… celebrates the town’s 125th year.

There's little to say for its forthcoming plume

In fact I'll admit to a feeling of gloom
When I think of its flowers and cloying perfume

The garden seems so much about tending, weeding, selecting, digging, watering, trimming, transplanting, gazing… Then some neighbors come over for lunch and you realize wait I can do fresh flowers myself! They’re right out there!

So far the cat wants only to watch as UD gardens; so far it has managed to stay clear of UD‘s dog. Eventually it will creep up and push its face against my leg. But so far it’s only about watching.

… leads us, at the end of this year’s GP Musicale, in a Take Me Out to the Ballgame singalong.

That’s the organizer/piano accompanist, Sue Petito, in the foreground.

UD sang You’ve Got a Friend in Me with the Garrett Park Singers.

UD is a Randy Newman fanatic, but doesn’t like that particular song. Oh well. You do things for the good of the group.

Les UDs have watched in amazement as a new house fifty feet from Garrett Park’s two big, beautiful town swimming pools installed its own quite large pool.

Garrett Park is rich, yes; but we’re not Malibu. Not every house installs its own tennis court/swimming pool complex. I mean, almost no house does.

Indeed, along with gorgeous, never crowded, beautifully landscaped pools for the use of Garrett Parkers, the town has two beautifully landscaped, never crowded, tennis courts. And a terrific basketball court (a house just down the street from the basketball court does have a private indoor one).

Anyway, we’ve scratched our heads about the private pool steps from the town pool, but okay.

Still, it’s strange.

Maybe this new phenomenon helps explain it.

‘A backlash against homeowners renting out private pools

It is only mid-spring, but already dozens of pools in and around Maryland’s most populous county have been listed for rent on Swimply, which launched in 2020 as people sought alternatives to public pools that shut down because of the pandemic on the heels of the wild success of apps like Airbnb and Uber. Hosts set hourly rates anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour to access private backyard pools that bypass lines and crowds.

… Many homeowners are eager to earn easy money by renting out a backyard pool …

A … group of 36 county residents from Chevy Chase, Rockville, Montgomery Village, Kensington and Rosemary Hills, wrote a letter opposing [a proposed bill regulating the practice] and asking the county instead to outlaw the amenity rentals altogether. The group argued that the rentals turn quiet residential neighborhoods into bustling business districts, without the infrastructure to support commercial activity. They raised dozens of concerns, largely over the added nuisance of strangers pouring into their neighborhoods because of the apps, congested roads, scarce parking, and noise and safety.‘

Now, Kensington… That’s getting much too close for comfort. Next town over. So now UD‘s wondering if this oddly situated and surprisingly large private pool in her town is a rental. Yikes.

‘That this kind of weapon is a favorite of school shooters, and these are schoolchildren, only adds to the disgusting character of the events here. Carrying a gun like this in the public square is a way to constantly communicate the threat of deadly force to those around you. A gun like this exists for two purposes: to maim and kill, and to communicate the threat thereof…

 [R]ight-wingers [routinely] show up heavily armed to statehouses in an explicit communication of the threat of deadly force if they do not get their way on matters of public policy. This is not normal political expression…’

This happened in Severn, Maryland, not far from UD‘s ‘thesda.

… in UD’s garden.

… greets you from their campfire along a lake in the Pennsylvania woods. UD, her sisters, and Mr UD (looking chiseled below) have been roughing it (as rough as ‘thesdans get) up north, and Les UDs are

now back home, recovering.

… yesterday, at a local cafe.

THE MANGY FOX

The mangy fox
From out the wood
Enters my garden.

‘Hardened in heart,’
I note his naked tail
His agony face

‘Like a devil’s sick of sin’

And I say to him

Oh you have outfoxed!
You slink raw grief
Into my garden

And I cannot be hardened.

… the town of Garrett Park (which is an arboretum) goes in as we speak.

It’s a Siebold magnolia, variety Colossus.

… Catoctin Wildlife Preserve. Camp David is down the street.

… embraces her cousin while waiting to chomp down on mazurek.

Photo Joanna Soltan.