Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
-Verse 3, song adapted by Mimi Farina from a poem by James Oppenheim, 1911


According to Wikipedia, Macy's fireworks display costs $350,000. That's as close as I could get to finding out how much Seattle spent on its really wonderful show last night over Lake Union. My pics are lousy because I don't have the right camera, but they are good enough (until the battery ran out) for a remembrance of a lovely evening with new friends and a GREAT VIEW from Pat's porch. I would have tried for a skyline shot before it got dark but for some serious power lines blocking an otherwise breath-taking view.


In these tough economic times, is it a good use of limited resources to blow up $350,000? A couple of the women in our group were aghast at the fireworks that private citizens were sending up prior to the main event. Some were almost as good as what we were all waiting until 10 pm to see. "Why do they waste all that money?" someone said, with murmurs of agreement among those who heard her remark. No one thought the city or the taxpayers were wasting money, at least they didn't say so.


Is it because $350,000 is such a drop in the bucket in a multi-million-dollar budget? Or because it's already a done deal and they had no real say in the matter? Is it better to entertain the poor than to feed them? I'm just sayin'.

What would Jesus do?

America, America, God shed his grace on thee.






I love this last one for its silouettes of small boats afloat in a Red Sea.

Oh Those Lazy Days of Summer

I'm back in Seattle, in a neighborhood known as Columbia City, an older part of town than Madison Park, with little ethnic businesses and people who don't all look alike. I'm staying with my new friend Diane on top of a hill (but flat parking--woo-hoo) with a great view of the city and the Cascade Mountains. It's not a good day for a photo--kinda hazy--so I'll try tomorrow, although the temperature is predicted to be in the high 70s to low 80s so it is likely to be hazy again. I certainly can't complain about the weather. It's been glorious!

Today I took a walk through Diane's garden, which is indescribably delicious so you'll just have to look at the slideshow (sidebar). Then I walked down a really big hill (and back up--ugh) to scout out the local availability of a grocery store, etc. What luck: Safeway, Starbucks (and even better, Tully's Coffee Cafe, which has FREE WiFi), Walgreens, Hollywood Video, Taco Bell...everything a girl could want, including several ethnic restaurants and a tiny grocery store run by a beautiful dark-eyed, caramel-colored woman who would let me take her picture but wouldn't look at the camera.

Here's perhaps my favorite photo of Diane's garden (I love all the little tiny plants growing from cracks and crevices) and a poem that doesn't do it justice either.

Diane’s Garden: Act Two

Walk gently in June
In Diane’s later garden
Tip-toe along the path where
Perhaps
Tulips had bowed fresher cups
In homage to faded Daffodils in the pit
Great golden horns that trumpeted
A silent score
To herald the Awakening
And blasted sunbeams soon lilac-scented
Into spectrum shards that glaze the greens
(Act I following the Crocus Overture).
I arrive late due to a previous engagement
Feel my way between the rows
Excuse myself for stepping on toes
(Oh the Baby Tears they flow)
A tiny orb-weaving usher holds me
Behind a silken rope
While a hummingbird scolds me
From the box seats.
Sans playbill I can only guess
Names of players
The script I know
Characters great and small
Nodding pointing climbing creeping
Across an igneous stage
Wardrobe bright or fading
Buttons and bows
Flounces and frills
Everyone on cue now
Take a bow
Bravo!

June 29, 2009
Seattle