View from the kitchen window

I can see most of this - and more - just from the kitchen window.  Well, maybe some I have to work at but mostly it's all there.   I actually did a walkabout with the camera so we could get up close and personal.

Meet a pole-dancing runner bean...

and a virginal foxglove.  I am so impressed with the sweet purity of this flower.  Maybe it's the raindrops.

The honeysuckle is really our neighbor's but we get quite a few of the flowers spilling over the fence.

This clematis is named Ernest Markham.  It's a gorgeous magenta color and brings a lot of color to what is mostly a very green part of the garden.

The centers look like exotic - but totally friendly - spiders.

The sweet woodruff makes a carpet of these tiny (under 1/2 inch) white flowers under the pine trees.  It has a  lovely scent, too.

And, on the deck in a container is one of our ready-to-harvest broccoli plants.  Looks ready to me, anyway. 

It was so nice to get out in the garden between rain showers.  Oh, what a funny spring it's been.

The beat goes on...

Back in April, I posted about my starting to take piano lessons.  I thought it might be good to let you know how that's going.  I did stick to it and I think I'm actually making progress.  I can actually read the music now and play any simple melody that comes my way. 

But two hands...ah!  that's another matter altogether.   I'm having so much difficulty getting my right and left hand to work cooperatively.  And changing chords with any sort of  smoothness is beyond my ability right now.  This requires me to remove my hand from the keys - help! - and then put it down again but on other keys.  Actually, the other keys part isn't hard - it's making sure it's the right other keys. 

But, I'm better this week than I was two weeks ago.  That's all I can ask for: improvement.  Right?   The pieces above are what I'm currently working on.  I have two stickers on the one because I've memorised this piece - there is more on the next page out of the photo.  This is in preparation for performance at what my teacher calls a workshop and I call a mini-recital.  All the students - we're all adults - get together every couple of months to share their progress.  My first will be at the end of the month. 

In the meantime, can you see that I've traded ironing for music?  The ironing board is now a shelf for the various music books I need.  And I can look out at the garden while I play. 

Camera! Action!

People who live on side streets miss all the fun.

For the second time in as many years a car has gone out of control and found itself in our yard.  I heard a noise which I thought was from the recycling truck which was picking up outside.  I looked because I couldn't imagine what he'd dumped in his truck that would have made so much noise.  I think he had someone watching over him - the car left the road and shot right by him as he was reaching for the cardboard.  You can see where the cardboard is still sitting.

The woman who was driving blamed the man in the pickup who, I think did nothing more than pull out from behind her.  I think she noticed, too late, that the big truck was stopped and tried to pull out, too.  What went wrong after that is anyone's guess.  But I would have opted for the sidewalk, too, probably.

The car had little obvious damage being a much older model and made of real metal.  She, on the other hand, didn't benefit from being an older model human.  It was a frightening experience for her and she's likely still shaking.  But, her main concern was that no one know she was 83.  It may be that she's been driving ever so carefully to stay under the radar and be able to continue to drive.  Maybe the accident could have happened to anyone.  I can't say.  But  that her story didn't hold up to the obvious facts make me wonder.

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday...already?   It just snuck up on me.

These old magazines were part of a donation to the thrift store.  I remember when I was a teenager standing by the newsstand for ages 'renting' the magazines.  While me and my girlfriends were all over Seventeen, these were what the guys looked for.

Lots more Ruby Tuesday thanks to Mary T.  Just visit her here.