Monthly Archives: May 2007

I went to the Kennedy Center tonight (hmm, I should say last night) to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform “Composer Portrait: Antonin Dvorak” at Concert Hall. It was an hour and a half performance and the music was really beautiful! The feature performance was Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88. Even though his more famous piece, Symphony 9 (New World Symphony) is a favorite of mine, I was still very impressed by 8. I like to watch them playing their instruments, all moving in unison. Leonard Slatkin conducted.

For the first half of the show, they gave a biographical presentation with photos interjected with a few measures of some compositions. After the intermission, they played the 8th in its entirety with a breakdown and explanation of some of the passages of the symphony at the beginning. That was probably my favorite part, when the conductor explained the music of each of the sections of the orchestra and had them play their parts separately, then together.

*sigh* I love live music. It just takes you away. The only thing I would’ve preferred is that they played more of his songs in their entirety. I would’ve loved to hear the Slavonic Dance, Carnival Overture, and New World all the way through instead of just snippets. But I guess that would’ve kept us there all night. Overall, it was a good show.

Last Friday, I officially started my gardening (I know! I said I was going to do it the week before, but I didn’t.). By gardening, I don’t mean actual working the earth that’s on the ground. We have too many vermin (Bambis and Thumpers) wandering around for that kinda’ gardening. I could try soap, hair, or fencing but I don’t mess with that. Instead, I have potted gardens. So the seeds I planted on Friday have started to sprout already. Being the lazy gardener that I am, I deliberately chose a day when they forecasted rain for the next two days. Today, I saw some signs of sproutlings. And here they are:

This is a cilantro sprout.

These are portulacas (which I didn’t need to seed, they do that themselves when their flowers wither and dry).

It won’t be long before the soil is completely covered with colorful flowers! That’s why I love portulacas.

Oh by the way, tonight is going to be a beautiful full moon. Try and catch it if you can! It’s actually been looking pretty full these past few nights but today’s officially full moon day.