a southern gal in the north

its out but its out.  seemingly hard to get.

My yellow rose – Charlotte (David Austin)

One of the echinaceas is TRYING very hard to BEAT that GHOG – hardly any leaves (but its still going)

Various Rudbeckias

my artistic shot of Charlotte’s bloom

Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn Quietly End Their Marriage

By Matthew Westphal
21 Aug 2006

André Previn (left) and Anne-Sophie Mutter
photo by Deutsche Grammophon

Anne-Sophie Mutter, at 43 one of the world’s most celebrated violinists, and renowned composer and conductor André Previn, 77, have quietly ended their four-year marriage, according to reports from the London Mail on Sunday and United Press International.

Sources quoted in the reports indicated that the reason the marriage ran into trouble was that the aging Previn was unable to keep up with the extremely busy and peripatetic schedule that Mutter, as one of the most in-demand instrumental soloists on the scene, maintains. While Previn just completed a term as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic and maintains relationships with the London Symphony and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, he travels far less than he once did and reportedly now concentrates on composing.

Previn was married four times previously, most famously to actress Mia Farrow. Mutter had been married once before, to attorney Detlef Wundelich (also nearly three decades her senior), who died in 1995.

When Previn and Mutter married in 2002, the match was widely publicized as being creative as well as romantic. He wrote several works for her, including a violin concerto which they toured widely together and whose DG recording won a Grammy Award in 2005.

When asked, in 2002, by David Patrick Stearns of The Philadelphia Inquirer whether being married to the composer of a concerto allowed special insights, Mutter replied, “The musician’s compositions and private personality have little to do with each other. I don’t think I would play the Beethoven Violin Concerto any different if he were my husband.”

Previn chimed in, “Married to Beethoven? I can’t cope with that thought!”

PlaybillArts: News: Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn Quietly End Their Marriage.

This is Katie in her new spot – it was in the mid 80s.  She used to sleep/stay in the very front room (the music room) which is actually one of the hottest as it gets the full afternoon sun.  When we all first moved here a year ago (aug 29 – yes that day), she pretty much stayed in that room most of every day.

But about a month or so ago, she has ventured into the back of the house and actually will be found in different spots thru the day – on the cool tiles of the bathroom floor, stretched out in the door to the kitchen watching as i clean up/cook etc.   lounging on the hooked rugs in the long hallway.

She seems to finally be settling down – i have even seen her sleep on the sofa – especially the week i had the AC on (when it was 90–100) and the AC was blowing right on the sofa.

all this is because i am ALMOST finished the shawl – almost done with the last repeat (i am doing 17 or is it 16, i guess i have to recount) and then just the 12 rows of the edging and cast off !

and then onto blocking.  which will be an experience as i have never had the room nor right stuff to block properly – so i really didnt (but in defence this is the first fine lace shawl i have made – the others were heavier weights and just steaming them with he iron seemed to work – although i guess i could block them and see how they react). 

anyway, i have the fiberboard that i read on some blog to use and i just have to tape them together and pin the shawl after it soaks – oh and i have to do this outside in the yard cause there is no space in my width challenged apt to lay anything down. (only 12 ft wide).  and then once its done i guess i will bring it inside and stand it up next to one of the hallway walls.

i hope it works.

i THOUGHT i had secured the perimeter of the yard – BUT NO the ever nasty present GHOG squeezed his way in thru the handmade fence sometime early sunday morning.

Here is what the RECOVERED Hollyhocks looked like on Sat when i finally took down the plastic bag that had screened them.

I dont have a picture right now cause i am still numb – but imagine them all droopy and the far left plant is totally denuded as are the front plants and the rest are falling over.

UPDATE

and not to mention the DESTROYED STATICE which had JUST RECOVERED and many many echinacea leaves eaten too.

i am SO LIVID i could SCREAM. and almost want to pull up the whole f$#*$*$g garden bed.

i spent two hours late Sunday afternoon REDOING that fence in the top photo -= adding another layer of boards.

and then did work on the other possible INTRUSION spot – between the new fence and the neighbor’s fence where there is a gap large enough for an animal to climb up an old wire fence from the next yard and walk across the ledge and then up and over the wire fence into my yard.  (see it on the far right of the photo below).

I added a “mini-fence” between the new fence and the old fence on the ledge itself so nothing can use the ledge as its personal promenande to my garden.  My cordless screwdriver ran out of juice i had used so many wood screws so i just have two screws left to put in place – but it is very sturdily wedged in.

AND

i am going to get BARBED WIRE and put it on top of ALL the openings – I really dont CARE if the F#$**&*%G animals get impaled on it… i am SICK AND TIRED OF LOSING MY PLANTS to this INFERNAL PEST.

and my next door neighbor who shares the garden and is likes the ghog (of course she has hostas in her one bed) told me today that she saw a raccoon one night last week.

;(

not much knitting last night – but above is the latest of the Flower Basket shawl – i am at the “ok, how much more of this!” stage .

can’t decide if i have enough repeats – i have about 12–13 (need to recount) and am not sure how much longer i should make it – its out of the Elann Baby Cashmere yarn –  the gauge is 28 st/4 inches 3.25 mm (US 3) – but i am using US 6 and of course its lace so it will be blocked.  Elann calls it  “Fingering gauge” .  The confusion of the knitting weight terms!

Anyone have any idea as to how much this may stretch?  or any experience with the blocking? 

I want a fairly large shawl… so i can wrap it around to keep me warm during the cold winter months.

and i am itching to start something new… will have to poke around my stash and see what’s there (still need to re-inventory a casualty of getting the garden put in this summer – i havent reinventoried since i moved last august).   

i really want to make an aran cardigan and a fair isle cardigan for this fall/winter.  will have to sufing in my magazines/patterns stock.

and here is one of my new favorite weather toys

its a Weather Stick.  i love it!

remember that horrid back corner … well, look at it now!  just two hours on Saturday afternoon and so much better!

and here is my makeshift gate (have to find out how much it will cost to get a real gate)

don’t even ask about it – Sunday morning, i found the board pushed aside and yes. more. eaten.plants.  well. ok. here is that damage.

some of it – this time he got to the rudbeckias as well – i didnt take photos of them.  THANK GOODNESS i had left the wire cage around the hollyhocks – so he couldnt get at them – something inside said to wait.

so Sunday afternoon i put the boards on the top of the plywood and filled the ice chest with the cement blocks (a neighbor has been clearing out his basement – makes mine look positively clean in comparison – you should see the s$%t he has put on the street). anyway, i know its not the best looking ‘gate’ but it is apparently doing the trick – the chest is pretty heavy even for me to move and no way is he going to climb that – i added two more boards to close up the gaps on the sides.

so i have to save my pennies to see about getting a gate put there.  i am tired of spending money on this ghog problem.

and then today my lovely next door neighbor built a little screen for the only other hole – which he has not discovered yet – and then we covered the other hole in the wall of the metal shed

sheesh you would think our back yard is swiss cheese central  – ill get photos of those tomorrow.

and for something cheerful – remember the dying Clematis?  well lookie here!

and more things are flowering – i have to keep reminding myself this is a BABY garden – its just the first year and be grateful for the blooms i am getting.

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Tanglewood is the place to be
James Levine is drawing young talent to the music center

By Richard Dyer, Globe Staff | August 13, 2006

LENOX — James Levine has changed the Tanglewood Music Center not just by the things he’s done, but also simply by being there.

When BSO music director Serge Koussevitzky founded the TMC in 1940, it was unique. Now there are many other places where a talented young musician can go in the summer to develop his or her artistry. For years, the presence of Tanglewood icon Leonard Bernstein made the TMC the place to be, despite the competition. And that phenomenon is happening again because Levine is in the Berkshires.

Many of the outstanding students chose Tanglewood over the alternatives because Levine’s presence and programming attracted them. They get to do things they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do anywhere else, unless someone like Levine were in charge, and there aren’t many “like” Levine. The only other performance of Strauss’s “Elektra” played by young musicians that one can think of was a year ago, at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland — when the conductor was Levine.

James Levine is drawing young talent to the Tanglewood Music Center – The Boston Globe.

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.