I'm Not Really a Blogger...

There's a nail polish that I wore as part of my getup for the tour I used to do called "I'm Not Really a Waitress." It's an excellent shade of red if you're into that sort of thing. And the name of the color made it more fun to wear somehow. It still amuses me.

I've been trying to figure out why I haven't gotten around to blogging in over a month. I've been busy but not ridiculously so. Well relatively speaking anyway. When I've had free time I've done other things. My brain has been in a different place since I moved back into my house. At least part of my existence is now back to where it should be.

I wasn't a blogger before the fire - in fact I didn't even know what blogging was when I started writing my first posts on the bus back in 2005. I wrote about the fire and its aftermath, put up a bunch of pictures from my three month cruise gig in Europe, wrote about the road gig, used it a little bit to observe how I felt about some of the post fire crap, and then it kind of became a little cheering myself up device, with pretty pictures and random little observations. I needed cheering up because for five years I was trapped in the limbo of our house situation and not particularly happy (rather horrified actually) about the way things were playing out. It was a rather miserable and bleak existence over all. So blogging for me was kind of an escape from all of that.

Now we're finally back in our house - well not completely, but at least we're living there. It feels great to be back. I've always felt some kind of connection with this particular spot. My sense of direction is based here. And there's just something that just feels right about living in the same location where I cut the grass.

Since moving back in we've done very little work on the house which has been wonderful from a labor and dirt perspective although as a person who likes to see things through to completion, it's been a little frustrating and discouraging. But it is so much nicer than it was before so I'll take that. And immediately after we moved back in the gigging started to suddenly pick up a lot, so that was excellent timing.

The only thing missing for me is travelling. I really want to get back to doing ships and/or a road gig. I've had to turn down a number of ship gig offers with really nice itineraries over the past four years and that just sucks. But after we tie up a few final loose ends I'll be free to do that once again. I can't wait!

If I'm going continue to do this blogging thing I'll have to find a different reason to do it. It's kind of nice to not need it to serve as an escape from my miserable existence any longer, hahaha. I know - it'll be the icing on the cake of my happy existence from now on. Or maybe the sprinkles. So if I don't post, it's because I'm on a diet.

So that's enough of that - now back to the usual fare. Yesterday when I was cutting the grass I noticed that one of our magnolia bushes has two random blooms on it, and they are much brighter and darker than what this bush usually puts out in the spring.

And then a tiny baby bunny hopped out from UNDER the mower just in the nick of time. It freaked me out even though it happens all the time, especially when the grass gets long. This one is the smallest I've ever seen. Look how short his little ears are! I turned off the mower and spent a little quiet time sitting there with him while I took his picture. I hope he didn't mind.

(he's hiding)

Things I saw Today

In spite of the distance I alway enjoy driving to Damascus for gigs because the rural scenery is both beautiful and entertaining. The smiling sycamore is always there to greet me, both coming and going.

Speaking of sycamores, I spotted this enormous specimen just off of New Hampshire Avenue out past Ashton.

It's huge! I'm glad those people kept it there when they built their house. I wonder how old that tree is? I've always been in love with sycamores!

The sign below makes me smile every time I see it, but I'm usually driving too fast to read all of it. Today I stopped. I think it was the Monster Worms 24/7 that made me want to take a closer look.

Worms 10 cents, Home of the Lucky Worm, Monster Worms 24/7, 24/7 On Your Honor!

Farther down New Hampshire Avenue, at the intersection with Adelphi Road, the sign twirler was taking a break. Free Rent & Free Utilities sounds like a pretty good deal to me! When he started back up with the twirling, the sign was completely unreadable. That doesn't seem like a very efficient advertising technique. But the free rent makes up for that I guess.

Catching Up

I have a couple of moving memories to share with you, or perhaps I should say memories of moving. What in the world do you think this lovely blending of purples might be? Hint: It's a metaphorical photo that represents the current condition of this blog - I've fallen behind.

So how does this picture represent that? Well it's a fallen behind, mine to be exact. And that's a just modest 5 inch segment of an enormous nine inch bruise that occured when my left cheek hit the sharpest part of a step as I was backing up the stairs with the mattress. It hurt like hell for about two weeks, but it's nearly all gone now.

Nobody wanted our box spring so we took it to the dump the next day. Someone did take the bedframe though. We didn't need it in our new place.

How does it feel to be back in our house? Well it was kind of confusing at first. Everything is a lot more spread out. I'm still unpacking, but the kitchen is almost done. I like my kitchen. There's room for everything to be well organized. I haven't had a dishwasher in years and it is delightful to have one now. Everything comes out so clean and shiny. I like all of my appliances. I like that they are clean, white, and shiny.

The washer and dryer are great too. The clothes come out all fluffy and with none of that gross detergent smell. I don't know why, but I even feel extra clean after I take a shower. I just love the great potential for cleanliness that this house has. For now it's still a construction zone, so every time I accidentally brush against a doorway I get wallboard dust on my clothes. But it's CLEAN wallboard dust, or at least it feels that way.

I'm not really obsessed with cleanliness, although some might argue with that. It's just that the main activities of the past several years have been so yucky and dirty and gross. It's great to just do normal non-dirty stuff for a change.

I now live closer to most of the places I go. Getting my bass and gear in and out of the house and car is much more convenient and there's no mud or gravel to deal with anymore. That is wonderful.

I haven't had to go to Home Depot in three weeks. I haven't worn my paint splattered work clothes out in public for nearly three weeks. Immediately before we moved that I had worn them everywhere, every day, for over three weeks straight. Instead I've worn my black gig clothes just about every day this month. That I don't mind.

I've performed a nice variety of music including Swingtopia on Monday nights at the Greek Village, a trio gig at Sala Thai with a jazz singer, the Mikado at the Atlas Theatre, a different trio at La Ferme, a contemporary cantata at a church on Kent Island, the new opera Shadowboxer at UMD (I'm in the onstage jazz octet), the Beethoven Septet at Dumbarton House, and coming up I've got a Mozart and Haydn orchestra concert at Church of the Epiphany, and Guys and Dolls at a school up in Baltimore.

When I'm home I'm either putting stuff away or wandering around my new house and yard. It's kind of hard to believe I actually live here again, but I'm starting to get used to the idea.

Although I'm going to miss the giant tulip magnolia from the rental place, I will have the growth of this weeping cherry, my second favorite type of flowering tree, to look forward to.

Below is a picture of our river birch with the neighbors' cherry tree in the background. The two main colors in this picture remind me of a Lilly Pulitzer fabric.


I had to mow the grass, which meant that all of the cute little flowers out there would soon be gone, so I crawled around and took a few pictures first. These tiny purple flowers are some sort of weed that causes all kinds of havoc and irritation to my lungs when I mow that particular patch of grass in the middle of the summer, but they are completely harmless to me now. I was thinking as I mowed, about all of the people who have such awful allergy symptoms in the spring and how lucky I am to not have those issues, but then I remembered the weekly hacking ritual that takes place every time I mow the summer version of those tiny flowers. I wonder what they are?

Here are some violets peeking out between the blades of grass.

What I Will Miss the Most

Okay, I know tulip magnolias are SO last week, but at this point so is our move . This huge magnolia tree is what I'm going to miss the most about the place we were renting. It is so beautiful and magnificent and this was its best year ever.

I'm glad I took a few moments out from packing and cleaning to get a few more shots. Two days after we finished moving all of the blossoms were gone.

It's almost as if the tree was saving its best for last, just for us. It will be nice to have one good memory of our time in that house.

I wonder if it would be possible to air-layer one of the branches of that tree? It is a tree that definitely deserves to be cloned, for the greater good of mankind.

Happy Spring!

swamped

That's what I am - completely and utterly swamped. I haven't been taking pictures and I haven't had any blog-worthy thoughts in ages. I've got a one track mind about getting back into our house at the end of the month, not that I'm anywhere near being ready, other than having been READY for about four years, and the only other thing I can fit in right now is music stuff, which I am always delighted to fit in at all times. My house blog is also in a state of extreme neglect at the moment.


Quite coincidentally, a swamp caught my eye recently. I've seen this swamp before - it's right near the intersection of Routes 198 and 32, a little bit east of Laurel, and it usually just looks kind of depressing. We were coming back from visiting a house that was built in the 1920s that friends of ours are planning to buy and fix up (their very first house) and since the swamp was looking a little more pleasant than usual that day I decided to take a few photos.

There were exactly two geese there. I think the Canadian geese are starting to be as plentiful as deer are around here these days, but they'll stake out their own personal pond (or swamp) if they can.


I soon started paying more attention to the jazzy reflections in the water than I did to the actual things making the reflections.


It's all upside down, kind of like my life has been for these last five years. That will be changing soon though. It's going to be rightside up from here on out and I can't wait!

Monday Night Jazz in Silver Spring

Swingtopia will be playing two sets starting at 8:00 every Monday night in March at the Greek Village Restaurant, next to the Colesville Giant at the intersection of Randolph Road and New Hampshire Avenue. There's plenty of free parking. The food is excellent and there's even a small dance floor.

We'll be playing some great swinging octet arrangements of songs from the big band era for your dancing and listening pleasure. If our first month goes well it may become a regular thing, so please come if you can.

Greek Village Restaurant

13476 New Hampshire Avenue

Silver Spring, MD 20904

301-879-2877

A Robin in my 'Hood

As I was picking up my bass this morning I looked out the window and saw a robin sunning himself against the back wall of the Cinderblock Chalet. He's all puffed out. I've never seen such a plump robin before!

"Whatchu lookin' at?"

And then I was almost all the way back home from my rehearsal when I suddenly saw a man in a oilcloth duster riding a black steed down New Hampshire Avenue. The day is still young - who knows what I'll see next? Have a great weekend!

Snow Remains

The weather's been so gloomy lately and I'm extra relieved that the snow storm missed us today. There's still a ridiculous amount of snow left over from last time. I saw huge mountains of snow piled up in Olney yesterday.






Thankfully the snow is only about a third of what it was in most places. And the birds are starting to come back. On Sunday I saw a flock of 16 robins, but I didn't have my camera with me until yesterday. I hope that they'll be sticking around now that they are here.

And the local hawk is back up on his wire, staring down the mice and other critters. My least favorite season is almost over!

It's always something...

I haven't had the time or the energy to post in a while - we've been too busy shoveling out of one place and into another. When we finally made it into our house we were in such a huge hurry to get most of the rest of the basement drywall mudded, sanded, and painted, that we decided to just ignore this situation just outside our back porch for the time being.

Yuck, more work for us, just what we need. Yesterday we finally shoveled around far enough in the back to see the extent of the damage. It looks like the roof survived just fine, but the bottom section of our cedar tree has been rather severely and crudely pruned by the heavy snow.


So in addition to the work on the house ALWAYS taking longer than either of us could possibly expect, we are going to have to clear these branches out of the way in order to move in. It's pretty obvious that we won't be able to move in by the end of this month. So that's another month of rent we'll have to pay. The snow has really held us back.


Those are some big branches that came down!


Elsewhere in our back yard, a woodpecker sits at the end of yet another broken off tree branch.


Speaking of trees, I'll be playing in the pit for Scott Joplin's rarely performed opera, Treemonisha, next weekend. The music is lovely - operatic ragtime, if you will. And the singer who plays Treemonisha has an absolutely gorgeous voice.

Freedom!

By about 4:oo we were tired of being cooped up and the snow seemed to be tapering off so we went outside and did four hours of shoveling. Well I did, anyway, because I was determined to make it out to the street. Doug pooped out and went in to cook some delicious black beans and rice.


I finally made it all the way out to the street so tomorrow we can go for a walk, or shovel some more and go work on our house.

With the life I've been living for the past three years, there's not been much point in caring how I look when I go out in public (which usually means Home Depot). That attitude served me well today when I devised these knee length waterproof shoe covers. The rubber bands even provide a little traction, and color. I used to have boots for the snow but that is one of the things I never got around to replacing. Anyway my feet stayed totally dry and warm - it was pretty amazing


It was great to be out in the fresh air and snow, getting some exercise after having worked in the basement for the past couple of weeks. It almost felt the same as skiing, except it was cheaper and not as much fun. But there was no risk of injury and the exercise felt good.


I think my car is more than halfway dug out. It'll nice to have options tomorrow instead of being totally trapped.

Here's the Cinderblock Chalet looking more attractive than usual in the snow. Look at all that snow on top of the trash can.

Sentimental Snowfall

Here's a perfect song for a day like today, Claude Thornhill's beautiful arrangement of "Snowfall" which became his theme song.

This arrangement was going to be the closing tune at the gig at Glen Echo last Saturday which was cancelled due to guess what? Snowfall.

Here's a possibly even more gorgeous arrangement of this beautiful tune which I first became aware of thanks to Washington Cube. Enjoy!

Groundhogs and Ghosts

Is it ever going to stop snowing? It's been so icy cold lately even when the sun finally decides to come out. I guess the weather feels like it needs to make up for the pleasantly mild winter we had last year.

Today was the birthday of my very favorite groundhog. We had a very low key celebration at the start of the day, which began shortly after midnight.


Last night I finally got a shot of the deer who lounge around in my back yard most nights. The one in the middle decided to get up when he saw my car. The one on the right seems to be completely unphased by the headlights aimed at him while he's relaxing on the ground. The one on the left is munching on my neighbor's azalea bush.


In my other backyard, my soon-to-be ex-backyard, I was attempting to take a picture of the Wolf Moon when a ghost suddenly appeared


And that somehow inspired me to go for an impressionistic effect instead.


I think I've been snorting too much drywall dust lately, or breathing too many paint fumes. I'm definitely starting to hallucinate again.