interlude

Where does refreshment come from? For me, from sleeping in a place like this from which you can feel the night air and see the moon huge and glowing. In the morning the stars appear between tree branches and you can lie there in the soft breeze watching them grow fainter. The house is the house I grew up in, but the porch is new, built by a long-time friend. After experiencing it, none of us can quite believe we waited so long for this luxury! New requirement for my someday dream house: screened in porch. At least one.

The only disadvantage of sleeping out on the porch is that you get woken up by creatures like these. The white one is particularly raucous. I've never heard such a loud rooster! And he looks funny too, with an ugly naked head and neck but fluffy feather pantaloons growing over his legs and feet. Quite a character. The hens do lay, though. These are prettier and oh SO soft! I don't know what kind they are or where they came from, but they are the softest rabbits I've ever touched. One for each of the two local grandchildren. Wouldn't it be great to have grandparents with rabbits and chickens, if you were say 6 years old, and in that state of eager curiosity about the world...

After visiting the animals, you can rest in a place like this a truly lovely retreat, here shown in early fall exuberance. It's quite peaceful, in fact there's a pool that makes a soothing sound, when it hasn't been rearranged by raccoons during the night. Two fish live there: a white one and an orange one. They have survived several Ohio winters, and no-one knows quite how they do it. My Dad and I also saw a frog in there one afternoon. A big green one.

Since I was on vacation, I had time to notice things like this

and I learned that my Dad's favorites are these
Dad also told me that my Grandfather kept a Victory Garden, and always loved growing things. I didn't know that, and I wonder if that's where I get some of my insatiable desire to put seeds in the ground.

A few years ago our village (less than 5,000 people) made a Women's Park alongside the biketrail. The biketrail was built where the railroad tracks used to be and yes, I am old enough to remember the train coming through town. The whistle could be heard in my first grade classroom and sometimes on warm afternoons we'd be playing outside and wave to the caboose. It's a wonderful experience to wander through this little park, reading the paving stones. The beauty of living in a small town is that many of the names are recognizeable. And, this being a very unique and wonderful village, you might find a tile with the name of a nationally famous author next to one for a grandmother unknown outside the county.

I indulged in quite a bit of shopping, wow it was fun! Lots of colorful new clothes. The advantage of it being the end of summer is that they were all on sale; the disadvantage is that I might have to wait until next year to wear them. But at least I'll have something to look forward to. I also visited this tree
which was planted when I was... well, not yet 10 anyway. For a long long time it seemed to be a short tree, just about my size, and now all of a sudden! Being among all the flowers and fields and woods made me realize once again how much I love the countryside. It's easy to idealize a rural life, and I try hard not to do that; I know there are lots of problems with small town existence. I lived it for quite a while. Even so, I do find myself longing for more space and the smells of a place where healthy live things grow.

Not pictured, the most romantic canoe trip possible in Southwestern Ohio... late evening on a tiny lake fringed with trees. The sun a throbbing orange ball going down on one side, and a brilliant almost-full harvest moon coming up on the other. We stayed out paddling softly until it was fully dark.

Comments

[claudia]

Cool paving stone!