It Happens to the Best of Plans...

... and this one was fairly weak to begin with. =)

Originally, I was going to take a half day of vacation and then work in the afternoon. I had a doctor's appointment up here in the morning, and Rachel had an optomotrist appointment down there in the afternoon. We were all going to head down there, and then come back when I got out of work.

Well, we were pretty sure Rachel's appointment wouldn't take that long, and in celebration of 1jadedhart's birthday, Deb was going to be heading right back down there in the evening.

Seemed silly to do the back and forth, or to take two cars down there.

So I went back to the original original plan, which was for me to work from home. We added the bit about Deb taking Rachel to the eye doctor, and somehow added Justin and Mr. B into the mix, so they could watch my neice. The early afternoon appointment and the later-in-the-evening trip would seem further apart, thus bearable.

The eye appointment didn't take much time, but, apparently, picking out glasses took gobs of time - even more so than the hour wait to pick them up. So it looks like Deb will be coming home and heading right out immediately, which is what we were trying to avoid.

To add to the fun, my brother and one of his brothers are supposed to be coming down here on their way to the Smokey Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Vegas, and other points of interest. Thought they were going to arrive about 3:30pm, in which case it was good I was home. They seem to be sidetracked at an American Legion post up the road and should be arriving in about half hour, in which case, Deb and the kids should be back, and, had it been a normal work day, I'd likely be home for as well.

Oh well...

Masters of the Woodland Garden

Masters of the Woodland Garden
By Everett A Warren
August 31, 2007

"Ferns are friends, not food"
I paraphrase, squeezing the dialogue and ideas
from two children's films into a blender and pressing PURÉE
it elicits the proper giggles as they watch their step

Hay-scented ferns rise in gentle arcs surrounding the house,
filling the forest floor
climbing the shadowed side of the meadow'd hill
after the rain they earn their name
delicate aroma upon the wind

Starker and darker the bracken fern stand
self-same structures branching in trine
filling the edges where more light reaches
antagonistic roots claiming their territory
friend to some, enemy to others

Soft and quiet, lush light green, sensitive fern lies low
creeping in almost unnoticed, spreading year by year
now becoming a presence of beauty and delicacy in the lawn itself
amid the hostas and around the house

Evergreen the Christmas fern
shall remain long after its fellows have faded to brown and beyond
'neath the river birch and along Stone Stream
it clings awaiting its time to shine in the colder seasons

From shadows rise the sword ferns, children of the west,
hiding behind evergreen shrubs,
they will rise as the shrubs do, for they are but daggers now

Tall and stately the royal fern shall be, with sweet fern and winterberry
sharing an island in the stream, to tower over all others
save, perhaps, the ostrich fern which will also rise to great heights

The interrupted fern and the evergreen wood fern
provide additional diversity mixed in amongst the rest
but the cinnamon fern's fertile fronds will stand tall and dark
a centrepiece amongst the foliage, soft and green
the ferns define the landscape
the masters
of the woodland garden

Copyright (c) 2007 Everett Ambrose Warren