redbird | Entries tagged with flowers

I went for a walk this afternoon with Cattitude and Adrian: downhill to Beacon Street, then inbound as far as the Summit Avenue T stop. Not only was it useful exercise, I got to smell one of my favorite flowers, rugosa roses. It may have been too long a walk, because my joints were feeling the strain before I turned back and took the trolley partway home, but if I'd turned back any sooner I'd have missed the roses. While I took the T home, Cattitude and Adrian continued to Coolidge Corner, to shop for groceries and then get bagels. (Most of the time, the two of them can walk further than I can.)

I had to walk a few blocks uphill from the T to get home, but I allowed for that when I decided how far to walk. I came home, took my shoes off, and sat a while before I put on the shoes that I'm still breaking in. I will probably break them in a little more before I wear them outside.

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Adrian and I went to the Arnold Arboretum today with her friend Ruth, to look at lilacs and other flowers. Our timing on the lilacs was close to perfect: lots fully in bloom, with a few bushes that had finished flowering, and several that were still in bud.

It's also lily of the valley season, and we sat and talked for a while just downwind of a large and fragrant patch of lily of the valley.

The rose garden is near the Arborway gate, and the rugosa roses were in bloom, which was a fine surprise.

I spent a few minutes listening to and looking for an oriole, after hearing someone on the other side of a path say "oriole." Also a treat, though I would have liked to see that flash of orange.

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The locust trees are flowering locally, and so I discovered yesterday from the scent that there are a couple of locust trees across the street from our new apartment.

I discovered locust trees as an adult, while we were living in Inwood, and came to like them a lot. They were a popular tree to plant in the northeastern US a few decades ago, but no longer are. Volunteer locust seedlings can be a nuisance, because the young/thin trunk branches have spines, presumably to protect them from being eaten by bison or horses or something. (They're native to North America.)

I'd seen locusts through the windows of moving buses and trolleys in the last few days, but wasn't sure of the identification--there are other kinds of tree that flower in the spring and produce clusters of white flowers.

We are still getting to know our new neighborhood, including finding some of the spring-flowering shrubs and trees.

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I am stressed because of [redacted], and feeling creaky, but

cattitude and I just went for a walk, and there are lilies of the valley in bloom a couple of blocks from my apartment.

They're in a sloped yard behind a retaining wall, which puts some of the flowers at or near my nose level, so much easier for me to enjoy. Many years, I crouch or even lie down next to lilies of the valley growing on flatter streets, which would have been a bad idea right now.

Clarification, since someone was confused by my description: these are the usual small lilies of the valley. It's the ground they're growing in that was at about my chin height, in a sloped yard next to the sidewalk. It's a hilly neighborhood.

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I went for a walk today, and saw a variety of early spring flowers: a witch hazel bush on my way to the store, and on the way back I walked along the sunny side of Beacon Street and saw three or four colors of crocus (depending on whether the light purple and royal purple count as two colors), and one early daffodil.

I took a photo of the daffodil to send

cattitude, who'd said that he expected there would be crocuses in bloom here by the time he got back from Niskayuna, but he thought it was took early for daffodils.That was right after sending him a photo of a clump of crocuses, in the hopes that he would find it cheering. There's still some snow on the ground in Niskayuna, but he sent us a photo of a dwarf iris that's growing in one of the sunnier bits of his father's yard.

(The icon photo is crocuses from Inwood Hill Park, at least ten years ago.)

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I spent some time this afternoon sorting through things. That included getting rid of some things, and rearranging some others. The stack of cards and stamps is now shorter, and a bit better organized, after I discarded some free (please donate!) greeting cards I wasn't going to use. I also tossed some food that was past its expiration date, including single-serving cups of applesauce, dried lentils, and turkey bacon.

I moved the bed enough that I could unplug and throw away the digital clock that broke a few weeks ago. (There's a similar, but still working, clock on

cattitude's nightstand). And I cooked lunch and dinner, and had some groceries delivered in between.

I also cut up boxes for recycling, and took them and a bunch of trash out. Typing all this, I realize how much I've done today.

Cattitude spent the afternoon at the new apartment, measuring cupboards and closets, and documenting damage to the apartment, with photos. Some of it we need fixed, and the rest is just to have it on record so the landlord doesn't try to charge us for it years from now.

It's ten days to the solstice, and sunset is late enough that we went for a short walk, to a nearby garden with lots of honeysuckle. I suggested this to cattitude, who agreed that it sounded like a good idea.

Current Mood: accomplished

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I spent last night at

adrian's. Her building's hot water stopped working sometime yesterday, and there was still no hot water this morning. She very much wanted a shower, so instead of having lunch there (as we normally would have), we pulled on clothes and came over to my apartment.

We stopped on the way to get bagels at Bagelsaurus: got off the 77 bus at Porter Square and walked down Mass Ave to the bagel place. I took my mask off briefly, so I could smell the rugosa roses that had just started to bloom alongside Mass Ave. This is early for those roses (at least, I think it is, to the extent that means anything anymore), but I missed them entirely last year: I saw some through bus windows, but didn't think to get out, visit the flowers, and get on the next bus, and then the season was over.

I wouldn't have stopped at Bagelsaurus on a Sunday on my own, because the line on weekends stretches well outside the door, and the inside of the shop is crowded then, but Adrian was comfortable going in there masked, and I'm comfortable with her doing so, for something that brief. We then walked to the next bus stop inbound, and got a 96 to the end of the line, half a block from the farmers market. So we bought smoked salmon ("nova lox" and steelhead trout pate from the Boston Fish Company), plus frozen ravioli, peach jam, and apple cider, brought them home to Belmont, and had an excellent lunch.

The 71 and 73 were rerouted for a street fair, which is part of why we wound up at the farmers market; I'd been going to go back out after lunch and buy ice cream, and then I thought about a warm Sunday afternoon, and a street fair, and decided this would not be a good day for me to go to a small ice cream shop a block from Harvard Square. The farmers market is twice a week; Lizzy's is now open every afternoon and evening.

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The doorbell rang unexpectedly this morning, heralding a vase of flowers with my name on them, a retirement and thank you give from my colleagues at acmqueue. We put the flowers on the back porch to protect them from Kaja while we went to Cambridge for a picnic with

adrian_turtle. The note says "Thank you very much for your excellent work on queue all these years. Enjoy your retirement! All the best from the queue staff."

Last week

cattitude was disappointed because it looked like we might have missed the last good day for a picnic until April, and I decided to keep an eye on the forecast. By Monday that looked promising enough that I asked Adrian if she'd like to join us for a picnic Wednesday [today) if the weather was as nice as predicted, and she said yes.

We met on the Cambridge Common at about a quarter to one this afternoon, sitting on a pleasant bit of lawn, in the sunshine. We had lox and bagels, salad, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (baked by Adrian), some salad, and iced tea. Adrian said they weren't her best cookies, before we tried them; after eating one I said they might not be her best cookies, but they were definitely good cookies, and ate a few more.

That was a very pleasant, low-key hour and a half. Adrian then went home, and catittude atnd I went to the Arlington Farmers Market, which in retrospect may have been overdoing things slightly. Bu while I have to get up early tomorrow for a medical appointment, for my semi-annual infusion of Ocrevus (an MS medication), once I get there my job will be to sit in a chair for a few hours, while they give me the drug (after a steroid, an anti-histamine, and a couple of other things to reduce the risk of side effects).

Yes, I'm getting a drug where they take those precautions for every patient--but I have now had this a few times, without difficulty, and I'll be in the Hematology and Oncology clinic at Mt. Auburn Hospital, so help if needed will be nearby. (In the years since I got this diagnosis, I have taken/been given the anti-MS medication in doctor's offices, at home, at a specialized infusion center, and at two different hospitals' oncology clinics. I like this better than either my previous neurologist's clinic out in the land of long commutes, or the Medical Oncology department of Evergreen Hospital, though all three were fine in medical terms.

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cattitude and I spent yesterday with a bunch of his relatives. The gathering was at his father's house in Niskayuna. We got a ride there and back from his sister Nancy and her husband, spent Friday and Saturday nights in a hotel, and left early this morning to get home before tropical storm Henri made landfall.

This wasn't a huge gathering by pre-pandemic standards; it started as five people (four of us and Cattitude's dad) and grew to about a dozen by late afternoon, spread out in two or three rooms. I was particularly pleased to see Peter and Trish (Cattitude's brother and his wife), who live in the California desert, and who we last saw when we were living in Seattle. We did get to talk some with C's father, before things got crowded (he doesn't hear as well as he used to). The other people there were Nancy's son (Steven) and his wife, and Peter and Trish's son. I'm glad we went this weekend, but a visit with just his father would also be good, and we might manage that sometime in the next few months.

I decided I wanted to do this enough to take the risks involved in unmasked socializing with (fully vaccinated) people from several different states, plus one dinner in a restaurant, and breakfast in the hotel yesterday. I discussed the risks with

adrian_turtle, and she asked me to isolate for three days when I got back and then take a Covid test before seeing her again, so I'm doing that. I'd probably be staying home today even if Adrian hadn't asked me to, because I'm tired from the travel, and because beating the storm means we've been safely at home, with rain and high winds outside.

Small pleasure: when we made a pit stop at a highway rest stop, I noticed two white roses, and took my mask off to smell one. They were a strongly scented kind, which mostly blooms in June or early July (and there were a lot of rosehips on the bushes), and I thought I'd missed my chance to smell them this year because of when I was sick.

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I went for a walk this afternoon, because getting outside in the daylight is good for me, especially on bright sunny days like this afternoon. I saw this cherry tree two blocks from home:

( tree, behind a cut for size )

I live in an inner suburb of Boston, and wasn't expecting to see flowers other than some vagrant dandelions.

ETA: I am reliably informed that this looks like a winter-flowering cherry, and they're supposed to do that.

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These tiny wildflowers are growing in a tree stump at the back of the small parking lot behind my home:

I noticed them while walking back and forth on the driveway, to get some exercise without needing a mask.

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flowers

This cherry is in bloom at the edge of a bank parking lot:

( cut for size )

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gingicat gave me "tile, magnolia, trail" as things to talk about.

tile: Our kitchen trivet/hotplate is a plain square blue tile that I trash-picked while walking down a street in Chinatown on my way to the subway. I took this one from a pile of eight or ten tiles, presumably left over from a construction or remodeling job. We used to have a smaller, decorated tile that was made and sold for kitchen use, but I dropped and broke that years ago and haven't replaced it, even though there are times that it would be useful to have two or three trivets. Maybe after we move, when we have a kitchen large enough that a second trivet wouldn't immediately prompt the question "but where would we put it?"

Magnolias aren't one of my favorite trees, even though they bloom early in the spring, but I once I had to get blood drawn for some test or other, at a new-to-me-location, in February. I got off the bus and smelled something pleasantly floral, looked around, and was pleased to see one magnolia in bloom, in a row of several that were still in bud. Smelling that tree was all I got out of that trip: the person who told me to get the blood test had forgotten to tell me not to eat beforehand, so I had to reschedule for another day. (I no longer remember what the test was for.)

"Trail maintenance is everybody's job," and I extend that to things that aren't exactly trails: it doesn't matter why there's a dead branch across the sidewalk, if I can lift it and there's somewhere obvious to move it to where it won't be in anyone's way, I do it. I used to carry a Swiss army knife, which includes a small saw blade. That blade isn't why I got the knife, and I didn't use it very often, but it was occasionally handy when wandering through Inwood Hill Park picking berries, and more than handy the day there was a fire in our apartment building and cattitude and I went down the fire escape. Somewhere around the third floor, I had to cut through chinaberry vines that had grown up a tree and then across the fire escape. (Once we got the all-clear and went back to our apartment, I called the fire marshal to report the hazard: I had cut through just enough of the vine to be able to pass, and was worried about it growing back.

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Yesterday,

cattitude and I went to the Harvard Arboretum to look at and sniff lilacs. We were a bit late: a lot of the bushes had few flowers left, and some of the rest had almost no scent. Unfortunately, the lilacs that bloom latest are a variety whose scent I don't like. Also, Cattitude had some problems with the pollen even though he had taken an antihistamine, and I will probably have to make this trip without him next year. (

adrian_turtle has expressed interest.)

On our way out, we passed a fine patch of lily of the valley, and enjoyed that scent (which neither of us are allergic to. This past weekend, Cattitude found an allegedly lily of the valley flavored macaron at the patisserie in Davis Square. I thought it just tasted sweet, he said there was a floral note that reminded him of soap, and we didn't eat the last bit. It's an artificial flavor, of course—all parts of the plant are considered poisonous—and I was partly just curious as to what the creator thought lily of the valley should taste like.

I have an appointment at Mount Auburn Hospital on Friday. There is a very fine patch of lily of the valley in a small parklike area between Mount Auburn Street and Memorial Drive, which I plan to visit before, after, or possibly both, depending how the timing goes.

( physical therapy stuff )

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I got back from Montreal on Thursday. That was a week of reading and hanging out with

rysmiel and enjoying the flowers in passing.

Yesterday I did very little, because I needed the rest: what I did do was cut a few stems of lily of the valley and put them in the tiny red and black vase my mother gave me. Growing up, we never used it for anything but lily of the valley; in almost thirty years in Inwood and Bellevue, it was a pretty knick-knack. This morning, I walked into my kitchen and smelled lily of the valley.

The second time I went out yesterday was to harvest lettuce. I cut an entire small green lettuce, and picked leaves from some of the red lettuces, and we had a very fresh salad for dinner last night.

Then I decided I needed more lettuces (after all, that only left ten), so

cattitude and I have been at the garden center again. It's late for planting lettuce, but I got another little six-pack of green butterhead lettuces, along with a half dozen marigolds to keep the tomatoes company, and some tiny basil plants because the ones I put into the planter in back don't look well.
( more garden stuff, cut for length )

I also did my exercises this morning, having skipped most of them while I was on vacation. (We walked quite a bit, at least.) I also have some proofreading work to do, but I may let that wait for tomorrow.

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Arlington, Mass.

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On Thursday,

cattitude,

adrian_turtle and I had our now-traditional Thanksgiving dinner. This year we had the turkey with an interesting gravy instead of stuffing; lots of roasted root vegetables; cranberry-orange relish; some last-minute green beans with sesame seeds; and apple-cranberry crisp for dessert. The gravy was good but not worth the amount of work, and I missed the stuffing. We treat the holiday as cozy time for the three of us to just be together, and it was good that this year nobody had to travel a long distance for the occasion.

Yesterday Cattitude and I met some of his relatives for lunch: his sister, brother-in-law, their kids, and another niece who is at grad school in the area. (The brother-in-law has family in the area.) That was a pleasant hour or so of conversation over Vietnamese food: they asked us to suggest a place in Harvard Square, and we knew Pho Le is both good and convenient to where we were meeting. He then went to a museum with them, and I came home and spent some time making annoying but necessary phone calls.

In the evening Adrian and I went to a party at the home of some fannish friends of hers (who I know casually), featuring more turkey, good conversation, and a hot tub. Soaking for a while seems to have done me good. (The tub is outside on the deck, a short walk from the back door; the air temperature was 40F/4 C outside, which was warmer than I was expecting when Adrian first mentioned the possibility to me.)

This afternoon I have pulled out the tomato plants and a bunch of weeds from the front yard and the planting strip, and brought in the last few halfway-plausible green fruits to ripen. I also collected a few more quinces, which I had overlooked last week.

browngirl, the quinces have your name on them.

Tomato season really is over, despite a few hopeful flowers left on the plants, and the last yard waste pickup of this year will be Monday. That leaves us with lettuce,

42itous's peppers, rosemary, some chives that were lurking in the bed next to the house. Also a miscellany of flowers: radish, wood sorrel, and the lavender gives every sign of planning to flower again. Why not? There's a fine rhododendron in bloom a couple of blocks away on Mass Ave, and Cattitude showed me a periwinkle flower around the corner yesterday.

For my reference: the cherry tomato that produced a small number of really good purplish fruits is called "Black Cherry." (I think I lost the label for the burgeoning yellow-orange one.) We got almost nothing from our yellow Brandywine plant, alas. That's a really tasty heirloom variety.

Crossposts: http://redbird.livejournal.com/1518029.html

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This is partly for my own records.

This morning I planted some basil (planter near the back porch), radishes (a patch near the sidewalk, a little bit east of the front walk), and sunflowers (in the planting strip). I ordered the radish seeds, the sunflowers were a freebie from the seed company, and

42itous gave us the basil seeds.

Meanwhile, a nondescript clump of greenery in front of the house turns out to be a patch of gorgeous purple irises, and the rhododendron next to it is blooming.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://redbird.livejournal.com/1498140.html

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Early February flowering tree, a photo by rosvicl on Flickr.

I just went wandering around the neighborhood, and took pictures of some of the things in flower. I think this might be an ornamental cherry. I've also posted pictures of two flowering shrubs I can't name—one yellow, one pink—rosemary, and a periwinkle to Flickr. The dandelion photo wasn't worth posting, and I didn't take pictures of the heather or the hellebore.Via Flickr:Some kind of early ornamental cherry?

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Early February flowering tree, a photo by rosvicl on Flickr.

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I'm not sure which is more of an anomaly, the rhododendrons in bloom or the morning's snowfall:

macro shot of rhododendron in snow, a photo by rosvicl on Flickr.

ETA: I am reliably informed that these are camellias, and a google image search agrees. I still like the contrast of flowers and snow.

Crossposts: https://redbird.livejournal.com/1413538.html

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Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

Don't mourn, organize

walk

lilacs and other flowers

locust trees

lilies of the valley

early spring flowers

(no subject)

bagels and roses

a surprise, and a picnic

trip to Niskayuna

(no subject)

creeping charlie

Cherry tree

Three more random topics: tile, magnolia, trail

Lilacs and lily of the valley, and knee PT

Planting and harvesting

Thanksgiving weekend

Garden update (and other quotidian bits)

Punxsatawney Phil is in some other universe

Punxsatawney Phil lives in some other universe

A snowy morning in Bellevue

About Me

A Few Useful Links

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