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March 28, 2006
I Just Ordered Garden Stuff
Because it suddenly occurred to me that this is the last week of March, and I should be thinking about what I want to put in the ground. Not actually doing it yet, mind you. For pete's sake, our last frost date is June friggin' 18, but I should at least be thinking about it. And ordering things before they run out.
I may have screwed myself with the tomato plants. The earliest I can get them is the beginning of May. And that may be too, too late to get them to turn when they start bearing. Except for the Koralik cherry tomato (a Russian heirloom that produces the yummiest cherry tomatoes I have ever tasted), I don't seem to be able to get my tomatoes to turn regardless. Anyone local(ish) have any suggestions?
But I've ordered two kinds of carrot seeds and some cukes and a bunch of different sunflowers and borage seeds and swiss chard seeds and snap peas and radish seeds. (Dammit! I forgot scallions.)
And I ordered some bulbs and bare root plants for one of our front beds. It's already got red perennial tulips and (though they don't seem to be coming up this year) 50 yellow daffs of the big, cool kind. And now it will have two kinds of daylily (one bright orange and one almost black) and a blue, blue iris and white delphinia, campanula and gladioli. Three of each except for the glads. I got 12 of those.
Also, a bunch of different wildflower seeds for the bed outside my office and to sprinkle 'mongst the sunflowers.
Rubbing my hands together with anticipatory glee...
Posted by sally at 10:38 PM | Comments (3)
March 27, 2006
The Arboretum Project Week Twelve
Panorama 3-26-06
I forgot to upload the pictures! Can you believe I forgot? Just too much on my mind, I guess.
It's because I changed my routine on Sunday. Normally, I take the pictures late afternoon and then spend the evening editing and uploading. For some reason, though, this week I went out much earlier. (Maybe I got up earlier. At this point, I really don't remember.) Then, after the earlier picture taking, I came home and started my spring cleanup of the yard because it really needs to be done and because the weather was cooperating. After that, I came in and edited the pix, then went to dinner. By the time we got home, I'd forgotten all about them.
So here they are, a day late, but the deal was to take the pictures every Sunday, not necessarily to make them available.
Age'd
Below the Berm
Berries
Budding
Hillside Panorama
Hipped
Irises
Upper Lake
Life Finds a Way
Looking Up
Memories
Mirroring
Rosebudding
Over the Hill
Trinity
Three More
Palouse 03-26-06
Preening
Pussy Willows II
Sap II
Sap III
Sap IV
Together
Trees
I learned a lesson yesterday in being aware of your surroundings. Ever since I first saw a turtle in the lower lake last spring I've wanted to capture one on film. But no such luck.
Until yesterday.
Standing on the bank of the upper lake, taking pictures of koi. They were surface feeding, so I got some shots of mouths out of the water. I started to move to the next school and heard a splash. I looked for the source and saw a small round shape scooting away under the water.
Dammit. It had been less than ten feet from me. I could have kicked myself for my inattention. Instead, though, I asked with my entire heart, nay, my entire being, to please get the chance to see a turtle again and actually photograph it before the project was over. As in, sometime before next January.
Five minutes later, I was further along the bank when I noticed what looked like the end of a stick in the water. I saw a flash of red. And I knew I had another turtle. I must have watched it lazily float around, head out of the water, but nothing else, for ten minutes. Eventually, it headed over to a rock. That's when I snapped this photo.
Turtle
Also, yesterday's weather demonstrated that we are, indeed, in the middle of March. Several times while I was out in the arboretum snow fell from a clear sky. Below is the last picture I snapped yesterday. Scroll up to compare it with the first.
Sudden Onset Snowstorm
Posted by sally at 08:12 PM
March 22, 2006
Smells Like Paul Anka
Based on the urgings of the nice but sick and twisted people I work with, this afternoon I brought home a loaner cd of Paul Anka/Rock Swings.
I even listened to it.
Briefly.
As a child of the late 80's and adorer of most things heavy metal and/or alternative, I would just like to state for the record that certain types of music do not translate well into other types of music. This goes for such angst anthems as Smells Like Teen Spirit, Wonderwall, Black Hole Sun and Everybody Hurts. They just aren't the same when turned into big band standards. Not the same at all.
Nor are heavy metal classics like Van Halen's Jump and It's My Life by bon Jovi meant to swing. Don't even get me started on Eye of the Tiger, which was probably a bad thought from the beginning, even before Anka monkeyed with it.
And I still want to cry when I think of his arrangement for Lovecats by the Cure. It's such a great song. How could he DO what he did to it? All the bounce and fun and joy sapped out of it like a week-old helium balloon.
The only song that I listened to that did work in this format was Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel, which was halfway there already.
Overall, it was such a horrifying experience that I had to take my laptop downstairs and play Smells Like Teen Spirit and Everybody Hurts for Dave so that he could share in my pain.
Now I have to come up with a suitable escalated response for the sickos who insisted I'd like it...
Posted by sally at 10:07 PM | Comments (2)
March 21, 2006
Shoshone Pix - Because I Promised
Here are some of the images I captured on my small and somewhat inadequate point & shoot last week while gallivanting about SE Idaho. I was right about regretting leaving the new camera home. On the other hand, sometimes only panoramas really capture the idea of the sky there...
WEDNESDAY
It snowed Tuesday night. This is the world we woke up to:
Karma's Lane
Shed
I took these on a walk to feed the chickens. Karma raises them in a gorgeous old stone shed that used to house sheepherders. And no, I don't mean shepherds. I'm from southern Idaho. They're sheepherders.
Watertower
Chickens
--The Snake River Canyon--
Remember how I stopped to take pictures of the canyon and loaned my cell phone to the family with the flat tire? These are the pix I took.
Perrine Bridge
Looking East
Under the Bridge Looking West
Looking West
THURSDAY
On Thursday we did nothing that I photographed.
Because I'm lame. That's why.
(I also didn't take a single picture of the Twin Falls St. Patrick's Day Parade. Or of Karma or her family. Because I'm even more lame than you thought I was before reading this.)
FRIDAY
On Friday, Karma took me to see the homestead that is one of the themes of the play we're writing.
Can you believe seven people lived here? And that the nearest well was a mile away? In the 1940's?
This is from one of the boards near the door. The exterior siding.
She also drove around the area so I could get a sense of what life must have been like. This is Black Butte.
And this is the view from Karma's back yard. One corner of it, anyway. See what I mean about the sky?
SATURDAY
Saturday morning we went for a hike. Just the two of us. She showed me a canyon that never gets water now because of the drought. Scrambling around is relatively safe this time of year because the rattlesnakes are hibernating. Our homesteader didn't have the option of picking her seasons to hike this terrain, however.
All of the rock is black basalt lava.
In the Canyon
Rocks and Sagebrush
Icy Canyon
One of the most beautiful moments of my trip took place here. After snapping this shot, Karma and I headed around the canyon rim. We moved closer to the edge and looked over. And startled two barn owls who had been sleeping in the rocks on the wall beneath us. They were so lovely. We both apologized and thanked them for the sight.
After the hike, I sat and chatted with Karma for a few more minutes. And then I headed out. Back home. Well, back to Boise, where I stayed with my parents. I had a 7:10 plane to catch the next morning. (Or so I thought.)
On the way, I got these shots that really demonstrate the whole Big Sky idea, I think.
Posted by sally at 09:34 PM | Comments (3)
March 19, 2006
The Arboretum Project Week 11
Panorama 3-19-06
It was really, reeeelly hard to get out there today. I was soooooooo tired. I feel like someone replaced my contacts with sandpaper. I am going to bed immediately after finishing this.
Bark
Branches
Clusters
Baby Marsh
Cold Robin
Dangerous
Emerging
Water's Edge
Forsythia!
Fragility
Landscape
Lone Goose
Here's Looking at You
Malformation
New!
Water's Edge II
Reaching
Small but Mighty
Thirsty Too
Tree Person
Unfurling
Unpeeling
Flicker-flage
I'm hoping to have some Shoshone/Southern Idaho pictures & stories tomorrow. It just depends on how well I adjust back into the whole real life thing.
Posted by sally at 09:15 PM
Flight 2192 to Lewiston
Delayed. New departure time:
8:05am (55 minutes later than the original.)
Grrrrrrrrrrrr...
Posted by sally at 06:12 AM | Comments (1)
'S Uuuuuurrrrrly
Boise, Idaho
6:22am local time
Sitting in the Horizon Air lounge in the terminal. My flight doesn't leave for another 50 minutes.
I got up at 5am.
I spent a lot of time last night not sleeping. As in, I went to bed shortly after midnight and I'm pretty sure I did not sleep between then and when I checked the clock at 3:59am and made sure I'd set the alarm.
Why couldn't I sleep? WHY? I was staying at my parents' house for fuck's sake. They would have wakened me if I overslept. But no. WIDE awake. It's the same thing that happened the night before I left on this trip. I was sure I had unwound a bit over the course of the week, but apparently not. Either that, or I wanted to make sure I caught this flight so I could have breakfast with David.
I have missed him so much. My cell service is really spotty at Karma's house. I have to lie down on the bed I use when I'm there to get four bars. And even then, it's analog and roaming. So Dave and I spoke for roughly five minutes just before bedtime and then for five minutes or so during the day sometime when I was in Twin Falls and the calls were in network. And then, if the wifi was working, by IM at the one coffee shop in Twin that has wifi.
I'm used to talking with him much, much more than that. Plus, I missed him.
Arboretum pictures later today. Speaking of which, I think I missed my new camera almost as much as I missed David. I took the little one with me, the point and shoot I started with, even though I knew I would miss the new one. And I did. So many shots I couldn't quite get without the zoom. Though I did use the panorama setting to get a really great pic of some bluffs that the new camera couldn't have caught.
Posted by sally at 05:19 AM
March 17, 2006
Serendipity Anyone?
So that whole "accept the void in yourself" thought I had two days ago? Yesterday afternoon I was reading the introduction to a book of plays by Susan Glaspell and ran across a paragraph that actually discusses that very thing being one of the themes of her play The Outside.
At least I think that was the play. It might have been one of her others.
And don't expect to see the quotation anywhere in this entry because I don't have the book with me.
So much for profundity.
Anyhow, it feels like the universe is knocking on my skull saying, "Helloo-oo. Do you get it now? Or do I need to say it a few more times?"
Posted by sally at 02:09 PM
March 15, 2006
Warning: Long Entry Ahead Because I Finally Have Time to Actually Write And So I’m Going To
I spent today drinking in the sky.
My friend Karma lives on a dairy farm in southern Idaho. Every time I visit her, I marvel anew at how much sky there is here. You can stand anywhere and turn in a complete circle, and with the exception of the odd building, you’ll see miles of nothing but land and sky, with snow-covered mountains where they meet.
I tried to take some pictures of it, but I don’t think a camera can capture the sweeping space. There’s too much left outside the frame. As I said to Dave over IM, probably the best I could do would be to take pictures of clouds, with maybe a little bit of dirt at the bottom of the image.
I grew up under this kind of sky. I miss this kind of sky. I can occasionally get the sense of it in Moscow, but the sky above the Palouse is nothing at all compared to this.
I know there are people who find this much sky terrifying. Who are afraid they will get lost in this sky, that it will swallow them up. To me, that sounds like a dream come true. When I see a sky like the one I saw today, all I want to do is lie down and lose myself in it.
Which reminds me of a conversation I had recently with yet another friend (and the resulting conclusion arrived at hours after the fact, of course). She was talking about discovering she was unhappy. And that she was trying to fill the void created by unhappiness with food. Which wasn’t working, for obvious reasons.
I pondered that comment for a long time. Carried it around with me. And then I was struck by a thought. Actors, to truly be complete, have to confront and even play in our inner darkness. We have to play to our fears, play with our fears, play in our fears. We have to open up to them and explore them and really get to know the darkest parts of ourselves. So we can recognize and represent those same things in the characters we play.
So maybe, maybe the answer isn’t trying to fill the void. With food or booze or things or sex or religion (not faith, faith in my book is an entirely different entity). Maybe the answer isn’t to make the void go away. Maybe the answer is to play in the void. To explore it. To embrace it. She’s an artist too. Maybe the answer is to revel and roll around in that void because it’s as much a part of her as her ready smile and her belly laughs.
I also spent today sitting at Moxie Java, reveling in the free wi-fi. I am so spoiled. (I never thought I would use that word in relation to living in Moscow, but there you are. I’m full of surprises. Even to myself.) In Moscow, we have wi-fi all over. In cafés, coffee shops, the university. In Boise, I had to buy it at Starbucks, which seemed insane to me, but here, it’s hard to just find a location that offers it at all.
On the way back to the farm, I decided to stop and take some pictures from the viewpoint near the Perrine bridge. For those of you who don’t know, this is a bridge spanning the Snake River canyon. It’s roughly ½ mile from where Evel Knievel, probably one of the least useful people of the 20th century, unsuccessfully attempted to jump the canyon on a specially built motorcycle.
The canyon is much more interesting than that fact would imply. Until you’re about 100 yards from the edge, except for the bridge, you don’t even see any indication that the land stops. From the edge, you can see that it not only stops abruptly, it doesn’t start again for quite a ways down.
Anyhow, it’s beautiful and I’ve wanted to photograph it for ages. So I pulled off at the exit designed for turrists like m’self. That’s when I saw the car.
Small white car. Three kids ages roughly 8 to 13. One mother type. One grandmother type. One flat tire. No cell phone, as it turns out.
The kids were understandably suspicious of lone driver parking and walking up to their vehicle. The grandmother said hello. The mother was jacking up the car. I said, “I can’t imagine I’d be any better at this than you, but I do have a cell phone. Do you need to use it?”
The mother spun around in relief and said, yes please. Seems she’d left hers with her husband today. So she made several calls while I chatted with the grandmother and the kids, who had warmed up to me the minute they realized I wasn’t a child-snatcher or lone wacko out to kill them at the side of a busy highway. Tall red-haired wildwomen don’t come their way often, I guess.
The middle child, a boy of 10-ish asked if I was a member of their church. Random kind strangers also don’t come their way often apparently. It’s interesting to be faced with that question. Even though it doesn’t matter who does the asking. It’s not like my answer ever changes. It’s always no. But the assumption floored me. What kind of world do we live in, that children grow up thinking they can only get help from/relate to their own kind?
Then he asked where I got my shoes (I’m wearing my Columbia snow/hiking boots because, well, you just never know at this time of year when the stuff you’re walking on will suddenly turn to ice). He named a local store and I said, “No. I got them at a store where I live. In Moscow.”
He responded “In Moscow?” in a way that made me wonder if he was thinking of Russia or distant lands. Someplace far away, but one he’d heard of. That’s when the mother stopped trying to unscrew one of the lugnuts and turned around again. “You’re from Moscow?” she said.
“Yes.”
“I’m from Lewiston.” The grandmother, it turns out, still lives in Pierce. It’s such a small world. Or maybe just a still-sparsely populated state. Idahoans may not all know each other, but eventually, it seems, we’ll all meet. And I can guarantee you we can find each other in a crowd.
After the mother was done with my phone, I bade them good-bye and headed toward the canyon to take my pictures. I don’t have the cable to download them here, so you’re just going to have to wait to see what I’m talking about. While I was under the bridge, drinking in the air and the light and the beauty, it started to snow. From a clear patch of sky. In the sun.
Posted by sally at 05:30 PM
March 14, 2006
Sittin' in Starbucks
Just hanging out in Boise. Getting ready to drive to Shoshone.
I got to see some of my former theatre professors at BSU this morning. When I realized Karma wasn't available until late afternoon, I decided to stop by the university before heading on the long treck east. But now I think it's probably time for me to saddle up and head off into the snowstorm. Er, sunrise. Um. Well, you know what I mean.
Now that my life has calmed down, I'm looking forward to writing again daily. I know I should have been doing that all along, but some months it's just not possible. Especially when your schedule has been crazy since January 1. But now, I'm all caught up and ready to start, if not over, at least anew.
And I intend to start in Shoshone.
But first I need to pee...
Posted by sally at 11:26 AM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2006
DONE!
I am done. Grades are posted. Email announcing the fact has been written and sent. Now I can enjoy spring break without guilt. And I can start again after as though from the beginning, because there is nothing undone to address when I get back.
Phew!
Posted by sally at 04:20 PM
March 12, 2006
The Arboretum Project Week Ten
Panorama 03-12-06
I cannot believe it's time for another week's photos already. This last week went past with a whoosh! So busy. I'm glad I made the commitment to do this, though. Otherwise I'd have stayed in all day grading papers. They'll get done anyway, and this way, I got to be outside. Where it was cold, clear and beautiful.
The light was amazing today, and so were the colors. I saw a pair of Canadian Geese that I hadn't seen before, and tried to take pictures of a kingfisher. But he was always on the opposite side of the lake from me, and my new camera's zoom wasn't quite good enough to capture him.
Everything's beginning the spring push in earnest now. I hope we don't have any more serious freezes. I'm more than ready for a seasonal change. I think the whole world is now. At least, that's the way it feels.
Bouquet
Dandelion in Winter (tee hee!)
I would never have noticed this rabbit if it hadn't tried to run away as I walked past. I spun around, it froze and then I knelt and snapped three photos before thanking it and going on my way. This is the best of the bunch.
Bunnyflage II
Hopeful
Budding
Winter Forest
Candied
Buds
Coy
Enchanted Lake
Impatience
Tracks
New Geese
Sunlight
Windywillow
I still can't believe I took this next photo. It takes my breath away every time I look at it.
Reflections II
Watching Robin
Peeping
Splash!
Willowbuds
Paper Roses
Mysterious
Old Wood III
Below is a branch tip on one of the oddest trees I've ever seen. It's some kind of ash, but it doesn't even look like a real tree. It looks like a fabricated tree. Like some artist's crazy imaginings. It also looks supremely touchable, but knowing my luck, I'd pet the soft black nubbins and would have an allergic reaction that would make me swell up and burst.
Mod
Remember my first ever Arboretum Project entry? Ten weeks ago? The second photo I posted was of the moon blossoming on the tip of a crabapple. That was with the old camera. Here's what I can get with the new camera:
Moon & Crabapple Redux
One last, longing look into the valley before I go back to grading papers.
March 12, Late Afternoon
Posted by sally at 08:54 PM
Ooof
Speeches are done. All of them. And all of the student comments that went with them.
Now I just have to grade 150 papers...
Posted by sally at 12:19 AM
March 08, 2006
Help
I am busy grading papers and speeches. Why? Because I suddenly realized that midterm grades are due Monday and before then I have approximately 75 speeches and 150 papers to grade, along with a couple of other little assignmenty things. And I'd kind of like to have a weekend before I go to SE Idaho to play with my friend Karma for a week.
Anyhow, here I am, beavering away, and of course that means I must have assistance. What follows are three pictures of my "assistant".
Isn't she beautiful? Isn't she graceful? Isn't she helping?
No. Not really. Not so much with the helping thing.
Though she definitely makes me laugh.
Posted by sally at 10:35 PM
March 07, 2006
DAVE'S PLAY BY DESIGN IS GOING TO THE KENNEDY CENTER!!!
It's one of FOUR 10-minute plays selected to be performed at the national ACTF.
WoooHOOOO!!!
Posted by sally at 07:04 PM
March 05, 2006
The Arboretum Project Week Nine
Panorama 03-05-06
How did it get to be week nine already? I cannot believe how quickly time has flown.
I really didn't want to go today. Which is why I spent 2 1/2 hours there and took 266 photographs. Because I didn't want to do this project today. A good advertisement for the benefits of just getting your butt out the door and getting down to business, I guess.
I knew it would happen eventually. Not nearly enough downtime since I started this project, and I found myself really, reeeeeellly not wanting to do anything but lie around the warm house and alternate between napping and reading. But. I promised myself I would see this thing through, and I refuse to quit before the really interesting stuff (i.e. spring) starts happening. (Though I do have plans for a couple of guest photographer slots for when I'm out of town. I'm hoping Dave can fill in for me on those days so we don't miss a week.)
Of course, I'm glad I went. Not only did I explore some areas I'd not figured out how to get to on my eight previous visits this year, plus the other walks I took last year before the knee fiasco, but I found a patch of early irises in bloom. GORGEOUS doesn't even begin to do justice to those flowers. But you'll see what I mean if you scroll down the page. Nothing else really came close to their impact today.
Angels
Valley Panorama
Beckoning
Early Irises II
See what I mean?
From the Golfcourse
It seems, by the way, as though someone else had the same bright idea I did. For the second week in a row, I met a photographer in the arboretum. Not just any old photographer, because I'm rarely the only person wandering around with a camera, but the same guy I said hello to last week as I saw him by the lake with his camera. We both smiled kind of sheepishly at each other this week. Last week, we were friendlier. I wonder if he's posting online as well...
Birdseye
Earth and Sky
Branching Out
Burls II
It was far too dark for the time of day again this week. I was in the arboretum from roughly 1:15-3:30pm, and it looks like the sun is setting. I need to figure out how to adjust exposures on the new camera.
Signs of Spring
Burls V
Peek-a-Boo View
Cascade
Right after I shot the photo below, I realized that all of the ice had melted. Two weeks ago, the lakes and ponds and almost the entire length of the creek were thickly frozen over. Last week, the creek had melted, but there was still ice on the lakes and ponds. This week, none. No ice anywhere to be seen. It's amazing how quickly things can change, even when progress seems to happening at a geological pace.
Clarity
Lacework
Paradise
Branching Out II
Stolen
If you look closely at the picture below, you can see at least one female koi heavy with eggs. I saw several like this, though the one in this photograph is by far the fattest. I also saw at least 4 schools of koi in the upper lake. It's very exciting, watching the world come back to life like this. Exciting and comforting.
Koi School
Star
Serenity
Creekbed
Groundcovers
Curious
Burls IV
When I said I went to parts of the arboretum I'd never visited before, I meant just that. I hadn't realized until last week that there was access to the ridge that divides arboretum from golf course. I made my way there by guess and by golly, and once I found a path, I would follow it back to where it met with the main trail and then return and follow it the other direction. That's how I made it up onto the top of the ridge and the golf course. And how I got some of these gorgeous pix of the Palouse. It really is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
Farmland
Flicker
Streambank
Upper Lake Panorama
Pussywillow
Forsythia
Weathered
From the Top of the Ridge
Posted by sally at 09:19 PM
March 02, 2006
Silver Slippers
Life, as I mentioned earlier, has been exhausting of late. I lost my voice a week ago today, and it's just now coming back. Which wouldn't be that big a deal, except that I have summer rep auditions the day after tomorrow, and I'm afraid I'm not going to have much of a voice for them. So for the first time in countless years, I might have the summer off.
I'm not sure I'm ready for that.
But then it dawned on me, I won't really have the summer off. Because my friend Karma and I are writing a play together. And my friend Ginger (and hopefully Maaike as well) and I are going to Grenada some time this year. And hopefully I'll get to work with some high school students from Lapwai. Which I have wanted to do ever since I saw them at a competition last fall. They need some help with the basics, and once they learn those, there will be no stopping those children. And if I really can't stand not doing Shakespeare for an entire summer, I can do a show of my own. Nothing's stopping me. Nothing except fear. And that's just bullshit.
So I took a break from working on my audition pieces. It's funny. I've been working on a piece that seems like a good idea for so many reasons but I just can't find a connection to it right now, so I'm going to go with a piece that seems like a bad idea for so many reasons, only it resonates within me like the deep tolling of a bell. The kind that makes even your bones quiver. And if that's what my psyche wants...
But back to the break. I looked out the kitchen window while waiting for my throat coat tea to finish brewing and I saw this:
A Lovely Little Silver Slipper of a Moon
I wonder if I'm too young to be working on Amanda Wingfield...
Posted by sally at 08:44 PM
©2006 - All content copyright Sally Eames-Harlan unless otherwise noted