Blue Bucket of Gold

Due to persistent and unpredictable rains, I haven't been carrying my camera around. So, without new photos, I've been putting off a new blog post. However, it feels like time for an update, so I hope you won't mind a couple old photos.

After about two weeks of semi-regular games, we have two, maybe three chess games left in our school tournament. Next up, the champions of the eighth and ninth grade classes will play to compete in the championship match against the top sixth grader who beat the seventh grade representative last week. If we're organized, we'll have a match to decide the third and fourth place winners as well.

I planted my first batch of 200'ish seeds on March 15th--mostly marigolds but also pansies and primroses. However, due to a late snow and leaving them outside, this batch has yet to germinate. Though it's a poor excuse to blame the seeds, I tried a new batch of marigolds from home on March 21st (100'ish seeds), using 80% a different pack of marigold seed and 20% the previous type. After four days, the new seeds started to show their first sprouts and now almost all of them have germinated while none of old ones have had any success. Coincidence? Today, I used an egg carton to plant thirty more marigolds, so hopefully I have an army come summer.

Today's title comes from an album that I've listened to at least seven times in the last two days--Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens. This mellow album has been so easy to just throw on and listen from start to finish regardless of what I'm doing: cooking, studying for the GRE, planting, or writing like I am now.

Matching the theme of Carrie & Lowell, here's a graveyard in Kukes during my Valentine's Day visit. An endearing Albanian graveyard tradition is to rub your palm on the grave stone of loved ones.

An apartment in Kukes. Across the country, Albanian housing buildings resemble this exterior brick facade, with almost identical interiors as well.