Drooping in the rain

 

The saying goes that "roses like hot heads and cool feet." Look at our neighbor's prize roses this rainy June. A sad, soggy sight and perfect weather for black spot. Not to brag, but ours look amazingly healthy, the clusters of unopened flowers so heavy I need to somehow stake the stalks before they break right off at the base.

By the weekend we finally turn the corner to dry and warm weather, with highs possibly reaching the 80's. This green jungle will really take off then.

Hope you had a nice Father's Day. We went to the Symphony and heard Verdi's Requiem Mass: 90 minutes long, double choir and full orchestra, four soloists. The score is a sizable hardcover book, but the conductor conducted the entire thing without anything in front of him. Imagine holding that much complex music in your head?  John always says "that's his job" but it's still incredible. I can barely remember the chords to "Oh, Susanna."

Not exactly light entertainment, but certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was like a long religious opera with no intermission. Verdi is perhaps the most famous opera composer, and a requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass. 

Combine operatic drama with the traditional ritual Latin words and you have something quite remarkable. It's performed as a concert now and considered too operatic for a religious service. Not to mention, too long for modern attention spans in church.

Well, today I tackle some overdue housecleaning. When that cruel sun comes out, it sure highlights the dust and grimy windows.