Thursday, May 5, 2022

Bitter And Sweet


All righty! Let's begin again with the chick pic. Would you look at the little feather which has already appeared on that baby's wing? Five days old! My god. I am so amazed every time I see that happen. The peeps are still doing well, Darla is being the best mama imaginable. And not to belabor a point or to compare humans and chickens but even a hen has the inner sense to know when she has all the babies she wants at the moment and has no qualms whatsoever about abandoning those eggs she has no more interest in. And let us not forget that many hens disdain the idea of motherhood for themselves at all and generously and eagerly give their eggs over for another mom to raise. 


Here's one of my girls today, practically shoving Violet off her nest in order to get in a last minute shot at having a surrogate take over. I can just imagine her saying, "Here honey, you look like a good mom. I don't have the time or the energy for that mess."
Of course I'll take that egg away. No chance in hell it's going to hatch when the rest of Ms. V's eggs do. If indeed any do hatch. I've been checking her several times a day now and no signs of pipping yet. But honestly, it could be next week before that happens. 

I took a walk this morning. It was a dinky walk and it sucked and was torturous and hot. I rewarded myself by plucking a magnolia blossom from a tree down the road a little way. 


It is not fully open yet and as the evening draws near, it has closed up even tighter but tomorrow it will open entirely and then the stamens will fall from the center, spilling over like scattered matchsticks. Meanwhile, it is scenting my hallway with its lemon spice, its pale ivory beauty. It is absolutely the most glorious blossom I know and its life is short and deserves to be observed and even (dare I say?) worshipped while it still lives. I may take it into the bedroom with me tonight so that I won't miss a second of its scent and it will greet me when I wake. 

I had to go BACK to town today to get my permanent crown affixed. It is not a bejeweled crown, nor even a golden crown but a regular old enamel-whatever crown on a tooth. I have to tell you that there was pain involved in getting it set and I am not at all sure it's right. I know my dentist and he will MAKE it right if it is not but I'd really rather not have to go through that shit. I thought about traveling on down the road a bit after I left the dental office to go to a different, larger Goodwill but I decided that no, I just wanted to come home. 
And so I did. 

I have been lazy. Truly. And I do not care. Tomorrow will be a Levon and August pick-up day and Mr. Moon will be home so I have just enjoyed the quiet, the sweet cool solitude in my house and on my porch. I sat down at the piano again and negative thoughts began to seep into my brain like, "Jesus, Mary. You really do suck at this. You have made NO improvement in three days!" 
Ay-yi-yi and la-di-dah. 
Improvement? At the age of sixty-seven, almost sixty-eight I should focus on improving something that I was never any good at? 
No. So ridiculous. 
The real question is why I even worry about such bullshit. 
I discovered that in the back of that Second Grade John Thompson book there was a "certificate" that my teacher had filled out. Here it is. 



Halloween! 
In 1964 I was in the fourth grade at Sebastian Elementary School. Mrs. Muller had dated the book at the beginning when I started it on July 30, 1963, two days after my 9th birthday, which means it took me over a year to get through the lessons, the songs, in that book to my teacher's satisfaction. There is no filled-out certificate at the end of Book Three. 
My life in the fourth grade changed radically as that's when my mother married my stepfather and I have some pretty big chunks of memory missing. None of the things I do remember are happy. And in the interest of historic placement, Oct. 31, 1963 was twenty-two days before the assassination of JFK. Which I do very much remember. 
Ah well. 
It is still somehow miraculously a joy to sit down and reach for those notes, most of it nothing more than muscle memory, and I wonder what these gnarly fingers looked like when I was nine years old, stretching to reach an octave. I could not have possibly imagined then what the years would do to my knuckles, my soul, my heart, my innocence, my mind, my world, the world. 

At least I still have most of my original teeth. 

Oh! Here's a blooming aloe. 


Love...Ms. Moon


21 comments:

  1. I've had kitchen aloes over the years, working fine as burn treatments, but they've never flowered.
    Maybe some new sheet music from the thriftie, without the memories attached, would be fun.

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    1. Oh, but I do like some of these songs so much! And having played them before, there is a tiny bit of head start with it all.

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  2. I have never seen a flowering aloe. Amazing!

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  3. I've never seen an aloe flower, either. And for the record, I did not make it to the end of grade 2 before I gave up piano.

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    1. I wonder what the stats are on the percentage of kids who take lessons for five years or more.

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  4. Those Chicks and that little emerging Wing Feather! Yes, all Creatures have Natural instincts about Motherhood, they vary from each Individual and is deeply personal as only something of your own Body can be. Tho' yes, it breaks my Heart when a 'Baby' of any Creature is abandoned, neglected, killed or otherwise decided by it's biological Mother is not going to be her Choice to 'Mother', I defend every Maternal Creature's Choice in that matter, which does not give me any Rights over their Right to choose what they will. The whole mess in the Supreme Court right now is a slippery slope and who they come for next is predictable in a very bad, bad way that is more than a bit terrifying actually.

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    1. Again, I agree with everything you said here. I am terrified not only for my daughters and grand daughter, but also for the members of my family who are part of the LGBTQ community.

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  5. Wing feathers already! I noticed all three chicks have them, although two are smaller and barely seeable. The magnolia blossom is beautiful. We have a tree here in the grounds, but it is huge and the blossoms are unreachable.

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    1. My magnolias are the same which is why I find myself stealing others from more accessible trees.

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  6. A pesky editorial note: Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, not 1964. (My journalism background is showing itself.)

    I can't believe the tiny wing on that tiny chicken! The one at the top in that picture has a little wing showing, too. I had no idea the wing feathers grew out that quickly.

    You stayed in piano longer than I did. I believe I took two years of lessons, and I know I got through the beginner's book and into the second-level book, but I quit there.

    I love aloe flowers. Our aloe never blooms. I think it doesn't get enough sun.

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    1. But 1963 is what Mary said.

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    2. Because I went back and changed it, Liz! Thanks, Steve. I always get that wrong because for me, fourth grade was 1964 but of course, it was only '63 when I started. And yes, baby chicks get their wing feathers very quickly. It's so crazy!
      I believe there are different varieties of aloes and they may not all have such statuesque blooms.

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  7. Sweet to see that piano certificate - "very good pupil"! Congrats!
    The chicks are so sweet.
    My permanent bridge has never felt normal in my mouth and my tongue is always fiddling with it. I keep thinking I just have to get used to it but it has been a couple of years now so??!! Whatever.
    Your description of the magnolia blossom is just wonderful!

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    1. I was a bit shocked to see the "very good pupil" comment! Ha! I suppose I tried. I was a good girl.
      24 hours later and I'm still not at all sure this crown is right.

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    2. Get the crown looked at, it may just need a height adjustment or something easy like that. I had two crowns and a bridging tooth for years and never even noticed them, until the roots of the original teeth holding the crowns rotted away and the whole thing just fell out. I had to have those roots drilled out and now have a denture instead.

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  8. I took piano lessons for probably less than a year. I don't remember if I stopped because I decided it wasn't for me or because my mother got tired of driving me there. The neighbors' magnolias are blooming but not ours yet as it doesn't get the same amount of sun and is crowded by a pecan on one side and a maple on the other. But it will bloom.

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    1. Here's to your magnolia! I can smell some of the blossoms on mine even though I can't see them!

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  9. The chicks are beautiful and yes, mother nature seems to do a much better job of limiting family size.

    On the way into work there was a canada goose walking with her chicks across the road. And there were some feathers on the road and then a goose sitting in the gutter, not moving.

    I went over and the goose was alive but stunned. It had been hit by a car and that person just drove off. The goose had some blood in it's mouth but I convinced it to get on the sidewalk.

    After a few minutes it started walking across the road to be with it's mate, with me following behind and stopping traffic. It made it safely across the road but I had to yell at some old asshole to fucking stop!

    I hope the bird survived.

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    1. Oh, man. Blood in the mouth does not sound good. I sure hope that goose makes it too. People can be such incredibly uncaring assholes.

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  10. 37paddington: no self judgment allowed when you sit down to play the piano! That is soul play and therefore pure. At least that’s my impression from your description of how it feels to you when you’re doing it. Could this chicks be any sweeter? I love hearing you’ve had a lazy day. It makes me feel like less of a sloth haha.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.