Scattershot Thoughts and Random Musings

Groceries are a bit thin and I'll have to shop today...not at all a pleasure, more of a chore. The bare-chested walk will be a plus, and actually having ingredients to cook my own dinner a superior option to work cafeteria food. A slice of merely adequate pizza was last shift's meal, washed down with a cola drink.

The four-o-clocks are blooming now and young figs stud the branches of the tree I bought last March. A teaser of one quite small fruit was harvested previous September...sweet but not full-flavored. I expect better quality this year.

For a week going the acrid odor of Ailanthus flowers has clung on the humid night air, especially on still nights. It is a scent I grew up with and did not expect to find in zone 6. More pleasantly and beautifully, Magnolia grandiflora trees have begun to bloom; their musky sweetness does not reach me as the nearest specimens are two blocks away. Memory will suffice. Catalpas are still impressive but dropping blossoms everywhere. The white, intricately yellow and purple marked flowers are worthy of notice...absolutely artistic (as are the long, stiff, hanging "beans"). Spring is warming into summer and nature's show will evolve till at last the leaves fall. I will enjoy the season of flowers and fruits fully...it fades quickly.