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| Photo: Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com |
Traffic is going to be a real bugbear for months to come, but I'm going to try and smile through it. Thanks be to God, we were spared tragedy. Moore, OK has worse to deal with by many orders of magnitude. Thoughts and prayers are with you, Moore.
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Doctor Who fans? Buffy fans? I've seen only one episode of the former, and none of the latter, but I suspect I'd be addicted to both if I were willing to prioritize them over blogging, which is what I'd have to give up to have time for television. If you're a fan, though, check out Kat and Curt's TV Re-View, a podcast in which a couple of Mythgard Institute students—Katherine's a Hog's Head friend—watch and analyze both stories. I almost wish I was an addict, because this podcast is probably a lot of fun.
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Speaking of The Hog's Head, it's under major reconstructive surgery right now, for any of you wondering why no one's posting. No one's posting because nargles got in and shut nearly all of us out. Tech elves and Headmaster Travis are working away on getting it cleaned out, but it's proving to be about as difficult as the doxy removal in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.
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OK, normal blog post detail!
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This peony looks oddly like fried eggs, sunny side up:
But it blooms wildly, and I love it. The traditional ones are hard at work, too:
The snowball bush is still in full bloom:
And the maple tree is making these funny little things, which I don't have enough botany to name properly:
And we have two tiny lily of the valley blossoms!
...seen in context here:
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Music of the week: King of Instruments feature! I need to do these regularly. Dad St. Hilaire sent me this one recently: Bach's Sinfonia, played by Diane Bish.
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Off to make dinner... Happy weekend! And yes, there should be a Harry Potter post on Monday. Even though I will be off playing street hockey most of the day. :D
Those are seed pods on the maple tree, I believe.
ReplyDeleteHorrible about the bridge; so thankful all lives were spared. I didn't know the Skagit was so deep there--spring run-off?
Your peonies are lovely. They always make me think of medieval flowers for some reason.
Happy weekend!
--Arabella
Seed pods!! That makes sense.
DeleteI might be wrong about the depth, actually. We've had a ton of rain in the last couple of weeks, so there probably is spring run-off, but I pulled the depth from one of the news stories I read last night, and it might have been supposed to be eight. Or maybe I misread it.
I love peonies!
...looking at the picture, it's got to be eight. At eighteen, most of the bridge would've been submerged.
DeleteOh no . . . I've been so out of touch this is the first I'd heard of the Skagit River bridge collapse. I'm glad to hear no one was killed!
ReplyDeleteFirst, nice cat picture. :)
ReplyDeleteTwo, yes, it's pretty amazing that no one was killed in the bridge collapse. Something to be thankful for.
Three, sometimes I despair of The Hogshead ever getting back up. But I just have to hope Travis & the tech elf know what they're doing.
Four, I like flowers, they just don't like me. But peonies are good. They're about the only things that Beth has planted which have survived, along with some small lilac bushes. Our big lilac bushes, tulips, violets & hyacinths were here already.
3) ...me, too. But they do seem to be working on it...
Delete4) Give Beth a thumbs-up and cheers from me on her peonies and lilacs. I love those, too. All our peonies were here, but I did dig one out of the lawn, where it was struggling to survive... it hasn't bloomed this year, but it's been very healthy and I've high hopes for next year for it. :)
Would you please tell my wife how awesome peonies are? She calls the the "ant plant" and is skeptical. Thanks.
ReplyDelete-The Neglected Husband
(PS Maple seed pods make awesome helicopters when they mature and fall off...)
Masha doesn't like peonies?? Masha!!! Put them a little ways away from the yurt if you're worried about ants. They're beautiful.
DeleteI FORGOT about maple seed pod helicopters. The tree is just a wee little sapling, so I didn't notice the pods spinning last year. But I'll watch for them this year.
Neglected H., peonies are always crawling with ants! (M. and I grew up in the same place with the same peonies, so I can confirm this 100%) but they're also THE BOSS.
DeleteLet's all stage a peony intervention!
Seriously, though, peonies are great, and I think your local ant population is probably going to do their thing regardless. Just plant them over by where the chickens are going to be for a magnificent Buffet of Life.
<3
Actually, mine aren't usually crawling with ants, which I suspect is a climate thing... I think I used to see more ants on the buds in Montana. I'm sure we get some, because the buds open well enough here, but I hardly ever see them on the plants.
DeleteMaybe you'll get fewer in Maine than you would down south... no promises! (I like Laura's chicken idea, anyway!) But there are definitely fewer in soaked little Bellingham. The ants would forever be drowning.
We call those seed pods on the maple tree helicopters and had oh-so-much fun with them as children. When they flutter down in the multitudes when the they're ripe and the wind blows, oh it's heaven!
ReplyDeleteI love Doctor Who, it's some of my fandom junk food, but it still has more substance than Buffy, I think. :p
Thanks so much for the plug, Jenna!
ReplyDeleteOh, and by the way, per the podcast - We're only watching one episode of each per week, so if anyone is worried about the shows taking over their life be advised that we're going at a respectfully slow pace.
ReplyDelete@Christie - Them's fighting words! "Fandom junk food" Doctor Who is decidedly not, unless all you mean is that it tastes good (which it does). It's quite substantive: One of the best twenty-first century exemplars I know of the Tolkienian "fairy-story" as explored in "On Fairy-stories." And though I'm only a few episodes to Buffy, I suspect there's more in that than meets the eye, as well. In fact, we've already uncovered quite a lot, even just half a season in. Everyone is of course welcome to watch along with us and debate these points!
You're welcome for the plug, Katherine! And the one episode of the Doctor I've seen made me suspect there's a lot to it...
ReplyDelete