“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” - F. Scott FitzgeraldI don't know about that, but yesterday's post certainly had me jumping back and forth between two opposing ideas, agreeing with arguments for both, yet also getting a headache from just thinking about it. Sometimes it pays not to overthink something.
So Saturday afternoon, I resolved to try and think as little as possible. It was too beautiful a day to fret, ponder, or worry about the world lying outside the boundaries of Chez Sarge.
So I did not...
I remember growing up that my Mother had a row of lilac bushes along the north side of our yard, not far from the windows of the room the Olde Vermonter and I shared for a number of years. While this April and May have been rather wetter and colder than I care for, I remember May in southern Vermont being a perfect month. Not too cold and not too hot, but just right. No doubt my memory has put a rosier spin on things than the reality of those long ago days would admit.
Some other old timey chap, also much smarter than Your Humble Scribe, once said -
“The surest way to be deceived is to think oneself more clever than others.” - François de La RochefoucauldI am often guilty of such a thing.
Be well.
Your Saturday was what was here Friday......geooorgeous day!! Rain moved in last evening and still drumming on the roof now but it's needed since April was dry. Lawn mower works, third pull start. Enjoy the day of rest Sarge.
ReplyDeleteToday was supposed to be colder and wet. While it is cooler than yesterday, the sun is shining and the birds are singing outside my window. Another glorious day in the 401.
DeleteYour wife and you have worked very hard to make a lovely oasis of your back yard. All that hard work has paid off and then some!!!
ReplyDeleteMay your Sunday be also nice :)
Thanks Suz!
DeleteEnjoy the day, Sarge. One picture you are missing is the inside of that substantial shed. Or would that betray too many secrets of how the sausage is made, so to speak?
ReplyDeleteThe shed is cleaner than it has been in a long time. The Missus Herself got rid of a lot of stuff we neither needed nor wanted. It's just for storage, nothing fancy, it's where she keeps all her gardening stuff.
DeleteIf my boss were to see all these photos, all this garden pron, she would have me out shoveling, digging, laying, planting, and slaving away. Stop it! :D
ReplyDeleteI can see a problem there, hahaha!
DeleteTwo very profound and contemplative quotes you've given us today. I will be using them in my dealings with some of my angry liberal friends who attack my opinions about the lockdown.
ReplyDeleteAre liberals ever happy?
Delete(I would argue no, classical liberals yes, what we seem to have these days are proto-Commies.)
Reminds me of a 'peace garden'. That is a jewel there. A place for a cultured man to repose.
ReplyDeleteWith my folks, dirt was used. Our gardens were vegetable garden, which leads to picking, cooking and canning. The inevitable work that went with it. I had to turn over the garden every spring to prepare it for planting. I think that started when I was 6. I remember jumping on the shovel to try and break through the crust and clods to the moist dirt underneath. Then making rows, planting, cultivating, spraying for bugs, picking... whew. worked up a sweat.
I mentioned that to my daughter once, and she said, "That would burn a lot of energy off" her oldest. And suddenly, my whole childhood made sense...
Keep 'em busy, they have no time to get into trouble. (Idle hands and all that...)
DeleteWe do have vegetables about, beside the shed and two big raised planters on the deck. We get a lot of lettuce and peppers from those.
Landscaping looks like a lot of continuous work.
ReplyDeleteBut it’s a hreat opportunity to get outside.
OTOH-I feel like I’m watching a sporting match between two teams who I’ve no interest in supporting.
It is a lot of work, most of which The Missus Herself does. When needed I lift heavy things.
DeleteYesterday's outdoor work involved finishing up putting new chicken wire on the top of the blueberry enclosure, and fastening some matting made for wheelchair ramps to the deck ramps to try and make them less slippery.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to be outside and feel the sun and the breeze.
As others said above, your garden does say rest here and be peaceful. We won't mention the amount of work it takes to make that statement!
We haven't shifted our outdoors stuff from Material Condition Winter to Material Condition Summer.
There are still garden tables and chairs in the shed, awaiting word from on high to be deployed. Weather-wise it's still SDBs and not summer whites. Not yet anyways!
DeleteBeautiful estate. The gardeners deserve a generous tip.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your dilemma between two contradictory beliefs yesterday. Alice in Wonderland stated that “Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
John Blackshoe
I've had days like that.
DeleteOur lives consist of both anabolism and catabolism. Life itself has to exist between the absolute zero of empty space and the chaotic heat of the fusion reactor that is a star. Of course we can encompass contradictions. I'm going to name my vehicle Philosophical, so I can ask to be excused for waxing philosophical. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteOne might say yin and yang.
DeleteAh, but we love it when folks wax philosophical.
Most of our early blooming stuff didn't this year because that last wet snow and several freezing days knocked the buds right off. The wife's tulips survived, but the forsythia and crab apple tree took major hits. Maybe half-a-dozen splotches of bloom on the tree when it should be covered in them, and not ONE yellow bloom on the forsythia.
ReplyDeleteOh, well.....Spring in the Rockies!
Wow, I remember you folks got that snow, but the freezing days no doubt caused a lot of problems. But like you said, Spring in the Rockies!
DeleteNo pics of your Koi? Sarge you're holding out on us! Demerits for scenic composition.. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that if I posted pictures of the koi I'd wake up one morning to see you and your fishing pole out there! The herons are bad enough, but to have a Phantom Phlyer out there?
DeleteFor contrast, I will one day, post a picture of my yard, maybe after the grass takes root and grows in to fill all the bare patches and the painted bits in front where the house painters oversprayed the gutters and shutters still remain and left us with a multi-spectral lawn. It rained today which did wonders for my fresh plantings and offerings to the hordes of birds that live and eat hereabouts.
ReplyDeleteAh, house painters. When we had our siding done, the Russians (yes, they were Russian kids, damned hard workers they were too) were extremely careful around the gardens.
DeleteIt's plain to see why there is no hammock anywhere in these photos; you guys are way too busy digging, planting, mulching, trimming, weeding, mowing, raking, edging, digging, planting, mulching, trimming...there's no way either of you can afford to be lying around in a hammock with so much to do, such as digging, planting, mulching, trimming...
ReplyDeleteWell we have a couple of guys who do the mowing, The Missus Herself does all the rest. I only get called in for lifting heavy things and cleaning the pond in the Spring. For her it's a labor of love.
Delete