Journal to a Muse

To my small but dedicated audience:
You asked! So now, I'm answering.

It turns out that I don't trust myself to write when I don't have illustrative material. Like television, I've become dependent on visuals to be interesting. I don't trust my writing to capture a reader's attention, and I don't much trust readers to be captured without something fast and easy.
In general, I have been wondering if I am lazy, depressed or experiencing fatigue due to some meds I am on. I get tired very easily. And out of breath, and stiff and sore. For nothing! The worrying about it kind of got in the way of wanting to write. I didn't have much nice to say, if you get my drift. Plus I kept falling asleep and having unexpected naps.

Spring appeared today. So far as I can tell ALL the Bradford Pears in North Central Texas bloomed in unison. TODAY. Amazing. Yesterday the black trunks had brownish buds all over. Today, they had white flowers. And the sky was gorgeous. I hadn't realize that I'd had some doubts about when, if, and how Spring would come this year. I've felt glum, grumpy and grey, and I just sort of assumed the plants and season would remain that way too. I'm glad they didn't. I'm glad i didn't.

Two things have been neither fast nor easy.

We now have a new mailbox.
Someone backed into the old one and knocked it off its blocks. I don't know what it must have sounded like as their car or truck bumper met bricks and mortar, but DH and I were peeved that they didn't leave a note. The fact that we paid $575 to have a (very nice and handsome) bricklayer build us a new one may have had something to do with it. I hope to plant yet another Clematis in the planter portion.
At least the weed wacker won't get mixed up about what is IN the planter and what is in the grass.

I've begun to work in the garden again. Since I didn't do usual Fall cleanup, I had quite a bit of work to do in Spring as you can see from the "before" photo on the left. With the luxury of power tools, I made quick work of the dead Hibiscus on the far right and the over grown Rock Rose in the center.
DH used of last year's new toy, a bulb digger, to put in dozens of holes for the bulbs I bought. Of course today when I went to add topsoil and mulch, some of the holes looked suspiciously like they had been popped open. Squirrels, I think. Arrrrrrrrgh. I hope they didn't take the tuberoses.

Here's a reference photo of the packages of bulbs I got.Canas, lilium, galdiolas, liatris, brodiaea, tuberose and peonies. Most of these I've never planted before. We'll see if it was really early enough to plant for summer blooms.

This is a lonely, cuckoo dove. I don't know what happened to her/him. But one day last week he was pacing nervously back and forth on a 4 inch ledge over our front door. He'd stop and peer into the foyer. I don't know if he thought he had an appointment, or was seeing a reflection, or what. I think the term "bird brain" was developed for a reason.

Tomorrow we're leaving on a jet plane to go here. Sunday night we'll relocate closer to LAX because DH has a meeting to go to. I'm hoping I can get up and moving to go to the LACMA. Ironically there's a fancy Matisse exhibit here in Dallas right now... and the FIRST time I went to the LACMA was to see works by Matisse in about 1957. They also had a humdinger Egyptology exhibit. I don't know if it was Amenhotep, Tut or Nefertiti. I do remember all the gold. I also remember a GIANT mechanical icebag... and work by Claes Oldenburg... back in the crazy 60's/early 70's.

I guess I'll see whether I have anything to write over the next few days. Hope you are adjusting to daylight savings time, and reality. It is always good to adjust to reality.