It is a lovely day, and I have spent most of it out in the gardens, pruning, moving, and just generally tidying up. I want to head out to the local nursery for some plants, mostly herbs. What a pleasure…I have reached something of a hiatus and am taking advantage of it to do fun things. And, as always, when I feel happy, I’m listening to music and podcasts. I’ve been grabbing music off some old CDs I made from record albums, and then I started thinking about those reel-to-reel tapes I’ve got. I don’t think we have a working rtr player and I’m not really interested in buying one. So, I ended up at iTunes looking for two Sting albums that I loved in the late 80s…The Dream of Blue Turtles and Nothing But The Sun. There they were just waiting to be downloaded…aah, the dangers of iTunes. I listened to both of them. I remembered every song on those albums, just fantastic rhythm, harmony, really tight, music to dance to, to sing along with, and, now, to garden to.
I’ve also subscribed to a bunch of National Public Radio podcasts, including Day to Day, Books, and All Songs Considered. The latter two are dangerous. I added a couple books to my list of must-reads and the first ASC podcast I listened to included an interview with Joe Boyd about his life as a music producer for bands like Pink Floyd, the Incredible String Band and Nick Drake. In that case, there’s a book and lots of music. I was hoping by adding lots of good stuff to listen to, I would be encouraged to walk more. I’ve got two audio books, too, that I added because I thought I was going on a road trip.
I’ve actually been gardening instead of walking but that works, too. Good music, beautiful flowers: the lilac is just getting started on blooming and the wysteria is a gorgeous purple-white fringe over the garage. Mounds of phlox spread across the garden, their lavender flowers blanketing the foliage. It is always a glorious time of year as the garden begins to burst forth. Things come and go and overlap. Right now, the last of the daffodils are blooming, mostly the small, multi-flowered ones. The azaleas are beginning; I can see a dark pink one from my office window. It feels good to garden. With going full time the past two years, I just haven’t had time. It is amazing how much time I have when I only have one class.
And, I’ll end this post with the great news: One of the first things I did this morning was dig out the hummingbird feeders and put out two in the courtyard. As I wrote the last paragraph, a hummingbird came flying in, checked out the orange oriole feeder than moved on to the old red perky pet. Very cool! I think this happened last year; it’s like they are up in the trees just waiting for them to appear. How do they know? We didn’t get any orioles last year so we shall see. We have been getting a wide variety of birds including woodpeckers and yellow-rumped warblers that we haven’t seen before at the feeders.
