Old Leaves: A Surprise a Year Ago

A Year Ago we had a surprise dusting of snow. Here a post from January 29, 2022.

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Sheila and I had already gone upstairs and gotten ready for to retire for the evening when I noticed a video post on Facebook from our friend Leigh Callan of SNOW! Was she in Rome? A peek outside answered that question, so I redressed, bundled up, and walked out the front door to take some pictures. At 74 it is still a thrill to see SNOW!

I love the fact that my iPhone 11 has a camera that can take realistic picture in very low light. The lights of town, reflecting off the bottom of the snow clouds has always made an eerie sight that I often wished to capture over the years. But always before it would have taken special equipment and long exposures. Now -- easy peasy.

I love having four seasons; I'd really miss having a time of year when the leafy curtain drops away to give us a panorama of reflected light from the river.

I love living by the Oostanaula levee.  I walk on it most days. And from the levee directly behind my house I have a nice view of Rome's skyline, including our iconic City Clock.

Looking down into our back garden from the levee. I am trying to think of it as a "gahden" rather than a "yard" as I gradually work toward little or no mown lawn. But truth be told, it has been grievously ignored since last summer and is in dire need of sprucing.

Those are my footprints coming down the levee and through the arch.

It is s'posed to read: "Jan 28. 2022" 

The azaleas

The bottle tree protects the house from any mischievous river sprites that might come over the levee with devilish intent. The tradition is that spirits can not resist exploring inverted cobalt blue glass bottles and become ensnared by them.

Our neighbor Michael Ward sent us this picture he took of the house.

The Biscuit Prayer

I have seen the "Biscuit Prayer" before. I don't know who wrote it.  Thanks to our pastor Nanci Hicks for posting it again today on Facebook. I thought I'd store it right here for future reference. 

A pastor asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast.

"Lord, I hate buttermilk", the farmer began. The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wonder where this was going.

The farmer loudly proclaimed, "Lord, I hate lard." Now the pastor was growing concerned.

Without missing a beat, the farmer continued, "And Lord, you know I don't much care for raw white flour". The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn't the only one to feel uncomfortable.

Then the farmer added, "But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen."

Within that prayer there is great wisdom for all when it comes to complicated situations like we are experiencing in the world today.

Stay strong, my friends, because our LORD is mixing several things that we don't really care for, but something even better is going to come when HE is done with it. AMEN!

  -Author Unknown

 

PTSW: February 1

 

February 1

Somehow
it is uplifting to know
that somewhere
hereabouts today
I can count on
a precocious daffodil
raising its golden trumpet
in solo fanfare.

Rousing its fellows,
defying any frost
or snow
or ice
encrusting its petals,
it shouts:

"Persevere;
press on;
Spring will come!"

by Terrell Shaw

Mother and me and the daffodils, her last spring, 2021.  
I miss bringing jonquils to my Mother.

Participation

Pete has been an influence on me since my teens. He was always left of me in his politics but his heart was always in the right spot in my book. He was the same age as my father, born the same month in 1919. His concerts were always participatory events. I loved being able to sing along.  My storytelling tends to also be participatory. I love to have my audience join. in. After I tell a story I love to encourage from the listeners anecdotes, memories, or just conversation that the story elicits in them. Participation, how important that is in a republic. If the people do not understand their crucial participatory role the republic cannot endure.

Oh, Susannah! (and Ruth and Clemmie!)

Well after midnight I noticed an update to my shared albums and discovered these wonderful pictures of my grandchildren. It is very hard to be 2000 miles away during these early years of such dramatic growth and change and maturing. Look how our Susannah, supposed to be the baby, has become a little girl without notifying us. How I love these little creatures.

 

America at a Crossroads

 America is on the mend! Thank you Mr. President for your principled patriotic leadership.

Saturday Song: "Another Life" Lillian Shaw

I love to hear my daughters sing. Here Lillian sings "Another Life" from the musical Bridges of Madison County.

Vocals: Lillian Shaw | www.lillianshaw.me Accompaniment: Gingerbread Music (Gamble) | www.gingerbreadmusic.org Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown | www.jasonrobertbrown.com

I knew when we started out from Wilmore, Kentucky, that I would take an unscheduled side trip around Fort Mountain along the way to Atlanta. I wanted to ask a question. I wanted the right answer. I needed a little help and I thought the sound of Holly Creek splashing down the mountain, the smell of green pines, the majesty of the Cohutta...

We walked among the giant pines. She rested against one and I leaned in to kiss her, and asked my question.

She gave the right answer! Just one word expressed unreservedly, enthusiastically, beautifully.

That was 44 years ago today.

(This picture is a year or two later.)

BTW, Sheila reminded me a while ago that she was embarrassed to have agreed to marry me after we had been dating again for only a couple of months. That's why we waited through February and March to announce our intentions to friends and family. Of course I had made up my mind before I ever asked her out that fall. Matter of fact, in the late summer of seventy I had made a list -- actually wrote down a list!* -- of possibly available marriagable girls I had dated and ordered them according to their attractiveness to me in terms of intellect, beauty, personality, compatibility of beliefs, je ne sais quoi,.... and I found Sheila's name stayed right there at the top of the list. I was prepared to venture down a very nice list (IMO) if necessary, but my first choice said yes. I am a lucky man. 

As long as I am baring my sentimental soul, here is a bit of verse I wrote in the nineties about that choice:

I Suppose I Could Have Loved Jane

I suppose I could have loved Jane,**

And Lydia** often waxed wise and gay.

You are lovely, true — were others plain?

You laugh at my wit — so did they.

I long for your kiss and your touch —

But beauty, wit, passion are all around.

Others have kisses as sweet; and as much,

All and any, your charms abound.

Even now in age I see sometimes

A glance, a smile, a coy frown

And think my songs, my artful rhymes

Could win a youthful night in town.

Temptations beckon, the world's untrue —

Our promises keep. My world is you

*Further evidence that I am, indeed, brother to Janice Shaw Crouse, the Queen of Options. 

** Names have been changed to protect the rhyme and rhythm.

Old Leaves: Perseverence

 From just a year ago at Arrowhead Environmental Education Center....

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Perseverance

One of the joys of my little part-time job at Arrowhead Environmental Education Center during the last nine years has watching the perseverance of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. 

During those years I have never seen a beaver. They  are crepuscular critters; they get busy during morning and evening twilight, and generally avoid being out and about during daylight hours. I am rarely at Arrowhead at dawn or dusk.

I hasten to add that the toothy beasts have been seen by other humans; virtually every kindergarten class that visits has in its midst several keen-eyed youngsters who see beavers invisible to me!

Virtually every nature walk through our 335 acres reveals new evidence of the determination and hard work of these sturdy and persistent engineers. We see little piles of wooden shavings where they have downed saplings and sometimes bigger trees. We see sticks, freshly peeled of bark, atop lodges and dams. We see new dams, or repaired dams. We see the dark sawdust piles indicating beaver scat. 

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AN ASIDE:

As storyteller Doug Elliott would sing:

It starts with “S” and it ends with a “T.”

It comes out of you and it comes out of me.

I know what you're thinking but don’t call it that;

Let’s be scientific and call it “scat.”

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So to me, the outdoor educator, the beaver is a wonderful opportunity to teach about adaptations, habitat, keystone organisms, watersheds, and much more. Children and adults are just fascinated by these critters and their amazing ability to alter their environment to fit their needs.

Unfortunately, landowners, including some folks in the Department of Natural Resources, must deal with those changes to the environment that don't always harmonize with the needs of another organism -- Homo sapiens. In our particular case engineering by beavers can weaken or even flood roadways and drives, plug up human ponds and lakes, and obstruct human drainage systems.

So during my years at Arrowhead there has been an adversarial relationship between Mr. & Beaver and the DNR land management staff. Periodically the DNR folks haul out their end-loaders and Bobcats to destroy the infrastructure created by the beavers. I can't blame 'em. 

But still there's part of me that just has to cheer for the Beaver team in this never-ending game. 

Today as I toured the walk along Lovejoy creek and our upper wetland area, I noticed that Castor canadensis has scored a lot of runs in the latest inning of the contest. There must be five or six new, or newly renovated dams and one restored lodge. Each of the dams seems to raise the water level by anout 18 inches. The one farthest upstream is the primary dam that creates our upper wetland. The new dam is a greatly improved s-shaped structure that creates a pond that comes only inches from overflowing the gravel driveway.

Here are a couple of unrelated pictures and then some photos of the beavers recent work product...

One frequent stop on our nature walks was a Sycamore tree right on little Lovejoy Creek. It was not a large Sycamore, but was the largest tree in that area and made a nice place to talk about seed dispersal. And since most folks ID trees solely by leaves and rarely can ID a tree that has lost its leaves, I enjoyed teaching kids to identify this one by its "naked" bark and its "Christmas balls" that hang on all winter. I was very disappointed when the tree was drastically trimmed a year or so ago. Oh well. Those "Christmas balls" are still evident, just a mile high. 

Here's the whole thing.

The first evidence of the busy beavers ...

A more obvious new dam that effectively raises the water level more than a foot.

Another reconstructed and very effective dam.

Still another dam relocated from slightly downstream.

Finally is the main dam, the s-shaped dam that impounds lots of water for the primary pond and the home of Mr. & Mrs. Beaver and family.

The beavers really redesigned their primary dam. It is now both more compact, though still s-shaped, and built a little higher than before.

The old beaver lodge has been refurbished with freshly peeled sticks. No beavers have lived in this lodge for a couple of years.

This is our upper wetland looking upstream from the dam. You can see that the water level is only a few inches from the surface of the drive. 

The upper wetland has more water in it than I remember ever having before. This picture is looking downstream.

Thank you, Mr. President

I am so glad to have added my vote, and a good bit of legwork, to getting Joseph R. Biden elected President. He is the right man for this moment in history as is illustrated by his principled, wise, courageous leadership of the free world in the face of Putin's fascistic invasion of Ukraine.  His long experience.  His wise appointments. His patriotism. His  courage. His empathy. 

Yard Sign = Chrysalis?

Our friend Jeremy Smith loves to make art out of pumpkins and stumps and logs and, as it turns out, old political yard signs. We were pleased to donate a few of our signs to him and look what he did with 'em.

I don't know nothin' 'bout TikTok so I had to make screen captures to share some stills from his little Other Levels Studios video. 

 

Sean of the South & First Daffodils

Sheila and I enjoyed an evening in downtown Rome with our friends Lynelle and Stan Stewart. First we had a nice meal at Ana's by the River. It was our first time there. We knew we were off to a good evening when we found the only unoccupied parking spot on this busy street on a Saturday was directly in front of Ana's!
I enjoyed a very large serving of lasagna with garlic bread that was really good. (I'll be better tomorrow.) Everyone else seemed to like their meals as well. It was fun getting to know Lynelle and Stan a little better. Lynelle and I talked a lot about our time in Ellijay. She lived right on River Street -- on the Toggery side. Her family's dry goods store was on the opposite side closer to the Toggery. Although she is  younger than me we had some of the same teachers at Ellijay Elementary.
She and Stan had never been to the Desoto Theater before.
Sean Detrick's one man show was a hoot. Lots of music and stories. Music is about as close to magic as anything I know. It can unify a diverse group so quickly. It can rekindle memories from many decades ago instantly. During one part of the program Sean invited us to join him in singing several songs I haven't heard since Vacation Bible School days , like...

I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly o'er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes Sir!
I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes sir!
I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes sir!

We had parked near the Rotary Park on Sixth Avenue, and as we walked to the car after the concert we noticed... jonquils in bloom! My first of 2023!

 

Great Blue Resident

This Great Blue Heron seems to be a resident of the Mount Berry Trail ponds. I saw him in one swampy area and watched him till he flew. Then there he was again around the bend in the trail in the permanent pond near the trailhead. At least It think he's the same fellow. 

Sheila and I walked only about three-quarters of the way to the bypass and back. 

As we often do we used the walk to listen together to an audio book. We are re-listening to the Harry Potter books read by the amazing Jim Dale. We started this latest listen to the series on our cross country car trip over a year ago. We heard three of the books on the trip to California and back and often when we have a long drive together we hear another few chapters. It helps the miles to fly by. We are finally into the last volume: Harry Potter and the Death Hallows.

Usually on our walks, if we decide to listen to the HP books, Sheila lets me use one of her bluetooth ear pieces and she uses the other, but those have gotten kinda sketchy. They cut out on us frequently. So this time we just played it on her phone held between us. Passers-by got to marvel at the septuagenarian youngsters listening to wizarding battles and such.

Saturday Song: Eva Cassidy - Tall Trees In Georgia

Eva Cassidy blessed this earth for only three decades. I did not know she had lived till she was gone. How I wish she had left a larger trove of recordings. But how the recordings she left have blessed me.

Here's one...

MLK Weekend 2023 : Harmonies of Liberty

Many thanks to our local King Commission for their hard work year after year in planning and producing a very full weekend of activities to celebrate the principles of equality, non-violence, and justice taught by Martin Luther King Jr.   Two of our dear friends are its leaders, Mayor Sundai Stevenson, chair, and Alvin Jackson, vice chair.

Sheila and I especially enjoyed and were inspired by the ecumenical service on Sunday afternoon at First United Methodist Church. The music was moving and the message from the Rev. Dr. R.L. White was an eloquent and powerful retelling of the Joseph story. 

As the program closed that beautiful sanctuary reverberated with the united voices of all races and hues singing "We Shall Overcome," I had tears in my eyes. 

This morning Sheila and I headed down to the corner of Broad Street and First Avenue to join the throng waiting to stride up Broad Street in a commemorative march to remind ourselves and our neighbors of the brave struggle to end segregation and Jim Crow evil right here in our own hometown. We marched past buildings where I witnessed segregated water fountains and lunch counters in my own teen years. 

As march leader Alvin Jackson called on us to form the march Sheila and I fell in toward the front. 

There was a very large crowd this year. But there were many that we walk with almost every year like Wendy Davis (purple jacket), Jim Watkins (in the middle), Vincent Mendez (in the cap)...

Alvin Jackson has led this march for nearly four decades now. I am proud to have marched with him for about the last twenty of those years. 

We sang "We Shall Overcome" and other songs of the civil-rights struggle.

The march ended at the city auditorium where we took an opportunity to have a picture taken with Alvin Jackson.

Unrelated photo: On the way back down Broad we noticed this artwork by, I suspect, our friend Jeremy Smith. This takes a major portion of the front window of the V3 Magazine building. Jeremy uses spray "snow" to create this art. Ain't he something?

Here are three other posts made on this day in the past...

2006

2007

2021