Morning all:

Well, well, well. Here it is, a perfect spring morning. My start on this post is slightly late since I first had to stand outside for a bit and enjoy my coffee while watching a large and spectacularly red Cardinal. Once I stepped back inside there was another pause while I settled the first catfight of the day. Spring fever must also grab hold of the animals. Earlier this week, on about lap three of a race through the complete up and downstairs of the house, they managed to knock over and break one of Marcia’s favorite little Delft blue ceramic lamps. Thirty seconds later they had forgotten all about the mess, Marcia is still muttering – who says that possessing a ‘higher’ intellect is better?

With April at the doorstep, here is one of my favorite bits from T.S. Eliot to welcome the month.

Says T.S. Eliot:

“April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

Earlier this week former Queen Juliana of the Netherlands passed away at age 94. Reading a tribute about this true Renaissance woman it occurred to me that it was the love for this queen that kept our Omi, while in love with America, Dutch in her heart – for all the fifty years she lived away from Holland.

All the little Omi-isms we came to love over the years in reality are just a part of the mental bond and connect Queen Juliana had with her subjects, our Omi being a wonderful example. Read these quotes from Queen Juliana and let me know if you cannot see my mother also saying them:

“If you are interested in the kitchen of the world – you want to find out what is cooking, who has a finger in the pie, and who will burn his finger.”

Or this:

“I can’t understand it. I can’t even understand the people who can understand it.”

With Queen Juliana’s passing I realize it was not just a tottery old woman who passed, but that with her passing goes a whole generation, a generation with a very similar worldview and vision. Maybe the folk from that overpopulated thriving little region of the world really are all from the same nest. Now that I look at it, I do believe that our Omi was also very much a Renaissance woman.

Next is a look at my ‘honey-do’ list starting with cutting up a branch that came out of one of our trees – I do love playing with the chainsaw. This weekend be sure to root for our hometown school as little Xavier University soared into the “Elite Eight” finals of the NCAA basketball tournament. Xavier plays Duke this coming Sunday.

Have a great week.

Dirk