drafts & inhalations
The halls of navelgazer shake off a hanging gloom of mornings, having languished forward through a sloggy season of desaturating monochrome. But out into this early April evening stride Sir Floyd and I, straight into a dozen springing drizzles, I stooping to snag blown bits of litter from the winter-neglected garden’s corners, draggled onward by dog ...
wild potato
Dear Reader, While I’ve lurked here, all underground-like, I’ve been working at last, slap-dash and pell mell through that very multiplicity of media/genre I blahty-blahed about so acedemiciously, so booooringly theoretically for so long. [--YAWN--] I had to, by gum, jump up sooner or later and DO my very utmost to make good one way or another. ...
stretching & growing
Last winter my back, usually pretty problem-free, piped up in a fit of pique. The immediate cause was clear: a week-long yanking-about by my parents’ overgrown Lab puppy– one irresistibly adorable beast in that compensatory fashion employed by most difficult critters (babies, spouses) to ensure an otherwise questionable survival. This energetic canine visitation exacerbated daily and, more problematically, nightly ...
shoes of discord
Townsends are a stubborn bunch, born and bred, and temperamentally frugal, to boot. There’s an old family yarn that illustrates our ingrained thrift, originally a lesson in good Yankee economy, trimmed over the years into a succinct truism more indicative of self-spite: “Eat the rotten apples first.” The other evening I hopped the train downtown ...
bigger on the inside
Having enjoyed my fair gazillion episodes of Doctor Who–that universe-tripping Time Lord (alien) whose TARDIS (spaceship) occasions the typical exclamation from new arrivals across the threshold of his peculiar British blue police box: “B-but– it’s bigger on the inside!”– I know full well about the possible contradictions of inside/outside spaces. This old sathead’s samewise: not ungainly ...
doubtful knight’s spur
I’ve set myself the project of identifying the plants in the alley– so today we begin with: Rocket Larkspur Consolida ambigua (synonyms: Consolida ajacis; Delphinium ajacis; Delphinium ambiguum) Family: Ranunculaceae (ra-nun-kew-LAY-see-ee) Genus: Consolida (kon-SO-lih-duh) Species: ambigua (am-big-yoo-uh) Larkspur belongs to the buttercup family - Ranunculaceae. “Larkspur flowers are almost as complex as the Orchids,” according to the flower expert. “Larkspurs ...
life! an anthem!
Anthem. It’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Confident. Upbeat. If not outright optimistic. Full to the grinning brim with bravado and tally-ho! O, blow ye buglers, it be mine Anthem. Animato – vivo – presto! Just now I was busy doing the odd bit of tidying up and happened across a pretty sorry view behind ...
for love of a park
Last weekend in honor of Earth Day I captained the cleanup effort out at our sweet little neighborhood park. About ten or so neighbors came out to lend a hand with spreading mulch and planting annuals in bare planters. A few months ago I started volunteering as park steward, which basically means picking up litter ...
Rainy day seed starts
Today was meant to be bed-building workday out at Global Garden, but, since the weather refused to cooperate, I hung indoors with whistling radiators and got my green on making floral seed starts for alleyway guerilla gardening. Yesterday I walked down along the L track fenceline and planted three types of morning glory seedlings (blue, blue, ...
Homesick
Invariably it comes over her whilst out venturing in the big world, playing the Voyaging Visitor, the sudden and absolute, overwhelming inundation of wishing, just wanting so badly to be home again. Just that. Adrift in a World Class City so brimful of sights galore, awash with sites of inarguable Cultural Significance, not to mention ...
