Spring 2020 ... simple pleasures

During this confinement, a "bol" of strong coffee, a croissant and a picture book of Paris is a comfort, and a pleasure.  Another pleasure is to search for photos, write a post, then read the comments that my blogging friends were kind enough to write.  For over a month now I have been alone in this house, with my cat.  Reading the comments makes me feel as if I am entering a circle of friends; they may be "e-friends" but I still feel the warmth as if they were close by.  I am grateful that you took the time to read my long posts and leave comments - it is a pleasure to read them, indeed.  As I wrote in my last post on spring, finding flowers near my house is another pleasure.  Some irises just bloomed in the back of the driveway - here they are.  (Please click on collage to see flowers closer.)

I ventured out to a couple of houses nearby.  One of them has a border of lavender irises and roses going to their front porch.

A couple of days ago I had to finally get out of the house.  I needed to collect my medicine at the drugstore.  I took mask and gloves and picked it up at the drugstore window.  It was a beautiful sunny and warm day, around 75 F (23.8C.) The drugstore is only 1 mile from my home so it's a quick ride in the car.  I did not want to go back home - it was so lovely outside.  There is a very large park close to the drugstore.  I decided to drive there.  It was still early and I thought if there were few people in the park I could venture out of the car.  This park is called Centennial Park.  In 1897 it was given this name in honor of the 100th anniversary of Tennessee's admittance into the Union of the United States.  The 132-acre (0.53 km2) park has a lake, paths, sunken gardens, recreation center and a replica of the Parthenon of Athens, Greece.  It is a full-scale replica of the ancient Greek temple and can be visited; although right now it is closed.  Years ago I did walk up the hill to the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece, when I stayed with my father's Armenian cousins there.  Here are several vintage postcards of the Nashville's Parthenon.

I visited this park once before but did not go inside the Parthenon.  I'll do that in the future and will write a post on it.  As I parked by the lake I just noticed a gaggle of geese.  They swam toward me.

It did not feel as though downtown Nashville was only 2 miles away or the large Vanderbilt University complex less than half a mile away, too.  In the drugstore parking lot was a policeman sitting in his patrol car.  I asked him if the park was open.  He told me the entrance to the park was closed.  He then gave me detailed instructions on how to enter it through the back.  I found the way.  It was so peaceful there with no one around.

Wearing my dust mask, I walked a bit around the lake to check for spring flowers and shrubs.  There were pink azaleas in full bloom.

Below are more azaleas in a darker shade of pink.  I just read that there are over 10,000 types of azaleas and approximately 800 species.

Azaleas can also be cut and replanted.  I had not thought of that, but now when I go back to my house in Georgia I'll take cuttings from my three azalea shrubs there and bring them back to Nashville.

Coming around the bend I saw a bench.  I sat to watch the geese.  A little duck came ashore toward me, as if he had been waiting for my visit.  I guess the birds have not been fed by visitors for a long time.

I walked toward the side of the Parthenon.  Then I walked back to my car.

It was strange in a way, walking in that large empty park.  It reminded me of the pictures I just saw of my old home-town Paris right now - totally empty of tourists.  Even the river Seine has no traffic.  (Photos courtesy La Parisien.)

It also reminded me of Paris during the war.  I was a wee child then but I remember walking with my mum in the streets - no tourists.  But the streets were not totally empty, there were some cars (mostly of Germans,) people walking, or on bicycles or motorbikes.  There even were funny motorcycles with seats attached to them, called "side-car" pronounced seed-carr.  Some bicycles with a cargo carriage were used as taxi-cabs, like the bicycles below, called "velo-taxi.".  Below are some old photographs from that era.  (Don't forget to click on collage to enlarge.)

Paris does look like a ghost town.  Policemen give tickets if people are out without a good reason that has to be stated on a signed document - they take confinement very seriously there.  But Centennial Park in Nashville, even without visitors, did not feel empty.  It was alive with birds, geese, ducks and squirrels.  It was radiant with colors of the flowers, shrubs and the varied greens of plants, grass and trees.  It was as if I had stepped through a magical place.  I was so glad I had come - a true pleasure.

My first time in town in over a month and it had been successful.  There is much fear, grief and sorrow right now, but still, simple pleasures do happen and should.  "Be happy for this moment.  This moment is your life."  - Omar Khayyam, 1048-1131, Persian philosopher.

Back in my kitchen I could still watch the sun from all the windows. We had a skylight installed in the kitchen of the Georgia house.  While sitting by the table I could look up and watch the sky.  I got used to that.  Luckily the Nashville bungalow has many windows.  There are 4 tall and large double windows in the kitchen plus a window over the sink and a glass door leading to the covered patio.  The covered patio has 8 windows and another glass door going to the back deck.  For a bungalow built in 1930 it is surprising how many windows are in each room.  While drinking my coffee of a morning I can follow the squirrels jumping on the back porch and watch all the birds flying tree to tree.  It is cheerful (and a pleasure.)

Working for decades in the aeronautical field, in a large office with numerous cubicles and no windows, as soon as I'd go out for lunch or home I would immediately look up at the sky.  Was it sunny or raining?  Was one of our cargo aircraft taking a flight test?  Which one was it?  Air Force, Coast Guard or maybe a foreign air force customer?  I could tell by its color.  I could also recognize if it was a C-130, a C-141 or a C-5 by their sound.  I always looked up, a habit I never lost.  Here is a quote I really like.  It is by one of our past chairmen:

"There is a certain feeling of courage and hope when you work in the field of the air.  You instinctively look up, not down.  You look ahead, not back.  You look ahead where the horizons are absolutely unlimited."  - Robert E. "Bob" Gross, Lockheed's Chairman/CEO 1932-1961.

Walking to the back porch from the covered patio I can look up and see the sky much better.

I like to sit on the front porch in a director chair with my back to the street because I can I get a better view of the sky that way, toward the back (and don't have to watch people walking by, close together without masks; my Nashville zip code has the highest number of cases of Covid-19.)  Looking up at the sky always fills me with joy.

Often I bring my iPad with my little speaker and listen to music.  Looking up at the sky and listening to music - is there anything better?  Such a peaceful pleasure!  Here is the last piece of music I listened to yesterday, played by a Greek musician.

"Keep your face to the sun

and you will not see the shadows"    

- Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American author

Gardez votre visage vers le soleil

et vous ne verrez pas les ombres.