Green in the City

Posted on by Sheila Leave a comment

For Earth Day, I post this sketch made while watching my daughter and a friend scrambling over the rocks in green, watery and magical Rock Creek Park, which runs through the heart of Washington DC the length of the city and beyond.

In gratitude for this resource, fellow city-dwellers, you may wish to sign up for one of the many area clean-ups through your local community association, or, alternatively, the Earth Day website, where everyone, whether urban, suburban, or rural, can discover many ways to say Thank You to Mother Earth.

For another sketch, and a history of Earth Day, please see Earth Day.

RockCreekHike

CakeDaisiesGunilla

CakeSprinklesHasse

Cherry Blossom Biking

Posted on by Sheila Leave a comment

Yesterday morning dawned clear and mild, and our family biked down to Haines Point and the Tidal Basin for a St. Patrick’s Day picnic breakfast (whole grain soda bread, Irish cheddar, and apple wedges) along the water. Although Cherry Blossom Week doesn’t begin officially for a few more days, the cherry blossoms, in all innocence of this fact, were opening their pink and white faces to admiring visitors. As we pedaled along, I tried to recall the words of this verse.

CherryTreeTidalBasin2

CakeBerries2TinhVan

Spring Is Near

Posted on by Sheila Leave a comment

Here is a sketch from recent wanderings, and below it a verse my daughter and I learned while experiencing the properties of numbers in first grade. Its delight and usefulness lie in its three-fold-ness: three verses, in anapestic (short-short-long) monometer, about a charming three-petaled flower. During the same block I taught her to waltz, and we danced around the room chanting this poem.

For another March 1st welcome, please see In Like a Lion.

SnowdropsEmilys

Snowdrops we
Petals three
You may see.

White, green, gold
We unfold
In the cold.

Words of cheer
Speak we clear:
Spring is near.

CakeYellowRoses2Polly

Leap Day

Posted on by Sheila Leave a comment

Dancers

Today is Leap Day, the extra day added to the end of February every four years since the adaptation of the Gregorian calendar in 1582 to ensure that the rest of the calendar remains properly aligned with the seasons. At first the adjusted calendar was accepted only by Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Over the centuries it was introduced elsewhere, reluctantly, sometimes followed by public rioting, with Great Britain’s American colonies making the change in 1752, and China being the last in 1912.

According to tradition, Leap Day is the day that a woman may propose marriage to a man, instead of the other way around. And if he declines, he is obliged to compensate her with a gift of new gloves, presumably to hide her shameful ring-free hands. Think twice, ladies, before testing to see if this still works; he may surprise you and say Yes.

CakeWeddingAnnette & Jim

(Once every four years they get to celebrate on the correct date)

In Fountain Court

Posted on by Sheila Leave a comment

Today is the birthday of poet Arthur Symons (1865-1945), and I post in his honor this watercolor and poem, although it seems more suitable for a romantic Midsummer Eve than the end of February.

He shares his birthday with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), and for a mini-bio, a painting, and the unforgettable opening lines of “Evangeline,” please see Oh Canada…Oh Henry.

VillageFountain
 The fountain murmuring of sleep,
A drowsy tune;
The flickering green of leaves that keep
The light of June;
Peace, through a slumbering afternoon,
The peace of June.

A waiting ghost, in the blue sky,
The white curved moon;
June, hushed and breathless, waits, and I
Wait too, with June;
Come, through the lingering afternoon,
Soon, love, come soon.
—Arthur Symons