Kaymusings

Scott Dow carves animals from big chunks of tree trunks.

Scott Dow, who carves animals from hefty chunks of tree trunks, displayed his art on Memorial Day at Miracle Mountain Ranch.  These carvings fascinated me.  Scott uses a chain saw to carve out an animal, and then uses a torch to singe the wood, which gives it a tan or brown color.  I especially like the howling wolf.  My son was drawn to the little fox.  I say “little” but it was just little in comparison to the wolf.  I’m sure I couldn’t have lifted that fox.  Scott said that the fact that his carvings are so heavy enables an owner to use them as lawn ornaments without too much concern that they will be stolen.

Later, I saw Scott working at carving a bear out of a huge tree trunk.  He had sculpted a miniature bear to use as a model and kept referring to it as he worked his art.  Scott told me that he is a graduate of the art program at Edinboro University.  I really like his work.

Dark blue Iris with white accent.

This photo is another of my pictures taken in the Erie Cemetery at the end of May.  I have a good many blue Iris plants of my own but mine are a much lighter blue with accents of a more purple blue hue. They are very pretty but all of my Iris are the same color.  I talked to two of my friends about making a trade of some my blue Iris for some of their yellow ones, but the trade never went through.

This dark blue Iris really caught my eye.  The color is really rich.  I appreciate its beauty.

This picture was taken in Erie Cemetery in late May.  The robin was keeping an eye on me but she wasn’t very afraid of me.  I like how she’s walking in the strip of sunshine with the darker shadows just behind her and on her back.  There were quite a few robins in the cemetery that day.  There are a lot of trees, bushes and shrubs in this cemetery and it is an inviting place for the robins.  Robins in the cemetery lend an aspect of life to the somber quietness of the grave sites.

This mural is painted on the wall of our hospital cafeteria.  I had the pleasure of watching the artist doing some of the painting.  I really like the mural but I think it’s more special to me because I was able to watch the artist at work.  I’ve never done a mural.  I think with some instruction and help in getting it started, I should be able to a mural.  It might not be as nice as this one, but I think I could improve with practice.

Some time after the mural was finished the awning was put over the painting.  That really makes it neat.

Our Garden of Life crew goes to the cafeteria each Monday after we work in the garden.  We sit and talk while we sip coffee or lemonade.  I always spend a little time admiring the mural.

Today we went to the cemetery to check on the petunia we planted on Saturday.  You can’t see it here in the shadows but the petunia was doing okay.  The blooms from the rhododendron are spent now and dropped petals all over the ground.  It made me think of a carpet, a lovely, petal-bloom carpet.  It will be gone soon.

This is a sad place, but there is a kind of beauty here.  It’s beauty in unexpected places.  The rose-petal carpet is gone now, but it will be back next spring.

Now it’s the petunia and geraniums turn to blossom and grow.  We’ll go back often, to water and fertilize.

Before we left today, I deadheaded some geraniums and watered some plants that were in need of it.  It was too hard to walk past potted plants which needed a drink desperately and not fill their need.  It kept us a little longer, but it was satisfying to slake the thirst of the pretty little dahlias that were so dry.

Next time, I plan to take clippers to make deadheading a lot easier.

I have two favorite passages from the Hobbit.  One is about the road ahead, a poem.

The road goes ever on and on
Out from the gate where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow if I can.

I love this poem but I hate to travel.  However, this poem speaks to me about life.  Everyday brings us to a new opportunity for adventure.  Some days the road is like the one in this picture.  There it is ahead of me, open and straight.  I don’t see surprises in this picture.  Which isn’t to say there won’t be surprises.  I can’t see very far ahead in this picture, and who knows what might dash into the road from the wooded area at the side.  There is plenty of opportunity for surprises to enter the road in this picture.

Right now my life has settled into a busy, rather predictable routine.  I like routine, but I like good surprises.  And that brings me to the second of my favorite passages from the Hobbit, –another poem.

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by,
The time may come at last when I
Will take the hidden paths that run
East of the moon, west of the sun.

The secret gate intrigues me.  The idea of a special place, a road that I’ve never taken that I often have passed by without noticing before, really appeals to me.  Each day holds the suggestion that if I pay attention, if I look for it, I may notice that secret gate and a new path, a new opportunity, —and find it right here in my own home town area.

I’m ready to begin today’s journey.  The path, the road, is waiting for me.

I think everyone really likes to see trees and enjoys their special beauty.  I am no exception.

A good many years ago, an older friend told me as winter lingered on and on, “I am so longing to see the trees with leaves on again.  They are so much prettier with leaves on.”  I felt sad for her that she wasn’t able to enjoy the stark beauty of the leafless trees.  I enjoy both stages of the trees.

I don’t recall whether I told her how much I like to see the skeleton structure of the winter/spring trees.  I like to try to draw them.  Their intricate form intrigues me.

Of course, I still enjoy them when winter finally lets go and the leaves are formed on the trees.  I took the picture of this tree before the leaves started to bud out.  I was thinking that some day I will try to draw it.

But for now, I’m busy digging weeds out of the flower beds.

This is the time of the year when things are growing wildly and the wild things grow unbridled in my small bit of yard in front of my living room.  I especially enjoy seeing the bright blue of the forget-me-nots and I don’t mow this part of my lawn until the forget-me-nots are spent.  They don’t last that long.  I have mowed the rest of my lawn but I let this little patch of lawn become My Meadow until the wild flowers are done blooming.  I think it is so pretty this time of year.  But, every season has its own beauty.

Remembering my mom.

The other morning when I was preparing my oatmeal, I suddenly remembered an incident in my parents’ courtship that my mom told me about years ago.

It was early in their courtship and my dad came to the house rather early in the morning, and unexpectedly.  Mom had started to make oatmeal for breakfast. She had water boiling in a pot and had added salt, in anticipation of adding the oats.  When Dad came to the door, she got “addled.”  She was surprised to see him so early and unexpectedly.  She offered him a cup of coffee and he accepted. So she made coffee. Since she had water already boiling on the stove, she used that water to make the coffee.  She forgot all about the salt in the water.  As I remember, she said that Dad didn’t drink his coffee and she didn’t know why, until after he had gone and she then remembered that she had put salt in the water.  No wonder he didn’t want the coffee.

I loved thinking about my mom and dad in the early stage of their courtship when they would both be flustered and pleased to see each other early in the morning.  Mom was so eager to offer him a good cup of coffee and Dad was so reluctant to embarrass her by telling her it was too salty to drink.  They laughed about it later.  They truly loved each other and were always kind to each other.  I have good memories!

I hadn’t repainted these two bird feeders for a number of years.  Last week I gave them two coats of the white paint and this week I painted some decorative flowers on the sides.  Then I varnished them for a little additional protection from the weather.

I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors doing yard work.  I keep thinking that I’ll get back to more computer time, but as long as the weather is good for me to work outdoors, I really need to spend time getting the flower beds looking better. The flowers are doing their best but the weeds are doing their best, too.  Weeding and spading tires me out.

We’ve also started to work in the Hospice Garden of Life for this new season.  On Monday, we started to spread the new mulch.  We do this every spring.  Right now we can only do this in the places where we won’t be planting annuals.  After those flowers are planted, we will add the mulch in those areas, too.  We cleaned out under the bird feeders and put down new bark cloth and weed killer and then the new red wood mulch.  It took a lot of bending, as well as lifting and carrying the buckets of mulch.  We won’t plant until June 2.

We had frost here last night.  I didn’t think we were going to have it that cold here last night.  Soon we’ll be past the frosty mornings.