Assorted updates

[lblanchard]

The tape measure says I've re-lost all the inches I put on since my sister died -- happy news, since that gives me four months to watch my eating and exercise for a net loss (or gain of health and fitness) by the time the first anniversary of her death rolls around. It took me six months longer to get it together than I wanted to, but better late than never. Yesterday I rode 14 miles in the summer heat and I think I'll do something less ambitious, maybe in the 8-10 mile range, today.


Yesterday morning I woke up and noticed that my hands felt....different. Not stiff. Supple. Wider range of motion. Either weight loss or finger exercises will probably explain it, but either way it's welcome. Roy says my playing is both stronger and more precise. I'm still focused on the errors and how to improve them, so I wouldn't notice, but he has.

Last night Roy packed for a one-week trip to Virginia and Georgia. As he was selecting CDs he asked me, rather tentatively, if I would mind if he took a Tommy Emmanuel CD with him. Why on earth should I mind? I've ripped them to my computer and transferred them to my cell phone, which I can plug into the downstairs speakers. But I thought it was rather sweet, both that he wanted to take it along and that he asked.

On my ride yesterday I went to Washington Avenue Green to look at what else is being done to the piers, and found a landscaping crew pulling non-native invasives out of the dendritic decay / rain garden. Sadly, I must also report the loss of the one and only Lobelia cardinalis in the rain garden. I checked on it yesterday and it was hanging in there. Today I went by and found that the crew had pulled it up along with a couple of spent monardas and at least one heuchera. The crew boss was very contrite and went through the piles of weeds looking for it (which is how we found the monarda and heuchera). For native gardens such as this one, perhaps a little plant ID session may be called for before the crews start yanking. I plan to contact Washington Ave. Green and offer to pay for replacement Lobelia, for which I will make labels. I suspect this isn't the best time to plant the stuff, though. (We never found the cardinal flower.)

More piers along the Delaware have had their trees limbed up, their brush and weeds cut, and their trash removed. I ventured out onto the one just south of Sawyer Island and took some photos, using Roy's little Nikon V1. Roy has decided he really doesn't care for digital for "real photography," preferring his Leica, and says he's happy using his iPhone for snapshots. The V1 takes longer to power up than the D90 but is a far superior road camera to what I have in my cell phone, and it doesn't weigh much at all. Yesterday I rode almost my entire bike ride with it slung across my shoulders and hardly felt it. Photos will eventually be posted.

I almost killed halfmoon_mollie's willow wand by leaving it in waterlogged potting soil. There was an awful smell of rot, so I flushed it with several flushings of tap water and let it drain properly. I think it's putting out new leaves. If not, I will cut another one and start over.

Out back my Class of 2009 (the last offspring of 'Trader Joe' x 'Apple Blossom') are showing considerable heat stress, which I certainly hope is not mosaic virus. None of the leaves are showing the classic mosaic stipple pattern yet, but the plants will bear watching. I have / had great hopes for these being virus free. No signs of new growth on the new papilios on my windowsill, but the older one has put out four new leaves. Most of papilio x emerald now have three leaves and will benefit from being potted on in a month or so.

I'm now able to practice for an hour a day. I don't think the rest of my life will accommodate much more, but we'll see. Right now the finger-strengthening / stretching exercises are consuming almost half of the practice time, but they're bearing fruit. Last night I played a piece Linda Cohen taught me and found an alternate fingering that is much easier. Why didn't I do this before? I asked myself, and then realized that the alternate was a three-fret stretch. Oh, right. That's why.

Also...watching Tommy Emmanuel's fingering for "Countrywide," I noted that for one of the Measures of Doom he creates one shape, which he holds, and then he moves just one finger. So I charted the shape as though it were a chord (which in a sense it is), laid that down first et voila. The shape continues to be a stretch, but I continue to be stretching myself so I'm hoping. The E add9 is getting easier -- it's sort of a reference chord for how well I'm doing on stretching.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That's kind of sad about the Cardinal flower and Lobelia. You'd think they'd at least have somebody to consult about what's what.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I suspect that should have been the crew boss. I also suspect he could recognize the native plants when in flower but not otherwise.

Now I'm going to have to bike ten miles to see a cardinal flower later this summer, instead of three. That is, unless the drought dry weather gets the other one. (We've had dry weather, but we're nowhere near a drought yet.)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Well done you re. the weight loss!