Surf's Up

We dedicate today's post to the weather. My sister keeps posting pictures of flowering plants in her yard. I am posting pictures of snow, standing water, and buzzards. I will let the majority of the remainder of today's words be those of Van Dyke Parks, on behalf of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, from their tour de force, "Surf's Up". Some may say the lyrics make as much sense as this weather. Others may take solace in them. To each your own.

Surf's Up (B. Wilson/V.D. Parks)
as performed by the Beach Boys

A diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, oh
To a handsome man and baton
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the op'ra glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn
Columnated ruins domino

Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?

Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumperter swan
Columnated ruins domino


Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?

Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamplight cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne

The glass was raised, the fired rose
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port, adieu or die

A choke of grief HEART hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry


Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song

Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
Child, child, child, child, child
Na na na na na na na na
Child, child, child, child, child
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child

OK, I admit it. This last shot is not of our back yard. Yet. It's the Pacific Ocean. I just felt the need to add some levity. And, while I'm at it, some warmth and color...again, not our back yard. More like Carmel, California. Man, I wish they all could be California, um, weather.