Beethoven, Blueberry and Leafing

As we strolled along Main Street, the opening of Beethoven's Fifth kept playing in my head. Something is always playing in my head, but on this particular morning, it was our friend, Beethoven. 

In an attempt to culturalize a rowdy class of boys, our grade 9 music teacher would play this symphony for us along with several other classical pieces for. Two others that I recall are The Bolero and the Coriolanus Overture. To be truthful, I no longer remember how Coriolanus went, but I am playing it now to see if anything clicks in me olde 'ead.

The Fifth was perfect on this day because the words that kept playing along with it were, Blueberry Scone, words that fit perfectly well with the opening bars. I kid you not; those blessed words kept repeating over and over. Clearly, the universe was trying to tell me something.

The scones were purchased, and then we drove through Tim's for coffee before parking in our usual spot near the docks by the edge of Riverside Park.

Sitting there, I appreciated the beginning of The Greening of the Leaves. Not all of the park's trees were leafing out, but enough were that, of course, I was going to take commemorative photos once we had consumed our caffeine and tasty snack.

The view from the car revealed feathery greenery in the near treetops.

Farther along, that poor, old, bent tree was leafing out having survived another winter.   

While those photos would look a little better if they were brighter, that is what the day was like, and it was good enough for me.

Bloodroot and Hyacinth

You may recall that, when we visited bloodroot wildflowers previously, they were closed. We returned, hoping for a different outcome. Happily, they were open on that overcast day, bringing light to our souls. I did my stooping thing, so whomsoever recently chided for mistreating my back, has another opportunity. The thing is that I don’t necessarily wish to get down and dirty my trousers  

I think my attempt was successful, and, fortunately, I feel no more back pain than usual in the aftermath.

We also passed by the English lady's garden to check in on the more domesticated spring flowers. (Two crops of the same photo with much editing as the spirit led me.)

Danica and Boulton

Late Wednesday evening, Danica asked if I could get her to work for 8 o'clock on Thursday morning. In case it might slip my mind in the morning I asked Alexa to set a reminder at 7. I would be possible that I would be up but that I might forget about Danica when I began to do my usual morning things. Then, I thought, "What if I am not already awake? I might not hear Alexa because I wouldn't have my ears (hearing aids) in."

Sure enough, I was still asleep at 7, and so I didn't hear Alexa. However, Sue of the cat-like ears did hear from the other room and came in to wake me. However, I had also thought to have Siri waken me at 7:10, and sure enough, my watch vibrated.

It's good to have a failsafe, and I had two — Sue and Siri. 

And it was great to see my beautiful granddaughter s0 early in the morning. It does my grandfather's heart good.

Of course, I have photos to post too.

Sue took me back to the bridge quite early on the previous morning to look for her elusive spring photo. Alas, she didn't get what she wanted, but I got two photos that satisfied me. The sun was rising over the corner of the former Boulton Brown Mill, now Boulton Apartments (I think).

Scenes from the Park

Today, I am dropping Monday's scenes from the park. They were all taken from near the bench where we were sitting. You will recognize some of the sights, like that tree near the dock and the burnished bushes. Other than that, I don't think my usually spellbinding narrative is necessary. I know that you love me to go on and on, but I am afraid that I feel compelled to disappoint you today. :)

Flooding and Epaulets

Monday was another glorious day after a fine Sunday. We headed to the main bridge bright and early, or at least before 9:00, to try to capture good light for Sue's spring picture as requested by her group. She already has the winter photo, and will return later for summer and autumn photos. She attempts to stand in the same spot and capture the same composition in each season.

We were hoping for both clouds and that early flush of green in the treetops. Sadly, we were disappointed on both counts, so Sue used a photo from last week, which did have pretty clouds. We wonder when the green will appear.

To compensate our poor souls for such an early excursion, we grabbed Timmie's coffees and headed to the park. Some flooding remains, which prevented much walking, so we found a bench fairly near the river's edge and enjoyed both the delicious coffee and the warm, wonderful weather that has since become windy, cool and rainy.

The river was calm and offering reflections from across the way. The house/cottage sits on the edge of the water at the moment, but there will be lawn between the two in summer. What a spot!

As we sat, along came a redwing blackbird to taunt and tease. It was really too far off for a proper photo, but one tries because one is not frequently granted such an opportunity. In point of fact, this was really my first photo of this species, so I am pleased regardless, and it was pleasant to see it that close.

The saucy bird moved farther away, preventing me from capturing those fabulous epaulets, but I still like the shot well enough.

With the ponding lingering in the park, I captured a few more landscape photos that I like well enough, but perhaps I shall save them for another day.

Disndat on a Tuesday

One learns things on blogs.

For some time, I have noted in my British programs that British caskets are different than ours.

Then, I discovered that ours are caskets and theirs are coffins.

The main difference between a casket and a coffin is their shape and construction: caskets are rectangular with four sides, often made of metal or high-quality wood with hinged, split lids. Coffins have six or eight sides, tapering to be wider at the shoulders and narrower at the feet. Caskets are common in North America, while coffins are more traditional, particularly in Europe. (AI)

Now, I know, and this pleases me for some reason.

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Last April, I noted that two daffodil plants had suddenly appeared in our little front garden. They were a bit of a mystery and still are because we hadn't had daffodils appear for quite some time. It's nice that they are back this year.

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We have three bags of lawn clippings and leaf littler out front. The town does a special pickup for two weeks each spring and autumn. If we have compostable vegetative matter to discard between those times, we can take it to the compost yard ourselves.

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I sowed (for want of better word because they don't have to go deep) the cosmos seeds that Blondi/Kate sent to me from Saskatchewan late last year. A postal strike caused them to arrive too late to plant last fall. I hope I get some results because I think it would be cool to have flowers from Western Canada in my garden, even if they are also called Mexican Daisies. Mexican Daisies via Saskatchewan would be most agreeable to me.

internet

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Sunday was warm, in the high teens or mid-sixties, depending on where you live. For some reason this guy almost ruined the mood. Time and place, bud.

Sometimes the Solution is Close to Hand

Sue had a problem on Saturday when her photo demanded something to do with ground cover. One of her group had photos of a blanket of woodland bluebells, but what was Sue to do on a very windy day? The immediate thought was to return to the squill patch and try her best.

She took our light, portable and expandable stool and assumed the position.

I went to the other patch on the same lawn, lay myself prone, and tried to photograph a single plant. It was tough in the wind as this short clip will attest. (Of course, you know that you can click to see the clip large.)

I had the phone steady on a holding device for a change and clicked image after image, hoping for a clear photo. This ↓ one was the steadiest shot that I got. I deleted a few dozen others. You can see some of the larger patch off in the background, left. They were plentiful over there.

My thumb kept on hitting the reverse, selfie button; eventually, I took the shot.

I had been prone long enough that getting un-proned was a struggle for my 78-year-old self. When I got as far as my knees I paused to take another selfie.

Sue was still trying to get her photo of the day, so I wandered to the river side of the property, and took a video of the still-raging river.

We left with Sue not being exactly exhilarated with her photos. When we got home, I happened to glance across the street. The neighbours over there have a big tree obscuring the front of their place, but I spied colour beyond the gap under said tree.

We went over and found that the spot was somewhat sheltered from the wind. Sue found a photo that worked for her: yellow daffodils with blue squill in the complementary background. It was perfect for her task, or at least close enough under the circumstances.

After going around and about, what Sue had needed lay almost on her own doorstep.