The slightest bondage

Allissa and me on her fifth birthday ~ Charlotte, North Carolina

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She is as in a field a silken tent

At midday when a sunny summer breeze

Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,

So that in guys it gently sways at ease,

And its supporting central cedar pole,

That is its pinnacle to heavenward

And signifies the sureness of the soul,

Seems to owe naught to any single cord,

But strictly held by none, is loosely bound

By countless silken ties of love and thought

To everything on earth the compass round,

And only by one's going slightly taut

In the capriciousness of summer air

Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

~Robert Frost~

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Happy Wednesday

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Do they tax birthdays yet?

Hey y'all. Happy Tax Day and all that.

I don't know why we bother to have a specific day. Isn't every day tax day now?

Did I say this same thing last year?

At any rate I have a party to attend.

Allissa turns five today. We're meeting the birthday girl and her retinue at Metalmorphosis in Charlotte.

You know. The big silver head. For a photo op.

Then we're going to Red Robin for hamburgers, birthday cake, and generalized high living combined with great rejoicing.

You know I'll make you look at pictures. 

So get your bad self ready.

Meanwhile check out this clever cartoon -- gallows humor, as it were, and used entirely without permission -- by Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime illustrator for beloved humor writer Dave Barry.

Someday I'll tell you about the many times Dave and I have corresponded.

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~ click to embiggen ~

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Happy Monday ~ Happy Week

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The worst pirate I've ever heard of

"But you have heard of me."

No; I don't have a dawn appointment with the gallows.

I'm just busy writing righting wrongs and re-righting rights.

Hope you are too. Busy enjoying your life.

But not too busy to admire the savoir-faire of a certain cute pirate.

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Happy Friday ~ Happy Weekend ~ Happy Pirating

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No sad songs

Dogs crack me up. Canine con artists.

I am also greatly amused by the way people -- including me -- talk to their dogs.

Javier doesn't like the back seat either.

But the advice is sound: No sad songs.

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Happy Wednesdog ~ Happy Songs

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Mass wisteria

Remember I told you Erica and I sortied on Friday, ending up at the park?

Well. For the sake of clarity I must elaborate.

We only went to the park because we were I was looking for wisteria.

Purple is my favorite color, besides black which is really my favorite color, which makes me officially weird, I know.

But I'm good with it.

Wisteria is not my favorite flower; nor is lilac, although I dearly love them both, and for the same reasons: their color and their fragrance. 

Like most people, I am also enraptured by roses.

My favorite flower, however, is the gardenia. Not that anybody asked.

But partly because of the purple, a wall of wisteria, blooming wild and tall and free as it does for a few days of a mild South Carolina April, is an irresistible sight.

And I wanted some pictures of this miracle, and so we set out.

There was no wisteria at the park where Javier enjoyed standing beside the rapids and where we met geese in addition to other dogs.

So at the conclusion of that adventure we went driving around and eventually we came upon as ideal a display of wisteria as I have ever witnessed.

It was glommed onto a brick building and thriving in riotous profusion, mingled rapturously with shooting vines of butter-yellow Lady Banks Rose.

To look at it made you think yellow and purple is the only color combination that matters, challenging even the blue and white above it.

Adding to the charm of the scene was the fact that this little building with its clinging blossoms is situated beside a railroad track.

So I took some pictures -- for you, all for you -- and here are a few of them, mingled rapturously with the poetry of my favorite poet, Emily Dickinson.

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844

... during March and April

None stir abroad

Without a cordial interview

With God.

1045

Nature rarer uses Yellow

Than another Hue.

Saves she all of that for Sunsets

Prodigal of Blue

Spending Scarlet, like a Woman

Yellow she affords

Only scantly and selectly

Like a Lover's Words.

1042

Spring comes on the World --

I sight the Aprils --

Hueless to me until thou come

As, till the Bee

Blossoms stand negative,

Touched to Conditions

By a Hum.

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Happy April Monday ~ Happy Week

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