Notes from the weekend; Vento Winds, Appleton; Falling Gingko leaves

See the angel I saw in the Helt yard.  For your viewing I've drawn in some wings, upper right.
I see it without the wings being added.
Windmills and gigs are many, and they were turning in the wind.

"He sent and signified it (The Revelation)  by his angel unto his servant John:" - St. John The Divine.

NOTES FROM THE WEEKEND

Dee and I visited the Helts on Saturday.

We re-surveyed their massively and magically retouched property,

including their long front yard in the rural subdivision setting.

We have already covered much of the Helt lore
(Search the SRN under Helt)

including their solar panels and the pulling of grandson Emerson

in the small sleigh wagon through the snow....

This time we focused on the deep yard stretching from

the 'double wide' to the road.  I call it a double wide only to

rib John.  It is a one-story dwelling with a flat roof

and no basement.  Resemblance to a trailer ends there.

This image was from a former visit before the tractor grill provided interest around the

yard light above the front door.  The rising moon over the house was a lucky bit of timing.

Their circular drive winds through a 'forest' of tamaracks  and tall grasses,
planted by them.

John is retired now from a lifetime of pastoring UCC churches.

Dee and I met him in the 1980s when he came to his first assignment
out of seminary, 
Friedens UCC in the shadow of Pabst brewery at 13th and Juneau, Milw., 
and he married us in 1983.

At the time -and ongoing throughout his long ministerial life -
 he kept himself in accordance with standard appearance,

religiously.

In his now grandfatherly incarnation

as the farm boy he grew up as in Burlington Iowa

he and his wife, Master Gardener Cindy have pulled out

some stops and adopted a new stance on their glorious property

near Holy Hill in Hubertus.

John and I are like brothers.

Some proof is provided in this photo below of me

sitting in the Mitchell Field airport waiting for a plane to Maryland

in 2007.

Through the years John and I have been fortunate

to escape many snares and misfortunes;

he serving some churches where he was sapped, greatly taxed,

and I with my now 10 year survival from events leading to
the surgeon's saw and  knife.

The care I've received from my doctors

- who monitor me still - has been 

miraculous.

All we ask, John and I, is to occasionally act up 
 - with our hair.

We've tented together (trailered together) more than once.

And if the creek don't rise we'll continue to do so.
In spirit anyway.

^,^

On Sunday
we drove to Appleton
to witness the humongous concert
of the Vento Winds Symphony in which 
ou daughter plays clarinet.

Erin said beforehand that she thought I would especially enjoy
the concert's conclusion.  See the attached program.

She'd heard me playing it very often when she was little.

Ever since the film with Alec Guiness and WIlliam Holden
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI in 1957
(3 yrs after I graduated WHS)
I have considered this whistled 'stiff upper lip'
British WW II march a theme to have in mind
when things go  bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bmsluWHZc

THANKS, ERIN!

See her Lawrence University haunted video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmoDKCDIK-8

^,^

Those delightful South Street Gingko trees
Cont'd

As of yesterday, the day before All Hallow's Eve,
the Gingkos, one in front of the Early Waukesha-nate
limestone where we presently live, are in their last stage
of shimmering gold before they drop simultaneously
behind their 'fruit fall' which just happened,

and afford this saver his opportunity of gathering some up
to tuck into his snail-mailed correspondence.

Yes. these prehistoric uniquely-shaped fan leaves 
do not blow down from their moorings one by one 
in the autumn winds.

They, by some ancient cue, hit the ground
all at once.  They will be there in one pile
when they opt to end their season

together.

^,^

At 10:07; Throne for a cat (not just any cat); Snail advocacy; CBC's 'As It Happens'

At 10:07 OF A RECENT LATE EVENING...

KD CAT SPRUNG ONTO THE BED WHERE I REPOSED, CAMERA IN HAND.

I HAD SUMMONED HER

"COME ON UP, COME ON UP!"

AND IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF TIME

BEFORE SHE SUCCUMBED TO HER NATURAL CURIOSITY

SHE THOUGHT I WAS STARING AT THE JOLLY OLD

 JACK-O-LANTERN

IN THE SHAPE OF A BLACK CAT.

HO HO

I TRICKED HER

AND SHE STRUCK UP A POSE

DOING HER BEST TO IMITATE

THE OBJECT OF WHAT SHE THOUGHT WAS MY

PRIMARY INTEREST.

CLICK !

SEND MORE SNAIL

^,^

KD SPENDS A LOT OF TIME ON HER THRONE

WE TRY TO KEEP A BIRD MOTIF. 

NOTE THE CARDINAL ON THE RIGHT CHAIR TOP

AND THE RAVEN  CARVED ON THE VERY TOP

OF THE STICK ON THE LEFT

-  NEVERMORE.

KD BLENDS WELL ON THE BLACK COAT

SHE KEEPS A LOOK-OUT FOR DOWNTOWN BIRDS

ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY DROP IN FOR THE BIRDSEED

ON THE SILL JUST OUTSIDE HER WINDOWED REACH.

SOMEBODY'S BANDED PIGEON SITS NEXT TO SEED FEEDER
WIRED TO WOOD WINDOW FRAME OF THE  3 MILION YR OLD LIMESTONE
 ODD FELLOWS LEDGE

DOUBLE SCREEN  C-CLAMPED TO WINDOW HANDLES
PREVENTS LUNGING KD CAT FROM REACHING PEACEABLERS

OUR 'MEZUZAH' ON WALL NEXT TO THE COMING AND GOING No. 311 FRONT DOOR
- AN EICHENBERG CHGO WAR MUSEUM PRINT -

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/225405/jewish/Mezuzah-Placement.htm

KD RESTS AT DEE'S FEET

NOT VISIBLE HERE

WHILE SHE WRITES SNAIL MAIL

PER CUSTOM.


^,^


Escape from Alcatraz

To family and friends:

I listen nightly to CBC's As It Happens
on WPR - Wis. Public Radio
90.7 on  our dial, comes on at 8 PM our time.

It is wonderful entertainment
and educational.

This was a recent broacast following.
(  You can reach their website at
cbc dossier/ aih  )

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.3278098/notorious-alcatraz-escapees-may-still-be-on-the-lam-1.3278107

Now; Thomas Merton; Baked apples; Bread; AK mountain pass rite; Blessing of the animals

Now
by Barbara Crooker

Listen Online


What can l say, now that summer’s gone, with the weight of its heat,
its thick blanket of humidity, the cacophony of zinnias, marigolds, salvia?
Now the sky is clear blue and cloudless, that sure one-note
that can only mean October. You’re gone. The leaves turn gold
in the calendar’s rotisserie, giving up their green, and the burning bushes
have ignited, struck their book of matches. It’s enough to make the heart break,
isn’t it? We keep going down the one road, there’s no turning back.

"Now" by Barbara Crooker from Small Rain. © Purple Flag Press, 2014

^,^

Thomas Merton

a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O650TPCIXrI

^,^

Baked Apples with rum

Peeling apples by machine

First taste - good

I use my best sterling spoon

Our apple source is closing for the season

Could not buy more honey crisps or anything else last Sunday, but
as luck and kindness would have it
our friend Susanne brought  
a bag from her trove as a gift at our Wed. lunch!

(At The Spot we had the Swedish crepes with lingonberries)





^,^



Bread

Dee keeps us in this bread of late.

^

It is English muffin bread

with all the delicious characteristics one expects.

And gets each time.

^,^

An Alaskan mountain pass wedding

A wonderful siting for the wedding of my grand-daughter Grace and her now husband

Alexander Lindgren is shown suggestively above.  I find the mist of the Hatcher Pass in Alaska, the chill in the air visible,

the wedding arbor of a tepee, the assembly of Grace's Scandinavian family shown below, and all the many

gathered friends, some clad in embroidered costumes -

with the flowers woven through hair or in decorative headdresses worn by Grace and her sister Ruth...

IT WAS ALL FABULOUS!

I would have loved to be there.  SEE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatcher_Pass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fH2FOn1V5g

Groom

Bride

^,^

Dee's mother

Jean Means of Pleasant Valley Maryland went to a

blessing of the animals service last Sunday 

at St. Matthew's United Church of Christ.

She had known in advance that her at first invasive 

basement toad, then lovingly-hosteled but simply

called 'TOAD' would probably not appear

to be captured and boxed for traveling to

the church,

His subterranean digs are his soft sell on the QT

pretty much.

Timidity?

So Jean took the photo post card from us

of her laundry-mate TOAD to be blessed in proxy.

We like knowing that Gramaw Means

a seamstress of great skill

has made a pair of red trousers for Toad.

The post card which Gramaw has saved so shows.

Jean and John Means

http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2012/12/we-decorate-our-animals-we-sew-dresses.html

Shaw-co-LAH'; Glass blowing; Panther in the window; Thomas Merton

~ CHOCOLATE ~

watch, click here:

*  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGfngjmwLfeature=youtu.be

From Kirsten Dobson to Raccoon

^,^

From another SRN reader

daughter Laurie Dix Kari of Wasilla AK

who saw this and remembered our trip to 

a glass factory in the 1970s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1BxbzMJns

and this:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twlUXoJxHR0


^,^


How much is that (panther) in the window?
The one with the waggely tail.......
......I do hope that panther's for sale!

Screensaver priceless cost zero

I saw this formidible beast, a figurine, in the downstairs second-hand store window this past week.

In previous days I would have strode right in and asked how much was that panther in your window?

But that was then, and this is now.

I have Denise watching out - belatedly, since circa 2010 - over our purse strings

and we are so much the better for it.  This mere trinket was only $39.99, but even so........

We are so much better off financially now under Dee's bookkeeping.

I contented myself with going back up and getting the camera to get a picture of the 'pretty'.

I will print a card stock picture of it, laminate it as  a backsplash and inspiration at our cat KD's bowls on the floor  That shall suffice.

THEN later that late night I got up for a midnight snack.

The cat, wishing for a snack of her own reached up and pawed my arm, per her custom.  This time though, her overdue manicure - at another shop dowstairs, the pet-care studio -  caused her to prick my arm with extended super-sharp claws.  I hollered instinctively, awakening Dee in the back bedroom.  It was a loud expletive.  The cat rushed off and hid under the piano bench.

I returned to bed, and noticed my pricked arm felt kind of funny.

I dozed off, thinking of my Great Wonderment.

"What (at my august age) will finally kill me?"

I thought of Thomas Merton's unplanned end

in Bankgkok where he died quickly of surprise electrocution, tipping over

an electric heater in the bathroom. 

* (See poem)

Could such a surpising and out-of -left-field end await me?

Would I quicky croak from a fetid cat claw prick?

Not a bad way to go, actually, if it happened fast like that.

But I awoke up in the morning apparently none the worse

for wear.

,,,,,,,,,,

Poem heralding Trappist Thomas Merton, about whom I was 
reminded listening to Pope Francis  addressing the US Congress -to much applause -
when he mentioned the four highiest-principled Americans who came to the his mind:

(Abraham Lincoln, Rev M.L. King, Dorothy Day, and Fr. Thomas Merton)

*

A Gaudy Butterfly Laid Me

On a milkweed leaf she laid me

with no great hope of my success,

for I was just one of a hundred eggs

she deposited,

flitting, pausing, flitting, pausing,

my mother's abdomen arching

each time and putting us down;

we pinheads were merely something

that made her feel good

or the result of an act that did;

or not even that;

I don't know and will never know.

I ate my full engorgement of clean furrows

in the white-juiced leaves until I grew

to a fat temptation for predators

that eat the likes of me,

but the numbers had it

that I was one of the few who survived,

never got picked off in the hard

mandibles of life.

No,

my disappointment was different;

I spun my waxy cocoon

according to pattern

and then, alas, instead of the transformation,

the metanoia,

I had my beauty taken from me

and my capsule gradually

turned black,

and as I lay dying inside,

rotting into a fetid inkiness,

a monarch's striving nature

nonetheless living still,

my little strength merged to

poke a pinhole in the bottom

of my enbindment, and by dint

of waning force I dripped this

message onto the leaf below,

and that is how you come

to read a distillation of all

I was ever to become,

 a quotation, nothing more, but by a higher power than I:

What we have to be

Is what we are - Thomas Merton

DZD  2006

......

Fr. Thomas Merton

The Dalai Lama decorated Merton's grave
photo purchased at Berea College KY 2000
- a favorite vacation spot -
Simple grave is at the Trappist monestery Gethsemane KY
where Merton studied, wrote, and served.
A reason to go there and we did.

Decor is a Tibetan sign of high respect - the white scarf.

SEE http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2008/01/looks-on-their-faces.html

..................

If we don't see each other before Halloween:

HAPPY GUESSWORK!