skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Ava is here for an extended stay while Barb attends to important business in KC and Omaha. We understand that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates may be involved, and hopefully lots of new business. She is quite a laid back dog, happy to sleep on your lap if you are in the recliner, not so happy about having to sleep in her bed instead of yours, and a self-starter when it comes to playing. I came home this afternoon, took Ava out, and started making a list for a grocery trip later in the afternoon. Ava got her favorite purple squeaky kong octopus out and started tossing it around to entertain herself. Quite by chance the camera was close when I caught her in a frequent pose of hers--lounging on the lowest step like it's her special carpeted banquette. She has been known to toss a ball up the stairs and let it roll down for amusement as well.
Ava is also one of those rare dogs that will watch television if animals are featured. The evening news had a clip of a dancing parrot that she liked. There also were some dogs jumping off diving boards into a pool to catch frisbees. She thought that was cool, too.
Tomorrow we have another cool surprise for our canine guest. Doug is coming in from Florida to spend three days with us. We can't wait to see how they get along.
Where has a week gone? I'm not sure, but to Jan, Carol, Kay, Debi, Sandy and other regular readers, we are still breathing here. I have photos of spring flowers and an account of our outing to Powder Valley that I will post soon, I promise. Meanwhile, I try to post something on Twitter every day so you'll know what we are up to. One day seems to flow into another. Here are updates on previous posts: Little Lily and her mom Michelle have been home almost a week with lots of help from family. Continued prayers for Michelle's recovery from surgery are appreciated. Little Sarah is still in the hospital in a pediatric intensive care unit, but when we saw her on Sunday, she was improving and her parents, Dave and Sandy, are encouraged. Heather is still in the hospital in Chicago with her baby doing well, according to fetal monitors, and there is hope that he will not have to be born for at least a couple more weeks. For all these parents and children, we continue to pray. I was sitting in my recliner about 11 p.m., going through my daily prayer list and working on my project for the prayer shawl ministry, and I guess I fell asleep. I woke up about 12:30 a.m. today and having checked e-mail and posted this, I'm going to go to bed myself. Good thoughts also to Doug, who described himself on his blog Monday as "elbow deep in term papers and final exams" to grade. Ah, I remember that elbow deep feeling well.
It was one year ago today that I launched a counter for this blog using SiteMeter. As of this writing, there have been 3,368 views of the blog and 4,417 page views. That's an average of 14 blog hits and 17 page views each day. It always amazes me to see who is checking in, even if they are doing a google search from England to buy a vehicle known in those parts as a "gypsy caravan," or from anywhere in the U.S. around Halloween looking for "orgy stories." Most of the family and friend ISPs I can recognize, although sometimes your provider moves the location of the server. Sometimes Colby moves to Monument; Tulsa has recently moved to Wagoner, Cape Coral is really Ft. Myers, and I'm still trying to figure out who is in Kearny--whether that's the former North Platte. At least it keeps me occupied. I first learned about SiteMeter at the MCMA conference in Joplin in April of 2008. Just goes to prove that a person with a Medicare Card can still learn a thing or two. Thank you for your comments and your e-mails and I'll try to keep posting something of interest in the coming year.
PS: the photo is of the Linville Rose; it made it through the winter in its pot, sunk in the ground.
For the third year in a row, The Current student newspaper at The University of Missouri-St. Louis has won the highest award, Best in State, at the Missouri College Media Association conference. I was at the banquet Saturday night because I was enticed out of retirement to substitute for the person who usually reads the list of awards in some 28 categories. Best in State is the last one to be announced and the winner was covered by a strip that I had to remove from the sheet. I was almost speechless, and so proud of this staff that I had advised for 14 years, from August of 1994 through August of 2008.
Congratulations also to the officers of MCMA this year for a well-organized convention. Sarah Hale was a great president and her adviser, Jason Young, was great as MCMA adviser--a job I've done three times during those 14 years. It takes forbearance to guide and encourage young people to lead their loosely structured organization without grabbing the reins and doing it yourself in the guise of "showing" or "helping" them. This group did it right, and next year's president from CMSU will also do a commendable job, based on my conversation with him tonight.
Norm got to go the the dinner with me. Oh, and my former colleagues, the dear advisers whom I have loved working with for so long, who have inspired me on many fronts, all got together and made up an award for me, too, which was presented in surprising fashion: Adviser of the Year for 2008. I've received this award twice before, but this one meant a lot. It means that maybe I've said one thing or helped someone and that has made a difference somewhere. Just as The Current's strong showing says that they are continuing a legacy that is now in their hands. It was a good evening and a good farewell to my advising days. I am grateful.
The Current's online edition is found here if anyone wants to check them out.
In between rain showers, this week has been tulip week in St. Louis. Our own color magic tulips change hue a couple of times a day it seems, and they just glow in the front flower bed. The azaleas are showing color so maybe next week will be azalea week, although they will be competing with the lilacs, dogwoods and other beauties. Even the iris are starting to show some buds!
On Thursday we went to the visitation for Matt's uncle in DeSoto, a town about 50 miles south of here. We didn't return on Friday morning for his funeral but we know he was buried with military honors at Jefferson Barracks national cemetery. Matt and Doug are sitting with Matt's sister today as she has some more tests and continues to recover and gain some strength. We still don't know when she and baby Lily will get to go home but both of them seem to be getting excellent care. Several have written that they are in your prayers and please, keep praying for them.
Norm and I went to book club this morning. We'll put an update of our thoughts about the book soon on the Compton Reading blog, linked on the Compton Rising page. Tonight I am standing in for someone else and announcing the Missouri College Media student newspaper and yearbook awards at a banquet which will be held at St. Louis University. It will be a chance to see some colleagues I knew when I was active in advising student newspapers. Norm gets to attend, too. Tomorrow Norm is one of three instigators of Holy Humor Sunday, a new celebration for Compton Heights CC. If we all don't succumb to holy laughter, I'll have an update on the Compton Rising Blog about that, too, afterwards.
World, meet Lily, taking a nap on her uncle Matt's shoulder after a nice lunch yesterday. Baby is doing great and was even on TV on Easter as the featured Easter Baby at the hospital where she was born. It's easy to see why! Her mom is feeling much better today and we all hope for her continuing recovery. Lily will stay with mom at the hospital until Michelle is able to go home. Lily is one week old today.
In Spring, many things are pre- dictable, like the emer- gence of our lime green hosta plants. But some days, the agenda changes quickly.
Monday, Matt's sister Michelle had to have some extensive major surgery to repair damage that occurred during Lily's birth last Thursday. Norm and I spent some time in hospital waiting rooms with her parents, Karen and Gary, then we picked Matt up at the airport and delivered him to his sister's hospital room. Baby Lily will remain in the hospital nursery as long as Michelle is in the hospital--at least a week. Michelle is going to have a long recovery and will eventually need more surgery.
While we were having coffee and sandwiches in the hospital cafeteria on Monday with Karen and Gary, she got a call, not unexpected, that her brother, who had been on life support, had died. So now that family has two crises to get through. Our Doug is arriving this afternoon and we will meet him at the airport, too, and connect him with the rest of the family. There will be a visitation on Thursday and a funeral on Friday. We aren't sure yet how we are going to be of most help to these friends who are almost family, but we are in standby mode.
In between the comings and goings, we have gone to exercise or therapy, tried to keep up with some church business and prayed a lot. Prayers for this young family facing big challenges, and for our friends in their grief, are appreciated. Meanwhile, please excuse my blogging silence for a day or two.
Happy Easter to all. Yesterday we enjoyed sunshine; today was cloudy and another round of rain is due tonight. The weather is a little hard on the flowering plants, but we trust all of this water will be treasured sometime next summer! One of our redbuds seems arrested in mid bloom from recent cold nights, but the other one, above, is blooming well. In fact, this week could be called Redbud Week because so many are in bloom along roadsides and in parks, as well as neighborhoods.
Last Tuesday the sun was shining for a while and I was suddenly aware of just how green the grass is getting. New growth on established plants is coming up every day as well. Norm's Arch Mixture grass seed is responding well and filling in winter's bare spots.
Flowering plums are all over town this week as well. The fragrance is almost over powering when you pass one, as we did this one on our walk yesterday. A hopeful sign: bees were busy here and elsewhere.
The university campus has a nice grove of these light pink crab apples. This past week has also been crab apple week, but I've had a hard time taking pictures because of the rain.
This is the view from the car as we drove down Skinker Blvd. in North St. Louis on our way to church this morning. Both sides are lined with blooming crab apples that appear to be decades old. They have survived storms, drought and fireblight and still put on a show.
Our day began with getting up early to bake an egg/sausage/hashbrown casserole for the Easter Breakfast at church. The service was well attended and lively. We had all four babies in the service at the same time--a first. I've posted more about that on the Compton Rising blog if you want to see them.
And speaking of babies, congratulations to Michelle and Matt H. of our extended family on the birth of their daughter, Lilian Ella, who will be called Lily. She arrived on Thursday and we look forward to meeting here. Congratulations also to Doug and Matt (who is Michelle's brother,) who are now uncles to a very pretty little girl.
After cooking all morning (potato salad, deviled eggs, etc.) and napping all afternoon, Norm and I took a walk through part of St. Vincent Park and the Incarnate Word Academy grounds. A tidy cemetery with neat rows of cross-shaped headstones is the final resting place of nuns who served at Incarnate Word hospital and at Incarnate Word Academy, a high school for girls. The school is still going strong in our neighborhood. The hospital was sold to a corporation years ago, and the convent, located on the far south end of the UMSL South Campus, may not be a residence for the Sisters any longer. The cemetery is just off the St. Vincent Greenway bike and hiking trail.
Our walk also took us past the athletic fields, where I took the photos of the mystery sports team shown below. Part of the field was full of robins, at least 30 of them, standing vigil in the freshly mown green grass, waiting for any sign of dinner. All of my attempts at telephoto shots were a little blurry. But this robin obligingly stood still not far from us at the entrance to the cemetery above. An inch and a half of rain on Thursday and Friday saturated the ground and has brought up many earthworms for the robins to feast upon.
At the far south end of Bel Nor, where Normandie Avenue turns into Arlmont street, the village has created this little pocket park, complete with a gazebo, which is a nice place for quiet contemplation on a calm, warm day. The building in the background used to belong to the Incarnate Word sisters but it now houses offices for the University. About 15 years ago it housed the UMSL Honors College, when Doug was a member there.
Saturday afternoon Norm and I went for a walk in the sunshine. We came upon a couple of teams playing a sport we couldn't identify in St. Vincent Park.
At first we thought it might be lacrosse, but a check of sources reveals that lacrosse is played with a stick that has a net on it, and these players wielded something that looks like a wooden scoop on a stick that is shorter than a field hockey stick.
The ball was white, about the size of a baseball. Sometimes they hit it on the ground, or scooped and passed it, and sometimes they swung the stick like a bat and hit it a long ways toward the goal. There seemed to be about 13 or 14 players on the field for each team, and they guarded each other in pairs. At times the game resembled soccer, other times field hockey, other times croquet. The audience resembled any local St. Louis amateur league audience: folding chairs, coolers, budweiser, little kids, babies in strollers, dogs on leashes. As far as we can tell, the team in the green shirts won.
Anybody know what sport this is? Please leave a comment if you do.
A backyard hyacinth doesn't move very fast, and it lets me take its picture. Not so with the enchanting flock of Cedar Waxwings, about 20 of them, that visited our tall trees this afternoon while I was outside planting some flowers. I first became aware of a very high whistling going on above my head. Then I spied these medium sized birds with golden bellies perched in the oak, nibbling on bud casings. Then they took off for the cottonwood, where they nibbled on flower petals--40 feet up. No chance for a photo; I could barely keep them in the binoculars long enough to see their tell tale black bandit masks. Norm came home from buying more humus for the flower bed, just in time to see them take off to the south with a flash of golden undersides glinting in the sun. Although the bird books say they are common and stay here year-round, I rarely see Waxwings. It has been years since they descended on some back yard cedars in Ferguson to eat all the blue berries.
This was my second rare bird sighting this spring. At Mercy center in February when I was walking the labyrinth, I spied a ruby-crowned kinglet in some undergrowth near the path. I had never seen one in person before. I take seeing birds I have never seen before or see infrequently as a sign from the Great Spirit, but I'm not at all clear what messages they are bringing me.
We are both achy tonight. Norm spaded up the flower bed/planter in our new wall out front and added bags and bags of topsoil and humus to amend the clay the workmen put there. Then he dug up the Hostas we banked last winter when we knew the old wall would come down, and we replanted some of them in the new space. I started planting some violas that I just had to buy at the garden center yesterday, but I'm only half finished. Not sure what there is about yard work that can make a person feel over 80 in just a matter of a couple of hours. But we got it done before the next rains arrive tomorrow!
Here in the land between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, we measure spring in "weeks" that flowering trees are at their peak. Last week was Bradford Pear week. St. Louis is one of the most Bradford-infested places I have ever seen. They line avenues, get into power lines, march across cemetery grounds, on and on. This one was blooming outside the place I go for physical therapy on my neck. It looks just like a bride's bouquet. That was last week--the petals are fallen and the leaves are emerging now. This week is Redbud and Crab Apple week. I hope to get some decent photos of them soon.
Every gardener in these parts likes to see if she can beat the last frost date (which in Central Mo is around April 20, give or take a week.) About a month ago in a warm spell we planted two porch planter boxes with mesclun (mixed greens) and lettuce. They are coming along nicely and maybe in a couple more weeks will actually be big enough to adorn our salads! We are thinking about joining the Wayside Neighborhood Garden project which is about a half mile from our house. Plots are only $20 for a 5x10 foot space that has great sun and available water. We could put our tomato plants and maybe some peppers there, since neither do well in our shady yard. At least we are thinking about it.
Meanwhile, in the front beds, the tulips are showing color. These are from bulbs planted about 4 years ago called Color Magic. This year they all appear to be yellow but we will see.
When we planted the tulips we also planted grape hyacinths. Norm just loves them. There are several shades from dark blue to white. I thought this foliage was stray grass until the buds appeared. Good thing I left the weeder inside!
Our latest- blooming jonquil is one we also planted at the same time as the flowers above. They multiply and are starting to be showy from the street. Each bulb sends up several stems that have three flowers each, so they are like little bouquets in themselves. We took three vases of jonquils to our church on Palm Sunday and since it was cold and threatening flurries, they were like little rays of light on the sanctuary windowsills.
Last but not least, nestled at the far back of the back yard is this cluster of "butter and egg" jonquils that we moved from the Ferguson house to here 8 years ago. The ones in Ferguson were transplanted from my parents' back yard in Tulsa maybe 20 years ago. I am always in awe of the persistence and longevity of some plants, and how they can travel with us to a new place bringing along good memories and good "medicine" from other places we have been.
Down the street, there are two 20-foot tall trees that just glow red in the spring. Not surprising, they are red maples. This year I was too late to catch the flowers in detail but the emerging winged seeds on these red stems are a great reminder of all the future trees to come.
This weekend is an Ava weekend at our house, since Barb is vacationing in Florida. Ava brought her appetite, her cuddly presence on our laps, and her big red ball (the blue one went AWOL on a road trip this winter) to our house yesterday. The brand name of this toy is the Holey Roller, and it's available at PetSmart. Ava will play with it for hours, by herself or with a human. (In fact, Ava likes it so much she persuaded us to get a smaller one as a present for a certain miniature poodle when he arrives for an upcoming visit. She wants to get to know him better!)
It looks like a warm sunny day here in the heartland. We should get out and do something. But today is the only day this week we haven't had an appointment or a meeting or a task. Ava and Norm are taking a morning nap. I think I might go to Tai Chi at noon for the first time in months. Yesterday our friend Dave finished up the repairs to our basement steps and all we are waiting on now is for another friend to come and do some painting--after tax season is over.
I did notice a drop off of hits on the blog on April 1. Only my Mac using friends and family kept their usual rounds. I guess many of our regular visitors were offline because of the virus concerns. Or maybe dandelions aren't April Fools material. Anyway, if you are back, glad to see you!
We are so excited to discover that our flower beds have been magically supplied by Nature with a wonderfully useful plant. Not only do is golden flowers brighten the cloudiest day, but it provides an important nutritional benefit. Yes, Taraxacum officinale is now growing profusely at Arlmont Acres. Its edible leaves can substitute for the expensive greens found in grocery stores, helping to control the budget while making us healthier. And it's all free. Hooray for the lowly dandelion, which must be God's favorite flower, since He planted so many of them. And have an enjoyable April 1, everybody.
Ava is here for an extended stay while Barb attends to important business in KC and Omaha. We understand that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates may be involved, and hopefully lots of new business. She is quite a laid back dog, happy to sleep on your lap if you are in the recliner, not so happy about having to sleep in her bed instead of yours, and a self-starter when it comes to playing. I came home this afternoon, took Ava out, and started making a list for a grocery trip later in the afternoon. Ava got her favorite purple squeaky kong octopus out and started tossing it around to entertain herself. Quite by chance the camera was close when I caught her in a frequent pose of hers--lounging on the lowest step like it's her special carpeted banquette. She has been known to toss a ball up the stairs and let it roll down for amusement as well.
