Say your piece and sail away until the tide's in

[sovay]

I checked in on the magnolia. It seemed to be doing all right.



The shadow of the house we live in fell so nicely on the garage that isn't ours.



It would probably not have occurred to me to decorate my front yard with a wagon wheel, but I am delighted that it occurred to someone else. With the green leaves winding its spokes, it looks like a Tarot card.



As promised, the magnolia. The telephone pole stayed out of shot this time.

I could not get a picture of the two raptors we saw circling over the Tufts campus, and the weeping cherry discovered at a local intersection was so barely in bloom that it seemed unfair. I will return for it.

I am trying to figure out if our upstairs neighbors are watching a period drama or just listening to music, because first I heard "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and then "Anji," both of which are extremely recognizable echoing through our ceiling.

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

Those are gorgeous photos!

[sovay]

Those are gorgeous photos!

Thank you!

[hyarrowen]

That magnolia is an absolute picture! Do you happen to know what species it is? I love them all, and will admit to being a bit nerdy.

[sovay]

That magnolia is an absolute picture! Do you happen to know what species it is? I love them all, and will admit to being a bit nerdy.

Thank you! I am afraid I have no idea. After perusal of the internet, it looks most like this variant of star magnolia to me. They are common ornamentals around here; there was a very nice one on our former street.

[hyarrowen]

I took a guess at star magnolia but hadn't thought of a hybrid. They're really good performers if they've got the right conditions and it looks as though this one has!

/gets back in her basket

[sovay]

/gets back in her basket

Come out of that basket! I want to ask you what the right conditions are!

[hyarrowen]

Er, well, Cornwall does very well, and the South Coast of England. And New Zealand which is great for practically anything, and China, which is where a lot of them come from originally, as well as your neck of the woods. A nice lot of leaf-mould is very helpful. And I've got a yulan - Magnolia liliflora (I think) in my neighbour's back garden in SE Australia that overhangs my tree-fern, that's glorious in spring. (Cornwall is great for magnolias, tree ferns and camellias, a trio made in gardening heaven.) I think a good warm-to-hot summer that ripens the wood is a must-have. Magnolia grandiflora is a bit of a standout - it likes warm and humid, like on the Gulf Coast of the USA, as opposed to simply warm to hot.

*surprised expression* I remembered more than I thought! Magnolias are awesome though, been around since the dinosaurs.

/basket creak

[davidgillon]

My mother's neighbour has a magnolia that does very well despite being in the North East of England, which is definitely a harsher climate than Cornwall.

[davidgillon]

And my mother spontaneously volunteered this evening that the local magnolias were looking lovely when I mentioned my cherry was in blossom.

[sovay]

And my mother spontaneously volunteered this evening that the local magnolias were looking lovely when I mentioned my cherry was in blossom.

Nice!

[hyarrowen]

That's fabulous! What species/variety is it? I've never seen one flourish in that area, though on the west coast on Scotland they do pretty well, especially near the coast.

[hyarrowen]

Also, come to think of it, I've never been there earlier than midsummer, so I wouldn't have noticed flowering magnolias.

[davidgillon]

No idea beyond 'it's a magnolia'.

[hyarrowen]

Sounds great, anyway (tho' I can't imagine a not-great magnolia!)

[luzula]

As I first learned the word "raptor" by reading Jurassic Park in middle school, I always picture dinosaurs when I hear it...

[sovay]

As I first learned the word "raptor" by reading Jurassic Park in middle school, I always picture dinosaurs when I hear it...

This comment led me to picture hang-gliding velociraptors riding the thermals over our neighborhood, which I am really charmed by, thank you.

[dewline]

For me, it's a toss-up between dinosaurs and Romulans...

[shewhomust]

Well yes, OK, any music belongs to its own period, I suppose - but that is totally not what I think of when you say 'period drama'. Now I feel very old (which admittedly I am).

[sovay]

Well yes, OK, any music belongs to its own period, I suppose - but that is totally not what I think of when you say 'period drama'. Now I feel very old (which admittedly I am).

"Historical" felt weirder! I didn't think much about it at first because it's the music I grew up listening to, then I remembered that our upstairs neighbors are two decades younger than I am and I wondered if it was the soundtrack to a show.

[shewhomust]

I'm fine with 'historical': I was a bit startled the first time I heard it used about (a contender for the best historical crime novel set in) the 1950s, but I've got used to it. And I expect I'll get used to a similar use of 'period', too.

Your reasoning is impeccable: you are yourself a generation too young for this music (I take it it's what your parents chose to listen to...?) - this is not a criticism.

[sovay]

Your reasoning is impeccable: you are yourself a generation too young for this music (I take it it's what your parents chose to listen to...?) - this is not a criticism.

The majority of my parents' record collection was the British and American folk revival, plus some outcroppings of classical and rock music with a decent percentage of musicals. I had a terrific grounding in Pentangle, Phil Ochs, and the Newport Folk Festival and missed most of my actual generational music for decades, which I continue not to feel bad about.

I think "historical" connotes "out of living memory" to me, while "period" does not, which may not be how anyone else thinks of these adjectives.

[shewhomust]

I think "historical" connotes "out of living memory" to me, while "period" does not, which may not be how anyone else thinks of these adjectives.

Interesting. Whereas for me, "historical" says something about the attitude wih which the period is approached, an awareness that that was then and things were different. "period" - and this may be tainted by a certain dniffiness about "period dramas" - is about appearances, elaborate costumes and candlelight.

[mrissa]

Is a wagon wheel for a yard decoration uncommon there, then? It's very common here. If it's regional I wonder what region.

[sovay]

Is a wagon wheel for a yard decoration uncommon there, then? It's very common here. If it's regional I wonder what region.

It may be common in other parts of New England, but in the Boston area it is uncommon enough that I don't think I've seen one before. Do you know what it connotes in your locale, if anything?

[mrissa]

SFAIK it only connotes "hey I thought this wagon wheel looked nice." Possibly "my taste in yard stuff is a little bit rustic," but there's certainly no widely known philosophical alignment for it.

[davidgillon]

The cherry in my garden just opened up its first blossom. So we promptly had a gale, and then today we had hailstones. Surprisingly the blossom is still there.

[sovay]

The cherry in my garden just opened up its first blossom. So we promptly had a gale, and then today we had hailstones. Surprisingly the blossom is still there.

An inspiration to us all!

[selkie]

It used to mean the person/family wouldn’t go roaming again. You do not generally see them in the same neighborhood as Bathtub Marys, for whatever that’s ethnographically worth.

[sovay]

It used to mean the person/family wouldn’t go roaming again.

That makes sense. Not exactly the same gesture as bringing the oar inland, more like hanging up the guns.

You do not generally see them in the same neighborhood as Bathtub Marys, for whatever that’s ethnographically worth.

That also makes sense. We're up to our teeth in bathtub Marys in Somerville. We made Atlas Obscura for it.

[mrissa]

Fascinating, I did not know that, and I have several family friends and more-distant family members who have them. (In several of the cases I'm 100% sure they didn't know that either. It's a really cool bit of trivia I will be eager to tell some of them...and at least one I will not tell so she doesn't feel obliged to get rid of her nice wagon wheel, because she 100% intends to go roaming again.)