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Last week we spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Pere Marquette State Park lodge, about 40 miles from home on the Illinois River, north of its confluence with the Mississippi. It's become a tradition to go up there in January to enjoy the winter landscape, see eagles, relax by the fire and cure cabin fever.
This year there was about 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, and the river was partially frozen. This sunset above greeted us the first night. Also, the sliver of a new moon and Venus glowed in the branches of a sweet gum tree. (Venus is a barely visible dot just below the top edge of the photo. Try clicking to enlarge the image.)
The massive stone and timber lodge was built by the Civilian Conserva- tion Corps in 1933. The fireplace alone weighs 17 tons. The entire lodge was refurbished in the 1980s, and a new wing of motel-style rooms was added. This year, for the first time, we got to stay in the "old" original wing, reached by climbing the stairs at the right of the fireplace. The "life-size" (for a child at least) chess set is a signature of the lodge.
One feature of the renovation was a set of 4 tapestries that depict the plant and wildlife of the area, and the meeting of the rivers. They hang from the rafters of the lodge and are Very Heavy.
Because it was cold and we also lacked good snow boots, we spent a lot of time watching the river from the great hall. Here Norm is spying on a couple of eagles that perched on the far side of the river for most of the afternoon.
Norm also spied some unexpected river traffic. The Thomas E. Erickson pushes a tow of 12 or so barges downstream. The barges ride high, as if empty. Maybe they took salt to Chicago?
As I mentioned, we got to stay in the original part of the lodge, over the dining room wing, this time. Our room was delightful, with two walls of windows and no one next door to us. It was quiet and felt like a great place to read, knit, quilt or watch wildlife.
This is what our wing looks like from the outside. Our room is under the dormer on the section that comes out at a right angle from the dining wing. I think we were above part of the kitchen, or an old apartment for the head cook, maybe.
One view from our east window was the tip of the massive chimney of the fireplace in the great room. The sun's rays just caught it at sunset when the clouds thinned out.
Our north window looked out on the cabins and tree studded hills. A huge sycamore hosted cardinals, sparrows, juncos and some surprisingly musical starlings during our stay.
Our retreat of course finally had to end, and we drove home Friday noon noting how ice-packed the Mississippi is, all the way from Grafton to Alton. We saw eagles perched on the bluffs and floating on the ice floes. We walked through a flock of chattering juncos, chickadees, and titmice feeding in a ravine. We watched a great blue heron fish from a floating ice floe. Gulls, ducks, geese entertained us. We saw rabbit and deer and possum tracks. It was a quiet, restful retreat that let us experience sights and sounds we don't have every day. Same time next year?
On Wednesday morning, Jan. 28, we awoke to about 6 inches of snow, cold and sunny. The tops on the trash cans tell the story. This is the back yard from the back steps.
Our maple shows its bare branches against a welcome blue sky. It was about 13 degrees, wind chill about 4, when I took this picture.
Looks like we forgot to bring in the front porch furniture cushions when we brought in the plants! Well, they have snow cushions, now.
The wind sculpted the snow on the steps to our neighbor's deck. I hurried out to take a picture before Raymond and a friend arrived to scoop all of our walks and driveway. Boy, were we glad to see them.
The front step and mailbox are also snowed in. The footsteps belong to our snow shovelers, who were about to get to work.
Later on Wednesday afternoon we left on a winter retreat at one of our favorite places, Pere Marquette state park lodge on the Illinois River, just north of its confluence with the Mississippi at Grafton. I'll have pictures and an account of that trip after we get home and I can recharge the battery on our laptop! Meanwhile, stay warm, everyone.
A couple of weeks ago, my quilt guild held its annual January meeting quilt-a-thon for charity. For some reason, I lost my mind and volunteered to coordinate the event. It was a very cold night (almost 0 degrees F) and we had fewer members than usual, but we managed to finish and tie 4 crib size quilts and 3 that are between sofa throw and twin size.
Last year we donated more than 20 quilts to an agency called Voices for Children, which helps children in foster care have a voice about where they are sent by the courts. Since they often move from one foster home to another at short notice, sometimes everything they own fits in one large plastic bag. The director keeps a closet of colorful quilts and each child gets one to take along on this journey.
Another agency works with pregnant teens and helps them care for their babies after birth and get settled in the community, and some of our crib quilts will go to them. This year, we learned of a family of six that had been burned out of their home, losing almost all their possessions. Through the church where we meet, we have made a connection to donate 6 twin-size quilts to this family when they move into subsidized housing in about a month. So we have more stitching and tying to do! Some of us will meet on Saturday to work on finishing more quilts. It's a very satisfying project, one I enjoy every year.
After Christmas I put my newest quilt on our bed. It's a double Irish Chain that I started, um, about 1990. It's the last of three quilts that I made in classes taught by Phyllis Bennett, one of the founders of the Flower Valley Quilt Guild. The top had been finished for about a decade, but I didn't have time to hand quilt it and I haven't yet learned how to machine quilt. I found a group, the Spanish Lake Quilters, who quilt to benefit a non-profit civic organization. They did a wonderful job of hand quilting it in about 4 months. This quilt is lightweight, but very warm and just right for the cold nights we have had this January.
Every four years our country feels the stirring of new beginnings, and this year the sense of a crucial point in history is even more profound. I remember watching the inaugurals of John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. I've read about those of earlier presidents. I have to confess that I'm of that generation first inspired by Kennedy's "ask not" admonition, and I'm also the first to confess that my generation, the pre-boomers, eventually lapsed from idealism and bought stock in Lehmann Brothers to pad the retirement account--like millions of others. That is, I know that in the coming days, inspiration must meet pragmatism and that the forces of inertia, especially where our dear government is concerned, can begin to drag down the loftiest dreamers. After all, I grew up hearing all those priceless Will Rogers one-liners like "every time Congress makes a joke, it becomes a law." It's easier to be a pessimist than a dreamer.
But today, I'm standing with the dreamers. It feels almost like old times (think Class of '61) to hear rhetoric that lifts us above the ordinary fears of failure and the doubts about our direction. It gives me chills to see the Washington Mall, where Norm and I tramped around in the rain a little over a year ago, filled with people of every color and inclination who took buses, trains, Cadillacs and even mopeds from everywhere so they could be there and wave their flags wildly. At this point, I am ready to believe that as Americans, we can think of our neighbors as well as ourselves, defend our ideals of freedom, seek justice and love mercy as Hosea admonished us. The most important word in that three-word campaign slogan that has become a mantra for the next administration is the middle one: We.
May God bless our new president and his family, and humbly, let us pray that God will bless America.
We continue to have avian visitors from the suburban wild. This morning I was watering geraniums in the upstairs window when I saw a rust-colored feathery heap on the window ledge outside. With that color, size and ear tufts, it could only be an Eastern screech owl.
Later, when Norm went outside to warm up the car for an errand, he came in to get the camera. The owl had moved down to the stair landing window ledge (above photo) and was just looking at him. (A closeup of its fuzzy image is below.)
This morning the air temperature was about 6 degrees when I first spotted it outside. We assume it picked the ledges for their warmth. This old brick house does exude warmth in winter, as our natural gas bill attests.
We don't know if this visit is rare or if it has roosted on our house before in cold weather and we just didn't notice it. We are near a park that has some large great horned owls. Norm has heard owls calling early in the morning from down the street when he goes out to get the paper, and this may be one of them. Certainly owls hold a special place in Native American beliefs. Often, they are harbingers of bad or serious news, or warnings. We'll just have to wait and see if it returns, or if we hear it calling in the night.
One thing is certain, between the hawks and the owls, we shouldn't need to worry about small rodents!
Brr, it's cold outside, although even from the back window I can see tiny green shoots where the surprise lilies and daffodils are starting to peek through the soil in the garden. Silly plants. We are headed for the coldest weather in a decade, the weather people say, later this week. As in zero and below.
This is what last summer's geraniums looked like a week before Christmas, and most of them are still there today. It helps on cloudy, snowy, drizzly days to be able to look at them. And to think for a while I thought about not wintering them over!
Norm has been putting out acorns for the squirrels--to keep them off the sunflower seed feeder, mostly. This past fall there was a total acorn drought in our neighborhood. We had raked up a lot from the bumper crop in 2007 and stored them in a metal container in the garage, so now we can put out a squirrel buffet. When these are gone, they will have to subsist on sweet gum balls (of which there are loads) or else go back to raiding our feeders!
Well, here's a first for us. This afternoon, Norm was taking down the garland and bows and lights outdoors, and he said (as he came into the house all festooned in fake greenery) that he thought something had crashed in the garage. Maybe the side door blew open and hit the car.
He went back outside after depositing the greenery and was back immediately: "Judi, do you want to see something?" Now that's a question that's hard to avoid. "There's a hawk in our garage," he added.
I thought the dear man was losing it, but I grabbed the Olympus (gotta get something better than a 3x digital zoom!) and followed him to the driveway. Sure enough. A full grown red-tailed hawk was just sitting there next to Zip the Mazda. Norm said when he first saw it, it appeared a little stunned, and it just watched him as he walked up the driveway to within about 20 feet of it. As I tried to get close enough to photograph it, it got a little leery and shortly after the second picture, it spread its wings and took off, low, toward a tree two houses south.
Norm looked around inside and found a few marks in the dust on the window of the side door. Our best guess is that it was cruising for food (perhaps eyeing a squirrel enjoying the heated birdbath--blue cord goes to it--or even some of the small birds around the feeder) and miscalculated its glide, crashing into the garage. Of course, we'll never know, unless it happens again. Hawks are much more plentiful over the parks and other open land (cemeteries and golf course and airport) in our vicinity since the crow population was reduced by West Nile a few years ago. Supposedly they subsist on small rodents, but I think they also prey on small songbirds as well. I'd rather not see them hanging around my feeder, scaring all the cardinals, juncos, chickadees, wrens and other neat birds away. They can have all the English sparrows and starlings they want--it won't hurt their numbers! Not even the blue jay piped up to scold this surprise visitor.
But it has to be a special day when, in the midst of a metropolitan area of 2.2 million people, you can walk out to your garage and find a hawk sitting there, staring at you!
Before the Season closes, here are a few of the nativity scenes we have acquired over the years. I realized as I was looking at the photos that very few of them include Wise Men, who traditionally arrived on this day. The scene at right was my mother's, and it has three traditional kings and two camels, in addition to two shepherds, a sheep, a dog, a donkey, a cow, Joseph, Mary and the Babe. And an angel. All in a paperboard stable, purchased from Woolworths' in the 1950s. Mother added one or two new figures every year. The price marked on the base of the Big Shepherd, the last she bought, is 29 cents.
The first nativity that Norm and I acquired is this one, the three original figures of Joseph, Mary and the Child were found at a Christmas Market in the Rocky Mountains at Georgetown, Colorado, in 1970. I've had to touch up the gilt paint twice. We found the simple wood shelter at another shop, I don't remember where. Various small angels and other figures sometimes stop in for a look.
The three Mikasa china pieces were given to me by a church friend who collects nativities and has several hundred of them. The angels also came from women friends in my CWF circle.
We found this simple cedar cutout at a store in Kansas where we often stop on our trips to see the family out West. It is made by a man in Hays who has a developmental disability.
Years ago Norm found these clay figures from Peru at an interna- tional shop in St. Louis that specializes in fairly traded items from the developing world. These are just a few--more will be featured next year.
Just as the wise men returned home by another road than the one they came, we are getting ready to put away the outward signs of Christmas and look for the path we are supposed to travel this year. Thanks to our many friends and all of our family who have made the journey with us this far.
When I was writing my Christmas memories in ornaments over on Thursday's Child blog the other day, I forgot to include this picture. Handed down from my Granny McElyea to Mother to me is a small box containing some dozen glass ornaments, made in Germany, that predate WWI. They are in the shape of lanterns and bells. Although very fragile, they go on the tree every year because I remember them from a huge tree that filled the corner of my grandmother's L-shaped living room when I was a child. I've never seen anything like them anywhere else, in flea markets or antique stores.
Today's adventure was getting the garage door fixed. The company that installed it a couple of decades ago for the former owner is still in business, and had a technician at our door in a couple of hours after Norm called them. Last night the door kept refusing to stay down; it would just pop back up every time we tried to close it. The fix was simple; a dislocated hinge. We went ahead and had a full service done (since we know it had been at least 8 years since anyone looked at it) and it is amazingly quiet now. Good for a few more decades at least.
My cold is about gone and the sinus infection is reluctantly giving ground to an onslaught of a generic antibiotic my doctor prescribed last Friday. Unfortunately, my intestines are giving ground, too, but yogurt and acidophilous pills seem to have restored order and calm tonight. Once this next stretch of nasty weather (freezing drizzle tonight and in the morning) is past, I am looking forward to getting out of the house and hopefully doing some shopping. I need yarn and fabric!
A few days ago, niece Debbie in Hutchinson showed some of the Santas in her mother's collection on her blog. So even though it's the New Year, I thought I'd share these before I put them away. Sometime in the late 1950s or early '60s, my mother found these felt figures in a Christmas shop in Branson. She named the elf Elvee and the reindeer Rudolph. They appeared first of all each year, long before the tree and other decorations were put up. Elvee and Rudolph were the harbingers of Christmas. Now they are the same at my house. This year they joined a tiny tree on the windowsill on our stairway landing.
This year I put most of my Santas on the fireplace mantel, except for a few of them that decided to join Daddy's train on the piano. The second from left was a tray favor when my dad had back surgery, at Christmas, in 1963. Others came from craft shows. The one at right was a ceramic I painted in an Advent workshop in Colorado while Norm was in seminary.
The Santa riding the loon on the left is a souvenir from our vacation to Minnesota 8 years ago. Others came from craft shows, including the uncommon blue Santa at right.
At the center of the mantel is my mother's Santa scene that came out every year. The little house is thin cardboard. The reindeer are some kind of transparent horn-like material. The Santa is a second generation; the original one is lost. My dad made the thin cardboard sled when I was a little girl, and the bag of presents. But the reindeer, trees and house were already around when I was born.
Santa was always explained to me as the Spirit of Christmas--giving to others. I always limited my list to three wishes. After all, there were a lot of children in the world that he had to take care of.
I have more pictures and stories of family heirloom Christmas tree ornaments on this post on my other blog, Thursday's Child. You are invited to visit.
New Year's Eve Greetings! Not quite the post I had in mind but it's hard to concentrate with sneezing, coughing, fever and all that stuff. Norm and I hope everyone is having a great evening and we wish you a very Happy New Year in 2009, which isn't far from now in the Central Time Zone. I hope to write more tomorrow.
In the meantime, my resolutions for 2009 boil down to one thing, expressed in these three statements:
- Use the good silver.
- Eat dessert first.
- Get on the plane.
More later. Happy New Year,
Saturday was a wild day: tornado warnings, 70 degrees, two inches of rain running off frozen ground into flooding creeks and rivers... the whole drama. Through it all, our trusty greens and bows clung to their posts and stood ready to welcome anyone who came by.
On Sunday we attended church in the morning and our neighbor's open house at night. Not much happening in these last few days of the year as we attempt to focus on sorting out the details of 2008 in preparation for 2009. We will keep the 12 days of Christmas and not take decorations down or put treasures away until Epiphany, January 6. Or thereabouts.
The post-Christmas cold is one tradition I had hoped to leave behind this year. No luck there.
Somehow I missed posting on the second day of Christmas ...so much for end of the year resolutions! We were busy getting ready to have company, as the Dixons came over for dinner and we amused ourselves playing Apples to Apples, a game that Norm got for Christmas!
This year I was determined to get as many decorations as possible out, after being a minimalist for several years prior. Some of my Santas decided to join the display of trains, house and buses that my Dad made by hand during his long love affair with model making.
Daddy's trains top the piano all year long, and this fall I brought out the little house and the Greyhound buses he made. Then they became a Christmas train with the addition of Rudolph and some deer and trees and Santas from my collection.
This 27th of December sees both of us flirting with colds (this is like a re-run of a bad movie; last year I came down with a cold on the 26th. Ugh.) It also has us under tornado watch until noon. The temperature was 67 degrees at 8 a.m. Unseasonable. By late this afternoon we will be back in the 30s, average for this time of year. If we don't blow away, that is.
Greetings and Blessings to all on this bright Christmas morning in Missouri! Norm and I wish you joy, peace and above all, hope in what has been for many of us a stressful and trying season. The Love that came down at Christmas is with us always, if we will only take time to open our hearts and receive it.
On Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our church, and while some braved the cold to go caroling, Norm and I spent a pleasant hour at the Kreuger's, visiting with Larry's 95-year-old mom Ruth and Dwayne, their son, helping a bit with getting out the goodies to come. The carolers arrived and we all enjoyed hot chocolate and an assortment of calories that would make any holiday host or hostess envious. We drove home on dry streets and then watched a broadcast of the midnight mass from Rome, topped off with the Christmas program of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Deciding we couldn't out wait St. Nick, we tumbled into bed around 2 a.m.
We are having our traditional Christmas pancake breakfast this morning, after which we'll open a present or two that Santa seems to have left, despite the fact that our chimney is sealed up. Later we'll have dinner and if it warms up enough (it's 21F now) we will walk around the block. Tonight we'll drive through neighborhoods admiring everyone's Christmas light displays. Oh, and this afternoon, we'll work on our Christmas/New Year's letter to go to family and friends.
In short, we give thanks for our health, for our loving family and dear friends, for the electronic miracle that brings greetings on this little laptop machine from far and near. As Tiny Tim says at the conclusion of Dickens' venerable A Christmas Carol, may God bless us, every one!
Somewhere I have a booklet about Advent Celebrations and it says that in Sweden, I think, there's a custom of celebrating Dec. 23 as Little Christmas Eve. On that night the children who "just can't wait" get to open one present, and a special meal is served. We celebrated Little Christmas Eve watching ice turn to rain, about three-quarters of an inch worth, and escaping the gloom of a cloudy day (we even had thunder around noon) by vacuuming the upstairs (Norm) and baking Christmas cookies (me.) The activity put us in better spirits. Tomorrow night we will attend the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at our church; it's supposed to be in the upper 30s and dry for a change!
Part of our welcome display on the porch at this season involves these obviously silk poinsettias (real ones could not have survived the 5-degree night we had on Monday!) and some artificial pine roping and the cream can that Norm dug up on the old Williams homestead in Western Kansas some 20 years or longer ago, on one of those memorable drives across the prairie we took with Norm's dad. It has a couple of holes in it that Leslie said came from Norm's uncle Morrison using it for target practice. Anyway, it frequently holds a seasonal bouquet and adds a little interest to the front porch.
Today Norm and I went to book club (a photo of the group is on the Compton Cares blog) and then came home and decorated some more. These are the decorations Norm put up outside a week or so ago, when the weather was milder. I finally got a photo about mid day today, before the cold front hit. All evening the temperature has dropped and the wind is howling and rattling. Tomorrow the wind chill will stay below zero, and the "real" temperature will get only to 15 or 16. Happy First Day of Winter, everyone!
We are thrilled to hear that Walt is getting pain relief and hope it continues indefinitely. We are also getting all kinds of Christmas cards from family and friends, and yes, this year we will publish and mail the annual Christmas/New Year Holiday letter. Look for it around the end of the month. If you prefer to get an electronic version with all color photos, drop me a line or leave a comment and we'll send yours thataway.
Maybe it's the cold, or the dreary cloudy days, or the continual threat of ice, but it's hard for me to focus on getting ready for Christmas, and it's less than a week away. Today I did finish the inside tree and the Star is on top, thanks to Norm's longer arms. The Santas are on the mantel although some of them elected to join Daddy's train. I'll have photos this weekend. I'm still trying to clear some book case tops for the nativities, though. Still have 8 of them to place--somewhere. This photo is of our little Alberta Spruce in the back yard. I took it last Sunday while it was unseasonably warm, late in the afternoon.
Tomorrow we have book club, and with luck I'll also get some baking done. I've held off doing Christmas cookies until this weekend, so we wouldn't consume them all before we could share them at open houses and parties. I planned to make fudge, too, but first I have to see if cleaning the microwave will stop the annoying arcing that it began doing this evening while I cooked supper. Overnight last night, our freezing rain changed to rain and then to thunderstorms around 2 a.m. By 6 a.m. this morning the next cold front arrived with strong, gusty winds that blew down some of the red bows, the wind chime, etc. We had two brief power outages--annoying because then I just had to reset all of the clocks again. For a while the refrigerator worried me, but I shut it off completely for half an hour and then turned it on, and the compressor kicked right in. Whew! Of course, if it did conk out, we have a freezer in the basement and it's cold enough outside to preserve almost anything until spring.
Today I added a new link to the "Blogs I Read" list on the right sidebar. It's Adventures in Life, a blog by a young missionary couple in Haiti. They are serving on behalf of Global Missions of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church Disciples of Christ. Norm and I met them in September before they started their 4-year assignment. The musings of Patrick, who is teaching English and preparing to lecture to seminary students, and of Kim, a physician who is trying to survey the needs of the health system, are well-written and compelling. They are still struggling to learn Creole, but they are already deep in ministry in less than three months.
I realize the list is getting long, but the most recently updated rise to the top of the list. Four of these blogs are written by former students. Two are by family members. One is by a friend I last saw when we were both youth attending the same church in Tulsa, 50 or more years ago. And three of them I just found randomly on other people's blogs. All of them are interesting voices and usually well written. If you are so inclined, I think you might enjoy reading some of them from time to time.
This linking among bloggers is one of the phenomena of this form of publishing. Today Home Stories has been visited by about half a dozen people who followed a link in my signature when I left a comment on averyfineline.com. You just never know.
This picture was taken on Sunday afternoon, while it was still in the balmy 50s. Later that night the bottom fell out of the thermometer and we had freezing rain and sleet on Monday morning. Late Monday night we had a dusting of snow on top of the ice glaze, and this afternoon we had freezing drizzle. So I haven't been back outside to take more photos of our outside decorations.
Norm has been out, to the drugstore yesterday and to the bank today. We have been waiting for our extended warranty to pay the Chrysler service department so we can go pick up Gracie, who needed a new power steering pump. That was the source of the whining/growling noise. Hopefully we can retrieve our van tomorrow while it is forecast to be "dry" before rain comes in on Thursday.
Tonight we put most of the ornaments on our Christmas tree. There is still more decorating to do before the end of the week. But soon there will be even more pictures! We love to see that loyal family and friends are checking this blog daily. You know who you are. Thank you and may all of your holiday preparations and pre-Christmas events be merry.
Just as this photo of clematis seeds evolving from the white flowers of autumn, tonight we are evolving from early to mid winter. The wind is howling from the south, bringing a warm up to the 50s that will crash, forecasters say, tomorrow night and set us up for a dandy ice storm. We hope it won't be as serious as the storm of Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 2006 or the current one in New England.
We managed to do everything on our busy week to-do list but one, and we also added a few more. Tonight we decided not to fight the traffic for 15 miles or so to go to the chorale concert. We hope we'll catch them another time, closer to home. Ava is staying with us overnight while Barb is in Kansas City. She'll be home tomorrow sometime, ahead of the storm.
On Thursday morning I participated in a focus group discussion about prescription drugs for a marketing research firm. It was the first time I have done that, although I've heard of focus groups my whole adult life. Eleven people sat around a conference table for two hours answering questions about generic medications, their pharmacy plans, cost, concerns about safety, etc. A consensus emerged that seemed to mystify our leader (although he could have been pretending.) All of us said we trusted our doctors more than pharmacists, insurance companies or employers (in that order) to give us straight talk about effectiveness and also costs. I know I have anecdotal evidence about this: our internist told me at my last visit that I could probably get my generic prescriptions filled at a number of local chains for less than my pharmacy benefit company was charging me for a co-pay. He was right. I took my two generic prescriptions to one of them and paid only $25 for the 90-day supply for both, instead of the $53 my insurance would have charged me. It is a really wacky world out there. The experience was interesting because everyone was well informed and came from many situations. A self-employed family with three children at home. A man who had lost his job and whose individual risk pool policy had such a high deductible he couldn't afford drug benefits. A guy in a body brace who said he took 8 medications and only 4 of them had generic equivalents. A retired teacher whose two adult children, two grandchildren and an aunt had moved in with him and his wife because of the economy. In some ways it was like being on a jury, but it paid better. I left with a check for $90 for two hours of "work." And the research company, Focus Pointe Global, has already e-mailed me asking if I'd be interested in another upcoming group. Maybe I've found my retirement job?
Today we took Gracie the minivan to the shop because it has been making a mysterious growling whining noise for a couple of weeks. Sort of like a transmission whine but not quite. Of course, it failed to make the noise this morning. But the service writer suspected the power steering pump because his mother's 2005 Caravan had done the same thing. We left Gracie for a technician to check, and for an oil change. Later we got a call that the pump was indeed at fault. It will be Monday before they can get the part, get our extended warranty to confirm coverage, and fix it. That's OK. I think it will be covered, and that's a relief.
Tonight our church held an Advent Event that started with a chicken and dumpling supper, progressed into a story hour that included a Nativity Story book illustrated by an Australian artist, and had its grand finale in construction of "gingerbread" houses from graham crackers. Norm and I are clearly novices at this craft, but we were proud that our little house was still standing at the end of the evening and actually made it all the way home tonight. Now, if we can only keep Ava from sampling it this weekend! More gingerbread houses can be seen on the Compton Cares blog.
Why, you ask, is a picture of an African Violet the featured photo for today? Well, it's blooming now on the window sill above the sink, and it's a miniature violet, not more than three inches across, and I like it. Also, I didn't get outside to take pictures of the decorations Norm put up on our porch and railings Saturday, but I will do that this week. Meanwhile, the amaryllis I featured yesterday has put up stalk #5. I just noticed it this morning!
This afternoon we picked up Barb at the airport and she and Ava were reunited. We already miss Ava's patter and insistence on playing with the blue ball and the purple squeaky thingy. But we will surely have other chances.
I looked at the calendar and we have something to do every day and night this week! It seems like everyone wants to cram activities into the second week of December to avoid being "too close" to Christmas. At least we are going to be well fed:
- Monday: Tai Chi for me, water exercise for both of us, and an evening church budget meeting for me.
- Tuesday: Church-related meetings in the evening for each of us, going in different directions: Disciples Women circle for me, Soul Care for Norm. Oh, and it's supposed to be nasty, rain changing to snow. We'll have to stay tuned on that one.
- Wednesday: The UMSL retirees luncheon, water exercise for both of us, and a holiday party at a local restaurant with the water exercise bunch.
- Thursday: Norm volunteers at Isaiah 58 in the morning , Tai Chi for me, and the Advent Event at church in the evening features chicken and dumplings, followed by story telling, singing and gingerbread house building.
- Friday: lunch out with a friend from water exercise, and potluck dinner with the area Ministers and Significant Others group at a home in Wildwood.
- Saturday: a concert by the St. Louis Chamber Chorale at a church that is halfway to Tulsa from here (well, as far west in West County as you can go, anyway) --but we have heard their CDs and know one of the singers and we are looking forward to it.
Undoubtedly I have forgotten something. But if I don't blog very often, at least you'll know what we are up to! (Another answer to the question: what do retired people do all day? That headline is the most frequent search item that brings total strangers to this blog. I guess it's a question for a lot of people, but in Australia, England and Turkey? Who knew?)
Barb is on a business trip and Ava has been keeping us company for a few days. Since the last time she slept over, she has calmed down a little bit but she still wants a good solid play time in the evening. Most of the day she is contented to follow us around, or sleep, or accompany Norm on a walk over to the bicycle path in the park and back. She has figured out it's OK to go to bed when Norm does instead of waiting for me, and also that it's going to be Norm, not me, who throws on some clothes and lets her out of a morning. Early morning, almost before light. (Sunrise is at 7:10 at our longitude/latitude right now.) This dog apparently has an embedded microchip that goes off like an alarm clock at 6:50 a.m. CST every day. At least that's when she starts to wake us up. So in addition to being a pretty good playmate, couch throw and foot blanket, she's a reliable wake up call as well.
Our gaggle of amarylli continue to provide us with joy. These are additions to the lone stalk I pictured earlier. It amazes me to think about how persistent and long-lived some plants can be. These bulbs are descendants of one Mom Linville gave me more than 20 years ago. She had the ancestors of these flowers who knows how long? Norm remembers an amaryllis this color blooming in the south window [Norm says it wasn't the kitchen, so I stand corrected] on the farm when he was little, more than 60 years ago. It bears a strong resemblance to a plant I found blooming in the Climatron at Missouri Botanical Garden, a native of Brazil whose botanical name I can't find now that I'm looking for it. Many family members have these flowers, including Kay and Don, whose sun room is perfect for them.
Last week we spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Pere Marquette State Park lodge, about 40 miles from home on the Illinois River, north of its confluence with the Mississippi. It's become a tradition to go up there in January to enjoy the winter landscape, see eagles, relax by the fire and cure cabin fever.
This year there was about 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground, and the river was partially frozen. This sunset above greeted us the first night. Also, the sliver of a new moon and Venus glowed in the branches of a sweet gum tree. (Venus is a barely visible dot just below the top edge of the photo. Try clicking to enlarge the image.)
The massive stone and timber lodge was built by the Civilian Conserva- tion Corps in 1933. The fireplace alone weighs 17 tons. The entire lodge was refurbished in the 1980s, and a new wing of motel-style rooms was added. This year, for the first time, we got to stay in the "old" original wing, reached by climbing the stairs at the right of the fireplace. The "life-size" (for a child at least) chess set is a signature of the lodge.
One feature of the renovation was a set of 4 tapestries that depict the plant and wildlife of the area, and the meeting of the rivers. They hang from the rafters of the lodge and are Very Heavy.
Norm also spied some unexpected river traffic. The Thomas E. Erickson pushes a tow of 12 or so barges downstream. The barges ride high, as if empty. Maybe they took salt to Chicago?
As I mentioned, we got to stay in the original part of the lodge, over the dining room wing, this time. Our room was delightful, with two walls of windows and no one next door to us. It was quiet and felt like a great place to read, knit, quilt or watch wildlife.
This is what our wing looks like from the outside. Our room is under the dormer on the section that comes out at a right angle from the dining wing. I think we were above part of the kitchen, or an old apartment for the head cook, maybe.
One view from our east window was the tip of the massive chimney of the fireplace in the great room. The sun's rays just caught it at sunset when the clouds thinned out.
Our north window looked out on the cabins and tree studded hills. A huge sycamore hosted cardinals, sparrows, juncos and some surprisingly musical starlings during our stay.
