Greetings from NBMAA

Monday was chilly but beautiful; the groundskeeping team turned on the fountains in the ponds in our neighborhood, and we had two bunnies eating and squabbling right in front of our house. We went out to get bagels in the morning and were relieved to see that the local weeping cherry blossoms appear to have survived the freezing overnight temperatures. 

I got new tablecloths and those had to be washed along with regular Monday laundry. Most of my evening TV has been the extra-innings Orioles game we're watching in the 11th, though I did watch the new Maul episode, and The Unforgettable Augustus Post on PBS. From the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Pop Art exhibit (Indiana, Lichtenstein, Thiebaud): 

Greetings from Woodland Park

Guess what I did all morning and most of the afternoon? If you guessed packing books, you're right? All but one shelf in the living room are finished, then I get to tackle the bedroom bookcases. It was a lovely nearly-60-degree day, so we did walk to the park -- there were big flocks of geese and ducks completely segregated on different fields near the beach -- and we were serenaded by an eagle. 

My DS9 group watched the excellent "The Collaborator" before dinner, after which we watched the first episode of Black and Jewish in America: An Interwoven History, which had some excellent, informative interviews, though it also had Cornel West, ugh. Afterward, we finished up Lower Decks, which was never great but had a lot of fun moments. Great cats we saw at the Woodland Park Zoo:

Lyrics for Monday and Maryland Snow

The Long and Winding Road 

By Paul McCartney 

The long and winding road

That leads to your door

Will never disappear

I've seen that road before

It always leads me here

Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night

That the rain washed away

Has left a pool of tears

Crying for the day

Why leave me standing here?

Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone

And many times I've cried

Anyway, you'll never know

The many ways I've tried

But still they lead me back

To the long, winding road

You left me waiting here

A long, long time ago

Don't keep me standing here

Lead me to your door

-------- 

Monday was mostly a chore day -- Paul took the car in early for regular maintenance, I folded laundry, we both got some computer work done while watching the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (WSU beat Utah State, but my favorite participant is the bright blue field at Boise State where the game is played). Then we had lunch and I did some house chores. Because Wednesday is Christmas Eve, Kristen, Laurie, and I finished watching The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King extended edition in the afternoon, followed by a necessary group encore viewing of "One Funk To Rule Them All" with much squeeing. After a sunny morning, it had started to drizzle by the time we took a walk in the afternoon, but the wind didn't start up till after dark. 

By then we had eaten leftover enchiladas for dinner and put on Chris Hemsworth's A Road Trip To Remember, which is kind of a sequel to his Limitless show in which he found out his family carries a gene that's an indicator of Alzheimer's, which his father has now been diagnosed with. Since it's in early stages, Chris and Craig visit the places where Chris grew up, where they attempt to recreate both physically and emotionally things to spark connections in Craig's memory. It's sad yet surprisingly uplifting, since they've obviously always had a great relationship. Now we're watching the Let It Be documentary, about four musicians who did not always have a great relationship. We only got a bit of snow in Maryland but it's as much white Christmas as we're likely to have this year: 

Poem for Tuesday and Brookside in Lights

The Holidays 

By Jane Taylor 

"Ah! don't you remember, 'tis almost December,

 And soon will the holidays come;

Oh, 'twill be so funny, I've plenty of money,

 I'll buy me a sword and a drum. "

Thus said little Harry, unwilling to tarry,

 Impatient from school to depart;

But we shall discover, this holiday lover

 Knew little what was in his heart.

For when on returning, he gave up his learning,

 Away from his sums and his books,

Though playthings surrounded, and sweetmeats abounded,

 Chagrin still appear'd in his looks.

Though first they delighted, his toys were now slighted,

 And thrown away out of his sight;

He spent every morning in stretching and yawning,

 Yet went to bed weary at night.

He had not that treasure which really makes pleasure,

 (A secret discover'd by few).

You'll take it for granted, more playthings he wanted;

 Oh naught was something to do.

We must have employment to give us enjoyment

 And pass the time cheerfully away;

And study and reading give pleasure, exceeding

 The pleasures of toys and of play.

To school now returning?to study and learning

 With eagerness Harry applied;

He felt no aversion to books or exertion,

 Nor yet for the holidays sigh'd.

-------- 

Tuesday was supposed to be the least rainy day of the atmospheric river currently bringing lots of water into the region, and indeed it was only misty most of the time we were out of doors -- dark and drippy but not the pouring rain we're supposed to get tomorrow. My holiday cards are stamped and mostly mailed! I did a bunch of chores in the morning, did some reading around lunch, then we took a walk to the very overcast park and on the nearly submerged dock, where there were lots of crows among a variety of waterfowl (mallards, coots, cormorants, buffleheads, grebes) plus a couple of eagles in the trees. 

My DS9 group watched "Shadowplay", better than I remembered. We ate leftover Thai food from Edmonds for dinner, then watched the rest of the sixth season of Miss Scarlet on PBS Passport. I'm very happy they answered the will-they-or-won't-they in the first episode so we didn't get a whole season of that, nor any more "can she be an Investigator and a Woman" nonsense, and there was less buttinsky Ivy and some lovely Moses moments. Now we're watching the last of the second series of Secrets of Great British Castles on Netflix (several we've been to this season). Brookside Gardens lights seen in the afternoon: 

Greetings from Issaquah

In addition to being the last Pokemon Go Community Days of the year, this weekend features the last PNW Witches' Market of the year, at the Pickering Barn in Issaquah instead of the beach in Kirkland where the spring-summer-fall markets take place. So after I spent the morning addressing and return-address-labeling holiday cards (mailing first requires stamps), we ate lunch and went to Issaquah, where I looked at lots of clothing, plants, crystals and Tarot decks, bought a felted witch hat and a handmade coat, and ran into my downstairs neighbor. Since we were in Issaquah, we also stopped at Bricks & Minifigs and Legendary Doughnuts, where we may have bought dessert. 

Our catsitter neighbors came over when we got home so we could give them some souvenirs we brought them. Then we ate dinner while watching the Big 10 championship football game, in which Indiana justified my love and beat Ohio State. Afterward we watched on a whim A Very Pagan Christmas on Amazon Prime, which we didn't know till we started watching is entirely terrible AI -- the graphics in which people and animals had double heads, the narrator whose voice we kept trying to place until we learned it was computer generated (Emma Thompson probably should sue) -- and given how little I feel like Christmas this year, it was actually just what I was in the mood for!

Poem for Wednesday and Glen Echo Trains

The Children's Hour 

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Between the dark and the daylight,

      When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,

      That is known as the Children’s Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me

      The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,

      And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,

      Descending the broad hall stair,

Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,

      And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:

      Yet I know by their merry eyes

They are plotting and planning together

      To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,

      A sudden raid from the hall!

By three doors left unguarded

      They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret

      O’er the arms and back of my chair;

If I try to escape, they surround me;

      They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,

      Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

      In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,

      Because you have scaled the wall,

Such an old mustache as I am

      Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,

      And will not let you depart,

But put you down into the dungeon

      In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,

      Yes, forever and a day,

Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,

      And moulder in dust away!

-------- 

I had a busy, chatty Wednesday, first with all three of my good high school friends -- one had computer issues and one had snow, but everyone made it to chat, though I saw two of them and the daughter of the third when I was in Maryland last week -- and then, after lunch, with Kristen and Laurie before watching the first hour of the extended edition of The Return of the King. 

We took a walk in the late afternoon (it's already dark before 5 p.m., boo) but the geese and ducks were at the beach, and after Indian food for dinner, we watched Secrets of Great British Castles, which was very enjoyable, though it reminded me that it's been too many years since I've been to the UK. Here are photos from Brookside Gardens' train show, which has a recreation of old Glen Echo Park:

Poem for Thursday and Redmond Holidays

The Wild Duck 

By John Masefield 

Twilight. Red in the West.

Dimness. A glow on the wood.

The teams plod home to rest.

The wild duck come to glean.

O souls not understood,

What a wild cry in the pool;

What things have the farm ducks seen

That they cry so--huddle and cry?

Only the soul that goes.

Eager. Eager. Flying.

Over the globe of the moon,

Over the wood that glows.

Wings linked. Necks a-strain,

A rush and a wild crying.

 

A cry of the long pain

In the reeds of a steel lagoon,

In a land that no man knows. 

-------- 

We had chilly but nice weather on Thursday. I don't have a lot to report from my morning, but after lunch we walked to the park and saw an eagle in the highest tree overseeing a large flock of geese enjoying the grass, though the ducks were close to our apartment in the wetlands eating in the reeds. We have another illicit bird seed bell that had a lot of visitors. 

Only two other people could come to my Thursday night chat but we had a lovely conversation, after which Paul and I watched this week's Ghosts (kinda half-assed on Thanksgiving) and Pluribus (we deserve to have the opening connected with the rest) of the episode. Now we're watching more of The American Revolution. Christmas is coming early to Redmond Town Center:

Greetings from Marymoor

Quick post, we're bingeing Death By Lightning, the James Garfield miniseries, which Kay told me to watch on chat this morning with her and Hildy (Linda was off); it's more fictionalized and far more condensed than The American Revolution, and it is therefore wittier, faster-paced, and an easier focus for my full attention. The latter is excellent, but I find the former a more enjoyable watch. 

I'm also running late because, after watching the end of The Two Towers with Kristen and Laurie, I went out with Paul to walk at Marymoor Park, then to do a bit of shopping in Redmond that ended with us deciding to go to BJ's for dinner and pizookies (they have Dubai chocolate ones now). The full Christmas decorations are already up in Redmond Town Center. A few photos of the park at sunset: