Thursday Thirteen - 223 - 13 Views of the Garden 2011

1 - Biggest garden thrill this year: I planted two lilac bushes several years ago, and this year one of them bloomed. When I first saw the buds early in the spring, it was like spotting-my-teenage-heartthrob time.

(That would be Les McKeown, from the Bay City Rollers, in case you didn't already know that.)













2 - The next big thing for us was the emergence of our daffodils. I'd planted these a few autumns ago, but they'd never turned up the following spring. Mom and I chalked it up to raiding squirrels and left it at that.

Suddenly, this spring - voila. Daffodil.













3 - Forsythia and tulips in the front rock garden.






















4 - Kolkwitzia, a flowering shrub we planted in the backyard beside the deck






















5 - Pink clematis in the backyard, a gift from my sister, and dark blue clematis in the front yard, which came with the house













6 - Lady's mantle, which just appeared all on its own













7 - Angelica, which I planted outside the backdoor































8 - The Monster Rose Bush, otherwise known as an American Pillar rambler rose along the side of the house (which I grew from cuttings,) a delicate Rugosa rose which my sister and got from the side of the road by Grand Pré in the Annapolis Valley (in the front rock garden,) and the Aunt Sheila Rose, also known as a Subzero Brownell rose.






















9 - My mom's container gardens, featuring some gorgeous purple lobelia and her favorite, pansies






















10 - Orange lilies, originally from my husband's great-grandmother's Ontario garden, daylilies in the front garden and heritage lilies at the backdoor which I got at a farm museum plant sale.

















11 - Hostas in the back woodland garden













12 - Wild asters near the rugosa rose bush













13 - Balsam near the back door, at the edge of the woodland garden

5 on Friday - Set 24

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

This week my mind wasn't far from the blooms unfurling in my garden. So here are five songs that celebrate flowers.

1 - Will Ye Go Lassie Go (Wild Mountain Thyme) - Lark & Spur

Oh the summertime is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather

Will ye go, Lassie go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

- William McPeake



2 - A Cherry Tree is Swaying - Ural Russian Folk Chorus

Outside the window
A cherry tree is swaying
Scattering its petals

Near the river
A familiar voice is heard
The nocturnal singing
Of the nightingales

A maidenly heart
Began sweetly beating
Ah, how it's blooming now
In the garden

Wait for me, my tender one
My joyful one

I will come at the secret hour

- Boris Timofieiev



3 - Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flowers) - Traditional Chinese (instrumental version)

The version I've used here is an instrumental piece, but this is often sung. Here are some of the lyrics:

What a beautiful jasmine flower
Sweet-smelling
Beautiful
Stems full of buds
Fragrant and white
Everyone praises
Let me pluck you down
Give to someone
Jasmine flower, oh jasmine flower

- 18th century traditional folk song



4 - My Wild Irish Rose - Apponequet Barbershop Quartet

My wild Irish rose,
The sweetest flow'r that grows
You may search ev'rywhere
But none can compare
With my wild Irish rose

My wild Irish rose
The dearest flow'r that grows
And some day for my sake
She may let me take
The bloom from my wild Irish rose

- Chauncey Olcott



5 - Honeysuckle Rose - Django Reinhardt

This is another instrumental version of a tune with lyrics:

Every honeybee
Fills with jealousy
When they see you out with me
I don't blame them
Goodness knows
My honeysuckle rose

When you're passing by
Flowers droop and sigh
And I know the reason why
You're much sweeter
Goodness knows
My honeysuckle rose

- Fats Waller / Andy Razaf



Linda says I do so love a good quartet and the mixing and blending of voices into one instrument; My Wild Irish Rose is one of the most perfect songs ever for that sort of harmonizing!

Mike Golch says Great selection, thank you for sharing it.

Jamie says Oh my! Will Ye Go Lassie Go and Django Reinhardt in the same group! Now that is a genius collection.

Poetry Train Monday - 113 - Special Indeed

Fresh on the heels of my step-niece's wedding yesterday, I thought I'd share a memory of my dad from another wedding 16 summers ago. The piece of found poetry is taken from a prose piece in my family history book.



This took place at the pre-wedding breakfast for my cousin, Julianne.















Special Indeed


The morning of
Julianne's wedding

Julianne's wedding to Stephen

The family gathered
Gathered in the dining room for breakfast

Breakfast in the mansion-turned-hotel
The hotel rented out completely
To the wedding party

Dad had arranged
On the morning of
Julianne's wedding
Arranged for a floral delivery
That morning of Julianne's wedding to Stephen

Dad gave all the special women in his life
A beautiful red rose

A red rose for the bride-to-be
A red rose for his daughters
A red rose for Mom
A red rose for Auntie
A red rose for Gram

On the morning of
Julianne's wedding
All the women in Dad's life
Felt very special indeed

- Julia Smith, Aug. 9, 2009 / original text 2000














Ride the Poetry Train!

Ms. Snarky Pants says That is so very, very sweet!

Stan Ski says Lucky women all!

Akelamalu says How lovely - the poem and the photos and the memories!

My Bucket List

I've seen a few of these lists roaming around the blogosphere and on Facebook. It's always fascinating to see what my friends have been up to. One of my blog friends was able to check off Visited a Nazi concentration camp on her list, one had Saved someone’s life, and one had Ridden on an elephant.

I've decided to really personalize this list, as most of the things on the roaming ones wouldn't truly be on my Bucket List. There are 100 items on two of the lists I've seen, and about 70 on the other. So I'll average it out and put 85 items on mine. This is a list of things that would have been on my list if I hadn't already done them, plus all the things I long to do.

Things I've done will be in bold.

1 - Sit in an audience watching a film and see Written and Directed by Julia Smith appear onscreen. (my fourth year student film - 27 minutes long and my heart pounded the entire time)

2 - Watch a King Arthur film that makes me weep with joy because it's so perfect.
(lots of almosts - still waiting for bliss)

3 - See the Northern Lights.

4 - Find out where my ancestors came from. (the Poitou region of western France)

5 - Own a black Jaguar XJ6. (currently have a monthly bus pass)

6 - Get replicas made of my original engagement and wedding rings. (they were lost when I moved back to Nova Scotia.)

7 - See Mikhail Baryshnikov dance live onstage. (1994!)

8 - Travel to Saint Petersburg, Russia.

9 - See the Faberge eggs in the Kremlin Armoury.

10 - See The Police in concert. (1982, Pine Knob, Michigan! Ghost in the Machine tour!)

11 - Create a Food Bank cook book. (This is an idea I've had for awhile. I think I'll brainstorm it in a future post.)

12 - Live in a Big City. (Toronto! Woo hoo! 1986 - 1999!)

13 - Watch a meteor shower.

14 - Become a bride.

15 - Go to the Romance Writers of America national conference to meet all of my blog friends face to face.

16 - See the Narnia books get made into films that make me weep with joy because it's so perfect.

17 - Have employee of The National Ballet of Canada on my pay stub.

18 - Visit Portmeirion in Wales, the location for The Village in The Prisoner.

19 - Promote win/win conflict resolution.

20 - Get a university degree. (Bachelor of Applied Arts - yes, BAA!)

21 - Eat fish and chips at a restaurant overlooking the sea.

22 - Visit the British Museum.

23 - Get paid for writing. (narration script for a television documentary)

24 - Go to my own book signing.

25 - Sing in a concert hall.

26 - Grow an heirloom shrub from a cutting I started. (A quince and a rambler rose)

27 - See a pod of whales in the ocean.

28 - Get the box set of The Prisoner. (Christmas present to us from Santa a few years ago.)

29 - Use a transporter to get home.

30 - Stumble upon the perfect book for writing research.

31 - See the Amber books get made into films that make me weep with joy because it's so perfect.

32 - Go to Victorian Week in Cape May, New Jersey and stay in a bed and breakfast.

33 - Go Christmas carolling door-to-door.

34 - Attend the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

35 - See the Lipizzaner stallions perform. (They came on tour to Halifax!)

36 - See the Lipizzaner stallions perform at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

37 - Sail on a tall ship. (The Mar)

38 - See the can-can performed at the Moulin Rouge in Paris.

39 - Have an incredibly intimate, emotionally uplifting relationship with my dog.

40 - Travel to Stockholm, Sweden.

41 - Watch the Musical Ride performed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (They came on tour to Halifax!)

42 - Watch a proper Dracula film that makes me weep with joy because it's so perfect.

43 - Go to Disneyworld. (Went with my family when I was 16. They were still building Epcot Center.)

44 - Go to a Broadway musical.

45 - Sing Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. (with my university choir)

46 - Travel to Copenhagen, Denmark.

47 - Discover new actors that inspire my muse. (Keeps happening! Thank heaven.)

48 - Dance naked in the rain.

49 - Own a sword.

50 - Go to a writers retreat.

51 - Identify the constellations.

52 - See a bluebird in nature.

53 - Hear someone say that something I wrote made them cry.

54 - Travel to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands.

55 - Go to mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

56 - Sing Mozart's Requiem. (with my university choir)

57 - Visit the Old City of Jerusalem during Holy Week.

58 - Realize the most handsome, intelligent, funny, talented, compassionate man you've ever met has fallen in love with you. (I keep pinching myself, but I'm still awake!)

59 - Become a published poet.

60 - See the Malloren books get made into films that make me weep with joy because it's so perfect.

61 - Travel through England. I'd especially like to see the Arthurian sites. A lot of those are in Wales, actually.

62 - Become a permanent employee with benefits. (Squeee!! 10 months since that glorious day!)

63 - Visit Ottawa during the Tulip Festival.

64 - See Kimba the White Lion again. (I had longed to see Kimba again, ever since I'd watched it on TV in the late 60's. Brad special ordered video copies for me as a surprise gift as soon as they were available for purchase - Kimba was mysteriously unavaiable in any format when Disney released The Lion King and for several years afterwards.)

65 - Walk along the beach at sunset.

66 - Visit Venice during Carnival.

67 - See a lady slipper in the woods. (behind our house)

68 - Attend a Victorian Ball re-enactment event.

69 - See The Rockettes. (They were on tour in Toronto when I was there for a visit a few years ago! They performed at my old theatre, and my friend Jacquie got me a comp ticket to the dress rehearsal! I'd still like to see them at Radio City Music Hall.)

70 - Get The Ballet Ball poster from the Ballet Boutique. (I'd always loved that poster best, which was sold among other posters to raise funds for the purchase of new choreography for the National Ballet of Canada. But it was expensive, and I never bought it. On my last day of work at the theatre where the ballet performed, the woman at the boutique told me to pick whichever poster I wanted as a parting gift. Then - my friend Jacquie, one of the usher captains, brought the poster backstage. When she brought it back out, it was signed by the whole company!!)

71 - Work downtown. (I've worked in downtown Toronto and now I work in downtown Halifax.)

72 - Attend the Cannes Film Festival.

73 - Get swept away by an intoxicating story idea. (It happens over and over, thank heaven!)

74 - See the Saint Germain books get made into films that make me weep with joy because it's so perfect.

75 - Walk the red carpet on my way to the Oscars ceremony.

76 - Dance the night away.

77 - See all the great ballet companies perform in their home theatre venues all around the world.

78 - Raise money for child-centered organizations.

79 - Do the sword dance.

80 - Walk in the woods at night. (I don't find this spooky - I find it energizing and beautiful.)

81 - Get a second university degree.

82 - Swim in the sea.

83 - Attend a gallery showing of my mom's work. (Twice!)

84 - Visit the most beautiful rose gardens in the world.

85 - Have my heart filled every day with joy because my love loves me.


Nicholas says You're going to be doing a lot of weeping in cinemas!

Travis says I need to get my list down on paper.

VaBookworm says Let me know when you achieve #2... I'd like to know which film is worth watching lol

Thursday Thirteen - 76 - 13 Highlights From My Garden This Season

My husband and I live with my mom, so our garden is shared between my mom and me.


1 - My beautiful forsythia, which I bought as an 8-inch cutting from the Yarmouth Garden Society when we lived there. I dug it up and brought it to Cole Harbour with us. The bush is 8 years old.


2 - Mom's bleeding heart, tulips and heuchera in her front garden, with shasta daisies, liatris and yellow loosestrife just coming up as greenery.


3 - Red leaf Japanese barberry in the front rock garden, plus white alpine flowers, purple creeping phlox and tulips about to open.



4 - Mom's morning glories which she grew from seed, wrapped around the trunk of one of the maples in the front yard. That's the leafed-out forsythia in the background.



5 - Lavender and strawberries from my wildflower garden in the side yard.



6 - Hostas and astilbe in the woodland garden.


7 - English ivy beside Brad's and my entrance to our apartment.


8 - Lady's mantle on the slope beside my wildflower garden.


9 - A glossy dark euonymus evergreen shrub, a new rugosa rose from my sister's boyfriend, a wonderful hosta and purple clematis at the edge of Mom's front flower bed.



10 - Feverfew and ferns in Mom's back flower bed.



11 - Yellow loosestrife, plus a rose my sister gave to me. These are in a bed in the backyard which my sister's boyfriend dug up for us. So we call it Newt's Garden.



12 - Pink phlox in the side flower bed by our neighbors. I got these from my other bus buddy neighbor a few doors down, when she was splitting up her perrenials.



13 - Rosy sedum at the edge of the woodland garden.

Thursday Thirteen - 66 - 13 Highlights of My Summer So Far

1 - I've recently discovered that if I Google A Piece of My Mind without any other description, my blog comes up first in the search engine. Yes, it gives me an incredible thrill.


















2 - At the end of June, I made the leap from a casual employee to a permanent fulltime employee of the Province of Nova Scotia. No public service employee was ever happier than me.

















3 - The Aunt Sheila rose in our front yard had a record 22 blooms on it this year. We planted it in my aunt's memory, as yellow roses were her favorite.

















4 - My monster rose bush took over the world this year!
































5 - I also had a record number of blossoms on the Japanese quince, which I started as a cutting from the quince in my Gram's yard in Yarmouth. After growing from a six-inch cutting, the quince finally bloomed for the first time last year, a six-year wait. When I walked around the corner this year to a spray of orange blooms, my heart totally sang with joy. Technically, the quince blooms in the spring, but we have such a late season here, it was still blooming by the end of June.






























6 - One of my New Year's resolutions was to write more new poetry. So far this year I've posted 10 new poems on the Poetry Train. Go, me!

















7 - Enjoyed a fifth writers' retreat, at a cottage near White Point Beach Lodge, Nova Scotia. That's my friend Kelly Boyce, who drove me there and back (I'm the navigator.) Beside us is Lilly Cain. The sun was really beating down on us, but normally the curtains are opened to reveal this lovely scene:















Our group of writers always strolls along the coastline over to the lodge on the Saturday night of our retreat, for dinner at the lodge restaurant. Here I'm sitting between Heidi at left, and Annette to the right.





























8 - Discovered a new character, Scorpius, during the retreat. Luckily, he looks exactly like Richard Armitage.
































9 - Totally flipped over Wanted. I've seen it in the theatre three times already.









James McAvoy is one of my favorite actors, and his character's journey really puts him through the wringer. By the time he gets to the scene above, he's gone from an office drone with an ergonomic keyboard to a deadly assassin.















10 - Sat in amazement as I watched The Dark Knight. I remember the very early buzz and the announcement that Heath Ledger would be playing the Joker. My little heart raced with excitement.









Now, months later and following the early departure of such an enormous talent, The Dark Knight had a crazy amount of hype to live up to. I'm one of those people that marketing types hate. I'm immune to hype. I get feelings about things, which are always right, by the way. The early production stills from The Dark Knight told me all I needed to know.

Heath Ledger's Joker absolutely flips each scene on its ear. And that's his performance. You can hear the dialogue beneath his performance and realize just where he took things. I couldn't help weeping at his name appearing in the end credits. As an admirer of a truly gifted actor, I still feel the loss of Heath like a stab.









The truly amazing thing about The Dark Knight is that it's far - very far - from being The Heath Ledger Swan Song. It's an incredible ensemble piece with every performance at the top of each actor's game. Christian Bale delivers a generous, introspective performance as Batman realizes what it really takes to be heroic.



















Aaron Eckhart's performance as Harvey Dent/Two-Face manages to have us rooting for his truly heroic character without managing to steal the thunder from the title character's movie.



















And Gary Oldman gives a subtle, complex performance in his storyline centering on double-crossing and trust.

















11 - I celebrated my 16th wedding anniversary on the weekend that my family travelled down to Yarmouth for my Gram's funeral. Since Brad and I spent two years living in Yarmouth with Gram before we all relocated here to Cole Harbour (to be closer to everyone) it was lovely for us to revisit the town we'd called home. We had our own motel room, our dog was at a wonderful kennel - it was a great evening. We had dinner at the Lotus Garden, an awesome Chinese restaurant which was a favorite of ours.



















And then we saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Cause that's just the kind of couple we are.











I especially loved Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss. Loved his voice, his moves - excellent fight scenes! He was an extremely charismatic, tragic villain. Just my kind of character.

















12 - Enjoyed seeing my Michigan uncles and aunt when they came for Gram's funeral mass. Though she passed away in December, we had her funeral on July 12th so that her elderly sisters and brother could attend.

The two uncles on the left are from Michigan - Uncle Louie and Uncle Warren. Next to them are my mom, Paulette and my second dad/Uncle Charlie.















Down at the Yarmouth waterfront before the funeral: Uncle Warren, my second mom/Auntie Noel, Warren's wife Aunt Louise and my husband Brad.

















Uncle Charlie talks to Gram's 'baby' sister, 82-year-old Tante Emeline. (Tante is French for Aunt - my Yarmouth family is Acadian all the way, baby.) To the right is Gram's sister, Tante Adelta, 92, now the oldest remaining sibling. She used to be the fifth of eleven children. Now there are three sisters and one brother left.

















13 - Went out to my sister's and her boyfriend's cottage out in Musquodoboit. That's my sister Michelle and my mom. Behind them you can see the dock that got yanked away from its moorings by Tropical Storm Cristobal, which hit here last week.















But do we care about a wee thing like that? Nah. Newt's brother was heading out in the sea-do to wrangle all the floating bits of dock from along the lakefront. Everyone's had separated.















It was the first time Michelle's been able to take us out there, because the cottage has been undergoing major renovations for the past few summers. And it's beautiful.















This is Newt with his sister's dog, Lily. Isn't Newt cute?

Well, that's my summer so far. And so far it's been fabulous.