Monthly Archives: March 2008

You know, truth be told, I am a little bogged down at work today and don’t have a lot to say. I came across this picture yesterday and saw it for the first time, though I took it more than a year ago. It’s so funny and odd how long it can take us, me really, to be struck by something that we’ve seen before. This picture makes me think of Summer and the singular joy that is a glass of ice water, it makes me think of Ruth and how much she loves lots of ice knocking around in her cups of iced tea, and above all, something about it makes me think about being young. In a sweet and vague way, this picture looks a lot like our days here in Charlottesville, especially as the heat sets in and the patios open up.

My brain is scattered this morning, so I am just going to be scattered and bang out a couple of the things that I am thinking of…

I just read My Aunt Vicki’s blog this morning and saw that she wrote that Tony Early, writer and Warren Wilson alum among other things, has a new book out called, The Blue Star. Drew and I both really loved Jim the Boy, the first of these two books, so I will have to run down to the little bookstore below my office today on my lunch break and snag a copy of his latest edition of Jim’s adventures. When Drew finished reading Jim the Boy, he closed the cover, put the book down, and started a list of other men that he wanted to share this book with. Although I don’t think there are any gender limitations in being able to appreciate Tony’s sincere and seemingly simple wisdom, I do hold an even more kindred spot in my heart for such a great author after seeing the twinkle in Drew’s eyes as he gobbled up the story.

What else? I was planning on digging a little plot for the two things that I love most in the summer–lillies and tomatoes–this weekend, but by the time I made it to the hardware store, they were closed, so hopefully I will be able to grab the digging fork that I need on the way home tonight. Although Warren Wilson gave me a lot of planting experience, I have very little planning experience, so I will post pictures in the coming months of my envisioned lilly and tomato extravaganza. Last year we did some container gardening, so we’re hoping to get a little more out of our city growing this year. Mom has a great eye for design, so I will certainly be calling on her for cuttings and suggestions and I have figured out how to make homemade irrigation containers (2 liter bottles with holes drilled in the caps) so that my potted plants on the slate patio don’t just cook from the ground up in the 90 degree temperatures that we’re prone to; hopefully this will be a successful year for us!

Drew is still plugging away in the hospital working his long hours on the weekend (although he did have a little respite this past weekend). He submitted his application for employment to the UVA hospital this past week and they have already called to schedule and interview for him for the Intensive Care Unit, so that’s really exciting! Drew has done so well in his program (a number of his professors have gone out their way to tell me that he is truly the stand out in his class), so his achievements combined with his goodness make us all feel really confident that he will get the placement that he wants. Looking like this, he should be just fine:

Those are some thoughts for the day!

Courtesy of my writing advisor in college, Sebastian Matthews, I discovered Galway Kinnell and promptly fell in love with his strong sense of imagery and the gritty, seemingly intimate and masculine attention to detail that he applies to both things and ideas. One of my favorite lines, that I think of often (and especially now that Spring is springing forth) is, “the bud/stands for all things/even for those things that don’t flower…” from his poem ‘St Francis and the Sow’. I woke up thinking about that this morning, thinking about the anticipation of a beginning and the idea that one interaction at the start will irreversibly influence all that comes after, even if it never appears to come to fruition. This time of the year is most clearly defined by a sense of anticipation and ability, and it is impossible to not dream of seeing both the buds and the flowers, although after all these sleepy cold months, the bud does seem to stand for all things.

Here’s the poem in its entirety, and the photos above are of some stargazer lillies that Drew brought home for me a year or two ago.

Saint Francis and the Sow
by Galway Kinnell

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.

Our sweetie friends Winborne and Josh had their baby girl, Francesca Pearl, on February 9, 2008. Winborne shared some pictures with us, so I thought I’d share them too. She came out (Francesca, that is) with a full head of hair, and looks is an absolutely beautiful little girl. We both can’t wait to meet her and squeeze those cheeks, Drew will start whispering to her about soccer immediately. As an aside, whenever we have friends with babies, Drew always wants to get them some LSU gear to “get them started early” but I think he knows that each baby should have a chance to fall in love with their own sport in their own time.

Here’s Francesca holding strong (she was so happy with her mama, she stayed in some extra days)

And here she is greeting the world:

And then looking so absolutely beautiful:

Welcome to the world!

I could smell the dirt outside this morning. It’s in the 60s but clammy from the rain, and when I walked out the front door the rain was waking up this warm day and I could smell the dirt as I got in the car to head to the Dentist. We have found a great dentist, largely characterized by his excellent staff. Our Hygenist, Arlene, has short spiky silver hair, coral lipstick, an extreme, almost sadist affinity for dental health care, and a passion for the rain. She said that every day she wakes up and asks for rain to help end the drought and get her ground ready for some tomatoes. As I left the Dentist office and walked to my car, I saw those optimistic daffodils pushing up through the soil and thought about Arlene and how I need to love these grey days as much as the balmy bright ones that are hanging on the horizon.

Every day I come to work and turn on my computer, and this picture pops up to stay with me through the day:

It reminds me of what I come from and what we’re doing here, and all of that green and bright sun has carried me through the winter. Yesterday was Daddy’s birthday, so it seems fitting to put a picture of our farm here as a shout out to him and as an homage to all of the green that the rain is bringing in. Have I mentioned that I love the Spring? I love the Spring.

Ahhh, another Monday. It is heavenly today–really it was lovely all weekend. I cannot help but feel my fingers tighten as I cross them in hopes that March is bringing an early Spring, warm weather and frost-free blooms with it this year. Mom and I went for a long walk this weekend and after went to buy a new plant for the living room. When we got our cats last year, they immediately fell in love with the corn plant in our living room, and I’m afraid that it has never quite recovered from their attacks. I’ve sent it to the hospital (Mom’s green house, tended by her green thumb) to see if it will shed its brown tips in favor of green growth, and filled its empty space with a big green palm-like plant (I’m not home now, but I think it might be a Parlor Palm?). Of course we could not just stop with one plant and we left with a new bright red Bromeliad, a little peace lilly and philodendron for the kitchen and bathroom, and some little flowering plants to cheer up the living room. I had to start baking an apple pie for some friends that we had over Saturday night, so Mom jumped right in and creatively and expertly re-potted the newest additions to the house. It’s amazing how much just a few extra spots of green can brighten up the house and alternately make it more cozy. Now it’s on to the yard!