Poem for Saturday

An Apple Gathering
By Christina Rossetti

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree
    And wore them all that evening in my hair:
Then in due season when I went to see
        I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass
    As I had come I went the selfsame track:
My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
        So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,
    Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer;
Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
        Their mother's home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
    A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
        More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
    Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth
        Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk
    Laughing and listening in this very lane:
To think that by this way we used to walk
        We shall not walk again!

I let me neighbours pass me, ones and twos
    And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
        Fell fast I loitered still.

--------

Fun but busy Friday, and I am still behind on so many things. Had lunch with at Rio Grande. Went to Borders because a combined 20% off coupon and $10 in Borders Bucks meant that I could get The Mystic Faerie Tarot for under $10. Wrote a review of "The Child", an episode that holds up really well for me. After school, Adam announced that his best friend now has rollerblades and he wanted them too, so since he has never skated, I decided to dig out my rollerblades so he could test them out. Unfortunately the rollerblades were in the closet in his room practically walled in by stuffed animals, and once they were moved, there was a huge avalanche of all their papers we've saved since they were in kindergarten...you can imagine. Or maybe, if you're lucky, you can't. Anyway, quite a bit of time was spent trying to sort, discard and reorganize. Had dinner with my parents, at whose house my sister and her kids are supposed to arrive some time tonight...her flight was delayed, and my mother hadn't left to pick her up yet by 8, so I am assuming they got in quite late and quite cranky.


And speaking of "An Apple Gathering," even the goats love the apples at Homestead Farms!


The Red Delicious aren't all ripe yet...


...but the Jonathans are dropping off the trees...


...and the Galas are bright and beautiful despite the drought.


One of the best things about Homestead Farms...


...the caramel apples in the market!


I assume those are why the Halloween witches have lost so many teeth.

Watched the Doctor Who season finale, whatever episode of Flash Gordon this is and the follow-up to the Atlantis opener. I am ashamed to admit that of these, Flash Gordon is the only one that made me sniffle a bit, though I give full credit to Sarah McLachlan's "Answer" which was playing when Flash and his mom went to visit his dad's gravestone (shades of Smallville and Dawson's Creek before it, too). Otherwise, I still don't love the Doctor Who finale...the scene between the Doctor and the Master as the latter dies is quite moving, but the lonely resurrected Christ figure with his female disciple doesn't ring my bells the way a man who treated a companion as more of an equal would do (or, more to the point, a man who sought out a companion whom he could treat as an equal...someone like Jack who's never going to die would seem to be ideal, but instead this Doctor finds Jack unnatural and prefers to pick up young human women).

And the Sci-Fi Channel showed Doctor Who without the Scissor Sisters song and the dog house! What the hell! Were they too stingy to pay for the music rights or did they just feel like hacking and slashing for more Cialis and Battlestar Galactica ads? Grr! (Am not enthralled by Galactica 1.0 previews, but then, I am rarely enthralled by MooreRon Galactica at all.) As for Atlantis, I thought Weir left well and had a very strong episode facing down her own demons and her enemies, but she's gone and that bums me out because I really like her. (I don't know Carter well enough to know how I feel about her yet.) People tell me that women are dropping like flies on SGA this season and while I guess they left things so they can bring Weir back for a guest appearance, I am not enough of a fan of the Big Gay Love not to want a more prominent role for the women I like.

I did have a nice Doctor Who related thing happen today though: months ago, I had entered a contest from Realm magazine to win a copy of A Portrait of Cardiff by Geraint Tellem, thinking it would be a nice souvenir of having visited Cardiff this spring, and in addition to the places we went like the castle, city centre and Roald Dahl Plass, there are photos of nearby houses and estates, several of which have shown up on Doctor Who and Torchwood. In other news, I was happy to read that the appendix is not useless after all but may protect good bacteria and a tiny galaxy has been spotted halfway across the universe...and I won't talk about the news I was not happy to read because I'm tired. I still owe many comments and apologize, again!

: You bet your life it is
1. What's your favorite cereal? Healthy: Shredded Spoonfuls. Unhealthy: Cocoa Krispies.
2. What is too gross to eat in the morning? Anything greasy or fried.
3. What time do you go to bed? Midnight-ish.
4. Where do you put your keys? On the hook in the kitchen when they're not in my purse.
5. What vegetables do you love? None. It's very sad, but there is not a single vegetable I feel more than apathy about.

: How long...?
1. How long can you hold your breath? At least thirty seconds. Beyond that I haven't been tested since I took Basic Rescue in my youth.
2. How long do you wait to cut your hair? Until someone else in my family needs a haircut.
3. How long do you normally wait at the grocery? Not very long -- I try to go on weekdays so it'll be less than the weekend morning lines.
4. How long can you sing a song without getting the lyrics wrong? I can sing the entire score of Evita. I have a good memory for lyrics...in fact I can remember all the words to the songs off Billy Joel's Glass Houses, but pretty much nothing I learned in tenth grade biology or math which was the same year.
5. How long is the best relationship you've been in? Been with my husband since 1986.

: What are your five favorite pets or animals, in any fandom(s)?
1. Mumble, penguin, Happy Feet
2. Nana, dog, Peter Pan
3. Crookshanks, cat, Harry Potter
4. I-Chaya, sehlat, Star Trek
5. Jack, monkey, Pirates of the Caribbean