Best friends

What's cuter than a baby playing?
TWO babies playing together!

Nova and Adelina are both 18 months old.

Practicing a noisy duet on Tom's piano...

And keeping tabs on the outside world...
Will spring ever come?

March

Duc du Berry's Book of Hours
Plowing and planting near the Château de Lusignan.

In the northern hemisphere, today is the beginning of meteorological spring. In ancient Rome, March was the first month of the year, not January. The name March comes from Martius, after the Roman god of war. As we know, the Romans were a warlike people, and March was the start of the military campaign season.

New Year

It isn't today
But it should be.
Nature knows the real beginning
And it wasn't that hung-over morning
With beans for lunch
And dry needles dropping
On the carpet.
So wake up,
Polish your sword, pack a lunch, move out.
And if you're still brave enough-
Remember.

Beyond the Score

Classical music purists and snobs would scoff at the idea that a symphony concert needs anything more than a conductor and musicians on stage. But there's a trend now for orchestras to present "multimedia" concerts with a projection screen along with live actors as commentators. Part of the idea is to attract a new audience by helping the music along with visuals to keep those short attention spans from wandering. When they work, these programs can be entertaining and make a nice change. For example, two years ago we watched the 1936 movie Alexander Nevsky above the stage while the Seattle Symphony played the complete score by Sergei Prokofiev.

This year John bought tickets to a 3 concert series called Beyond the Score, and yesterday we heard (and saw) Vivaldi's Four Seasons performed. It was perfect for a multimedia production, with its vivid musical scenes of weather, countrysides and activities. In the first half, the commentator and actors talked about Vivaldi and the music while Italian art and scenery was projected on the screen. Then in the second half, the Symphony played the piece through without any other "visual enhancement." A nice mix and introduction to favorite, familiar music.

Speaking of weather, yesterday afternoon our deep freeze suddenly turned into a sideways rainstorm, which whipped my umbrella inside out multiple times walking one block to Benaroya Hall. We are so ready for the Spring Concerto to start in the Northwest.

We did blow into the Brooklyn Oyster House for some Happy Hour treats before heading home in the rain.

Bright, cold weekend

After running errands yesterday, I drove home along Alki Beach and left the car just long enough to take a few pictures. The snowy Olympic mountains looked beautiful across Puget Sound. Despite the bright day, it didn't get above freezing here. With a stiff north wind blowing, only a few hardy dog people were walking near the water. But the sea birds were happy.
Here's a classic Seattle view across Elliott Bay. That seagull was nice to fly in front of my camera at the perfect moment, and make me look like a better photographer than I am.

Well! Tomorrow is our 18th wedding anniversary. How about that. I'm thinking of family and friends who were with us on that winter day in 1993. It's nice, because we have Symphony tickets and so a reason to "go out" tomorrow afternoon. Instead of coming home and eating warmed-up stew as usual, maybe I'll twist John's arm to take me out for oyster happy hour downtown.

Winter flowers

Happy birthday to our Mom in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
She's 86 years young today!

Yesterday I took this picture of my Valentine's Day roses-- they opened perfectly and have stayed like this for days. A real "super" rose, considering how far they've traveled and how many hands touched them along the way to Kroger's supermarket in Seattle. Most long-stem roses are grown in Columbia and flown in massive shipments to the Miami airport, where flowers are the largest import. I guess that isn't any more amazing than a plum from Chile, but still...

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth! Roses are wonderful on a snowy winter day. We're still a good 20 degrees colder than normal in Seattle. By now the daytime temperature should be well into the 50's, but we barely got above freezing yesterday. At least there will be bright sunshine today, and rain will be back by next week. Oh, boy.

Gather Ye Rosebuds
John Waterhouse

Movie night

Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in An Education

We just watched a couple of Netflix movies you might enjoy if you like something a bit different. These aren't big Hollywood productions with complicated stories, but entertaining because of the unusual settings and good acting. An Education takes place in London in 1960, right before the Beatles and rock n' roll changed everything. Life was still quiet and conservative as Europe finally recovered from the war, and the movie captures the atmosphere of London and Paris perfectly. The storyline is a bit light-- it's about a bright 16 year old girl who is seduced right under her parent's noses by a suave man twice her age. I know that sounds creepy and salacious, but the acting was great and it was interesting watching this drama slowly unfold. Carey Mulligan looks like a young Audrey Hepburn. Peter Sarsgaard is a heel, but a likable one. And the music in An Education was so good John bought the soundtrack.

White Wedding is a romantic comedy that takes place in South Africa. While his bride-to-be is busy planning a big white wedding, the groom Elvis leaves Johannesburg to pick up his best friend in Durban. The two journey across the beautiful country, but of course things don't go according to plan. The guys get lost and reluctantly allow a British hitchhiker to travel along with them. The story is predictable, but sweet and witty with (of course) a happy ending.