Friday, April 30, 2010

End of April Already?

Can it be? Today is April 30th, the final day of April 2010 already? Tomorrow is May Day.

I love the month of May but egad, I can hardly remember April at all. February and March were spent shoveling; January flew by as I was busy at work and home.

May flowers make me happy. I have to get out to the nursery and pick out my plants. Decisions, decisions what color scheme this year?

I like to spend one day prepping all my flower gardens, turning over the soil with my hands, planting my annuals among my perennials, mulching where needed, transplanting and splitting the perennials that have overgrown. After this work, I love to be able to sit back, drink a glass of iced tea and reap the rewards of my labor. The idea is to enjoy this for the next few months with as little upkeep as possible. Flower gardens are grand!

This year, I am expanding my flower garden and going to pay attention to the back yard too, where I hope to be able to enjoy summer dinners more this year than last year. Love to Bar-b-que. Already got the garden bridge purchased and built, now the river rock dry bed has to be moved and laid out to accommodate the bridge. I may even do a 'secret' garden spot where I can hide and read. Ah, the possibilities are endless.

They say April showers bring May flowers but April, if I recall, was a fairly sunny month. Here's hoping May is not full of showers and if it is, may they be showers of EMERALDS, because May emeralds make me happy too!


Au revoire April, move on out...my birthday month is rolling in!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

An Ideal Husband - ideal or not?

Had the opportunity to go and see the play 'An Ideal Husband' by Oscar Wilde. Quite amusing and full of irony and humor. Rapid fire quips flying stage left and stage right.

I especially found it interesting that the characters (and there were 'characters') would be saying words yet doing something totally different in actions.
I wonder how much we do that exact same thing in life and is it humorous, as in the play, or wasted effort and time? Why do we act one way but on the inside feel another; say one thing but want another; give in or deprive ourselves? Is it just human nature and moral code in opposing corners?
At the start of the play we find the main male character (the husband) in well-to-do political English society. His wife believes him to be of the utmost moral character. His career has been built on this. and everyone believes him to be honest, forthright and of strong character.
Later we find out his 'springboard' to this social class and wealth stemmed from a decision made years ago while young, to alter certain information. Years later, this letter resurfaces and he is blackmailed to support an idea, that altough unpopular, with his backing will go through and make lots of money for certain individuals. So this 'Ideal Husband' is not so quite ideal...but his wife doesn't know and he doesn't want her to find out. He loves his wife and if she were to find out he wasn't the ideal husband, she'd leave him.

In the interim, an entire series of situations involving you rub my back, I'll rub yours, I won't tell if you do this takes place between several of the main characters. One of which includes an unaddressed letter written by the wife to a good family friend. It was written ambiguously so it can be interpreted different ways.

In the end, the wife finds out about the husband's less than moral decision in his youth, the husband finds out about the wife unaddressed letter and it's decided he IS 'An Ideal Husband' afterall.

I guess it all depends on one's definition of 'ideal'... sorta like what's 'normal'? It's all subjective. Could this be the basis for "The Good Wife"?
As Wilde notes, "Sooner or later, we shall all have to pay for what we do. No one should be entirely judged by their past."

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Pug noses

Okay, I've been assured by a fairly reliable source that blogging can be therapeutic and cathartic...so here goes...let the purging begin!

Cool spring breezes blowing all those stupid pug noses all over. Every size imaginable. Wee ones, small ones, medium ones and big ones. There were little ones stuck in the cracks of my car when I came out of the office for my drive home. I got pummeled while driving down a tree lined street. Tap, tap, tap, tap TAP, TAP, TAP on the windshield and vista roof...they were falling all over, everywhere. Not a surface was spared. I guess Mother Nature really wants to get more trees and proliferate! Sometimes I wish I had her persistence and stamina, although I am close to her.



I remember as a kid playing with the pug noses... trying to catch them as they 'helicoptered' down to the ground... splitting the seeds in half and 'cloths pinning' them onto my own nose...looked like that character from the Yellow Submarine with the big nose, Max - the Blue Meany (at least in this child's mind I did.) Now that I think of it, Max reminds me of my fairly reliable source! HAHAHA...

Well that same fondness of pug noses seems to have escaped this 'I've got things to do, places to go and miles before I sleep' adult!

Today must have been the wrath of the pug noses...I hope they stop attacking me soon.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Blog Experiment Begins

Hooray for my Blog Foray! Have read a blog or two but never really jumped into them. Figured I'd give it a shot to see what it's all about. Comments, guidance & encouragement welcomed. Toodles!