The long-awaited 'baby' grand piano has arrived this morning, safe and sound, after a 6-day and 650 miles of journey from Tulsa, OK. It does not look at all diminutive, but towers over all the other pieces of furniture in the living room. And it appears incredibly well-preserved after having been in cold storage for over ten years! Memo to self: secret to eternal youth :) I think I have my work for the remainder of my life cut out for me - to make this stately lady sing again! The piano is on-loan from Kirk's Mom. Thanks very much, Julia!!
04.27.2011 Update
The piano has since been turned around 180 degrees and tuned. The curve side of the piano is now facing the room; I originally had the flat side facing the room - a tell-tale sign of an 'interior designer' who has had no musical training.
04.27.2011 Update
About a month ago we first heard of crocus, the name of a flowing perennial plant which was said to be one of the early bloomers in spring. Without any inkling of their (pre)existence in our yard, we discovered to our delight that the crocus flowers have in fact started blooming all along the garden borders in our front yard. And every day we seem to be making fresh discoveries all over our yard of flowers which we didn't know we have. Beside the crocuses, the white and yellow daffodils and the irises that I planted last fall have also begun to make their presence known. I'm especially anxious to see whether the perennial bed that I put in last September by the Sun Room survives the winter. At present the white markers which strew about the bed look like grave stones marking ancient burial sites.
3.30.11 Crocus update: People who claimed to know about crocuses have caused me to doubt that what I saw rioting in our yard were actually crocuses, even though it was my piano teacher who first told me that they were when she came over to tea. But we actually have something in our back yard which fits the expert description of crocuses, esp. the long thin blade-like leaves; unfortunately, it was the only one I found. For comparison, the image on the left of a single purple flower was from our yard, which looks convincingly like the crocuses image I found on the web on the right. 