a catch-up

 Two weeks just passed by, and I thought about posting several times, but I often was tired or felt blank. I have to say that I'm glad it's spring, and the trees are so beautiful, but I think I'll feel better when they're done blooming and things are a bit warmer.  That's usually how it goes.

But speaking of trees, I went around the yard to look at our five young trees which we bought last year. The white crabapple is just filled with blooms! And it's right by the road.

Isn't it wonderful! The one behind it is our neighbor's rose-colored crab. I noticed over the winter that the crabapples didn't all get eaten; there was a squirrel in the tree one day, and birds now and again. So maybe I can do something with half of the fruit, while leaving the rest for our small neighbors. But I'm not interested in jelly. It must be a good source of vitamin C, wouldn't you think? Because they are so tart?

The purple leafed plum tree is the largest of the new ones, and all the leaves are out, but I spied two small blossoms - so, I guess we'll have two plums later! 

They're right in the middle of the picture. And way over in the corner of the back yard is another ornamental cherry, like the one in the front yard, the Brave Little Cherry Tree. It's declining - the blooms are there, but it's not filled with them. :(  The new one in back is doing well, though.

The other two trees, a linden and a kousa dogwood, are later starting, but they look well. 

In other news, I got a new ironing board cover -

the fabric I'm pressing is for a blouse I'm trying to make, and this fabric is a ruffle at the bottom of the sleeves and at the hem. The body is a green cotton, like a broadcloth of some kind. I hope it turns out all right; I've never worked with sheer fabric before. Cyndi had given it to me years ago and I'm finally using it. 

Speaking of Cyndi, her brother had her funeral service on Tuesday, like she asked him to, one year after her death. It was strange after so much time. 

Back to the home front, I'll bet at least some of you have seen the youtube videos of cats who unroll the toilet paper. You know where I'm going with this - ours is now hanging in a crocheted bag on the bathroom door hook. 

Beth gave me this years ago, and it's sure handy now! I'll have to write and thank her again - I don't see her around anymore. 

the (ir)responsible party - and it was definitely a party for her!

I've been reading God's Hotel - a Fantastic book about the Laguna Honda hospital in San Francisco, written by a doctor who worked there for twenty years. She writes so well, the story gently flows along and with all the necessary and interesting details included. The author, Victoria Sweet, got a doctorate in the study of the methods of Hildegard of Bingen for treating patients, and she used some of these methods at the hospital! It is truly fascinating, I'm not exaggerating. The book is not new, and if you follow this link, you'll see the hospital is in trouble. I don't know what will happen, but it seems to me that we've long passed the point where such a place can exist, and that is lamentable. There was a time when money and profit were not the main concerns, where insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies did not control, as they do now, the doctor-patient relationship. If you have ANY INTEREST in this subject at all, i.e., any interest in the way medicine is going, in the old-fashioned doctor/patient dynamic, in a true story well written, in the way things used to be, in Hildegard von Bingen - READ THIS BOOK. Sorry, I'm not trying to shout. It's a chronicle of a lost age. I'm old enough to know that. 

I'm also reading The Code of the Woosters, and it's some very welcome comic relief.