Update: Wildflower Bed

 In the next two weeks, by July 13th, I want to give this wildflower bed a facelift. Hopefully by posting this goal on here, I will be able to hold myself accountable. I'm still undecided as to what I want to do: 1) try to plan things so that different wildflowers will bloom in the later summer weeks each year, 2) just fill the bed with some annuals to tide things over or 3) decide to plant some other type of bulb which will bloom for next year.

You can see that some of the California poppies are still hanging on (we have been enjoying them for two months!), but a lot of the poppies in the back are starting to fade. There are also a whole bunch of weeds and tall grasses that are filling the bed. I'm anxious to clean everything up now, but I also want to wait for the poppy seed pods to burst and scatter seeds for next year. Wildflowers are a little bit tricky to maintain, at least when you are trying to maintain a garden that is constantly in bloom!

Even though I can't take out the poppies yet, today I decided to throw in five Polaris Red Penstemon plants to add at least a little bit of color. These are perennials, so I'm planning on having at least a little bit of red in this garden bed next June. Hopefully this will be a nice added color, provided that the pink flowers will scatter seeds a bit more next year. Right now there are only a handful that are concentrated in the back corner of the bed:

Hopefully I can figure something out with this garden. I don't want to plant something that constantly needs to be watered, since the garden is so close to the foundation of the house.

Through a Single Window

Magritte, The Human Condition, 1933

J and I have started to read The Great Gatsby together. We lie together in bed and take turns reading a page out loud. The last time we read a book together was a few years ago, when we read East of Eden. It's fun to be able to be able to stop and talk about imagery or symbolism as we progress through the book together.

Ever since we started the book, I've been thinking about a quote from one of the first few pages. Nick Carraway explains, "I was going to...become again that most limited of all specialists, the 'well-rounded man.' This isn't just an epigram - life is more successfully looked at from a single window, after all" (my emphasis).

The more I have thought about it, the more that I think there is some truth to this statement. I definitely can get overwhelmed when I try to think about all of the things that I don't know or understand. I even get overwhelmed when trying to consider the whole of art history, and that is the topic that is most familiar to me! It seems like the older I get, the more I realize that I don't know very much at all. Hence, the "single window" seems like the most palatable way for muddling through life.

So, what is my "single window" then? I suppose it would be "beauty." I'm drawn to beautiful things, beautiful ideas, beautiful expressions of ideas, and beautiful relationships with people.

If you had to choose a "single window," what do you think it would be?

Birthday Pals: Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell

I just found out that Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell were born on the same day (April 1st), although Jane was born three years before Debbie. Jane was born in 1929, and Debbie was born in 1932. These two stars were in three films together.

• Two Weeks with Love (1950)
• Athena (1954)
• Hit the Deck (1955)

I have seen all of these films, except for Athena. Two Weeks with Love was one of Reynolds' earliest films. She plays Powell's little sister. It turns out that the two actresses celebrated their birthday while they were on the set together:

Saint Edward State Park

Several weeks ago, Sam and I decided to go and explore a new park that was on a list of nineteen of the best parks and playgrounds in the Seattle area. I have a goal to visit all of these parks sometime during the summer, and we started with Saint Edward State Park. This park used to be the grounds for a Catholic seminary. It is pretty impressive to drive up to these grounds: you enter the area driving along a forested road, and then a clearing opens up to a big brick seminary with a Romanesque tower. It's pretty shocking to find this secluded building, especially since the brick medium and style are so unlike what is usually found in the Pacific Northwest.

Right next to the seminary is a very charming park with a whole bunch of huts and little structures that are interconnected with bridges. Perhaps the medieval style of the seminary made me make this association, but I felt like the playground looked like a little medieval village. The steeply-pitched roofs with the darker wood reminded me of the stave church in Borgund, Norway.

After we enjoyed the playground for a while, we visited one of the nearby trails at the park. We went on a very short hike (probably less than a mile altogether) along the Orchard Loop trail. The trees were really tall and beautiful in this area. There are a lot of hikes in this park seem ideal for small kids, so I hope we can go back and check out some of the other trails.

Hooray for a new discovery! This park makes me feel like I'm in Europe and the Northwest at the same time.

Sam Birthday: Part 2

The birthday boy with his Transformer decorations!

Just a few days after Sam's birthday, J's brothers and their families arrived in town for a week-long visit. We decided that it would be appropriate to have a full-fledged birthday party that first day, right after we picked up everyone from the airport. We invited J's cousins and their families (who live in the area) to come to this party too, as a way to kick off the family reunion for the B side of the family.

Sam decided that he wanted to have a Transformers/Superheroes/Princess party (the last option for his girl cousins). J planned activities and treats that related to Transformers, and Sam wore his new Optimus Prime costume. Although I have always felt like our front yard is too open and exposed, it was nice to have a big open yard to accommodate all of our activities for the party.

J "sculpted" and decorated two cakes: one as the Autobot symbol and the other as the Decepticon symbol. Sam wanted to make sure that the kids ate the Autobot cake, and the grown-ups ate the Decepticon cake.

Before the party, we engaged in "water balloon prep" for a good hour. We needed purple water balloons to serve as "energon cubes" for one activity, and red water balloons to act as red laser beams for another activity. N and N were a good sports and helped out with our prep.

 Some superhero cousins arrived! More cousins arrived just moments later.

Here the kids are collecting "energon cubes" from the plastic pool and then transporting them away from the Decepticons via an obstacle course. Afterward, the kids did a three-legged race (to form Tranformer "combines") and went back through the obstacle course.

The Autobot/superhero kids engaged in a "tug of war" with some Decepticon dads.

Here J is explaining to the kids that they need to defeat Megatron with red laser beams (a.k.a. red water balloons).

This is the "before" shot of Megatron (note J's artistic skills), before the evil robot was defeated. Whenever the kids threw a balloon that didn't burst, we claimed that Megatron must have deflected the laser beam with his deflector shield.

Can you tell that Sam is giving a victory shout, even though his back is turned to the camera?

This was a great way to kick off our B family reunion. I'm glad that the weather cooperated with our plans to have an outdoor party in our front yard!

Sam Birthday: Part 1

My sweet boy turned five years old last week. He has been looking forward to his birthday for months, particularly because he wanted to get an Optimus Prime costume (which he received, in addition to a Batman costume which he received from a cousin). We made an extra big deal out of his birthday this year, I think partially because he was so excited, but also perhaps because I felt a bit guilty for missing his actual birthday last year (I was en route to Turkey).

We celebrated his actual birthday with some friends and family members in a park. We chose a park near J's work, so that he could meet with us on his lunch break. Sam also loves this park because all the playground equipment is really fun. Although we battled a little bit of rain, most of the kids were able to go out and enjoy the fun play structure and climbing ropes.

 

I feel really lucky to be the mother of such a kind, sweet boy. Sam is very kind to other children and is always surprised when he notices unkind things happen around him. He is inherently considerate and cautious. He also is a very smart boy. He has been reading for over a year and probably reads at a first-grade level. We like to read chapter books together, too. So far we have read the first two books from the Oz series. I'm glad that Sam has the patience and the attention span to listen to these books, especially considering that they are written in a slightly older style of writing.

Sam is getting thinner and taller all the time. I have come to terms with the fact that he is no longer my baby, although I'm glad that he still likes to snuggle with me and sit in my lap. I hope that we have another few years of snuggles before Sam is too big to fit in my lap altogether.

Thoughts on Abuse

The following thoughts are a culmination of ideas that have been swirling in my mind as of late, prompted by a variety of events, including things that have been posted recently on Facebook and blogs that I follow. I feel lucky to say that none of these thoughts on abuse are directly related to me, really, although I have to admit that my thoughts on this topic are loosely informed by my own experiences working with a difficult student.

There are a lot of ways that people define abuse - physical, emotional, even spiritual. I think that everyone has a personal definition for abuse and a personal threshold for how much abuse they can handle. Whenever someone genuinely feels like they are being abused, I don't feel like outsiders should question the nature of the abuse or argue that the offensive actions aren't significant enough to constitute abuse. Really, we can only define what constitutes intolerable abuse for ourselves. As a result, I think that we (i.e. outsiders) should do everything possible to help that person who feels abused, even if our personal definition for abuse may differ.

Speaking of abuse, I am touched by Patrick Stewart's discussion of violence toward women, which my friend posted on Facebook a few days ago. I'm touched that Stewart's activism is prompted by his personal experiences; since he couldn't help his mother get out of abusive situations as a young boy, Stewart feels like he can help his mother now, in a symbolic sense, by speaking out against violence toward women.



Although I don't think that I will ever be in a situation with spousal abuse (J is probably the least violent person that I know), I have sympathy and concern for women who are in that situation. And my thoughts are extended to children who are abused as well. The recent news posts showing the earliest historical example of child abuse (found in an Egyptian cemetery), just make me heartsick. I don't even want to post a link to that article - you'll have to look it up yourself if you want to feel depressed.

So let's not only stop the cycle of abuse, people, but let's be as supportive of victims of abuse as we possibly can.