A neighbor's garden.

I like to poke around other people's gardens and this one was extra special.  I went with my friend Susan, and after we roamed around the White House gardens a bit we strolled through some other gardens on the Mall and passed by this sculpture. So many people, children especially, must see this and and say "what's that?" Only the old know!

The White House beehive is bolted down like that to protect it from the helicopter winds. We were there just after 9 AM -- I think -- and I was so conscious that the four Obama ladies were possibly at home that it was a bit distracting. I knew that Mr. O was in Williamsburg prepping for his next debate in two days. (Good prep, I'd say.) Anyway, I kept looking up at the windows and wondering what it would feel like to have hoards of strangers roaming around my front yard at 9 AM on a Sunday morning, taking pictures of my bedroom windows, speculating on who was awake and who was still asleep.

Clarence is in the house! 12 weeks old. Lucy is adapting. Slowly.

What's this? It was growing all alone in a small garden outside my local library. [9/26: Susan&Kat are right: Colchicum autumnale AKA naked lady crocus]

Pig saves goat. Sweet. (But probably staged. But so what?)

Beach reading 2012.

August 22 or 23 at Sussex Shores in North Bethany Beach.

Why so few people, you ask?

We rented the house that you can just barely see the top of -- behind the red kayak. I didn't realize it was on a private beach. Not sure how I felt about that. A little too 1% for me (but we did agree that it was wonderful to hear and see the ocean from the house, and to have immense privacy on the beach...should I feel guilty about that?).

Here are some mini-reviews of books I read at the beach.

The Fabulist (Stephen Glass): A journalist who, in real life, fabricates dozens of news stories for The New Republic magazine, and gets caught and fired, writes a "novel" about his downfall but never explains why he did it. Disappointing and embarrassing.

Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Jamie Ford): Story set in Seattle, with chapters bouncing back and forth between 1942 and 1986, about Japanese and Chinese immigrants, with special focus on Japanese internment camps. Love story with a sweet, some might say too sweet, ending. Nicely written but has numerous errors -- like a character who in 1986 joins an online support group. 1986? I don't think so.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson): Wonderful writing, quirky gothic story about a nutty family with lots of secrets. Loved it. But it took days to get the creepy feeling out of my head.

The Unfortunates (Laurie Graham): Light, slightly comic novel set mostly in New York between 1912 and the 1970s. Graham is a British writer whose novels are snicker-funny, clever, and weave history with fiction. I will read everything she writes.

The Edge of the Pier (Martha Grimes): I tried. I really tried. But the first 50 pages of this novel were among the worst 50 pages I've ever read in a novel. How did this woman sell so many books?? I was very excited when I learned that Ms. Grimes set five of her novels in a real city in western Maryland very near to where my mother grew up. So I ordered four of the books. Pee-yew! 

The Grace of Silence: A Memoir (Michele Norris): I borrowed this library book based on the title alone (I'm trying to be silently graceful these days, with mixed results). Book was wonderful but sometimes painful to read. The wounds caused by racism in this country are hard to face. We'd be a better society if everyone read this book.

Butterflies (and two caterpillars)!

I finally visited the annual Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit. It's just down the road from me but I've never gone; today I went sort of by chance. It was very busy at this tiny and other-worldly exhibit, so I plan to go back mid-week when I can avoid so many 3-foot high people, who were adorable and enchanting in their own way but they made it hard to get good pictures. The butterflies land on you! A beautiful black and white butterfly friend followed me around the exhibit, landing on my shoulder or back from time to time. An attendant had to remove him or her manually before I left the room. I was wearing a shade of blue that may have been especially appealing. Next time I'll wear something bright pink or orange.

Can someone identify this flower? [Yes! I do believe that Jane nailed it: Torenia fournieri AKA wishbone flower. It looks so much like johnny-jump-up but there are subtle differences.]

I think it's a pretty common annual but I can't remember what it's called.

Not a political comment, just a fashion comment.

Those shoes! That belt! The whole package!  I'm drawn to and repelled by this picture in equal measure. Sarah is quite an amazing person in a way. She brings out such high emotions, both in those who agree with her and those who don't (that would include me). She's got something that I can't give a name to: not charisma exactly, not a high Q score exactly, but something that draws people to her. As long as she just stays behind a podium entertaining me I'm OK with her. Those shoes!

I wish my friend Paula hadn't posted this on Facebook.

You can probably figure out the question ("how many squares are in this diagram?") but do you know the answer. The Facebook guesses, of which there are currently 214,094, range from 27 to 90. I get a different number every time I try (usually in the 34-36 range) but I'm getting dizzy so I hope someone will know the answer and let me know.

Brain Hat! Gotta make one.

The pattern is here. It will cost you $5 but it's for a good cause, or so the author says and I choose to believe her. She says this:
Jan 31, 2011
I do not have any hats for sale. Unfortunately medical school takes up enough of my time that I am unable to make any hats for sale at this point. My best recommendation is to find a friend or family member that knits and bribe them with some delicious cookies.

The wormy looking things are called gyri and the grooves they create are called sulci (or fissures). Explained clearly here.

I hope to make a hat but we'll see. I follow through on about 25% of the projects I start. And I'm more or less OK on that. Better than 20%.

Note: Thanks to Natalie F. for sending me this link. It's good, no it's great, to have so many thoughtful friends from my years at NIH.

Another loss, but he made it to 86 so that's not bad. And we still have Cavett. I hope there's some kind of heaven so Vidal can see this headline.

I'm really getting weary of all these great writers dying lately -- Nora Ephron was one I failed to note on my blog. (Talk about a funny lady -- and a class act.) At least Ephron, Hitchens, and Vidal leave behind books to be read and re-read.

And for anyone who loves a good political confrontation check out Vidal vs Buckley discussing life as we knew it in August 1968 here. Please do not watch if you'll be offended by the words "queer" and "crypto-Nazi." In my opinion Vidal won the battle because he never really lost his cool and he didn't lunge out of his chair the way Buckley did.

Anyone know what kind of flower this is? It's growing in the park next door. [Nancy from WY ID'ed it as Gaillardia, or Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella).]

Isn't it a great color? Speaking of color, Tanya from Suburban Jubilee, in Tasmania, posted this wonderful hue test, a very quick and fun way to see how well you can see differences in colors.  Go here to take the test. I won't brag just yet about how well I scored but I suspect I'll have to let it out eventually. For someone with old bad eyes I was pleased.

My grand-nephew Porky and my grand-niece Rosie.

Rosie and Porky are living a wonderful life up in Western Maryland. And I'm sure they'll make wonderful pork chops next winter. I'm very, very proud of my niece Sarah, her husband Kevin, and their three little adorable kidlets. They are living a real life, where they sometimes look their dinner in the face. That just seems ethically, mentally, ecologically, and morally healthy to me.

But I admit that it's much easier to watch someone else live this life than to live it myself. My fantasies of living a Willa Cather life can be played out by my niece while I watch from the comforts of my home. If I were 30 years old again maybe I would attempt such a life. Maybe. But not anywhere close to the Washington, DC, area.  I like my air conditioning too much.

Truth embedded in comedy.

At the Opening Ceremony to the Olympics in London.

I'm sort of reading this book (which my brain is not big enough to fully understand) and it made me buy this salad dressing. Which is delicious.

I've read a lot of Gary Taubes' writing over the years. His 2002 story for the NYT about how dietary fat may not be as bad as we're told by the experts, his 2007 NYT story on hormone replacement therapy and health advice in general, and his 2011 NYT story about how sugar is toxic. He writes clearly. He makes interesting and believable points. He cites scientific studies from reputable sources (New England J of Med, for example). But the total package of info is just baffling (to me).  I'll continue reading -- or skimming actually -- but it's very, very hard to believe he's right. His thoughts do, however, give me permission to ignore for yet another year my high-ish cholesterol readings.  It seems like everyone I know takes a statin for cholesterol. Which of course makes me dig in my heels and say "not me!" Thanks Dad for all this idiotic stubbornness.

What's this? A lily of some kind I'm sure. But not a traditional tiger lily I don't think. [Update: it's a blackberry lily (Iris domestica). Thanks Jane P! SIL to my SIL and therefore a sort of relative.]

Was this me?

My adult son assured me yesterday that my mothering style hasn't caused him to despair for his future. Haven't checked with my daughter yet but she seems happy enough so I'm hoping she'll say the same. But this cartoon seemed just a little too familiar.

What a life.

Have you heard about the upcoming first-ever Internet Cat Video Film Festival in Minneapolis? One pundit said that we watch cat videos at work because cats are usually doing the two things that everyone wants to do: hang out at home and nap.

Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

Permanent beeswax room coming to the Phillips Gallery in DC.

Yes, a beeswax room. Described here in the Washington Post. One huge problem with the article is that it never even mentions bees. The bees that produced all the wax to be used.  Bees get no respect.

Projected installation date is early 2013 and I'll be there. I wonder if it will smell like beeswax? And how will they keep people (like me) from touching the walls?

Photo credit: Wolfgang Laib or Sperone Westwater (confusing caption). The Post will probably make the photo disappear anyway. Copyright infringement. It's complicated in the Internet copyright world.

Cute, yes. Do I want them to go away? No, not exactly. Do I curse them daily? Yes.

Two of the (at least) five fawns that hang out around my house. Here they are next door in a neighbor's back yard. (I don't even try to be a good videographer. I'm lucky to hold the camera the right way. But I am sort of proud of this little vignette -- see definition No. 4.*)

*Noun

1. a decorative design or small illustration ....

2. an engraving, drawing, photograph, or the like ....

3. a decorative design representing branches, leaves, grapes, or the like...

4. any small, pleasing picture or view.

Honey harvester for a day. (More like for a morning.)

That's what I got to be a few weeks ago, on a Saturday morning after a big storm. I was with members of the Franciscan Monastery Garden Guild, extracting honey from the 14 hives they keep on the Monastery grounds. I met the head beekeeper a week or so ago, and I helped him move some frames of bees from one hive to another. It was the first time I've had on The Veil and Worked The Bees since I gave away my hive in May 2011. Extracting the honey great fun. We had no electricity but that didn't interfere with the project, every step of which requires no electricity. The tasks ranged from carrying (into an upstairs work room) the big heavy boxes of honey-filled frames, to carefully scraping off the top layer of wax on each frame, to hand-spinning the frames in those metal contraptions, to pouring the honey into a bucket with a screen on it, to pouring that filtered honey into bottles, to labeling the bottles. It was great fun.

The honey is sold in the gift store for the Monastery.  And each volunteer got a bottle of honey and here's mine! Tasty. It would be nice to make honey my only sweet, replacing store-bought cookies and chocolate and ice cream and pies and blahblahblah, but that's oh-so unlikely. (And it's too bad I put my wet thumb over the label.)

Heard a very good interview with Marie Tillman today, widow of Pat Tillman. She experienced the healing powers of New York City.

Marie Tillman:  About a year and a half, I guess, after Pat was killed, I had still been living in Washington State, which is where we were stationed. And I just -- I felt like I needed a change and always wanted to move to New York. So I was able, through the job that I was working at the time, to transfer to the office in Manhattan. And so I took the opportunity and just sort of threw myself into, you know, this big, crazy city, which was in hindsight one of the best decisions I could ever make.

And why do you think it was such a good decision to make?

MT: You know it just -- it gave me an opportunity to get out of my environment and really to just immerse  myself in the city. And New York is a place where there's a lot of chaos and commotion and people and, you know, I felt like I could be anonymous in a lot of ways and just start to, you know, go out into the world a little bit more.

Her book is here.  The interview is here.

Two recent trips: 3 hours, 19 mins to the west and we're at my sister's house. 3 hrs and 1 min to the east and we're at Bethany Beach. Both trips wonderful.

Bottom two pictures are from Bethany Beach, Delaware, last week. Weather was perfect. I swam with the fishes. (Those are people on stand-up surf boards -- the proper name of which I cannot remember at the moment.)  Top two pictures are going through (literally) and over the mountains to my sister's house on the Potomac in Western Maryland a week earlier.  I love her patio!  She let wildflowers grow freely between the flagstones and they look fabulous. She planted what she thought was chamomile but what grew turned out to something else.

106 degrees tomorrow. (And where did the degree symbol go on the keyboard?)

Miscellaneous.