Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tempus fugit

It's been several days since my last blog and life slips by. Highlights of the last few days include seeing "Julie and Julia" (or is it the other way around) where the plot is driven by a blog by the younger heroine on this same Blogspot! Is that coincidence or what? Went to the movie with Jan and my son, both of whom are foodies so needless to say a good time was had by all.

Thursday night I went to DBG's Bonfils Stanton Lecture Series. John Greenlee talked on meadows. I've heard several iterations of this talk over the years (I've known John for a quarter century), and it is inspiring. The message reverberates, first of all, that we pour so many chemicals and treated water on lawns unnecessarily, and that there are so many creative alternatives. My favorite picture is of Neil Diboll levitating in a misty sea of highly symmetrical and very rosy, cloudy pink Erianthus (love grass). But all his pix are good. He's coming up with a new book "Meadows by Design" (actually a different title--that was his original land brilliant title). My schedule is so mad that I didn't have time to hang out with John, but with the Peaces and Ogdens as his cicerones, he was in good hands.

I got a call early in the week from Stan Metsker telling me Maxine (his wife) had just died. I met Stan thirty years ago, and our lives weave together repeatedly over the years. I came to know, love and respect Maxine enormously. She was a very powerful personality, with strong likes and dislikes who grew up on Indian reservations in the Southwest, and had absorbed some of the sandstone magnificence of that region into her temperament. You wonder what that means? Ever run into a rock? Navajo land appears austere, and yet nothing glows sweeter than Chinle sandstone absorbing a sunset in late winter. She was a CPA professionally and did our taxes for years. She had a fierce devotion to Stan, to her daughters and their families, to her friends and to her ideals. She and Stan were perhaps the most sweetly happy married couple I've ever known: they celebrated their 50th wedding vows two years ago: huge party and super celebration. Maxine will be missed by many, chiefly by her extraordinary husband who is one of my heros and an inspiration to all who know him. My sympathies, Stan!

A lavender and peach dawn is painting gouache to the East. This evening I'm taking a gaggle of relatives to Los Lobos and Lonely boys' concert at DBG. Yesterday, Jan, Jesse and I drove through South Park, Boreas Pass, Breckenridge for the day, hiking on Kenosha Pass and above Boreas for a few hours each. Spectacular late summer weather--deliciously cool up there, with only a few fleecy clouds and a smattering of raindrops as we drove down through Georgetown in the late afternoon. I feel as though I'm living life in double time.

My trip to Central Asia derailed me in many good ways. It's been an effort to get back into my groove, with the added value of all I have learned in Kazakhstan and Mongolia piled on so much I am already juggling: I've corrected the proofs of the first article on this trip, and have to hasten to crank out a bunch more...life is so infinitely complicated, rewarding and yet nettling too (so many details and a few nagging ones I must get to)...

The lavender is leaching into caerulean and the coffee pot beckons..

Adieu, adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow....

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