"Texas in May" & "The Pond Song"

If you've been reading this blog for awhile (and have noticed the sidebar) you know that I've written and copyrighted more than a dozen garden songs and that Philo and I have made some of them into videos on YouTube. A few are parodies, but most of them fit together and tell a story - they're part of a musical play called Roots In Austin. This weekend two more of the songs went up on YouTube adding more pieces to the story.

When I wrote "I Don't Want to be in Texas When It's May" more than 4 years ago, it was an attempt at writing poetry. My comic, nerdy love poem to Lilac Time in Lombard seemed to be lyrics, so I asked my son Ted for help. Ted wrote music for the lyrics and our song became a favorite at family gatherings. Our song is now a video - it went up this weekend on Ted & Diane's YouTube station. (he and his wife Diane are professional musicians). You'll be blown away by Ted's amazing music.



While this musical surprise was cooking up in Chicagoland, Philo and I hung out in the air-conditioning, working on our latest music video here in Austin. We've had a love affair with ponds for decades ..... maybe it began when we were college students? We saw beautiful ponds while on cheap dates at the zoos, museums, parks and conservatories in Chicago and the surrounding area. Most of them were public ponds back then, but in the 1990's ponds popped up in gardens that we knew... Cher's garden in Lombard, Ellen's in Villa Park, Trudi Temple's in Hinsdale. They were wonderful but still rather rare. Pond construction and care is difficult in a place where the ground freezes deep and the water becomes a block of ice.

Then our move to Austin in 1999 revealed a great big world of man-made ponds and streams behind the fences and walls. There are cold days and freezes in Central Texas, but they're not so deep, and a pond is a year-round feature here. We started going on the annual tours hosted by The Austin Pond Society and I've written posts about them ever since this blog began.

Now it's time to share the love by using years of images of ponds from all over the Austin area to back music from the play - we put "The Pond Song" up last night on Annie and Philo's YouTube Station.
Please spend a soothing, cool three minutes with us in the middle of this long hot summer.



If you're interested in seeing how the songs fit together and reading about the various characters who would be singing these songs if it ever became a reality, please check out the new blog about the play, Roots In Austin.



Edited August 17...Austin blogger Michael Ziegler has taken some lovely photos of some stops on the 2008 pond tour. Actually he takes lovely photos of all sorts of things - thanks for leaving a comment at my 2007 pond post, Michael!

Dreams of May for Muse Day

This post, "Dreams of May", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

On the first of each month, Sweet Home & Garden Chicago's Carolyn hosts Gardenblogger's Muse Day. The word Muse may refer to the classic Muses, such as Thalia the Muse of Comedy, but the word may also mean simply "a source of inspiration". Sometimes the Muse comes not in flowing robes but wearing a green shirt and jeans; sometimes she speaks not Greek but in a Hoosier twang.

Last May, Carol told us that the Indianapolis 500 is blacked out in Indianapolis, so she gardens while listening to the radio, adding that when the crowd sings "Back Home in Indiana" at the opening ceremony: Right then, that moment, will signal the beginning of summer for me. Carol's words inspired me to write new lyrics to this song.





MAY DREAMS IN INDIANA

It's not quite Muse Day yet, but tomorrow Philo will take me to the airport for a flight to Chicago on family business. I hope to borrow my sister's computer so my hoes won't miss the party on May 3rd.
Will the lilacs be in bloom? I do hope my dreams of lilacs in May will come true!

This post, "Dreams of May", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.