Spring in Brookfield, Part 1 of ???

My oh my, I do enjoy Spring. My daffs are often the first ones out.

Daffodils by the brook.

Daffodils by the house

Rhubarb!  Rhubarb!

And the true harbinger of Spring-Is-Here-To-Stay

The first violets

Part 2 of ??? another time ...

It was certainly spring in Montclair, Glen Ridge and Bloomfield, NJ. As I drove south from Vermont, pale greens emerged and grew brighter. Buds became furled leaves. Then those leaves unfurled. Finally the spring outburst of flowering bulbs and trees was complete. It had been so hot in NJ the previous two days – one day in the 90’s! – that many of the trees had begun to go by. Most weeping cherries were pale and dropping blossoms like flies. I didn’t have time for many picture-searching detours, and this is the best magnolia I could find.

The crabs were in full flower.

Then there were the redbuds.  The blossoms erupt from the stems, and the leaves come later. So all you see is branches wrapped in pink and white.

Thundercloud cherry is another of my favorite trees, and they were at peak as well, and I didn’t have the camera. First to appear are a cloud of small pink single blossoms, joined by deep purple leaves that produce such a dark background for the blossoms that the origin of the name is obvious. It’s a wonderful spring tree without a bit of green on it during flowering time, and is a wonderful contrast to all the other shades of green in the yard and on the street. I really regret having no pictures. There are good pictures here and here.

About the only time I heave a heavy sigh about living in Vermont is that I am unable to grow either a redbud or a Thundercloud. If either were hardy in Zone 4 they’d be growing around here.

I returned to Vermont today and Spring found its way here! The daffodils are up, more have buds, many are blooming, and there are lots of little blue chinodoxia. Pictures maybe tomorrow, if the sun is out, but I’m tired from a long drive on an upset stomach. Ernie, by the way, seems to have enjoyed his stay at Thelma’s but was very happy to get outdoors.

Easter parade

A parade of spring shoots - the temperatures zoomed to 70 on Friday and 78 on Saturday and plants shot out of the ground.

Here's some sedum, in the rock garden.

Bleeding Heart, by the living room door

Lupine, by the living room door

Daylilies by the driveway

Lilacs in the back yard.  They'll be light purple and the leaves will be dappled green and white.

The rhubarb is peeking through, as well as iris, golden glow (a tall yellow flower that I have a large clump of), the bachelor's button, the pulmonaria, violets, and a solitary columbine.

I'm very excited about going to NJ at the end of the week, and seeing my sweeties and my good friends.

Uncivil discourse in America, 2010

I am appalled at the turn political discourse has taken over the past several years. By political discourse I mean how people of any stripe air their political views.

Years ago the public was shocked when abortion opponents turned out to picket and demonstrate against abortion providers. Laws and regulations were enacted that allowed those folks the right to express their views but allowed unfettered public access to the clinics. Unpopular though those rules were, protestors abided by them. Words were exchanged, but being present was what counted, on both sides. It was civil.

Then abortion providers began to be murdered, and abortion clinics began to be bombed. Less civility, and the first real step into violence as a solution.

Early on in the health-care debate US Senators and Representatives went home to conduct "town meetings" on the subject. Many were met by constituents (and perhaps some instigators) who believed that name-calling and hurling expletives were appropriate ways to express their views. Far less civility, plus some thinly-veiled threats were issued, bringing us another step closer to violence as a solution.

I have believed that inflammatory, demagogic, declamatory political radio and TV talk shows (Limbaugh, O'Reilly) were to blame for the decline in respect and civility. Now I believe that the Internet should share the blame. As we all know, the Internet allows us to find "people like us" without ever leaving our own homes. That's how I found my knitting blogs. It's how we find Facebook friends.

But what does "people like us" mean? Every member of a virtual community (I include myself) has complete control over how much personal "stuff" the community knows. There's a famous cartoon where one dog says to another, "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog." Unless I disclose it, no one can judge me by my looks or by my age or by the clothes I wear or by where I live or by what I do. The lure of virtual communities is "All over the world there are people just like whoever you say you are, whoever you claim to be."

Internet communities don't have to tolerate the dissenter, or accomodate the "local strange person", or decide how to deal with a community mischief-maker or even wrong-doer. Internet communities can simply cut those people off. No longer do we have to alter our views or our behaviors or our prejudices to find a place in a community. Internet communities never demand that we learn anything about the people who are "not like us", and in so doing the Internet makes real-life communities difficult or even unattractive.

In a real-life community, people who are not like us remind us that the community is bigger than ourselves and our own desires and preferences.When we don’t have to engage with people who are not like us we can easily cease to value them as fellow citizens or even fellow human beings. Instead of doing the hard work of building community for all the community, it's so much easier to say "My way or the highway". 

It's a short step from "people like us" to "Us vs. Them".

Now that an inadequate-but-better-than-nothing healthcare bill has been signed by the President, US Senators and Representatives are receiving real death threats. Their local offices are being vandalized. Some of these politicians are concerned, legitimately, that their homes and families are next to be threatened.

We seem to be entering an "Us vs. Them" world, where physical intimidation and violence are actually becoming the solution of choice to disagreement. Not enough Congressional and political voices are saying that violence is unacceptable.

Read this blog about a recent event. Regardless of how your legislators and congresspeople feel about the healthcare bill, insist that they speak out about respect and civility and community.

It's official

Today, March 20, is the First Day of Spring.  It has been as warm and breezy as Spring should be, but not very sunny. I'm not going to quibble about that.

The day was full of spring sights.  Alberta, my next door neighbor, took her mare out for a ride. Ray Churchill let some cows out on a very small piece of dry pasture. Ferns have leafed out in the woods. My hellebores have sprouted (see a picture here.) Someone was enjoying the first four-wheeler ride on Ray Peck's fields, and everyone's dogs are racing and romping.

I have honored the day in several ways:
 
  1. I put the snow shovel and the roof rake away.

  2. I picked up my new lawn mower from Sears. So much of the snow disappeared so quickly that I can get to the shed, to put the mower away. I even read the Owner's Manual, and learned several new things.

  3. I hung the laundry on the porch clothesline with the expectation that it would dry without freezing.

  4. I opened not only Ernie's porch window, but the small crank-outs, to fill the porch with fresh air.

  5. I raked all the driveway gravel (moved to the grass by snow-plowing) back into the driveway, and threw grass seed on the raked spots.

  6. I prepared a raised bed for growing lettuce. I've been looking forward to planting lettuce since January. Guess what I forgot to buy. Of course, lettuce seeds. I'll do that tomorrow.

We know this is just one day. The temperatures will drop tomorrow, and cold weather will return on Monday. But it doesn't matter. Spring has stopped teasing us. Today Spring made a statement.

Almost ...

Happy Birthday, Mike!

It's only 1:24 pm Eastern time and already it has been one of Mike's All-Time Unforgettable Days. He attended a Q&A hour at American University (his school) where the person on stage was Bobby McFerrin, one of the stellar vocal and music performers of our day.

McFerrin's big hit was "Don't Worry, Be Happy", but Mike and I have been Bobby McFerrin devotees since he performed the Wizard of Oz soundtrack on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion a long,long time ago (YouTube link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mvfzoHm9g). When Mike was in high school we saw McFerrin live in Newark Symphony Hall. There's a story there, too.

McFerrin is more than a "trick singer". He's an accomplished musician, jazz artist, conductor and teacher. He led the St. Paul (MN) Orchestra for years. Look here for the CD on which he collaborated with Yo Yo Ma

I will leave the full story of the day to Mike. But the very short version is that Bobby McFerrin sang him "Happy Birthday". That plus an hour of talk with this music luminary has made Mike's day.

Happy Birthday, sweetie!