A Touch of Whimsy

Bobbie added this nice touch of whimsy to the garden last week. She found an old steel rod bent to hold a hanging plant and then hung this watering can from it.

But that's no ordinary watering can. HGTV sent it to me during my media days. Like most promotional items, it looks better than it works, so it was perfect for this use.

I took this photo last week when the Red Hot Pokers on the left were fading and the Shasta Daisies on the right were just starting to bloom. The Evening Primrose just behind the garden pot had just closed up for the night.

Soon this area will have Black-eyed Susans on one side and purple coneflowers on the other. We will keep you posted...

Laura and Elise

Last night my cousin Laura traveled through town with her youngest daughter to help her oldest daughter move for a new job. Quite a contrast to have three daughters aged 24 years, 19 years and 9 months, but that's what happens when you have a baby at 51.

We all have been looking forward to meeting little Elise and she didn't disappoint. She was bright eyed and very engaging. Janine couldn't keep her hands off Elise and wanted to hold her. We met in a restaurant near the highway. The booths had may hard surfaces, so it really wasn't safe for anyone but Mom to hold her.

We all had a great time and stayed up far past our bedtimes. Janine went to a birthday party this afternoon and was bragging about how she stayed up past midnight last night. Truth be told, she fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept in until almost 9 this morning. Oh, but were we happy...

Ballet Photos

...that is if you can call dancing to the Ramones ballet. John tells me that Ray, David and he danced only ballet steps for the piece in the top photo. I would not believe it if I hadn't been there for every Saturday practice. In fact John got a Snickers bar from his teacher for dancing so many Entrechocotes so well. (For the uninitiated like me, those are the little foot wiggles they do when they are jumping in the air.)

Here's Janine in the middle taking her bow after her class danced a piece from Offenbach's Gaiete Parisienne. They were waitresses with feather dusters who danced up a storm. The Bean was in the center of the stage not only because she was the tallest of the class by far but also because she was the leader the other girls followed.

Finally Sarah and Mommy danced a Jazz piece to Cabaret. Video is in a previous post. Here's Sarah with Allison behind her at a pause in the music. Our friend Craig did a great job of capturing these images in so little light. While it helps to have a nice Nikon DSLR, he really knew what he was doing to get these pics. Thanks Craig.

The Deer ain't Here

What's that you see on the top photo? It's a rose! For the first time in several years our roses (and other flowers) have a chance to grow.

For the past few years, rose buds form, but are strangely severed before they bloomed. But this year all our roses have been able to bloom fully.

We suspect that the deer paths changed when the field behind our house was developed into a park.

In our part of the country deer are regarded as rats with hoofs. They are blamed by gardeners for everything from the loss of vegetables to joint stiffness after digging. They seem to be omnivores whose feasts include not only roses, but coreopsis as well. So, see what came back this year...

Dance Recital

This past Tuesday was the big dance recital. (One of the many reasons it's been two weeks since the last post.) Instead of a full ballet, the studio put on several pieces, each suited to a particular class or style. For example the girls in beginning pointe danced the Tarentella piece from Swan Lake, while the Jazz class danced to Cabaret. (Hint, Sarah was in both.)

Because of my camera's limitations I only have post performance photos. Here's John fresh from his dance posing with Joe and Mary our neighbors from across the street.

In case you were wondering why John has blue hair, John's class of boys danced a piece to an old song by the Ramones. Click here for video of the dress rehearsal. Please note there were three boys in the final piece.

Some of Sarah's friends from Girl's Book Club came to cheer her on. Here's Julia, Victoria and Emily in the middle of the photo. While they dance at a different studio, they all pull for each other. Emily's mom drove them to the performance.

We really appreciate all the people who drove up to and over an hour to the performance. The studio tried a new auditorium that is very nice, but 45 minutes north of our house. All told, it beats most all of the older places they have used in the city, it's just a little more remote.

Oh, would you like to see Sarah and Mommie's Jazz class dancing? Just click here. Sarah and Mommie are the two in the middle of the four dancers. You will have to take my word for it. It's a dark low resolution video I have the other performances on 8mm video. Someday I will get the box to transfer and upload it.

Finally, I hope that my friend Craig uploads his photos soon. He shot both the dress rehearsal and the performance with his Nikon DSLR. His daughter was in the recital too and he is nice enough to shoot all of the dancers and shares the photos with the rest of us.