Summer

The clothes on this line show the Island weather perfectly; spaghetti strap tank tops hanging next to big bulky sweaters. Yesterday looked cold and I hesitated to go out to transplant flowers but it only looked cold. The temperature was 20 degrees and the sun came out while I was outside and it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day. Summer starts today at 8:59 ADT. If I was not working I would have planned a little celebration on the deck.

Summertime is tourist season on PEI and all forecasts point to a slow year overall with one exception. It is one hundred years today that Lucy Maud Montgomery's famous novel Anne of Green Gables was accepted for publication. This is The Year of Anne and tourists are coming from far and wide to take part in year-long festivities. Japanese tourists, who have always flocked to see everything 'Anne' are supposedly breaking all records this year with Japanese tour companies booking more tours than ever before. I heard this morning that Chinese girls have found that Ann books touch a chord as with the one child families where girls are not as accepted, they see hope with the feisty orphan who can overcome just this obstacle. Her adoptive parents were expecting a boy. Canada Post is issuing a new stamp today depicting Anne. Ben Stahl, who's wife Pat was a good friend of mine, was the artist chosen to depict Anne. He illustrated several of her books years ago and portrays this imaginary girl very beautifully.

Summertime is one beautiful song. Let me link a few versions. Here are versions by Molly Johnson, Sam Cooke, and an instrumental by guitarist Gabor Szabo. Several have disappeared from the pages. Here's Susana Baca with a nice version and I'm replacing Seasons Change by Corinne Bailey Rae.

Now, I've got to run to work.

Jazz Appreciation Month

"A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges." - Benny Green
Can you believe I used my photo of oranges for yesterday's post?!?!

Last month when my sister was visiting we drove into the parking lot of a drugstore and a big sign announced, "March is Kidney Month." I had already given.

It is amazing how many designations each month has. Here is a link to tell you what they are for April. I'm sure one will fit for you. Also, take note that if you go to the bottom of the page of this link you can be informed of the designations for each month of the year.

I am concentrating on one; April is Jazz Appreciation month. There is no musical category as wide as jazz. Here's a Wikipedia article showing the numerous styles. I've always been a jazz fan particularly female vocal jazz like Ella Fitzgreald, Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney, Dina Washington, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee, Carmen MacRae and many others from the old days and Diana Krall, Renee Olstead, Pink Martini, Holly Golightly, Sarah Brightman, Lizz Wright, Lorez Alexandria, Molly Johnson, Lila Downs, and Sophie Milman. There are many, many more but it has to be a quick post today because these links took forever.
Click away and appreciate the jazz....it's April.

But The Sun Is Shining

Blogger is slow today. I've had to abort this post once already. I feel slow today too. Too much napping yesterday? Truly, I think it's the cold. My body is kind of molassas-like. I'm a better oiled machine in the warm weather but when it's cold.....things run in sluggish mode.

Today is the day that passports are required in order to enter the US and coincidentally the day I am reapplying for mine. They've become a bit more complicated in the 7 years since I last filled one out. There have been tales about passport photos from well-established photographers being rejected recently. My photographer assures me that he has had two rejected in all his years and they were two years ago.

Music today is from Billie Holiday (that's where my head is at) and her sound alike, Canada's Molly Johnson. From Billie, Comes Love and from Molly, Miss Celie's Blues.