Barbra and Olga

Here's our pink Japanese anemone, which grows near our fence by the back steps. It sent up a tall flower stalk earlier this year, and then suddenly part of the plant shriveled and died. I don't know if it got too dry or what, but I was glad to see some of it has survived and bloomed. (Even if the flower is slightly lopsided!)

I spent most of the day in the garden yesterday with Barbra. I'm 200 pages in, so about a quarter of the way. What's struck me so far is how wildly unusual her life is. She was so young when she became famous -- still a teenager, really -- and she had a fairly meteoric rise. There was a brief period of singing in nightclubs and couch-surfing, but really, as an adult, she's never not known success. She's never not been famous.

I'm not sure she's even fully aware how unusual her life is. She says she doesn't think of herself as a star. But she treats quite casually the small moments when she exerts that star power -- like when she calls up Tim Cook at Apple because the newest generation of Siri mispronounces her name, and by golly Tim Cook corrects that mistake. Or when she asks to buy a painting from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (granted, the museum turned her down). I'm sure she knows on an intellectual level that most people can't do those things, but does she fully perceive her privilege?

Still, she comes across as likable and sensible, and the book is a smooth and easy read. I'm enjoying it, and I love hearing the backstory of how she came to sing a legendary duet with Judy Garland, for example, or how she questioned the lyrics of "People," one of her signature songs. She asked Bob Merrill, the songwriter, "Isn't it people who don't need people who are the luckiest people in the world?" His terse reply: "No."

I washed our back-door mat and set it out in the sun to dry. I wonder if Barbra ever washes her own back-door mat? Probably not now, but as a young star she used to hand-wash her clothes in a bathtub in the kitchen of her apartment. Kind of an amusing image.

Some of you may be wondering how Olga's teeth are doing. Here's your answer:

You would never know that dog just had eight teeth removed, would you? Sorry I kept getting my fingers into the frame. I was having trouble holding the phone at that angle.

Thanks to those of you who warned me about mint and how it's likely to take over if planted in the ground. That hasn't been our experience here -- we planted it in one flower bed and it struggled along for a couple of years before being utterly consumed by English ivy. To be honest, I wouldn't mind it taking over. We need some ground cover that can out-compete the weeds in the central flower bed. So we may take the plunge and put it in the ground anyway. I'll let you know.

I can't resist closing with this photo of sleeping Olga. She was zonked.