Careless Catkins

This was the first year I had noticed the Birch catkins on the tree down by the pond.

"Careless upon the wind the catkins swing.
They lay a golden spell upon the morning.
From their soft glee, how many trees will spring?"
   (Mary Webb)

The Birch catkins are novel, because they are new to me. The catkins on the oak are still my favorites - careless upon the wind.

Goodnight, catkins.

Belated Beltane

Our Lady of the Cow Parsley by Elisabeth Sonrel

Yesterday was still rainy, cloudy and cold. A Beltane bonfire would have felt good - if there was enough dry wood to start one. And not only was there no May Wine to be had, there was no wine of any sort in house.

And definitely no champagne. Champagne Poster Art by Louis-Theophile Hingre.

So today, after a grocery run, I did at last have a glass of May Wine. The label alone was enough to entice me, but it also happens to be one of my favorites, a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Prophecy Wines are new in our store - perhaps my belated Beltane was predicted?

May Day sunset with the storm clouds moving out. The April showers are past - just in time for May flowers.

Queen o' the May

"But I must gather knots of flowers,
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May."
  (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

April Book Report

Fourteen books read this month, but let's start with the one I didn't read - that's it on top - Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of  Decluttering and Organizing. I added this book to my reading list after watching a segment on Sunday Morning about the author and her books. As usual, I thought reading a self-help book might lead to me changing my ways. Ha! Who was I kidding? I wasn't even motivated enough to read the entire book. (Which wasn't the book's fault.)

A Dark and Twisted Tale by Sharon Bolton - a first time author for me, but not this author's first book - just the only one at my library. Lacey Flint is a member of London's River Police whose home is one of the city's house boats. This was a good read and I would read more by this author if available.

The Private Patient by P. D. James. Woman is murdered at a country clinic after she undergoes plastic surgery to repair a scar on her face. A second murder occurs a few days later. Dalgliesh is sent in to solve the crimes.

Long Time No See by Susan Isaacs. Yes, I'm reading my way through the books available by this author. This is my favorite so far. It relates back to one of Isaacs' previous books.

My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith was one of my favorite reads this month. Noted food and travel author goes to Italy to get over his breakup with longtime girlfriend and finish his latest book. No rental cars are available, only a bulldozer, which he agrees to rent to get to the little hill town where he is staying. What a premise! And in Smith's hands, this becomes a delightful little story. I loved it.

The Evening Road by Laird Hunt is based on actual lynchings in Indiana on August 7, 1930 which were the basis of Billie Holliday's song, 'Strange Fruit'. The book is imagined from both sides, black and white, and told by two women. At times it was hard to understand just what Hunt was trying to say. At other times, the book was poignant, insightful and powerful. In all, however, I liked his book 'Neverhome' better.

The Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth is one of those books that at the end had me thinking "What a good book!" as I wiped away the tears. Do tears equate with good writing? Or are women just programmed for tear jerkers?
Single mother, devoted to her "social anxiety disorder" suffering daughter, learns she has stage three ovarian cancer. Mother has no close friends, no family, no support network. Who will care for her daughter when she is gone? Well written.

Death In Holy Orders by P. D. James. Alas, the last of James' books available at my libraries. I have really enjoyed her books. She became a favorite author - one I wish I had begun reading years ago. Searching "authors to try if you like P. D. James" has given me some new ones to try.

Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs is the book I should have read before Long Time No See as it introduces the characters some twenty years before. I really liked Long Time better. Both were entertaining reads.

Any Place I Hang My Hat by Susan Isaacs. As I said, I'm reading my way through this author. Woman journalist abandoned by her mother at age ten is raised by her father and grandmother. She is unable to commit to her 'perfect' boyfriend because of abandonment issues. She tracks down and confronts her mother in order to move forward.

The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan was another of my favorite reads this month. Set in England during WWII, the story is told in letters and journals of the women who are left to carry on while the men are at war.

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton is another book chosen after seeing a segment about it on Sunday Morning. The coming of age story about opposing gangs written by Hinton when she was 16 and the basis for the movie of the same name.

Bum Steer by Nancy Pickard. I thought I had read all of her books available but found this paperback which is the 6th in her Jenny Cain series. The best part of the book was its setting - The Kansas Flint Hills. Not as good as some of the previous mysteries.

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert is the first in a new mystery series by this favored author. Garden club members solve mysteries. A cute little mystery read.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh is the third of my favorite reads this month and the most favorite. I loved this first novel by this author. Lucky for me, I bought this book at a library sale, so I can refer to its 'Dictionary of Flowers' as often as I wish.
A woman raised in foster and group homes after being abandoned as a baby reaches age eighteen and her emancipation from the system. With limited resources and nowhere to go, her love of flowers and knowledge of their Victorian language provide her a marketable talent. She becomes a successful and sought after florist.
When she gives birth to a daughter which she then abandons, the cycle continues. This is such a beautiful book, emotional, poignant, educational (if you're into the language of flowers), romantic and though provoking. If I can find the words and hold on to the feelings I had when I finished reading this book, there will be a follow up blog about mothers and daughters.

Nature's First Green

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost.
Photos by ril.

After Being Sick For A Week....

Yesterday was the first I journeyed out and about after being ill for more than a week. *Someone*, I won't say who, but you can probably guess, brought home a bug I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, as the saying goes. It would be described, I guess, as a cold or an upper respiratory illness - a horrible, unrelenting cough was the worst part, seconded by extreme tiredness.
Anyway, after a week I finally felt up to venturing out. And one of the first things I noticed was the lilacs! The bushes are loaded this year. My niece sold her place in town, so I had to find another location to score a bouquet.

In the dooryard fronting an old farmhouse near the white-wash'd palings,
Stands the lilac bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle -- and from this bush in the dooryard,
With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig with its flower I break.

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd,
And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night,
I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn, with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love. 
     (Lines from When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman)

One thing being ill does is make you grateful once you start feeling better. If I had to be sick, at least it is almost over. I can enjoy the lilacs and all spring has on offer.

A Porch Poem

I read this poem a few days ago. It really resonated. Therefore, in order to keep it where I can easily read again and again, I'm parking it here. I hope the author doesn't mind.

(Back Porch on Fourth Street)

This Dark Porch

This dark porch
has brimmed
with light
like a bowl with water
like a throat with laughter

afternoons of light
years of afternoons
scintillating dawns
flagrant noons
underwater-green dusks

and nights
dark and late
lit by candles, hands,
eyes with the leap
that's the life
we've come for,
what we carry
nonchalant
white-knuckled
down the spill of years,
what carries us, what
meets us in the end
and on the way
in each other.
     (Catherine Abbey Hodges)

Oh, if only I could write a poem such as this. Maybe in another life?