GREEN!

our world is greening! there was a mist of newborn green along the tips of the trees as i drove in to work this morning. it's about a 15 minute drive, along a paved highway, with grain fields along each side. the wild geese are everywhere, returned from a winter spent at their favorite time-share location... somewhere warm and sunny and bountiful.

i see them commuting each morning, in the public transit 'V' formation they favor, sometimes by the hundreds. they breakfast on gleaned grain in the yet-to-be ploughed and planted fields. they're especially fond of field peas. then they find a nice pool for a dip somewhere before returning to the fields for a leisurely early evening dinner as the sun weakens. as the sky warms to pink and purple and gold, the V-train returns the commuters home to their marshes, to tuck their heads under a wing under a star-pricked sky.

i wonder if they always use the same wing, or if they alternate? Right tuck or left? And do they ever have a crick in their necks in the morning?

leisure

life has returned to something resembling normality. the last of the #!*?#! shows was yesterday. we left at 8:30 a.m. to arrive at a theatre some of us had never seen before at 11:00, set up the props and do a techincal run through with the lighing and sound people. once again, what should have taken a couple of hours took much more... closer to 6. i can't imagine what these people's private lives are like. they seem to trhive on chaos, and generate it everywhere they go.

we broke for dinner then, and all went to a LICENSED restaurant and drank a goodly amount of of mood enhancer. i discovered a very lovely zinfandel that i'd like to get to know better.

the show went relatively smoothly, and it's over. the theatre was almost exactly 1/6 full... the bare minimum required to pay for the rental of the thing. it was, incidentally, a magnificent theatre. acoustics to die for... not a dead spot or a bad seat in the room, which seats a little over 600. spacious wings and lots of dressing room space and storage. sprung wood floor on stage, professional lighting and sound techs, excellent equipment, all well maintained.

the cast and production crew all deserve medals for pulling this off. the perpetrators should be jailed and an attempt at rehabilitation made. though i'm not hopefull that they can be redeemed. it was something close to 1:30 a.m. by the time the sets, costumes, etc. were packed and we could begin the 1 1/2 hour drive home.

so, after arriving home at 3 a.m. this morning, i slept till about 10, and took chainsaw in hand, to burn off any residual adrenaline. there were some unruly Manitoba maples that needed topping, as they're shading the vegetable garden. they've been converted to tall stumps, which in a few years, will hopefully have transformed into a thick hedge, breaking the prevailing, and very persistent west wind. they'll also provide a private place to loaf in my hammock and enjoy a cool glass of lemonade on hot summer days. AND i'm counting on them to encourage the neighbors' dogs to find somewhere else to leave their noisome and incessant deposits.

from the maples, i have about a half cord of firewood, all nicely cut to stove lengths for the dreamed-of wood burning fireplace. perhaps by next winter i'll have sorted out the 'who, what, when, where, and how' of getting that up and running. and there's a very big pile of brush that i'll have to tote off to the dump.

all the little tomato seedlings started 'way back on St. Patrick's Day are now close to a foot tall, and thriving. the next project is to repair the greenhouse roof, which is in need of new skin, so they can go to their summer residence. they're gazing fondly out the big south window at it, even now, sighing wistfully, and looking reproachfully over their shoulders at me.

the whiz kids were home for a visit over their spring break, and had some friends over. one fellow asked, "your Mum has a grow op?" younger whiz answered, "they're tomaotes" the buddy replied, "sure. that's what they all say!" i also got them to dig me a trench about 25 feet long and a 1/2 meter wide, for a line of raspberry bushes along the east edge of the property (another dog deterrent) which they cleverly dubbed 'the mass grave'. when word gets out about what's going on in my quiet little plot of land, the police will be watching me very carefully.

lovely to be home a bit. been off work for the last week as well, but that was taken up with much needed outside work, and the !~#%&* play, so not on line much. back at work tomorrow, so will be back in the blog neighborhood more regularly then.

survivor

though i don't watch television, and i've never actually seen one of the survivor shows, or any other 'reality' t.v. i've heard of the survivor series. i think they should do one backstage of a big theatre production.

so, for those of you who have very kindly taken an interest in my small and chaotic world, here's how it went.

very badly

after arriving at 5, putting on makeup, and the first of many costumes required, helping gents and kids with their makeup, warming up my fingers on my fiddle for the gypsy fiddler scene, going through solo numbers with the lead players, taking the choir through their warmup, and working over a couple the trickiest numbers with them, we were all ready for the promised 6:30 startup. and waited, much to the frustration of all, till nearly 8, while the powers that be diddled with all the little details they hadn't sorted out yet, and we waited. there was a little grumbling, but it was no surprise, so it was nothing overt.

the director, whose keenly honed radar caught a flicker of everyone's frustration, decided that i was a good scapegoat, and tried to pick a fight with me after the entire cast was backstage, waiting for the curtain to go up. she's a big girl, and she was livid. more than a little scary. and everyone was waiting to start, so i didn't want to play. she couldn't get much of a fight out of me, so she fired me. (although i've heard you can't fire volunteers... they say the only way to get rid of them is to kill them. i guess i got off lucky)

i went home. had another volunteer commitment that night, of a much more pleasant sort, so i pulled myself together, changed into my little black dress and pumps, and went there. good food, good company, good art, good music, and no one screaming at me. there is heaven on earth.

sadly, some of the cast knew about the other commitment, and tracked me down. they'd got through the thing, but it hadn't gone well, and they convinced me to be there for the rest of the show. which, in honesty, i was only half serious about abandoning. but all i told them was "i'll sleep on it."

so i wondered if i'd hear anything from Herself the next day. but, no. and when i showed up backstage, she was all smiles and glad to see me. and huggy. "the past is in the past" was all she said about it. i guess it never really happened. i must have imagined it.

before the Sunday matinee she collapsed in tears and it was some time before she could pull it together. (she's also a major player in the show, as well as directing it) i was on pins and needles through it all, wondering if i'd be the target of the next outburst.

and we'll do it all again this coming weekend.

pray for me.