Oh, and one more thing . . . though not about music.

So, I looked at the front of my house the other day, and I was surprised to see that my flowers had been yanked out of their beds and replaced with shrubbery. I rent, so I imagine the "landlord's helper" took it upon himself/themselves to decide that the flowers I had planted were unimportant and messy. I hadn't "groomed" the beds. It just stopped being winter this week, for crying out loud. Well, these folks have time on their hands and probably figured they were doing me a "favor."

However . . . those plants were really the only thing that connected me to this place that I live in . . . that I don't really like. I will be happy to say goodbye to it when I finally find a house. But in the meantime, I had transplanted some mini-carnations from my old house three years ago when I moved in. They were kind of important to me. Last Easter, Joe gave me a beautiful pink daisy that I planted in that same bed. That daisy did nothing all last summer, then suddenly in the fall, grew massive and bloomed again in October--huge, deep pink blooms. I loved it. I also had a clematis that I had bought the first summer I lived here. It was really tiny, but I tied string to the trellis that was on the other porch, and eventually it climbed up, and each summer became bigger, taller and stronger. It was a beautiful plant with big, deep purple blossoms.

All gone. No ask. Just yank. It makes me kind of sad. It was the only thing that was "me" having to do with this house. The mini-carnations linked me to my past--the good memories of the smell wafting up from the garden into my son's room and us smelling it when I put him to bed at night. The clematis was sort of my "regrowth" when I moved into this place. It was new; I was new. It was fragile and needed the help of the strings and the trellis. I was fragile and needed the help of my friends and my family. The daisy represented my here and now--my happiness, and the love of Joe in my life. They were happy little flowers, and I would have taken them with me when I moved.

I had to vent. I'm sorry to do it here since it has nothing whatsoever to do with music, but here it is.

Speaking of music, I think I'm going to put some on right now. Today at Starbucks--I know, I know; don't give me any grief--I bought a 2-CD disc called The Grammys - 50th Anniversary Collection. There's some good stuff on there. I didn't realize that "The Girl From Ipanema" (Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto and Joao Gilberto) got a Grammy. Bobby Darin, for Mack the Knife, too! BB King, The Thrill is Gone; Otis Redding, (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay; John Mayer, Gravity (which has special meaning for me); The Police, Every Breath You Take; Alison Krauss, Down to the River to Pray (love to sing that one); Tony Bennett, I Left My Heart in San Francisco; Culture Club, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me (REALLY???!!!); among others. So, I think I'll pop that in and forget about my missing flora.

yours in music (and other stuff),
Tracy