Spring Song #2... Spring Is Here

  

Once there was a thing called Spring

When the world was writing

Verses like yours & mine

All the boys & girls would sing

As we sat at little tables

& drank May wine

Now April, May & June

Seem sadly out of tune

Life has stuck a pin in the balloon

Spring is here,

Why doesn't my heart go dancing?

Spring is here,

Why isn't the waltz entrancing?

No desire, no ambition leads me

Maybe it's because nobody needs me

Spring is here,

Why doesn't the breeze delight me

Stars appear,

Why doesn't the night invite me

Maybe it's because nobody loves me

Spring is here

Spring is here

Spring is here

I hear

Rodgers & Hart

1930

A Little Vitamin D

The Portland rainfall in March & April has been positively Biblical. We enjoyed precipitation 45 of the past 46 days, with temperatures 10 degrees below normal, & for the first time since records have been kept, we have not had a day with temperatures above 60 degrees in 159 days.

Yesterday was sunny at last. The Husband had an honest hardy go at reclaiming the garden from winter's grasp. I did as much as I could venture until the seasonal allergies had their way with me & I was forced to retreat back to the house. I am fortunate the hay fever hits me in early spring, but leaves me free to enjoy May- October with no itchy bloodshot, grainy eyes, & flu-ish feelings. I surmise that tree pollen is the culprit, but my, oh my, like so much that is beautiful, the trees are dazzling, but deadly.

A detail from the front garden

Junior wants to know what the bright shining orb in the sky is... maybe a giant laser pointer?

It's Spring Again & Birds On The Wing Again, Start To Sing Again, That Old Melody

We are just a few hours past the Spring Equinox & I am good & ready for winter to be done. This song is in my all time top 20. I have perhaps 12 artists giving their spin. I play it often at this time of year & I have 2 different versions (Ricki Lee Jones & Ella Fitzgerad) that bookend my Spring Mix that friends are clamoring for:


Once I was a sentimental thing
Threw my heart away each spring
Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance
Promised my first dance to winter
All I've got to shows a splinter for my little fling!


Spring this year has got me feeling like a horse that never left the post

I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Mornings kiss wakes trees & flowers,
& to them I'd like to drink a toast
I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours
Spring can really hang you up the most.


All afternoon those birds twitter twit,
I know the tune, this is love, this is it!
Heard it before & I know the score
& I've decided that spring is a bore!


Love seemed sure around the New Year

Now it’s April & love is just a ghost
Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Spring is here, there's no mistaking
Robins building nests from coast to coast
My heart tries to sing so they won't hear it breaking
Spring can really hang you up the most!


College boys are writing sonnets
In the tender passion they're engrossed
But I'm on the shelf with last years Easter bonnets
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Love came my way, I hoped it would last
We had our day, now that's all in the past
Spring came along, a season of song
Full of sweet promise but something went wrong!


Doctors once prescribed a tonic,
Sulphur & molasses was the dose
Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic
Spring can really hang you up the most!


All alone, the party's over
Old man winter was a gracious host
But when you keep praying for snow to hide the clover
Spring can really hang you up the most!

Happy Summer Solstice!

Summer came to us in that certain Portland, Oregon style: drizzly, damp, cool- with a high of 60 degrees, & with hope of better weather to come. The longest day of the year had the very shortest bursts of sunlight interrupting the grey & gloom. Post Apocalyptic Bohemia had began to resemble Cold Comfort Farm.

Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, living up to its name in Spring 2010.

There are some gratifying corners of the garden. Cornus Kousa is native to Japan, Korea & China. This small white flowering dogwood was given to us a sapling, as gift from our dear friends & best men at our wedding- Ken & Eiric, in memory of our recently deceased 1st dog- Baby. Baby was a terrier mix, & as a puppy she was almost shamefully cute. She grew to be a real broad though. The Husband described her as the Joan Blondell of the canine world. She was a blond, possessed of full hips that she swung from side to side as she walked, & Baby had a snappy way with a one liner. Her death at 13 from Cushing's Disease, seemed to early to us & we were inconsolable. The boys gave us the tree as her memorial, & it was one of the few plants that we dug up in the pouring rain on our last day in Seattle & transferred to our new garden in Portland. In late spring/early summer the tree is heavy with breathtakingly beautiful blizzard of white  flowers. It produces showy, stunning scarlet leaves in the early autumn, with  blood red berries appearing in the fall & winter attracting songbirds. That is a lot of show from one small tree, but then Baby had come to resemble an aging Vegas showgirl in her later years, complete with a deep raspy voice & a fur coat.

Blossoms from Baby's dogwood. Gone for 12 years, I still grieve. I love this reminder of the old broad.

What a show off the Clemitis Montana is when it gives us a cloud of heavenly white flowers. I had always believed that the hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers exclusively, but I have seen our hummer enjoying the nectar from this Clemitis.

Clemitis Montana... what a show off.

The husband recently re-worked the fountain in the garden pass-through room, & surrounded it with part of my Hosta collection. The fountain head is Bacchus, found by me in the garbage of the display department of the grand old, & now gone department store- Fredericks & Nelson's in downtown Seattle, where I worked for most of the 1980s. He is artifice, plaster & chicken wire made to look like stone.

The water from Bacchus' mouth flows into a tall pot from China. The Husband rigged a pot of hosta over the bowl of the pot, that is held up by bamboo sticks running through the pot. Ingenious, yes?

I am so ready for summer after the endless damp, depressing, depressive, dingy, dismal, dispiriting, doleful, downcast, & drab spring. I look forward to the husband sunning naked on the hot tub deck with Junior by his side (I have great photos of this frequent occurrence. I know the Husband would be furious if I posted one, but I am so very tempted. You readers would like to view that, wouldn't you?).

There's Always Room For Improvement... It's The Biggest Room In The House.

My medical situation improves somewhat; after Friday’s blood draw, I receive a call from my physician that there is progress & I can now go from 2 injections (administered by the Husband) to just 1 a day. In celebration, I make the bad medical judgment, but a superior emotional move, & skip a day of shots. I rationalized that I had just had 2, so it evens out to 1 a day. Bad I know, yet lovely to go a day without a visit from the little prick, as the Husband refers to the needle & syringe. I have 22 dime sized black/blue circles on my torso from each injection. I am so shallow, all I can think is- “thank you God for not having this happen during nude beach season!”

This is where the magic happens.

You can click on the image to enlarge & get a better look at the sunbathing terrier.

Today is a beautiful, warm spring day in Portland. Larry the Canine has found a nice place on the hot tub deck, which is reached through French doors off the bedroom. Larry & the Husband are both true sun bunnies & can often be found in this spot.

Junior also has found a spot in the warm sun.

Spring Equinox... Celebrating Lightness Over Darkness

It's spring again

& birds on the wing again

Start to sing again

The old melody

Cole Porter 1933

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox & I am good & ready for winter to be done. This song is in my all time top 20. I play it often at this time of year & I have 2 different versions that bookend my Spring Mix that friends are clamoring for:


Once I was a sentimental thing
Threw my heart away each spring
Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance
Promised my first dance to winter
All I've got to shows a splinter for my little fling!


Spring this year has got me feeling like a horse that never left the post
I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Mornings kiss wakes trees & flowers, & to them I'd like to drink a toast
I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours
Spring can really hang you up the most.


All afternoon those birds twitter twit,
I know the tune, this is love, this is it!
Heard it before & I know the score
& I've decided that spring is a bore!


Love seemed sure around the New Year
Now it’s April & love is just a ghost
Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Spring is here, there's no mistaking
Robins building nests from coast to coast
My heart tries to sing so they won't hear it breaking
Spring can really hang you up the most!


College boys are writing sonnets
In the tender passion they're engrossed
But I'm on the shelf with last years Easter bonnets
Spring can really hang you up the most!


Love came my way, I hoped it would last
We had our day, now that's all in the past
Spring came along, a season of song
Full of sweet promise but something went wrong!


Doctors once prescribed a tonic,
Sulphur & molasses was the dose
Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic
Spring can really hang you up the most!


All alone, the party's over
Old man winter was a gracious host
But when you keep praying for snow to hide the clover
Spring can really hang you up the most!



This version represents one of the many summits of Ella's artistry.


What could possibly have inspired a songwriter to write with the idea that Spring is the cruelest season? It's such a striking idea for a song that is otherwise more or less full of the usual Tin Pan Alley clichés. I have been really think about this. Thanks to my music library & the Internet, I found the answer... I discovered that the song's composers are Fran Landesman (lyrics) & Tommy Wolf (music). Even though the song sounds like a classic of the Great American Songbook variety, Landesman is alive & has set up her own site to expound on her art: "Fran Landesman is still the poet laureate of lovers & losers: her songs are the secret diaries of the desperate & the decadent. No one can convey the bitter-sweet joys of melancholy or the exhilaration of living on the edge like Fran."


Well, that certainly sounds right, but what about that song? According to the intriguing biography on her site, Landesman wrote the song shortly after she initiated her collaboration with Tommy Wolf at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis: "Fran & Tommy soon began writing songs which he would sing nightly to the drinking masses at the Crystal Palace. One night the British born piano player George Shearing came into the club & was particularly taken with a song whose title Fran had come up with while speculating on how a hip jazz musician might express the T.S. Eliot line "April Is The Cruelest Month..." The song was called Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.


Hmmm....that is it! The source of this striking song lies in the The Waste Land:
April is the cruelest month,
breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory & desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain.


For me, Spring has always been equal measures of invigoration & melancholy. No wonder this song has always struck a chord.




I collect versions of Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most. Bette Midler does a terrific & emotional version in concert. I dig this version by Rickie Lee Jones:

Spring Fever

3 full days of winter are still left, & I am dreaming of spring. I did a post in March about trying to deal with my crushing depression. How naive that I suppose I don’t suffer from SAD- Seasonal Affective Disorder (not Steve’s A Disaster). & I choose to live in the Pacific Northwest, where it is rainy & dark for 5 months of the year. The first nice days of February, what I call the “February Tease”, when Portland & Seattle enjoy a week of sunny weather & temperatures in the high 60s & even inching into the 70s, & I suddenly not only feel better, but I feel lighter than air & hopeful. The Quince & Magnolias blossom & the bulbs poke their heads up & out of the soil, & I start dreaming about the garden, sunshine & being naked at Sauvie Island.


Summer is my favorite season (August is my favorite month), but Spring is 2nd & I marvel at nature’s renewal. I am assesing what plants made it through the week of highs in the teens in December. My oh my, plants are resiliant…. Hebes, Hydrangea, & Hucharas assesed as dead, have set bud.

You can't even see my house for the Magnolias.

This magnolia, with white blooms actually grows into the front porch.

I took a vacation day today, & the sunny warm day turned into a rainy warm day after the visit to the gym & the dog walk, but I still feel hopeful & full of possibility. I even did a spring playlist:


A Garden In The Rain- The 4 Aces
Another Spring, Another Love- Marlene Dietrich
April Fools- Aretha Franklin
April Showers- Judy Garland
Here Comes The Sun- Nina Simone
I Live In The Springtime- The Lemon Drops
In Bloom –Nirvana
Morning Has Broken- Cat Stevens
Spring Is Here- Ella Fitzgerald
Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year- Carly Simon
Sunshine On My Shoulders- John Denver
Time Of The Season- The Zombies
You Must Believe In Spring- Tony Bennett
Younger Than Spring Time- Matthew Morrison from the 2008 revival of South Pacific

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

High 70s today in Portland Oregon... this really lifts my spirits! I am going to spend time cleaning the gardens & see what made it through the "Winter Blast" 08/09. Here are "before & afters" of our Magnolias. They usually are in full glory during torrential rain, so nice to be able to enjoy their short run. We live on a regular city lot & we have 15 trees! Cornus Mas blooms first, in early February, with tiny yellow flowers. The Magnolias are next in late March/early April.

More Lyrics:

This song is in my all time top twenty songs. I play it often at this time of year & I have two different versions that bookend my April Mix that my friends are clamoring for:

Once I was a sentimental thing

Threw my heart away each spring

Now a spring romance hasn't got a chance

Promised my first dance to winter

All I've got to shows a splinter for my little fling!

Spring this year has got me feeling like a horse that never left the post

I lie in my room staring up at the ceiling

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Mornings kiss wakes trees & flowers, & to them I'd like to drink a toast

I walk in the park just to kill lonely hours

Spring can really hang you up the most.

All afternoon those birds twitter twit,

I know the tune, this is love, this is it!

Heard it before and I know the score

& I've decided that spring is a bore!

Love seemed sure around the new year

Now its April & love is just a ghost

Spring arrived on time, only what became of you, dear?

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Spring is here, there's no mistaking

Robins building nests from coast to coast

My heart tries to sing so they won't hear it breaking

Spring can really hang you up the most!

College boys are writing sonnets

In the tender passion they're engrossed

But I'm on the shelf with last years Easter bonnets

Spring can really hang you up the most!

Love came my way, I hoped it would last

We had our day, now that's all in the past

Spring came along a season of song

Full of sweet promise but something went wrong!

Doctors once prescribed a tonic,

Sulphur & molasses was the dose

Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic

Spring can really hang you up the most!

All alone, the party's over

Old man winter was a gracious host

But when you keep praying for snow to hide the clover

Spring can really hang you up the most!

This version represents one of the many summits of Ella's artistry.
What could possibly have inspired a songwriter to write with the idea that Spring is the cruelest season? It's such a striking idea for a song that is otherwise more or less full of the usual Tin Pan Alley cliches, I have been really think about this.


Thanks to my music library & the Internet, I found the answer... I discovered that the song's composers are Fran Landesman (lyrics) & Tommy Wolf (music). Even though the song sounds like a classic of the Great American Songbook variety, Landesman is alive and has set up her own site to expound on her art:
"Fran Landesman is still the poet laureate of lovers and losers: her songs are the secret diaries of the desperate & the decadent. No one can convey the bitter-sweet joys of melancholy or the exhilaration of living on the edge like Fran."


Well, that certainly sounds right, but what about that song? According to the intriguing biography on her site, Landesman wrote the song shortly after she initiated her collaboration with Tommy Wolf at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis:


"Fran and Tommy soon began writing songs which he would sing nightly to the drinking masses at the Crystal Palace. One night the British born piano player George Shearing came into the club & was particularly taken with a song whose title Fran had come up with while speculating on how a hip jazz musician might express the T.S. Eliot line "April Is The Cruelest Month..." The song was called "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most."
Hmmm....that is it! The source of this striking song lies in the "The Waste Land":
April is the cruelest month,
breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain.


For me, Spring has always been equal measures of invigoration & melancholy. No wonder this song has always struck a chord.