Greetings from Locust Grove

Adam and Haley spent most of the day with his high school/college friends at Glenstone and then at lunch, so from breakfast to dinnertime, Paul and I watched Pepper, who was not very pleased to be left with us despite being bribed with cheese. We took her for a walk around Washingtonian Lake before lunch, where we got to hear a brass band playing holiday music and received Comcast swag, then we came back to eat leftovers and change Pepper from her heavy winter coat into the lighter one. 

In the afternoon we went to Locust Grove to walk in the woods and see the winter birds there. Then we headed to my parents' house (with a quick drive by our old house, which looks fine), where we watched some football and ate some hors d'oeuvres while waiting for Adam and Haley to arrive. When they did, we ate an assortment of Thanksgiving leftovers and many desserts, plus we saw some of the not-good Maryland game. These are all family photos, but Pepper is in all of them like the supermodel she is:

Greetings from In Between

At BWI where we were just taken off the plane after a 2+ hour delay due to mechanical problems that are apparently ongoing. Everything is closed except McDonalds (which is also technically closed but the lovely cleanup crew is there and they gave us a cup with ice) so I am having water and almonds for dinner! 

We had a nice day otherwise, starting with a walk around Washingtonian Lake with Kay, then a stop at Locust Grove Nature Center on the way to my parents' for lunch. They are claiming they may reboard us in an hour and a half, so we'll see what happens; they aren't offering to put anyone up anywhere yet and it will be a fairly empty flight because so many people are switching airlines. Here are a couple of pics of the better part of our day!

Poem for Friday and Traveling Cats

Redbird Love
By Joy Harjo

We watched her grow up.
She was the urgent chirper,
Fledgling flier.
And when spring rolled
Out its green
She’d grown
Into the most noticeable
Bird-girl.
Long-legged and just
The right amount of blush
Tipping her wings, crest
And tail, and
She knew it
In the bird parade.
We watched her strut.
She owned her stuff.
The males perked their armor, greased their wings,
And flew sky-loop missions
To show off
For her.
In the end
There was only one.
Isn’t that how it is for all of us?
There’s that one you circle back to — for home.
This morning
The young couple scavenges seeds
On the patio.
She is thickening with eggs.
Their minds are busy with sticks the perfect size, tufts of fluff
Like dandelion, and other pieces of soft.
He steps aside for her, so she can eat.
Then we watch him fill his beak
Walk tenderly to her and kiss her with seed.
The sacred world lifts up its head
To notice — 
We are double-, triple-blessed.

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Thursday was mostly a chore day -- folding laundry, cleaning up the kitchen which doesn't have a dishwasher, and a bunch of computer work. I also went out a bunch of times to see the bunny who lives in the front yard. In the afternoon, we went by the house, where the walls are all now white and the hardwood floors are exposed, because we needed to pick up mail and pull out the things VVA couldn't fit on the truck last time to be donated in the morning. 

We got haircuts, then took a walk in Cabin John Park on the way back to the Airbnb, where we had leftovers for dinner. I talked to my usual Thursday night group while Paul figured out how to make the TV work with the Roku, after which we watched last week's Sanditon, which we had missed. Our cats seem slightly better resigned to being here though I think they wish they had birds to watch out windows -- they can't see the front yard with the bunny:

Greetings from Local Parks

Daniel and Cahaya stayed downtown Friday morning and much of the afternoon so she could get some work done and they could visit some museums, so since we weren't sure of their timing, we took Adam first to Locust Grove to see the quails and walk around the creek, then after lunch to the C&O Canal to see the bluebells, ducks, mergansers, a couple of turtles and frogs, and some hawks, finches, bluebirds, and cardinals. It was a much cooler day than the previous couple, a gorgeous afternoon to be out walking. 

We stopped at the Bethesda Co-op for some desserts and snacks, picked up Daniel and Cahaya from the Metro in the late afternoon, then went to my parents' for Passover leftovers -- still delicious -- before heading home so Adam could go out with his local friends. We dropped Daniel and Cahaya off at the Target in Rockville so they could buy bathing suits, which they forgot to bring for their hotel pool, and they took the Metro back downtown while we caught up on The Masked Singer and some baseball. 

Poem for Friday and Glenstone Deer

Psalm
By George Oppen

   Veritas sequitur...

In the small beauty of the forest
The wild deer bedding down—
That they are there!

                              Their eyes
Effortless, the soft lips
Nuzzle and the alien small teeth
Tear at the grass

                              The roots of it
Dangle from their mouths
Scattering earth in the strange woods.
They who are there.

                              Their paths
Nibbled thru the fields, the leaves that shade them
Hang in the distances
Of sun

                              The small nouns
Crying faith
In this in which the wild deer   
Startle, and stare out.

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On Thursday I was less boring than on Wednesday because we went out to open new bank accounts, stopped in the Corner Bakery for cold drinks since it was a gorgeous nearly-75-degree day, and took a walk in the winter aconite-covered park. Otherwise, there was more jewelry packing and charm repair. 

Kristen and I watched the end of Age of Ultron after dinner -- Ethiopian from Sheba, yay -- after which I talked to the 2/5 of my Thursday night chat group who could come this week. Then Paul and I watched Florida Atlantic upset Tennessee in the NCAA tournament. Deer in the woods at Glenstone last weekend: 

Poem for Wednesday and Queen Anne Waterside

The Carousel
By Zachary Schomburg

I’m in a carousel.
The kind that spins
people to the wall.
There is a woman
and a man and a man
inside of it too,
and a man operating it.
Everybody I love is
looking down at me,
laughing. When I die,
I’ll die alone.
I know that much,
held down by my
own shadow, wanting
to touch the woman,
the man, the man,
across the curvature.
I won’t be able to even
look. I’m on a train.
I’m a tiny spider.
A tiny star.
Or a giant spider.
When everything stops,
I’ll open the only door
to the carousel and
it’ll be the wrong one
I’ve forgotten entering.

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Tuesday was another uneventful day that started with me cleaning out some dresser drawers that hadn't been opened in years, where I found kippahs from every wedding and Bar Mitzvah we ever attended, pantyhose that I wore to all those events that now have useless elastic, and a bunch of ancient keychains, pocket mirrors, and movie ticket stubs from college. We had some more craigslist and freecycling pickups, and we took a walk in the park before eating the leftover Ethiopian food from this weekend. 

My Voyager group watched "Dark Frontier" which we didn't realize until we started didn't have a convenient break between parts one and two, so it was the full movie-length episode, which was fun. Then Paul and I watched This Is Where I Leave You, which has a fantastic cast with great chemistry and a sometimes great script though sometimes over the top (postmortem family comedies are always strange and everything Jewish is played for a joke). Some waterside views from Queen Anne in Seattle: 

Poem for Tuesday and Great Falls Sunday

To The River
By Edgar Allan Poe

Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
        Of crystal, wandering water,
     Thou art an emblem of the glow
            Of beauty—the unhidden heart—
            The playful maziness of art
     In old Alberto’s daughter;

But when within thy wave she looks—
            Which glistens then, and trembles—
     Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
            Her worshipper resembles;
     For in my heart, as in thy stream,
        Her image deeply lies—
     His heart which trembles at the beam
        Of her soul-searching eyes.

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Happy Valentine's Day if you celebrate it! My Monday was a Monday -- some work, some laundry, and I had a post-Super Bowl sugar headache from too many desserts so I tried to drink a lot of water. It was a pretty nice day out, so we went to the park in the afternoon. 

We watched this week's Groundhog Day episode of Fantasy Island, then the extended version of Jurassic World: Dominion, which -- I don't care what the internet thinks -- I really love. (More dinos! More Blue!) Pics from Great Falls on Sunday before the Super Bowl: 

Poem for Wednesday and Cabin John Winter Flowers

Wild Horses Drink from the River of History
By Lois Roma-Deeley

Hours before dark, I follow the stony path
from the parking lot to the river bank.
Along the shore I look for crushed branches and trampled grass,
the clearing where wild horses are said to appear.
Then, I hide behind a mesquite tree, hold my breath.
I want to know their secrets.

Finally the mares and foals emerge from the woods
and stand, ankle deep, among the dense reeds.
At once the entire herd bows their heads,
laps the cool water, takes the river into themselves.

If I were brave, if I’d forget
to move past the brokenness of my own family,
I’d approach these unclaimed, unnamed creatures.
I’d stroke their brown manes,
feed them sugar apples and snow peas.
We’d share one fearless story.

Now the Mustangs dig their feet under the tall grass.
I step forward, snap a few pictures,
as if the camera could capture
when my unsettled heart and theirs became one.
Overhead, the whir of helicopter blades
cuts through a questioning sky.

Suddenly there’s a thousand echoes,
galloping hooves ringing over badlands.
I turn and look back to the river
which flows on, relentlessly, carrying with it
every story of who or what has come and gone.

And the sun sets, dropping behind the mountain,
leaving a blue ridge, a dimming thread of gold.
I get into my car, head up switchbacks
that lead me to the open highway and down towards the city
where lights shimmer like the past of distant stars.

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We had nice weather on Tuesday -- overcast but not too cold -- so the highlight of my day was walking in the park and discovering that the crocuses were starting to open, plus the big field of snowdrops behind the tracks is starting to bloom and there are more lenten roses. Otherwise we had more potential basement contractors and I did some scanning and eBaying. Here's the park: 

 

My Voyager group watched the always delightful "Bride of Chaotica" -- the cast having fun for a change! -- then Paul and I watched Cyrano which I can't believe no one told me to watch months ago -- Dinklage is wonderful and the visuals are gorgeous; some of the songs are uneven and I think making Roxane likeable is always a problem, but the war scene is really moving.