my great-grandmother mayne would be celebrating a birthday today. we called her “grandmother” to differentiate her from the myriad of grandmas we had when we were young. she lived to be 98 and i have many wonderful memories of her: playing “flow gently sweet afton” as a duet with her; crunchy peanut butter and butter sandwiches on roman meal bread, cut into triangles; her mums and her poetry; learning (?) to embroider on dishcloths; several 60’s stripe afghans so that we all have one even now. i have physical reminders of her that i see every day: the bookshelf that sat in the entryway of her home; books of poetry with her handwriting on her favorite poems; sheet music with the name “kathleen mayne” in her familiar handwriting in the corner; sister has her piano; the wooden plate she used to put bread on the table; even my kit-kat clock, though not hers, is a replica of the one in her kitchen. i remember the time she was visiting our family, i was about 4th grade, and dad took the kittens that were living in the garage out and dumped them. i cried my eyes out and grandmother sat on the top step with me and held me tight. i have the flyer she sent out in 1900 to advertise a music programme that featured her singing and her love of music and words was always apparent. i really love her and am so grateful that i got to know her.
all that said, thinking of her also makes me hopeful that in 130 years there will be a young lady, perhaps great or great-great grandaughter, who remembers me with the same love and passes that down and includes grandmother mayne’s story so it will go on forever.
spring is taking its time getting warm. i’ve got all the plants ready to go, but still i sit inside with cold toes and check the forecast. i should be able to plant this week-end, but i’m leaving sunday for the lutheran mercy conference in st. louis, so i feel a little pressured. husband is going up to lafayette monday to help boychild with his house’s guttering and miscellaneous around-the-house jobs, so we’ll have to have wink keep an eye on things. his gardening skills are a not-so-skilled, so i’m a little concerned.
oh, i took my autoharp to dr. stringz and he repaired and tuned it. it’s been about 10 years since i played it and during those years i learned to play the guitar. my guitar-playing ability is limited since i don’t do bar chords; however, the guitar did teach me what chords go together and since the autoharp has all the chords available at the punch of a button, i feel like i can now play anything. it’s not as easy getting into the whole strum of it, but you can bet i’ll be practicing.
after work this afternoon i’ll be heading up to see alex in the musical. that’s the most spring-like part of my day.
today is my niece ali’s birthday–the big 3-oh. i’ve got last year’s card and will chase her down this time. my grandniece, alexandra, turned the big 1-oh on sunday and i’ll be seeing her perform in the mt. vernon jr high school production of “the king and i” on friday to gift her. also, my best friend from grade school, luann, finally caught up with me (in age, that is) on saturday. i always remember lu’s b-day because it is the same as The Queen, who turned 70-something on saturday. speaking to lu live on monday was a gift for me and i wish we lived closer. i love all you guys and am so very grateful to have you as part of my life.
weather’s taken control around here, so i’m off to h&h to have my autoharp repaired and get some rosin for my bow. i painted my legs and arms with gradual suntanner yesterday and this morning it is not looking so great. i really liked it at about 2 hours post application, though, so i’m going to study how to make this work. my skin is just too old for tanning (in my case, burning) and this seems like a great alternative.
hope everybody in texas is okay.
my stay in nyc went way too fast and last week at home also flew by in a flurry of appointments and obligations.
monday i went to the first meeting of folks who take care of the reitz home garden. naturally, i ditched when the work started. tuesday i had to face my hairdresser-back-from-maternity-leave and show her what the goth beautician did to my mane as well as my new color. wednesday was sing-along-with-donna&jo at the nursing home. thursday i had a dentist appointment; afterward i watched some videos at the school corporation so i can be a sub-nurse. by friday the warm weather had returned and i went crazy buying vegetables and herbs at ronnie’s fruit stand. saturday i worked at the earth day celebration at howell wetlands. today i did some container planting and fed the youngens.
busy, but boring.