My God, It's Full of Stars

So, Tuesday was a big day here. We got a bed.

I had managed to speak with Bethy and get our plan in place: she would be heading east after dropping the children at school, probably arriving here in Orleans about the time my early afternoon appointments were to conclude. In fact, that's exactly how it worked out.

Now, there was one minor wrinkle to the day, which actually occurred late the night before, when I awoke in the wee hours and, trying to put my glasses on, somehow managed to poke myself in the eye - pretty hard - with them, instead.

The only thing worse than actually hurting yourself is doing so in a way that makes you feel pretty stupid, as well as hurt. You'd think after putting on...and taking off...glasses for nearly forty years, I'd have it down to a science...and honestly, I thought so before the other night, too. But somehow, jab.

I went to my eye Doc first thing Tuesday morning, with one blurry eye. He took a look and advised me there was a definite dimple on my eyeball, but fortunately, no tearing or ripping, so at least I didn't harm myself too seriously. He suggests this will actually take care of it itself in a few days time.

So, with one blurry eye and one good eye, I went through the day and really, with all the good going on, a little blurry vision was hardly a huge concern. Beth arrived more or less right on schedule and there was a great jumping about, squealing and so on when we saw one another...which you'd have thought we hadn't done in YEARS...but still, that's what friends are all about.

We began our visit with a nice long lunch at the restaurant and then took the party home to get the business of sliding the mattress and box spring upstairs to the deck.

That went surprisingly well, and then we got back to the silly business of laughing and giggling about things past, and chortling and chuckling about recent adventures...and then just roaring with laughter about new things...well, surely you all have friends like this, so you must know how it goes.

After we thought we'd exhausted all that, we drove across town, since I was insistant that Bethy be sure to see the Atlantic after driving all the way from Connecticut, and she had no real problem with that plan.

That we forgot to take the string and bungees off the roof rack from the boxspring only gave us a good reason to stop at the Rock Harbor boat launch first, where we got to see Cape Cod Gray in its natural environment.

And then it was off across town, where we found the Atlantic tide on the rise and the water temperature reasonable enough to take off our shoes and get our feet and jeans a little wet. And we found, as good friends do, plenty more to talk about.





When we'd had our fill of shoreline cavorting and just sitting watching the amazing sky, we headed back to town and found a homemade ice cream shop, where we each enjoyed overly-large Cake Butter ice cream cones, in chocolate and colored-sprinkle-dipped sugar cones in their outdoor garden.

Ah, what fun it was to spend some time together, and how we look forward to doing it again soon...all too soon, Bethy was heading back to CT and the briars of the working day world.

But the cat and I are both grateful for the addition of an actual bed to our environment. We have slept especially well the last two evenings...and in his case, lots of the rest of the time, as well.

You can also see what I've been doing to the bedroom walls here...adding an assortment of different sized stars, just as I did in my last bedroom. I found it to be a real fun and relaxing look at the last place, so I'm happy to have adapted that scheme to this location, with some different background colors. This room's just about finished, which will be the key to getting more progress in the rest of the apartment.

More Things In Heaven and Earth...

I hardly know where to begin. It's true what they say, that old saw about Truth being stranger than fiction. There's absolutely no way we could've seen this one coming.

Last night, I was annoyed with my friend Nicky for issues of plagiarism, but even that was out-weighed by my concern for what was troubling him so that he'd stoop to such a thing. Today was a lot about worry for him, as many of you came by and read the news and shared your own feelings. Aside from the initial anger, there's been so much kindness, so much love and concern. Nicky really brought together an amazing group of people.

For those of you who may've missed this evening's stunning revelations, I direct you over to the blog of Father Tony, where you may learn - as Paul Harvey used to say - the rest of the story...or at least a great deal more of it.

Tonight, I'm at a bit of a loss about what to think. On some level, it feels as though Nicky has died and I should mourn him, though that's not really true. He only ever really lived in the journals and the blogs of a 52 year old woman who had long felt she was truly a gay man in a woman's body.

I have only the briefest familiarity with transgender issues, so I'm not really prepared to discuss that much at all. I'm open to it and accept it and have recently been trying to educate myself a little better on the subject, but I don't fully understand what it must feel like. I'm not really sure that's even the issue here.

The thing is, he also lived in my imagination, and in yours. We wanted to believe that there was a guy like Nicky. A wonderful, sweet, compassionate guy who loved trees and nature and gardens and wrote like a poet (though we know now that wasn't always his writing...or hers, as the complicated case may be) and was doing his best to raise his two adopted children.

In hindsight(an annoying thing, isn't it?), I can remember flipping back and forth between different photos of him, trying to reconcile in my mind that they just didn't look exactly like the same person. A trick of the light, my willing-to-believe mind told me, different camera angles, the way our appearance changes as we age.

And there was that surreal business of how much like "him" those two adopted children looked, not to mention little niggling concerns at the back of my mind that someone so young and on his own would be allowed to adopt two children. But like I said, I wanted to believe. The audience's willful suspension of disbelief is what the success of the Theatre requires...and apparently, it's no different with blogging.

The children, we have learned, are real. He was the fiction(and even that statement doesn't feel entirely true: he was decidedly real to his creator). And to think just this morning, I was afraid it was the other way 'round. Oh, what a difference a day makes, indeed.

This evening I received a short email from "Nicky," directing me to Father Tony and apologizing for the deception. Surprisingly, perhaps, I don't find I'm at all angry about it, though I'm not entirely sure what, if anything, to say in response. I remain concerned for Nicky's creator and what she must now face.

It's my wish for her that she may learn to accept the fact that she/he is not alone, not the only one of her/his kind in the world. Many of us remember what that dreadful feeling is like from our own early experiences as gay people. I hope she/he will seek out some sort of assistance, counseling, something. And that she/he will, through that, be able to find peace in her/himself and in the world, with her feelings and what she has done and how it's effected other people.

But I do feel like I've lost my friend Nicky and he will be terribly missed. I remain grateful, though, for the connections I've made through his two blogs, with a terrific variety of people whom I've discovered - independent of Nicky's world - are supporting, loving and wonderful folks who I'm proud to call friends. Part of him may always live on in each of us and our friendships.

Sometimes the hand of Fate, or God, or Whomever, works in truly strange ways indeed.


Now, before I fall over dead from lack of sleep(but I still don't want a cigarette!!!), I'd like to show you a few photos. As distracted as I was today, I found at day's end that much of my photographic efforts for day were a little uninspired or distracted, so there isn't much.

But here, look at these purple plants. I'm not sure of its identity, but I believe this is some variety of blazing star, a cousin, perhaps, of the gay feather I showed you just yesterday.

I've shown you a close up of another one earlier in the season, with it's delightful star-shaped flowers climbing up the stem.

It was a discovery/rehabilitated plant at the last garden and I was too fond of it to leave it behind. I'm just amazed with what it's doing in a fresh garden bed with room to grow.

To further make my point, I'll offer another photo of that first plant I photographed.

It was only as tall as the two above back when I took those photos, but as you can see, it too now towers toward the life-bringing sun (which seems to be making only cameo appearances this week) and stands taller than than fence and is now flowering on side branches, as well.

I'm just amazed...as I find I so often am in the garden.

And I just love the way the Queen Anne's lace flowers are pink just before they fully open up. It's delicate, and certainly not something you notice in plants you only see along the roadside. But when it's in the garden, it's easier to see the subtle details...and they just tickle me.

Pink, even.



"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene V.

June: Another Day, Another Epic

After several years of not or barely blooming, our scotch broom - a red/wine colored variety - began to put on a show this morning. It's like a whole new discovery for me, which I guess really sums up how I feel about every darned moment of this time of year outside.

I was up super early so I'd have time to run the soaker hose and do a little spot watering, and still have time to enjoy my coffee in the sunshine, before heading in to what was a full day's work ahead.

The weather's been fantastic and the growth that's happening in the garden is almost happening too quickly to be able to note it all. Those sunflower seedlings are higher than that first fence railing now, thick and leafy and looking like they want to really tower for me. All those flower stalks I mentioned the other day are a little taller, and the foxglove now is showing little flower buds that'll grow as the stalk shoots up.

Some of the roses are already setting flower buds in profusion, as this bush I've trained on the fence is clearly doing. Don't know what color we'll see here, or if its one of those species that trades scent for blooming longer. I do see that there seems to be some leaf-nibbling, but that's insects, not bunnies.

I always hate to spray any kind of poison in the garden, for fear of what it will do to the good insects, but the roses almost require it. I should call around and see which nursery might be selling ladybugs this year.

It was a full day at work today, but a successful one, and with some fabulous weather to enjoy just outside the door at odd moments. Our temperatures got up to 80, not that I was in a position to enjoy that overly much...but I did sneak outside a few times just to look and smell and bask in the sunshine.

I swear, I just love the lighting on the Cape in summertime--sometimes it just gives you that perfect image with lighting and shadow that looks a little like something from one of the Provincetown art schools of the last century.

Embiggen - if you will - the photo below, and then take note of the birds in the lower right--the shadows were too intense for a proper ID without binocs, but the silhouette looks like a heron. Since it's shorter than Old Joe, I think I'll put my money on those being green herons.


This, by the way, is Saquatucket Harbor in Harwich. The parking lot of the marina is also landscaped heavily with rugosa roses. These hot pink single ones are really the ones you see just about everywhere hereabouts this time of year. It's a cross to bear, but we try to cope.

Back home this evening, I found many more dianthus flowers opening, including this magenta one.

I also got this photo of the flowers of the third columbine plant currently in bloom.

These seem to match the second flower from yesterday's post, but I'm not sure if it's a little more purple...and it's hard to know if that's a product of genetics or just lighting.


Hey, big exciting news beyond the dianthus, though: since when I looked this morning, the corn has begun to poke out of the ground in various locations.

It not being a secret garden anymore, I mostly resisted the impulse to victory dance. And anyway, there wasn't time for that...not with a dog to be walked.

Like just about everything else today, it was an enjoyable and visually exciting walk this evening. I use these cool irises from a yard down the street to help illustrate my point.

Knowing they might not be to everyone's taste, depending on your color preferences, I'll also show you the Biggest Rhododendron Ever...well, at least, one of the biggest I've seen. Emily was especially pleased--it's not on our regular route, but it was a nice night for a longer walk!

It's actually taller than the house it sits in front of. I can't help ponder just how long that means this particular plant's been growing here to have reached this size, and I find myself thinking about what the local landscape might've been like when it was new.

In that same area, my nose sudden went on alert as it was tickled with the scent of marine heliotrope (the purple, annual variety recently discussed). I didn't see any of that anywhere nearby, so now I'm wondering what else might have a similar scent.

Perhaps it was this tree with the tiny, jasmine-y looking yellow flowers. Anyone recognize this one?

I want to describe the scent better for you, it has such a strong effect on me, nearly sending me swooning with delight. But scent's a funny thing, and hard to talk about when you're not currently smelling it. I think I'll have to pick up one of those heliotropes and then take some notes while I sit with my nose against the sweet purple flowers. (Oh, the things I won't suffer to make a nice blog post for you people.)

Back in the garden, some of the clover I transplanted in the fall has begun blooming. You can see why I fancy it enough to have brough some along. That's allyssum in the background.

Taking advantage of the weather, and the possibility of a few days rain coming our way (with a possible heat wave to follow!), I finally got my tomato plants into their places out in the border. I never mind mixing them right into the flower border--after all, why should I make it difficult for the pollinators by seperating all the plants that need them?

This year, I've got four of them: 2 Supersweet 100s, 1 Burpee Big Boy, and 1 Early Girl. They've been living in the bedroom window for the last week or two and doing quite well with the southern exposure. They've grown strong and bushy and doubled in height.

To make sure that they have a good strong footing against the winds here, I snipped off all the lower branches and buried each tomato deep, so they'll develop a good strong and deep root system off those buried stalks.

On the way home this evening, I stopped at the nursery to look around at what there was. I've been good about resisting temptation this year, but I was looking for some more marigolds of interesting varieties, since they are great companions for the tomatoes and may help to deter the bunnies in concert with the Liquid Fence and all.

I always like these semi-double orange ones on the right--such a terrific color balance against the purples and still not that pom-pom business. And the red/yellow ones to the left, well, they were the only sixpack of seedlings like it...and they were simply too wonderful to leave behind.

I ran out of light for planting, so hopefully the showers tomorrow morning will hold off so I can plant these guys.

********

EDIT: Hey, it turns out this is my 1400th (!!!) post to the Midnight Garden. Yah, it's true, many of those were single photo posts, from before there was a layout function or I knew how it worked. But still, since I totally missed my three year blogging anniversary at the end of April, I thought I'd mention it.

Really, it just means I'll *never* finish getting all those tags added retroactively. However, while we're on the subject, if you hit the "columbine" tag, you can see examples of the others those new ones might be descended from.