MAY DAY, MAY DAY

Relax, there's no emergency. Just me letting off what ever --- the season has had it's ups and downs. My schedule is upside down and life changed in less than a week. What's up?

Motivation comes slowly and then it races towards you. That’s what Spring ‘08 has been for us. First the idea that I might have two classes back to back on Wednesdays was daunting - and then the requisite number of couples did not appear for the Ballroom session. About the same time it became increasingly evident that fewer than the minimum students for the Really Simple Blogging class were interested. Both classes were cancelled. What a downer!

But not for long. Life is nothing for me if not a path through brambles, obstruction there, turn the other way and keep going. Meantime I have asked for more dance time at the senior center, spent time with sister Jan after her foot surgery, reflected on the season and what needs to be done and somehow - new challenges arrived.

Learning about the history of Durham, North Carolina and the South has been an on-going aim since moving here a decade ago - but last Tuesday was a major milestone. Dear Hubby was interested in the OLLI class "Local Musicians in Performance" and the week’s speaker was provided by the NC Humanities Council. Billy Stevens is an historian (U of Miss), tracing the evolution of popular American music to it’s European and African roots. What a revelation about more than just music but also social customs and events that shaped the instruments, singers and songs during the 19th and 20th- century music. I could have stayed for more.

Next issue under consideration: our former dance teacher is organizing a non-profit to teach dance in elementary schools in local counties and has asked me to be on the board. Not that I want or need another B-O-D assignment but I am willing to help vet his student applicants and edit proposals. If this sounds a bit like "Mad, Hot Ballroom" or "Take the Lead," you got it. As the state and local school boards continually cut funding for the arts, the need for outside programs sponsored by the PTA or other supporters becomes vital for keeping cultural activities part of the curriculum.

Not that it means I will get to dance. Quite the contrary, without the senior ballroom class for the moment my dancing shoes are still in the closet. However, come June we have weekly dance dates for the summer months and I will be ready. The Wellness Center’s dance class (wanna-be Rockettes), continued yesterday with a simple routine and the Check-It-Out Cha Cha. I taught the short, line dance sequence at the end of class to relieve Claudia somewhat before a flight to LA.

Claudia has been teaching dance for twenty-five years (mostly to children), and her number one student - daughter has been nominated for a CAMI award for her role in a Hallmark Channel series. Naturally proud mom wants to be there for the "red carpet" event(?), to see her daughter’s wining moment. If there is one. SO-o-o I got to be the junior teacher assistant leading the Cha Cha.

After the dance class I headed south - driving to Pittsboro, home of Hanks Chapel Orchid Greenhouses where I took the recently de-leafed orchid back and to collect the next soon-to-bloom orchid.

You may remember the blooming photos of January (left) and then the dying stage in March. Well, it's over.

The orchid grower took one look and pronounced it ‘dead on arrival.’ Bummer. That was one of the first orchids I bought years ago and I thought it would out live me. But the one that came home with me is bigger, has many more buds just about to open.

The extra bonus of driving to Pittsboro a few times each year is to shop the thrift shops looking for - well anything. Always looking for cook books (found one), for jewelry (0) and for fabric. This time the fabric sought is woven cotton plaids in bright Caribbean colors - and I found many. Buying men’s shirts in bold plaids, or women’s cotton skirts will provide just the amount of fabric I need to cut square patches and make a bold, dancing skirt. Total outlay = $20. What a big spender I am!




Of course the scrappy sewing that I have managed to accomplish lately resulted in one breakthrough - I have patchwork that I really like for the back-section of the "alleged green jacket." The hold back at this point is - I like it too much to cut into it. Give me time.

Keep cutting and Keep patching, b

A New Leaf

Once upon a time, February to be exact, Orchid #1 came blooming into our house and gave us the daily gift of just being the most beautiful orchid in the world. Well, nearly.


Taking great care with the weekly root soaking, indirect sunlight and away from cold drafts(top of the kitchen island cabinet), the lower leaves, one by one, began to lighten, turn yellowish, then brownish and finally, drop off. What could be the matter?
Too little water? I soaked it some more. Still leaves were dropping.
Too much water? The pot was aired out, the roots replaced. Still no improvement.



What to do? Should I take it back to the greenhouse? If the roots have picked up a fungus they will only throw it out to prevent orchid contamination.

Should I even report the demise or just toss it out? Unwilling to execute (pardon the pun) the final blow to a speciality orchid (a hybrid cross between a Vanda and a Port Royal), I could not make the final decision.

Ultimately, after looking at brown leaves falling until nothing was left but a scaly stalk and one lone leaf, why not photograph the "after?"

The "before" had been accomplished weeks ago and the comparison might tell the orchid-keeper at the greenhouse important information about its untimely demise.


Not until I was framing the shot up close did I see the NEW leaf poking out of the mid-point on the stalk. To think I was about to cut off the stalk and toss the whole pot (?).
What was I thinking? Is this a sign of Spring or what?


Still busy working on baby bibs - more photos later. Dear Hubby and I danced last night at the Seymour Center. An hour nearly did us in, showing that our lack of practice during DH's convalescence is noticeable. We have a week to practice before my trip to Missouri and the Heartland Ball is the weekend I get back. When to practice, when to perfect. We will just have to dance imperfectly.

Play on, let the music play!
bb

Ruins and Geography

"Without geography you're nowhere," according to Jimmy Buffet. Viewing a couple of postcards and largely from reading "A Piece of Salty Land" by Buffet, we are heading to the ruins at Tulum.

The cruise ship docks in Cozumel, Mexico for eight hours on Wednesday and for seven of those eight hours DH and I will be on a tour of Tulum, the Mayan ruins south of Cozumel. Am I excited? Maybe....these excursions often end up more survival training than a look into an ancient time. If my current cold subsides, if my energy level is high and if it's not too hot and sunny (fair skinned sunburns quickly), then perhaps I will find it enjoyable. Working to get to a trim weight also means that if I can't do it this year, the time may never come.

Further hesitation comes from the fact that I have studied ancient, European and modern art history, humanities and decorative arts. Mayan culture was never mentioned. So I venture into the great unknown of Pre-Colombian - western hemisphere cultures with very little understanding. Getting there may be difficult but the photo opportunity appeals to me.

One more update on the soon-to-bloom orchid. This is the third day of photography and one of the three full blooms is spreading wider each hour. Am I worried that I will miss the full blooms when we are traveling? Not. Past experience with orchids is that the blooms, while slow to open, are also long lived. One week in the life of an orchid is not a lifetime. The color shown is closer to the vivid intensity than the previous pictures and is the reason I bought this orchid.

What are we doing New Years? Besides taking antibiotics, cough syrup, Airborne, and lots of liquids. We have leftover chicken-n-cornbread stuffing from last night. How thrilling is that? I may drink a lot of champagne just to feel better.
Downloading dance cd's onto the iPod is practically a full time job today...while I had five playlists organized I realized that there is a lot more memory available. Pulling out cd's I found lots more dance-able tunes for practice. Fear that someone will request a song and won't be able to find it on the iPod keeps me checking lists over and over. Once we board the ship, what's there is all there is.
bb

Orchids Bloom, 2007 fades

Someone asked me how soon will your orchid bloom (?). The answer was "whenever it wants to!"

My original plan to have at least four orchids, each blooming in a different season has never worked. Any attempts to anticipate when each orchid will bloom could vary from six to sixteen months. Shown are two stages of the budding process taking place now. This recent arrival from the orchid greenhouse is a hybrid Vanda crossed with a Port Royal. The stalk and foliage are two-dimensional, with opposing leaves and, very soon, three blossoms.

The photographs were taken three days apart showing the increase in bud size, just about to release a splendid color to the world. There could be two more later, one never knows what an orchid will do.




The house is quiet. First Dear Hubby caught a cold and has been coughing, wheezing, sneezing for more than a week and now I have it. After pills, Emergen-C and lots of chicken soup I emerge slowly to deal with reality once more. We have an understanding that talking promotes coughing and so we communicate with a series of hand gestures and grunts. So this is what we've come to (?).

After a week of chicken soup, dear hubby ventured out to shop and brought home chicken and corn bread. Two casseroles of shredded chicken, mushrooms, onions, peas, corn, celery and chicken broth are in the oven as I write. One for tonight and one for later. If I live.

The shopping trip was necessary to get our 'fixin's' for New Year's Eve. The plan is to stay in (to contain the germs), have a tasting tray of smoked fish, pickles, country pate, salad and champagne. Not the most exciting idea for a holiday dinner but given our current nourishment of antibiotics and cough syrup almost anything would be better. Our New Year festivities in recent years have been minimized because we leave for a cruise to the Western Caribbean four days later. I need strength for packing, checking all the lists and getting several playlists of dance music downloaded before we leave. Besides the champagne at home our celebrating will be done at sea and very likely to jive music as we sail into warmer weather while practicing a long list of dance steps.

My New Year's resolution to clean out the sewing studio and donate considerable yardage of fabric to the January DOQ's Silent Auction has begun but there is much more ahead. This year I have got to get that room organized if I ever intend to create anything resembling art quilts. Or if not, just to clear it out for the sake of sanity.

On return from the cruise the Winter term for Couples Ballroom begins at Fred Astaire in Durham, our Wednesday night lessons in Single-time Swing begin at the Arts Center in Carrboro and I must outline and organize notes for the "Really Simple Blogging" class in the Spring '08 term. 'Really' and 'Simple' are the most relevant words in that sentence, for both the class and the new year.
Cheers, bb

Cool September Morning

Out the door at 7:15 and back an hour later after walking about the UNC Campus. The morning air was COOL, my first early morning walk since last spring. When the temperature hits 88 at dawn you know it is going to be a hot day. NC taxpayers will be glad to know their tax dollars have been spent - all over the campus. New walkways, new landscaping, street paving and mega construction continues. I try to make it under the Bell tower in time to hear the carillon ring. Just getting out is a major accomplishment and I hope to be out walking 2-3 times a week. My personal trainer says "get more cardio each day." I'm getting it.

The photo is from Hanks Chapel Greenhouses in Pittsboro. Taken with my former digital camera [before an upgrade to a more advanced model]. Four of my orchids are boarded at Hanks Chapel for a modest monthly fee. When they bloom I get a message to pick up and we enjoy the blossoms for weeks to come. Since I am garden-challenged, the orchid greenhouse is the best bet going.

Monday night was the Durham Orange Quilter's Guild [DOQ], the program presented by quilter and fiber artist, Ellen Guerrant. Ellen's presentation was about the Log Cabin quilt block and its various incantations and modern interpretations. Entitled "My Grandmother Made One of Those," she enthralled us with both quilts and slides of quilts that she has made, found in flea markets and yard sales and some have just come to her. Ellen is a naturally funny lady, disbelieving that there can be non-quilters in the world you do not understand the notion of cutting fabric into pieces and then sewing the pieces back together again. We get it!

Even better, Ellen shares her blog: http://ellenguerrant.blogspot.com. Seeing Ellen's blog gives me new inspiration; more quilts, fabrics, collectibles and family history. Why didn't I think of that? Well, I'm new at the game and just getting my input organized.

Rose was also at DOQ and we made a date for Thursday to drive west to visit my sister, Jan, in Elon, NC. The reason for this visit? Jan has outdone herself. Shopping for furniture and drapery fabrics, she and husband Rich have been attending auctions. Last weekend she hit a fabric clearance and ending up buying three RACKS of fabrics [nearly thirty bolts of fabric]. All to get the five or six fabrics she really wanted and the rest to sell, share, donate or otherwise find each bolt a good home. Any mention of fabric is enough to get me there. I remember finding a chintz print that I thought would make nice cushions and curtains for her back porch [this find for a mere $6]. I think Jan has outdone me this time. I swear, between my sister and I trying to downsize and prioritize the amount of goods we absolutely NEED, versus those things we can't refuse - a mountain of 'stuff' ends up in our garages.

So Thursday is the day I take a paint color fan-deck, my manual on e-Bay selling, the digital camera, and Rose, to investigate. See pictures here at a later date. Even if I do not find fabric I want, the trip home takes us to Sheetz. This is the closest gasoline/convenience Sheetz to Chapel Hill and because they recycle the water you can still get a carwash in the midst of a drought. And my car really NEEDS a carwash!

Got towel and bottle of water in hand. Off to the dance studio for Day 1 of dancerCIZE; created for ladies without dance partners who want a rhythmic-cardio workout. My second for the day. Plus I have to think of something for dinner.
Again.
bb

Table conversation...

The annual Gentleman's Wine Dinner at Governor's Club, hosted by Dick Isabel, offers a round table of discussion that one cannot find anywhere else.
An hour of chit-chat while tasting two wines preceded the dinner. A menu offering three more wines is the challenge to Chef Rusty - this club is so dedicated to wine that Isabel picks the wines first, then asks the chef to devise courses to compliment the vintage. And since I do not drink wine, this means EF can drink all he wants and rely on me to drive home.

The menu: (1st Plate) Muscovy Duck Breast served with arugula, radicchio and endive with walnut goat cheese, Fuji apple vinaigrette; an intermission of Mango Mint sorbet; (2nd Plate) Roasted Rack of lamb with fig glaze, braised red chard and polenta; (3rd Plate) Pistachio gelato profiterole w/chocolate sauce.

Our table talk began with the centerpiece; huge, live orchids graced all the tables. The local source for orchids is the Hanks Chapel Greenhouses, just east of Pittsboro. The only place I know about that 'sells' you the orchid first, then takes the orchid back after the blooms drop and 'boards' it in the orchid greenhouse until it blooms again. In effect you get to 'rent' your own orchid. See:www.orchidsbyhankschapel.com/

From orchids to house building, to weddings, and of course "whose children have screwed up the worst!" The great thing is to learn that other people have dysfunctional families just like your own. Two of the couples at our table had tried the ballroom dance class with me last year and were relating how their dance progression has now qualified them for 'handicapped parking.' I can only hope their golfing is better.

We had to leave before dessert (?) because EF has a 'gig' today - playing for and arranging the set-up for the Swing band at OLLI's convocation. As for me; my feet hurt and my legs have ached all night. The cause of my distress: P.T. April. Taking her advice to get more cardio, I have walked over 2.5 hours in the past two days, plus some gym time and Noriko's aquacize class yesterday - before dressing and wearing dance pumps to the dinner. My legs are telling me something - and it's not funny.

Checks continue to arrive in the mail booking students for both the OLLI dancerCIZE and Ballroom Level One classes - but I'm short by ONE for each class to meet the minimum. Classes begin a week from Wednesday and I need to scratch some slow starters and enlist them and their money this week. See: www.learnmore.duke.edu/olli

Sundays change for us every few years. There was a time when Charles Kuralt commanded out attention with CBS's "Sunday Morning." Then we tried the Unitarian route for a few years, now I'm off to the gym. Unless I get to work out, it will only hurt more. Don't even think about what the next phase might be!

keep moving....bb