Making Music

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

Here's the proof that all you need is a wash tub, a scrub board, and a kazoo to be in Folklife. But I must say that the guitar really pulled it all together. And so why was I at Folklife.... to sing with the Sacred Harp singers. We drew a croud of at least one hundred on Saturday for our workshop and sing along. On Sunday about 75 people heard us sing on stage. I was pleasantly surprised to have one of my young students greet me after the performance. I'm not sure the singing moved her like it does me but she was very happy to get a look at me from a decidedly different perspective than classroom teacher!

Getting in Tune

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

I do not know the name of these instruments but the music was lovely.

The Crowds

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

As you can see, the weather was typical grey and on Sunday downright cold. I think the crowds were still pretty thick but then I haven't been to Folklife in 15 years. There were several stages both inside and out but some of the most interesting performances lined the Center grounds.
The one picture I wish I had been able to get: a girl about 9 years old standing on an exercise ball, playing a fiddle, and swinging a hula hoop around her waist all at the same time!

Making a Statement

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

Along with the many stages of folk music and dancing, ethnic food venders, and arts and crafts booths, there were some people who used the instant audience to make their political point.

Dancing

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

Israeli, Serbian, Polish, Russian, Salsa, Tango, Swing: you name it, they had a band playing the music and people teaching you how to do the steps, every hour of the day and i suppose, into the night!

Balkan Dancing Music

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

I have very few pictures of the many venues I saw because in my haste to catch the bus I left the memory card at my computer so I had to rely on the camera's memory storage to hold these few photos. Although this photo is not in the best of focus, I think the slight blur around the girls hair adds to the old world charm of their costumes.

Again!

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Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Well, I have not been to Seattle's Folklife in over 15 years and what group do I come upon first but the the guys in red capes who play Andean music day in and day out on downtown street corners. I gotta say though, they have some of the lovliest thick and glossy black hair. It's enough to give a female a spell of hair envy!

Sneak Peak

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Originally uploaded by mtnester


I bought this Himalayan Blue Poppy when Heronswood Nursery was still in Kingston WA. This has to have been about 5 years ago.
When I say gardening takes patience and vision, it is events like the eventual blooming of this poppy. that I am talking about. The stem holds 10 fuzzy buds. I think the line of delicate blue is at least as pretty as the cerulean flower it has turned into.

At Long Last!

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

My dh is not impressed. After all my talk, and numerous walks around the garden looking for this poppy, he expected something more showy like the brilliant orange poppies that grow in my sun garden.

Cool and Lush

The shade gardens have really 'plumped up'. The neighborhood feral cat finds our gardens to be one of his favorite haunts. He has chosen unwisely as we have not been very enamored of him since early spring when he knocked a birdhouse out of a bush, killing 5 baby wrens. It's not that I hate cats, but what I have to say about irresponsible pet owners is not fit to print.

Gigantic and Profuse

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Originally uploaded by mtnester

"And at last, prefaced by azaleas, the rhododendrons themselves, with a profusion increasing through the last week of May......The bushes were evergreen. With their zigzag branches and long oval leaves fingering in every direction they seemed to belong to a different climate, to a different land, whose gravity pulled softer than this one.....But when the hemispheres of blossom appear in crowds they remind him of nothing so much as the hats worn by cheap girls to church on Easter."
From: rabbit, run by John Updike
My aged rhodies (I have two newbies without blooms) are the most magnificent they have ever been. I think it is because of trees that have lost branches or been cut down, exposing more sun to the rhodies. Although I must say that the grower who sold me the two newbies spoke with confidence when affirming that will bloom in shade. The profusion of blooms on these two is bittersweet as they are both going to be removed with my approval that is tinged with regret. The pink one is next to a section of fence that needs serious repair and the white one with purple freckles just is not part of the design for my front yard rejuvenation. Change is good I keep telling myself. My dh is reading the rabbit series by John Updike and when he came to the floral descriptions in rabbit, run he just had to share them with me, and I am glad he did! I am in total agreement with Updike. Both the rhodies and earlier blooming magnolias have the same impact on this Midwesterner. The blooms are not so much pretty as they are gaudy and eye catching.

Mystery Daughter

I envy all the blogging mothers with children still 'in the nest'. Kids always give you great writing material but then again the time to actually do the writing is at a premium. I DO have a daughter and she is the light of my life, the apple of my eye, the moon and the stars, and if I were more versed in glowing analogies the list would go on and on. She is a first year student at the University of Chicago doing her scholarly best to absorb all the knowledge she can from this lofty institution. Between the papers for French Writing, Sociology, and Contemporary Drama, she manages to enjoy herself playing Ultimate Frisbee. And now we are hear an occasional word about a boyfriend. Our girl is quite particular and to have her use the label 'boyfriend' to describe this young man to us; what a surprise! But then again, not; we knew all along what a treasure she is.

Colorful Totes

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Originally uploaded by mtnester.

I hope that all the mothers of my kindergarten students appreciate the tedious tearing and sticky gluing their children patiently endured as they assembled these colorful totes. Not to mention the two hours plus which I spent applying Modge Podge to give each box a shiny and flexible coat!
My husband looked at me sitting on the floor with the boxes encircling me as I worked and said, "I think that my kindergarten teacher just had me press my hand into a circle of clay. I'm sure it took nowhere near the time that you spend on your kids and their projects!" And he is right. Passionate and dedicated teachers spend many hours doing a whole host of things for children that take many hours beyond the contractual work week. But teachers at the school where I work were very lucky last week as the parents pampered us with breakfast one day, flowers gleefully given by the children (the classroom looked like a floral shop), lunch the next day and snacks every time I turned into our staff lounge. Friday brought an abundance of notes and pictures from our students and the day culminated with a care bag from the parents containing: Starbucks coffee, Artisan French Bread AND a bottle of Puget Ridge Guertztaminer wine! These parents know how to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week!

Pick a Door

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Originally uploaded by mtnester.

O.K. Imagine you are having a leisurely afternoon nap in this well appointed beach condo. You wake up and hear a familiar voice on the other side of the doors and which one do you choose to open? "Teresa, open the door! I've locked myself in here!" my befuddled husband shouts to me. As it turns out the door was NOT locked, he merely chose the wrong door. The door with the wreath above it is a locked closet; that is the one Chris was trying to open. I don't think I will let him live this one down.

Hi-Tide at Moclips, WA

This is the condo where we stayed. It was very well equipped with a microwave, every kitchen utensil you could possibly imagine, a dishwasher, a cupboard full of board games and even raincoats in the closet (although aside from a brief squall complete with hail on Sat. night, the weather was quite pleasant). The sculpture of the kid on the right side of the mantle did not meet with Chris' approval, but other than that it was perfect. One of the Hi-Tide traditions is rock painting. Visitors can check out paints and brushes from the front office. The rocks can be collected from walks along the beach, then brought back to the Hi-Tide and decorated, usually incorporating your family name and the date of your visit. We separated from tradition this time, but decorated many a rock in the 1990s.

Our Get-Away to the Ocean

Lemon and Lime

I certainly wasn't keeping contrasting colors in mind when I planted these yellow tulips in front of a lime green spirea!

Wednesday Weeding

I spent most of Wednesday weeding here there and everywhere in my flower beds; 6 hours plus of weeding and a bit of rearranging. I lifted some fall blooming asters (purples and blues) thinned them out and set aside a dozen or so for an upcoming sale I am planning. My woodland garden which is in the background of this photo is at its best. For those gardeners who read my blog, I have a fairly effective way to deal with a large proportion of slugs. I have a sizable number of digitalis (foxglove) that reseed themselves in the most unexpected spots. Well, in late winter or early spring I gently transplant these digitalis in close proximity to where slugs are the most likely to live. In my case, that is next to our wood piles. It works! The digitalis are riddled with slug and snail holes and the ligularia and other plants closer to the border have far less gastropod damage.

Buzz!

Some years back Chris shaved off his beard without warning me and although he had the beard for 15 plus years, I didn't even notice that he had shaved it off. Now that was NOT the case with shaving his head. He actually warned me that he was going to give himself a buzz cut and I am glad that I had the warning! The difference is startling and I am pretty sure he has heard the message loud and clear from most of his family and friends: "Grow back your curls, Chris!"

Easter Company

After a delicious Easter dinner of a spiral baked ham, Irish Company Mashed Potatoes, a fruit salad and a Chop Salad (salads by Valerie) we settled into a game of dominoes. Guess who won with score of 161? Lindsey gets taller and more lovely each time we see her! And as is seen in the above photo, Galen continues to be a bit of a prankster.

Happy Easter!

C.'s Bug Book

Well, Spring Break has at last begun, but the kids are still very fresh in my mind. On Monday morning a little girl in my room was very proud to share this book which she had created over the weekend. The cover picture is not that hot because she choose to write with a dark colored crayon on BLACK! I had to do considerable work photo editing to get it this clear. If you click on the title of this post it will take you to the rest of the story. It was exciting for me as a teacher to get this work because of many reasons: she used her own phonemic awareness /understanding to spell her words (she didn't ask how to spell things), she is incorporating our Science unit in which we compared animals, she is also incorporating our Math unit which was on sorting by attributes, and she is transferring school learning to her home.

A Hand In It All

My hands are my least favorite feature of my physical self and so I was quite surprised to find that when I looked at this photo objectively I liked it! I like the dirt on my palm and the drop of rain on my ring finger and dry creases of my skin. Double click on the photo to REALLY see what I am talking about! What I originally was after was a picture of this charming epimedium with it's yellow and white center and hot pink petals. I believe that epimediums are also called Fairy Wands or Fairy Lanterns. The next photo is another yellow epimedium followed by a striking sunlight shot of hellebores and a healthy clump of primula.

Bleeding Heart and Ligularia

The Little Things

Top to bottom: Wintergreen (or Indian Chewing gum as my grandma always told me), mauve hellebore, pulmonaria, arisaema (look VERY closely and you can see the little 'mouse tails' of the flowers) and last but not least, the floor of one of my woodland garden beds. The Oregon Grape is about to bloom, it is joined by Goat's Beard and a lovely fern whose name I can't recall.

The BIG Picture

When looking at the 'Big Picture' of all I have to do in my garden I am daunted. All the weeds, more ferns to prune, the second rain barrel that needs to be attached to some sort of drainage system, the old beds that need to be refurbished, the tree stumps and roots that need to be removed, and how, oh how, can I arrange plantings so that the elephantine grey house looks
less obvious; now there's a challenge! Every morning I stroll the yard with my last cup of coffee before work, pulling a weed here and there but mostly I look very closely to see what plants are pushing up and which buds are opening and I scan, and pause to envision what changes could and should be made to make better use of the space and growing conditions.
Today I went to West Seattle Nursery to listen to a landscape designer give a talk on revitalizing front gardens. You probably have noticed, all my pictures are backyard shots, there is a reason for that - the frontyard is ugly. But that will be changing, although not overnight. We have already begun by tearing out a pyracantha hedge and some low growing evergreen ground covers and one of two stunted norway pine trees. As I write this I realize I had better take a picture of the 'before' so everyone can appreciate the transformation. Oh, and the landscape designer said that Europeans call the area where they put their trash and garbage a 'yard' all other parts of their property are referred to as 'gardens'. So I shall take her lead and try to use the term garden to refer to the various vegetation habitats around our domicile.

Early To Rise

It is 5:30 Saturday morning and I cannot sleep. A Pacific Northwest lullaby; the consistent drumming of raindrops on the roof and at the windowpanes, is unable to work it's magic with me today. I stayed up relatively late last night too (11:00) so I am not sure 'what gives' with my sleepless state. I DO know I am on cloud nine to have put report cards behind me because that leaves this weekend pretty much unfettered. Also the cold that struck me like a ton of bricks on Tuesday, is now easing up and I can breathe through my nose most of the time.
Yesterday I brought my worm bin to school for the kids to see. They have just finished looking at nightcrawlers and redworms in our classroom Science program and I thought they would enjoy seeing redworms enmass making rich black soil. I also brough in my kitchen waste can to show them what the worms eat. Alot of "OH YUCK!" greeted that exposure. They were incredulized and I don't think they really belived that the worms MAKE the dirt and to tell you the truth I find the whole process pretty amazing myself. I dumped worm-made soil onto a blue tarp and the kids sifted through it with plastic spoons squealing and calling out to each other as they found worm eggs and pillbugs and at least one tiny slug along with lots of worms. While half of the class examined the worms the other half tore up newspaper for the worm bin bedding. I showed them four pounds of newspaper and explained the worms needed a place to escape from all the food and waste and that was the function of the shredded newspaper bedding. As they tore and tore and tore that newspaper, one wide eyed little girl asked, "Do you do this EVERYDAY Mrs. G?" I had an inside chuckle at that one. I could just imagine her thinking of me at home every night, tearing up newspaper as I sit in my living room. Another enthusiastic paper tearer said, "Maybe the worms don't sleep in the newspaper, maybe they read it!" Everyone laughed at that one.
I always like it when a Friday flows smoothly and I look at my kindergartners and I realize how much they have grown together as a class, and I am struck with how much I love teaching.

The 3:05 bell rings and they are still sitting there, listening and looking closely at the book Spring Is Here by Taro Gomi trying to figure out just how does that author/illustrator blend that calf into the landscape? Then off I send them: 6 to buses, 6 to our childcare, and the remaining dozen give me hugs or high fives and are out the front door into the arms of waiting moms and dads.

The Punch of Purple

More Like a Lamb

Today's weather was so unlike Friday's! While it never got sunny it did get warmer. it was about 53 when I worked in the yard this afternoon and I actually saw a bee as I raked leaves away from the tulips and hellebores. I think this Ivory Prince hellebore is especially lovely.

In Like a Lion

Yesterday was a wild day in kindergarten. Tiny snowflakes were drifting down when I pulled into the parking lot and that certainly did not escape the notice of the children. But unlike our neighboring communities to the north, nothing accumulated and in fact by recess it was raining and so the kids could not go outside to play and then it was still raining at lunch time so that was another recess inside. Our afternoon math was planned and ready to roll or so we thought but it took way longer than anticipated. We had put together booklets to celebrate 100 and for each page they went to a station to stamp 10 stamps, stick 10 stickers, or glue 10 shapes and by page ten they would have 100 items in their booklet. We all kept very busy; 50 students and 4 teachers (aside from the one child with Asbergers Syndrome who crawled around the edges of the action making puppy noises) and there was very little wait time for anyone. This math activity took roughly an hour and a half and when the bell rang the kids were shocked, they couldn't believe they had worked right through their 'Activity Center Time' (the 45 minutes of work disguised as play that we usually have at the end of each day). And I was left with tables gobbed with glue left to clean and a meeting with an educational researcher. Oh yes, and the stinky land snails' habitats had to be cleaned and stocked with food before we left. Have I mentioned that I gave up alcohol and chocolate for Lent? Well, on Friday I felt like I was going to 'cave', but I didn't! Two kid quotes from this week:
"Mrs. Goethe is that white stuff snail poop?", total amazement on the child's face when I answer "yes" . And from a chubby little clown in my room, as he hikes his pants up to his armpits and runs willy nilly around the room: "I'm a nerd! I'm a nerd!"