Sunday and Friday

I write this not, like Cassandra Mortmain, sitting in the kitchen sink, but while listening to the shrieking of brakes and the grinding of gears. Apparently, D is teaching L to drive the car with the standard transmission. I have been banished inside the house.

This morning, I went to church, the Lone Pilgrim. L was in a bad mood, in pajamas and a sweatshirt with the hood over her head, shouting about an essay. D was in front of the television, shouting about the Sunday morning political commentary programs. I was glad I went, as the choir sang Psalm 23 during the Offertory, so the opening to the Vicar of Dibley came to mind . . . In an hour I'm going back to hear some choral Tudor anthems sung by a fairly new group.

Friday, D and I went to the Native Plant Sale:



We got a few things, one of which was Dutchman's Pipe, a vine to cover the pergola and give us some shade. Another plant we spied and got was the Mountain Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla rivularis), to replace the out-of-place rose bush in the otherwise native plant garden.

This pot was, oddly, NFS:

We have lots of this Blue-eyed Grass, but no Thimbleweed:


These are dried gourds that the swifts use as houses, if someone, as here, strings them up; I think every one of them was occupied.


There were many turtles lurking below the surface, but only one Canada goose was in evidence. I wonder where the mate was . . .


Tomorrow, urban views!

today,

L and I went to Sunday school. This was the second of three overviews of scenes from the Bible in Renaissance art, presented by a teenager and his dad. This boy is quite a good artist, himself, already, having shown at a gallery. And for L and the other kids, it made everything more interesting to have a peer up there. Anyway, it was great to see all of this art that I'd studied in college, back in the Stone Age (I have my Renaissance art book by Creighton Gilbert, costing all of $15.95!!). Looking at the art made the whole much more present, and the homily much more immediate. I'll spend the afternoon looking through my art history books, trying to find the images we looked at this morning, and reading Will in the World, a great book about Shakespeare.

I liked getting out with just L, today, too. Sometimes having a "just us" jaunt give me a little breathing room, and I can focus more intently on what's going on with us and around us.

Yesterday, I passed up an opportunity to get out and begin to learn to spin, which is something I've been wanting to do for some time. I even have a spinning wheel, sitting waiting for me. My knitting group is coalescing into more of a fiber group; it's getting me very excited again about all my UFOs!