Poem for Monday, Meadowlark & McCrillis Gardens

Item:
By Lynn Emanuel

I strolled through the neighborhood of beautiful houses
All of which I had written

Down the long dark street
Past the cemetery

Where all the tombstones
Had my small white face.

Over my shoulder burned the lamp
Of the moon.

The pages, in the wind, flew, were fluffed and ruffled
Like water by stones into a tune.

I watched the horse and the rat
The rabbit and fox

Leaving their tracks
On the snowy drafts.

The fox looked like me
Had my face

A long sharp chin
A shifty eye.

The wind riffled its beautiful pelt.
My spelling faltered

Under the spell of myself.

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Adam was tied up for most of Sunday -- worked at Hebrew school in the morning, then had tech at the high school all afternoon -- so Paul and I took ourselves to a couple of local parks to enjoy the 80-degree weather while the poor heartland was getting pounded by tornadoes. We started at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia, which we've only visited once before, during cherry blossom season; this time there were azaleas and tulips, but what we enjoyed most were the frogs and turtles (at least four species of the latter) plus a couple of geese sitting on nests with eggs. On the way home, we went to McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, where there were dozens of azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom.


Turtles surround a fountain at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.


We saw many types of turtle, including this big snapper surrounded by fish.


And we saw geese looking annoyed to have people so close to their nests.


Many tulips were blooming all over the gardens...


...including by the three large ponds.


There were tadpoles of several different sizes and frogs in those, too.


McCrillis Gardens had azaleas in bloom around its gazebos.


The purples have started to die off, but some of the white rhododendrons aren't even open yet.

Younger son turned up for dinner -- in honor of the Thai New Year, Paul made pad thai with tofu and red thai curry with eggplant -- then we watched Harry's Law, which was very topical though as is often the case I had trouble believing the jury was that reasonable finding a high school girl not guilty for distributing the emergency contraception no woman under 16 can legally buy thanks to the Obama administration, then we watched The Mystery of Edwin Drood, not my favorite Dickens though for the most part it was well acted. As of this morning, I am SkyHowl11362 on Pottermore -- I know most people who are passionate joined during the beta but please friend me if you are over there, I only know a few people!