Watching Our Flowers Grow

[porphyry]

I love to garden. I now mostly grow flowers although I used to plant large vegetable gardens too. (I would like to go back to doing that, but that would be a huge project because there's so much wildlife around here I would have to devise some clever way to keep the deer, rabbits, raccoons, possums, squirrels, foxes, etc. etc. out of it.) Anyway, here are some photos of some of our lovely blooms this year. Later in the season when all the flowering plants have grown, I will post more pictures in their maturity.




http://picasaweb.google.com/Anebo10/Flowers

Comments

[leopold-paula-b.livejournal.com]

I agree with Mr Malkhos: Cute little Madeline will probably bloom into a very beautiful woman. And I loved her suggestion to spank the rabbit. Ah... kids.

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

We have those in one of the flowerbeds too!

From what I read, you pretty much have to put your garden under/in a chickenwire "box" to keep the critters out ...

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

The rabbit is obviously newly born, too; he (or she; I'm not sure which) is very tiny--even its little ears are maybe one-third the length of my little finger. Madeline is right; it definitely needs discipline ;)

I don't mind if she grows to be a beautiful person externally; I just want her to have an inner life too that is meaningful. That's the hard part.

Speaking of newly born animals, I heard on the news this morning a baby giraffe--calves, are they called?--was delivered. It is six feet tall and weighs 140 pounds... and I thought Madeline's nine pounds was bad.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I would love a sea lion to come lumbering through my yard; they can be somewhat aggressive though, can't they?

You know, there is much to be said for a quieter, rural life. I'm off and on working on a post about a seasonal job I worked for many years on a farm during college--what I liked most about it, I think, was the isolation.

I don't like cars either but we must have one. I've gotten rid of the commute since I transferred from St. Louis (I don't miss that one iota); we live among three houses total, including ours--but one house is empty and the other contains only one older lady who is good neighbor precisely because we rarely see each other and limit our interactions to saying hello and the occasional brief chat. So all in all, we have it pretty good.

I'm glad you liked the pictures.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Lilies, you mean? Or yucca?

Yes, I've heard of the chickenwire box, which you have to frame up, but even at that, some animals will dig under that if they want in bad enough--squirrels are particularly crazy that way. What used to irritate me so much about squirrels wasn't that they were hungry and wanted to eat the tomatoes; it's that they'd take two or three bites and then throw it down and move on to the next one. I don't mind sharing, really, but that was ridiculous. :)

[leopold-paula-b.livejournal.com]

There's no need to doubt that she'll have a wonderful personality to go with the ravishing external beauty that's appearing in outlines even now. I'm really touched by how serious you take the educating of your kids. My thoughts about a parent's responsibility are more in the New Comedy spirit (Menander, Terence, Plautus). As long as parents make their kids feel loved and accepted, give them air to breath and room to develop, establish mutual respect, and some set of rules to conform to, bend, and rebel against, they're doing an excellent job. With the possible exception of your father, every parent makes mistakes, but I think it's an important part of growing up anyway to slightly re-educate at the age of 17 or 23. I'm sure you and malkhos are great parents.

By the way, do you know how baby bats are called?

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

If I may say, Madeline does have a good personality--she's basically a sweet (though mischievous, independent, and sometimes reckless) child. I just hope she stays that way. Thank you for your compliments in regard to our parenting--it's the one thing I do worry about.

About my father--I cross-questioned Malkhos again after reading your post, asking him (because Malkhos can be very critical and will tell me if I demand it), "Am I wrong about my father?" "No," Malkhos replied. "It's your father's natural Stoicism which makes him what he is. He never studied Stoic philosophy, but he's always lived it. He's not bound to make major errors following Xeno and Epictetus." Malkhos paused and considered this. "Whereas I, on the other hand, could write an endless catalogue of mistakes my parents, especially my father, made." The look of disgust on his face was almost funny. But as I said before, that's his tale to tell, not mine.

I think baby bats are called pups.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

That's all right--he looks very young. I've never heard of that film--what's it about?

[leopold-paula-b.livejournal.com]

It goes without saying that I don't doubt M's good personality at the present time. Your "Let's see if we can keep her from becoming shallow as well", and then again: "I just want her to have an inner life too that is meaningful. That's the hard part" sounded overly worried to me and made me want to tell you: don't worry about her future.

(And as mentioned above, I do believe that parents are entitled to make mistakes.)

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Losey did a version of Don Giovanni which cannot be recommended too highly--it is the film that converted me to opera.

In that version it is palyed as tragedy--converted from comedey just like Barry Lyndon.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I gave you the low down on this place once before, in the waning days of the yahoo list as I recall. I noticed the other day I still ahve the file on my computer (I think).

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Okay, I won't worry anymore. :)

That's the problem with having such a standard of perfection set before you--first you doubt it, then you try to meet it.

I do agree, though; it's okay for parents to make mistakes.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Technically we reside in a suburb of St. Louis. There are several major univerisites in the area (within 20 miles)--Washington University, St. Louis University, the University of Missouri--St. Louis, and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (which is growing by leaps and bounds; it's amazing). Edwardsville itself is a nice town, a little more upscale than the one we live in (Collinsville). There is also a wonderful liberal arts college called McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois, a most charming little town about twenty miles east of us and about forty from the city. I'll have Malkhos repost the one he refers to above.

In any event, there's plenty of opportunity for a nice, treed lot with wildlife and a fairly low cost of living (at least, compared to California).

[stefanie-bean.livejournal.com]

The Stella d'Oro lilies.

Don't get me started on squirrels. They dug up just about every onion set I planted last week, just for sheer meanness, I'm sure.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I rather like that old icon, too, though I could never place it (I'm embarrassed to admit it, but there you go); the man looks so stern and disapproving--I want to acheive a look like that.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Oh, those lilies. They certainly are a pleasure, aren't they?

Squirrels... they are crazy. (Sorry about the onions.) I've just seen too much squirrel craziness to ever consider a vegetable garden unless I can squirrel-proof it... which I doubt.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Of course! I knew he looked familiar and I vaguely remember the show. The disapproving air is good as well.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Bulfinch's Mythology either, and probably never will.

The best place to start, knowing your tastes, would be The Dedalus Book of Greek Decadence, but, since I did not develope the idea of pitching such a book to Dedalus until after they were put out of business by the British Governmnet, I will instead make a few recommendations.

The most obvious one is the Odyssey. I think you would like it far better than the Iliad, as it is filled with the fantastic. Odysseus' virtue is to outwit his foes by understanding human psychology, comapred to Achilles who is faster than anyone else in running down and killing the fleeing enemy. Translation makes all the differnce, naturally. I would recommend Fitzgerald, although if you have Lattimore's or Fagles new version to hand, they should be satisfactory. The one provided in the Loeb volume is quite dreadful, as are many others.

Tragendy is also not a bad place to start. Perhaps the one most congenal to you would be the Bacchae, I won't describe it except to say its like a decadent apoclaypse. There aren't any really good translations of Tragedy, but the series edited by Geene and Lattimore is not bad and still readily avaiable. Some years ago the BBC made a series of three films of Sophocles' Theban plays which wee outstanding. They were based on stage productions then running in London but they were made as films with proper camerawork and editing. They were broadcast on PBS and I always thought they would make an excellent introduction to Greek literature; unbeleivably, howeevr, they have never been released on DVD, or even VHS as far as I can tell.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

"Geene"? "wee"? "howeevr"?

Are you really wanting to be Anthony Burgess, inventing some language you haven't told me about? :)