Rain

I will not complain. Rain. The river is running much as it did when I arrived here, 40 years ago when the river was navigable and the garden seldom needed watering. We have taken to tubing; grand-daughter all by herself on a yellow ring. I have beaucoup sugar snap peas and I eat them at least for two meals. While the west roasts in record high temperatures, it is cool here in the mornings, cool enough for a quilt at night. I can not complain. Though the clothes on the line appear weary.

WE ARE IN REHEARSAL AGAIN: LOOSE THREADS in performance the 2nd and 3rd weekends in July in the black bog theatre at VA Tech. Susan is coming out today so that we can read over the script together. The space of this theatre confronts me with a panic push into NOW where I can still fumble lines, struggling with the sheer emotional surges the poems urge in present time. It is wonderful, frightening and illuminating.
 

Ben Bernanke

Just a thought to the economist who I don't think is very much in touch with people. Stop encouraging bricks and mortar projects and begin stimulating community! Communities have been issuing bonds to build infrastructure to the detriment of salaries for teachers and county/city employees. Low interest loans do NOT prompt people to save money, not that they can save much on their frozen salaries, if they even have a job. What I'm saying is these low interest rates are promoting borrowing by communities, borrowing without much forethought to the interest they will have to pay. Ordinary people, on the other hand, are having a difficult time getting a loan. Ordinary people with salaries that have stayed the same for years can't afford higher taxes or to save money; it seems to be a stalemate. Sometimes I suspect that the middle class is doomed. Sometimes I think that community script is an answer. I know that I distrust the widening gap between rich and everyone else; it makes me think of gated communities, of houses with high walls topped with broken glass, of children sleeping on streets...Then i think that technology will somehow lace the gap, that ignorance can't withstand easy access. je ne sais pas! Somehow Bernanke got me pissed. 

not so here here

Eating edible pea pods when I go into garden, picking a handful for dinner - lightly steamed with quinoa or in salad. Big weeding effort this morning in the back corn field where Alma and I planted a second planting of corn yesterday evening. Wanting to mulch before the weeds multiply again and wanting to weed between the corn already up, but can't say "thriving!" The garden calls for attention in the morning and evening and I go. 

 

June, continent rolled

Busy, anxious, excited. Wet June benefiting garden; blooms profuse in pea row, potatoes magnificent, beans just sprouting under teepees I assembled by myself! Caught a ground hog today in trap; poor one must have been in the trap quite awhile, as he/she died before the executioner arrived. We began practicing for our LOOSE THREADS performance in July with two dramaturge: Ann and Suzanna. The theatre 101 stage is in the round, black walls and floor, a black hole! perfect for "its all about death." Much to work on, but tightening up the transitions, intention, movement. Blocking new enough to catch me; swimming to ottoman at west end of stage. (Use compass directions to denote space in theatre in the round.) I've killed a copperhead  with Alma's help by the chimney, and liberated 3 black snakes from chicken house. We all anticipate news of date to return to Ethiopia to bring home baby brother. But most anxious development in June was Ezra's stay in the hospital with what was diagnosed as mono caused by CMV virus. He is mercifully home, gradually recovering from horrid night sweats, fever, painful cough and great fatigue. I feel I am slowly collecting myself, two weeks before we begin rehearsals in earnest at end of June. 
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