Scenes from Spring: Reprise

New Beginnings:

Spring comes upon us with the emergence of color after the long colorless winter.  These tiny yellow flowers often poke up through the snow as our very first sign of Spring. Winter seems so forever gray.  I almost give up each year and resign myself to a colorless world.  And then just before I give up for good out of the gray comes the first color of spring...

And quickly following are the Crocus.

Max was diligent with her camera to capture the emergence of Spring with her point and shoot as we took Brutus for his daily walks.

A Walk at Glenwood Gardens:

A Walk in the Neighborhood:

As Spring moved forward the arrays of color expanded.  The Cincinnati Zoo is also a botanical garden that claims over one million bulbs in the ground.  I might mention just one more time that it is always a struggle, such a struggle to get Don to come along for a trip to the zoo.  We now engage in only the abbreviated version of his arguments against caging animals and my responses- the rescuing of endangered species- the education of children and others in the beauty of animals- and of course since human kind live in cages (sometimes rather small ones my trips to NYC seem to indicate) why should animals be spared the crowding..  But he can't resist the trip when I mention the flowers!

On this trip the 93,000 tulips were on display and these massive plantings produce a carpet of color...

                     

And then there are some domestic shrubs that simply scream color with such saturation that they appear to be nothing but color. Ahhhhhhhhh, Azaleas.....

Or just over burdened with blooms that weight the plant down. And my favorite!  The Lilac!

But there are also the less obvious flowers that you might or might not even see without close inspection.  These are the flowers I never saw until I saw through Don's eyes.  Their beauty can be overlooked in our rush from place to place.  Now I wait for them each spring. These are some of my favorites since instead of a symphony of color, they are more like a nocturne, quieter and more subtle..  The one below is the flower of the Paw Paw tree.  It it is small reddish brown cup that hangs with the opening down and  is about a centimeter wide.  I was under the flower shooting the picture straight up to the sky.  In the fall this tree will have large green Paw Paws hanging down that have a sweet banana taste.

And this tiny flower is from a Sasafrass tree.  These blooms are only a few millimeters wide.

And these clusters from a native black cherry tree are usually never recognized because they only last a couple of days on the tree.

This is the flower from a Hawthorn tree taken very close up.  The tree will turn white with blooms, but the individual flowers are much more spectacular.

And finally a Chinese Dog Wood flower.

Scenes from Spring: Easter

We weren't even rested up from Passover when Easter Celebration began.  We started a bit quiet with a trip to a quiet service by the Men's Choir at Christ Church Cathedral:

These are not members of the choir, but rather me (I really don't sing at all, Sarah, Deseree and her best buddy Selena.

These guys in purple are the choir and they did a wonderful job performing a piece by Thomas Tallis.

Followed by lunch at Don Pablo's on the River!

And then AMBER arrived!  For a visit!  From Chicago!  Hurrah!

So we "did" Easter Brunch!  Complete with Easter BAGS!  Yep, you heard it right!  Easter BAGS!  Remember I'm retired... So I have time...

Don and I made a quick trip to the fabric store!  And the rest is history!

Poor Amber!  Because of all the hours!  And I mean HOURS!  I spent waiting for her to make her purchase (usually under $5.00) from the Hello Kitty Store at the mall, whenever confronted with the possibility of getting her yet one more "Hello Kitty Whatever"  I can't resist.  And Amber is always such a good sport!

But Everyone Got a Bag!  Filled with Chocolate and Peeps...

And I might mention- Anthony thinks that the Chocolate Easter Bunny goes GREAT with eggs and sausage...

And then because this day was a GLORIOUS SPRING DAY!  We all went to the back porch to BLOW BUBBLES!

And Brutus thought this just might be the most perfect of Spring Days!

Don, Amber and I finished the day at Nada for Mexican (are you noticing my craving for "South of the Border")...

Before finishing at the Saturday Night Easter Vigil again at Christ Church Cathedral!

Now if this wasn't enough of a celebration!  Our niece Tracy arrived from Arkansas for a visit!

A wonderful treat!  Tracy took over the kitchen and made Pizza Rolls for all of us!

And everyone gets in on the fun!

Now I know you're thinking- "This has to be it!  This is enough! Certainly they couldn't do anything else to celebrate Spring!" WRONG!  We were off for one last fling to see the beautiful BULBS at Cincinnati Zoo!

And yes this is Anthony!  Fearless!  Petting the snake!

What fun we had!

Scenes from Spring: Passover

It's SPRING in Cincinnati- And that must mean it's time again for Passover.  Now if you'll remember from our blog while in San Fran -(Passover 2008)- Passover with Mary and Fouad is one of the most special evenings of our year.  And this year we were back-and were we ever ready! PS: In case you're confused- yes we were back in Cincy last spring- but last spring Fouad and Mary went to NJ for the family Passover- so we celebrated the Persian New Year (Persian New Year 2009) instead.  Though I loved the new celebration- I have to say it just wasn't the same.  I'm a creature of habit- and I missed all that Passover means to me.  And of course Don and I could celebrate Passover without the Ezra's- why just him and me maybe- but it just wouldn't be the same. 
Passover is such a beautiful blend of the sacred and the secular- the private ritual with many overlays of ancient traditions. I think Passover is meant to be celebrated in a group- multiple layers of family and friends- each bringing their own unique perspective. And then of course with Fouad, the Passover celebration reaches back through to the years he lived with his family in Iran- and then even to the years before that when his father lived with his family in Iraq.  That's what I mean about all the layers of meaning this occasion brings to our lives.

But of course the WONDERFUL FUN is always Fouad's- and the WONDERFUL FOOD is always Mary's!

Passover begins in the kitchen:

Fouad making explanation- with the serious attention of Don, Deseree and Selena...Having children at Passover is always important to Fouad.  So Deseree and Anthony came with us this year and Deseree brought long her BFF Selena.

The lighting of the candles- by all who gathered- but then finally by Mary and Fouad...This was a new addition this year.  Fouad always adds a new twist to Passover each year and this year one of them was lighting these candle.

And the new "tradition"- CROSSING THE RED SEA!  Fouad always brings new adventures and crossing the Red Sea (OK, so it was a P&G Christmas Basket blanket, but we all crossed it anyway).  And note that this Moses doesn't sound exactly like Charleston Heston.

And "hiding" from the plagues...(need I mention how very, very, very much fun Passover with Fouad is...)

And the more traditional...

The washing of hands...

Listening the Fouad read the Hebrew- and repeating the ancient words after him...

And I love- absolutely love- that both Passover and Easter keep the "fertility symbol" from more "pagan" traditions... Now spring celebrations of all sorts understand how central is this rebirth after the long, dark, cold, empty winter.  So spring celebrations are briming with the symbolism- think eggs and bunnies and flowers and lamb and of course "where a man's fancy turns".  But the egg is front and center...

 

So "Next year at Fouad and Mary's"- we'd love to have you join us!

PS:  One final note- Fouad LOVES- I mean- REALLY LOVES Matzo.  So he took us down to the basement to see his "private collection"- and even sent us home with a box of our very own!  In case you can't quite count them, there are nine cases of Matzo.  Fouad hopes it will last him about 6 months.

A new house providing weather information

The story behind this post started over a year and a half ago when Clint and Marianne drove from San Clemente, California to Oklahoma for a visit and then to spend Thanksgiving in Dallas watching the Cowboys play football in Roger Stauback's private box.  On their way they made a stop in Palm Desert to see an ex-neighbor, Grandma Cherry.  Grandma Cherry had moved there from San Clemente recently and was living with her brother.  You can meet Grandma Cherry here. Apparently Grandma Cherry's brother has a hobby of making bird houses.  Now these are not just little bird houses that you hang on your tree.  No these are bird condos built multiple stories tall.

Now, Marianne knows that I have lots of bird feeders in my yard and consequently, lots of birds hanging out in my trees.  And Marianne has bought me a couple of bird houses in the past, one that looks a bit like a television...

and another that looks more like a bunker, a concrete bunker.  In fact this one is made of concret, so a bunker is a good descriptor.

But I didn't have a condo, much less an Oklahoma cremson and cream colored bird condo.  So they bought one, put it in the car and drove onto Oklahoma for a visit with Max's dad in Tulsa. Max and I were still in San Francisco, without a yard or trees or a place to put a bird house.   But Max and I would be driving that direction in December on our way back to Ohio, so why worry about sending it all the way to Ohio when we would be coming through Tulsa in only a few weeks?  So Marianne unloaded the condo in Max's dad's garage telling them to give it to us when we arrive.

We did drive through Tulsa with our little Honda Civic Hybrid absolutely packed to the gills with all the stuff that we couldn't get  the movers to haul.  That amounted to all the stuff we would need before the movers arrived plus six cases of wine we got at our favorite winery in Sonoma.  So our car had room for Max and me in the front seats and that was about all.  This bird house was about the size of 1.5  wine cases and very oddly shaped, not nice straight corners and edges.  So it was either leave some wine in Tulsa (not on your life), or leave the bird house (not exactly what Max's dad wanted us to do), or try to make room.  So I pulled most of the stuff out, moved the seats up a little further for the final 700 mile drive and rearranged everything again before finally getting it all in the car.  We got the bird house home and put it in the garage, off in a corner because I didn't know what to do with it. Every family needs a Marianne!  Especially if that family has a Don.  Don is the supreme example of orderly, conservative, pragmatist.  And Marianne is a perfect foil for my Don.  I just love to begin a Marianne Adventure with Don.  We're all in for a surprise-especially probably Don and Marianne.  It's Don's mumbled- "and she wants to do what?" that is my alert that the fun is about to begin!

Now what does all of this have to do with weather information?  As most of you experienced, this was one tough winter.  We got a lot of snow that slowly melted during the day and refroze during night forming lots of very big icicles.  My in-door out-door thermometer had a probe hanging out of my kitchen window and it became encased in a long string of ice.  I tried to get the ice off, but instead broke off the temperature probe.  Now I only had an in-door thermometer.

So I went on line and decided to buy myself a new weather station, one that tells me not only current, maximum and minimum in-door and out-door temperatures, but also humidity, dew point, wind speed, barometric pressure, wind chill, and measures rain.  Now you're probably wondering if any individual household actually needs this much information.  Well the answer is a resounding YES.  Now- when we sit for those long, long, long meandering conversations of the newly retired/unemployed we can talk about humidity and dew point and barometric pressure- not just temperature.  I highly recommend it for all couples with much, much time to spend together!
Now the only question was where to put it so it could detect the wind (had to be up high), would catch the rain (couldn't be under a tree) and wouldn't be affected by direct sun.  I decided it needed a tall pole with some sort of platform to hold the weather station and shield it from the sun.

And then Max suggested:  "Why don't you put it on top of the bird condo?"  What a great idea!  That would solve two problems.  That's my job folks.  And I'm good at it.  I'm just sitting around coming up with new ideas to keep my Don entertained- and useful- and busy!  You really don't want a Don pacing around the house when you're trying to have "zenful" moments!
So I went out and bought a 12 ft treated 4X4, some sakcrete and some treated plywood and got to work.

The 4X4 got put in the ground with the concrete and the plywood got put on top with a bracket.

Once I got the platform on I had to haul the condo up onto the top.  In this picture I'm on an 8 ft ladder.

Then the condo had to be centered and we had to make sure the platform was level before we attached it to the platform using a number of heavy screws.

The finished bird condo weather station with the rain gauge extended off to the side and the temperature and humidity placed on the underside.

And finally the view from our bedroom window so I can at least see if it's windy when I get up.  Of course I could also just look at the trees, but that's just so low tech.