Spring, Graduations, Concerts, Travels, etc.

So much stuff to catch up on - what an incredibly busy time of year this is!

Kim's lilacs in full bloom

This evening was the first of our Symphony Pro Musica concerts "Spanish Serenade".  And since I wrote that, not only have we had the second concert, but the review of the second concert and the remainder of a week.  One of composers ("The Happy Slaves" overture) was the then 13-yr-old Arriaga from Bilbao, who died when he was still only 19.  I found an excellent book  on the web, which helped me to understand why the eponymous slaves of his opera were happy.  Unfortunately, the book online doesn't allow us to see some critical pages.  All in all, it was a fantastic concert and I personally had a great write-up in the review.

A branch of our dogwood

Now, we are getting ready for Miranda's graduation party and then graduation itself.  We are looking forward to a fine weekend (but I don't think we're going to get it).  The mosquitoes are out in force these days but that's only to be expected.  But what I think has really been different this years is that everything has happened at once.  Magnolias, redbuds, dogwoods, lilacs, apples, cherries, everything out at pretty much the same time.  The toll on us hay-fever sufferers has been heavy.

Redbuds outside the office in Waltham

Meanwhile, we've been doing some hiking, including a hike up Mts. Percival and Morgan just new Squam lake in New Hampshire.  The views were breathtaking.

Did I mention that Jimmy got adopted?  He seems very happy -- we've heard quite a bit from his family.

More on other vernal observations, including my trip to England at a later time.

Spring

Spring is here, also known as mud season.  We spent a lot of time out with the dogs this weekend.  Today we met up in a field with Spenser (a previous foster dog we called Cooper), his two big brothers (Phineas and Boo) and his parents Brad and Michelle.  Jimmy (on right in photo above) and Spenser (left) got along very well.  Jimmy also got along with about 40 other mainly large dogs.  At one point, he set off into the woods with a new friend.  I had to go and get him back.  We also took all four dogs to Greenough.  Yesterday, Jimmy went with us to the Cummings School in Grafton to romp around their 5-acre fenced in field (about 10 other dogs were there).  It's truly amazing how well all the dogs get along.  These dogs are mostly strangers to each other and you might expect a lot of aggro.  There's none.  There's some doggie roughhousing but that's the extent of it.

On Saturday evening, we went out to see the full moon rise over the Concord River and discovered an American Woodcock looking for a mate.  It was a little too dark to see clearly but we could hear them quite distinctly.  I didn't realize they'd be here so early but one of my Carlisle birding friends assures me that early March is normal.

On a related theme, the phoebes are back.  I was in the office all week with meetings so they might have been around earlier in the week, but I didn't see them.  It always makes me happy to see them back.

Miranda has flown the coop so to speak.  She's gone to Arizona to do a week of rural vet services on an Indian reservation and the following two weeks will be in New Mexico doing a rotation at a vet clinic.  Then she's off to treat horses in Mexico.

Lots of chest-beating re: Nuclear power this week in the wake of the Japan tragedy.  Many people seem to have missed the point that it was the tsunami rather than the earthquake itself which knocked out the electrical pumps.  Yes, nuclear power can be dangerous (we already knew that, didn't we?).  And yes it's not easy to clean up afterwards.  It's also questionable whether it's much cheaper than burning fossil fuels.  But it is somewhat more renewable as an energy source than fossil fuels and it seems to me that we should be willing to pay to build more nuclear power stations, with as much safety built in as we can manage.  Or let's bite the bullet and do something about truly renewable energy sources.  Otherwise, we're going to be in a pickle in a few years time.