Went on a guided tour of Giffentown on the only sunny day of the weekend. Found this on the door leading into the now vacated horse stables...the condos are winning out...and was reminded of a book I just bought - Debbie Millman's Look Both Ways - Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design...
I have to go back and be more careful with my picture...the words need to be saved and are easier to save than the horses.
And that reminded me of libraries...I don't use libraries even though there is one two blocks up and I work for the volunteers who make money for said library.
I don't use libraries because fifty years ago at McGill, the librarians made it very clear to me that I was an intruder...I caused their books to be disturbed...
That has stayed with me and now between my Kobo and Amazon, I don't need the library...
However I was in the library the other day thanks to a Bloomsday project. On June 16 for 24 hours the text of Ulysses was read around the world.
I was reading with the Montreal readers and we were practicing...and enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Unfortunately we were enjoying ourselves loudly and we did not realize that the room though over a hundred years old was not sound proof.
A desk clerk fluttered into the room and without hesitation began her speech: Don't you know you are in a library? You can't behave like this in a library. You will have to whisper or I will have you removed.
Our average age was 60 (I'm being gracious.) Four of us were retired teachers. All of us were academics. We were horrified and embarrassed. We had no idea. And we apologized immediately.
The librarian was not satisfied and in fact repeated her speech three times.
I would like to think that she was treating us like school children, but in fact I'm afraid she was treating us like senile seniors who didn't understand where we were.
And that's when I realized that whereas fifty years ago I was afraid of what the librarians would say to me, now I was afraid of what I might say to this young woman who didn't have the sensibility to understand that she had made her point the first time around.
     We left and did not return...until the event...we broadcast from the library to a world wide audience.
      That young woman is probably very proud of her achievement. Little does she know - we upstaged her by fifty years!!
   

Ok...almost enough of pansies!

I lost my breath today...fortunately I didn't lose my cool.
Six of us were working on a reading from Ulysses in the Reading Room of the library...we got carried away with the crowd scene...

A young nondescript librarian came into the room and said: This is a library.If you can't whisper, I will have to have to have you removed...
We immediately apologized and explained that we hadn't realized that the room wasn't sound proof. And she repeated her threat. The room is not sound proof. If you do not whisper, I will have you removed. She was speaking to six retired teachers not one of whom had spoken to their respective students in that way ever. She was half our age.
       And I was transported back fifty years the the librarians at McGill who terrified me.
       The reason I was in that library was that the retired director had wooed me in. It had taken her two years. And that two years was shot in two sentences.
        I will stay out of the library not because I am afraid of the librarian but because I am afraid of what I might say to the librarian.

A friend once pointed out to me that all pansies have faces...I should have noticed but I hadn't...I have ever since and I think of my friend and smile.

Actually...this is a particularly grumpy pansy...


I seem to choose quite earnest ones!

So...I'm  back and looking through my notes and trying to figure out if I used this or that or what...but..I've just met his highness...I'm playing bridge...I'm substituting at bridge...and this delightful creature is my hostess's seventeen year old poodle who lies on her lap and snores as we play...I might add that he is a seventeen year old poodle with a $3000 knee replacement - now that's love!

So...a story I found...hopefully not a repeat:
The Little Girl
I was out at a mixed supper...kids and parents.
Suddenly there was one of those howls that is so familiar at such parties. A five-year-old girl had knocked down a little boy. I watched as her mother thundered over and said," Did you say you were sorry?"
The little girl looked up at her, shrugged and said, "He got up didn't he?"
I assume that if he hadn't gotten up, she would have apologized.

Ok ...so I spent my seventy-fourth birthday not figuring out what happened to the 73 years, 364 days before...no...I know what happened to them...I lived them for the most part rather well! Or relatively well.
No I spent my seventy-fourth birthday coming to terms with the fact that for at least the latter part of my life, I hadn't  been standing on my toes when I thought I had...been standing on my toes!
Let me clarify. I knew that couldn't stand on my toes in my running shoes. That was obvious. Running shoes are not malleable. They especially don't bend when they are size elevens.
But I was taking yoga.
Yoga is done in bare feet on a special mat.
I can stand on my toes in bare feet on a special mat...or so I thought.
In my 73 years, 364th day I was in my yoga class.
At the end of the of the class the instructor asked us to stand on our toes.
I stood on my toes.
The yoga instructor looked at me and whispered, "Can you stand on your toes?"
I said, "I am standing on my toes."
She shook her head and said, "Not quite."
I went home and stood on my toes.
She was right.
My heels were  off the floor but my toes weren't up...it was sort of like a bridge.
I have two weeks to practice standing on my toes...
The task is futile.
I have congenitally flat feet.

Could someone please tell me why the cat who is supposed to be eating Vet food shuns it and the cat who used to shun Vet food now can't get enough of it...

...and oh...the shunner will polish off a plate full if he thinks he stealing the shnnee's plate...

Meanwhile the Fancy Feast sits abandoned in the bowl...

My camera is out...the butterflies are back at the botanical gardens...
Yes...I know...that's a moth...
Daylight saving has kicked in and we saw sunlight for the first time in 17 days!

 

 

 

 

 

My camera has been in the drawer for so long but this week it came out and I had forgotten how much I love to play...

I went to see the butterflies!
I got distracted by the leaves...
But...I did finally find my butterflies!