Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lights and Tunnels

This is the stack of books that Ben returned to the WFU library today after successfully defending his Master's Thesis on Thursday. I won't tell you how many of them are past due. The title of his thesis, as I know you are all dying to know so that you can stow it away and someday later buy his book, is " 'A dark rose of sunset between tree and tree': Landscape Imagery in the Arthuriad of Charles Williams".
This is his office which looks empty without all the books. Thankfully, he has hundreds of others in bookshelves all around. So now the only thing that separates Ben from graduation is a few hundred lines from Beowulf to translate from Old English. That shouldn't take much, right?

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Around the House

This has been a rather wonderful weekend so far. Sophie started off right with two separate runs on Friday, and spent the rest of the weekend on her favorite perch which has now been marred by a new house that is being built across the street.
I took pictures of things growing around the house. I was so excited about the red tulips that were going to spring up-until I realized that we had bright pink azaelas on either side of the sidewalk. So much for the red contrasting with the black and white house. But the colors are nonetheless bright and brilliant and sing of spring.

I was particularly excited to see the hyacinths growing. They aren't giving off much perfume, which is what I love most about them. Perhaps because this is their first growing season.

This is the beginning of our garden. It includes broccoli, squash, tomatoes, various greens including red leaf lettuce and arugula. I planted a few herbs including tarragon. Some of them are seeds and some were established. I planted marigolds which apparently deter rodents. I'm not sure if 3 will do the trick but I was too cheap to buy more. There are a couple of roots in the way. I decided not to dig them up but rather to leave them in place. They are markers for the planted seeds. They way they project upward reminds me of the rock in the field in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimph. I hope everyone's weekend is blissful.