That one jewel

It was open all the windows and enjoy the day day. Today was harvest the rest of the tomatoes day. They were transplanted late from the Aero garden and the box of them still looks like gooseberries on steroids. Then it was clean the raised bed day (but leave the cosmos for the bees). Then on the front porch it was trim, repot and bring in the begonias and geraniums day. Then it was make some bread day. It was watch the chickadees at the feeder day. And stand quietly trying to see what bird is singing in the ornamental pear tree day. It was admire the sunflowers day and read some poems day. It was stand in the sun day.

The palm held to the sky
holds the sun, that one jewel
that outlasts all others.

 

Rutabaga!

Most afternoons as I'm driving back from school I pass Randy's Rescue Ranch. Randy's Rescue Ranch is an animal sanctuary at the edge of town. As I go by I roll down my window and yell "RUTABAGA!!!" 

Rutabaga is a pig that lives at the ranch. The pig is a local star. I think the rescue ranch is pretty cool too. Just a little animal kindness today.

Rutabaga the Pig

A rumor of frost

I was on my way into my first class today, coming around the end of the Literary Arts building when I saw a bird walking into the pond. The pond sits at the back of the building between a parking lot and what was the main drive into campus. Usually, the geese are gathered back there, grazing or planning mayhem, but today an egret was moving slowly into the water. I stood and watched. It was a cool day; mist rose around the bird whose body glowed in the morning sun. I wanted to stay longer but needed to get upstairs to review my notes one more time before the latest quiz. Imagine how pleased I was to look back out there a few hours later and see an egret still pacing about.

 Last week during our ramble an owl came to rest above us on a streetlamp. Coyotes were speaking to one another across the many cul-de-sacs from the edge of town, and the first cool evening seemed to be settling in. For the past five or six days we’ve been able to open the windows in house and keep them open all day. Low temperatures and low humidity and a rumor of frost this weekend.

It reminds me that the world is still and calm in small doses.

Beautiful and light

The past few days while we’ve been out on our walk, out rambling about town, Monarchs have been floating by. It’s migration time. I get easily distracted as we go, watching the butterflies. And the squirrels hoarding acorns, the hawk hoarding squirrels and the one flat cat I’ve seen a couple of miles away from here. And then the one house on Vine always has cats hanging about so there is the cat fix. And we do have a new black cat in the neighborhood; she is definitely someone’s pet, and she is beautiful and shy.

We went from temperatures in the high 90’s on Wednesday and Thursday (add humidity ☹) to 60° on Friday. Ah. Today was a bit of a boomerang but next week it looks like Fall weather as we head toward October. Which is where I bring in the Saint Louis Cardinals baseball team, as they move toward October and post-season. Not that I watch baseball anymore or follow it very closely (the game is too slow, the season too long and there are too many teams. Mediocrity is rampant.). That’s not the important thing, the important thing is the team’s Albert Pujols. Yesterday in Los Angeles he hit career homerun number 700. In my record book this puts him in the number three spot for career homeruns. In the official record book, he’s at number four. (I don’t count Barry Bonds. He can have the number one spot with a giant performance enhancing asterisk! And for the record, Pete Rose should never be allowed in the Hall of Fame.) 

But, Albert Pujols, at 42, his final year, is having a great season. I will cheer for him every time. I was happy to see him get that hit. I loved his smile and the post-game interview with his family. 

Beautiful and light as a monarch.

(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez, USA TODAY Sports)

 

I imagine myself one of these orange
angels, rising on the first cool breeze
close along the tree’s crown where I say
nothing. I do not worry about my name
or feelings or even if I will make it the thousand
miles home. I’m a puzzle piece, content to fit
here. Here. In the sun my whole-body glows
with a music, there are a many songs today
covering the world. None matter
that much. As long as we journey
and sing, some of us will survive.

Look up

 Wordsworth wrote, 

 "I wandered lonely as a cloud
  That floats on high o'er vales and hills,"

A fitting couplet to repeat today on Cloud Appreciation Day. It's also the day to add a cloud shot to the Memory Cloud Atlas. A poet friend sent me the link and I have shared it as well.

I was slightly disappointed this morning when not a cloud was in sight. The only object that made me look up was the silly gaggle of geese that were landing on a building on campus. From the ground just their necks and heads were visible like reeds blowing in a gentle breeze and then much honking would arise and another one or two joined the rave. I knew my first class was on the third floor in an adjacent building so went up to see the geese across the way.

There is a perfectly good pond out there and people are just coming to class, wouldn't this be a good time to just get in the way and block access? Was the novelty of looking down without flying fascinating? I enjoyed pondering about them. 

As I was leaving after my last class I shot these clouds hanging around. 

Well, be safe. Look up. Ponder a new thing.

Ask the Chief

Some information on what Goat Locker means. "No other armed force has a rate or rank equivalent to that of the United States Navy or Coast Guard. Granted that all armed forces have two classes of service, enlisted and commissioned, however, the United States Navy and the Coast Guard have the distinction of having four (i.e., Enlisted, Bureau appointed CPO, Bureau appointed Warrant and Commissioned.) This makes the title "Chief" even more distinctive.

The "Chief" is required to be a fountain of wisdom, the ambassador of good will, and the authority on personnel relations as well as the technical expert. "Ask the Chief" is a household word in and out of the Navy and Coast Guard. Onboard boats, (submarines) ships (haze gray and underway), Naval Air Stations and Coast Guard Stations the quarters (berthing/lounge) area for Chief Petty Officers is referred to as "The Goat Locker", hence the name of this site."

So it was just natural to get the sign after we set up the Goat Locker in the basement.  Goat stands for Greatest of all Time.  (Don't tell anyone (Jerry) but the chief community can be a little "culty"...🙄)

This place

I was thinking today about “The Man in the Hole” with the wall-to-wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death. I was wondering if instead of the seemingly sad story of his isolation and aloneness if he had perhaps been chosen to be the face and last representative of a bygone time. Maybe he was chosen so that the rest of his people could be left alone. In the story of his death it says they found him covered in feathers which made me think of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, just the feather thing, the mystery (a good excuse to reread the story).

Anyway, school is going well. In geography I had to write a paper about whether there is an end to geography and does place matter. I had a great time answering these questions. Our reading example was a CNN story about the Babushkas of Chernobyl. A few years ago, I read Svetlana Alexivich’s book The Chernobyl Prayer: the Chronicles of the Future so the article was not surprising to me and something I had already thought a lot about. And does geography matter? I compared it to the question do libraries matter in the age of the Google. I may have thrown in Chief Joseph and my uncle Lowell. I definitely ended on a poetic note. I’ll see if the argument was effective next week when I get my grade.

Here are some things that have been going on around here: a wren was sunning like a cat, stretched out on the deck railing, rump in the sun.

Yesterday I had to rescue a small rabbit from the window well outside the Goat Locker (Jerry’s office). It’s quite deep and this is the second time a rabbit has been down there, a quick hop over the daylilies plunges you down. So, I played a benevolent Farmer McGregor and sent the bunny on its way.

Mist over the lawn, the soybean fields
moisture hanging in the air
enveloping morning. This is what
summer is like here. Isn’t 99% humidity rain?

Only cicadas sing now
their last love songs.
The birds are prepping
for journey – or winter.
Holding their voice
for other activities. Except the Blue Jay
loudly proclaiming: Here I am!
This is mine! Here I am!
Look at me, look at me!

This is where I had lunch on campus today.

Be safe, be kind be on the look out for lost animals and angels.