I have always loved the music of Sibelius, and was tickled to hear that he described the third movement of his violin concerto as “a polonaise for polar bears”. What a visual! It is a sort of lumbering piece. I also love the pieces he has done that are inspired by swans.
Carnival of the Animals and Peter and the Wolf are family favorites. Many composers were inspired by animals, like Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending. Satie wrote about a dreamy fish, and Scarlatti wrote a keyboard sonata called the Cat Sonata. Vivaldi wrote about the goldfinch. Then, of course, there is Gershwin:
What are your favorite animal-inspired musical pieces or songs?
I got a text from our daughter the other day asking if we still had the Flower Fairy books. I told her we had taken them with all the children’s books to our grandson in Brookings. I also told her I would order her another set, and did so.
I don’t know how many Baboons are familiar with these lovely books by British author and artist Cicely Mary Barker, but they have been family favorites since our son was born. Barker wrote and illustrated the books from 1923 to 1948. There about eight of them that feature seasonal flowers and flowers in different settings. The flower illustrations are quite accurate, and each flower is set with a fairy figure whose clothing corresponds to the flower in the illustration, along with a short poem. Barker used children from her sister’s Kindergarten as models for the fairies. Most of the poems were written by her sister.
We found these poems and illustrations wonderful for bedtime reading, as well as a great way to teach our children the names of flowers. We still recite “Scilla, scilla, tell me true, why are you so very blue?” when they pop up under the bay window in the spring.
What were your favorite childhood stories and poems? How did you learn about flowers and plants?
I was listening to a jazz station the other day and a song came on that I remembered.
“Li’l Darlin’”, a 1958 song by Neil Hefti for the Count Basie Orchestra. And I recall hearing it late nights on MPR with Leigh Kamman and the Jazz Image. I went down an internet rabbit hole looking up Leigh and the Jazz Image. He has a Wikipedia page. He even has a website created by his daughter and others.
He was on MPR for 34 years, in radio for 65 years.
Born in Minnesota in1922, he grew up in central Minnesota, and spent time during WWII in the Armed Forces Radio. The last edition of The Jazz Image was September 29, 2007, and he passed away in Edina, MN, at age 92 on Friday October 17, 2014. From the look of things, his contribution to jazz music is severely understated.
He used music of Alice Babs as his ‘filler music’. But Li’l Darlin must have been in there somewhere, how else would I have known it? And that led me to Count Basie, and a recording by the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble, and down the hole I went. I had forgotten how poetic he was on the program. From a substack website by Tyler King called “From Astaire to Sun Ra: A Jazz Journey”, there’s are quotes from some of his broadcasts: “wrapped in honey and floating on a cloud” or “Here we are in pursuit of a timber wolf howling across Miller’s Bay, Leach Lake; and we are headed to Star Route, Walker, Minnesota zip code 56484.” Pretty good imagery!
And in the words of Duke Ellington, “If it sounds good, it is good.”
Thanks for the memories, Mr. Kamman.
It must be spring as the college put out the ‘Ornery Goose’ seasonal email.
The college has several nesting geese. This one has moved to a new spot in the parking lot this year.
At home, I picked up the driveway markers, and I took off the rear blade, but I haven’t taken down the snow fence yet.
I have started picking up sticks, branches, and roots from the dirt work done last fall. It’s a little too muddy in places yet, especially with the rain and snow we’ve been getting lately, but there’s a lot to pick up and we’ll get them eventually.
And before it snowed and rained last week, I cleared a downed tree off the edge of a field and pushed brush back into the trees along the edge. Trying to keep nature at bay. Or least in its place. It’s a yearly battle.
The weather was so nice Friday evening, Kelly and I and the dogs sat out on the veranda for an hour. We didn’t have wine or even chairs; we just sat on the steps and talked and watched the chickens and the clouds and the world go round.
I’ve had three electricians working in the shop this week. One journeyman and two apprentices. There is so much planning and forethought required in this, it is one of those situations where I’m paying for his 20 years of practice, in addition to the 3 days of work. Look at the skill it takes to create concentric 90-degree bends. Plus, all the code requirements, and the cleanest way to get all the wires where they need to be with the least amount of conduit.
Part of me wonders why I hired this out and didn’t do it myself? All the aforementioned is why. Plus, he has a scissor lift.
I did pick up the lift early and mount the lights to the ceiling, and I’ll install the ceiling fans myself, but they’re doing the hard work.
It will be nice to have the large garage door opener hooked up, and outside lights when needed, and better inside lighting, and outlets all over, and a dedicated outlet for the air compressor, and two welder outlets! One inside, one outside!
Can’t wait. It’s gonna be SO COOL! And then really, I’m gonna stop spending money. On this.
I moved some tractors on Tuesday. I was going to hook up the big tractor to the soil finisher, my main spring implement, but decided it wasn’t quite time for that yet.
Moved the scrap metal tote outside so I can get to the grain drill. And it will be time to pick up seed shortly.
It’s interesting the chives growing wild are greening up, but the chives in the pot are not yet. The ground stays warmer than the cold air surrounding the pot I suppose is the reason.
Although I probably won’t go down again to boil sap, I truly enjoyed the experience. Part of it was learning all about the process, but a lot was also the ambiance. Not in any particular order…
The weather was just about perfect. It started about bright and sunny (I put on sunscreen) and even when it clouded up in the afternoon, the temperature seemed just right for boiling. Not cold enough that you really felt it but not warm enough that the work made us sweat. There was a short rain shower after dark, but when it cleared up, the stars in the night sky were amazing. As a city gal, I never see stars like that.
Before dinner we had tea but instead of plain old boiling water, we used the boiling sap. Very sweet tea but wonderful drinking it outside.
There was good company while we were working. Astrid is a big dog with a big deep bark but a big softie; after dark we heard coyotes and while Astrid worked hard to convince us that she was a guard dog, she didn’t move more than 20 feet from us. Whiskey looks like a cat, but he is really a dog. He comes when he is called, hangs around most of the day for petting and doesn’t seem to think the rain matters at all.
My godson doesn’t actually “farm” but is embracing country lifestyle. He was happy to tell me about all the classes he has taken at the local folk school (bee keeping, chain saw safety, how to “manage” chickens, syrup making and to show me all the improvements he’s made to the house and outbuildings. He has some animals: chickens and a mean rooster (I have bruises to prove it) and also a small herd of goats. He has just acquired a male, so perhaps there will be kids and milk in the future. I shared with him the wonderful soaps that Barb made when she had goats.
He is also a terrific cook and by the time he went in to make dinner, I had a handle on the boiling so didn’t need to panic. Several of the borscht ingredients come from their garden and it was delicious. Just soup and toasted baguettes. Yummy.
Children. He has three kids – 7, 5 and 3. I got to play Legos with the youngest. Lots of racing “vehicles” and crashing. The 5-year old was obsessed with arithmetic so we did a ton of “what is ten plus ten” and other combinations. He hasn’t worked on subtraction yet, so we did some “what is three minus two”, using fingers. There was a very lively conversation after the 7-year old got home from school concerning the weight of the earth and how you would weigh it. He’s got a lot on the ball for seven and there was gravity walls/barriers and gravity robot discussion. My godson brought up the planet-building spheres from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, to which I replied that the weight of the earth is clearly 42. The 7-year old didn’t get this joke but god son did!
It was just a wonderful trip, even if you don’t count the maple syrup (and a bonus small bottle of their black walnut syrup which I’ve had before and it fabulous). I can’t imagine how it could have been better!
When was the last time you just really enjoyed something?
Husband has been keeping the bird feeder in the back yard full this winter. Once he fills it, the sentinel chickadee who sits in the lilac hedge and watches him sounds the news, and pretty soon the feeder and the ground below are full of birds. They swoop into the feeder area in groups, and others wait their turn in the lilac hedge and the grapevines on our deck.
We have two very tall spruce trees in the front yard, and many birds hang out there, especially the Eurasian Collared Doves. They also visit the feeder and eat the seed that falls onto the ground. They nest in the spruces and we hear hungry baby doves all summer.
One day last week I was backing out of the driveway when I spotted an American Kestrel sitting on the ground in one of our flower beds right by the sidewalk. It was devouring a dove. The kestrel didn’t seem to mind me at all. It was intent on the fat dove. It always amazes me how small kestrels are. I love the bluish grey on the head and the checkerboard pattern on its underside and legs. It finally flew off with the dove in its claws.
This is not the first kestrel we have had. I have seen them swoop into the spruce trees on one side and emerge seconds later on the other side carrying off a squawking dove. It gets pretty exciting here sometimes!
Any close encountersfor you this past couple of weeks? What is your favorite raptor?
Every time I went outside this past week I’d say “Hooo Doggie!” like Jed Clampet. It was kinda brisk.
No one was very interested in going outside.
The chickens were very happy to just hang out in the coop.
The guys working on the tower didn’t come back until Wednesday morning, and then Thursday they had a crane helping them.
Taking daughter into town one morning and I was telling her about a dream I had. (I have a lot of theater and lighting dreams). I was expounding on dream interpretation, when she said, “Okay Dad”. Ah. Point taken. I stopped talking. And I thought she was hanging on my every word.
The bathroom remodeling is in the dusty ‘sanding drywall’ phase. The guys are doing a pretty good job putting up plastic and sealing things, but that dust…it gets everywhere. Kelly taped baffles over the gap at the bottom of the doors, and even that didn’t help. I picked up my computer mouse and there was a dusty outline of that. And that was at the far end of a room with the door closed. Sigh. Part of the deal. This too shall pass. That’s Humphrey peeking through the plastic in the header photo, he’s just wondering when this will finish. Kinda like daughter. The guys know it’s not personal when she comes out of her room and yells, “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BE DONE!??” It’s just messing up her routine.
I’m making progress organizing the shop. Construction is basically done, other than adding shelving or cabinets, and I do have to finish installing some screws on the ground row (because I hate getting down on the ground unless I must, I put off installing those screws) and a couple other places I realized I forgot to install screws. I’ve mounted an air hose reel inside, and finished the wall outside, and moved some toolboxes. There’s a couple things I’m not sure I should mount until the electricians are finished. I’ve ordered some fancy dancy lights: A bunch for inside, a couple big ones outside the shop doors, a small one over the walk-in door, and two over the work bench.
Luna the dog. Short for ‘Luna-tic’. When we go outside, she’s so excited to be out doing something, she spends most of the time hopping on her back legs chewing on my hand. We learned a new trick where she bites a big stick, and I can spin her in circles. Well, I myself can’t spin too many circles before I fall over, but she loves it.
Bailey hates to be left out.
And all three dogs love eating the corn I throw out for the chickens. Luna will eat right out of the bucket while I’m dumping it out.
They’re all so weird.
Last week I got seed ordered for spring. This week all the necessary fertilizer and chemicals was confirmed. My goodness, nothing is getting cheaper. $30,000 this week. It’s only money!
Saturday is the Met in HD opera movie. ‘Aida’. It’s a long opera, 3 hour 15 minutes. I’ll be getting the large popcorn. And taking a nap. During the movie I mean. I can’t stand the music, but I enjoy the “production” of it all.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT RIGHT OUT OF THE CONTAINER?
At the sibling gathering (while I was visiting Nonny in St. Louis earlier this month), someone must have mentioned something about heated floors. I made a note on my post-it note app, assuming (ha ha ha ha) that the words “heated floor” would trigger my memory for what I thought might be a blog piece. Again, ha ha ha ha.
About 25 years ago, I had a site inspection scheduled to San Francisco and Napa. The morning of the trip, the client called to cancel due to his wife’s illness but he told me to go ahead, see what I needed to see and take good notes and pictures. No problem on my part.
The plan for the group was to do a day of wineries and a lovely lunch. However the group was too big to be at any one winery at once (most of the Napa wineries are actually pretty small) so we needed to split up the group. Group A and Group B went to different wineries in the morning, had lunch together at a place that could hold them all and then the groups would flip and do the wineries for the afternoon. Easy peasy, right?
In one long day, I visited 11 wineries to find the four that would work well for the group. Each owner met me, toured me around and… offered me samples. There didn’t feel like a gracious way to turn down the wine. Even though I never finished an entire glass, by the end of the day, I was a bit tipsy. Add to that the weather was chillier than had been forecasted and my coat was not up to the job. By the time we got to the hotel, Meadowood Resort, all I wanted was to have a bit of room service and collapse in a warm bed.
With all that liquid refreshment, I ended up having to visit the bathroom in the middle of the night. It was chilly as I walked across the bedroom and then…. oh my stars… the bathroom floor was warm. The first and last time I’ve personally ever come across heated floor tiles. And of all the times I could truly appreciate them, there they were! When I finally left and headed back to bed, I slept like a baby.
If this wasn’t what I was thinking about when somebody at the sibling gathering mentioned heated floors, then I’m completely in the dark.
If money weren’t an issue, what home improvement would you like to make?
The photos above were taken from YA’s hotel room in Banff.
It’s still a little bizarre that YA now works in the same travel division as I did for 33 years, albeit in a different department. She designs website and mobile apps for group travel; when a client purchases a mobile app, she accompanies the group to provide onsite support for the app. She seems to enjoy it.
I know people who have retired from the industry and many of them have really missed the travel. I would even call it grieving in a couple of cases. I wondered if I would feel the same, but I have not. I’ve always felt extraordinarily lucky to have had my job and visited so many fabulous places; I even fantasized about making a life in many of those places. My favorite destination was almost always the last place I’d visited.
Banff is a gorgeous place and I’ve been there twice, both at this time of year, when there is snow and the air is clear and brisk. Seeing YA’s photos did give me a momentary pang but it was replaced with a great feeling of gratitude that she is getting to have some of these experiences – experiences that certainly enriched my life.
Any place you think would be nice to visit in January?
Not much happening on the farm this week, it’s been pretty cold.
The chickens are appreciating the fact there is / was no snow- or very little snow, so they’re still able to go out and move around. They get up against the south side of a building and stay in the sunshine and I try to spread their corn out in those areas. I did get nine eggs the other day, so production is slowly coming up.
Luna is still trying to find another rooster to play with her, but they are not interested in this activity.
Our bathroom and laundry room remodeling is progressing. Rough in plumbing has been completed, the fans, ductwork, and dryer vent have been installed. A little more demolition happened with the downstairs bathroom ceiling and the closet of an adjoining room being removed to allow access for pipes, which of course means the bathroom downstairs is gonna end up with a fresh paint job as well. “It all started with a new bathroom fan.” And that’s probably OK since it hasn’t been touched since the house was built in 1968.
At least the sink and toilet are not pink.
Striped wallpaper on the hot pink walls. Pretty much it’s just been me and daughter using that bathroom and I always kinda liked it. We’ve always joked about my mom painting it that way and she says it wasn’t her idea. I would expect she got a couple gallons of pink paint from somebody. We laugh that upstairs it’s 2020 but when you open the basement door it’s 1968 again. Our little time portal. That bathroom even has a wooden toilet paper roller! Speaking of which, we’ve started using bamboo TP. It’s OK!
It’s also unfortunate the cold weather coincided with tearing out the ceiling sheet rock and removing all the insulation in this area. They have plastic up on the ceiling, and zipper plastic walls, so it’s only cold in this area.
It also strikes me as a bit of a paradox that when it’s the coldest is when the electric company turns off the heat. Part of the dual fuel program, and I know it’s for the greater good, I know it’s all part of conserving energy and keeping the rates low, but that’s a big picture thing and it’s hard to keep in mind. For a lot of people.
Luna is getting frustrated because it’s been too cold for her to stay out and get the exercise that she would like. Daughter has decided it’s too cold for her long walks, too. I do play fetch with Luna and whatever stick I find while doing chores, and Luna loves running with that, but then she gets distracted by something else and leaves it lay somewhere until we find it again the next day. Course there’s always another stick in our yard.
I have been talking the dogs for walks. Through the woods or down the creek or across the pastures.
And that’s been nice. It reminds me of how often I had to walk out and get the cows for milking and I wonder if that chore made me so grumpy about walking? As a kid, it was one of my chores to go get the cows. As I got older, it was just part of the job. Often, they’d come home by themselves, they knew it was milking time. Cows love routine. We share that.
DID YOU SQUEEZE THE CHARMIN? GOT ANY GROCERY STORE MIS-ADVENTURES?
Although I grew up in Missouri, I spent many summer and winter vacations in northern Wisconsin, either at the family homestead or at relative’s cabins on the Eau Claire lakes. When it was time to pick a college, I announced to my parents that I would only apply to schools in Wisconsin or Minnesota. When I had been in Northfield for two months, I took my first trip to the Twin Cities. All it took was that weekend – I knew this was where I wanted to be. After wasband finished graduate school in Milwaukee, we hightailed it here. After 40+ years, I’d like to consider myself a Minnesotan rather than a Missourian.
It is partly the weather that drew me here so I’ve been surprised by what seems to be a trend the last several years of many Minnesotans over-reacting to the weather before the weather even gets here. So many times there is an alarming forecast and people almost burrow in, stocking up and preparing not to leave their homes. Then, of course, 8 out of 10 times, the dreaded weather never arrives.
This has happened to me once already, when snow was forecast for the week before Christmas. On that Tuesday, my book club baled on our rare in person meeting which was scheduled for Thursday. There was snow on Thursday but not nearly what was threatened. Main road and highways were fine.
Now I’ve gotten an email from a friend with whom I have concert plans in March, asking if I’d rather get online viewing tickets instead of driving downtown to see the show in person. Because it’s March, when we often have snowstorms.
This is a trend that mystifies me. Does this make me a tough Minnesotan?
Trail Baboon 