http://www.loftgallery.org/mac.shtml

Our woodlands in the northwest have many wildflowers that are a delight to the eye and the nose.  Some of the most prolific are the ground covers that carpet shadowy paths, not at all showy but growing everywhere at once.  Lily of the Valley with its sword like upright leaves and humble hanging blossoms,  thrives almost anywhere, with a root and bulb system that survives the most extreme conditions.  Even if not visible while hidden underground, it is ready to spring up again.   And it will always return again, no matter what.

And so will our Lord.

Song of Solomon 2:1-3

It’s my wedding day.  A very fancy, elegant two-story place  was rented for us to have photos taken prior to the ceremony.   (It could be a banquet hall, a fancy country club, someone’s mansion of a home.)  We’re in the grand entryway where the space is two-stories high.  While we each wait for our turn, we are hanging out at the top of the grand staircase.  The photographer just took photos of the bridesmaids who are wearing pretty light green dresses.  He takes the photo from up on the staircase looking down at them.  Rather than a serious posed shot, they are laughing, having a good time, some of them with their hands in the air.  It looks like a great shot.

Lily of the Valley (from wholeblossoms.com)

Now it’s time for me to come down the stairs.  I can see a portion of my simple veil in my peripheral vision and I can see my white shoes.  The dress is white yet I’m clueless as to what it looks like; it’s like a white blur to me.  The v-shaped open toe high-heeled shoes are tight.  When I arrive at the bottom of the stairs, another pair of shoes are waiting for me to wear for both the photo-shoot and during the ceremony.  They are a larger looking shoe, looks like they are made with a covering of white taffeta and on the top part of the shoes are small bouquets of live lilies of the field and some white lace.   It’s then that I notice that my bridal bouquet is made of lilies of the field as are the bridesmaid’s bouquets.

It’s painful to take of my shoes because they are so tight and uncomfortable.  I put my feet in the lilies of the field shoes noticing that they are bigger and looser.  I’m concerned that they may be too loose and that I’ll trip going down the aisle.  I hope I get a chance to practice in them although doing any extra walking in them could damage the shoes…God forbid I scuff up my ‘lily white shoes’  [this dream is soooo loaded with stuff]

I wish I could have photos taken with my soon-to-be-husband while we still have access to this place.  Maybe we can come back here after the ceremony.

I look over to see the flower girl and she has yet to put on her dress.  She too has lilies of the field.  I find a small branch with lilies of the field on them and look around to see if anyone is missing the lilies of the field that they are to carry.  Everyone has all that they need.  I put it down and let go of worrying about the extras.

[The dream jumps]

At some point during this wedding day I’m in a place where lots of people are milling around as if waiting for something to happen (the ceremony, the reception?).   I see Uncle Willie sitting on a bar-high chair [to the best of my knowledge I have no Uncle Willie]…it’s not a stool, it’s like a nice wooden dining room chair that’s high enough for a bar .  He’s an odd sort, in many ways…looks, hair, clothing, mannerisms.  At his heart, he’s a wonderful man who always seems out of place; has trouble fitting in.  While , he questions his being there as a representative of his side of the family; that someone better should have been picked.  I tell him that he’s perfectly suited to represent the family and that I’m glad he’s here.  He too has lilies of the field on him, on his lapel.  I’m so glad he’s there that I ask him to stand next to me and demand that someone take a picture of just the 2 of us together.  The photographer is annoyed and says,’now I have to take 3 pictures?’  I look around for anyone with a camera.  I’m being totally ignored.  My thought is “doesn’t anyone have a camera?”

[the dream jumps]

It’s time to leave the house go to the church.  [I'm on my parent's house] It appears that everyone is already outside.  Walking through the living room, I see the flower girl and she still has yet to dress.  A brown paper bag sits in front of her which I believe contains her dress.  She’s kneeling in front of it, appears to be pouting.  I say something to her about getting dress.  She decides to just ignore me as if waiting for far more attention than she’s getting.  I tell her ‘fine’ and decide to leave without her…I’m okay being without a flower girl.

I step outside to nighttime and rain.  [up until now I assumed it was daytime]  I appear to be all alone…where is everybody.  I look up the street and see cars parked along the left side of the street and realize that my neighbor across the street is having a party.  The narrow street is now even more difficult to drive.  [this is the street where I grew up] As I stand there observing all this, I realize that I’m getting wet.  I run to the driveway/garage area where some people are waiting to leave.  Everyone seems to ignore me and the fact that I’m getting wet.

In Conclusion

Yikes this is a loaded dream!  It may take some time to analyze this…for now I just wanted to write it all down.

One thing I want to add before I “conclude”.  Usually in dreams I jump out of character and either become someone else in the dream or become just the observer of the dream.  In this dream I stayed inside the main character…the bride-to-be.  If I had to give an image/personality to this character, I would say she reminds me of Jennifer Love Hewitt from the tv program, Ghost Whisperer.

Lilies of the Field vs Lily of the Valley

Okay…this is weird.  During the writing of this dream (and even in the title), I kept calling the flowers “Lilies of the Field”.  On a whim I decided to add an image of the flowers to this blog.  While searching, I realized that these flowers are called “Lily of the Valley.”  I started to edit the dream to correct this “mistake” and yet something told me to leave it as is…as part of analyzing this dream I need to look at the significance of “lilies of the field” versus “lily of the valley.”  During the entire dream I saw the flower “lily of the valley” and yet kept calling it “lilies of the field”…wild!

“Lilies of the Field” is a Sidney Poiter movie “about a handyman who thinks he’s just passing through a little town in New Mexico, and ends up staying awhile to build a chapel for a cluster of German-speaking nuns. The renowned actor is highly entertaining in his combative exchanges with Lilia Skala, playing a Mother Superior who survived Hitler and makes no bones about bullying the goodhearted, itinerant worker into doing more and more for her.” (quote from amazon.com)

“Lilies of the Field” is also a quote by Jesus during his sermon on the mount…

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

I told you this dream is loaded!!!

(Worldpress doesn’t much care for my picture as my avatar, it keeps going back to my old one.  Perhaps they had too many complaints.   )

The more we learn about the animals, and plants, we share our world with the more we find we are not as unique as we think.  We can see creative thinking in other animals, just watch squirrels working out how to get at the bird feeder.  Now we have evidence that plants recognize their siblings.  “We are family” applies to the plant kingdom as well as our own.

First, in our Bible study I asked you to pick you favorite animal.  Now I’ll ask you to make some choices from the world of plants.

Your back on the ark and must choose three flowers to brighten your voyage.

My picks

1. Lily of the Valley – my mother’s favorite flower, her nick name was Lil.

2. Roses - The 2009 award winning Pink Promise.

3. Tulips – The Sensual Touch Tulip.

What three veggies would you pick for the dinner table?

My picks are easy since there aren’t many veggies I do like.

1. Corn

2. Potatoes

3.Carrots

Which three veggies would you throw overboard?

1. Brussels Sprouts

2. Broccoli

3. Lima beans

The article:

http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2010/oct/plantsiblings101409.html

Plants may not have eyes and ears, but they can recognize their siblings, and researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered how.

The ID system lies in the roots and the chemical cues they secrete.

The finding not only sheds light on the intriguing sensing system in plants, but also may have implications for agriculture and even home gardening.

The study, which is reported in the scientific journal Communicative & Integrative Biology, was led by Harsh Bais, assistant professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware.

Canadian researchers published in 2007 that sea rocket, a common seashore plant, can recognize its siblings — plants grown from seeds from the same mother.

Susan Dudley, an evolutionary plant ecologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and her colleagues observed that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil, they “play nice” and don’t send out more roots to compete with one another.

However, the moment one of the plants is thrown in with strangers, it begins competing with them by rapidly growing more roots to take up the water and mineral nutrients in the soil.

Bais, who has conducted a variety of research on plant signaling systems, read Dudley’s study and wanted to find the mechanism behind the sibling recognition.

“Plants have no visible sensory markers, and they can’t run away from where they are planted,” Bais says. “It then becomes a search for more complex patterns of recognition.”

Working in his laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, a major center for life sciences research at UD, Bais and doctoral student Meredith Biedrzycki set up a study with wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.

They utilized wild populations to avoid issues with this common laboratory-bred species, which “always has cousins floating around in the lab,” Bais says.

In a series of experiments, young seedlings were exposed to liquid media containing the root secretions or “exudates” from siblings, from strangers (non-siblings), or only their own exudates.

The length of the longest lateral root and of the hypocotyl, the first leaf-like structure that forms on the plant, were measured.

Additionally, in one experiment, the root exudates were inhibited by sodium orthovanadate, which specifically blocks root secretions without imparting adverse growth effects on roots.

The exposure of plants to the root exudates of strangers induced greater lateral root formation than exposure of plants to sibling exudates. Stranger recognition was abolished upon treatment with the secretion inhibitor.

Biedrzycki did the painstaking laboratory research, rotating more than 3,000 plants involved in the study every day for seven consecutive days and documenting the root patterns.

“The research was very painstaking because Arabidopsis roots are nearly translucent when they are young and were also tangled when I removed them from plates, so measuring the roots took a great amount of patience,” Biedrzycki notes.

“This manuscript is very important for my research since the focus of my thesis project is understanding the biochemical mechanism behind root secretions,” she says. “This research has allowed me to probe the natural mechanism of kin recognition and root secretion.”

The study was replicated by Dudley’s lab in Canada, with similar results.

Strangers planted next to each other are often shorter, Bais notes, because so much of their energy is directed at root growth.

Because siblings aren’t competing against each other, their roots are often much shallower.

Bais says he and his colleagues also have noticed that as sibling plants grow next to each other, their leaves often will touch and intertwine compared to strangers that grow rigidly upright and avoid touching.

The study leaves a lot of unanswered questions that Bais hopes to explore further. How might sibling plants grown in large “monocultures,” such as corn or other major crop plants, be affected? Are they more susceptible to pathogens? And how do they survive without competing?

“It’s possible that when kin are grown together, they may balance their nutrient uptake and not be greedy,” Bais speculates.

The research also may have implications for the home gardener.

“Often we’ll put plants in the ground next to each other and when they don’t do well, we blame the local garden center where we bought them or we attribute their failure to a pathogen,” Bais says. “But maybe there’s more to it than that.”

Lily-of-the-Valley Laced Walks
Lily-of-the-Valley laced walks and memories.
Read on…

What could be more virginal and pure than sprays of the white bell-shaped flowers of lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis)? Our friend Ben would be hard-pressed to think of another flower that could compete. Hawk’s Haven, the cottage home that our friend Ben and Silence Dogood share in the precise middle of nowhere, PA, could as easily have been called Lily-of-the-Valley Haven or Bleeding Heart Haven. Both these plants tend to burn out for most people in early summer, their foliage yellowing, browning, and dying. Yikes!

Our bleeding hearts and lilies-of-the-valley flourish undiminished until fall. Maybe it’s our shady site, or our soil, or our climate. Certainly, it owes nothing to our care! We’ve planted the bleeding hearts, but inherited great stands of lilies-of-the-valley. Every spring, they send up their delicate, tender white bloom sprays with no help from us. Then their foliage retains its cool, classy blue-green until frosty weather golds it up in fall. But this time of year, lily-of-the-valley has another surprise in store.

I don’t know why I never remember this, but every October, our lilies-of-the-valley transform themselves from delicate innocents to scarlet women. Our friend Ben was reminded of this yet again when I took our black German shepherd puppy, Shiloh, for a bathroom break a few minutes ago. You’d think a plant like lily-of-the-valley would produce pure white berries to match its blooms.

But no: The berries are a blazing, scarlet red. They announce themselves shamelessly from a distance, luring the morally indecisive in for a closer view. Like Carmen in the Bizet opera, they seem to be flaunting themselves while at the same time singing, “But if I love you, then watch out!!!”

Our friend Ben doesn’t know if the brilliant red berries are intended to attract a particular species, nor do I know if they’re delicious, edible, merely tolerable, or fatal to those who consume them. But as with all of nature, I’m sure they turn so brazenly scarlet for a reason. They seem to move from the saintly Melanie Wilkes of Gone with the Wind fame directly to the, shall we say, worldly Belle Watling, from the debutante to the courtesan, leaving the somewhere-in-between Scarlett O’Hara in the dust.

In bloom, the lily-of-the-valley brings to mind a cloister. But its berries remind me of a Toulouse-Lautrec cancan. No doubt there’s a moral in there somewhere, but our friend Ben is drawing a blank. (Er, “To everything there is a season”?!) Whatever the case, we enjoy the lovely blooms and the brilliant berries, each in their own good time.

I recently got this book from a local second hand store. It wasn’t the most facinating book in the world. It left out a lot of details that I felt should have been shared. It is about a young woman who falls in love with a struggling blind man. He has been through many surgeries that have not worked. The girl is the daughter of a local minister that feels that she can get throught to the man to go for one more break through surgery. In her struggles to get him to go through with the surgery she falls in love with him and he with her. But it never really explains how and when they fall in love. It skips around a lot of things and eventually they end up married. Their marriage struggles where they yet again skip around alot and are very vague on how they get to certain point. Good book, but very boreing. Hard to get through.

I found this out the other day and felt the need to share.

Chrisitan Dior loved the scent of Lily of the Valley so much, as well as wearing it in his button hole he used to  sew sprigs of it into the hems of his dresses.

Apparantly Lily of the Valley has been a good luck token in France since the 16th Century so perhaps he did it for luck as much as for the love of the smell.

Location: The lily of the valley is found in western North America, mainly in the northern Rocky Mountain States along the Pacific Coast, in the Midwest, and in Canada. This spring-flowering plant is also native to Britain, especially in the eastern parts.

The white bell-shaped flowers of the lily of the valley are well known, however, the plant occasionally bears orange-red, fleshy berries, which are lesser known to the general public.

Effects and Symptoms: Symptoms of ingesting the berries produced by the lily of the valley include hot flushes, tense irritability, headache, hallucinations, red skin patches, cold clammy skin, dilated pupils, vomiting, stomach pains, nausea, excess salivation, slow heartbeat, sometimes leading to coma and death from heart failure.

One of my favorite chapters in Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love” is titled Who Really Lives Like This? It tells the stories of people who don’t live normal lives. They live sacrificially hoping the way they live will spur on a conversation with someone about a God they love. Some are famous, some are not. If Francis knew the couple I know, he would have included them in that chapter.

I met Ed y Rosa Salo about five years ago. Back then I thought they were nuts. I still do. They are the directors of an orphanage – Lirio de los Valles (Lily of the Valleys) in Aldama, Chihuahua. The orphanage houses about 125 children from 0-18 years old. It’s run like a house and it works for them. They wake the kids up at 4:00 am on school days to pray and have morning devotions. On weekends, it’s 6:00 am. Some of these children have the most horrible stories of neglect and abuse. But through the love of Ed y Rosa, they have learned their abandonment is not their fault. They learn to know a God who loves, cares and protects them. They learn to live sacrificially.

Most of them work very hard – going to school, cleaning the orphanage, cooking meals and fixing things that break (which tends to be daily). Ed bombarded me with a million questions when he found out that I had visited Uganda. The Salos have a heart to want to start a Lirio III in Kenya someday (The first Lirio is in Tijuana). On Saturday he spent the morning praying for Africa. He found me and Court later in the day and we talked for about an hour about what God was placing on his heart and Rosa’s. He then proceeds to hand me 2200 pesos and says please give 1000 pesos to IJM Thailand so that they can continue to fight the injustice of forced prostitution amongst children. The other 1000 pesos went to World Vision’s orphanage in Uganda where they minister to children who were once forced soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army. The final two hundred he wanted me to give to an organization of my choosing. That’s about $200 USD. Now that’s a lot of money for anyone but for someone who doesn’t receive a salary or assistance from the Mexican government, that’s a gold mine.

Ed y Rosa live by faith knowing that God will always provide and that their situation is far better than other people in the world. Who really lives that way? Who would give up a lucrative chance to make money, a name for themselves and a comfortable life. Oh by the way, Ed has his master’s from Harvard and was an Div II All American football player. He hates that I know this and doesn’t like to talk about his pedigrees.

He is no fool if he could choose to give the things he cannot keep to find what he could never lose – Jim Elliot

Papa Ed showing off his boots

OVERWHELMED AGAIN as I contemplate all that needs doing, landscape-wise, here at Green Half-Acre. In rough order of priority, this is what I hope to accomplish this fall/winter:

• Board fence and gate across the front of property (80 feet) to create a feeling of seclusion and perhaps block traffic noise  — which no longer bothers me a fraction as much as it did when I first moved here in May. (It’s true what my neighbors said: “You’ll get used to it.”) I’m allowed a fence 4 feet tall without a Town of East Hampton permit, but that’s not tall enough. I’m thinking five or six feet.
• Eight-foot-tall deer fencing around the other three sides of the property.
• Gravel parking court in front, outside the fence/gate, big enough for 2-3 cars.
• Removal of 4-5 large trees to allow for more sunlight and expanded gardening opportunities in backyard.

Last, possibly not until late winter/spring:

• Construction of a patio. I haven’t decided on size, shape, or material yet.

Then and only then will I begin planting. I’m inspired by an article in a recent special issue of Fine Gardening magazine called Green Gardens about preparing garden beds without tilling. You just (“just”) outline their proposed shapes and start heaping fallen leaves, manure, etc. Composting on the spot, as it were. It takes time but saves digging. I hope to outline and prepare some of these beds in late fall and start planting next spring.

When I feel overwhelmed, it helps to remember all I’ve done so far. Above, my overgrown backyard in May ‘09, before a major clearing of the property. The more I remove, the better I like it.

Meanwhile, I’ve created a monster in my attempts to do away with the rampant wisteria that invades the entire property. It’s bad throughout, but I’m particularly bothered by one area near the driveway, below, that measures roughly 10′x40′. I spent several hours in June digging and pulling and cutting the roots of wisteria (intertwined with lily-of-the-valley, which made a lovely fragrant bed in May).

Wherever I cut, apparently, fresh new sprigs of wisteria have sprouted up. For every one, there are now ten. I’m at a complete loss what to do. This particular area will be part of my new gravel parking court, so a backhoe will be coming in to excavate and break up existing asphalt. That ought to go a long way toward eliminating the pesky wisteria.

But the situation is almost equally dire elsewhere on the property. Digging and pulling wisteria is a losing game, like trying to stop the ocean from making waves. To Roundup or not to Roundup? That is the question. Besides disliking the very idea, would it even work?

When I first saw Anna Sui’s new fragrance Live Your Dream displayed amongst the designer’s aubergine boudoir chairs and lacquered vanity tables in the Sears cosmetics department, I was immediately intrigued — and concerned. Live Your Dream is housed in the same vintage scrolled bottle with a rose topper as Sui’s first fragrance, simply known as Classic. Could this be replacing the boho rock ‘n’ roll designer’s Classic? The same one that I bought 10 years ago for the first time in France at Sephora when the cosmetics behemoth had not yet crossed shores? The same scent that still takes me back to Paris with a single sniff and that my boyfriend recognizes as “my scent”?

Backstage At Anna Sui Fall 2009

Live Your Dream does have some olfactory similarities to its predecessor. Both eau de toilettes have woody and musky base notes and a heart of rose and jasmine, but the top notes that you first notice are where the similarities end. Where Classic has a powdery and musky top note dominated by Bergamot, Live Your Dream has a fruity floral mix of Lily of the Valley, Waterflower Accord and White Pepper. Without any bottles of Classic on the shelf in Sears, Live Your Dream is going to have a tough time filling that shelf space in my heart.

Anna Sui Live The Dream Eau de Toilette, $70 for 50 ml and $54 for 30 ml at Sears

— Jodi Goulart

My friend was looking for ideas for her woodland fairy garden.  I thought I’d go see what is blooming today under our pine tree.

Coral bells –I think they would like a bit more sun, in fact I’ve seen them blooming far more spectacularly elsewhere, but, they do okay in partial shade too.  The foliage is pretty even when they are not blooming. This is not a great picture but just to throw out some ideas.

Some lilies do well in partial shade.  This was an easter lily that came in a pot as a gift many years ago.  I didn’t know if it would come back but it does every year!

Here is a close up–it has such beautiful freckles!

Here is some ribbon grass which can be invasive. I planted it there thinking it would brighten up the shade under that tree.  It wants to take over and I’m not sure if I will try to eradicate it or if we can live with each other.  This is just a little bit that is left after I brutally whacked it back earlier this year. Anyone who would like some just let me know. I’ve got some already potted up to share.  In the back of this picture near the tree trunk is lily-of-the-valley which finished blooming earlier.  There is also some lobelia, an annual, which I just stuck in here and there to fill in besides some hostas that are new and small. 

The spade-shaped leaves next to the tree is lily-of-the valley.  When it blooms the perfume is strong and lovely!  It spreads and is quite hardy and tolerates dry conditions.

Sweet woodruff is done blooming but is a beautiful ground cover in partial shade under a tree. This is a close-up picture, to show the form of the leaves, and doesn’t show scale very well. In real life the leaves are quite small and dainty. It grows only a few inches tall and the flowers are tiny when it blooms.

This is a coral bells with variegated foliage.

This is a siberian bugloss or Brunnera named “Jack Frost.”

These plants are all growing under this tree in the front yard.  Next year I will get pictures of the wood hyacinths blooming, and the frittilaria-which is spectacular and really LIKES the shade.  Also the columbine –it’s just all about done now.  For some reason the two bleeding heart plants were much smaller this year, I think I damaged them when I did some serious weeding under there. Snowdrops and grape hyacinths also bloom there in their time earlier in the season.

So, Lisa is a very brave person.

The other day she saw a cat dangling in a tree, without hesitation, she climbed up the tree and saved the cat.

A police officer walked by, and exclaimed, “Wow, young lady, you’re so brave! You should be a firefighter!”

…

Lisa became a firefighter, and then head of the SFFD.

She married a firefighter and had two kids.

They lived happily ever after with the cat.

by LISA

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Lisa is like a Chrysanthemum. She is simple, traditional yet with a very strong character. She might be very quiet sometimes but she can be very talkative when you touch on things she are passionate about.

Lisa is like a Morning Glory sometimes. She is mysterious and hard to catch. Yet, when you see her bloom, you can see how pretty she is. Like morning glory, she blooms for a limited period of time each day. You better catch her when she still has energy. Otherwise, please wait til tomorrow.

Lisa is like a Dandelion. She has many places wanted to go and many things wanted to do. Yet, she can’t pick exactly where she wants to land. After all, what’s the point of knowing exactly what we want?

Lisa is as cute as a Lily-of-the-Valley sometimes. She might always carry a serious look. But she does have many silly thoughts that would surprise you in her little brain.

Lisa is like a Sunflower to me when she smiles.

Lisa, I know you might be forgetful sometimes. But, please, Forget-me-not.

Tif

More Shade Plants

Another interesting plant I had in the shade was Jack-in-the-Pulpit. It loves a rich, moist soil. The flower literally looks like a little figure or a preacher, standing in a hooded pulpit! Unfortunately, it did not survive in my garden, probably because it is a little outside of its range for my 2b zone. I may try it again one day.

A lovely spring bloomer is the Lenten Rose or hellebore, deriving its name from the habit of blooming around Lent or Easter in the warmer parts of the country. The flower looks like a wild rose and comes in a variety of colours.

Another favourite is the Lily-of-the-Valley. A low growing perennial, it produces stems of highly scented white bell-shaped flowers in the spring, and often is used in wedding bouquets. It is mentioned in Song of Solomon 2:1 – “I am a rose of Sharon (another Biblical flower outside of my range!), a lily of the valley.” Be aware that the Lily-of-the-Valley is another poisonous plant.

Finally, there is the ever popular Bleeding Heart, with its drooping branches of heart-shaped flowers with a droplet of blood suspended from it. To me, it’s meaningful because it reminds me how Jesus bled upon the cross for my sins.

~Raija

Hace poco andaban buscando esta edición del nuevo disco de Dream Theater, si hablamos en plata he de decirles que es como para los fans más clavados del quinteto de Nueva York, aunque el disco dos trae seis covers magistralmente interpretados y que de verdad son de agradecerse.

La reseña apareció originalmente el 19 de junio de este año, sin embargo he decidido eliminar ese post y mejor colgar aquí las mismas impresiones con algunas nuevas además de que los links de este nuevo post no están caídos como en el anterior (esperemos que no por mucho tiempo, apúrense de verdad).

Como decía la ocasión pasada, con este disco Dream Theater regresa por todas las canicas del juego y no piensa detenerse. El poder, la progresión, el metal y la capacidad de estos neoyorquinos queda al descubierto en este nuevo disco, un paso adelante de lo que hicieron en Octavarium y definitivamente mucho más elaborado que el Systematic Chaos, que si bien no es un mal disco, siempre me dejó con la sensación de que pudieron hacer algo más.

Este nuevo material tiene seis canciones (sí, leyeron bien, seis canciones únicamente) lo cual habla del atrevimiento progresivo al cual han llegado los DT, pero eso sí, todas ellas de una manufactura impecable, se nota que ahora pusieron un gran empeño en crear los riffs, los cambios, los tiempos y destiempos, las partes de teclado de Jordan Rudess, el manejo vocal de LaBrie (y el de Portnoy que cada vez figura más en este sentido sin que eso sea del completo agrado de los seguidores), en fin, todo un desarrollo metalero bien enfocado hasta el último detalle de producción y post producción acompaña a la banda esta vez.

Las canciones: son verdaderos himnos al metal progresivo (salvo una canción que por sí sola destaca) y la intensidad se siente desde el primer acorde de A Nightmare to Remember, un ataque de doble bombo, locura de teclado, plumilleo incesante y después el riff principal, todo masterizado para hacer crujir tus huesos (el cambio a Roadrunner Records parece estar influyendo en la grabación de estos maestros, la machaca de las guitarras y bajo de Petrucci y Myung es pesada, muy heavy pero limpia y como siempre a tiempo).

Los descansos auditivos son constantes, el manejo de este recurso es bien utilizado por DT desde hace tiempo y parece que acá lo han perfeccionado, particularmente esta canción tiene una especie de tregua sónica más dulce y definitivamente muy bella, las armonías de LaBrie y el acompañamiento in crescendo del resto del grupo es de esas partes que erizan la piel al escucharlas en vivo.

Lo más interesante y destacado de esta canción, al menos para mí como baterista, es que el Portnoy ahora se aventó hasta blast beats y maneja un doble bombo mucho más veloz y complejo que en los anteriores materiales (creo que ese bombo sólo se lo había escuchado en el Train of Thought pero no estoy seguro). El blast beat como saben, se usa más en otros estilos como el death metal, el black metal y por supuesto el grindcore, pero ahora hasta se aventó esa puntada el baterista, por eso sigue siendo uno de los más influyentes de mi generación y de muchas otras: el cuate, insisto, no es un baterista, es un instrumentista y arreglista extremo.

Sigue A Rite of Passage , canción que sirvió como sencillo (obviamente editada) y que se jala más hacia el aspecto comercial de la banda, ya saben, un buen riff, coros pegajosos, un debraye-duelo de solos entre Petrucci y Rudess de primer nivel y al final un buen sabor de boca, esta me gusta bastante.

Wither es la única canción que cae dentro de los lineamientos normales del “air-time” para radio, es decir, dura unos cinco minutos y fracción, pero son suficientes para contagiarte de una emoción muy cabrona, me explico: la canción más baladesca de este disco contiene arreglos de teclado y de guitarra elaborados pero que acompañan de forma exacta al sentir general de la misma.

Todo es una especie de melancolía, tristeza, desesperación y la búsqueda de algo más, todo eso es marchitarse y resurgir en esta canción, simplemente es bella.

Inmediatamente después de Wither caemos en lo más agresivo de este compacto, The Shattered Fortress, himno que cierra la Twelve Step Suite (The Glass Prison -Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence-, This Dying Soul -Train of Thought-, The Root of All Evil -Octavarium-,  Repentance -Systematic Chaos-), viaje largísimo en el cual se adentró Portnoy para narrar musicalmente el proceso de su rehabilitación alcohólica. Esto es un reverendo viaje de hongos, explico: en SDOIT Mike Portnoy decidió, junto con el grupo, narrar el proceso de rehabilitación a través de diferentes canciones y discos como una especie de homenaje al mecanismo que te ayuda a dejar de beber y depender del pomo y otras madres. Pues bien, el cuate al principio lo soltó como si fueran enchiladas, el caso es que son 12 pasos los que llevan a un AA a estar rehabilitado, por lo que pasaban y pasaban discos y parecían no terminar. Incluso Portnoy llegó a decir que de haber sabido que se iba a meter en camisa de once varas con esta Suite no lo hubiera hecho.

The Shattered Fortress no es más que el cierre de la misma, una reminiscencia a todas estas canciones anteriores, una especie de compilado de riffs que hacen referencia a las mismas y donde se completa dicho viaje (no sé si alguien más en la historia del rock ha hecho algo parecido, habría que investigarlo) pero al final nos deja una canción sólida, llena de nostalgia y perfectamente ubicada en tiempo y espacio:, el punto más chido: cuando LaBrie canta a todo pulmón “I am responsible when anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want my hand to be there!”. Esto no es más que otra referencia directa al tratamiento de rehabilitación, es una frase que dicen los alcohólicos en proceso de franca recuperación y es una especie de compromiso que tienen con aquellos que pudieran pedir ayuda al estar en la situación en que ellos estuvieron algún día. Casualmente termina con las campanadas que aparecen en el principio de The Glass Prison: aguas, siempre puedes recaer, es una llamada de atención. Perfecto el concepto y bastante impresionante.

The Best of Times es una de esas canciones homenaje que nadie, ni el más descorazonado de los metaleros puede negar: es una canción que Portnoy le compuso a su padre antes de morir éste de cáncer en enero pasado. Desde ahí tenemos la referencia emocional de la canción: un viaje a través de la relación padre-hijo, el mensaje de no te olvidaré nunca aunque te vayas físicamente, siempre estarás acá conmigo. Algo de erizar los pelos del cuerpo. La melodía de la canción prevalece sobre todo: arreglos, solos y voces, esto le da un sentido de verdadero compañerismo de los demás miembros del grupo con Mike. La canción repite el Seize the day de A Change of Seasons, mantiene su carácter completamente épico y está perfilada para convertirse en una de las favoritas de los fans… “but most of all, thank you for my life” canta LaBrie, emotiva.

The Count of Tuscany… chale! Tenía mucho tiempo que Dream Theater no me sorprendía de tan gratísima forma como con esta canción. Una historia perfectamente encajada en el marco del mejor y más fino metal progresivo. Las líneas de guitarra, los arreglos vocales, la instrumentación y orquestación de la batería, el acompañamiento puntual del bajo, los toques exactos y precisos de los teclados, todo se une en un viaje de más de 19 minutos que la posiciona en el nivel de otras composiciones magnificas como Octavarium o A Change of Seasons, incluso con esa calidad sino es que un poco más.

Por ahí se dice que la rola se basó en una experiencia de Petrucci al visitar a un conde real de la Toscana en Italia en sus propiedades y que llegó un momento en que el guitarrista llegó a temer por su vida, quién sabe quién será el famoso conde ese ni qué quería, el caso es que tenemos por acá un nuevo clásico de Dream Theater sin duda y que será una delicia escuchar en vivo.

Ahora hablemos del segundo disco de este material… qué manera de coverear a clásicos del rock, a grupos que los han influenciado y que en cierta medida son responsables por el sonido y la capacidad de Dream Theater para crear música nueva y sorprendente.

En este segundo disco de la edición de lujo se avientan covers, ahí les van: Stargazer de Rainbow (ese grandísimo grupo con Ronnie James Dio y Ritchie Blackmore), un medley de Queen tocando Tenement Funster, Flick of the Wrist y Lily of the Valley, canciones que La Reina interpretó en su disco Sheer Heart Attack (ese disco trae Stone Cold Crazy que es covereada por Metallica) y que juntaron en una sola pieza de ocho minutos, magistral, de verdad esta canción de Queen es de maestros.

Siguen en el orden Odyssey de los Dixie Dregs, grandísima banda de progresivo y que en esta rola hicieron gala de toda su capacidad instrumental para crear atmósferas extremas. Luego viene un cover de un grupo no muy conocido pero que es igualmente bueno: Take Your Fingers From My Hair de los Glam metaleros Zebra. La canción es excelente, muy en esa onda del Glam pero con pasajes progre bien efectivos.

Acá el viaje más malviajado de todos: Larks Tongues in Aspic pt.2 de los pachecos reyes del progresivo de todos los tiempos King Crimson. Acá podemos ver porqué Robert Fripp es considerado uno de los genios musicales más prolíficos pero también puede decirse menos comprendidos del rock and roll… hay que escucharla para que sientan lo que es en realidad King Crimson.

Cierran con To Tame a Land de Iron Maiden, todo un himno de metal de antaño magistralmente llevado por las voces de LaBrie y los ritmos pesados y efectivos de Myung y Portnoy. Un clásico definitivamente.

El tercer disco son las versiones instrumentales del primero, es decir, seis piezas prácticamente iguales… esto creo que ya fue una exageración pero en fin, así somos los fans de Dream Theater a veces, queremos más y más aunque a veces sean cosas carentes de orientación musical propositiva o de sentido común.

Mi conclusión definitiva es que Dream Theater ha regresado a sus raíces, el disco tiene elementos bien marcados de Images & Words y la solidez y pesadez de Awake pero mejorados con el paso de los años, la forma y el manejo de los instrumentos de todos los miembros del grupo es de admirarse, cuando crees que no pueden ser más cabrones en lo que hacen te sorprenden y lo hacen. Nubes negras y forros plateados, situaciones negativas siempre tiene algo positivo y aprovechable: la muerte, una amenaza, el peligro de una recaída, un mal sueño, el sentirse marchito… Dream Theater y este material se perfilan para disco del año.

Ahora banda, por su extensión el archivo total de los tres discos está partido en cuatro partes que están acá abajo:

El primero

El segundo

El tercero

El cuarto y último

El password para todos es Dark_zioN

Recomendación: primero bajen los cuatro archivos y después sólo descompriman el primero, automáticamente todos los demás se almacenarán en una sola carpeta.

Carpe diem. 

When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea
Thou Who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the hosts of hell assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
Thou Who never lost a battle,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I do the best I can,
And my friends misunderstand,
Thou Who knowest all about me,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my foes in battle array
Undertake to stop my way,
Thou Who savèd Paul and Silas,
Stand by me (stand by me).

When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my life becomes a burden,
And I’m nearing chilly Jordan,
O Thou “Lily of the Valley,”
Stand by me (stand by me).

Charles Albert Tindley was born this date, 7/7/1851 at Berlin, Maryland.  He was born into slavery but rose above it to pastor a large Methodist church in Philadelphia.  He also wrote “Nothing Between” “Leave It There” and “By and By.”  Tindlay died 7/26/1933.

I finished mowing the lawn this evening (took me two evenings, too hot to do it in one!) and pulling weeds from the flower beds.  It sorely needed it, as we haven’t had a chance to touch it since just before the arrival of Paul et al, just over two weeks ago already.

While I was working tonight, and the sweat was dripping off my face, I thought about all the flowers I planted this year and how happy I am with the way things have turned out.  This garden had a few plantings when we moved in, but I decided I just wasn’t going to do anything TOO expensive, since it isn’t our house.  I’d brought a few perennials with me from our flat that had been growing in pots – they included a small yew tree that was our Christmas tree a couple of years ago and an aster that blooms late in the summer without fail. Last year, I put them in the ground, along with some dianthus (pinks) that came back this year.

The rest of what I’ve put in are bedding plants – none of them growing very tall, but they’re getting quite colourful.  I also have some pots planted with some of the same plants, and they’ve taken over to the point that you can no longer see the pots!

With that said, there are some things missing that would be in ‘my’ garden if this was actually ‘my’ garden.  Things like lilacs, lily of the valley, clematis, roses and peonies, for a start!  Someday…

In the meantime, some photos of the way my garden looked before I pulled some weeds this evening:

Dwarf Tulips

This post is going to be virtually nothing but pictures, I’ve decided. To be precise, pictures of my yard, close-ups of some of the plants, blooms, etc in both the front and back yards as well as shots of groupings. Many readers either haven’t been here to the house or, if they have, have not been by this year, for one reason or another.
I’ll name as many as I can; I do know most and many I know only by their botanical name, not their common name, and vice versa. I’ll always label them from front to back.
If you want to write back and identify ones I haven’t named, feel free and I’ll add a note to the photos. And don’t be surprised if I add a few “shifts”.
In any case: ENJOY!

Fading Dianthus Bloom – Spiderweb Cactus Bloom
Variegated Sage – Spurge* – Cholla Cactus – Sedum** – (CenturyPlant) Yucca
*Spurge is on the “A” List of Invasive Plants of the West; however, kept under control, it is a beautiful plant with a very interesting structure and bloom, which is bright yellow in late May/early June. When I got the variegated sage in the summer of 2005, it was a reclamation project and was only about 3″ across; it now measures about 3′ across and has a heavenly scent! The cholla was also a reclamation project from a neighbor; they were originally about a foot tall and are now range between 3-5′.
**Sedum comes in literally a 1000 different variations; I have about 6 or 8 on my property.

Onoethera – Blue Allium – Gallardia – Kniphofia – Santolina – Bee Balm
The Santolina (Lanendar Cotton) was a reclamation project from 2005, as well, and was about a foot across when I planted it; it’s now about 4′ across. Onoethera (the yellow one in the foreground) is better known as Evening Primrose. [This photo is on the opposite side of the berm from next picture, hence, the Santolina.
Colorado Penstemon - Iris - Blue Allium - Santolina

[Quick note: You'll see lots of garden art in these photos. I'm BIG into garden art....things like old metal toys, lamp globes, formed and blown glass pieces, old iron stove parts, etc. Their structure add interest and curiosity to onlookers.]

Colorado Penstemon on the right with several unidentified shoots around it, Bachelor Buttons on the left, chives, (waning) Allium globes, Kniphofia, Larkspur (tall, center, pink, blue, and purple), Sedum germanii (low, yellow bllom)…and moving towards the back are an unidentified Mint, Cercocarpus, water plant off to the right, Nassela (Mexican Hair Grass), 2 old root Roses, dying peonies (far left), Apache Plume.

I’m sitting under my Peach Tree, Pineleaf Penstemon (yellow, front right) with unknown grass next to it, what I thought was Lychnis but isn’t (surrounding the Iris), Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Saskatoon Serviceberry (3-stem tree near center), several giant Sunflowers (volunteers), more sedums.

Bees like all the blues in the yard. This is a slightly out-of-focus Bachelor Button. (Man those guys move quickly from bloom to bloom!)

Blue Allium. The flower head on this is about 4″.

Delosperma and Gold-Tipped Juniper.

On either side of the grass, which I think is Stipa, are a pair of Autumn Joy Sedums, one of which is variagated, several Sempervivums (aka Hens and Chicks), the yellow-green sedum on the right center is one of my favorites called Angelina….it (and all sedums) keep their green all year, changing in the Fall to another color: Angelina turns burnt orange and stays that way until Spring, several Sunflowers are pushing upward around the 1850s Goat Cart that I procured a few years ago.

Larkspur and the meristem of a growing Ponderosa Pine, acquired from the curator of the Conifer Berm at DBG. The Ponderosa is probably about 7 years old or so and is about 4′ tall.

Johnson’s Blue Geranium with visitor.

Just about everything in this photo has been identified…I just happen to be looking in the opposite direction across the yard. The tree in the foreground is an Engelmann’s Spruce…at full height, this tree will generally grow to 30+’ but I will be dwarfing this and it’s cousin on the other side of the yard, the  yellow behind it is the Sedum germanii. Kinda looks a bit like a jungle, doesn’t it? Compare it to this one, taken in March:

Obviously, it was taken looking the opposite direction…but I came across this while looking for something else.  But it shows what a dramatic difference there is in the back yard between March and June.

(I’m adding these 2 the day after the original post. I figured I din’t have enough shots of the front yard in an overall perspective.) This what you see just outside the front door to the house:

The mass of green is Basket of Gold and is a profusion of gold when it all pops open in mid-May. The yucca behind it is Adam’s Needle, the large shrub at the back/middle is Russian Sage and next to it is…damn, I just forgot the name of it! and behind that is my favorite yarrow: Paprika…a deep red that turns red-orange.
As you can see the Basket of Gold spread pretty easily and goes wherever it wants (and this photo also shows you how little I have pulled my weeds and all of the Gold wannabes). This berm is probably my favorite because I never water it…it lives entirely on what Mother Nature feeds it. It is predominately cactus and succulents, grasses, iris, etc. The large green bush on the right is an Artemesia ‘Powis Castle’; it grows exponentially from year to year, even though I cut it back all of the way every Spring. It was about 10″ across when I planted it and is now well over 5′ wide.

Around the corner is a Rabbitbrush, a native to Colorado that is most seen on the sides of highways in its most wild form; I got it from a friend as a reject at maybe a foot tall and is now well over 4′ tall and 5′ wide and will most likely fill the area in the back corner eventually because it is a voracious spreader, too. The large bushy grass on the left (behind the one with flowerheads) will eventually get about 6-7′ tall by mid-Fall and will stay there until I cut it back next Spring. It is an awesome spectacle when it blooms and just as wonderful when it is snowed on in Winter.
There isn’t a whole lot of shade on the property but this corner on the north side is nicely populated with low-growing Lamium ‘White Nancy’ (the variagated leaves), some Lily of the Valley towards the back, a large section of Dragon’s Blood Sedum (with stems that turn burnt orange in the Fall, hence the name), and a nice Dahpne ‘Carole Mackie’ shrub.

Opening old root Rose with raindrop.
I have this thing f0r raindrops. I’ll be doing a post on them soon. But here are a couple of more.
Autumn Joy Sedum and raindrop.
Saskatoon Serviceberry with Raindrop.

Luck Be The Lady.

Radiant Energy
Offspring of The Squid Nebula
This Lily popped open today in the back yard. I have several lilies in both the front and back yards but although I planted them 3 or 4 years ago, this is the first time they have bloomed.
Homing Signal (Dwarf Tulip).
The Welcoming and Gaping Maw (Iris blossom)

I hope you’ve enjoyed a fairly thorough trip through my yard. I missed a few spots but they’ll show up later. Still, you got a pretty good taste of it!

I’ll close with a serene photo that I like a great deal.

The Fallen (rose petal with Nasella).

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Starting top left, going clockwise: the blue flowers on the tree next to my house, then jacaranda, campanula, and 2 photos of the lilies of the valley across the street.

I’m taking a step out of my typical posts for this entry.  It occurred to me  the other day that it’s curious that at the beginning of summer, when the sun is a light, yellowish-white globe in the sky, at its hottest and brightest all year, that many of the flowers that bloom at this time of year are periwinkle, almost perfectly complimentary to it on the color wheel: the jacaranda, campanulas and agapanthus (more poetically called lillies of the valley).  They are the most wonderful color of periwinkle (also a fun word to say, and named after a tropical plant related to vinca.  Oops, side trip.)  Blue violet in juxtaposition to the sun.

So here’s a peek at what I see in my immediate vicinity these days: my neighbor’s jacaranda tree fills the view out the sliding door to my deck; across the street the front yard is packed with agapanthus plants whose buds are about to burst open like violet-blue fireworks.  Then there’s the campanula that’s planted in the large pot with one of my plumeria on the deck, lovely star-shaped blossoms overflowing the edge of the pot.  And finally, a small tree with amazing little blue flowers that is growing at my front door.  I have no idea what they are called, but I love them.  If only my blue hydrangea was blue-ming too!

Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings (3CD) (2009)

TRACK LiST:

Disc 1/3
1. A Nightmare To Remember 16:10
2. A Rite of Passage 8:36
3. Wither 5:25
4. The Shattered Fortress 12:49
5. The Best of Times 13:09
6. The Count of Tuscany 19:16

Disc 2/3
1. Stargazer 8:11
2. Tenement Funster / Flick of the Wrist / Lily of the Valley 8:18
3. Odyssey 8:00
4. Take Your Fingers From My Hair 8:18
5. Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt.2 6:32
6. To Tame a Land 7:15

Disc 3/3
1. A Nightmare To Remember ( Instrumental ) 15:39
2. A Rite of Passage ( Instrumental ) 8:36
3. Wither ( Instrumental ) 5:28
4. The Shattered Fortress ( Instrumental ) 12:47
5. The Best of Times ( Instrumental ) 13:20
6. The Count of Tuscany ( Instrumental ) 18:47

    Standing on the front stoop, Aimée chatted with Rennie about nothing in particular: a card he had noticed, on the hall table, for an upcoming art exhibit; his daughters; Pierrot; the cold April light.  She watched as he crossed the street, unlocked his car door and drove away.  

    Back inside, she appraised the empty living room.  It was, she concluded, too quiet and dim.  She plumped the pillows on the sofa, rearranged the lilacs in one of the cut glass vases and shifted the heavy canterbury—on which Rennie had left (intentionally?  she’d have to call him) a worn leather-bound book of music—to the corner of the room.  Then she sat down, buffeted by a sudden updraft of…what? dissatisfaction? hopelessless? something more like vanity or futility (she had wondered, fleetingly, on noticing a slight brown tinge to the frill of the convallaria, why she bothered at all).  And now sadness—remote yet familiar—settled mote by mote, like a fine dust, on her consciousness.  Aimée looked around.  What had Larkin written?

           Books; china; a life
          Reprehensibly perfect.

Was that it? Her fingers brushed some crumbs from the little celadon saucer onto the polished tray. She was pleased to see, anyway, that the petit fours were gone. She hoped that Rennie had liked them.

Flowers around Blue Lake: