Uncategorized 20:04
There is a Carolina Wren outside my window, staking his claim to the porch as only a wren can. This is the highpoint of summer, from now on the world turns towards the fall. But for this shining moment life runs hot and hard.
The Merlin flies, in swift silence, crossing towards the western river valleys.
And a thousand dragonflies dance in the meadow, glittering stars cast down in the sun on far fields.
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, northwest Connecticut, photography 19:51
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Historical Events history, random 16:08
I was struck the other day by the relative significance of dates: in part how what may be a very important date for us may be an ordinary day for others, but also how even a day that has attained a solemn timelessness was once just an ordinary day….and may become so once more. All is vanity.
This line of thought was raised by looking at some construction photos taken on November 11th, 1915 here in Connecticut, on a somewhat rural but rather important (to the people of Hartford, Ct) construction site. 11-11. A fairly young group of men, many of whom would go elsewhere in about eighteen months time, largely halting construction.
Already a great conflagration burned in Europe. But it was not yet a matter of remembrance. And no one knew that it would become something so terrible; there may have been a rumour or two, but nothing to be believed, not yet. It probably wasn’t a topic of great concern at the work site, any more than the wars of today are. The likely topic was the job for the day and how best to wrap it up to wait out the winter.
For me, November 11th is Armistice Day.* It is likely a working day, an ordinary day, but still the grave yawns for me, if only for a glimpse at the strike of 11. For the men in the photograph, Armistice Day wasn’t even an idea. The dates and the monuments of our lives, in their great solemnity, are creations. We remember for a time, but there are few dates that can remain for generations, which is perhaps as it should be. Men lived before us, men will live after us. It is not the dates that remain forever, nor the names, nor yet the places; but the spirit and the life. The hate and the love, the joy and the sorrow.
*It is Armistice Day.
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography 21:33
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gardening and Modern Photos and Trees photography 19:47
The big Cucumber Magnolia, looking up at sunset.
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Uncategorized politics 21:24
It wouldn’t be southwestern New England in the summer without Tanglewood, now would it? Our record of getting up there is erratic at best, but nonetheless.
Last night was rather pleasant:
An opening concert of brass and woodwinds ranging from the Renaissance to Modern was followed by Weber’s Overture of ‘Der Freischutz’ (lovely work for the horns), Schubert’s ‘Symphony No. 4 in C minor’, and completed by Beethoven’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 5…the ‘Emperor’ elegantly, spectacularly played by Garrick Ohlsson.
Tanglewood is not, of course, simply the Boston Symphony’s summer home. It is also an expression of a cultural peak* that we spend far too much time either denigrating or taking for granted. The setting is glorious, a sister of the Lake Country at its best. And that alone tells us something. For the Lake Country is England, but England within and of the British Empire, world spanning confidence and a desire to paint a single tree in a single farmyard.
The architecture….function above all in the Shed; but Ozawa Hall represents a mature form of the idea for one can see at once elements of: the New England brick factory, the midwestern Arts and Crafts, older still the great halls of a thousand castles, set beneath the trees, the court of classical music. It is Yankee to the core.
For every negative thrown at the old Yankee culture:** pretentious, reserved, elite, arrogant, and worse….consider… this is what it has supported, can support, and will support: hundreds of people give their lives to music that is not given to the worship of any god, any nation, any creed, not to politics and not to the day’s would be lord. But simply to music. Thousands more come to listen in silent rapture to the glory that is man, speaking in a thousand tongues.
*There are many peaks, in many cultures. That I speak of one does not another lesser make.
** Which is not what votes at the state or federal levels these days, but that is politics. Neither Democrat nor Republican is Yankee as far as I am concerned.
gardening and Modern Photos black snakeroot, bugbane, photography 20:29
(also known as Bugbane, for those who aren’t southern New Englanders!) Doing its thing, looking good even when it has fallen over in a somewhat untidy spot. It could, of course, be standing up at about seven feet tall, but it is equally happy to snake about going where the wind and sun demand; hence, I think, its name. The bumblebees adore it, their whole attitude is that they can’t quite believe their good fortune: that fast, almost frantic shift from one little flower to the next. You’ll find four or five bees at anytime on every spike.
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gardening gardening, hostas, photography 21:26
Hostas are sometimes over-used, sometimes abused, sometimes very useful indeed. The multitude of fancy hostas is right up there with daylilies, rather overwhelming.
Now, I like the fancy hostas in the right place; where they can be very elegant, as below.
But, with so much attention on the leaves, the flowers get overlooked. In fact, in situations where the effect of the foliage is the important point, they can be a distraction. In most cases, aside from the giant whites, the flowers of the variegated hostas are little disappointing: their tendency is toward pale lavender, small flowers.
Sometimes, it is worthwhile to look back at the original plant that started it all. In this case the straight H. lancifolia.
A plain green leaf, granted. But one with a nice shape, well defined ribbing, and a nice growth habit. The flowers are a steel blue to deep, genuine lavender and generous in their size and flowering. The bees and hummingbirds like it as well. It does reseed and spread, but in a modest fashion.* There is something to be said for all that.
*the deer probably help keep it down, it is very tasty!
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, photography 20:05
Little Kitchen Garden: Daylilies, Black-eyed Susans, Jacob Kline Monarda, Raspberry Monarda
A tiny portion of the baby brigade which numbers around twenty (the bachelor band, eight strong, comes through in the evening)
Red Daylily, classic old fashioned hostas beyond
The Big Garden
Orienpet Lilies (Holland Dreams and Lavon), some Jacob Kline Monarda
Casablanca Oriental Lilies, Black Snakeroot in the foreground
Beneath the Library
I’m eating your daylilies!! (actually, he was enjoying the Boltonia that shouldn’t be growing there.)
Acair Fearann 