i've been telling myself that i'm going to write a real, live, full-format 'blog post this spring, and here it is. born of the type of blustery, stay-indoors night that used to inspire them back in minneapolis ... plus i'm listening to the current. =]

the wind and the rain are expressing the same dynamic between winter + summer, cold + hot that always marks this time of year.

fully expressed weather like this bonds me to my place, unifies my neighborhood in a common mood, a shared experience.

as this bond grows, i have been slowly growing my enthusiasm for the garden, now a carefully distributed collection of container plants: out back a collection of many different types of orchid arranged with lau'ae and bromeliad growing out of a log among other plants, under a row of bonsai with a buddha theme on the top of the backing wall, all visible from our bedroom window ... up front a group of prickly desert sentinels guards the front door - tall leaf-crowned cactus, large, just-bloomed aloe, recently re-potted lime.