Tulips are lovely but...

...I will be dreaming of the brugmansia, orchids, morning glory, assorted palms and vines that we saw on our trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Jungle flora is amazing!

Click here to view this photo book larger

April Showers...

... keep on coming. The slugs are having a field day in our gardens. I spread bait and pulled a zillion dandelions and chick weed yesterday. Chris is waiting for a break in the rain to do a second mowing but there is no break in sight. I got my order of chrysanthemums from King's Mums and potted them in 4 and 6 inch pots. I will post their pictures and names once they have recovered from 'pot shock'.

My poor ligularia riddled with holes by slugs.

Pulmonaria (lungwort) in the foreground and Disporium Hookeri (Fairy Bells) pushing up in the background.

Tiny and red, the first tulip to bloom in my yard is visible from my deck. Yellow ones will be out this week. the pear tree has plump buds ready to bloom if we get a day or two of warmth. Today it is gray and 49 degrees. I am wearing my warm wool socks as I sit at the computer. I think I will convince Chris to start a fire in the fire place tonight.

Marching Towards Spring

I got my haircut yesterday and then strolled down Pine St. in the half sun of a lovely March morning. Cool, yes, but that sunshine meant so much after the wind, rain, hail, and gray skies of last week. March began with weather evocative of the saying, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."





Once home I avoided the report cards stacked on the table and raked and hoed in this garden bed. The soil was surprisingly warm through my garden gloves. I transplanted 5 limey green heuchera and some lettuce and kale starts that wintered over. I am behind in pruning roses. That is the next garden chore at the top of my list.

I love...

gardening. It takes my mind away from the 'garden of children' that occupy me Monday through Friday. Gardening occupies your every sense. Today my nose was treated to the pungent smell of thyme as I pruned the roaming mass that clambers over and around plants and rocks in the front rockery. I winced at the sound of limb to limb, agonized screeching, that resulted when today's strong winds swayed the cherry trees to and fro. I sampled the greens I wintered over and they are sweet and tender, not bitter in the least. Tomorrow I will thin and transplant them into containers so that we get to eat them before the slugs and snails. I felt the cold, wet soil right through my winterized Atlas garden gloves, but fortunately I felt no pain as I pruned the last of the ornamental grasses, the ferns in the front yard and in the east rockery. I filled our yard waste container to the tippy top in no time flat. What did I see? Well, so much more than even these pictures can share...

Golden crocuses perk up from their drab winter beds.


Hellebores beckon bees. Yes! I saw 3 honeybees busy in my Hellebores. I have a beekeeper neighbor so that may be the source of such early bee activity.



In shades of deepest burgundy, mauve, speckled white, and lightest green, the Hellebores nod downwards, looking at the their cool moist beds as if to say "I want to sleep, please oh please, just one more week!"





It may look drab in this picture but it is anything but. Chris says he will be doing the first mowing of the lawn this month...if it stops raining long enough for the grass to dry.



Feb. 20th In the morning I went to the Sacred Harp convention which was held on Mercer Is. this year. It was a beautiful sunny day and cold, probably in the low 40s. It was SO clear, every single mountain was visible; even Mt. Adams and Mt. Baker. Once at home I worked for 3 hours in the yard cutting the ferns back in the rockery. I do believe I have attacked nearly every fern in the yard. The pile of fronds will not fit into one week of the yard waste bin; but maybe two if I am lucky. Tomorrow I am treating myself to a spa day at Olympus Spa in Tacoma. A massage is just what my gardening muscles need!





Feb. 27th Tomorrow it is back to the classroom for me. I can't remember a mid-winter break that has typified winter more than this one. We had snow and below normal temperatures for most of the week. Looking back, I made the best choice of this time off. I painted AR's bedroom (Durango Dust), started work on taxes, and I saw two movies: Black Swan (creepy) and Winter's Bone (sad, but what beautiful scenery in the midst of squalor).

2011; January in the Garden

In an effort to simplify my life, gardening will be my 2011 focus for my blog. It will read more like a list of accomplishments in gardening, similar to the one in my sidebar from a couple years back. Of course it will have photos too; taking pictures of plant life is irresistible to me. So here it begins:

1-1-11 In frigid temps, under crystal clear skies, I cut down the Paul's Himalayan Musk Rambling Rose and wrestled with the 30 to 50 foot long brambles, cutting them down to size. The root stock will be dug up when the ground warms.

1-16-11 The Pineapple Express is here! Today it got up to 54 and there was no rain for most of the day. The wind has been blowing nonstop. At one brief point this afternoon the clouds actually parted and I saw blue sky. I cut the epimedium leaves down to the ground and the snowberry and native spiraea to half their size. I moved a peony shrub to a sunnier and more raised position to better appreciate it's nodding red flowers come spring. I severed a main root so I suppose I may be punished with no blooms at all. I also transplanted a Japanese maple from a plastic pot into a larger ceramic pot. This tree will be Anna Rae's someday, when she decides to make roots somewhere. It began as a volunteer seedling from a tree she climbed as a little girl.

1-29-11 The snowdrops dangle their white blooms above muddy flower beds. They have been up for 2 weeks now. The tulips, crocuses and daffodils are spears of green 3 and 4 inches above the ground. Today I stuffed more of the rose brambles into the yard waste container. A pile of miscellaneous branches await the next pickup. This every other week business is for those with tiny, easy to maintain yards. Our needs are considerably more demanding. Buds of the native shrubs shine a clean lime green, ready to leaf out at the tiniest suggestion of sunlight. It has been so consistently gray this month. The threat of snow seems to be truly behind us. I put my snowmen back into the attic to rest till next December. The white lights are still on the deck; they brighten these dark, mid winter nights.

Suddenly Winter

Snow in November, but thankfully no snow days...


led to so much wind and rain in December, our rain gauge actually broke. But we had no wind calamities like this neighbor. The tree was such a beauty too.

But I did have classroom calamities caused by the whirlwind of 'Naughty Boy #1'; the usual ADHD type behavior along with a bit of block throwing, elbow jabbing, and wagging his backside at the instructional assistant, calling the art teacher a loser and a 'dookie head', threatening classmates with pencil points, putting pencils (POINTY ENDS) into his nostrils and ears, spitting on the floor and blaming someone else, telling me "No, and never" or simply ignoring me when I would give directions, interrupting every lesson that any of us was trying to teach and on and on. Are you getting exhausted yet? Well, we sure are. So, the principal comes in and does a 90 minute observation and we confer together after school with the principal toting his 2 inch thick tome of '500 solutions for 100 behavior problems' and now we have a new plan of sorts which I will need to review before we go back into the classroom on Jan. 3rd. Right now, I am just enjoying the break from all the drama and stress.

Anna Rae is home from Bangkok for the holidays and no gift is greater than that. We ran in the Jingle Bell Run together.

Baked and cooked together, shopped together, watched movies together, and talked and talked. It will be so hard to send her back to Thailand.




As if that wasn't present enough, June, Chris' mom has joined us from Green Bay as well. So we have a family of four in our house this holiday season and that has been splendid!

Here we are in Benaroya Hall, enjoying Charlie Brown's Christmas:

Photographs were verbotene but EVERYONE was snapping shots of the little piano and tree, much to the consternation of the ushers.




Here we all are sitting down to Christmas dinner at the Kornowske's:


Everything was incredibly delicious (as is everything from Valerie's kitchen), from the filet mignon to the egg nog creme brulee and all the libations and goodies in between!


See how glum Galen looks? He has good reason. His dominoe game was more than a little off. But not so for Lindsey!



Here's Galen learning to put on his Thai fisherman's pants. All the guys agreed that they are ready to make a new fashion statement with these pants as they are SO comfortable. I told Anna Rae these pants could be a business an export business for her while Joe is determined that Valerie should learn to sew them with all the bolts of pocket lining they have stored in the closet.



And the final gift from the Kornowskes; hearing Lindsey play lovely music on her new cello.


But that was not the end of the music on Christmas day. Once back in our own own neighborhood we headed over to our friends the Reinholds' and were treated to fabulous guitar playing by Dave Bunker, Teresa Reinhold's dad.


Dave designed and made the touch guitar he is playing.

And what a treat to hear his grand daughter, Brittany, and her aunt Brenda sing:


Brittany is heading off next month to New Mexico to study Theater and English Lit. I can't wait till she makes it 'big time' and I can say I knew her 'way back when'.

So that is our holiday season to date; busy, happy, and with so much for which to be thankful! I hope that 2011 is full of the same.

I Could...

...write a happy post, or a seasonal post, a ranting post or a raving post; but what is on my mind is a sad post, an all too real post for many public school teachers in urban classrooms. Last week a kindergartner sat on the 'story chair' and was heralded with a sweet rendition of 'Happy Birthday To You' by his classmates. The song ended and the teacher asked the new six year old if he would be doing anything special on his birthday. His eyes opened wide, he smiled and said "Yes! We are going to see my dad in his new jail. We won't be able to touch him though, there will be a thick glass window between him and us. But we will get to see him and he can watch us play at the jail for two hours."

As I become a veteran teacher I may cry less, but I care as passionately as when I was 25. Between 9 and 3 everyday there are teachers in classrooms showing compassion by providing a listening ear, predictable daily routines and high expectations. And this week I have gone to bed wondering what more can be done.

A Weekend of Rain

My new running shoes arrived yesterday. Friday night I fell asleep dreaming of my long run, the loop up hill and down from home, through Lincoln Park and back home. But I wanted to break my shoes in, not baptize them in puddles. So I waited till 10:00. The rain took a pause and I ran. North to Roxbury, then east to 19thSW and meandered south onto Shorewood Dr. watching the west view of small boats on the Sound and wisps of cloud decorating the trees on Vashon, turning north on 26th, a 5 mile run in all. I was hardly in the door and the rain began again and it has been consistent, filling the rain gauge to above the half inch mark.

The work week was full. Thursday was picture day honestly, this is the cutest bunch of 5 year olds I have ever seen. So many of them seem really small for their age and very naive or, quite honestly, are babied at home. I have 5 boys that I can think of off the top of my head, that are the youngest in their families and they sure do act it! Taking turns and cleaning up after themselves are totally foreign ideas and of course they think that wrestling on the carpet or playground is the only way to play. Yes this is definitely an immature group. They were all fancied up with party dresses on some girls and three fauxhawks on boys, one which was gold! They smiled adorably for the camera, but I always ask for a funny face photo:



On Thursday evening we had our curriculum night and a disappointing total of 11 families represented the 50 kindergartners. This, I think, was the poorest showing in my 18 years at this building. Why? I can only speculate; new boundaries were drawn for assigning attendance, parents are given less choice in where to send their children to school. When drawing from the immediate neighborhood of our school you get a lot more diversity, more bilingual families, and more low income families and they just don't read everything that goes home (I know this by looking at the untouched papers crammed into the bottoms of backpacks and homework folders). I have fewer responses to requests for volunteers this year too; there are less stay at home moms in this group. Fortunately there are two parents available to volunteer for Science which is a HUGE relief. There is no way an investigative program can work without breaking the students into small groups to encourage conversation. In addition to time in the classroom I had one IEP meeting and one SIT meeting before school. On Friday we had professional development in Writers Workshop (out of Columbia College). This is the second time for me...I love the program but there simply is not enough time in the school day to have 45 minutes to an hour of writing on top of the minutes or Math and Reading. We are going to adapt it to our schedule but we certainly won't be purists.

Now it is Saturday and yes, it is still raining. We passed the two inch mark on the rain gauge!
I am off to a presentation at church about Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a couple hours though, we have a Packer game to watch which I hope will be the best part of my Sunday!

More Rain

Good thing I did my yard work yesterday. Today was a perfect day for baking in my new Frigidaire Gallery oven. I made Zucchini Banana Tea Bread. By time I got the batter put together it was time for me to dash off to church so I used the 'time bake' feature and it worked perfectly. It is so nice to walk into a kitchen on a rainy day and smell something sweet coming from the oven. This afternoon I think I will roast a chicken. I thought I would miss my vintage electric range but apparently not. I am having fun relearning about cooking with gas. There me be a few sun breaks today but even so I had better stick inside and get my class assessment data organized and there is laundry to fold and dusting which is endless. But maybe I will let the dust sit and read a 30 or 40 pages in Freedom.

Fall Rain

The fall rain is already here. It poured and poured all last night, at least a half inch worth. But this morning we awoke to sunny skies and raindrops sparkling on every leaf and flower and on the multitude of spider webs. The amount of spiders in Seattle is ridiculous. Every morning we are dodging new webs. The one in the photo is a Garden Spider. Yes, that is it's name. They eat lots and lots of insects but they do bite too and the hard red welt lasts longer than a mosquito bite. I pruned and trimmed all afternoon and I managed to avoid getting bit. Now the rain has begun again; good thing I got my yard work (and a very pleasant 4 mile run) done today.

Fall Is...

Fall is back to school time. My 'back to school' bouquet is of zinnias and sunflowers and two delicate purple scabiosas. They were in my garden beds shouting "Pick me, pick me!" like the hands of so many new kindergartners waving in the air in my classroom. I am one short of being totally full in my classroom. (That is kind of like one short of a full deck.) 27 wiggly, sometimes teary, sometimes sleepy, kindergarten students are assigned to me. Every kindergarten class in Seattle is close to full or is overflowing this fall. Some schools have added an extra classroom of K students. My students are more diverse than ever. Nine receive ELL services: Oromo, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali are the languages they speak at home. This does not include the Samoan, Cambodian, Filipino, and Japanese students who are at a reasonably proficient level of English but they use at least some of their mother tongue at home and most definitely their home culture is not like mine. There are 15 boys and 12 girls. Three of them heed directions given once, fifteen of them heed directions given twice, the nine remaining need a heap of practice. Eight school days are now tucked under our belts and I can say two things: They are working as a team more than on 'day one' and I have pinpointed exactly who is going to do their darnedest to drain me of every last bit of my time and energy. I won't be as stretched and stressed as last year but it won't be any 'walk in the park' either. My best back to school story: In the kindergarten assessment two items are: asking if the child knows his address and phone number. One little guy shook his head when asked if he knew his address, and once again, more disconsolately he said "no" to the query about his phone number. Then he perked up and exclaimed, "But I know my Facebook number!"

I Have Not...

done everything on my summer list. The garage could still use a good cleaning, I did not do all the professional reading I intended, the hedge between us and our neighbors to the east is still untrimmed, and I just may not get to hemming the western shirt that Chris recently bought.
But I did tidy the garden shed, I have been using the clothes line instead of the dryer, we picked oodles of blueberries and strawberries, our goal of converting to gas is halfway accomplished; in fact the range was ordered today, I went on nine home visits to incoming students, my classroom is set to go, plans are in place for days 1,2 and 3. On the personal improvement side I improved my Yoga practice; attending at least a dozen classes over the summer, I ran consistently (never a problem for me), I read books for pleasure; The Help, The Street, and The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I gardened for many hours and had lovely results in terms of flowers, not so much so with the vegetables; it was just too cool of a summer. Most importantly of all, I had time to visit family in Wisconsin and had friends visit me here.

People often tell me the old saw: " I know why you teach." then follow with the punch line "June, July and August." There is some truth to that but only some. The nine months in the classroom are very fulfilling to me too. I work hard, the kids do too and it is truly amazing all that they learn in the school year.

I have been intrigued by reviews of Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom. Lev Grossman's Time magazine review of the novel says:

"There is something beyond freedom that people need: work, love, belief in something, commitment to something. Freedom is not enough. It's necessary but not sufficient. It's what you do with freedom — what you give it up for — that matters." Teaching is that thing beyond freedom that I need. That is why I will be less free, and quite frankly less motivated, to be writing posts. The challenges of the classroom are more consuming than ever (and I am more determined) so that is where I will put my energy and where I will sacrifice my freedom.

Kicking Back in Soap Lake

Visitors From Wisconsin

We were friends since first grade. Her last name began with M and mine with N so we always stood near each other in any alphabetical line. We had our first communions together, she went to every birthday party and we had sleepovers at the Y together and we were in the same swimming class. For a while we even thought we were mermaids and we took synchronized swimming classes. We got our first 'real' jobs at about the same time in the kitchen of a hospital, serving meals to patients and washing dishes in a monstrous, steamy dishwasher. I should have asked her if she remembered the time one of us threw a ball of mashed potatoes into the fan just to see what would happen, or the the times on hot days when we would take breaks in the walk in refrigerator and sneak bites of the cookie dough. We lived in different neighborhoods, went to different high schools and she went to Madison for college and I stayed in Green Bay. I always liked going to Madison for music and 'party times' with her and our other BF, Sue. When I moved to San Francisco, they visited me. She married and moved to the north woods of Wisconsin. And Chris and I chose the west coast and city life in Seattle to begin our life together. Sometimes the connections between friends becomes thin through distance and the passage of time. Those yearly Christmas cards and emails are that last little hook to keep us connected. But sometimes, if you are very lucky, the stars line up perfectly, and a visit happens. You get to laugh about old escapades, cook together in your kitchen, and share your home and city with with your childhood friend.