Thursday, June 2, 2011

A Belated Birthday Visit

Here's a picture of my brother and me, made by his daughter, on his visit to celebrate the birthday I had last month. He was delayed in making the trip because of surgery to remove a small carcinoma from his right ear. Arrived with it still bandaged, reminding us all of Van Gogh's self-portrait, but the visit was most enjoyable, all the same. We went out to see our older sister in the nursing home where she's a resident. It was a late birthday visit to her, too, since her birthday falls two days after mine.


Roland brought me this canvas tote bag, as a belated birthday gift -- I like it a lot, for both its musical and its nature themes, including the French horn, the violin, the flowers, and the butterflies.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Tale of Sprouting Ginger

Here's a picture I made of a ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale) on my kitchen counter.

About a month ago I brought it home from the grocery in a translucent plastic bag and laid it back behind a jar of honey on the counter, intending to use both in ginger tea. But I got busy and then forgot about it. Last weekend, the new sprout's flash of green caught my eye and filled me with astonishment. I have moved the rhizome out of the plastic bag and into a bowl of shallow water to see whether the shoot will thrive. If it does, I might eventually have yellow ginger flowers blooming in my kitchen.


Wikipedia has a picture of a ginger field here.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Song for Memorial Day, 2011

DRONE DAMAGE
It's sunny this May, and cicadas,
The 13-year kind,
Jitter incessantly.
They thicken the air with their high-pitched calls for mates,
And, to them, I'm only unnoticed collateral damage.
But their drone is the drone of innocents,
Peacefully living out their heritage.
Not like the drones my taxes pay for,
In a habitat far away.

Magicicada sp

Magicicada tredecim

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