In Buffalo, March goes in like a lion and out like a lion.
However we are getting signs of spring! The daffodils have been up for several weeks. I have been shocked, shocked I tell you, to hear the red-winged blackbird and the mourning dove.
Unusually for Buffalo we have had a few actual spring days.
Of course they alternate with deep winter days. But still.
A spring photo album, just from the last few days, walking in Delaware Park, on Wilkeson Pointe, and at Forest Lawn Cemetery:
I like to snap one picture on every walk. Sometimes I take two however there does come a time to put your phone away and just enjoy taking the air. Putting your phone away is an art that many people are not privy to. Bad grammar! It is an art to which many people are not privy.
The photo directly above, I like to take a picture at that particular spot in Delaware Park. Perhaps one day I can do a flip-through of all of them and we could literally see the seasons coming and going. We could see the lake freeze and thaw and the trees change color.
We have had only one snowfall this year. It was a big one.
Now it is safely in the rear view mirror. All we have are the memories.
These were all taken when I was walking in the park.
At least that was the first day. The second day more snow had fallen. And when I tried walking in the park there was no walking to be done! It was the first time I could remember when Delaware Park had not been plowed. A runner agreed with me. The runner and I were the only people in the park foolhardy enough to have a go at taking our exercise under such circumstances. He could never remember the park not being plowed, either.
Since then, no snow. I am wondering if we will have our traditional Christmas Eve snowstorm.
We are in Indian Summer, as we used to call it when I was little. Above is one of many pictures I shot in Delaware Park. The best part is the tote! That is my signature. That is how you tell the photo is by me.
It is in the 70s and sunny and the living is easy.
How did the name "Indian Summer" come to be? Can you still call it that? I looked it up on Wikipedia, as I am wont to do. I am happy I am not the first person to wonder about it. Wikipedia is the first to tell you if what you are saying is, ahem, incorrect. Yet in this case it does not. Here is what I read:
"Although the exact origins of the term are uncertain,[6]
it was perhaps so-called because it was first noted in regions
inhabited by Native Americans, or because the natives first described it
to Europeans,[7] or it had been based on the warm and hazy conditions in autumn when Native Americans hunted.[6]John James Audubon wrote about "The Indian Summer that extraordinary Phenomenon of North America" in his journal on November 20, 1820. He mentions the "constant Smoky
atmosphere" and how the smoke irritates his eyes. Audubon suspects that
the condition of the air was caused by "Indians, firing the Prairies of
the West." Audubon also mentions in many other places in his writings
the reliance Native Americans had on fire. At no point does Audubon
relate an Indian Summer to warm temperatures during the cold seasons."
I am not sure what this is all adding up to, but it seems to be all good.
"Indian Summer" was the title of a jazz song that Frank Sinatra sang.
What a great record! I am listening to it. Sinatra is singing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Right away you can hear that growly restless sound. The Duke is on piano.
I am listening to this song. That is the great Johnny Hodges on saxophone! I read in the comments that Sinatra was so impressed by Hodges' solo that at 2:58 in the video, the singer was a half second too late.
That really is a beautiful solo Johnny Hodges plays. It is as if someone is talking to you.
Around the world they also have Indian Summer. However they call it other names.
In Germany and Austria and Switzerland it is "Altweibersommer" -- Wikipedia translates that to "old women's summer" however really it is "old wives' summer." Other Europeans call it "old wives' summer" in their own languages. That includes the Czech, the Polish, and the Ukrainians.
I love that in many countries they name Indian Summer after saints whose feast days fall at this time of year. In Portugal, Spain, and France, it is named for St. Teresa of Avila. It is St. Teresa's Summer. In Bosnia and Serbia it is St. Michael's Summer. Wales also salutes St. Michael by calling it haf bach Mihangel. I am not sure how that parses out.
The Dutch and Italians associate it with St. Martin. Swedes call it St. Bridget's Summer.
English folklore reveals another term that also surfaces in Shakespeare. This one is really nice.
It is "All-Hallown summer!" All Saints Summer! We just had the Feast of All Hallows, or the Feast of All Saints. I went to Mass at the Carmelite Convent! But that is another story for another day.
For now, back to Indian Summer. I guess we can choose our own name for it.
I took a quick walk around Delaware Park and took pictures.
Is this the North Pole? No, it's Buffalo!
I like the above view because of the little red building.
It was just such a beautiful day.
The park was almost empty but a few people were cross-country skiing. I should have toted my skis from across the street. The only problem is, you never know if it is quite right for skiing. When I got to the park I could see the conditions were good. However normally you just do not know. Just a few degrees up and down can make a difference.
Plus sometimes it is just nice to walk and take the air.
We are having a wacky spring here in Buffalo! In addition to everything else.
I took the picture up above walking in Delaware Park a couple of hours ago.
When I got home I took this picture.
That was out my back window!
You know one thing, walking in the park I thought how much I was appreciating what I saw.
This is my time of year!
I like weird weather!
Midsummer ... I am child of the summer, born on June 1, but summer is not my time. It would be, maybe, if I lived somewhere else. I love swimming, I love summer clothes, I love being able to walk around in long dresses and sandals. However...
There is something about the brooding weather that I love. The silence. The freedom to be with your own thoughts. The mists.
I cannot help it!
With which we give you Prince, "Sometimes It Snows In April."
We have a little heat wave going here in October in Buffalo. It reminds me of other Octobers that were very warm. It happens!
But after tonight the temps are supposed to fall into, well, fall. Big time.
With which, tonight I took the Huffy Harvard Limited on what might be its last spin this year -- although, who knows. I pedaled aimlessly around North Buffalo a bit and then, when it was getting dark, I swung twice around the Ring Road of Delaware Park.
It is a kick to go into Delaware Park in the last warm days. Last night I went walking around and even after it was dark, I mean really dark, the park was still full of people. It was as if it were 3 p.m. Kids were zooming past on scooters. Families were camped on the lawn. The basketball courts and the exercise area continued to play host to nonstop action. Speed bicyclists were racing around the park with their helmets and strobe lights. Those bicyclists are kind of annoying, you know? But still.
Tonight was the second night and I did not stick around quite as long, but the place was jumping as it was last night. There is a kind of desperation in the air now because here it is 80 degrees but tomorrow, so they say anyway, will be different. Motorists were extra obnoxious. Radios were loud. Motorcycles were roaring around by the million. It was enough to make you think ....
Christmas music I heard today included Kay Starr's "The Man With the Bag."
Cute song.
I do not think they have written a good Christmas song since, well, around then. You hear these tortured rock Christmas songs and I just want to say, stuff it. In that stocking! I heard a few of those talent-less songs today, too. But this song was fun. Kay Starr's voice is so good and so is the blaring brass.
It is kind of fun because we are having California weather. You cannot fight it! You just have to pretend you are living in California. Where people are used to warm weather and make snowmen in the sand, pictured above, and know the name Leonard Pennario.
Yesterday I decided it was time to get back into maxi-dresses. Hey, why not? If it's in the 50s.
The one nice thing to think about is this is all time lopped off winter. Imagine if we can skate through Christmas without snow. You could gripe that you want a white Christmas but ain't nothing you can do about it ... and the payoff is, winter doesn't start until January. That is two months of winter, November and December, that we were missing. Meaning we lose two months of winter.
We will hardly have time to get sick of it before it ends! And that is not a bad present.
Our California Christmas! It'll make this December one we'll remember.
We now revisit the iconic tropical Aldi commercial.
There is a bright side to all this rain and that is that it is good for my garden.
That is my garden pictured above! Beautiful isn't it?
Remember my, ahem, half-assed garden from 2012? That did not work out that well because, I think, we did not get enough sun that year. The tomato plants coughed up no tomatoes as I remember. This is how infrequently I get my act together even for a half-assed garden. I remember the details.
This year I planted some tomatoes in Tidy Cat pots. But I also planted lettuce in window box containers I bought cheap at Valu Home Center, and Swiss chard in these Israeli pots, also scored cheap at Valu. I have inherited my mother's love for Valu. The pots are great because they stack neatly so I can store them easily in between loser garden attempts. And the idea behind the containers is that you can set them amidst the bishop's weed.
The other day I planted arugula and mesclun. I am investing in the bad weather! Should the sun prove scarce and my tomatoes disappoint me, there will be greens. By the way in the planter pictured above, among the bishop's weed, I believe that is Mustard Spinach coming up in the bottom planter. What is Mustard Spinach, you ask? I do not know either. But it looks as if we will find out.
Lettuce just wait a few more days.
Ha, ha! That is a Leonard Pennario pun and I used it yesterday on Facebook to great acclaim. Great art never grows old. Lettuce remember him as we harvest our crops.
This morning it was almost warm and I thought: I am going to ditch the black tights.
What a mistake that was!
I put on these spring stockings and a cute skirt and I was all ready to go to work. But first I had to go walk to the garage to pick up my car which had needed a brake job. So I set out in my pink spring stockings and my cute spring outfit.
Zut alors!
Things started out nice. It was warmer than it had been and I saw robins in the trees. But then it got cold and a drizzle began. Rain began. There was a kind of street guy who I saw hassling women and I had to go a little out of my way trying to steer clear of him. I had these heels on and I am click-clicking down the sidewalk. The walk was long.
By the time I got to the garage, I was cold! My feet were wet. I could not believe I had dressed like this. Whose idea was this? Spring clothes. Indeed.
So after I had paid for my brake job -- ouch! -- and reclamed my car, on the way to work I swung by my house again and changed into, you guessed it, tights.
It is like 1934 when the Pennario family moved to California.
I have been down with a cold and last night the gang gathered without me. And here is what I loved: My friend Gary called me from the party.
"Where are you?" he said.
And in the background I could hear all this raucousness going on.
It was like being in college! Your friends would call you from a party.
I am not that sick. It is not that flu that is going around, thank goodness. But the zero degree temperatures would not be a good idea so I am trying to stay out of them. One thing, I wrote this on Facebook the other day, I think it is so funny how every day the radio is telling us about the winter of 1934. That is the year that set the records for cold, the records we are breaking or not breaking.
Above is a picture of Big Blue in the winter of 2015 but it could just have easily been the winter of '34, except for that it would have been surrounded by other houses, not lots.
OK, this is all very interesting, Mary, but what does this have to do with Leonard Pennario?
Here is what. His family left Buffalo in 1934 and moved to California. He did not think to mention to me how cold that winter had been but that weather must have had something to do with that move. Pennario's dad had owned a high-end shoe store and in the Depression, you could forget succeeding in a business like that. It was the same as my grandfather who had a high-end men's clothes store. Businesses like that were the first to fail.
So you can picture the situation, the shoe store belly up, and then this cold, cold winter of 1934. They must have spent a fortune on coal and then been freezing anyway. Who needs that?
Who needs the Winter of '34?
Better the Summer of '42. And this great scene involving vinyl.
Tonight it is supposed to go down to -9 degrees. It is going to break a record set in 1914.
I took that picture up above in the park the other day. It has been cold for a little while now. But still.
Negative nine degrees!
I cannot believe that no one mentioned this all day, but surely I am not the only one thinking of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Nine Below Zero."
The record of nine below zero was set in Buffalo before Leonard Pennario was born but not before Sonny Boy Williamson was born. He was born Dec. 5, 1899.
"It done got nine below zero, the woman put me out, for another man."
There is one I heard this morning that intruded gently on my thoughts about Leonard Pennario's records. It was a really simple birdsong. A rising chirp. Mid-pitched. A strong but musical tone, not buzzing or harsh.
Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
About a second and a half, two seconds apart.
Ah, I thought. That will be a really easy bird to identify. And it was getting about time to knock off work anyway. And so I tried.
Look, I know this is a common bird. It is a common-sounding call. I live in the city. Clearly this is not some rare bird that has flown here from Africa or Australia or wherever, like the one up above painted by Gauguin. Why is it on no list?
O the weather outside is frightful today, but the important thing is, it was not so bad yesterday and so I was able to make it in to church with my King Cake.
That is a picture of it up above! I put it on Facebook and people are so nice, I got something like 80 likes.
My King Cake went viral!
It was quite an experience making the cake. It is always fun to make something new, something which, you have never made anything like it before. And the King Cake was like that, this great overblown sweet bread that inflated like a beach ball in the oven. No kidding, it went into the oven this kind of demure rope of dough, twisted into a circle. When it came out it was huge.
My friend Bill at church said that it looked like a turban such one of the Kings would have worn. I was thinking the same thing. Especially when it was dusted with the sugar, it looked Eastern.
Anyway I was happy I could take the cake. I was worried about the weather because the winter has been such a roller coaster, and so I even checked on bus times so if I needed to, I could take the bus. Nothing was going to keep me from St. Anthony's yesterday, not when I had this cake.
But I did make it, and I even picked up Dorothy, and we all ate cake and jambalaya and Epiphany Bread and star cookies and sang "We Three Kings" and "Adeste Fideles" with the monsignor joining in, and there was much rejoicing. Plus, remember the bean you hide in the cake, the one President John Adams broke the cake apart trying to find?
The one thing about the months leading up to winter is you do not appreciate your ease of movement. You can drive here and there, no problem. You can just throw on clothes and leave the house.When it snows things are different!
Up above is a picture I took last year when we got to this point and I had to get on the bus. I put it on the Buzz Blog that I just linked to. All of a sudden Buffalo looks kind of picturesque, you know, when seen from safety behind a big bus window. You have those beautiful soft hues of white and blue and violet.
Here is another Ansel Adams shot from the Buzz Blog:
Bus riding is a skill everyone in Buffalo should have but it is amazing how many people do not have it. They do not know how much it costs or how to pay or which routes go where. Which is a pity because it can be fun to ride the bus. Sure, you never know who will be riding it with you. Hence a word I love, omnibus. It means a bus for all! Which, let us admit it, can have its bad side. Still, when the weather is cruddy there is nothing like sitting on this big bus as it maneuvers its way indifferently through traffic.
You can horse with your iPhone, you can not horse with your iPhone. You can sleep. Sometimes I do.
Anyway I suddenly see more bus rides in my future. Also good fortune for the Pennario book because of those long white nights where you have nothing to pursue but scholarship. OK, there is also wine with your friends, is another thing about winter. As my grammar slides south. Forgive me, it is a Monday morning.
I took these pictures of the sunset the other day and it makes it look as if the waterfront is on fire!
When I passed the construction site near The Buffalo News there was a guy in a hard hat taking pictures too. The sunset was that stunning. It was funny because that morning I had been up early working on my Leonard Pennario book and I had been admiring the moon. Now I was admiring the sun.
I have titled this picture "Sunset With Port-O-Potties."
What a cold, chilly Monday! Exacerbated by me running around downtown here and there. What an adventure that was!
Downtown if it is raining you really cannot go anywhere or you just get soaked. It is just so windy that umbrellas do no good. All day strangers were talking to each other, commiserating. One gentleman carrying a bike helmet said to me, "This is unbelievable!"
It was funny, on Sunday people were saying the same thing only it was beach weather.
"This is unbelievable!" they were saying.
It was beach weather and so I went swimming at Beaver Island. I went with my brother George and his kids. Leonard Pennario would understand my taking a break in my work. He loved the beach.
From time to time Sunday someone would pass us on the beach. We saw a couple walking their dog, a woman throwing sticks for her retriever, a couple with a few kids. Everyone acted in a kind of daze. They would look at us and say, "Isn't this unbelievable? So warm! So beautiful!"
I was thinking, I would not be surprised to find these people were ghosts. The whole day was so surreal. Swimming in October. How often do you get to do that, I mean in Buffalo?
That is my niece Barbara up above. The first time we went into the water, the water was cold and she was completely cracking me up. She was in that big baggy swimsuit she is wearing in the picture and she put on these hilarious swim goggles and made a big show of wading pompously into the water, making faces and yelling about how cold it was. The kids are so funny!
Here is George Andrew in the sand.
We made a volcano and a turtle and a starfish and a whale. Our Barbara is such a ham!
My brother George grilled and we dined al fresco in the beautiful surroundings.
Ha, ha! That drink in the glass is not wine! It is Fit & Active grape drink from Albrecht Discount. We were all drinking it and it looked as if we were drinking wine. Little George took a glass on the beach and he was strolling around sipping it and he looked so suave, you would have thought it was wine. I was waiting for them to call Child Protection Services.
Anyway, a beautiful Sunday. Today was a whole different ball game.
You could feel it last night, the evening growing restless, the branches blowing. We went outside for the reason that you go outside in the neighborhood where we live: we heard a car crash. It was just a fender bender on the corner. Meanwhile the winds blew in and lightning began flashing.
Howard said, "That is the last of the warm air blowing out."
However. Sometimes summer comes back and stays a while! The fall I met Leonard Pennario it was summer almost into November. It was very warm! I remember that.
At least yesterday I did not waste the day. I wore a Hawaiian shirt to work. A most wonderful thing to do as the summer is flying!
I went for a steamy walk downtown.
In the evening I worked on the book for two hours and later I memorized a bit of John Keats.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases. It will never Fall into nothingness, but will still keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
How is that for an accomplishment? It is the beginning of "Endymion." I could write it out without looking it up. It is good to write out the words of the great masters because then perhaps you can internalize it. That was why Beethoven wrote out some of Mozart's quartets.
The Keats was on the Celestial Seasonings box and I was waiting for the water to heat for my Sleepytime tea. I am addicted to Sleepytime tea, with that sleepy bear. I am going to keep rehearsing those lines so I have them in my head. You never know when you will need them!
And I will always remember how I learned it on this sultry and torpid evening, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.
I went walking in the park today and the weather for once was tolerable! There was a cold wind off the lake but it was sunny and ... and! ... I wore shorts.
It was very different from one day last week when I took the above picture.
And this one!
This was the year March went in like a lion and out like a lion!
It was funny, taking those pictures. I went for a walk with my friend Michelle and we were getting soaked. The snow was flying sideways. And it was all in big, wet flakes.
I could tell that my taking pictures exasperated Michelle but still, I could not stop!
"Hang on," I kept saying. Then I had to take off my mittens and get out my phone and take it out of its case because the case is rough and ready in case I drop it. Howard told me it is because I always drop the phone, which I do. The trouble with the case is you cannot take pictures while the phone is in it, because otherwise your picture will look like something that should be on display at the Albright-Knox.
Now I am glad I took my pictures of the park. It is good to have a record of what things were like just over a week ago.
Today I was encouraged by my walk and so I found five minutes to sit down at the piano and play Mendelssohn's "Spring Song." It is this little ritual I have. Even if I am not Leonard Pennario, I can do a pretty good number on the "Spring Song."
Here is a video I found. I do not know who the pianist is but still.
Today I walked down by the river. That is a nice thing I think about sometimes, how I work downtown and can walk down by the river, by a 200-year-old lighthouse, by an international border.
By huge gusts of wind that was blowing water everywhere!
At one point the wind was whipping the waves up onto the path where I was walking. It was like the Cave of the Winds! I moved to the side to get out of the way of the water and a man who was jogging had the same idea and ran up onto the embankment too.
As he passed me he said, "We're the only two people crazy enough to be out here!"
That was the truth! I could not stop laughing about that.
But it felt good to be walking out there in the wind and the rain (it started raining too, as if things weren't dramatic enough). I went over a chapter of my book in my head. You can get good at working in your head and that is what I am trying to do.
It is time again for my favorite line from Palm Sunday, perhaps in all of Scripture:
"O Lord, keep not Thy help far from me; look to my defence; deliver me from the lion's mouth, and my lowness from the horns of the unicorns."
"Domoine, ne longe facias auxilium tuum a me, ad defensionem meam aspice: libera me de ore leonis, et a cornibus unicornium humilitatem meam."
It is tough to type in Latin! You do not realize how used you are to the patterns of letters in English.
Still a tremendous line, even if it is hard to type in Latin.
The missal says it comes from Psalms 21, 20 and 22. It took three Psalms thousands of years ago to come up with a prayer that cool.
Now we are used to seeing unicorns as cute and warm and fuzzy.
But the unicorn in the ancient Hebrew psalm is more like this.
Or like the one at the top of this post. Doesn't that picture kill you? I saw it and had to include it. Just the idea of Robot Unicorns. Hahahaa!
It is funny, I have fallen behind with the Web log -- too much work on the Leonard Pennario book, I am trying to coordinate all of the pictures -- and I see I have not posted since Tuesday, when I crafted the immortal prose titled "Spring Ding-a-Ling."
Spring Ding-a Ling is right!
Today I totally underdressed for church. I remembered too late that Palm Sunday Mass starts 15 minutes early because you have to bless the palms plus there is a procession. So I just threw on a dress and a jacket and ran out the door.
I froze!!
All through Mass I never stopped shivering. At one point my fingers got so cold I could not turn the pages of my prayer book.
