With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.
~ Lope de Vega

A good deal later than I would have preferred we have started with our spring gardening. A trip to the nursery is an exciting and unfortunately expensive affair. Just as an arts supply store contains many of the tools of an artists’ trade, a nursery is a place filled with all the tools necessary to make a masterpiece…plants, flowers, containers of all shapes and sizes, borders, trellis, rocks, soil…it is all there and waiting merely for the creativity of the gardener to put it all together. I love the thrill of the first nursery trip of the season!

We began landscaping in earnest last year with a few small projects and this year will see a few more as well as an attempt to establish some lasting perrenials that we can enjoy each year. Today we started with flowers and herbs, the vegetables will begin later this week. We continued our tradition of planting Impatiens in pots on the front steps. We will add Frost Fire Dianthus

and Speedwell (Veronica ‘Waterperry’)

to the front beds. We like to do container gardening on the back deck and this will be our second year of growing herbs in pots there. We planted lemon balm and cilantro today but did not find parsely or lavendar so will have to make a trip to another nursery. The lemon balms smells fantastic! Tori picked out a beautiful orange/red flower for a deck pot, the Fiery Red Gazania.

In addition to these we planted an autumn fern and relocated some of our hosta to a bed we created last year around one of our Bradford Pear trees. Our Iris, planted a few years ago, are blooming and everything is so green and lush. It was a wonderful afternoon to dig in the earth and drink in the scents of spring. There is so much more to do but it was a good start and I’m excited to have flowers growing again.

He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul.
~ Celia Thaxter

If the smell of fresh air isn’t enough to inspire you to do a little gardening I would suggest the movie Greenfingers.

Greenfingers is a wonderful little movie that was given to me as a Christmas gift a few years ago (thanks Pat!). It is inspired by the true events of a prison program in England that uses gardening as a source of rehabilitation and therapy. The movie stars Clive Owen (Sin City, Closer, King Arthur) as a prisoner with no purpose who begins to see the seeds of a new life with a little help from David Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) and some gardening inspiration from Helen Mirren (Calendar Girls, Raising Helen). Despite beginning his love of flowers with a double violet it is a Primrose (Natasha Little) who captures his heart. All the cast in this movie are wonderful. Clive Owen is quickly becoming a favorite and it was refreshing to see Natasha Little as a female love interest who dresses modestly and wears little make-up and yet looks naturally beautiful. I really highly recommend this film. You can click on this link to watch a poorly done trailer for the movie.

Watch the movie and go do a little gardening.

If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?
~ G.K. Chesterton

For those of you who are interested the Extreme Home Makeover show featuring the Kansas City firefighter’s house that James, his father, his crew, my brother-in-law Mike, and yours truly installed cabinets in will air this Sunday, May 8th at 7 p.m. central standard time. The How Did They Do that show will air Monday, May 9th at 7 p.m. CST.

As I’ve said before, the chances are slim that we will be on air and the chances that anyone would recognize us in a sea of blue shirts is even more remote. The thing you will notice, however, is kitchen cabinets, laundry room cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and bookcases next to the fireplace that we both hauled around and installed.

I’m excited that this is finally being aired and am still very thrilled that I had the opportunity to work on this house. It was a very special moment and is a very special memory. Thanks again James for letting me tag along!

No doubt you have read or heard about the fireman who was recently ‘recalled to life’ after being comatose for 10 years. After a decade of being nonresponsive he asked to talk to his wife and then had conversations with many family members. He appears to be doing well and had thought that he was “under” for only 3 months.

This got me thinking, as these things do, about what I would do if I was in this situation. He obviously has physical recovery issues to overcome but lets say for the sake of argument that you awoke from a 10 year nap and were physically and mentally fit and ready to go. What would you do? Obviously family reconnection would be an ongoing priority but what else?

I think the first thing I would want to do would be to spend some time with my wife….wink wink, nudge nudge. Its sad to say but I’m not sure that discovering the political events of the last decade would be a priority. I’d want to catch up on the movies that I had missed….the DVD would be a technical marvel! (at least I didn’t have a DVD player 10 years ago!) And books! My favorite authors would seem like writing machines after a ten year span!

Which leads to another interesting question: would you remember the last pages of books that you had read or the last tv shows that you watched? If your brain only registered a 3 month absence could you just pick up your last novel and dive right in?….assuming of course that you can regularly remember things you read 3 months later! 🙂 And what would it do to your psyche to see your spouse, yourself, friends, family, and most importantly your kids after a decade of aging? There has to be some literature out about this or at least a cheesy made-for-tv documentary of some kind. This isn’t the first person to ‘wake up’ after a long period of time in a coma. Fascinating stuff!

Speaking of comas there is a wonderful looking movie that completely slipped under my radar when it was in theatres that my brother in law pointed me to yesterday. It is called Goodbye, Lenin.

It is a German film that looks fantastic. The idea is that this woman fell into a coma before the Berlin wall fell and she wakes up after the wall has fallen and commercialism has run rampant through the nation. Her family is warned that she shouldn’t receive any shocks so they recreate her room at home and proceed to pretend that all is as it was until the day she discovers that the world is not what she had believed. It looks very, very good! I have it coming on Netflix and will do a review when the time comes. You can check out the trailer here.

Now that I have sufficiently put all of you reading this into a coma, any thoughts?

I was 18 when it dawned on me that I really, really liked musicals. I was attending a performance of My Fair Lady at a local high school. This was a really big school and the production was fairly lavish for high school theatre. I loved the musical so much that I went home and rented My Fair Lady on video. While watching it I realized that I had acquired two new loves…musical theatre and Audrey Hepburn. Audrey Hepburn had a style and grace that is unmatched in today’s Hollywood.

Born on this date in Brussels, Belgium in 1929 to a wealthy English banker and a Dutch baroness, Audrey was destined for greatness. Her privileged upbringing and private school education were doubtless influential in fashioning the woman whose name would come to be synonymous with class and sophistication, and yet this privilege did not hinder Audrey Hepburn from giving of herself to those in need. More on this later. While vacationing with her mother in Arnhem, Holland, Hitler’s forces took over the town and Audrey and her mother lived for a time under Nazi occupation. After the city was liberated Audrey attended ballet school and then took up modeling before being ‘discovered’ by a movie producer.

Audrey started with a few small roles in European films but it was after she moved to America that she burst on the scene in the film Roman Holiday. This film was extremely successful, winning Audrey Hepburn a best actress Oscar and establishing her as the new darling in film. Her waif-like elegance was such a contrast to the sex-goddess images of the time that she gained immediate popularity. In her lifetime Audrey made 31 films and received 4 Oscar nominations in addition to her Oscar win.

I’m not sure exactly why Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress. I suspect that a great deal of it has to do with the fact that she was the first ‘classic’ actress that I remember noticing. It was odd to think, at age 18, that I had a crush on a preserved-in-film image of this beautiful woman who was actually much older. I believe it also has something to do with the fact that I so closely associate her with my love of musical theatre both live and on film and thus her image generates a great deal of nostalgia. In addition Audrey has starred in so many great films. My favorites include My Fair Lady, Funny Face, Wait Until Dark, and Charade. Audrey Hepburn personified a type of classy, beautiful, sophisticated elegance coupled with a genuine concern for the less fortunate that is rare if not non-existent in Hollywood.

In 1988 Audrey became a special ambassador to the United Nations UNICEF fund helping children in Latin America and Africa, a position she retained until 1993. From her official site: “Audrey traveled for UNICEF with acclaimed photographer John Isaac on behalf of UNICEF. Together they presented to the world a provocative visual context in which to see the urgency of Audrey’s message. For five years, until her death in 1993, Audrey devoted all her energy to working with UNICEF. Her field missions were often physically and emotionally demanding and sometimes undertaken at great personal risk. Audrey learned first hand about the plight of poor and displaced children in countries all over the world. Audrey made over fifty field research visits to UNICEF-assisted projects in Sudan, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia. . These trips enabled her to witness first-hand the distressing conditions of children living in war-torn and drought-ridden areas of the world. Determined to raise awareness and badly needed funds, Audrey applied her first-hand knowledge to inform Special Assemblies at the U.N., shared details with various Press Associations, and lobbied on behalf of children to World Parliaments.”

Audrey Hepburn’s poise, demeanor, and beauty may have been the catalyst for her classy image but the way that she lived the later years of her life is what solidified that image for all time.

I’d like to close this by sharing this poem that was a favorite of Audrey’s and that I feel is a perfect description of her:

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone …

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,
reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed. Never throw out anybody. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others
~Sam Levenson

Happy Birthday, Audrey…

(1929-1993)

Happy 113th birthday to Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, more commonly known as The Red Baron. Despite dying at the age of 25, Richthofen had an astonishing 80 victories to his credit (this during a time when 20 kills would bring hero status). Despite his fame Richthofen is probably best remembered in my generation due to the genius of Charles Schulz and his most famous creation’s legendary battles with the Red Baron.

These battles were played out in comic strips, cartoons and, thanks to the Royal Guardsmen, in song (you can listen to a clip of the song farther down on this site). I credit my interest in WWI aircraft to my childhood love of Snoopy and most especially these imaginary aireal battles.

“And now for something completely different…”

It is Monday morning and no one really wants to be working right now, whether at the job or at home. We all want to pretend that it is Sunday afternoon and that we are sharing a glass of (insert favorite beverage here) with good friends and having earth shattering conversations. Conversations about topics like the following:

I saw this on Jay’s site and thought it would be another fun exercise. I followed the links back and discovered that the idea is to pick 5 things from the following list and to write about them. Jay’s answers are fun and I would suggest clicking on the link as she’ll give you a nice Monday morning chuckle. I have changed this list ever so slightly from the list I found on the original meme and I’m not concerned about the number of them that you pick. 5 is what you should shoot for. If you do more, great, if you do less, also great because its the participation that counts. So, here is the list followed by my answers. (feel free to add your own if you don’t want to use these)

Choose your poison…
If I could be a scientist…
If I could be a farmer…
If I could be a musician…
If I could be a doctor…
If I could be a painter…
If I could be an artist…
If I could be a gardener…
If I could be a chef…
If I could be an architect…
If I could be a linguist…
If I could be a psychologist…
If I could be a librarian…
If I could be an athlete…
If I could be a lawyer…
If I could be an inn-keeper…
If I could be a professor…
If I could be a writer…
If I could be a llama-rider…
If I could be a bonnie pirate…
If I could be an astronaut…
If I could be a world famous blogger…
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world…
If I could be a store owner…
If I could be an explorer…

If I could be an inn-keeper… I would run an inn somewhere in the wine country in California. One that sat on a hillside overlooking vineyards with a view of the ocean in the background. The inn would have a very Tuscan look and feel. Every room would afford private, romantic views and large jacuzzi tubs with one-way glass so you could look over the beautiful scenery while taking long, relaxing baths. I would have the best chef that money could buy and wonderful wines to suit the tastes of every guest. Upon reserving a room there would be an extensive application that let my staff get to know your likes, etc. so that your stay would be uniquely catered to your specific desires. Pampering and privacy would be the name of the game. Ideally you would arrive with very little luggage because the inn would provide you with tailor made outfits, books of your choosing, etc. to make your stay pleasant and relaxing.

If I could be a store owner… I would own a tremendously large bookstore with several floors each decorated differently to reflect various architectural and design elements that I enjoy. The bookstore would be large enough to have what each person wanted. There would be a large used book section, a computer games section, a music and movies section, and a comics section all stocked with current but also old and out of print titles. I would have a section of rare, collectible books displayed carefully behind glass. I would scour the world for old antique bookshelves and comfortable furniture would be in abundance. The store would have a wonderful cafe with coffees and teas and light food and desserts. I would staff it with people who loved books and would pay them a wage that made them love to be at work sharing their joy of reading with the customers. Each staff would have their own ‘staff recommends’ shelf to put books, music, etc. on. I would also have an extensive computer system in order to assist customers in finding any books that we might not have. I would also want to stock various collectible items and art from people that I and my staff enjoy. This would be a one-stop haven for all your cultural needs.

If I could be a musician… I would want to play the piano, guitar and violin proficiently. Of course in order to truly enjoy the violin I would have to be able to morph into an attractive woman whenever I played so I could stand in front of a mirror to watch myself play. 🙂

If I could be a writer… I would want to write books for both children and adults and I would want to illustrate these as well. I would want to be an author who reinvented himself with each novel yet retained a style that is distinctly my own. I would want to create rich and imaginative worlds that people loved yet I wouldn’t want to be Stephen King famous. I would want to have a good sized following and be the kind of author whose books were magical to each person that discovered them and passed them on to others. I would want to tour occasionally to meet readers and have a comfortable retreat for me and my family to live where I could write (once again) overlooking vineyards and trees and water. A magical place that would be an inspiration to all my writings.

If I could be an artist… I would want to be able to devote my full time to this and not have to work art into the space between jobs. I would want to draw comics, illustrate books and paint and work with Photoshop and create 3 dimensional work. I would not want to be limited in any way except for the limits of my imagination. I would want my art to inspire others and I would want to be able to have opportunities to talk with fans, aspiring artists, etc. to encourage and motivate them. I would want to be able to give of my artisitic works to others.

That’s my 5…I may throw bonnie-pirate into the comments section as I feel bad letting that one slip by. Again, make up your own if you don’t like any on the list. Have fun and Happy Monday!