Ks Are Wild

I’ve been enjoying my summer….away from the computer.  Not that the computers or the internet has been functioning correctly recently.  Arg!  Somewhat the main reason for my lack of email, blogging, and facebook communication.  I’ll be cooped up in the fall and winter soon enough.  So I, and the rest of us Oregonians, have been basking in the summer sun, relishing the perfect temperature for evenings outside, and generally avoiding all things relating to or relegated to the interior of a home.  Thus, my noticing and enjoyment of said sky.

Tonight we went to the free concert in Central Park here in Corvallis and listened to three different acts whilst sitting on our picnic quilt and watching our kids gallivant with other youngins.  We couldn’t help but chuckle as the music seemed to match our children’s antics to a tee, making it the perfect soundtrack.  It was absolute mayhem resembling a mad chase scene from Scooby Doo or some other cartoon: they were running around in circles, doing mad puppy sprints, dog piles, dives back onto the quilt, cartwheels, and dress spinning while the band played.

Looking like this:

Only to music more along the likes of this only a little more 60s Scooby Dooish:

Later, a different band played some retroey funky stuff that Kham and I were sorta able to swing dance to.  I kept on wanting to break out into a frug like in some Bob Fosse number from Sweet Charity:

or the big dance scene in Austin Powers (which, by the way, if this music doesn’t make your toes twitch and you want to dance, you’re made of stone!!!)

And as we left the clouds in the sky were the most amazing peachy pink against the periwinkle blue…I wish I’d had my camera.  This is some other person’s random picture on the internet and it resembles our sky alot. 

I call it Maxfield Parrish sky.  We get that around here and it is so stunning.  How lucky am I to live here in this place where I can pretend I’m living in a Maxfield Parrish painting?!!  For those who don’t know who Maxfield Parrish is, well, he was an amazing artist who painted a lot of landscapes as well as nudes in fantasy settings with a blue and white sky undertoned background.  I’m not even going to attempt to describe his work to you.  But he is famous for the luminosity and interesting hues in his skies.  I’m sure you’ve seen posters and prints of his work or a coffee table book somewhere.  He is one of my favorite artists and here is a wiki link where you can learn more.  Maybe these will help jog your memory:

See what I mean jellybean?

Such an ugly word for the beauty it can describe; especially the beauty that can be seen on a daily basis around Corvallis and the Willamette Valley in general.

bucolic

Translations: Etymology: From bucolicusLatin, bÅcolicus < Ancient Greek (polytonic, ) (boukolikos) “rustic, pastoral; meter used by pastoral poets” < (polytonic, ) (boukolos) “cowherd” < (polytonic, á) (bous) “cow” + (polytonic, -) (-colos) “keeper, tender” + (polytonic, -) (-icos) “-ic”.

PASTORAL

Main Entry:

¹pas·to·ral

Pronunciation:

\ˈpas-t(ə-)rəl\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Middle English, from Latin pastoralis, from pastor herdsman

Date:

15th century

1 a (1): of, relating to, or composed of shepherds or herdsmen (2): devoted to or based on livestock raising b: of or relating to the countryside : not urban <a pastoral setting> c: portraying or expressive of the life of shepherds or country people especially in an idealized and conventionalized manner <pastoral poetry> d: pleasingly peaceful and innocent : idyllic2 a: of or relating to spiritual care or guidance especially of a congregation b: of or relating to the pastor of a church

— pas·to·ral·ly \-t(ə-)rə-lē\ adverb

— pas·to·ral·ness noun

agrestic, Arcadian, bucolic, country, georgic (literary) idyllic, rural, rustic, simple

Every day that I drive to and from Kosette’s environmental, place-based school in Corvallis, I practically have pinch to remind myself that I am indeed awake and not dreaming.  It is just gorgeous in Oregon and my area of the Willamette Valley.  No matter how rushed or grumpy I might be, I ALWAYS thank my lucky stars to be living in such a beautiful place.  But my daily commute forces a gradual wake-up, almost meditative, so that I’m centered and focused by the time I reach my destination.  I imagine that this was exactly was some Asian companies had in mind here in America when they purposefully designed their parking lots a great distance from their office buildings to force their employees to walk more.  And in so doing, they stroll through lovely landscaping and gradually their minds release their home problems and transition into their work personas.  I don’t remember where I heard or read that exactly, but it made an impression on me enough to retain it to use in my blog at least a decade later.  I think they really have something there.  The time of my commute and the pleasant smells (save for my tooting son in the backseat) of grass, rain, and coffee, and the lovely pastoral scenes through which I drive recalls imagery from bucolic imagery from Jane Austen films.  We’re about to enter into that electric green time of year when all the young, tender grass shoots (remember, this is the grass seed capitol of the nation, therefore, there is a ton round these here parts) go from looking like bad green hair plugs to a lush carpet.  I find myself listing synonyms and making up analogies to describe the multitude of different greens you can see here all the time.  It’s as if “green” would be Corvallisonians equivalent for our moss and leaves and grass to Alaskan’s 100 words describing snow.  By the way, that’s an urban legend.  I looked it up.  I love how NPR has a commitment to – dang – how did they put it – our “verdant” world?.  But here are some other words for the color: vert, verdant, viridian.  V words are the best.  Well L words are really good too; like Lascivious.  But these  are cool synonyms for green when using it in the young/new/blooming adjective sense: bosky, budding, burgeoning, callow, developing, flourishing, foliate, fresh, grassy, growing, half-formed, immature, infant, juvenile, leafy, lush, maturing, pliable, puerile, pullulating, raw, recent, sprouting, supple, tender, undecayed, undried, unfledged, ungrown, unripe, unseasoned, verdant, verduous, youthful

Just writing it makes me shake my head at my traffic ridden, frenzied, hurry-up-and-wait, smog-laden, gamble of should we take the freeway or go surface streets?, grumpy, surliness that was my morning commute in LA.  10 miles or so that would take at least 20 minutes.  (Everything’s 20 mins. away when you live in the valle, even if you’re just 5-10 miles away.)  Oy, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.  Thank the stars, I live here now.  My lucky stars.

As I blast through my old drafts, I see that I didn’t follow-up on how Kosette’s and Mommy’s Night of Fun went, when we attended OSU’s production of Pirates of Penzance.  It was great fun for both of us.  She was so excited, ate her dinner speedily and with no whining so we could leave sooner.  She wanted to “dress up fancy” and borrow my pearls.  After having received a brand new fairy doll that day in the mail, she insisted that “Jasmine” come along too.  So off we went to OSU’s Whitycombe Hall theatre, just the two of us, dressed “fancy” (for Corvallis).

As we waited in line to pick up our tix from will-call, lots of people smiled as they spotted her, the only 6 year old in a crowd of grown-ups, “dressed up”, wearing her mommy’s pearls, clutching her fairy doll.  I got approving looks and nods from some of the older crowd as if they were telling me how great they thought it was that I was exposing a new generation to the pleasures of musicals and live theatre.  I was filled with pride; not with myself for the exposure, but because my daughter already had heard the music and WANTED to come; not HAD to come.  Once inside, and our seats found, Kosette grew quiet and she just looked all around, studying things.

I was dying to know what she was thinking but allowed her her moment to just sit, and absorb, and process this new experience.  Finally, I talked to her about what to do if she needed to use the restroom and refreshed her memory on what we had discussed in the car ride over about what was appropriate theatre behavior.  This talking jogged her into formulating questions from her observations from inside the theatre, and they just burst forth in an endless stream like water released from a dam.  It was fascinating and amusing to see what she had noticed, what made an impression on her, such as light placement, orchestra members, stagehands in black, people standing in the aisles and not sitting in their seats, and why she couldn’t talk but the annoying women to my right would not SHUT UP the whole time and spoke at full volume.

I think the funniest thing was that she seemed annoyed at the casting.  Clearly the male character with the Kevin Klin- like, Pirate King pants, and the brown hair should have been The Pirate King.  And Cedric was short and stout, not at all the pretty boy lead as cast in the film version.  The differences between the film and the stage production agitated her.

Despite the late hour, she stayed awake the entire time and made it to a block from home before she passed out in her carseat.  Kham met me at the driveway to help carry the sleeping girl since I was wearing super high heels.  I slipped her shoes off and tucked her into bed, pearls still on, with her hand on top of the covers still clasping the fairy doll.  I felt like I was in the scene in Annie when Daddy Warbucks and Grace return with the sleeping Annie from her first time at the movies and they change her into her nightgown and tuck her into bed, without disturbing her passed out slumber.  It was a sweet nightcap to a sweet night with my sweetie.  Daydream about having a daughter of my own #5: Take my daughter to her very first live production of a musical.  CHECK!!!

If the exclamation point didn’t cue you in, I am VERY excited about this. Just Mommy and daughter, wearing our fancy shoes, maybe a party dress, perhaps some gelato beforehand….

OSU Theatre is doing Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, a musical both Kosette and I adore. The only other person I know of who likes it as much as I have, is my dear friend, Jenny. It was something we bonded over as college mates. I’ve found that there are many who claim to like musicals, but balk at those whose songs tend to be more operatic.  Jenny, you are a treasure to me.  I wish I had known you earlier in life.  Horses and Musicals – we were destined to become fast friends!!!  I wish you were coming with us.

I think with me, it was very much a case of being exposed to it so young. We had it (1980′s the version with Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, Rex Smith, and Kevin Kline) on our old Laser Disc system and my sister and I watched it almost as incessantly as Grease.

As I wrote in an earlier post, Kosette sings “Poor Wandering One” as “One Hundred One”. I’ve also noticed that she seems to be imitating my vibrato. It would be amusing if it wasn’t something that annoyed me about my own voice. I got teased for it growing up, especially by this girl in my Jr. High – Lisa Steckler. She wasn’t mean, or a bully or anything, she just was popular and very good at “bagging on” (playfully insulting or making of) people, so her zingers could really make you wince….

Wow, this is an old memory, but it’s very telling of what I was like growing up.  Lisa and I were walking over to 7-11 from my parents house and sang as we went along.  When we went under the freeway overpass and noticed the fantastic echo amidst the pigeons cooing and the cars whizzing past we couldn’t refrain from singing at the top of our lungs.  We barely knew any songs in common, so we took turns singing.  She sang a lot of New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men, and Milli Vanilli.  I sang, “Puerto Rico, you Ugly Island, Island of Tropic Diseases, Always the hurricanes blowing, always the population growing, and the babies crying, and the bullets flying.  I like the island Manhattan.  Smoke on your pipe, and put that in!  I like to be in America…” (That’s from West Side Story for those who don’t know.)   (It was not a popular move on my part to not be a New Kids fan.  My Jr. High years were the HEIGHT of that craze where birthday gift requests consisted of anything New Kids related.  In fact, I think Lisa was best known for her New Kids obsession.  I think she even had the sheet set.  But I just couldn’t fake it; not for her or for anybody.  I would have rather listened to something other than pop at that time; anything else or nothing at all.  And most of what I listened to during those years were Broadway tunes and Oldies.  Yeah, see the popularity hinderance?  I still couldn’t name any song by New Kids.)  Anyhow, she made fun of my “operatic” voice, even though I had actually tried to suppress the vibrato, and light-heartedly referred to me as Opera lady thereafter.  I swear I’ve been self-conscious of that vocal trait ever since.  That’s why I think I was so drawn to Pirates of Penzance…because my voice felt at home singing its songs.

And I loved the costumes.  I never could decide which color dress or shoes I would want to wear the most, or as little girls frequently mistake garb for identity; which girl I wanted to be.  I totally had a crush on Frederic and melted when he reached his high notes in “Is there not one maiden’s breast?”  And it’s the Pirates movie that made me love Kevin Kline.  As much as I appreciate his comedy in A Fish Called Wanda,

I think he’s a comedic genius as the Pirate King in Penzance.  I would’ve loved to put his film version of “I Am A Pirate King” but nobody has uploaded that yet.  Instead, here’s a snippet of “Paradox”:

I know I’ve posted this clip before, but, I can’t help it.  This and the scenes just prior are some of my favorites because you really get some good closeups of the girls’ dresses and shoes.  Plus, it’s the most fun for me to sing.

I want these nightgowns and robes.  Always have.  Wish I were a talented enough sewer.

I swear my singing voice is getting higher than when I was younger (especially when I’m nervous, then my vibrato is totally out of control) because I find I can sing all these parts I stretched at earlier, and it’s been a LONG time since I sang with any good, true, breathing discipline practice.

The only troubles I’m anticipating is Kosette not being able to see over the grown-ups’ heads, and keeping her from singing along in her seat.  This is such a momentous moment for me to be able to share this love of mine, with my daughter.  It really feels like one of those full circle big parent moments.  I know it was the kind I eagerly looked forward to as I awaited her birth.  I wish her Grandpa George and Auntie Kelli were able to come too.  They know what I’m feeling.  And I know Jenny gets it.

I sorta wish I could tell some of my old Jr. High (Laurel Hall) friends, because they REALLY would understand how big this is for me.  They were in choir, drama, and cheerleading with me.  They sang and danced with me at recess and camp.  We watched Aspects of Love at McKenzie’s birthday party, Into the Woods at J.J.’s, and Michael Pourcia and I sang and did a drama skit to “Part of Your World” our frosh year at NDHS.  Christie Nelson and I (sorry, it’s Christine now) sang every single word and part to Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, and Les Miserables.  J.J. and I often sang The Little Mermaid and had Disney song-offs during our long car rides to Disneyland and Cheer Camp.  Wow, memories.  (Ladies, if you somehow stumble upon my blog, you are forever a part of my life and some of my most pleasant Jr. High memories.  Thank you.)  Come to think of it, I bet they’d be quite amused and unsurprised to hear that I named my daughter, “Kosette” (spelled with a “K” instead of a” C” of course).  Yep, Broadway madness was the my  Boy Band obsession equivalent.  In fact, I had a 5 disc cd changer and Les Mis and Phantom (both 2 discs) didn’t come out of their slots for at least a year.

Maybe I’ll get around to telling you how it went.

After a marathon of shopping yesterday in Portland for my bridesmaid’s dress (another post), I spent my day shopping for and with Kosette.  We went all over – Payless Shoes, TJ Max, Famous Footwear, Ross, Target, Old Navy, and Kohls.  Kosette had her very first taste of Slurpee (sorry Icee) and fell instantly in love.  It was mine…cherry…and I let her share it with me feeling guilty to be drinking it myself, feeling extra guilty to be poisoning her with excessive sugars and Red Dye No. 5.  But it was supposed to be “Kosette and Mommy’s Day of Fun!” and I’d promised her ice cream like last year.  Only, “mommy” didn’t feel like ice cream.  Mommy felt like sugary crap that she hasn’t had in at least15 years.  Bad mommy.  But it was uncomfortably warm (Hee, Hee you LAers – that means mid-upper 80s here) and that looked so refreshing as I walked into Target.  So I prefaced it to Kosette that Back-to-School shopping was the ONLY time she could have a Slurpee – ONCE a year – so enjoy it.  I described it as a Cherry Popsicle, only you drink it through a straw.

Mission accomplished – got shoes, socks, leggings, tights, pjs, belts, jeans, and a couple of cute dresses to wear over leggings.  BUT, not a sweater, sweatshirt, or long underwear was to be found.  Considering you need a sweater at night by September I was surprised.  The stores were always swamped with sweaters and turtlenecks in LA when we were still in the sweltering heat of summer so I don’t get it.  Now I’ll have to do a delay trip to pick those things up.  I resisted shopping for myself, save a pair of earrings to wear with the bridesmaid’s dress.

I couldn’t resist one extraneous purchase (deviation from my list but still needed) for Kellen (he’s next on the shopping list) a tshirt.  This Chewbacca long sleeved tshirt, in my humble opinion was a total find, totally worth the full price I paid for it at Old Navy of $12.50:

Now ,  Hear this relatives and Christmas present buying friends – - – Kellen would LOVE every freaking piece of this collection.  Maybe a good time to buy it and set it aside until then.  Hell, I even considered trying on an XL of the Wolverine to see if I could squeeze into one for myself.  They are SOOOOOO soft too.  Like you’ve washed them 500 times.  Why don’t they make this in adult for women!!!!  I would want to own them all too.  Kellen, immediately put it on and only removed it when threatened.  I liked these ones too:

Here’s the link to all of them in case you’re interested:  http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/category.do?cid=5954

Aren’t they RAD?!  I feel bad shopping at all these big chain stores, but I’ve already hit two used clothing stores and Goodwill.  I scored so well at Goodwill last year that Kosette is able to wear all the jumpers I bought her last year and almost every long-sleeve tshirt so I didn’t have to buy too much there.  But she needed all new tights, jeans, and leggings and still needs sweaters and sweatshirts.  But she’s good to go for the start of school.  Here’s a couple of her shoes, thanks to Payless’ buy one get one half off deal.  She was down to one pair of sneakers and one pair of ugly sandals.  And hey, while I’m on the subject of Payless, when the HELL did it get so expensive there?!!!  Target is cheaper if they weren’t having the sale.  That was the whole point of that damned store, to pay LESS.  It’s kids shoes people!  And payless!!!!  Give me a break!  She was down to one pair of sandals and one pair of tennis shoes that have seen better days.  And oh, for the relatives who were wondering about sizes, they have EXACTLY the )same sized feet now.  12.5 would be almost perfect but I bought 13 on everything but the silver flats (12)to make them last longer.  They’ll just have to wear thick socks or put a piece of cotton in and they’ll be fine.  God, I sound like my mother.  I mean, that’s what she did with us.  I get why – 2 kids with all new shoes practically every season, at the very least every half year – that’s crazy expensive.  Man, I sure wish I could get a brand new wardrobe like they do so frequently.  Can you imagine?  As a grown-up?  Cool in theory, but I can see how losing your favorite wardrobe item because you outgrew it (ahem, my favorite J.Jill skirt due to all my summer cheese and alcoholic beverage consumption) could be a little upsetting like it was with Kosette outgrowing her pink suede boots.

To be shared with Kellen

I swear my little sister had nearly identical shoes "back in the day".

So freaking cute. Now, why don't they carry it in my size 7 too?

That’s us.  At least Kosette and I.  Some of you may know that I used to be a Faire Freak, as in Renaissance Faire freak.  There were always some customers that banded about in their fairy costumes.  Some were flipping awesome!  Many booths sold fairy like items, including wings.  Well, when my daughter was 3 or so, my sister bought her her first pair of fairy wings.  This was no cheap dollar store/Michaels set.  They were variable green, woodland fairy, with comfy arm straps, adhered flowers and leaves and such.  Very cool.  They are in tatters now so I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at making her a new pair.

I wanted to share three different sites with you all who are crafters, costume lovers, love playing with makeup, etc. Faire folk.  The first is an awesome site, from a couple people in Portland.  It’s called Threadbangers.  They deconstruct sewing steps down with genius shortcuts that make you feel you could sew any crazy clothing thing.  I’ve lost myself wandering around their amusing videos before.  www.threadbangers.com

The next site is this English chic on youtube who just plays with makeup online while you watch and she tells you what product she’s using and how she’s applying it.  There are a ton of hers showing you every different inspired look under the sun.  Here’s just one fairy type one that she showed.

Lastly, as summer approaches and we discuss our plans, I think about my goal to make it to the Oregon Country Faire in Eugene finally (alot of our old Faire folk go to that and booth owners that used to work the Southern California faire, go to that one).  BUT there’s something I think Kosette and I would like even better.  I stumbled upon it last year online.  It’s called Fairy Fest and it’s in Eugene of all places.  They have a kickass website that you could check out.  There’s awesome music, dancing, and like I love, people go ALL OUT with their costumes.  If I were to choose anywhere in the world that I think Kosette would flipping FREAK out she was so ecstatically happy that the pleasure center of her brain would just explode it would be this event. http://www.faerieworlds.com/

There are some great photos of the event here: http://faerieworlds.smugmug.com/

This event is Faerieworlds 2007 and 2006 not FaerieCon.  Everybody looks so incredibly happy to be there and in the best mood and wanting to commune with others.  Unlike Disneyland, where you wonder if the characters are bitchy jerks behind the scenes hating their job and the parents look like they’re going to throttle their screaming children.

They do a gigantic spiral dance with all the guests even:

I simply must take her this year.  It speaks to her love of music, dancing, playing dress up, fairies, crafting….something we love talking about together.  Especially since she’s on that cusp where the older kids are trying to break down her imaginations with the “reality” and the “truth”.  It seems my neighbor boy is on a mission to destroy her belief in fairies right now.  She asked me recently if fairies were real and I had to answer honestly, “No less real to me than God.”  And we had that eerily similar discussion of “just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  But you can see things in the natural world that seem like fairies were there, or helped them, or made a little mischief.  What matters is that you believe in them.  And fairies don’t appear to non-believers, that’s why John hasn’t seen them.”

You local friends, wanna go with us?  Auntie Julie or Jesse, wanna visit and come with us?  Anybody?

…but we’ve been together for 12 1/2 years, so, we guess the 7 year itch happened 5 years ago for us.  However long it’s been, we definitely don’t feel like the actual numerical years match with how long it feels it has been.  We met the end of my freshman year of college, just after my 19th birthday, while working at the Renaissance Faire.  To celebrate, we wanted to try the traditional, country, French restaurant in town called Le Bistro.  We told the babysitter 2-3 hours max and it was more like 3 1/2+!  The bill reflected it too.  We don’t think we’ve ever paid so much for just the two of us – even at the lovely George’s on the Cove in La Jolla, CA.  It didn’t help that Kham accidentally ordered a $75 dollar bottle of Champagne.  Shucks, darn.  Twist my arm.  Here’s what we ordered for you foodies out there:

Escargot

Assorted cheese platter: Bleu d’Auvergne, Local Goat Cheese, Fromage d’Affinois, St.André Tripple Butter Cream

We skipped the soup or salad because we knew we wouldn’t have enough room for our entree at that point

A Glass each of a Pinot Noir with:

Kari – The Special “Sanglier Grillé” (Grilled wild boar tenderloin with potato dauphinoise and truffle jus) – I was feeling adventurous.

Kham -Grilled Angus beef tenderloin medallions and prawns in an old port wine reduction sauce

For dessert we tried the Bourbon Bread pudding with Caramel and vanilla ice cream and the control I like to compare restaurants by – creme brulee.

————————————————————————

So here’s a cursory restaurant review: The food was quite good but not earth shattering. We’ve had escargot before and ordered it again for the sheer French, well-rounded experience.  The teeny bit of vegetables on the entree seemed an afterthought.  And were as plain as can be – quick steamed.  The cheese was fantastic, most of which were locally made by artisans.  The champagne was lovely, but I’ve had very expensive champagne a few times now, I know the thing about the size and frequency of bubbles, yadda, yadda, but honestly, it doesn’t feel as worth the money as, say, an expensive bottle of wine.  This is coming from a gal whose favorite alcoholic beverage hands down is champagne.  But, I’m content with that $40 range for the most part.  The bread was average, definitely nothing to write home about.  My wild boar, on the otherhand, was terrific.  I’m really glad I tried something new.  I’m a picky meat eater.  I don’t cook it much, or well.  I skeeze out easily.  By the time I’ve finished cooking a meal with meat, I rarely eat it when it’s ready because of seeing and handling the unprocessed version.  So it’s something that I like to order when we eat out, especially when fine dining.  I knew I liked pork tenderloin and figured, boar is wild pig right?  It’s gotta taste like it.  Well, if you haven’t tried it before, you should.  If you eat meat that is.  It has the texture of steak or beef tenderloin when you slice it and chew it, not at all the supersmoothness of its pork cutlet counterpart.  And the flavor, my lord the flavor, like steak with the most delicious pancetta aftertaste, subtle but permeating.  Both Kham and I LOVED the potatos served with it – thinly, crisped scalloped potatoes with delicious cream sauce betwixt the layers.  I’ve got to learn how to make that.  It really accompanied it well.  I thought the port sauce was bit too much on the sweet side.  But maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be.  After all, port is sweet by nature, and if it were reduced it would concentrate its sweetness all the more.  However, it almost didn’t go with the savory of the potatoes and boar it seemed so much on the other side of things.  Kham liked his prawns and beef and noted that the medium rare was more rare than anticipated but delicious.  I liked his sauce better than mine.  The bread pudding was forgettable.  And the Creme Brulee was edible but awful so far as creme brulee goes.  It was gritty and a weird, thick and pasty consistency like mashed potatoes.  Like they overcooked it and it went towards cheesecake.  Service was slow too.  There were definitely not enough wait staff for the rush after a Beaver’s football game.

Those were the particulars, which don’t sound so great as a review, but we had a wonderful evening.  We seduced our pallets as we romanced each other.  And nary a child was mentioned; well, no preexisting one, but a theoretical future one was discussed in depth.  It was agreed that more debates needed to transpire before the one man jury makes a verdict.

I love alliteration; can you tell?

I have a problem.  My name is Kari, and I am a Flower Floozy.  Take me away and throw me into a Gardener’s Anonymous group.  And gardening catalogs, especially Swan Island Dahlias, Heirloom Roses, Schreiner’s Iris, and Annie’s Annuals are my bathroom porn.  I drool, I lust, I dream, I yearn, I covet, I obsess.  I’ve been known to cull cardboard from curbside trash for weed suppression, dumpster dived (literally crawling into) Starbucks’  for boxes, and begged them and other coffee shops in town for grounds and newspapers.  I’ve knocked on doors of people who have tremendous amounts of a perennial that might need dividing and wouldn’t mind sharing.    And this post is all about plants and Dahlias, so after the first paragraph or so, if that’s not your gig, you’ll want to skip this post.

I finally strong-armed my friend, and neighbor, Herma, to come to the famous Dahlia Festival at Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon (about 1 hr. 20 mins. NE of here).  (SID is a well-known national dahlia grower and hybridizer?  Evidently, WA and OR are pretty ideal for their cultural needs.)  She is a dahlia appreciateur as well and we went in on an order together this past spring to save on shipping and get more freebie tubers so it’s not like she didn’t want to go.  It’s just getting this ICU nurse and mom of 3 active kids and a healthy social life of her own with the craziest schedule in the world to commit, and get it, and keep it on her calendar.  So after two years or trying and then missing it for one reason or another, we FINALLY made it.  And boy, was it worthwhile!  We went Labor Day weekend and her teenager, Laura, graced us with her presence (when she wasn’t sleeping in the backseat   Evidently, what was simply a day out of the house and Corvallis no matter what she was doing, turned into a nice memory for her.  Now she has a favorite flower and perhaps, she’ll always associate dahlias with her mom and me and our trip together.  I know I will.

Here’s a rare photo of me.  As you can see, I take my dahlia perusing quite seriously.  With limited space, one must choose the “perfect” one.:

We chatted non-stop to and from, wandered the display gardens, growing fields, and cutting arrangements taking a shitload of pictures and making a gigantic list of wants and must-haves.  I found it extremely helpful seeing them and comparing them in their various contexts: from catalog to indoor cutting arrangement, to ideal display garden, to rows and rows of them growing in the fields.  Having drooled over their gorgeous color catalog for years (you MUST call and order one for $5!) and lusted after many a tuber (tulips grow from teardrop shaped “bulbs”, these grow from rough cylindricallish “tubers,” and bearded iris grow from smoothish, cylindicrallish, fresh-ginger like rhizomes for those who don’t know and maybe want to.) and making many a prioritized list, it helped me make up my mind between some.  For instance, maybe I didn’t like their bush shape, or the “red” looked more soft red/fuschia in the sun, or ones that looked blah in the catalog were quite striking in person but just have difficult coloring to photograph true to hue (as is the case with a lot of reds and purples).

Knowing that Herma liked dahlias but had none, I started her on our mutual addiction by ordering her a handful for Christmas (SID also does gift certificates).  It’s our unspoken agreement that we share our cuttings with each other since she has a house that goes so well with the bold yellows/oranges/reds and mine goes well with all the whites and pastels, pinks, and purples.  I still have to have a red bed whether the reds clash with each other or the house I don’t care, I just love red.

One corner of my backyard garden, I’m dedicating to Kosette and her current love of pinks and purples.  It’s my hot bed and a lot of fun with the girliest of color combination.  Not much in there at the moment (it sounds like a lot more than it looks) just the black stemmed joe pye weed, Royal Purple Smokebush, viburnum, muskmallow (lavatera), Raspberry Wine Bee Balm (Monarda) , purple aster, Blue Girl rose, Color Magic rose, Awakening climbing rose (a better form of the old New Dawn rose to be put on a rebar pillar soon)  (more roses to be determined), lavender, some hydrangeas (Blue Bird, Tokyo delight, and Mme. Emile ___), some hot pink and purple gladiolas, firewitch dianthus , and catmint.  I might also plant that dark purple leaved and “flowered” amaranthus, Lauren’s Grape poppy (the coolest, most stunning poppy especially if backlit , moving two Dallas Blues switchgrasses to there , hollyhocks , Nora Barlow columbine , Blue Springs Penstemon and rose campion , and of course, DAHLIAS!!!

Here’s just a few I’m considering:  (L-R: Dark Magic, Junkyard Dog, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Jennifer’s Wedding, Raspberry Punch, Ryan C, Sayonara, Hugs N’ Kisses, Taboo, Show Off):

Anyhow, Herma dallies with photography and here is what she has cleaned up for viewing pleasure:

http://picasaweb.google.com/hermaornes/DahliaS#