The Southland in the Springtime

     Friday took me to Winston-Salem and SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) for yet another meeting.  SECCA is at least a four hour drive, so I was off early at 4:30 to be there by 8:30 ish, and did not return home until late- but I love to drive and to be places I haven't been, and to see everything in bloom is wonderous.  As for the meeting itself, it was a recap of things I mainly already knew, plus a shift once again in course standards for next year, and highlighted student performances from one of the local schools.  The art was good, the chorus sang, dancers danced dances about body image and the theater troupe performed a short curious play about the Mary Celeste (which I rather liked).  The highlight of the meeting though was the food~ which included huge amazing slices of New York style cheesecake.  SECCA itself is mainly a re-purposed mansion,  made of stone, slated with slate, with an auditorium and gallery space added on.  There is a small park with a lake, and all around are wandering geese.  The front of the grounds is carpeted with myrtle and violets- blooming in blue, purple, white- crabapple trees, weeping Japanese cherry, dogwoods, others I don't know the name of.  The required allotment of pansies and tulips.  Wild intrusion of yellow Jessamine vines (no, not Jasmine, Jessamine. It grows everywhere, is beautiful, smells wonderful and slightly lemony, and is seriously poisonous). 

         I'm not so great at a day of sitting still and listening though- even when cheesecake is involved- inaction makes me weary.  This morning I woke up ready to work- or so I thought- but am now tired and wanting a nap (and it is not quite 7!) but I do think I will go back to bed for a bit.  They are calling for afternoon rains, so that will be a good time to write while the manz watches movies, and I hope to get some work done in the yarden this weekend.  He has been busy all week planting flowers- snapdragons and thrift, lavender, petunias, mums, carnations, glads- and finding me treasures.  Shells and shark teeth, the fossil skull of a turtle, other bits of long ago.  Everything outside is covered in a tangle of wisteria and jessamine, azaleas, the dogwoods- this is our most beautiful time of the year. It has been summery warm and soft with slight rain that blows over quickly, the market is full of strawberries and all I want to do is feel the sun and make things.  I love the spring, the summer- the growing part of the year.