Peg Duthie's Blog, page 60

3 x 2 x 4

The 3 types of seeds I bought yesterday
Hungarian Breadseed Poppy
Zinnias ("Cool Crayon Mix")
French Rolande Beans

2 types of plants I am playing with propagating
Christmas cactus (inherited from my mother)
Rogue holly (dug up from my front yard this afternoon)

4 things I have tried recently
Cooking with mirin (yum!)
Using agave nectar as rooting compound (we'll see)
Valdigues wine (tastes like Beaujolais)
Soaking shiitake mushrooms in shrimp broth (should be fine...)

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like a French town spreading its skirts round a bay

The subject line is Virginia Woolf's description of the town of Lewes in her diary on 15 November 1940. In that entry, she also wrote:

Coventry almost destroyed. The usual traffic last night. All the hounds on their road to London. A bad raid there. When I am not writing fiction this fact seeps in. The necessity of living in the upper air. Then I tidied my room & threw masses on the potato box for Louie [the housekeeper]. This also revives. I am a mental specialist now. I will enjoy every single day.

72 years later, of course, one reads the last sentence knowing that Virginia will walk into the Ouse four months later.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have been doing battle with the rain-rust on one of my dining room curtain panels. Neither vinegar or detergent are vanquishing the streaks, and I haven't worked up the nerve to try eHow's advice to use an iron (it's counterintuitive enough that I'd like to see it seconded by another source before I risk it).

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the holidays...

[Christmas cactus buds]

I had no idea how busy Americans are between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, the time they refer to as The Holiday Season. Everyone asks, "Are you ready for the holidays?" And then afterward, they ask, "How were your holidays?" During the holidays themselves, no one asks about them.

E. L. Konigsburg, The View from Saturday

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His First Vote

In the Cheekwood permanent collection:

From Cheekwood// via The Athenaeum

His First Vote, by Thomas Waterman Wood, 1868. This image (part of a larger painting titled American Citizens (To the Polls) is featured in a 2001 catalog of the permanent collection. Celia Walker writes:

Waiting in line with the other voters [a Northerner/Yankee, an Irishman, and a Dutchman], who smoke, whittle, or fidget, the African American is the only one of the four who appears to be focused on his task. This is hardly surprising, since African Americans had just gained citizenship through the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868. The first legal vote by an African American actually took place in 1867 in New Orleans, making this a timely scene.

Also mentioned in the catalog: Jacob Lawrence's The Migrants Cast Their Ballots.

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souls and wreckage

In spite of the drama implied by the subject line, it's pretty quiet here at the moment. (Quiet = the chattering of birds, the hum of the fridge, the tap of my fingers against the keyboard, the reverb of kid + car noise from the school down the block...). I've got work to get to, plus dinner with friends across town, but it being Monday, there was first the Talking Library broadcast...



...and then a presentation over at Vanderbilt on various medical center initiatives. For me, the most interesting stats were the current cost of providing care to uninsured patients (.5 billion dollars/year, for a thousand-bed system) and the reduction in cases of VAP (ventilator-associated pneumonia), especially compared to national averages.

Down the street from the hospital, Retropolitan is closing/moving because its building is about to be demolished. I'm glad I got to meander around the current incarnation with Mary and her sister when they were here in March, admiring felt vines and other whimsies.

Poetry-wise, I got two more submissions out the (electronic) door and posted on May Sarton's "All Souls" poems over at poetree .

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a reason to keep a journal

I'd completely forgotten about the apple tree that ate Roger Williams, until I looked up one of my old entries about an All Saints' Day service.

(Posting on May Sarton and her All Souls poems over at poetree tomorrow.)

Today has been the warmest day of the week, but now the sun is down, and my feet are on the verge of clammy. I'll go dig out some socks in a sec.

My church's Room in the Inn program starts tonight -- in fact, the men should be having supper right around now. I have the 4 a.m. shift tomorrow morning, and I'm speaking about it at this Sunday's services. If that's not enough to lure you locals to the pews (jk), perhaps the topic will?

The Reverent Citizen and Leader

For our traditional election sermon, we will examine the virtue of reverence, which does not depend upon any one faith stance or religious belief, but keeps us from trying to act like gods. We will reflect on political philosophy that suggests that reverent citizens and leaders have a crucial role to play in a healthy democracy.

Plus, the opening hymn is "Here We Have Gathered," which is a lovely way to start a Sunday. I especially like the third verse:

Life has its battles, sorrows and regret:
But in the shadows, let us not forget:
We who now gather know each other's pain;
Kindness can heal us; as we give, we gain.
Sing now in friendship, this our hearts' own song.

[Something else that's nifty: an ASL script for the hymn]

(As always, the annotator in me hastens to add, of course we don't necessarily really know each other, let alone the dark stuff. Even the people who love me most and know me best can't always suss out when or how much I'm hurting, especially when I'm making a point of being stoic or even merely functional; nonetheless, singing this hymn among people I do consider my friends is indeed a pleasure. It's being greeted with hot coffee on a cold morning; it's hiking around Radnor Lake this morning with one of those friends, who just got back from Parents' Day at Williams; it's elegant hand-me-downs from an eighty-three-year-old yoga devotee and in turn taking salads and snacks to housebound friends.)

[I didn't sit down to write that. I guess community and connections are on my mind.]

Speaking of older folks, a retirement community in town sponsored one of the scarecrows at Cheekwood Gardens. They called it "Will's Scare Quotes":



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from Oprah's interview of Barack and Michelle Obama

From the November 2012 issue:

O: I just read that 18 percent of Republicans and 11 percent of Americans overall still think you are Muslim. That's one in ten people. Can you tell me what it means to you to be a Christian?

BO: What it means is that I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that his example of caring and treating others as you want to be treated, and expressing loving compassion for all of God's children and this beautiful planet, are obligations I now have to take on myself. You asked me how I've changed. One way--I think it was Lincoln who said, If you weren't religious before you became president, this office will make you religious. Because, you know, we pray every day.

O: Do you involve God in your decisions in your presidency and if so, in what way?

BO: I'm in a constant conversation with God and that voice that is true about doing the right thing. And sometimes just giving strength when you're feeling low. There are going to be ups and downs in this job, like any other job. The interesting thing is, the questions I deal with are big and have worldwide impact.

O: Because, as you said to me in a previous interview, the little questions are already answered before they can get to you.

BO: The easy questions don't come to me. Just the tough ones. But the emotions that I go through during a day are probably the emotions a teacher goes through just trying to reach kids, and some days are good and some days are tough. They're the emotions that a mom might be going through when she's trying to work and look after her kids and hold everything together. Where your faith comes in, I think, is helping you get through the bad days, but also giving you some perspective on the good days and making sure that you're focused not just on yourself but on others.

O: All right, tell me something you like about your opponent, other than his love of family or country.

BO: Well, I really like his healthcare bill that he passed in Massachusetts. [All laugh.] It was great.

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/world/Oprah-Interviews-the-Obamas-Obama-Interview-in-O-Magazine/6#ixzz2B0nYZHMA

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signal boost

http://www.jaimeleemoyer.com/personal-request-for-a-signal-boost-or-desperately-searching-for-danielle/

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glimpses of a garden; poetry at Poetree

At Cheekwood:



At poetree , I posted on some poems to/about dead people on Monday, and will be posting on May Sarton's "All Souls" poems this Saturday. Today, there is a haiku trick-or-treat thread open to all. Come play!

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inventory

Here's what I looked like before dressing up for last night's carnival/circus (wearing the pendant from Jaime Lee I blogged about yesterday):



Here's a list of some of the other guests at the party. (After two glasses of pinot noir, I started mentally spinning a locked-yard yarn involving the lot... *evil grin*...)

2 ringmasters (both male, 1 in heels)
1 McKayla Maroney, w/white mustachio'd coach (both female)
1 Mad Hatter (female)
1 dragon lady from Games of Thrones, w/knight (w/longsword)
1 clown, with 2 carnations
2 strongmen (1 female)
2 human cannonballs
1 Big Bird, 1 Cookie Monster, and 1 Mr. Rogers (arrived as a group)
2 self-labeled "dubious virgins" (1 in governess gown, 1 in monk's robe)
1 sacrificial virgin
1 Dorothy
1 John Lennon
1 Robert de Niro
1 Playboy bunny
1 cat
1 socialite (white trench coat, matching small animal)
1 fleecy blanket
1 tarted-up Little Red Riding Hood
1 guy in a strapless pink brocade cocktail dress
1 guy w/horns
1 gal in a red raincoat
...and, the refrigerator wore a Pinocchio nose

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