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May 1

    The library week here has a literal hump in the middle--the same number of hours, but running from 2-7 Tuesday to Thursday, compared to 12-5 on Mondays and Fridays.  Also the two hours of afterschool program is on Thursdays, making this really over the hump for this week.
    I brought clay and suggested they could make a spoon setter for their mothers (1 of 16 actually did).   I read a picture book called " Mama don't Allow," and had them sing and play rhythm instruments along.  Also they did the motions for "Oats, peas, beans and barley grow."   For the younger ones I started a "slow race," planting seeds from about a dozen vegetables, to see which one grows the fastest in the 3 weeks we have left (with tentative plans to chart their progress).  It all went well, and the kids were courteous and well behaved.
    But afterwards, there was a sense of, "Well, that's my one trick.  What do I do next week?"  Fortunately there is a month break before starting the summer reading program, to gain a handle on this scheduling thing.  On the other hand, I have a little over a month to learn all the routines well enough to run the library by myself for almost two weeks in June.   At least I'm feeling more capable than my second day there...
    I applied dormant oil spray to our orchard this morning.  It's the only way we treat our trees.  I'm not even sure if we have the bugs it's supposed to kill.  But there were fewer aphids last year after doing it.  The cherry buds are swelling, awaiting the next stretch of really warm weather.

May 2
    Besides concluding the first week of library work, I spent the morning working on reattaching the deck at our cabin.  Then immediately after work I left for the wedding practice, and stayed for the banquet, and didn't get home till late.  The actual event is Saturday.  The bride's march was selected by the bride to be Greensleeves, which is my big hit on Youtube, although she was unaware of that...  Since I'm playing it with my sister in law (on electric piano), it's a little trickier than playing it by myself.

May 3-4

    At both my son's wedding and the one on Saturday, an important ritual of the dance part is the Chicken Dance.  Perhaps it happens at dance halls everywhere, but I think it's included at weddings for the young at heart--cluck, cluck, wing flap, shake butt, clap.  Anyway the whole wedding went smoothly...  Before going to the church, we stopped to view Post Falls (which disappears by midsummer into the hydroelectric system).  I was taking pictures of this osprey on its nest on the special platform above a powerline, when I saw its mate flying in with a fish.   Shortly after this shot, one of them flew off to another nearby pole to eat the fish, while the other stood guard.  I would guess this means there are eggs but no babies yet...
    Today I caught a short glimpse of a pileated woodpecker, while going for a walk at the end of the lake.  At the place where we parked there were dwarf waterleaf flowers about to open.  I've seen them other places in Idaho, but not so near to home.  Wildflowers don't travel much, so to see new ones you've got to travel where they might be...  
    We started hearing lots of frog mating calls from the marsh at the lake end.  Every once in a while they'd all go quiet, which was quite startling, being so orchestrated.  I'd just read an article on how amphibeans (particularly frogs) around the world are taking a heavy hit, particularly from a fungal disease.  The population sounded quite healthy here...
    My back has done its semiannual back sprain event, so my activies are curtailed at a time when the weather is quite jaunty.

May 5
    My back is improving fairly quickly, possibly because the library job forced me to be active and keep it moving (carefully).
    Running a library is a bit like juggling--you learn to juggle a few balls, then keep adding balls you've got the whole effect.  It doesn't seem as dazzling as juggling, but it's as complicated.  Curiously, much of the work is procedures related to checking in, routing materials to other branches, such that actual human interaction almost seems a  break from the serious business.  I did a lot of checking in, reshelving, covering new books, and preparing packets for kindergarten registration today.  I also had a busy hour reading, singing, and crafting with preschoolers.  We made magic corn plants--rolls of newspaper, taped to stay together, then with slits cut into it, which, when pulled out from the middle, makes a frizzy looking corn plant.  I remembered it from a birthday party in my youth.

May 6
    We had the first sprinkle in a couple weeks.  The piles of snow are just occasional anomalies now (but some are still 3 feet tall, mostly berms from plowing).  I glazed two kiln loads this morning, partially motivated by the library program kids' little projects I said I'd have ready for Mother's Day.  Then after lunch I supervised my son finishing the under structure of the revised deck at the cabin.  Then I went to the library, and soon after work the day ended.
    I did get an interesting email from a musician acquaintance this morning.  The local bluegrass society May newsletter included a note from the president suggesting musicians other than true bluegrassers should leave the organization.  Because I usually play in a duo, and play old time rather than the tight harmonies and fast instrumental breaks typical of bluegrass, I figured that included me.  I also figured a lot of other musicians would feel slighted by it, and following the first rebuttal email, stressing the value of the variety of music which is being played at the Bluegrass venue, several others have joined in defending a broader interpretation of the music as well.   This Saturday is the Spring String Thing workshop, so it will be interesting to see if it's a hot topic there as well.
    The fact is that bluegrass, like any genre of music, enjoyed its heydey (1940's-50s), and after that musicians either tried to recreate that sound, or take it to new places.  In my case, I like the prebluegrass music, but don't restrict myself to play those tunes in the style of the period, which makes my niche very small indeed, and bluegrass is the closest relative.  Jonathan Hawkins and I enjoy playing at the Bluegrass Thang because there is a large audience of attentive and respectful listeners, which is hard to come by for any musicians.  But we only play there once a year, so it's not a great loss if we were to stop appearing there.

May 7
    A full day in the pottery, 5 hours in the library, then about an hour of gospel music practice with a local church group before supper...  I'd left the door to the pottery open during the kiln firing today.  Depending on the season, or state of the pots, I'll let some of the waste heat from the kiln help dry the pottery.  It's been cool and rainy, so that might have been a good idea, if I'd intended it.  But the freshly thrown pots from this morning prefer a little slower drying.   I caught it in time, and covered the ones that need a foot added, but it was lucky I remembered to check.  A few too many balls still being juggled...

May 8
    Every day I work in the library is 5 hours, but the fastest 5 is doing the Library Club, as I just learned it's called.  I have one hour to get both sections prepared, then two hours with the kids, an hour to clean up, and theoretically an hour to plan the next week.  However, I find myself staring into space a lot that last hour, unable to keep on task, getting over the adrenaline rush of trying to keep 17 kids roughly on their own tasks.   So I think I'll have to move my planning hour to another day...
    In the pottery I attached the feet to the pots mentioned yesterday, and cool wet weather we're having may help slow the drying process, which will help the additions stay attached...  
    The first planting in the garden is coming up, and we've had spinach from the greenhouse.  One of the projects with the younger kids in the Library Club was a vegetable race--we planted various seeds last week, and only the broccoli had emerged by today.   There's two more weeks to see which plant grows the fastest.

May 9

This is the view of the millpond today, at full pool with runoff pouring off hills like the snow dappled ones in back, and the leaves still slow to emerge from the cool spring.  This day was one of those cool ones--a fire in the morning and more wood tossed in later as well.  But there was plenty of sun this evening as I walked...  The first shooting stars, yellow violets, and trillium were in view today.  The ospreys are building a nest on a power pole just south of the road that divides the lake from the millpond.  Most of the sticks have "old man's beard" moss on it (like in this linked photo), probably to provide a bit of insulation for the eggs.  I think by climbing the ridge a good view of the young may be possible...
    In our yard the lilacs are still tiny buds, an easy comparative measure of spring through temperate climes everywhere.

May 11
    I attended the bluegrass workshop today, and there didn't appear to be a lot of conflict left over from the group president's "bluegrass or leave it" message, which I wrote about earlier this week.  The people teaching the workshops put on a concert at the end which included  a few non bluegrass tunes, such as "Sentimental Journey."
    Frank Delaney stopped by with a musician friend, Kevin Sweeney, who'd been in New York in the heyday of the 60's folk revival, including playing with Bob Dylan, and being at Washington Square Park in the Village when Jesse Colin Young, Phil Ochs, and many others were getting their acts together on the streets. He also mentioned playing at the Gaslight Cafe. A quick search at Amazon reveals Son House recorded a record there in 1965--I was thinking I'd seen some other group with a record made there, such as the Greenbriar Boys, whom he mentioned also played there...   It was a nexus of its time just as San Francisco was for American rock music.  We were both on our way to other places, so didn't get to visit long, but it was an interesting brush with history.

May 12

    My walk today had many Mother's Day themes.  A Canada goose couple had their new yellow goslings, very similar to this photo from a year or two ago, only with 7 goslings....  The ospreys were still working on their nest.  I saw 4 eagles soaring together, still working out their nesting arrangements.  And the red necked grebes were hauling material to their floating nest, which I'll be able to observe from a high trail along the shore...

May 13

    Today was preschool story hour.  An hour is a long time to fill to amuse people of this vintage.  But I squeaked by.  One of the better ideas was to have a muffin relay, using a small plastic pan resembling a muffin tin (actually for mixing up water colors), and putting in some craft fur balls (to simulate muffins).  Then I sang the "Muffin Man" nursery rhyme, to get them on the theme, and watched as they carried the muffins from one end of the room to the other.  One of the younger participants got about half way across and gave the fur balls a toss, to general amusement. I also read them a few picture books, sang some songs with them, and showed them a book on the lifestyle of butterflies, showing them one of my photos, and talking about the baby geese they could see at the Millpond (using the photo just above).  So I think, for my part, I'm trying to be true to my own interests in what I do with the story times.  That, and the changing seasons, should provide a bit of material...
    It was a short pottery day today, loading a couple bisque kilns, and sending a wedding order of 44 goblets off (always hoping the shipping goes well).  The weather was still cool today, but the week promises to shoot into summer temps by weekend...

Books read, and films of note. Flush, by Carl Hiaasen.  This is another juvenile novel, by a Florida novelist who likes to use environmental issues--this time illegal flushing of human wastes by a gambling boat.  In his adult fiction, he's quite humorous--with these kids ones the humor seems less, as the kids deal with complicated social and family issues. The X Factor by Andre Norton.  Back before Star Trek and Star Wars, a few authors paved the way for those type of universes.  Andre Norton was my favorite--creating worlds peopled with mutants, telepathic fuzzy companions, long lived lizard intellects, space patrol and space pirates--what's come to be known as space opera.  Even though, like most authors of the time, she didn't envision a lot of even our current technology, a blaster and a stunner were good enough to get her characters in and out of a lot of tough places, and her compelling narrative hasn't aged a bit in 40 years. A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett.  Another of my favorite authors, his Discworld fantasies, an alternate universe where the world is disc shaped, full of magic and trolls and great humor, are the best series of the sort I'm aware of.  He wrote a subset of 3 novels about a young witch named Tiffany Aching, and I think this is the best of the lot.  While telling an engaging adventure tale, the author helps us remain soundly attached to the young protagonist...

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