I have a new niece today, Miss Ariel Louise Bartelt, first child of my brother-in-law Bruce Bartelt and his wife Mary Terranova. I'm thrilled for them, and tickled to have a little one in the family. No one in my family is having any kids, and Ariel's only first cousin in John's family is about to graduate from college. I kind of hope Mary and Bruce have at least one more child, if only to give her someone her own age to play with.
Yesterday's Thanksgiving feast was a great success. Alf, our German visitor, was a bit bewildered by the holiday in general, and the food in specific, but he ate an enormous amount and laughed a lot so I feel sure he'll assimilate in no time at all. Michael, contrary to his claims of being somewhat introverted, was a chatty, happy, amusing guest. Bill got a bit gloomy when we discussed Antiques Roadshow, feeling it epitomized the late 20th century urge to get rich quick without working for it, but I assured him it wasn't about that at all, although of course it's very exciting to find out something you like is also worth more than you paid for it.
Julie brought a card game called Apples To Apples, and we played a round. The players all have red cards with names of famous people or objects or statements like, "My first date." on them, and someone else lays down a green card with a concept on it like Visionary or Primitive or Horrifying. You have to slap down a card that matches the concept. The green card holder picks the red card they think best defines their concept, and the winner collects the green card. It got quite silly. Alf did very well, and had a great sense of humor about playing a card game larded with American pop culture and concepts that didn't really translate into German quickly. He got more green cards than I did, in fact.
There has to be a joke about Germans and green cards in there somewhere, but I'm too blissed out from consuming my own weight in pumpkin pie to think of it.
One of the things I like best about Thanksgiving is the rest of the week. The house is spotless, there's so much leftover food I don't have to cook for days, and I have enough time to work on all my projects with no chores hanging over my head. So often weekends are nothing but catching up with laundry, housecleaning, and errands. This is my second favorite holiday of the year.
Christmas is the third favorite, and now I'm finally willing to think about it. It bugs me deeply to see the Christmas decorations in stores before Halloween, and I refuse to have anything to do with the holiday until Thanksgiving's over. Of course, I don't have much shopping to do. I already know what I am getting for Mary Lou and John, and I'm sure I'll think of the perfect gift for Dad between now and mid-December. I usually find something like tree ornaments for the people I work with, and we're going in on a present as usual for our bosses. I haven't exchanged gifts with my brother or sister for years now. The main project is my Christmas cards, and I send those out to about 50 people, so I'm going to be working on those this weekend.
But first I have to finish planting bulbs. I know, I thought I was done. First I had more bulbs than containers, and then more containers than bulbs, so I bought about 50 more bulbs at the nursery's end of season sale today, and now I've got just enough of everything. I put the big King Alfred yellow daffodils with the dark blue Siberian squill in one big pot this afternoon, and the horrid pink tulips with the rose and white checkered fritillaria in the remaining pot. I've still got to plant about 30 freesia bulbs on top of 4 red astilbe in two 26" rectangular containers, and do something with a dozen pale yellow, bright yellow, and brick red violets but that won't take long. I've put the flowering cabbage in its own clay pot since it gets to be about 10" across. I sincerely hope hostas are supposed to die off every winter, because otherwise I'm going to cry. Ditto the pink astilbe whose leaves are yellowing, shriveling, and dying back. The chrysanthemums contracted a bad case of mildew so I think the drainage is bad in the container they're in. Everything else looks acceptable. The abutilon is still flowering, bless its sturdy little heart.
I like gardening in part because it helps me feel the rhythm of the earth, and keeps me aware of the seasons as they roll past. It's easy to ignore time because I live so much in my head. Pets don't change much from year to year, and neither do I at this age. I don't want to forget that each part of the year has its particular pleasures, and gardening focuses my attention on such things. Having a little niece will be another anchor in time, slowing me down long enough to see where I am, not just where I'm going. Welcome, Ariel. I look forward to meeting you.
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