Our watershed assessment class recently visited Moore Memorial Park, north of campus, to study a pond on the property. I don't think I had ever paid much attention to the architecture of this shelter, but it took my breath away when I crested the hill from the parking lot and this behemoth structure appeared. My soils prof from Lakeside Lab taught me that we see what we know and the beauty of the barn has been on my radar since this summer.

The land for the park was bequeathed to the city from the Moore family estate. The property was originally a dairy farm which furnished milk for the family's downtown production facility back in the 40's. Down the hill to the southwest is a restored farm building with an adjoining silo. Along the lower edge of the property, next to Squaw Creek, is prairie, then woodland. My favorite design feature, other than the architecture that respects the history of this site, is a thick braid of Eastern White Pine that follows the slope of the land running down to the river. Even when the park is populated by picnickers, runners, joggers, or children playing on the play structure, one can escape into the quietude of this bosque of pine and disappear from the the rush and tumble of the world.

For the Week of September 3, 2009

I have tuned in to your yearning for resolution, O Seeker. I know that your heart fervently wants the riddles to run their course, the mysteries to be revealed, the uncertainties to be quelled. And I have ransacked my imagination in search of what consolation I might provide to appease your quest for neat, simple truths. But what I have concluded, O In-Between One, is that any solutions I might try to offer you would not only be fake, but also counterproductive. What you actually need, I suspect, are not answers to your urgent questions, but rather, better questions; more precisely formulated questions; more ruthlessly honest questions. Dig deeper, please. Open wider. Think fatter.

The Birds Are Passing Through...

This Early Morning After Dawn's First Light

How Much Wood...?

(click on this foto)

Summer's Last Calling

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for...Cigars?

Saturday afternoon I was up on the ladder painting on the back of the house, when off in the distance I could hear the tinkly, circus music from my childhood days. I tilted my head, trying to better identify the sound coming nearer. It dawned on me that what I was hearing was that calliope tune that announced the arrival of the ice cream truck!

I bounded off the ladder and ran to the front of the house. Sure enough, slowly making it way up Friley Road was the little white van filled with cold, frozen summer treats. My childhood favorite was the fudgesicle and it only cost 5 cents.

I grabbed my camera from the car and snapped this picture. When I looked up and down our street, all my neighbors were doing the same as me...standing on their front stoops with smiles on their faces. Several of the kids were chasing after the van, waving their money like hankies, trying to get the vendor's attention.

What the picture does not show clearly (altho you can see, along the edge of the lamp post, her hand lowered) is that the woman behind the wheel, selling mostly to children from this gaily decorated truck, was sporting a huge cigar. She was puffing away as she drove down our street. Whenever she spotted a kid with their parent running for the truck, she held it down low so no one could see her stogy.

I thought it odd to see this...not really something one would expect from the 'ice cream lady', huh?

Gift or Glitch

Cancer Horoscope for week of August 20, 2009

For better or worse, you are at least temporarily becoming more psychic. It could be a blessing, or it might be a bit of a burden. You may really enjoy having an enhanced ability to tune in to what people are thinking and feeling, and it could prove eminently useful. Knowing what's *really* on everyone's mind might give you a significant edge as you work to turn grand fantasies into well-grounded realities. But it also might tax your empathy or tempt you to ignore boundaries that should be upheld. I hope that by informing you of this situation, I have made it far more likely that your higher sensitivity will be a gift instead of a glitch.

The Great Escape

I snapped this foto the other day in the parking lot of the Fareway Store. I was in my car, buckled in, when I looked over to check for cars B4 backing out, and woah!. I just laughed out loud. I couldn't help but think that they were trying to figure out how to get that van started, so they could get the hell out of Dodge b4 their human returned. There are days I feel like that when I don't know how to turn that key that will open up the road to the rest of my life....

And lastly, The Wheel of Fortune

This card reads destiny, luck, and fidelity. Fortune, the winged goddess, sits blindfolded at center of her spinning wheel. She is surrounded by four men clinging to the wheel, each representing different life states...regnabo (Iwill reign), regno (I reign), regnavi (I have reigned), and sum sine regno (I am without reign).