Our petunias are still hanging on, amazingly, after blooming all summer. But they're looking a bit spindly and as the temperatures drop, their days are numbered.
Speaking of low temperatures, I can now cross defrosting the freezer off my to-do list. Woo hoo! It's really a terrible job, messy and tedious, and I'm so glad to have it finished. Yesterday morning I stacked the freezer drawers on the counter, one on top of the other to keep the contents as cold as possible, and I put a towel at the base of the freezer unit. I turned off the freezer, opened the door and put pans of warm water on the glacial shelves inside.
And I waited, and waited, and waited, occasionally replacing the pans or picking out chunks of fallen ice, and mopping meltwater from the freezer's interior. It took about three hours before every morsel melted, and now I can pull our freezer drawers in and out quietly and with ease.
I also mowed the lawn. (I know I've shown you pictures like this a million times but I'm always so proud of how good the lawn looks after I mow!) You can see my poor pathetic dahlias in the pots. Some of them I've already cut back for the year to contain the powdery mildew. In another couple of weeks I'll cut the rest down to the ground and put them all in the shed, and that will be that until next April or May. I'm ready for this dismal dahlia season to be over.
We're already starting to see some autumn color -- in this case on our orange azalea, which unlike many azaleas is deciduous.
I spent the afternoon finishing "The Trip to Echo Springs: On Writers and Drinking," an excellent book by Olivia Laing. She discusses the careers of six famous writers -- John Cheever, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Carver and John Berryman -- and the role that alcoholism played in their writing and their lives. Meanwhile she travels across the USA and visits the former homes and haunts of many of them, from Cheever's New York to Williams's Key West and Carver's Pacific Northwest. (It's interesting that the writers she chose are all white men -- she could just as easily have thrown Dorothy Parker or Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings into the mix, to name two alcoholic women writers off the top of my head. Or James Baldwin, for a person of color.)
Having finished that cautionary tale, I turned right around and made a martini, and Dave and I watched the original "Pink Panther" movie from 1963, as a sort of tribute to the late Claudia Cardinale, who died last week. She plays the princess who owns the fabulous panther diamond. It was hardly her most noteworthy screen role but I didn't feel quite up to tackling a Fellini movie.
Ah, Claudia. One of the last remaining true Golden Era divas. Six years older than my Mum, and just as beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWhen you listed the names of the famous writers in the book my first thought was "they're all white men", then I read your next few sentences. Of course I knew that Williams, Hemingway and Fitzgerald were alcoholics, but am not as familiar with the other three names. Isn't Hemingway THE archetypical alcoholic writer and white man? I've never liked him, to be honest.
Meike, who didn't/don't you like? Hemingway, the person? Hemingway, the writer? As to the latter: He is held up to both journalists and aspiring writers as the epitome of clarity. I could read Hemingway all day. Not because I am interested in, say, "Death in the Afternoon" (bullfighting). I am not. But boy oh boy could he chisel a phrase and keep it simple whilst evocative at the same time.
DeleteOther than that? I can't help smiling every time I remember his "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter, and bleed."
U
It's Hemingway the person. And sometimes - not always - I don't manage to separate the artist from his or her art. Also, seeing my close-up-and-personal history with alcoholism (my late husband was a binge alcoholic, and our next-door-neighbour all through my childhood was a wife beater and alcoholic), I tend to avoid alcholics when I encounter them, whether personally or through their work, while at the same time I know and do fully recognise that alcoholism is an illness and usually not something people choose to rule their lives deliberately.
DeleteIt seems a flaw of the book that she chose six white males, but she does also repeatedly return to the concept of masculinity and the way some of these writers used alcohol to smooth over male insecurities.
DeleteDo you leave the dahlias in their pots to overwinter in the shed?
ReplyDeleteI usually overwinter them in pots. But I'm so disappointed in this compost (which was new this year) that I may overwinter just the bare tubers and repot them in fresh mix next April.
DeleteCodex: I didn't know parker was an alcoholic. Loved her style and wit. Wasn't she a member of the bloomsbury circle?
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like an interesting book except that the older I get the less I like Hemingway.
At least one drama is done
Parker was seated at the Algonquin Round Table, I believe. Bloomsbury was Virginia Woolf's group. I'm the same with Hemingway -- I called him my favorite writer when I was young, probably because of his relative clarity, but I'm not feeling it as much now that I'm older.
DeleteGot interrupted. As a librarian what are your thoughts on the western Canon?
ReplyDeleteThat's a big question! I generally stick up for the "classics" and advocate keeping them available, but I'm glad that our culture is making room for more diverse voices nowadays.
DeleteWell done for successfully defrosting the freezer. It makes me pretty glad that our freezer is self-defrosting. Why don't you use your hairdryer as an aid in the frustrating task?
ReplyDeleteWhy don't I, indeed?!
DeleteSteve, I am not one to label others. What makes one who drinks an alcoholic? Careful. I once worked for a woman [in a male dominated sector] who drank like the proverbial fish. Chardonnay - to be precise. Starting at lunch time. Openly. Didn't make a secret of it. She was never drunk. Did a sterling job. Oh, yes, she also managed her sky high stiletto heels - not once falling over. Perk of my job? Other than one of the most wonderful women ever? I got to drive her everywhere. In her white Mercedes.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the days of van Gogh's Absinthe are, luckily, over. Outside Russia you won't find 70% Vol plus; now 40 % Vol alcohol max the norm.
Don't get me wrong. Of course, there are alcoholics [medically speaking]; and then there are those who lubricate their creative juices. Same difference? Maybe. As to Dorothy Parker, and she is clearly a light weight - if a funny one: "I like a Martini. Two at the most. By the third I am under the table. By the fourth I am under the host.". As I said: Lightweight. And never ever use the excuse of being inebriated for any misdemeanour you may commit.
U
Well, it's not me doing the labeling. It's established fact that the people I named were all alcoholics. Google "Was (blank) an alcoholic?" using the name of any of the people listed in my post and see what you find. I'm sure by the time Dorothy Parker wrote that little rhyme she'd actually had about six martinis. :)
DeleteAs a people from a country who do not have four seasons like you all guys have, I am feeling so lucky to see all photos here. I can see some autumn colors are tremendeous, and I love all
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy autumn and it's nice to have a colorful change -- but you get nice tropical colors that we don't get!
DeleteAnother tragedy of these alcholic creative geniuses is some of us feel addiction to drugs or alcohol (or both) is what we need to feed the muse. Then again, maybe it is. Don’t bogart that joint, my friend. The garden looks beautiful. I never tire of it.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's all about moderation, isn't it? A little alcohol might loosen the creative powers but too much will sink the ship! (As has happened with so many writers and artists over the years.)
DeleteAll your garden pots are standing in a row. Big ones, small ones....
ReplyDeleteYou should have hastened the freezer drying with your hair blow dryer.
I haven't owned a blow dryer since about 1987!
DeleteThere is nothing more beautiful and satisfying than a freshly mowed lawn.
ReplyDeleteBut ... they don't have frost-free freezers for y'all to use??
Well, "they" probably do, but our landlord doesn't!
DeleteWe watched Once upon a time in the west last night as a tribute to Claudia Cardinals and it did drag on or maybe movies have become much faster. Soundtrack was still great.
ReplyDeleteLovely petunias!
I've never cared for those spaghetti westerns. I tried to watch "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" years ago and had to turn it off.
DeleteCardinale was so beautiful, and photogenic.
ReplyDeleteOne of my art teachers used to warn us that artists are compulsive people who need to be careful about what they take in. He was thinking drugs other than alcohol, but alcohol is in there.
Likewise the white male publishing establishment who pushed even mediocre white male writers to fame. But I'm not bitter!
Too many brilliant women writers and artists were overlooked or left behind in their time. Fortunately the world is catching up with some of them now. (Vivian Maier comes to mind.)
DeleteI had heard that a Claudia Cardinale had died, but I didn't know the name and assumed that she was an Indigenous actress, Cardinal is a metis name here. She was a beautiful woman.
ReplyDeleteI only tried dahlias once, way too much work for me.
Oh, interesting! I never made that indigenous connection! I assume her name stems from religious cardinals, as opposed to the bird.
DeleteI was going to mention using a blow dryer to thaw the fridge but I see Neil beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteI was at the doctor with my older brother on Friday. My brother has dementia but also drinks alcohol too much. The doctor told him the latest recommendations are no more than 5 to 7 drinks per week for men and 3 to 4 drinks per week for women. More than that and it is bad for you physically - increases blood pressure, causes falls, increases stomach acid, causes weight gain, and makes dementia worse.
Your petunias may be going over, but they are still quite lovely.
ReplyDeleteI am ignorant. I had never even heard of Claudia Cardinale.
ReplyDeleteI am sure there have been many theories and perhaps even studies on why so many artists seem to overindulge. It's definitely not just writers. But then again, so do a lot of regular non-artistic types. It could be that it just appears to be more part of the process for writers and musicians and so forth than for the rest of the population.
Who knows?
Not me.
Your garden looks splendid!
And good job on the freezer.
I think those petunias look great and so does the freshly mowed lawn. I can hear that Pink Panther theme music playing in my head.
ReplyDeleteI have an auxillary freezer the size of a dorm room fridge (beside my refrigerator/freezer combo) that needs to be defrosted but it's not completely iced in yet! Dahlias seem like far too much work.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why some people are more prone to alcoholism. That said, over-indulging on occasion is something most people do. In my opinion, a bit of a buzz with friends does no harm.
ReplyDeleteYour lawn looks like a nice green carpet. I also mowed my lawn with the blade lowered. Now that every night produces dew and the sun is less hot, the lawn can be kept short without burning.