The Wedding!

It was glorious! Couldn't have been better. Weather cooperated, food was top-notch as expected, flower arranging on Saturday afternoon was fun if a bit chaotic.  Everyone at the Ashby Inn in Paris, VA, made this a 3-day weekend to remember forever. Bottom picture: mothers of bride and groom. Fair warning to my handful of readers: I'll be posting pictures for days and days.

"IN MY HOME!.... Where my children come and play with their toys. In my home!"*

Overly dramatic of course but this quote sprang to mind this afternoon when a tornado swept just north of us. It didn't cause any injuries or even much damage that I've heard about, except for this car in the parking lot of a nearby Greek restaurant. We've parked in this lot many times. By tornado standards this was mild I know, but when it comes so close to your house it feels big.

Al Pacino in The Godfather.

The Wedding Weekend.

Wednesday: Bride and Groom depart Brooklyn in the evening after work, drive rental car to MD and arrive at 1:30 AM Thursday morning.

Thursday: Bride and Groom awake refreshed and ready for Wedding Weekend, which begins on Friday when they will arrive at the Ashby Inn in Paris, VA. Friday is the bride's birthday and they will celebrate alone at the Inn. At 4:30 PM a tornado sweeps north of Colesville, exactly where we live. No injuries, no damage. Mother Nature is trying to interfere with this wedding but I'm fighting Her off with silent chants and prayers.

Friday:

Christina's weeds: remember to pull weeds in the Christina position. Millet's ladies probably ruined their backs bending like that.

 

A friend told me about injuring her back because she weeded too long over the weekend. She was enjoying it so much that she did it for hours. She's not the only friend or relative who over-gardens and pays dearly. So let's all adopt the Christina Pose and save our backs.

"all events are baked together"

I think this is a great piece of writing. And so interesting. Not sure it's useful but seems like it should be.

Not till 1908 did the German mathematician Hermann Minkowski announce his “radical” idea that space and time were a single entity: “Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”

So spacetime was born. In spacetime all events are baked together, a four-dimensional continuum. Past and future are no more privileged than left and right or up and down. The time dimension only looks special for the reason Wells mentioned: our consciousness is involved. We have a limited perspective. At any instant we see only a slice of the loaf, a puny three-dimensional cross-section of the whole. For the modern physicist, reality is the whole thing, past and future joined in a single history. The sensation of now is just that, a sensation, and different for everyone. Instead of one master clock, we have clocks in multitudes. And other paraphernalia, too: light cones and world lines and time-like curves and other methods for charting the paths of light and objects through this four-dimensional space. To say that the spacetime view of reality has empowered the physicists of the past century would be an understatement.

From an article here.

Picture of US Capitol taken as we drove to Union Station to pick up the bride-to-be. Wedding is almost upon us. 

Roses at the Monastery.

A few years ago my gardening friend Susan invited me along to see the gardens at this local Monastery, and I've been in love with the place ever since.  I spend a few hours each week helping out in the office -- filing, uploading pictures, just general office work. So every week for the past year I've walked through these gardens to the business office and I've been able to see all the gradual changes from season to season. Yesterday the roses were in full bloom and oh how beautiful they were. One of the guards who saw me taking pictures as I left insisted on taking mine. As usual, I'm loaded down with an armful of 'necessities,' including cans of seeds Brother Sebastian gave me. This picture reminds me to get some sun before my daughter's wedding in a few weeks. Not to mention a decent haircut. An eyelid lift would be nice too. Must remember to get a manicure. Pedicure. Lose 5 lbs. Stay calm.

Takoma Park House and Garden Tour, May 5, 2013.

Just a few random shots from the tour, plus a nice funky building in downtown Takoma Park.

A Colorado columbine successfully re-locates to Maryland.

Thanks to Kitt, who a couple of years ago sent me some seeds from her gorgeous patch of Columbines.  I planted the seeds a year ago but nothing happened. I saw this plant growing a few weeks ago and thought at first it was a weed. But my weed-loving instincts told me to let it be. I was rewarded! Only one plant came up (or survived me poking around in the ground nearby) but maybe I'll have more next year. Thanks again Kitt!

"Microbes: The Trillions of Creatures Governing Your Health"

Wow! I just heard an interview with Richard Conniff, author of "Microbes: The Trillions of Creatures Governing Your Health," and now will read the article from start to finish. Anyone who takes a lot of antibiotics should read it too. Article is here.  From the latest issue of Smithsonian magazine. Long Live Magazines!

Illustration by Stephanie Dalton Cowan (Smithsonian magazine, May 2013).

PS: Toss out that Purell while you're at it. I always thought that was such a corporate rip-off anyway.

Clarence! Eight months old and still perfect in every way.

Sweet and Dandy.

I'd really like to hear this song at my daughter's wedding in June but I don't think it's going to happen. (It's complicated, plus I'm not totally sure I understand the lyrics although it is about a wedding and they sure sound happy.) That doesn't mean I can't listen to the song over and over, as I've been doing lately. The music we're having at the wedding will be a couple of singers with guitars, and although it will be lovely I'm sure, I'd be surprised if they could work this in. Here are the lyrics. (And if  you haven't seen the 1972 movie The Harder They Come you might want to try it. It's dated but oh the music!)

Sweet And Dandy by Toots And The Maytals
Etty in the room a cry
Mama say she must wipe her eye
Papa say she no fi foolish
Like she never been to school at all
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.

Johnson in the room afret
Uncle say he must hold up him head
Aunty say she no fi foolish
Like a no time fi him wedding day
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.
One pound ten for the wedding cake
Plenty bottle of cola wine
All the people them dress up in a white
Fi go eat out Johnson wedding cake
It is no wonder
It's a perfect pander
While they were dancing in that bar room last night.

A mixed bag, but another blonde woman comes to my attention.

I'm reading the Henrietta Lacks book for my book club. I'm 78% through (you can always spot an e-book reader these days) and I'm not at all sure how I feel about the book. It's certainly a downer, but that shouldn't have been a surprise to me. It's a fascinating medical story, but a way-too-sad personal story. I was working for the National Cancer Institute in the 1970s, just about the time when Henrietta's family (living 30 miles north of me) was beginning to fully appreciate how her cells were being used. During the course of any given day at work I would read or type or say the words "HeLa cells" constantly. Little did I know. Although I DID know. I knew that HeLa stood for a woman named Helen Lane, which turned out to be not exactly right. And that her cells were being used everywhere to study chemotherapeutic agents. Sort of makes me uncomfortable.

And sadly I must once again call out a blonde woman for some criticism. The woman above, who will go unnamed, said an awful, hateful thing about another blonde woman, Meghan McCain, and it made news, of a sort, on many so-called news sites. This particular blonde woman gets my award for lowest of the low, but I fully admit that she really knows how to get attention. And I guess she makes a living at it. Horrible woman.

Betty Draper is a whack job.

It may appear that I'm picking on blonde women, see last post, but I'm really not. It also appears that I'm not thinking very deep thoughts these days, which is true. For fans of Mad Men, you will know what I mean about Betty being a whack job. She was never particularly stable but she's now way over the top psychologically.  As one headline said today, she's now "WTF Betty." It was great to have the show back last night. 

I've read trashier books but not many.

But I'm enjoying every single badly written sentence in this (library) book. I've been mentally composing some generous words to put here about the book or the author, sort of in the spirit of not being snarky or holier than thou. But then I read a few more sentences and I laugh in amazement. It's a hoot. Too bad four children are involved and had to watch the story unfold. Or will find this book in the future and be tempted to read it. I should be ashamed to be spending my time on it (but confessing it here makes it OK somehow. What's up with that?).

Look at those stargazers in the right background of this 15+ year old photo! Daughter with Socks, Wonderful Cat of the Past.

But about those stargazers. You can see three groups of them on the right. That shows how much the wildlife has changed in our backyard in 20 years. When the top photograph was taken we had no deer fencing in our back yard and we had big hostas and those lilies. We certainly saw deer from time to time and they were free to wander over the very ground Socks and Daughter are sitting on. But apparently they didn't. Because look at all those stargazers! 

And there she is once again, February 22, 2013, with Sean. Wedding coming up soon. [Clothes to find/buy!]

I bought some of the herbs that I plan to nurture into much bigger herbs to use as planter centerpieces for the June wedding.  Behnke's Nursery had a good selection of herbs, but not the full selection they'll have over the next weeks. I watched an employee with an old-fashioned clipboard and a printed list of different herbs and she was counting and checking them off. I love that stuff.

Fun jobs. Being paid by Stephen Colbert to think up silly anagrams like this one.

Reince  Priebus

Crisp Bee Urine

Powerful blog post.

I generally don't follow crime stories, especially those involviing rape, children, or abuse in any form.  But I read this blog post and thought it was worth passing along. I hope President Obama reads it too. I think he would probably change the way he speaks as a result.

Thanks

Must finish by Tuesday night. Doubtful.

I joined a book club recently. This is what we're discussing on Tuesday night. I'm on page 318 of 672, and the likelihood of me finishing by then is very small.  I'm sure I can find an online summary with plot spoilers to fill me in, but this is one of those book clubs -- I discovered after the fact -- that meets to have a great home-cooked meal sprinkled lightly, or not, with book talk. So I don't necessarily feel that I must know the outcome of the novel since I probably won't be the only one who doesn't finish it. And that means there might not be much discussion anyway.

I'm undecided about staying with this particular group. I'm very compatible with the small group of eight women -- we like the same kinds of books, we live close enough, and the group has been together for more than 20 years so they have staying power. Although I like to cook, I don't like to cook for foodies. And hostessing is not my strength. I just wanted to join a simple club that sat in someone's living room or in a local diner/coffee shop yakking about a specific book, and books in general, for an hour or so.

At the first meeting I attended, in February, we discussed State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Interesting novel with a lot of side issues worthy of discussion. We spent about 20 minutes actually talking about the book, and that's a generous estimate. Dinner -- which was delicious and discussed thoroughly -- was scallops and grapefruit risotto and sauteed chick-pea patties and fruit and coconut cake and other dishes I've forgotten. It was in the home of someone who lives in an older section of upper NW DC in a Sears house, 1920s vintage I think she said, with a kitchen overlooking the dining room. Perfect for someone cooking a 100-course meal from scratch while talking to eight guests who are milling about asking dozens of questions about the food and the cooking thereof. She handled it beautifully.

I think it will be my turn to host the dinner (sprinkled with book talk) in July or August, although I might ask to do it earlier just to get it out of the way. Then if I quit I will have paid my way, so to speak.

Well, maybe next time for Stephen. And thanks to the always funny SF Margo for the other photo.

Although I'm not a Catholic I spend time each week at the place below, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America in Northeast DC. I'll be there tomorrow and expect to see lots of atta' boys among the brown-garbed brothers.

focaccio

Hellebores and crocuses. Spring is just around the corner.

Another no-yeast, no-knead, no-time Bread

Preheat oven to 375

Combine:
flour (not self-rising), 3 cups sifted
baking powder, 3 teaspoons
salt, 1 teaspoon
sugar, 1/4 cup

Stir in:
beer, 12 oz
melted butter, 1/4 cup (optional)
Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated, 1/4 cup (optional)

Pour into a greased loaf pan

Bake 1 hour

Cool 15 minutes

Photos I forgot to post over the summer.

Volunteer cantaloupes, which I get every year because of my compost pile -- I guess. Purple hyacinth beans (seeds courtesy of my sister), the ONLY nasturtium I managed to grow all summer despite planting a number of plantlets, and some late tomatoes. These tomatoes perplexed me because they remained green on the outside but were red, as shown, on the inside. And tasted ripe. Unfortunately I don't remember what kind of tomatoes I planted.

Quit! Again. Let's see if it holds this time.

I always quit, this will be the third and I hope final time, for the same reason. I comment on someone's post and then hours later I'm embarrassed by what I said. Today I made a stupid, pointless (hey, it's Facebook) comment on my brother-in-law's post about a computer problem. I did it quickly and without noting that many others had already commented. I said the same thing that someone had said earlier and she pointed it out to me. OK, said I. The only way to avoid all this nonsense is to just get out of FB. I don't need it, I don't learn anything much on it, but I admit that I check it several times a day. Waste of time. I'll read two more books a year, I figure, with the time I'll save.

Thomas Jefferson did NOT say this.

Quotation: "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

As this nation makes yet another attempt (almost certainly doomed from the start) to put a few sensible and responsible restrictions on firearm ownership, this quotation pops up here and there as evidence that T. Jefferson was seriously pro-gun. Don't believe it. The Internets are full of bogus quotes attributed to Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and Madison. There are so many non-Jefferson quotes that the website for Monticello has a link to Spurious Quotations. Link is here.

Update: I thought I was so clever....I thought I had discovered some little secret about this and other quotes. But then half an hour after I posted the above I was roaming around on CNN News and found this. Good! I want everyone to learn about the dishonesty of some gun lovers. Not all, I know. Just some. But still.

True? If so, does it matter? Let me answer that. Nah.

I'm a half-hearted member of the Facebook world. I have only posted a couple of times, although I comment on friends' posts occasionally. I have very few Facebook friends and some of them are people I've never met ("friends" I picked up when I was addicted to FarmVille or FarmTown or some farm things). So the fact, if it's a fact, that posts only reach 12 percent of a user's friends doesn't bother me at all. But I do think it's kind of interesting.

Wisteria.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/04/22/the-hanging-gardens-of-berkeley/

Check out these stunning photos of wisteria in Berkeley, CA. According to the author:

There are several types of wisteria. Most common is Japanese Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) which winds in a clockwise fashion and the Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) which winds in a counter clockwise fashion. There are more than 25 different cultivars.


My wisteria winds clock-wise so I guess it's a Japanese Wisteria (floribunda). But I'll check this out on some other sites. One is never enough when checking out info from the web.

A report on Hurricane Sandy.

We were so very lucky. Hurricane Sandy came through the DC area with a lot of rain and bluster but did surprisingly little damage. I was totally prepared for a week without power.

But my daughter and sister, who live in quite different locations, didn't fare as well and are in for some Sandy-related inconvenience and loss of income, at least in my daughter's situation.

She lives in Brooklyn, works in Manhattan, and depends totally on the NYC subways, pictured above (photo from inhabitat.com).  Who knows when the unprecedented damage will be repaired. I've always been amazed at how NYC keeps itself functioning but this is a brand-new challenge.  Daughter is otherwise safe and has power, so that's the good news.

Sister lives in Western MD and telecommutes but she lost power last night and at 10 AM was looking out her windows at a foot of snow, with another foot predicted.  [The snow picture is from her front porch but was taken in Nov 2008.] Also, she had not yet heard a single snow plow, which in those parts is unusual. 

I know they're luckier than others in Sandy's path but I want everything to get back to normal for both of them. Soon. 

Cold frame.

Last winter I bought an inexpensive (about $50) cold frame and set it up in my very small vegetable garden. Then I didn't do much with it -- just let it sit there -- all spring, summer, and fall. The top blew off once or twice so at some point I just moved the top onto the porch. Finally in November I reattached the top and planted some lettuce plantlets, not seeds but plantlets. Everything is still growing, or at least nothing has been frozen, so I guess the frame is doing its job. Our temperatures have sometimes been in the 20s at night which normally would kill off lettuce (I think). Unfortunately, although alive and presumably healthy, the lettuce doesn't seem to be getting any bigger. Bottom pix was taken yesterday, pix above it was taken 3 wks ago. Maybe if we get a burst of sustained  warm weather -- in the 60s -- everything will grow in a burst.

See the grass in the upper left corner of the top picture? That's my neighbor's lawn. She has a lawn service which comes occasionally to give her lawn a "treatment." The kind where the lawn guys leave little warning flags in the ground near the driveway, warnings about pets and children, maybe? I haven't examined one. Anyway, do you think her chemicals, plus the chemicals from the neighbor next to HER, who also gets such treatments, will get into my lettuce? I think yes, probably. If nothing else some chemicals will be airborne and will float onto my garden.

It would be a big deal to move my vegetable garden to another location in my yard. A combination of not enough sun in some places, not enough free space in others, proximity to the road (and the stuff that cars spew out), and the whole aesthetic factor. We live on a corner lot so two of our four sides are visible and accessible from the street (ie, open to the hands of passers-by...we have a fair number of passers-by since we live next door to the entrance to a park).

Pie in a Jar!

 

 I bought this at the Takoma Park Farmers' Market on Sunday. Tonight I'll put it in a pie pan and heat it up. Report to follow. 

Wang Dang Doodle Barbeque. Go while you can....

This little restaurant is in the back yard, sort of, of an ice cream parlour in Takoma Park, MD. It's run by one guy who opens only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He's been there since September and makes barbeque to die for -- chicken, pulled pork, brisket, ribs. He cooks it outside (outside being just behind where I was standing when I took this picture) on a grill. He stays open only as long as he has food so you have to get there between noon and about 6 or 7 PM to guarantee finding him open. We went one day when it was bitterly cold so we ate inside that door, in the ice cream parlour where the owners were quite friendly, even though we bought nothing from them. (Well, I bought a bottle of water...) But!!  I learned today that The Big Guys are moving in. The Big Guy in this case means Jeff Black who owns and operates a bunch of fabulous restaurants in Bethesda, Rockville, and Garrett Park. I'm happy to see any new restaurant open close to home but I will mourn the loss of Wang Dang, which is a seat-of-the-pants place. Takoma Park is slowly, slowly, slowly becoming just a tad too upscale for me. Oh well, times change.

My neck feels great! Could it be because I stopped yoga a year ago?

I started taking weekly yoga classes in the fall of 2008. Within a couple of months I began to have low-level, intermittent but annoying neck pain. Aspirin, ibuprofen, tylenol, and aleve all worked to relieve the pain. I assumed the yoga was the cause but I didn't want to give it up. And I thought that maybe my body would adjust. (Magical thinking.)

In January 2012 I stopped taking classes. A conflict came up with the class I had been attending for years but there are tons of options in this area so I could have managed. I didn't. I procrastinated. I just kept saying "I'll start again, when I feel like it." Now it's a year later. I almost never take pain meds for my neck and I'm back to not remembering that I even have a neck. (Which is nice, because I hate my neck. It's too long and floppy, like Alice in Wonderland when she's eaten a mushroom.)

I miss yoga, and I think it was good for my strength and balance and brain and a bunch of other things. What I should do, since I know the basic moves, is create my own routine, making sure I do only movements that put zero pressure on my neck. That leaves out a lot of moves but it could be done.  Even if I did it only once a week it would be something.  It's a thought. I'll file it with all the others.