Hephzibah

Here's another shot of our Brugmansia, still blooming up a storm despite (or maybe because of) ever-chillier outdoor temperatures. It's 47º F out there this morning (8.3º C) which is pretty darn cold for a tropical flower. This is another plant I'll eventually have to bring inside, though where I'll put it I have no idea.

Yesterday, by afternoon, it was warm enough for the bees to come out and gather pollen from the Michaelmas daisies.

I took the dog to the cemetery in the afternoon. On the way, we passed a woman in a black handkerchief skirt, walking with a little girl. The girl was eating an ice cream cone, and the woman -- with one earbud in her ear -- was singing "I Only Have Eyes for You" loudly enough that I heard her from the next block. I wondered if she meant the song for the little girl, who seemed unconcerned.

I was intrigued by this headstone for the Esdaile family, including wife Hephzibah. Now there's a name you don't see much anymore. Some "old lady" names have come back in fashion, but I'm not sure I've ever run into a modern Hephzibah. She married John, a church rector, and lived to be 80, dying in 1886. The stone also mentions two sons, Channing and James.

You can't walk through a cemetery, especially if you pay attention to headstones, without musing a bit on mortality. I know nothing about the Esdailes so I don't mean this as a commentary about them specifically, but for some reason I thought of Pete Seeger's song "From Way Up Here":

From way up here
The earth is very small
They shouldn't fight at all

Down there upon that little sphere
Their time is short

A life is just a day
You'd think they'd find a way
You'd think they'd get along

And fill their sunlit days with song