Summer's a Comin'

Still have grading to get done (not quite finished wearing my teacher hat), but want that done, too, so just like when I was a kid, I can truly feel like SCHOOL'S OUT!

Even though I have plenty of other work to do, there is always a sigh of relief when academic pressures abate for a time, making space to read what one wants to read under the trees, preferably with a view from a hammock.

I just read another in the series of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie stories--what a delight. It makes me feel like I've taken what the Brits call a mini-break to Edinburgh, just as his No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series takes me to Botswana. If I cannot manage the real vacations just now, these novel-bound mini breaks are just the thing to make summer feel like summer should: an escape from the ordinary, a trip, a journey, an adventure.

Getting the Blog Up

I have been wanting to get this blog up for so long, craving it like chocolate...and finally it seems to be working: hurrah! I wanted a place to put pictures and thoughts that are sometimes longer than will easily work on Facebook or in my shop site, so this is a perfect alternative. The little prickles of life, like the cactus we saw today, make it hard to get important things done, but when one does, they bloom right through the sharpest of stings that life can provide.

Today was a good day, a Huntington Library day--for me, if not the "happiest place on earth," definitely one of the top ten. Or top 100. Okay, top local, for sure! It sustains me with its beauty and riches of art, literature, and gardens, a treasure chest of delights.

The photo above is the famous "Big Stinky" plant that was in full bloom today, the Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the "Corpse flower" for its "unusual," to say the least, ummm, "fragrance." Now is the time to go see it in all its glory. The original bloomed in 1999; there was another last year or so; I think this is another "Son of Stinky" (of the original bloomer in '99)--not as gigantic as that one, but still rather splendid and well worth a look. If you get there, Stinky resides in the big glass conservatory; follow the signs. If you want a refreshing change from stinkiness, open the doors to the left of the center area and you'll immediately encounter a huge Michelia alba tree with the most heavenly smelling flower you can imagine.

Outside the back doors of the conservatory is the children's garden, where you also find sweet magnolia in bloom: small enough trees where you can actually put your face into a flower and soak up the fragrance, a joy of June that is usually far out of reach, high up in the branches of the big trees.