Art, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, Words

Irises!

36 Comments

It’s been cold the last couple of mornings.  The sweatpants are back and for those morning walks with Guinevere, I’ve even reverted to adding a sweatshirt to my sweatpants/t-shirt ensemble.  And socks – quelle sacrilege!  It’s almost like we need a word for this transition season… not quite summer yet, although it should be.  Maybe “sprummer”?

Anyway, even if it’s cold, the walks are glorious because my favorite flower is starting to bloom, not just in my yard but all over the neighborhood – the irises have arrived!  I’m not sure why the iris is my favorite.  My mom wasn’t an iris fan, but I do remember going to the Missouri Botanical Garden growing up and seeing bed after bed of glorious blooms.  In my yard I have pretty much every color, including an orange variety called “orange crush”, although not all the colors have bloomed yet.

This morning looking at a garden full of pale yellow beauties in a yard around the corner, it made me think of a pretty haiku I found a few years ago by a Japanese woman who lived in the 17th century:

Waking from my dream:

what a color

were the iris flowers

Shushiki

Do you have a favorite flower?  Or a favorite haiku about a flower?

36 thoughts on “Irises!”

    1. A couple things: Clyde, Lou got the microwave out yesterday after watching YouTube recordings. Thank you! We watch those how-to’s a lot, but never thought of it for that particular topic.

      My son’s office was left alone—but as he said, there was not much there that appealed to looters. Phew.

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  3. I imagine I’ve posted this before, but I can never read Mary Oliver’s poem without tearing up.

    Peonies
    This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
    to break my heart
    as the sun rises,
    as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

    and they open —
    pools of lace,
    white and pink —
    and all day the black ants climb over them,

    boring their deep and mysterious holes
    into the curls,
    craving the sweet sap,
    taking it away

    to their dark, underground cities —
    and all day
    under the shifty wind,
    as in a dance to the great wedding,

    the flowers bend their bright bodies,
    and tip their fragrance to the air,
    and rise,
    their red stems holding

    all that dampness and recklessness
    gladly and lightly,
    and there it is again —
    beauty the brave, the exemplary,

    blazing open.
    Do you love this world?
    Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
    Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

    Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
    and softly,
    and exclaiming of their dearness,
    fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

    with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
    their eagerness
    to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
    nothing, forever?

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  5. I like purple flowers.
    There’s some tiny little blue ones on the side of the road that are nice. Lilacs; I know they’re not exactly flowers, but they are my overall favorite. Ours always bloom late. I planted a row maybe 100′ long 20 years ago. They haven’t bloomed yet, they’re always late.
    I used to take a jar of snap dragons to the fair so I’ve always liked those and they make me remember 4H days.
    Flowers that smell good are nice.

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  6. I love the odor of irises. But no one makes a perfume celebrating this flower! I agree with Ben that smell is an important factor. Thus wild or old roses are better than many new hybrids. Of course good smells include lilacs, lilies of the valley and violets.

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  8. My neighborhood was almost eerily peaceful today. No apparent trouble. Online, people have been reporting they are observing many cars with no license plates in St. Paul. Now I’m hearing helicopters overhead. We’re told it’s best to stay inside, so I’m reheating some leftover pizza and watching reruns of Downton Abbey. I’m feeling a little helpless.

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    1. I don’t hear helicopters, but I do hear the sporadic big “boom” explosion. Husband for some reason thinks it’s fireworks. Doesn’t sound like fireworks to me.

      I have friends in South Minneapolis, blocks from the epicenter of the worst of it, and they’re scared. But at this point they can’t leave unless they’re willing to take the risk of being shot. They also have a business right in the middle of this disaster, but have chosen to ignore that for the time being. Just a small snapshot of a family that lives in the midst of all of this turmoil. Bill and Robin, I’m sure could tell stories as well. May we all be safe tonight.

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  9. I think we all are. Things are so strange. I feel like I am living in a John Sanford novel. Or it is a rerun of 1968.

    I was scanning family history papers and watching the “invading forces” Aka National Guard, take over the Twin Cities on TV. We are now under a curfew in EP—I never thought I would experience that. Maybe the dogs will sleep in my bed tonight.

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  10. the reports of outside aggitation makes the curfew logical. the bad guys ,white supremisists or whoever are hiding out in the crowds, get rid of the crowds and they stand out which makes them quiet and for es them to hide out.
    it will be interesting to see if the stuff popping up elsewhere in the state and country are from outside aggitation or opportunists
    i think minnesota is showing the model behavior that the rest of the country can look to going forward.
    who knew youd have to set up defenses for outside haters and trouble makers.
    now we do.
    the world just keeps showing us examples of how not to do it and we need to figure out how to respond.
    i personally feel this is really important. figure out how to deal with ugly

    Liked by 4 people

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  11. last night (friday) my wife and daughter were out delivering food and had a flat tire. curfew was not in place in eden prairie at the time but the traffic was way down almost non existent at 11pm. we got it figured out and talked with eden prairie police. they were cordial and helpful and suggested how we could take it from a situation they would have to get involved with to one where they could let us figure it out on our own.
    (tire had a hole from a nail but the nail fell out so it wouldnt hold air and no one was open to fix it and aaa wasnt available to tow. hey wanted us off main street and said if we could get o side street wed be ok. my wife suggested i go put a screw back in the hole to plug it up so it would hold air. i laughed and went home to out a screw into the hole and it held til morning when i took it in for a plug.. nothing to it.
    cops were nice but i wanted to be sure i kept my hands out of my pockets and made them as comfortable as possible.
    minneapolis is a whole different deal. but they are in he right track with getting undercover trouble makers exposed.
    our weak liberal mayor according to 45 and left wing liberal wing agitators according to billy barr appear to be the opposite of washingtons assessment. imagine that. wrong again maga. looting shooting … liberal mayor not what i say or
    left wing radical, chinese make me madical
    spin the crap coming out of their mouths
    into sound bites that play well in the south.
    presidents stopped claiming he will do what he cant.
    getting backed into a corner with his campaign year rant.
    183 days and we hope well be done
    but the right wing nut jobs whack a mole wont be fun.
    popping up over here raising hell over there,
    flamed fires of hate the color of his hair.
    i hope we have learned through this 4 years of crap
    that they hide while they rob us in a online fake trap
    and the cause of the lies and direction is clear.
    power to the slimeballs hold you down under fear.
    but look behind the curtain and the wizard’s unmasked.
    to get to the truth is our number one task.
    its a hard time to live in, but harder to ignore
    give em an inch and take 4 miles more
    the bad guys are here led by an orange neon turd
    lets hope its all over in november third

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  12. OT YouTube channel guide. YouTube is an amazing resource for anyone who wants to explore different performers covering familiar material. You can usually find the original performers singing their hits on YouTube, but there is fun in watching others do the same material. You often hear new things in favorite tunes that you missed hearing before.

    What’s the best band you never heard of? I’d suggest it is a group called Foxes and Fossils. The name makes sense when you watch their videos. They are an odd sort of YouTube group, extremely popular on YouTube but unknown anywhere else. Here they are slashing into a robust cover of Suite Judy Blue Eyes, the classic Crosby, Stills & Nash tune. This is amazing work.

    I enjoy the work of a young German woman called Sina who is a drummer. Sina has many YouTube videos of original hits with the drum part missing. She then drums along. Her version of The Sultans of Swing is, to my ears, better than the original. She mostly drums in the style of the original Dire Straits drummer, but adds rolls and fills that are her own. After issuing several covers, Sina is now doing original work.

    For the most part, it makes no sense to cover originals that are perfect. And yet, it can work. Sandy Denny’s version of Who Knows Where the Time Goes is astonishing, even perfect. Yet a shy little blonde woman who used to sing in bars around DC has a wonderful version.

    Rock drummer Kris Dollimore has a superb version of the classic John Fahey tune, On the Sunny Side of the Ocean:

    Finally, I just love the F&F cover of the old Eagles song, Seven Bridges Road:

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Well now, you got a whole bunch of good songs there. 🙂
      Dire Straits is a favorite and Sina does a good job of that one. But I was distracted by the quality of the mic’ing, camera work, and editing. Impressive

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  13. “The Peace of Wild Things”

    When despair for the world grows in me
    and I wake in the night at the least sound
    in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
    I go and lie down where the wood drake
    rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

    I come into the peace of wild things
    who do not tax their lives with forethought
    of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
    And I feel above me the day-blind stars
    waiting with their light. For a time
    I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

    — Wendell Berry

    Liked by 6 people

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