different angles, even this one with his orange eyes glaring straight at me... then, as if to dismiss the insignificant human, he turned.. grasped his spoils in those razor sharp talons and flew silently off into the woods. What an amazing display of power and grace.

This is the third in a series documenting the birds we've seen at our feeders. Part one is here and Part two, here. Cooper will strut his stuff aboard Friday's Ark this week and just might fly on over to "I and The Bird #100" next week. I also think this marvelous creature deserves to be seen over at Camera Critters.

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