Fragile

COME AND GO: These unusual beauties appeared in our garden over the past couple of days. I know their appearance is fleeting, and to appreciate them for the too-short time they're around.

When I look at something like this, I can't help but wonder why it exists. It's so delicate - how is it that it evolved in this way? How did they come to be, and why are they so different than sturdier flowers?What advantage does this structure and appearance give them from an evolutionary standpoint? 

It just so happened that someone posted about this particular flower in a Seattle Backyard Gardening group I'm a part of on Facebook. I learned it's Centaurea montana, a species of Centaurea endemic to Europe. Per Wikipedia, "It is widespread and common in the more southerly mountain ranges of Europe, but is rarer in the north. It escapes from gardens readily, and has thereby become established in the British Isles, Scandinavia and North America."

And can we talk about irises? What's up with them? They're so weird. I mean, look at this thing.

It's ridiculously showy on the inside, which is often almost entirely shrouded in huge, papery petals that curl in crazy ways.  

The iris above almost looks like a little butterfly inside a bigger butterfly.

The white iris is kind of a mess, petals every-which-way for a handful of days before they start looking past their prime. (Actually, they're not all petals. I learned today that irises .have six 'lobes.' The three inner lobes are petals, while the three outer lobes are sepals.)

ON AGAIN: Last night I blogged that we were sad Gage Art Academy's complimentary Art to Go classes were kaput. 

This morning, I spied a Facebook announcement that the classes were being extended. There is a full calendar of classes for the month of May! I signed Annabelle up for all eight. She'll be painting twice a week for another month, so yay for that!

Today's class was a how-to-paint-feathers session.

I couldn't help but suggest that Annabelle use blues and greens as a nod to the Seahawks.

I thought even her blotchy napkin was pretty.

I thought all of her creations were really pretty.

A fine feathered painting!

CANDY CLEAN: So if you can't find hand sanitizer anywhere, where do you look? A candy company (IT'SUGAR), of course. Not sure how I even came across it (likely a pop up ad on the Internet), but I spied these little personal hand sanitizers for sale for a good price a couple weeks back. Today, they were delivered. The packaging sure is sweet. The kids and I took the tops off and took a whiff. That was a bit disappointing. It just smelled like hand sanitizer - that unmistakable, overwhelming alcohol scent. 

However, a bit later, Annabelle reported that she actually used some of the Smarties sanitizer, and that after the alcohol flashed off, she could detect a Smarties scent.

CRUSHED: Can we all agree that 2020 has pretty much been a Dumpster fire? It seems like a tsunami of bad news swirls around us, and it can be totally overwhelming.

We made a donation to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline today. They do important work. 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Arts Aplenty

TO GO GONE: Annabelle had her last Art to Go class compliments of Gage Academy of Art yesterday. I'll have Annabelle tell you more about it.

Gage Art Academy’s “Art to Go” classes were offered as a way to connect with others and learn new painting techniques without leaving the comfort of our own homes. The classes have focused mostly on watercolor painting techniques and landscapes, how to blend colors and use different styles to accomplish a completed image. The most common used technique I learned during the different classes was ‘wet-on-wet,’ which means wetting your watercolor paper with water before applying the paint. This causes the paint to spread and fade slightly, giving the image the signature color variation and soft gradients that watercolors are known for. The opposite of this method is ‘drybrushing,’ where with a minimally damp brush, you apply just a tiny bit of paint to a dry area of the paper and let it pick up the rough texture. This works best on proper watercolor paper, since it has the toothy texture that you’re usually looking for. It’s common to use these two techniques in combination with each other to end up with a finished piece, and the contrasting shades and textures really makes the overall image look more interesting. I found the classes very educational and relaxing, especially in this distressing time.

Below is a warm up painting from her last class. 

 And below is a later painting, incorporated from things learned during the draft.

ENDLESS DEBATE: This morning, my email inbox had messages from Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones. I couldn't help but smile at the timing, as just yesterday the kids and I were talking about the loooooong Beatles vs. Stones beef.  Those bands are now both 50+ years old, and Paul and Mick are still chirping at each other about which band was better.

In a recent interview, McCartney was asked that age-old, oft repeated question, which band was better, the Stones or the Beatles. He responded, “(The Rolling Stones) are rooted in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues.  We had a little more influences. ... There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but . . . the Beatles were better.”

A couple of days later, Mick Jagger weighed in, responding, "There’s obviously no competition. ... The Rolling Stones is a big concert band in other decades and other areas, when the Beatles never even did an arena tour . . . That’s the real big difference between these two bands.  One band is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums, and then the other band doesn’t exist.” 

Ouch. I like The Beatles better, but score on for the Stones.

Right now, would you believe the gathering-no-moss group has the number one song on iTunes? It's their just-released pandemic-inspired tune "Living in a Ghost Town." Not bad for a band where the average age of the members is 75.88.

The comments on the YouTube page for the video are comic gold, most at Keith Richards'expense. A couple of gems: 

"If Keith Richards met the Coronavirus, the Coronavirus would need to self isolate." - Alan Antimatter

"The vaccine is within Keith's DNA." - Golden Cube

Speaking of pandemic music, one of our favorite bands, twentyone pilots, recently dropped this video.

I suppose in the not-too-distant future, someone(s) will be studying pandemic-era art. Lord knows there's a crap ton of it being produced, what with all the live-streamed concerts, free writing and painting and drawing classes and so on.

SPACE SONGS: This evening we tuned in to a live broadcast (via YouTube) Space Songs: Through the Distance. It was really pretty special. 

A number of artists and space industry people shared songs and stories about space and isolation "to celebrate how extreme situations can bring out the very best in us all and why there’s no challenge we can’t face together," per the Smithsonian's description on their YouTube page.

This concert, recorded in segments all over the globe, was hosted by Tested’s Adam Savage. Musicians featured included Clipping, Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, Dan Deacon, Ben Gibbard, Valerie June, Lukas Nelson, Grace Potter, and Vagabon.

Appropriately, the just-over-one hour show closed with Sting singing "Walking on the Moon."

If you missed the live show, you can watch a replay. ...

Settling In

THE NEW GUYS: Today we've checked in on our new guests multiple times, the new guys being a swarm of bees rounded up yesterday, about a mile away from our place. We want to make sure they're enjoying their new digs - a hive in our side yard, alongside the 'old' guys - a swarm we caught last week.

ROCK IT: CJ is really enjoying his Rock History college course so far. The discussion forum for the all online class has been lively. This week, students were asked to post a song from the 1900-1950, pre-rock era.

Here's what CJ posted. ... 

Song title: Rock Awhile
Artist name: Goree Carter
Year produced: 1949











Which category would you say this track falls into and why? I think this song falls best into the "Race Music" category. This song follows a typical R&B structure and timbres, and was written and performed by a black musician. The song prominently features a piano and saxophone, both associated with the R&B of the era.

Interestingly enough, the song even contains elements of traditional black gospel, such as the tempo (though the lyrics are clearly not religious). A good point of reference in terms of sound might be Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s 1945 R&B gospel single Strange Things Happening Every Day.

What is the form of this song? Rock Awhile is in simple verse form. It does not feature a chorus.

What is this song about? Listeners have noted the lyrical simplicity of this song. The main refrain goes, "Feelin' good this mornin' / now I feel like I wanna rock a while." One of the only other lyrics says, “Come on, boogie woogie baby, come and stop this steel in style,” adding a noticeable sexually suggestive element.

Even though the song follows a bluesy chord progression, the lyrics are the opposite of the downbeat subject matter that is typically expected from the blues: In Rock Awhile, a man expresses excitement that his lover is returning home.

The lyrical content referencing “rocking” also foreshadows much of the 1950s' rock and roll, most famously Bill Haley's Rock Around the Clock.

Why did you choose this song? What specifically drew you to it? This song is notable as it is sometimes considered to be one of the first rock and roll singles (though it’s still very primitive). Considering the musical elements present, as well as its primitiveness, a more accurate descriptor for Rock Awhile might be “rollick-and-roll.”

After recording two more singles for the short-lived Freedom Recording Co., Carter was drafted in the Korean War. While Carter recorded little other than this single, its influence on other musicians was palpable. I recall reading an article that quoted Carter as saying, “With Rock Awhile, I got a minor hit, and Chuck Berry got a career.” Unfortunately, I was unable to find the article in question with a Google search.

KITCHEN KAWAII: Early Sunday morning, Annabelle and I masked and gloved up to visit Uwijamaya, a local grocery store with lots of great Asian cuisine items. We bought COVID essentials like shrimp chips and Japanese mayo and a couple of Popin' Cookin' kits ...

OK, so the latter weren't on our list to begin with, but when we saw these cute little kits where you make your own gummy candies that look like other foods. How could we not?!?

Last night, the kids gave the 'Tanoshii Ramen" kit a go.

Inside the box, it was basically just a bunch of packets of powder, some kind of confusing directions, and some molds.

On the outside of the box, 'warnings' let you know it wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

I'm going to go ahead and say that if Annabelle and CJ weren't award winning cake decorators, the candy meal likely would have looked *nothing* like the one on the box. 

They worked hard, and together, and were pretty darn successful.

I wish I'd put something in one of the photos for scale. These things are darn TINY!

How cute is that egg in that ramen? And the "mango pudding" dessert was also well done. 

They have one more kit to go. The one above was the 'easier' one.

The More, the Merrier

SWARMIN': This afternoon, Christian sent me a video via Facebook messenger. Some bees were on the move several blocks away, and a neighbor who knew us to be beekeepers sent Christian a message asking if he wanted to come and try to catch the swarm.

His answer was an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

We'd already been lucky enough to catch one swarm a couple of weeks ago, but we still had an empty hive, ready for inhabitants.

Christian finished up what he had to do at work, headed home, and assembled his bee catching kit. (In case you're wondering, that was a couple of bee brushes, a large dustpan, a big plastic box with some combs in them, and his beekeeping suit.) Christian and Annabelle hopped into the car and drove over the hill. 

When they arrived, they found the swarm had condensed quite a bit as compared to their more spread-out presence in the video. That was good news. 

Christian began scooping handfuls of bees and moving them toward the combs. The big hope is that the queen was in one of those scoops, so her minions would follow. 

Christian and Annabelle also used the brushes and the dustpan to relocated hundreds of bees.  

Below is a photo of what was left after they moved the vast majority of the swarm.

Naturally, the homeowners were curious about the invasion, and were happy to have them removed. One of the residents was a little boy, about 8 or so. He was super interested in the bees and their removal. I told Annabelle that was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to the kid since the pandemic started. 

We left the box there for a couple of hours so that stragglers could find their way in. When we returned for the box after dinner, all but just a handful of bees were in the box. Hooray!

They're in our yard now. We'll see how they take to the new place. 

Meanwhile, our other captured swarm seems very happy here. The queen is laying eggs, the bees are really active. It's so great to have buzziness back in our lives. 

PLUCKED: Speaking of cheap pandemic entertainment, midday we heard the beep-beep-beep of a big rig backing up on our quiet little dead end. 

We watched the truck and its mechanical arm make short work of plucking a telephone pole clean out of the ground. It was pretty interesting, but doesn't quite make up for the fact we didn't get to go see Rage Against the Machine tonight at the Tacoma Dome. Heavy sigh.

Homebodies

VANTAGE POINTS: So, this weekend we stayed home. Again. It's who we are and what we do.

Our new storage space is all built out, and blends in nicely to the west of our residence. As I was installing a waterproof coating on the deck around it, I was treated to a great view of Tahoma (Mt. Rainier).

Looking down, I could spy our small field of clover, which we planted early last spring, for our bees.  (Check out how big the rhubarb are!)

 I'm happy to see the clover is finally starting to produce some flowers. 

 Come and get it, bees!

 We have so many pretty orange poppies in our yard this year. I love them!

The rhododendron by our front door is putting on a show. I know I'm probably pretty alone in this, but I'm really not a rhodie fan. However. this shrub is doing its best to win me over. 

Meanwhile, indoors, I'm happy to report our seeds that were so disappointing and slow to show are finally getting with the growing program. Look at all of our eggplant starts (below).

We've never grown eggplant before. Fingers crossed that we get these tiny starts to full-fledged, producing plants!