Friday, August 04, 2006

A cup of good (hot!) cheer

This afternoon when I went outside to take my Eye Candy Friday pictures it was a whopping 93 degrees (and with the heat index you can safely bump that up to over 100 degrees) - which is just plain ol' HOT. Yet walking down the steps that lead to my building I was greeted with a smile and a cheery hello and a blast of funfunfun music from one of the younger men who works groundskeeping. Baseball hat and sunglasses protecting him from the direct rays of the sun, he was cheerfully wielding a broom and dustpan, carefully sweeping up dead leaves and general debris into small, tidy piles before going back and picking everything up. This gentleman in question can be seen all over campus - working grounds, delivering supplies to departmental secretaries - everyone knows him and he has a kind and friendly greeting for absolutely everyone he sees. He apparently used to be a student and athlete here - until he was on the somewhat tragic side of a car crash, in which he suffered permanent mild yet significant brain damage that stopped him squarely in his proverbial tracks. I cannot help but absolutely love and respect whoever it was in this institution that decided that J should be hired to help out on campus - giving him a place in the world where I hope he is not only happy but also feels a sense of accomplishment and usefulness. His cheerful attitude is exactly what everyone in this world needs on such a hot Friday!

So, on to pictures! Our grounds were declared an "arboretum in 1988. It exists to provide an attractive landscape setting, conducive to learning, that demonstrates the diversity of the Plant Kingdom." So given all of that there is no lack of beautiful things to photograph on a hot hot hot Friday afternoon!




(passionflowers are so my favorite!)

And who, you might ask, is the incredible person responsible for growing and pruning and weeding and mulching and cultivating and watering all of these incredible plants that make our place such a wonder to work in? None other than perfect-knitting-Birch K! Yes, indeedy, and that's her at left, carefully working on her previously-mentioned absolutely perfect masterpiece! So not only can she knit, she can also garden up a virtual storm!!! (And she has fantastic music taste to boot - and can eat chocolate and still look incredible bending over a raised bed to weed in a pair of shorts - doesn't it just figure???) Now, I should note, as if I don't she certainly will, that she does NOT do all of the gardens herself - she is one of several hard-working completely underpaid staff, and she has several student workers at her beck and call. But still, she's the brains behind the brawn for all of the particular plants I featured today, as she is in charge of both pergola and containers, as far as I know.....

No real knitting progress to report - yesterday thanks to K and J's help I decided that KK's clapotis was finally long enough, so I started the decrease rows and have been working on that ever since. Dedication, thy name is clapotis this weekend!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eye Candy Friday may be my favorite day!