meme-tag: Seven Random things

Last night we had a completely spectacular lightning storm for hours on end--from the Environment Canada satellite and radar views, there were a lot of cells around, and while we don't get the sorts of storms that cities like Orlando Florida get, this was pretty impressive. It went on til after midnight, when I went to bed, but then woke me up again about 0430 going like there were giant strobe-lights happening outdoors. Went back to sleep after daylight, so thins morning I'm a bit slow to get into my routine.

As a result of that sluggishness, I thought I'd carry on with the meme-tag started somewhere and picked up at May Dreams Garden , with seven random things.

1. My former husband, our son, and I are all blue eyed and left-handed--and my son and I are both ambidextrous but mostly left-handed.This trait used to come in quite handy when I played badminton or table tennis (or even, occasionally, tennis) and could switch hands to make a blistering return on my opponents. It's also handy in the garden where I can switch hands for doing tasks if I want.

2. We have the stupidest donkey on the planet. Her name is Jenny many-lumps, so named because she's old and portly. When donkeys get overweight, they do so in pads, including along their neck topline; which when it gets too heavy, falls over on one side and stays that way--solid, perfectly fine and healthy, but looking like a cross between a melting innertube and a camel. Jenny gets lost between the barn and the pasture, a distance of maybe 35 feet. However, she keeps the horse in the pasture and the coyotes and deer out, so we excuse her her sessions of donkey senility.

3. I have only ever been seasick on one vessel in all the times I've been out on boats or ships. The Canadian Coast Guard ship Cygnus, a fisheries patrol and search and rescue cutter, is nicknamed The Sickness, and it's pretty well a badge of honour to have hurled on her during a gale of wind. Fortunately, I'm the sort who heaves away and then it's over and done with. Yo ho ho!

4. The only plant I absolutely truly cannot stand is goutweed, Aegopodium podegraria. It ought not be allowed to be sold at garden centres. Of all the questions I get asked by email or at gardening talks, the most common is "How do I get rid of the goutweed in my garden/ditch/lawn/pasture/bathroom?" (okay, maybe not bathroom--no one has reported it arriving in their house--SO FAR. Yesterday we did goutweed abuse. My longsuffering spouse bushhogged the area where it's heading for the pasture, after I hit it with extra strength glyphosate about ten days ago. Today, after the ground dries, I'm spraying it again. I make no apologies for this, because I don't want it in the pasture and I've tried digging it up, covering it, spraying it with salt and vinegar, which only made it into a salad green. If this doesn't work, I may have to resort to an excavator. Did I mention I don't like goutweed?

5. My longsuffering spouse and I are currently in discussions about what colour to paint the house, which definitely needs doing. It's currently 'Nordic Sea', which is exactly the colour of the ocean when it curves away from the bow of a fishing boat, but it's been that colour for nearly eight years and it's time for a change. He's leaning towards barn red, while I'm thinking a lighter colour, like a nice sunflower yellow, would be a great choice. Who do you suppose will win this discussion?

6. I thought the ending of the Sopranos was brilliant--once I figured out that it wasn't a case of my satellite going out, that is. If you're not a Sopranos fan, this random point won't make any sense, so don't worry...just fuggedaboudit! i do wonder what all the Soprano lists and webboards etc will do not that This Thing of Ours is finished. Or is it?

7. My favourite writer of all time is/was the late Canadian author Timothy Findley, who died in 2002. I wrote my master's thesis on him, and met him several times back in the 1990s. He wrote to me several times as well, and he even sent me a galley-copy of The Piano Man's Daughter, some months before it was published in hardcover, so that I could include it in my thesis. When he died I started the Memory Garden in his honour, planting a hardy Explorer rose for him--then one for his partner, Bill Whitehead, who is still alive but I didn't want Tiff's rose to be lonely in the garden. I mention this because I read in the paper this morning of the passing of William Hutt, a Canadian stage and film actor said to be among the finest Shakespearean actors ever. Hutt was a friend of Tiff and Bill's, acted in stage products opposite Findley and starred in Findley's play The Stillborn Lover. We shall not soon see the likes of either of these artists again.

There, that wasn't so difficult. I think I'll do the same sort of thing that Carol did: the first seven bloggers to read this posting, leave a note sending us to your blog and do a seven random things too.