Dipping the first oar of the day
on Thursday, Oct. 4th
the day after the first presidential debate
- a singularly disappointing event -
we were looking for good omens this day.
Festoon Fox shone down on the level below
and as light began to enter the Odd Fellows
we thought we saw something different
about the morning glory vine which
has been summitting the east window.
Descending the stairs with daylight
intensified, we approached and saw
what the difference was about the vine.....
The indomitable Judith Williams Morning Glory vine
that sprang from a volunteer seed within the aloe's
small pot that she gave us,
had thrown a blossom here in our light-deprived
north window!
It seemed fitting and omenlike
that this bloom trumpeted it's existence
aimed directly at the Romney window picture
a neighbor across the way has taped to his glass.
His too is the adjoining window that heralds
a Don't Tread On Me flag as his shading window treatment.
The bright green organism inside our opposing window
is living without threat to the limestone architecture
that forms the arched shape on the other side
of the glass.
That stone is from Silurian Age
sediment that is circa 137,000,000 years old.
Our unexpected volunteer has done a dear thing for us.
It's brief life is so transitory, like our own.
Already the lower leaves have dried and separated
from the stem, an artery conveying the moisture
we provide to sustain the ephemeral vine
so that its fate might be fulfilled.
Two more blooms are yet to fully form
but we wish the enterprise well,
before the inevitable curtain falls.
Another vine climbed a similar journey
up our Tamarack tree on Arcadian Ave.
The Tamarack had died three years earlier
but had reached a height of 30 feet
before it succumbed after many years
of living where it was not thought
by some it could survive.
But the donor of that seedling
plucked from a Marinette County swamp
advised that it would live:
"Just keep it wet, Dave!"
The Bill Vollmer Memorial Tamarack Tree
provided support after death for morning glories
and beautiful pale green lichen.
provided support after death for morning glories
and beautiful pale green lichen.
Dee in this old picture was then about as tall as the young Tamarack.
Deciduous, the needles at the time were Autumn gold.
...................
...................
This week
we received a gift from a corresponding friend, Stewart Tolbert, whom we have never met face to face but have written to for five years now.
Stew lives with his wife Donna, a lifesaver, in proximity to Dillonvalle, OH, near the Ohio River which boundaries Ohio and West Virginia.
We became acquainted with him through Laurie Leonard who works for the Wheeling Symphony in their office. We've never met her, either.....
Stew is a retired steamfitter turned art welder. He lives in a trailer on an abandoned coal mine.
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-means-namaste-srn-corresp.html
Stew wanted to make a welding for us since we both have been welders, and I'd sent him something.
To our great Odd Fellow surprise, this below hefty construction came:
Putting the welding on the best pedestal we have -
a piece of our Arcadian Ave Tamarack -
it is representing Stew's view of our
brotherly relationship.
Brothers of the 2500 degree C cutting power.
'Brothers of the Flame', he says.
Stew purposefully made this object so that
it would look good from any angle.
To show that, we have taken multiple photos,
which are below.
Embedded in this piece of the old Tamarack
three trunk is a piece of a squirrel-feeder bracket
which the bark eventually grew around.
The new owners of our house were sawing down
the dead tree, but my son David salvaged a piece
of the tree trunk for us here at the Odd Fellows.
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-means-namaste-srn-corresp.html
Stew wanted to make a welding for us since we both have been welders, and I'd sent him something.
To our great Odd Fellow surprise, this below hefty construction came:
Putting the welding on the best pedestal we have -
a piece of our Arcadian Ave Tamarack -
it is representing Stew's view of our
brotherly relationship.
Brothers of the 2500 degree C cutting power.
'Brothers of the Flame', he says.
Stew purposefully made this object so that
it would look good from any angle.
To show that, we have taken multiple photos,
which are below.
Embedded in this piece of the old Tamarack
three trunk is a piece of a squirrel-feeder bracket
which the bark eventually grew around.
The new owners of our house were sawing down
the dead tree, but my son David salvaged a piece
of the tree trunk for us here at the Odd Fellows.
There has not been too many things lately that have brought so much pleasure.
One thing happened last night, however, that reached for similar stars.
Dee made us a chicken pot pie from scratch that was really delicious.
Super-flaky crust laid loose on top, wafer thin.
Fit for General Lorens Lowenheilm's tribute
to the mysterious cook in BABETTE'S FEAST
the great movie http://www.siue.edu/~evailat/babette.html):
I was so busy enjoying the pot pie that I must have jiggled the inexpensive lower crustacean cell camera when I took this otherwise good exposure of Dee enjoying her cooking.
....................
HOT DAMN
BAND played again last Saturday at the Waukesha Farmers Market on a beautiful fall day, from 8 AM to noon. People toting bags of produce, munching fresh bakery and sipping hot coffee or cider lingered in front of their space at the Civic Theater back parking area in the midst of a passing sea of leisurely market customers. Some fans brought folding chairs.
There were all sorts of pot pouri people, lots of children dancing their jigs, oldsters tapping canes, parents encouraging their tots to have some fun in the way of boaters pulling ropes on Evinrude outboards.
IT WAS BEAUTIFUL !
This soft-spoken man asked for Autumn Leaves. They willingly played it, giving it an intricate samba beat.
The Hot Damn Band is a recent start-up group comprised of seasoned area musicians who began getting together for fun. Now, Hot Damn is available for gigs. Think seriously about it!
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Hudson River sailing with Pete Seeger
Play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVnHHaB-5oc
Dee's brother Jeffrey is probably sailing on the Hudson right now.
Mr. Means Means Business
a Brooklyn photographer ....................
