If we were having coffee

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The trees are flowering.

If we were having coffee, I’d be happy to see you again.  Come on in.  Let’s grab our beverages and go have a seat out on the deck.  It’s too nice to sit indoors.

How are you?  How was your week?  Did you travel anywhere?  Read any good books?  See any good films?  Hear any good music?

This week I finished reading Annihilation: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy), and started The Longings of Wayward Girls: A Novel.  Annihilation, described in the reviews as a psychological thriller, is the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy, and it is a page-turner.  I wish I had the second and third books on hand because I want to keep reading.  The Longings of Wayward Girls is getting off to a slow start for me, and I’m not sure I’ll keep going.  It’s chick lit, a genre I don’t read a lot of because it doesn’t appeal to me.  I picked up the book for a dollar somewhere, and it’s the only reason I can think of that it was on my bookshelf.  I’ll give it a little more time, but since there are so many other books to read, and good books at that, I don’t want to invest too much time in it if it’s not going to hold my interest.  I find it kind of flat.  The reviews (I just went and had a look) are somewhat mixed, with a majority of the readers liking it.

Uplifted.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that it has been an interesting week.  I went to New Jersey to visit with my father (he’s doing well, thank you for asking), had dinner in Philadelphia at a friend’s house (thank you, Jenna, the food was delicious and it was great to see you!), went to a concert, and had a good time during my travels.

Blossoms on the Mystery Tree. Which I think is some kind of cherry.

We saw The Decemberists at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.  A band called Alvvays opened for them.  I did not get see the opening act although I did hear them from where I was standing in the hall outside of the seating area.  You might wonder why I happened to be standing in the hall and not sitting in my seat.  The answer is:  Height.  Great height, STEEP stairs, and a reserved seat in a front row of the “amphitheater seating” that made me dizzy.  We were in a section that is as high up as you can go in the theater (something I should have realized when we were running up all those stairs to get to the section where we had reserved seats).  After the opening act, we found someone willing to switch seats, thank goodness.  We were still in the same section, but against the wall rather than out front where there is nothing except a hand rail to keep people from falling a long way down to the seats on the floor level.

Driving into Philadelphia.

Out of curiosity, I did a search for the Academy of Music and a few of the reviews advise you not to get tickets for the seats that are high up if you have vertigo or a fear of heights.  I guess I should have done that BEFORE I went.  Oh well.  Another live and learn adventure.  I enjoyed The Decemberists, as I knew I would since I’ve seen them in concert once before and enjoyed their show.

The Academy of Music first opened in January of 1857.  It’s a beautiful theater.  If you’d like to learn more about it, there’s a brief article about it here.  I don’t have any pictures to show you.  I did not take the big camera (the Canon) out of the case during this trip, and only took a few shots on the road with my little point & shoot.

Back to the woods.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about a talk that I watched/listened to on YouTube.  Eliza recommended it.  Doug Tallamy’s Plant Natives 2015 presentation.  It’s over an hour long, but if you have time and the subject of how plants and animals, particularly birds, are interconnected interests you, you might want to watch it.  It’s fascinating.

I have long known on some level that everything is interconnected in some way, but lately I’ve been feeling it more.  Maybe it’s because I spend so much time outside.  I’m not sure how to explain this feeling of connection, but I suspect some of you reading know what I mean.

Coors Light can sitting pretty among the periwinkles.

If we were having coffee, you probably already noticed I picked up a cold either on my travels or my body finally caved in to the cold M had about a week or so ago.  Not that it matters where I caught it.  Given that I have just recovered from another illness, and from surgery prior to that, it’s disappointing to find myself ill once again.  My body is obviously trying to tell me something.

Listening to the woods.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about the storms that rolled through yesterday evening.  They were not as bad as originally predicted (not a lot of wind and rain), but boy, the lightning and thunder were really something!  It sounded as though the lightning struck something in the woods, but I haven’t had a chance to go out and look yet.

A carpet of flowers and greenery in the cemetery.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you (and you may have noticed on your way in) that some of the trees are flowering and some are beginning to leaf out.  Last Sunday, before my trip, I reluctantly mowed the lawn for the first time year.  I wanted to wait a few more weeks because starting this early means it will be a long mowing season.  However, we do have to keep the grass short around the house and gardens in order to keep the snakes away and out in the wilder areas.  I’ll be mowing again tomorrow and Monday.  It is amazing how fast the grass grows around here.

I would also tell you that we’ve asked a man to come by and give us an estimate on mowing the meadows.  As you might recall, the meadows are part of a land conservation agreement we have with the state, and we’re required to mow them down every three years.  I don’t like the idea of a total clear cut because we’ll be displacing a lot of wildlife so I came up with the idea of mowing a third of it every year instead of all of it every three years.  That way, technically we’ll be in compliance.  The previous owners were not keeping up with the mowing, and a lot of trees sprung up and had time to grow to a pretty good size.  The sea myrtles are also big.  Otherwise, we could mow it ourselves.  As it is, we need someone with big machinery to take care of it the first time around.  The naturalist who came by last fall recommended a man who has some kind of grinder that will grind it all down, leaving mulch behind.

I spent some time in the cemetery the other day. It needs a good clean-up.

I have been working in the scrounger’s garden today.  I have all sorts of plans.  I want to turn it into a scrounger’s/children’s garden.  My granddaughters will be visiting this summer, and I hope to have the garden mostly decorated by that time.  Do you remember when I told you we found a large pile of pots and pans?  Well.  I am going to clean them up, see if I can paint them to look like large flowers, and then pop them in the ground.  I also want to make a totem of sorts using cups and saucers.  The scrounger’s/children’s garden might be a good place to hang one of our many doors or windows, too, as a gate or entrance to the garden.

Life and death.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that the wildlife around here has been active lately.  There is a great egret hanging around the creek and lagoon, the otters have been splashing around a lot, and I saw a wild turkey go running across the front yard yesterday.  I don’t know where she was headed, but she sure was in a hurry.

M.J.B.

If we were having coffee, I would ask if you’d like to take a walk before it’s time for you to leave.  The periwinkles in the cemetery are at their peak right now, and have created a beautiful carpet of flowers.  I tried to capture it in photos, but it’s something you’ll need to see for yourself since it doesn’t translate well into images.

Aren’t they pretty?

If we were having coffee, I would thank you for visiting.  I’m going down to the Point to watch the sunset tonight.  You are welcome to join me if you like.  Sunset is at 7:35 PM now.  You will need a jacket or a sweatshirt since it’s likely to be breezy.

Leaning against a tree.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Flowering maple and oak.

This post is in response to Part Time Monster’s #WeekendCoffeeShare.  Grab a cuppa of whatever your preference is and join us.  I’d love to hear all about what you were up to this week.

What’s new on the old oak tree.