All along the watchtower...

The city of Atlanta and its more leafy, eastern reaches would have long since fallen victim to a devastating invasion were it not for a few hundred of us gardener-homeowners holding back the vines.  Kudzu is the most well-known, but I probably have 2-3 different types of invasive vines along the back and side perimeters of my yard.  Today I battled them to a stalemate for 45 back-breaking minutes.  They had wrapped around my neighbor's rose bushes on the fence line and were threatening some day lillies on my side as well.

It's not yet summer, but we did not really have a winter and the heat started some time ago.  It's getting more intense now.  It's my fourth year owning this house.  I've learned to be a bit more hard-hearted with my approach to the garden.  For example, I am now much more inclined to give-up on a plant or shrub that is not thriving.  All the care in the world will usually not help.  It's best to move on quickly and try something else in that spot.  The same goes for my time commitment.  I now garden in much shorter (but more frequent) bursts.  Following the lead of a few of my more seasoned neighbors, I also now use weed-killer on occasion.

Like most other things in life, gardening is all about the products one can buy.  I have a nice collection of shears, rakes, loppers and shovels.  Gloves are the most important.  You'll need some vases too!

My encounter with Boris Johnson

My one encounter with Boris Johnson, circa autumn 2009:

If you fly into Heathrow Terminal 5 on BA you are entitled to use the arrivals lounge if you flew first or business class.  (You are also entitled to a little card that gets you to the front of the line for the immigration counters.)  Anyways, the lounge (and Terminal 5 itself) had just opened and everything was chaotic, but my arrival was smooth and I went to check out the lounge.

If you flew overnight like I did, you can have a shower, a newspaper and a hot breakfast.  The lounge had everything you could imagine, including a small spa.

And there I saw Boris Johnson standing in front of the desk where they assign your shower cubicle, hand you a towel and whatnot.  He looked as confused as I did probably, because the showers were brand new and high-tech and of course one would have not slept much on the overnight flight.  Anyways, we both bumbled around, got showered and pampered, and then headed for the breakfast buffet. 

The only amusing feature of this encounter was the complete lack of curiousity from everyone in the lounge.  Here's the mayor of London in our intimate setting and no one approached him or even acknowledged him.  He seemingly had no aides or people traveling with him.  He sat down at the table and buried his head in his breakfast and newspaper like the rest of us.  It occurred to me later that the lack of recognition in the room was probably due to the fact that only foreigners -- people with no home in London and who have landed too early to check in to a hotel -- would be likely to use the arrivals lounge.  I suppose people also just aren't in the mood to chat that early in the morning after the overnight flight.

I'm sure Boris found it odd!

World's smallest library?

I spotted this beauty on my mid-morning walk through Decatur, Georgia.  There were about 20 books inside, including a Clinton biography and Russo's Bridge of Sighs.  I'm not at all in a reading mood lately* so I passed.  Perhaps on tomorrow's walk I'll chuck-in my PhD thesis for those poor fish who might be interested in media policy.

This littlest library is amusing and perhaps a bit of nonsense, but it does not surprise me.  In Decatur, we are surrounded by communal offerings.  There is a church-owned kiddie park a block away loaded with toys that just stay in the park and are shared by parents.  My back deck overlooks the community garden.  Even the local coffee shop is a community gathering space, full of Emory grad students at all times... abusing the free wi-fi.

*My recent pattern is that I don't read much at all when I am physically active with sports.  I read huge amounts, though, when I travel.  We've booked five weeks of travel in southern Poland for July and August, so I'll immediately visit Empik bookstore in Crakow when I arrive.  I try to read anything remotely concerned with central and eastern Europe.  Timothy Garton Ash edited a series of CEE-connected novels and I've enjoyed nearly all of them.

Dreaming of the beach...

We're headed to Sea Pines for two weeks in June.  I'm actually not that fond of the low country beaches; they lack that dramatic, seaside-watercolor look.  So it will mostly be golf and bicycling for me.  Still I am dreaming of the beach lately.

Nicaragua (Pacific), Feb 2010:

North of Tel Aviv, June 2007:

Turks and Caicos, Feb 2009:

Court 1

Quiet afternoon at the club...

Late March garden look-in

Reading Bulgakov in Key West

February ephemera...

-- Winter skipped our part of the world this year.  I've played tennis, usually in shorts, all winter long so far.  It's been fantastic.  My Japanese Magnolia looks ready to pop.  Daffodils are everywhere coming up and starting to bloom.  I cannot help but imagine we will have a hard frost soon that will kill all this fun off, but for now, we enjoy it.

-- We head for Florida on Tuesday.  It's the same trip -- or a variant thereof -- every year.  We drive down the eastern side of Florida with Key West as the ultimate destination.  Our hotel in Key West is an absolute gem.  It will be my 7th year back.  The place is so lovely and quiet it undoubtedly gets the better part of its clientele to come back year after year.  A few years back I was boasting by the pool that I had been five times and the various people lounging around start offering their credentials:  '5 years!'  '9 years...'  And last February I think I found the record holder:  A man having breakfast in the courtyard told me it was his 24th year coming back.  I've vowed to one day pass his mark.  I see no reason not to try.

-- Every drive to Key West has the same feature.  You pass over 7-mile bridge and there is a state park on the left.  Bahia Honda.  If the sea is calm and the sun is out, the beach there is postcard perfect.  Crossing 7-mile bridge is symbolic of letting go.  Changes in latitude, changes in attitude...

-- Twenty-five or so years later, I am re-reading The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.  The first time around I thought it had so many unintended parallels with the AIDS crisis, which was then unfolding to great drama in the U.S.  Now the book is harder for me to categorize.  A novel of ideas / allegory?  What some have amusingly called sick-lit?  I'm enjoying it.  It's Downton Abbey in Davos.

-- I just finished The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West.  I was unimpressed.