rough winds do shake the darling buds of

march?

normally a march snow squall wouldn't bother me much but now that tender little perennial shoots have sprung up (not to mention yesterday's daffodils!) I'm more than a little concerned.  Plus, temperatures tonight are going to get back down into the teens!  I knew spring was too fickle to stick around.  Tease.

Read from Nabokov's "Details of a Sunset" short story collection to my students today.  I read "A Bad Day," all about the cruelty of kids and laden with description.  Nabokov writes particularly well about smells, I think.  And light.

breaking through that wall

FInished a song last night! Yeah! It's the first new one in quite a while - early February I think? It's called Stonewashed Blues and it's the one whose chorus I'd been kicking around for weeks. It's going to feature Joe Nelson of the Toughcats on mandolin!

Such a good feeling, breaking through a bout of writer's block. I'm about to get back in the short story saddle as well, since third trimester is creative writing time in English class. The kids will be writing and workshopping and darned if I'm going to pass up a reason to write and get feedback (from my target audience, no less!) I've been writing stories based on my experiences at a summer camp that shall remain nameless and having fun doing it, but haven't written anything new in almost a year. Guh.

Continuing spring-like weather! Yay! Here's what I'm hoping for/looking forward to in the next few weeks: Visiting Mom and her dogs this weekend, checking out the Rockland Antiques Marketplace open house, being outside a lot, watching the perennials come back, my Fedco order arriving, more awesome Doll's House rehearsals (no, not the Joss Whedon show, the Ibsen play, although if anyone adapts the tv show for the stage let me know!), hopefully playing a show at Rock City Books and Coffee or whatever it's called now (I still call it Second Read!), and getting my hands/hoe into the dirt soon. 

Love,

Courtney & Her Ukulele

PS HAPPY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY to me and Bill last Tuesday!  Duh!  I was so busy eating anniversary pizza that I forgot to mention it.

spring-like

Bill and I had a reporter from the Herald Gazette stay with us this weekend so she could cover Town Meeting (and Bill's ascent to power!) She said something very interesting about a broadcast she had heard in which the anchor described this past week's "spring breezes." No, said the reporter, they can't be spring breezes because it isn't yet spring.

Well, five days away from spring and things are pretty darn spring-like around here. I was just out with Claude (a reluctant walker today as he'd rather eat whatever dead animal/poop has thawed on the side of the road) and not only is the air balmy and the skunk cabbage high but the perennials are showing signs of life and the daffodils are sprouting a few inches up! What is this, late April?

I am in no way complaining, but I'm also pretty nervous. As a Mainer for (almost) life, I feel like I'm too jaded to accept the warm weather as a trend. It'll probably snow this weekend.

I wrote a song about this weather anxiety actually, although I wrote it before things got all spring-like. I've been told from a number of folks that this year's Farmer's Almanac has us at cold and rainy all spring and summer again, and frankly that's almost too depressing to bear. My song is written with a modicum of hyperbole, but honestly a lot of the details are true (especially about SLUGS. Hot damn was last summer all about slugs.) I'm very proud of it and it's my favorite to date and probably the title track of the album. Unless I decide to change the name of the song.

Got my spring show all cast, pretty exciting group of people! Ibsen here we come.

Love,
Courtney & Her Ukulele

Rainy Sunday

Got a lot accomplished today despite the nasty weather. Reminds me of Providence actually, and makes me want to go to Tealuxe which is kind of silly since I have tea in my house. But there's a specific kind of cold, wet and light that really makes me think of being in college.

Taught two piano lessons and a clarinet lesson this morning, went to a yoga class led by my friend Susan (an author and painter of some renown who might be doing album art for me!) Bill and I decided to have some folks over for dinner and so put on some black beans and Bill made tortillas while I went to the gym, hoping for some Pilates students - nobody showed today, but Thursday is when I was sort of counting on starting anyway.

Since nobody came, I got to start cooking a little early, which meant that I just finished putting things in the oven before the last guest arrived! We made squash and red pepper enchiladas, black beans, Spanish rice and flan. I'm nervous about the flan. I'll letcha know.

Have a chorus for song number 8 but not much as far as verses go. It'll come.

UPDATE: Flan was perfect. Looked and tasted like flan! I used the recipe from mexicanfood.about.com and the trick is to bake it for about twice as long as they say, and at 50 degrees higher. Anyway. Flan.

Love,
Courtney & Her Ukulele