Craig’s busy bees

The garden after the first drenching rain in June.

36 tomato plants,  beans, cucumbers, potatoes, beets, carrots,

parsnips, lettuce, squash, leeks, onions. Did I mention potatoes?

Grape arbor

Who are we?

 

 

 

 

Tulips prevailing in spite of the deer, rabbits and other

creatures of the forest.

I need to think about two shows I watched last night. The latest production of Little Women by PBS and Westworld an HBO production. I have read Alcott’s book several times through the years and watched the film too many times to count with June Alyson as Jo and Elizabeth Taylor as Beth. Jo is my favorite character and she is actually one of my first introductions to a feminist. Jo is forthright, authentic to herself and  frustrated with the constraints of a patriarchal world. She loves fiercely and does not suffer fools gladly. The most recent production is sumptuous and thoughtful. Then I watched Westworld. For awhile, I was drawn in by the parallels to our present times. I was thrilled when Delores and the character played by Thandie Newton (cannot think of her name) busted out of their miserable Groundhog Day robot roles and started to feel their power. Yes! They are going to change the world. And then, nothing changed. It seems that I cannot bear the violence and cannot bear the violence that these women perpetuate. One can understand that they have to protect themselves but do they have to command the hosts to kill their comrades. Can’t they command them to sit down and have a meal? Sing a song? Go for a walk? I am serious. With real power comes responsibility. Where is the love? I mean it. Where is the love.

 

 

Daffodils in the Eyebrow garden.

The birdhouse garden.

I sat on the back porch and read Varina by Charles Frazier. It’s about Varina Davis who was married to Jeff Davis the first and only Confederate President. She was an amazing woman who was not of her time and, yet, very much of her time. She gave birth to at least 10 children and lost most of them to illness and accident. She wrote in her memoir that she spent 10 years in a black mourning dress. One year for her husband,  9 other years for her children. It’s a sobering perspective of a southern woman’s life before, during and after the Civil War. She got by on red wine laced liberally with opium as was the style in those days.

Flash forward to present time and it seems that the President is “nuking” the Iran deal and raining down on the country with sanctions . The New York AG resigned following allegations by four women that he victimized them using emotional and physical abuse. The MeToo movement is not slowing down and possibly getting closer to the President. The millenials (are 18 year olds millenials?) continue their march towards gun control.  Varina Davis became a journalist and I am interested in her thoughts about one of the most defining periods in our country’s history. I am going to channel Varina as they think about these interesting times.