Rue In My Heart

"With rue my heart is laden

For golden friends I had........"

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Click to read the rest of the poem, by A.E. Housman.

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Currently, our road ditch is laden with Tall Meadow Rue, thalictrum dasycarpum. The blooms can appear light purplish or white.

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Rue is a fascinating word. It can mean "to be sorry for; regret". Or, in French......"a street". Or, "a plant of the Mediterranean region with leaves that have a strong smell and a bitter taste." (Probably, you would suffer "regret" if you tasted them!)

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That sad little poem above, "With Rue My Heart Is Laden", is familiar to me for some reason. It seems I may have sung it years ago as a solo for music contest in high school. It's title resides in the same cubicle of my mind as two other songs that I definitely recall singing:

"Sure On This Shining Night"

and

"A Nun Takes The Veil".

Our vocal music teacher assigned songs for us to sing; I didn't choose these.

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Have a wonderful day! I don't know about you, but I'm shocked that we're past the middle of July already!! Where does summer go?

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Paul Davis' Passing

"I sometimes wonder why

All the flowers have to die......"

(first line of "Cool Night" by Paul Davis)

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Go to the Playlist at the bottom of this blog and click on "Cool Night" to hear Paul Davis' voice, singing on.

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This morning in the barn, I walked past the radio just in time to hear the news that Paul Davis died yesterday of a heart attack at age 60. Hopefully, some of you reading this remember Paul Davis, the singer/songwriter. He was one of my faves back in the late '70's and early 80's; I'd instinctively crank up the volume on the car radio when one of his songs was playing.........."I Go Crazy"(1978), "Cool Night"(1981), " '65 Love Affair"(1981).

To my listening ear, Paul Davis had an entirely pleasant-sounding singing voice, gentle and peaceful. I never saw or heard him in person, but I would imagine he was soft-spoken........I could be wrong, of course.

I have the vinyl LP, "Cool Night", which I just now dug out of the closet; the above photo of Paul Davis is from the back of the slipcover. This singer wrote his own songs........something always impressive to me. At the bottom of the credits printed on the album's slipcover it says, "Love to Pam, My friends, and Family.......This one's for Jonathan."

Paul Lavon Davis was born April 21, 1948, and died yesterday in Meridian, Mississippi, the day after his 60th birthday! (My son's birthday is also April 21.) The Wikipedia entry for him states he started out in a local band (in Mississippi, I'm assuming), called "Six Soul Survivors". His 1978 hit, "I Go Crazy" spent 40 weeks in the Top 100, setting a record at the time. In 1988, he was part of a trio song, "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love", with Paul Overstreet and Tanya Tucker, which I vaguely remember.

Anyway........I have always enjoyed Paul Davis' songs, and am sad to hear of his passing. My sympathies to his family and friends.

Ivy Twining for Judica

Ok, here's the deal, if spring will not go to Iowa, then Iowa will go to spring! On this blog anyway......in the form of the fake green ivy vine in this photo.

Today is "Judica", the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The word judica having to do with judges and courts. The Antiphon of the day is listed as Psalm 43, verse 1: "Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation......". In the Bible I looked this up in, the footnote to this verse said, "A plea in the language of the court."

Ok, so maybe we should plead for spring to come!

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Here's a little melody my mom used to sing to us as a lullaby:

Tell me why the ivy twine

Tell me why the sky's so blue

Tell me why the stars do shine

And I will tell you just why I love you

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Because God made the ivy twine

Because God made the sky so blue

Because God made the stars to shine

Because God made you

That's why I love you!!!

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These words are not quite the same without the soothing little tune to carry them, but their message is clear, and certainly states a good reason to love the people God has put in our lives.

May you be able to nap an hour this afternoon to regain the sleep lost to Daylight Savings Time.......now there's a sure sign of spring!!

A peaceful Judica to you and yours!

The Edmund Fitzgerald

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down.......". Do those words ring a bell? They're from the opening line of Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", detailing the true story of the sinking of an iron ore ship on Lake Superior, occurring on today's date in 1975. Twenty-nine men were lost. "Superior, its said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early", are the closing words of the song. "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" is another historical story-song by Gordon Lightfoot, who is from Canada.

I enjoy historical songs, whether folk, country, rock, or whatever style it takes to tell the story. Al Stewart had some good ones in the 70's......"Roads to Moscow", "Lord Grenville", "Merlin's Time", "On the Border". A couple more that come to mind quickly are "Vincent" and "American Pie" by Don McLean, and "Trail of Tears" by Southern Pacific. Surely, there are many more historical popular songs that I'm not aware of.

The gales of November are coldly blowing today here in Iowa. No rain or snow, fortunately, but plenty of gray clouds. My son caught a ride to Cedar Rapids for the state volleyball finals this evening in which our local team has earned a berth. Yes, our football AND volleyball teams are in the state finals, as they were last year. Too much fun and commotion! I will be totally satisfied to watch the volleyball game on TV tonight from the comfort of my recliner.

I chaufferred my son and three of his friends to Cedar Rapids on Thursday afternoon for the volleyball quarterfinals. After dropping them off in front of the arena downtown, I went and browsed at TJMaxx and Barnes & Noble. Fun! Fun! Found some Christmas gifts for relatives and a great book for me......The Science of God by Gerald Schroeder.

Truth is, I've never even attended a high school volleyball game or match, whatever its called, since my daughters didn't go out for volleyball in high school. They played in 5th through 8th grades on our Lutheran school team, so I watched my share of volleyball in those days. (My toddler son, at the time, called it "bolleybally".) Some of the rules have changed since then------rally scoring is used all the time now, and also there is a new player called the "le barrow" (sp?), and net serves are allowed.

Thursday evening, after getting home from Cedar Rapids, and doing chores and supper, I could hardly wait to start reading my new book. One of Gerald Schroeder's other books, The Hidden Face of God, is a favorite of mine. He's able to bring the Bible and science together in fairly peaceful union, without upsetting beliefs too much on either side. He goes back to the original Hebrew words of Genesis, and shows where biblical literalists, as well as scientists, may be in error.

Anyway, I settled in to read after supper, and completely forgot to watch my current favorite TV show, "Silent Witness", the British CSI show on PBS. Its the only show I've been watching lately. The main character is Dr. Sam Ryan, a female M.E. in Oxford, England. She's great, always digging, not only in bodies, but also in the situations that produced the dead bodies, in order to get to the truth. She often gets in trouble for caring enough to get to the heart of the matter. This episode was the last one of the series. I woke up in the middle of the night, suddenly realizing I had forgotten to watch the show! Darn. Who knows if the network will run it again. Darn. Did I mention that Dr. Ryan's detective partner, played by Nick Reding, is quite easy on the eyes. Sometimes I take notice of such things. The other characters are interesting, too, and down-to-earth in that low-key British way, unlike in most American TV shows, where women are unrealistically gorgeous and slim, and dressed provocatively. Also, "Silent Witness" utilizes many close-up facial shots, so you really feel like you're getting to know the characters.