Today it’s 70 and the air is soft. Finn and I walked once and will walk again shortly.
It’s that time of year: when my hands are dry and my nails rimmed with dirt.
After reading two James Lee Burkes and a Louise Penny in fairly short order, it is somewhat relieving to be reading O Pioneers! By Will Cather.
Re: being a pioneer living a difficult life. One of the (minor, unexpected) consequences of living in an era of climate crisis — I now have a tendency to view the hardships of other eras as, not trivial exactly and not automatically surmountable, but not apocalyptic.
She lived through hardship which was not apocalyptic.
It is at last warm enough to shift most of the houseplants to patio and deck. Because I can never decide whether I like the house better populated by plants or the sense of space that occurs when they go outside, I am reminded of the memorable Wallace Stevens verse from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
*. *. *.
Love hearing your birds, sensing the breeze on my skin.
It’s a beautiful day here.
(((Dee))) your Dicentra spectabilis is beautiful!
I love their delicate willingness to show up when the weather is still variable.
Which James Lee Burke books? and Louise Penny? Two of my fave authors!!
#10 Gamache (I think) The Long Way Home. My least favorite so far (about tracking Peter down). Burke two early ones. A Stained White Radiance and I already forget the other. I love both authors too. Not sure why I got so critical of Burke. Too many thunderstorms, for one thing. The pecan tree shade. The bream rising in the marsh. I noticed how much repetition there was.
The peace and beauty that can be had by nurturing plants indoors and out is a wonderful thing. Your video captures it.
Sunday, I went to Quaker Mtg for Worship (after yoga). The windows and doors were open, and the birds were an orchestra in the surrounding woods. I had to leave and walk out into the woods. Still tentative, still worrying about the NRA, and seeking peace with bird calls was my gift.
Here, you provide refuge, somehow. It is always magical for me.
Willa Cather, still I’ve never read. Love that excerpt.
Wallace Stevens, amazing. Was he the one who wrote in his law office in NYC?
Thank you, Dee.
“soft air” is such an evocative term … summer heat has already hit Texas, the pavement radiating it as I walked back to my car yesterday … grateful to return to the birdsong and lush greens of suburbia