Elephantitis of the Hosta
Thus far it's a most excellent (and very early) year for almost all of the Hosta in my garden. This particular specimen (above-I think it's "Blue Mammoth") I've had for two years but only this spring is it getting as big as it's supposed to.
This one - I believe it is Hosta "White Christmas"- is another one Mom gave me 2 seasons ago and it's really filling out, finally, this spring. It's in a bed that's very close to our monster Norway maple, where not all plants have flourished in the past few years (the maple has shallow roots). Based on how well these two hosta are doing there, however, I plan to beef up that bed with a yew, this weekend.
This is the second flowering season for this Siberian Iris "Summer Skies" and already it probably needs to be divided.
Labels: garden
Space invaders
I saw the most amazingly huge Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower (like
this, and about 6 inches tall), last night. I'd joined the Friends of the Mississippi River and St. Paul Parks for
an evening of pulling herbacious invaders. I can't believe I didn't think to bring my camera! There's an excellent photo that shows a similar garlic mustard infestation
here.
We worked in a pretty ravine near Crosby Farm Regional Park that is normally filled with bloodroot, trout lily, trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpit. This spring, said ravine was mainly filled with 3-foot tall (and almost to-seed) garlic mustard, and one small ginger patch. About 16 of us put a pretty big dent in it, but even just to get to that ravine we had to walk though a near quarter-mile of the invasion that was not slated for the guillotine on that day.
It's fun to get dirty in the woods and learn about local plants.
Labels: garden, nature, spring
The weigela is already blooming
I've been busily not posting to this blog. What have I been doing?? Well...
I've been running: now I'm up to 4.5 miles on my weekly longer runs. I've signed up to run an
8k road race on June 3. That's a little longer than my ideal distance, but it'll be a fun long training run, if nothing else, and at least one coworker will also be running it. I am building up my training run miles, but I'd like to compete in a few more 5k races to see how close I can come to beating my high-school cross-country PR of a 7:31 mile. Then, finally, I will letter. At least, in my time anyway. We'll see. At this point if I beat my 8:23 split from the Get In Gear, I'll be pleased.
I've been rock climbing, mostly at the gym, but plan to do more outdoor climbs as well. Somewhat shockingly I'm regularly working 5.10b and c climbs (not flashing them, of course). What fun!
My interest in the garden is ramping up again, as the iris are about to bloom. It's time to get some seeds sowed.
Work's been busy and I've been inspired. This is good, though it's also inspiring me to work slightly longer hours. Ah well, at least it doesn't get dark til 7:30 these days (which is good because I've been commuting via bicycle).
I've encountered the joys of using an RSS reader to get all my news, etc. in one place. Check out "more of same" in the right column of this page, to see some of the more interesting stuff I've been reading.
Oh, and I can now do
Pincha Mayurasana. I've also managed to make my evening yoga an almost-daily habit. Live is good.
Labels: garden, rock climbing, running, yoga
Confessions of this "magazine pervert"
A few days ago I picked up a copy of the most recent issue of "Jane" magazine. It's not one I usually pick up, but I've been a magazine addict for as long as I can remember, and the addiction started when Mom got me a subscription to "Seventeen," at least a year before my actual age even qualified me as a "teenager." So, now and then I like to re-identify with the roots of my addiction, as it were.
I'm completely fascinated by my experience with Jane this week. As I've seen in several other print media over the last few years, this one shows clear signs of infection by the Digital Disease, and it's fabulous. We're not just talking about bright graphics-driven layouts that attempt to tease the reader into "clicking" through the issue, rather then poring through it cover-to-cover or, gasp, using the table of contents. This magazine appears to have removed the persona of authority that fashion and popular culture editors have traditionally embodied. Regardless of whether that authority still there but simply transparent, I really get more of a sense of community, almost like I'm entrenched in a bulletin-board discussion. We have plenty of vocabulary originating from television (ok, YouTube: the revolution is complete). We have not "insider tips" but real-world tips appearing to come from people NOT on the payroll of Maybelline or Calvin Klein. And we have heartfelt calls to collective action, à la: "who's with me here? Let's do this!" I love it.
My little tête-à-tête with Jane also brings to mind the sort of historical role that magazines have (
for some people, anyway): sort of a time capsule, not just of current events, faces and trends, but of methods of advertising persuasion. The language and imagery that can sell a commodity changes with time. As Nick Currie writes in the article cited above, "The consumer society depicted in the pages of old magazines—advertising and editorial both, although the advertising perhaps somewhat more so—has lost its power to seduce, bully or dominate. The products presented look quaint, the future promised farcically fallacious. Everything has been valuably alienated—contextualized, sure, but also de- and re-contextualized...."
What works now? Perhaps the very thing that draws me to the magazine: I already feel loyal to the collective. Curses!
Labels: design, media, pop
Ephemera
One thing that it makes more sense - though logistically it's not so easy - to do with print newspapers than with online news sites is to
compare front pages on big event days. Be sure to click on the "top 30 U.S. Papers" link, just below the first newspaper image.
This posting provides some valuable insight into geography, emotion, time passing, ephemera. The range of headline copy alone provides an interesting study of editorial choices, be they looking forward, sensational, or even combative, such as shown on the Orlando paper.
Also, for a designer, just looking at the "top 30 U.S. Papers" SWF page is an interesting study of scale, type choices, and layout.
Labels: design
