WHAT ARE YOU READING, PART TWO

Idly pursuing the USA Today yesterday, I decided to check out their list of the 50-top selling books. Although I consider myself a prolific reader, I have read only 8 of them. Well, 8.5. I bought Dan "Unbroken" for Christmas, and while he has never touched it, I have dipped into it quite a bit. Hence the .5 of a book.

The 8 I have read are "The Help" (#1), "Water for Elephants" and "State of Wonder", all mentioned in my previous post; Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl That Kicked The Hornet's Nest" (where's the third one?); the first Harry Potter book (where are the rest?); "Room" by Emma Donoghue, a great thriller about a 5-year-old boy held captive with his mother in a single room, the only world he knows; and "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana Rosnay (more on that one later).

There are only a couple of more books I would even want to read: "In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson, "Bossypants" by Tina Fey and possibly "Before I Go to Sleep" by S. J. Watson.

So why haven't I read more? Probably because there are so many authors on the list that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole, like Danielle Steele, Janet Evanovich, Jennifer Weiner, Fern Michaels, Catherine Coulter,  etc. I'm not claiming to be an intellectual, but I think my reading habits are usually a cut above those novelists.

Anyway, back to "Sarah's Key" and the reason I'm writing this post. I didn't know until yesterday that this touching, unforgettable book has been turned into a movie starring Kristin Scott Thomas. It was released July 22 but is not in Bismarck yet. According to US Today, this is another novel "getting a boost from the film industry". Just before the movie was released, sales of "Sarah's Key" doubled. (It has already spent 117 weeks on the top 150 and is now at #19.)

"Sarah's Key" has been described as a wrenching Holocaust novel. It is based on the events of the Vel d'Hiv roundup of French Jews. Here's a summary:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door-to-door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard -  their secret hiding place - and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.

 

 

Sixty years later: Sarah's story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own romantic future.

Scott Thomas relates that she was eager to make the film, in part because her Jewish mother-in-law was one of the many children hidden away from the Nazis.

WHAT ARE YOU READING THIS SUMMER?

Last year I had a goal to read 200 books in one year, and I made it! (Thanks in great part to being unemployed for most of the year.)This year, I am way, way "behind", but then again I did not set any goal.

In fact, I only read two books in June. That's almost unheard of for me. But I was so busy, returning to gardening again after a hiatus of at least three years. I was so exhausted from planting, weeding, and clearing away old unwanted or broken down garden stuff that I usually fell into bed right after supper. But now, with most of the hard work done, I am back to reading on the deck on the west side of my house. Since it is so light so long up here in NoDak country, some nights I was able to read until almost 10 p.m.

I have read a couple of memorable new books so far. Inspired by the July 21st post by Loretta Marvel at "Pomegranates and Paper" (on my sidebar), I have decided to share them with you. One is "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain. It's a fictionalized account of the life led by Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, during their days in Paris. McLain gives a wonderful account of the Hemingways' and other famous writers' lives in post-war Paris up until the time that Ernest throws Hadley over for the woman who will soon be his second wife.

The second is "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett. Patchett is one of my favorite authors, be it fiction ("Bel Canto") or non-fiction ("Truth and Beauty: A Friendship"). Pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh leaves a chilly Minnesota spring for the Amazon jungle, looking to find the remains and effects of a colleague who recently died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. But first she must locate Dr. Anneck Swenson and discern why the renowned gynecologist is being so reticent about her research into producing a fertility drug that could be a windfall for her company.

I highly recommend both these books, and I more than likely will be recommending the book I just received yesterday. "Burnt Mountain", by Anne Rivers Siddons, will be the book that I bring out to the deck tonight. I think I've read almost every single one of ARS's books and loved them all, so I'm sure I will love this one too. Set in the South, as are all of Siddons' books, "Burnt Mountain" is described thusly: "Growing up, the only place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer camp - Camp Sherwood Forest in the North Carolina Mountains. It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick Abrams, her first love...and first heartbreak.

Years later, Thayer marries Aengus, an Irish professor, and they move into her deceased grandmother's house in Atlanta, only miles from Camp Edgewood on Burnt Mountain where her father died years ago in a car accident. There, Aengus and Thayer lead quiet and happy lives until Aengus is invited up to the camp to tell old Irish tales to the campers. As Aengus spends less time at home and becomes more distant, Thayer must confront dark secrets-about her mother, her first love, and, most devastating of all, her husband."

Now on to a few other books that I also highly recommend. These aren't new, but they are tied into movies that are out now or soon will be. The first is "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan".

Set in 19th Century China, it is the story of two young girls, Lily and Snow Flower, who embark on what becomes a lifelong, intimate friendship when they together undergo the excruciating process of foot binding. Later on, the  "old sames" are separated but carry on their friendship through "nu shu", or secret women's writing, on a fan that is passed back and forth between them. We also witness what pride, misunderstandings and perceived slights can do to even such a firm friendship as theirs.

I have not seen this movie but I cannot see how it could improve on this fantastic book.

Another most excellent book, with a movie by the same name set to open Aug. 10, is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. It is set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., "where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver." Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by 'writing about what disturbs you'.

"The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts, enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams."

The book "Water for Elephants" has been out for years now, and the movie came out earlier this year, so you may have already seen it. But even if you have - or have not - please, please read this wonderful book. Like "Snow Flower and The Secret Fan", my book club and I adored it. Although I thought the movie was great, it cannot begin to describe the characters and world of a traveling circus in the 1930s seen through the eyes of its newly-joined vet, Jacob Jankowski. Though Rosie the Elephant is a charmer even in the movie, her personality really comes to life in the book.

What are you reading this summer? Please leave a comment and let me know.

DRAGONFLIES AND SWALLOWTAILS

Artist  Karen Margulis

When I walked out my door on Saturday morning I saw that my front yard was swarming with dragonflies. Many had also landed on the walls of my house. Their iridescent blue color contrasted nicely with the light gray stucco walls.

It seemed very serendipitous to have them there, as just a few days before I had found an old cast-iron sundial at an "antique" shop. I had been looking around for sundials, including those with a dragonfly theme, but they were all too expensive. At $15.00, this one below fit the bill. I'd like to think that the dragonflies that were swarming around my yard Saturday had stopped by to greet their inanimate companion.

I'm sure the real reason they came by is way more practical. I did some checking and read that dragonflies are attracted to standing water, and we had two good rainstorms last week. (We also had one terrific storm on Sunday, with loud thunder, tornado sirens wailing and hail - which fortunately went south of town and missed us.)

Apparently the standing water attracts/hatches mosquitoes and other insects which in turn attracted the dragonflies. The dragonflies were there to eat the insects and thereby clear our yard of those obnoxious critters.

Reading further, I discovered that dragonflies symbolize good luck and long life in many Eastern cultures. They can also represent prosperity, strength, peace, harmony and purity. The whats-your-sign.com website has this to say about the dragonfly:

As a creature of the wind, the dragonfly totem represents change. Its iridescent wings are incredibly sensitive to the slightest breeze, and so we are reminded to heed where the proverbial wind  blows - lest we run into stormy weather.

Dragonflies are also creatures of the water. In the animal world, water is symbolic of the subconscious mind and relates to the thoughts we have in relaxed/meditative/sleeping/subconscious states.

Artist Karen Margulis

Further symbolic meaning of the dragonfly comes into play when we observe the dragonfly's mode of transportation as it skitters across the top of water surfaces. This implies that our deeper thoughts are surfacing and we must pay attention.

The dragonfly gives us a very powerful meditation tool when we want to visualize positive outcomes in a situation. "Close your eyes, and focus on a thought - let it rise to the surface of your mind's ocean - see that thought float lightly up to the water's surface. Now . . . visualize that thought moving across that water - sliding across - smooth and fast. We see the thought of hope happily moving across an ocean of peace (peaceful mind) and skittering to a perfect outcome."

Lastly it should be noted that the dragonfly lives a short life, and it knows it must live this life to the fullest. This lesson is huge for each of us. So when you see a dragonfly, be aware of the gifts it has to offer.

I feel doubly blessed to have had the dragonfly swarm on Saturday - not only was my mosquito population decimated, but I was also blessed with good luck!

P.S. - My yard was also swarming with Western Swallowtail butterflies (shown above) on Saturday. Hmm, I wonder what that signified?

MEMORIES OF MINOT, ND

Minot, the Magic City

The Souris River at Minot, ND, is receding - albeit very slowly. It left behind 4,000 flooded homes and 300 businesses.  11,000 people have had to find somewhere else to live. I titled this post Memories of Minot, but I hope the title does not foreshadow what might become of Minot - a place where only memories are left.

Minot calls itself the Magic City and to me as a child it was magic. Minot is about 100 miles from my little hometown of Larson, ND. My family traveled there once, at the most twice a year. I remember being unable to sleep the night before our trips - that's how excited I was.

We made an annual trip to Minot to buy school clothes - usually at the Sears store at Arrowhead Shopping Center. Yes, Minot had a couple of shopping centers, although Arrowhead and Oak Park (now destroyed) were much smaller than today's Dakota Square Mall.

Full-size replica of the Norwegian Gol Stave

Church at Minot's Scandinavian Heritage Park

Minot was also where we could buy things not available in the small towns near us. For me, it was a chance to obtain books! I would always check to see if a new Mary Stewart romance/mystery had come out in paperback.

We also had lunch at places like Kentucky Fried Chicken or Bonanza steak house. That was fine dining for us!

Before we were able to do all that, though, we had to wait while dad did his business at Reeve's. Dad owned a one-man refrigeration business, and Reeve's Refrigeration was where he ordered his parts. But of course, before he got down to business, there was a lot of chewing the fat with Mr. and Mrs. Reeves. For us kids, it was a crashing bore and it ate into our fun time.

Downtown Minot

Even more rare than my family's trips to Minot were the trips my grandma and aunt made to visit my Uncle Billy. Gram and Mary would board the Greyhound Bus in Crosby and alert the driver that he had to make a special stop at Larson for my mom and me.

Billy lived at the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown Minot and worked at the nearby White's Creamery. I thought that living in a motel was the ultimate. Oh, the Roosevelt, with its transom doors, dusty hall carpets and old-fashioned sinks with rust stains from dripping taps. How I loved it! At night, we heard thrilling city sounds like police, fire and ambulance sirens that never disturbed our sleep at home.

Trips to Minot meant eating at Charlie's Main Street Cafe and a visit to Ellison's Department Store, both downtown. This of course, was before the big mall was built. Since my family hardly ever ate out, much less ate fried foods, I really enjoyed my deep-fried chicken dinner at Charlie's.

Stabbur (Storehouse) at Scandinavian Heritage Park

One especially exciting time, Grandma, Mary and I boarded the Great Northern Railroad and traveled all the way to Whitefish, Montana to visit my Great Aunt Jennie. That trip is still so vivid to me that I remember the cute red tiered skirt I wore and my skinned knee that became infected from a fall on a Minot sidewalk.

When I was a senior, my class took a trip to Minot for Skip Day - erm, Career Day. We toured the Minot State College campus and visited Columbus High students who were attending MSC. Afterward, the senior girls walked downtown and  had a blast at the Woolworth's store, buying makeup and cheap jewelry. On our way home the bus stopped for burgers at Auto Dine, my first ever fast food experience.

In recent years, my sister and I would travel to Minot to attend the Norsk Hostfest, America's largest Scandinavian festival, with food, vendors and entertainment galore. We always made sure to visit the antique shops downtown and have a lemonade at Charlie's, which was still open and still going strong.

We'd also visit the enclave of charming little gift shops all located in stately older homes just north of Broadway Bridge. Those shops were right along the Souris or a block away from it, and I don't know if they made it through the flood.

No trip to Minot was complete without a trip to the Homesteader Restaurant for "lunch". This is not the noon meal but the 4:00 afternoon coffee break that people in Scandinavian communities like Minot call lunch.

Looking down Broadway Avenue,

Minot's main thoroughfare

Minot may not be my home town, as it is Josh Duhamel's, but I have such fond memories of it. I hope its residents return and rebuild, and soon, so that I can begin building more memories of the Magic City.

EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES

Morden  Parkland "Sunrise" Rose

I am tired of writing about flood fighting and doom and gloom and am going to take a break from all that to tell you everything is coming up roses at my house! Usually all my roses are in bloom by my birthday, which was on Saturday. Because of the cool, rainy weather we're having this summer, only the Henry Kelsey, Morden Blush and an unnamed white shrub rose were in bloom, but the others are in bud.

And, thanks to my birthday, I have a few more new roses. Dan gave me a Morden Parkland Sunrise and my sister gave me a Morden Parkland Centennial. Plus, I treated myself to a Thérèse Bugnet rugosa rose. I felt I deserved to treat myself - it isn't every day that a woman officially turns retirement age, and seeing as how I won't be retiring in the foreseeable future I thought I deserved a reward for continuing to toil away.

Morden Parkland "Centennial"

You will notice that the names Morden Parkland and Explorer crop up a lot in this post. All of these roses were developed in Canada - the Mordens at Morden, Manitoba and the Explorers in Ontario and Quebec. Lovely lady Thérèse was bred in Canada in 1950 by Georges Bugnet and named for a family member. Since these roses are hardy in Canada, they're also hardy here in North Dakota.

Fortunately, Bismarck has two nurseries that carry a good selection of both types of roses, for I have absolutely given up trying to raise hybrid tea roses or the gorgeous English David Austen Roses. No longer will I grow a rose that needs fussing over or overwintering. The Canadian roses fit my needs to a "T". In fact, I don't even bother to look at roses hardy in Zone 4. I want the super duper roses hardy to Zone 3 or even 2~!

Thérèse Bugnet

I am not quite sure about the Morden Sunrise. It is the only Morden rose that even remotely comes close to yellow. Some photos on the Internet show it as all yellow, some show it as yellow with peach, and some show it a really unflattering orange. I understand that the color depends on where the rose is grown. The one Dan gave me was in bloom and definitely yellow, so I hope it continues to act that way.

Had I known about Sunrise's vagaries, I might have requested J. P. Connell, an Explorer, which starts out with a gold bud, opens to yellow and fades to cream. Yum! Or, I could have searched online for a Harrison's Yellow, the extremely hardy rose found surviving at old homesteads throughout the American West.

Morden Parkland "Blush"

I certainly have no reservations about my other gift, the Morden Centennial. It is an absolutely gorgeous hot pink. They will join the Morden Blush and the unknown white, which towers over the fence on the south side of my front yard.

Explorer "Henry Kelsey" climbing rose

Of my two climbing roses, William Baffin is the proven winner, coming back winter after severe winter. Trained on the arbor over the sidewalk leading to my house, it is both sturdy and lovely. The Henry Kelsey is planted on the other side of the arbor. Although it looks better this year than it ever has, it's still quite straggly. I have some affection for it because my niece is named Kelsey (probably why I bought it) but if it doesn't start living up to my expectations, I may replace it with good old reliable William.

Explorer "William Baffin" climbing rose

(not my rose, not my house!)

Thanks to the darned Internet, I have really been bitten by the rose bug this year. There are still more Morden Parkland roses, like Adelaide Hoodless, Cuthbert Grant, Morden Ruby, Morden Belle, Winnipeg Parks and Prairie Joy, and a great many Explorers (each named for a real Canadian Explorer). There are climbers like John Davis and John Cabot, and shrubs such as David Thompson, Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson, Simon Fraser, (Samuel de) Champlain and (Comte de Louis de Buade) Frontenac.

When I was trying to grow hybrid tea roses it was fun to choose the ones named for a person or special event, such as Peace, Agatha Christie, Amelia Earhart, John Kennedy and Mr. Lincoln. Now I'm on a quest to find beautiful Canadian shrub roses named for interesting people like Emily Carr. When I looked her up on the Internet and read the description "Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest" I remembered that I have read a great book inspired by Ms. Carr: "The Forest Lover" by Susan Vreeland.

PRAIRIE TSUNAMI - MINOT NEEDS YOUR HELP

Flooded Minot neighborhood

The city of Minot, ND and the neighboring small town of Burlington have lost their fight with the Souris River. Some parts of Minot are now 8 feet under water, with more water rushing in. Minot sits in a natural bowl, and the bowl is filling rapidly. By tomorrow, the water is expected to be three metres, or 10 feet, above most city dikes. Because the water is rushing in so quickly, they are calling it a Prairie Tsunami.

Bridge at Burlington

Minot's primary levees have been overridden and the homes in the river's pathway are lost. The city is frantically trying to increase the height of those dikes hastily built to protect its infrastructure (sewer and water treatment plants) and the only north-south street through the city. The hospital is on a hill on the south side. If Broadway Avenue were to be breached, the city will be cut in half. People needing emergency treatment would have to travel 50 MILES to get to the other side.

The citizens of Minot urgently need your help with shelter and other immediate needs (because of the oil boom there are no apartments or motel rooms available) and with assistance of all kinds in the months to come.

To donate to the Minot (ND) Red Cross, go to http://minotredcross.org/ and go to "Click here to donate" on the right side of the screen.

To make a $10 donation to the Minot Salvation Army, text “MINOT” to 80888 and reply “yes” to the confirmation text. A one-time donation of $10 will be added to your mobile phone bill.

Breached levee at Minot Country Club

Traffic backed up on the Highway 83

bypass as residents flee the city of Minot

Submerged car in Minot

Aerial photo of devastated Mouse

River Park north of Minot

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Update Monday, June 27: The Souris has crested at Minot but it will be several weeks before the water starts to go down. FEMA has decided they will give assistance to individual flood victims of Ward County (Minot and Burlington), Burleigh County (Bismarck) and Morton County (Mandan).

THE MOUSE THAT ROARED

Craig Fugate, Administer of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, last week rejected North Dakota's application for assistance to individual homeowners.  In a letter to ND Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Fugate stated that “the damage to the residences from this event was not of such severity and magnitude as to warrant the implementation of Individual Assistance…”

Well, Fugate, tell THAT to the owner of this home in Burleigh County outside of Bismarck. Yesterday afternoon the Hogue Island residence was attacked by the Missouri River - photo above, and then devoured - photo below. (This is the first home in our area claimed by bank erosion.)

These photos, and also the video footage from a Black Hawk helicopter that happened to be flying overhead, were shocking to all of us here in North Dakota and across the country.

And needless to say, Dalrymple was shocked by FEMA's response. He found it "hard to believe that FEMA does not see the destructive effects of flooding on citizens in North Dakota."  (He is appealing the decision.) The governor was being way more polite than I would have been. I would have prefaced his statement with, "You morons, ....."

Until I saw these pictures, my attention yesterday was turned away from the Missouri River, where the flood fight inside the cities of Bismarck-Mandan is stabilized and the dikes are holding, to Minot, ND, where, unfortunately, the situation is reversed and the news is very, very dire.

This video from last night's NBC Nightly News tells it all:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/251963/nbc-nightly-news-with-brian-williams-thousands-flee-as-river-floods-in-north-dakota

National Guard making sure everyone is
evacuated from their Minot homes

On Tuesday, about 11,000 residents (1/4 of the city's population) were told they had to be out of their homes by 6 p.m. Wednesday. But at 12:57 p.m. yesterday, the river - called the Souris in Canada where it originates, and the Mouse in the US - roared. The roar took the form of eerie sirens wailing across the entire city, as people were told they had to GET OUT NOW. Levees had been breached and water was going over some dikes.

Minot Mayor Curt Zimbelman could not bring himself to admit  that the valiant battle to save the city was lost. However, he did say that "There's nothing more we can do."

The flood is predicted to be worse than the devastating 1969 flood, with the water expected to rise 8 to 9 feet higher than it was back then!

Little boy and his Mom in Minot:

Boy: "Where is the grass?"

Mom: "It's gone."

Boy: "Who took it?"

Mom: "The River took it."

Yes, The River, the Mouse That Roared took it. Minot may not be as big as Tuscaloosa, AL, or Joplin, MO, but this is a major disaster. Yesterday actor Josh Duhamel was urging people to pray for the people of his hometown and to lend assistance through the American Red Cross. Said Duhamel, "My sister’s gonna lose her house… My junior high, my favorite pizza place, the university I went to are all gonna be underwater.”

I echo Duhamel's wishes and prayers for Minot residents (and for the wildlife - see below).

Click on this photo to enlarge. That's DEER on the porch

 trying to escape flood waters in Apple Valley near Minot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Added at 1:30 pm Thursday: Catastrophic breaking news from Minot: A crest much earlier than expected, and much higher - four more feet of water than previously forecast.

SOGGY SUMMER SOLSTICE

"PICKING HONEYSUCKLE"

by Sophie Anderson

As I begin to write this post, at noon on Tuesday, June 21, the summer solstice is set to occur in this time zone in 16 minutes. Supposedly, that will be the start of our summer. However, it is just a continuation of a long, cold and wet spring. Bismarck is soaked, sodden, and partly submerged in places.

"THE VICAR'S ROSE GARDEN"

by Charles Edward Wilson

"Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." No, it isn't sea water, but I am sure it is contaminated. Water is coming from the river, it's coming up from the ground and yesterday it was pouring down from the skies. This morning it was drizzling, and we have a forecast of rain for this afternoon and tomorrow. All in all, it makes for one soggy summer solstice.

"WOMAN WITH FLOWER BASKET"

by Albert Fuller Graves

I have been able to get my container gardening (pots and baskets) finished, but I have nine kinds of plants I haven't been able to get in the ground. I had plans for a small garden bed right underneath my living room window. Here, I was going to put in delphiniums, Victoria blue salvia, yellow daisies, bachelor's buttons, hollyhocks, cleome, cosmos, stocks and a lovely (and new to me) blue-flowering plant called star flower or laurentia.

"LADY PICKING FLOWERS"

by J. W. Waterhouse

I purchased the plants a while back and now they are just sitting there, as I can't seem to beg, borrow or steal someone to turn over the bed for me (I can't do it myself this year - too much leg pain). I can't even buy someone to do it! I hired one guy and he did do some yard work earlier but is too busy now, and no one has answered my online ad.

"THE TRELLIS (YOUNG WOMAN

ARRANGING FLOWERS)" by Gustave Courbet

It seems as if I will never, ever have the beautiful gardens I dream of. First of all, I live in the wrong country. My ultimate dream is to have the eclectic sprawl of perennials, roses, shrubs, and vines that is the essence of the English cottage garden, the kind shown in paintings by Helen Allingham. This garden is bursting at the seams, lush, charmingly sprawled out, unplanned and slightly wild.

"WOMAN PICKING FLOWERS"

by Rosemary Sumner

Trouble is, I've never had much luck with quite a few of the plants that are essential to the English cottage garden, such as Canterbury bells, lupines, lavender, phlox, foxglove, primroses and wallflowers. Those gorgeous David Austin roses, chosen for cottage gardens because of their old-fashioned look (multi-petaled form and rosette-shaped flowers), die off here after one season.

"GATHERING FLOWERS IN A FRENCH GARDEN"

by Frederick Childe Hassam

Even worse, I than living in the wrong country, I live in the wrong area of the United States. Depending on which climate zone you look at, Bismarck is in either Zone 4a or 3b, or sits directly on the line between them. There are so many plants which appeal to me but are hardy only to Zone 5, for example, scabiosa, so-called "hardy" mums and the beautiful "Knockout" roses. Unfortunately, some garden centers around here, especially ones at the big box stores, sell these sure-to-disappoint plants.

"A MAID IN HER GARDEN"

by Daniel Ridgeway Knight

Add to these woes the fact that my backyard is mostly shaded by a huge old elm. Don't get me wrong, I love this tree, but it is not conducive to growing sun-loving plants.

"GIRLS PICKING WILDFLOWERS"

by Walter Duncan

Of course, there are still many perennials I can grow in the limited sunny patches available to me, including salvia, purple prairie coneflowers, liatris, coreposis, daylilies, Oriental lilies, rudbeckia, Shasta daisies, hollyhocks, heliopsis, campanulas and dianthus.

"PICKING FLOWERS"

by Victor Gabriel Gilbert

This year, after several years of not gardening at all, I concentrated on my deck and my front yard. Next year - provided we have a summer - I hope to put in a perennial garden in the back yard featuring the above-mentioned plants.

"RESTING BY A BASKET OF FLOWERS"

by Myron G. Barlow

In the meantime, I'll leave you with pictures of beautiful women picking equally beautiful flowers in some wondrous place where it's always summer, the plants are always full and lush, there are no drought, insect or plant disease problems, and it's not raining!

"PICKING FLOWERS" by

Pierre Andre Brouillet

THE LADY OF SHALOTT DVD

Victoria Rigby as The Lady of Shalott

"Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott."

J. W. Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott"

Anyone who comes to this blog can tell I love the paintings of  John William Waterhouse, and anyone who has read me for any length of time knows I also love Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott".

Thanks to the blog "Medieval Muse" (on my sidebar), I have just learned there is a short film dramatization of the beloved poem. Inspiration for the visual imagery came from the many Pre-Raphaelite paintings that the poem inspired, but most especially the paintings of Waterhouse. Filmed by WAG Screen in 2009 in celebration of the bicentenary of Tennyson's birth, the DVD also includes a reading of the poem by Tennyson (played by actor Ben Poole) to an after-dinner audience at Christmas 1856. 

From the three very short trailers and a few still shots I could find, I think I can concur that Victoria Rigby is the perfect actress chosen to play the role. And the filmmakers went to great lengths to re-create her dress, her boat, her loom and her tower room.

The DVD also includes a conversation between Poole and Grace Timmins from the Tennyson Research Centre, and a music video by Dante Ferrara called La Donna di Shalott.

Although I think $28.00 is spendy for such a short film, I have decided to purchase it because 50% of the proceeds right now will be going to the family of Stephanie Piña, who writes the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog (http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/).

Piña's husband was recently in a serious motorcycle accident. Most of the bones in his foot and ankle were crushed, requiring multiple surgeries, and he will lose some motion. All of this happened while their 13-year-old son was recovering from a procedure to have titanium plates in both his legs. The money will go toward their medical bills, as her husband is self-employed and they do not have insurance.

Here's the link to purchase the DVD: http://www.theladyofshalott.co.uk/

(Be sure to click on the right country or the DVD you receive will not be playable!

"Out flew the web and floated wide -
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse has come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott."    

For those of you who don't know the poem, here is a synopsis: The Lady of Shalott lives in an island castle in a river which flows to Camelot, but little is known about her by the local farmers. She has been cursed, and so she must constantly weave a magic web without looking directly out at the world. Instead, she looks into a mirror which reflects the busy road and the people of Camelot which pass by her island. One day, "bold Sir Lancelot" rides past, and is seen by the lady. She stops weaving and looks out her window toward Camelot, bringing about the curse. She leaves her tower, finds a boat upon which she writes her name, and floats down the river to Camelot. She dies before arriving at the palace. Among the knights and ladies who see her is Lancelot, who thinks she is lovely:

"But Lancelot mused a little space

He said, "She has a lovely face;

God in his mercy lend her grace,

The Lady of Shalott."

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PS - If you'd like to hear Loreena McKennitt's excellent performance of this poem, check out these two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU_Tn-HxULM (live performance by McKennitt at the Juno Awards, short version).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_cZGrVFqw (long version, still shots only).