I planted my Thornbury Castle rose early last spring. It was a mere sprig of a twig and I had doubts that it would survive my rugged garden. However, thrive it did once I transplanted it to a sunnier location, and by September it  had grown in height to a couple feet tall and had produced a few lovely blooms. It went through the northern Virginia winter without a bother.

~*~The Slide Show ~*~

This Spring, each morning and evening, I have been watching my one-year-old Thornbury Castle rose continue its growth, as I relax on my front porch rocker. Although there was a slight bout with aphids early on, which I sprayed with “House & Garden”, the plant has been doing well. Today there are eight buds sprouted upon it, with color showing, and I snapped a portrait.

I have been so pleased with the progress of the little rose, that I ordered four more this spring from the same nursery. They seem quite expensive, especially with the hefty shipping charges, but I am having fun enough, so far, to justify the steep cost.

For my sunny front garden, a few yards away from the Thornbury Castle, I planted Margaret Merrill. Then on the side of my house we (me and my helper - Captain Cliff) dug up a climbing Queen Elizabeth that had never bloomed in the ten years since I planted it, and replaced it with Zéphirine Drouhin, a rose-pink large flowered thornless climber. Here’s hoping that Ms. Douhin lives up to her name. She is now less than a foot tall - so has a long way to go to climb that trellis that is now being encroached by honeysuckle. Then at the border with the woodland I planted Lyda Rose; it has apple-blossom-like flowers and will bloom profusely in the shade, or so it is promised. We will see how Miss Lyda likes it there at the gateway to the Wild Wood.

Yesterday, I lost control, once again, of my plans to stop creating work for myself, and ordered another rose. This one is said to do well in a container, so I thought that I might give it a try in front of my garage. I usually plant a Mandeville there each Spring, but then in the Fall it is a bit of a chore to remove it and all of its woody vines. I decided to go for a rose that I can leave in the pot year after year. So now I am awaiting “Cream Abundance.”

• Thronbury Castle Rose
• Margaret Merrill
• Zéphirine Drouhin
• Lyda Rose
• Cream Abundance

The image, Rosebuds, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

The Baltimore Market of My Memories

This Mother’s Day weekend I visited Baltimore’s Lexington Market, in remembrance of the times I went there with my mother as a toddler. I remember that I always found it to be a most frightening place, as I only saw the legs and feet of other shoppers. I remember tightly grasping onto my mother’s skirt as my younger brother and I stayed with her as she shopped.

I don’t remember exactly what groceries she usually purchased, however seeing the market displays this weekend told me that I would have been even more frightened as a toddler if I could have seen above the legs and feet of the shoppers to the iced shelves of the fishmongers’ and butchers’ products. The food items displayed this weekend brought back long forgotten memories of the dishes my mother prepared - fried scrapple, oxtail soup, crab soup, crab cakes and shad roe. Lexington Market Displays (Slide Show)

I wonder how my mother managed to get all of her purchases back home, as she did not drive? Perhaps my father picked us all up after work. Or, perhaps she travelled by street car, which was a very usual way of getting about the city in those long ago days. Then I wondered how she would have managed the street car ride with two toddlers in tow and bags of groceries. As my memories of those days are almost vanished, I can only wonder at how she accomplished all of those things in those bygone days.

I found one provender who claimed to be an old-timer at the Lexington Market. He was the man at the Muskrat-Raccoon-Alligator counter in my pictures. He began describing the way it was in the 1970s when he first arrived on the scene. I told him that my remembrances were from much earlier - like just after World War II in the 1940s. His eyes glazed over as he told me that there was no one alive today at the market who could remember back that far. It was almost as though I was speaking of the eighteenth century days, like 1782, when the Lexington Market first opened. (The Slide Show)

The image, Lexington Market, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

Yesterday - believe it or not, the earth moved in Northern Virginia.

We had a mini earthquake in Virginia and the event even has a name. It is “The North Springfield/Ravensworth/Annandale Earthquake” of May 2008.  The epicenter of the quake was at one of the warehouses on Port Royal Road in Springfield, Virginia: 38.806° NO, 77.220° WE.

I was digging in my garden along the side of the house when there was a sudden muffled boom that shook our dwelling place. Captain Cliff came running from his downstairs office looking for a fallen tree that he expected had crashed upon our roof. That was his first reaction. To me it felt like the earthquakes I remembered from our days living in California. That mention by me of an earthquake in Virginia caused the good Captain to immediately guffaw the idea. Our next door neighbor, Mary Elizabeth, came running out of her house, so we knew it was not only our home affected.

The USGS Earthquake Center on the Internet first listed it as a 1.8 Magnitude “micro quake” that occurred at 1:30 pm with an epicenter in Annandale, south of NOVA Community College, off of Route 236/Wakefield Chapel Road, and west of Interstate 495.

By evening, the USGS had slightly updated the epicenter and magnitude, based upon more data they had gathered. The newly identified epicenter is now located between Port Royal Road and Queensberry, just to the west of the Port Royal Road warehouses and businesses.

You can learn more about our rare earthquake by going to this USGS site:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/ld1022071.php

If it had not been an earthquake, I felt it could have been caused by some sort of detonation at the Army’s nearby Fort Belvoir. Apparently the Army has reported to the news media that there had been no explosions or detonations at Fort Belvoir on that day.

So … we probably had a “real” earthquake, something of a rarity around here, but never an impossibility. Considering that our earthly abode rests upon the crusty surface of a swirling sphere of molten rock, we are lucky to have the peace and calm that we usually enjoy. Virginia Quakes

Here I am at the Top of the Rock - New York City. Amazingly, this is where my travels along Route 66 took me in late April. My most DARling friend Candace snapped this picture of me and, as I am wont to do, I had fun with some creativity of sorts.

There were seven of us Darling Dames who “Vamoosed” to New York City from Virginia. After crossing the river, we stopped in Bethesda to fetch a Marylander Darling Dame and her friend Joyce. Then it was northward for all nine of us, non-stop to New York City.

Oh what a time we had! Our very first encounter, while sauntering about Times Square, was ”The Naked Cowboy.” What more could a gaggle of mature ladies ask for?

We supped at all of the famous eateries that we could possibly manage - Becco’s, Patsy’s, Sardis and the Dean & Deluca Rockefeller Center Café. We saw two Broadway plays, “Young Frankenstein” and “Legally Blond.” I loved “Legally Blond.” It was innocent, carefree and overflowing with delightful dance. My travelling companions were not as enamored of that musical as was I. They liked the more sophisticated “Young Frankenstein.” Of course, that is why I am Edna and they are NOT.

So here I was, on top of the world, - almost -, for a few short moments. How it was we managed to cram so much excitement and sisterly camaraderie into just two days, I could never explain. We passed one entire day travelling the Streets of New York on the top of a red double-decker tour bus. We debarked near to Ground Zero and strolled about. Finally, after two nights on Broadway, we “Vamoosed,” homeward bound, driven by the “Meanest Bus Driver in the World.” However, we did arrive back to Maryland and Virginia safely, and that is the most important thing that any bus driver can accomplish, miserably cantankerous though he be.

Continuing in the superlative vein, our trip was capably planned and coordinated by the World’s Greatest Tavel Consultant, Queen Bee Judith, and led by New York City’s Finest Tour Guide, Dame Mary of Maryland. Think of this - it was “some” of our own husbands who joyfully drove us to the bus stop. How thoughtful of them to see us all off, she wrote, tongue in cheek. 

The image, Top of the Rock, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

We had the pleasure of visiting a lovely home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland last weekend. A classmate from Captain Cliff’s Naval Academy days had built a home on a peninsula on Harris Creek of the Choptank River. The location, previously a corn farm, was beautiful, with osprey and bald eagles soaring above. The owners are continuing the farming tradition, albeit, with much more variety for the use of themselves and friends. At the corner of his home I spotted this old farm bell and I photographed it with an ulterior motive in mind.

Our eldest son’s family had given us an antique farm bell last Christmas and it has been in a box in the garage since. I was hoping that this picture would inspire Cliff to buy a post for our bell and install it in our garden. So far, it has inspired him to make a trip to Home Depot. Perhaps not too distantly in the future I will be able to show a picture here of my own farm bell.

The image, Farm Bell Poster, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

I had a vision of this flowering window a few Springs ago when I planted a tiny sprig in the narrow rocky strip of land along the fence border. I was hoping to see blossoms through the window panes, instead of merely weathered fence boards. My dream of loveliness has come true this Spring and I am rejoicing that I am able to see this miracle come true.

The image, Clematis Window, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.

I have been listening to G.K. Chesteron’s “A Short History of England” from librivox.org and am quite enjoying it; so much so, that I think I should read it in text, as there is so much to savor that is not possible when briefly hearing it, or when missing a word. However, I think the title is a misnomer. In my opinion, the book should have been entitled “An ‘Opinionated‘ History of England,” I think.

The author certainly loves to use paradox in the manner of Charles Dickens. One of the most famous lines in English literature is the opening of Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities.” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… .” Chesterton uses this type of paradox construction about a dozen times in each and every chapter, it seems. I feel he overdoes it a bit.

However, … this lode star of life I love: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

Here is an even SHORTER history of England: \”The History of England\” by Jane Austen.

Oh Glory! PBS is having another complete Jane Austen night. I have enjoyed every moment of this series. It has been so wonderful. She lived more than 200 years ago and wrote only six novels before she died at the young age of 42 - but what an influence she has had on women … and English literature … and drama … and even the Internet. When I first discovered the Internet, almost a decade ago, the first genre of web sites I encountered was the Jane Austen type of fan clubs that existed to celebrate every nook and cranny of Jane’s England. For now, I’m off to watch the tellie - to see the galloping horses, the lovely English dancing and the charming young ladies and men, the exquisite costumes, and the English countryside.

“We all have our best guides within us, … if only we would listen.” It was a good lesson 200 years ago, and it is a good lesson still.

Whoo Whee … I finished listening to all eleven plus hours of Lizzie Driver’s reading of “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift. Wow! How did she do it?

What a depressing ending! Imagine returning home after, was it eleven years, and your family still loves you, but you hate and detest them all, plus your friends too. For the love of horses! And I never even knew that I was a Yahoo too. I thought Yahoos were people that I labeled as bumbling incompetents. I didn’t know I was one. And so are you, dear reader. If you don’t believe me - read the book: Gulliver’s Travels.

Now I feel like reading something fun - like “Alice in Wonderland.” But I think I read that a few weeks ago. It’s already a Vanished Memory. I ordered “Longitude” from Amazon, and it arrived today. I told Cliff that I bought it for him, as he’s a technical scientific person, but I really want to read it. I wonder if that would be fun to tackle?

The cheery cherry tree that we planted in our front garden about four years ago is in full bloom today. It is beautiful! My memories of it shall never vanish, as I have captured them with my trusty Canon point and shooter, which I love, for just that reason.

This tree is the Yoshino, Japan’s favorite cultivated cherry tree developed more than one hundred years ago. More than 3,700 of these trees grow around the Tidal Basin, at East Potomac Park, and on the Washington Monument Grounds. Can that number be true? I got it from the National Park Service.

I planted this tree because my husband has always exclaimed over one whenever it blooms on a property that he owns in Burke, Virginia. My neighbers on either side of my house also have cherry trees. The one on the south side has a weeping cherry which blooms after mine. The neighbor below us planted a double flowering Kwansan cherry tree, so that we can delight in even more spectacular cherry blooms when the weeping cherry is finished. We love our cherry trees here, and they love being here too.

The image, Cherry Blossoms, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Barneykin’s account.

Visit Neddy’s Archives for more of Edna’s writings.