Nocturne

Summer                                                                       Most Heat Moon

Quiet. Again. No big city noises. No fireworks. Just silence.

There is a time for talking and a time for not-talking. There is a time for being with and a time for being apart. There is a time for light and a time for dark.

I find solace in these evening hours, out here on the urban fringe. But on reflection the solace comes in its contrast to the also important activity of the day. If life were all quiet, all solace, then it would be indistinguishable from a cloistered cell and I chose long ago to live in the world, not apart from it.

So I am glad for the dark and I am glad for the light. I am glad for being apart and I’m glad for being with. I am glad for not-talking and I am glad for talking.

Chivalry

Summer                                                               Most Heat Moon

Heartland Cafe. Everything made in this St. Paul restaurant except the cheese, according to the waiter who took care of Mary and me this evening. If so, they slaughtered a cow and a pig to serve us since Mary had a pork chop and I had a steak. The food was, as it was on Valentine’s Day, excellent and local.

We got there at 6:20 pm and had the whole place to ourselves for a half an hour or more.

I discovered how mom and dad met tonight. I told Mary I didn’t know. She said mom was in uniform (as a WAC) and being harassed by men (also in uniform). This was in Chattanooga. Dad came along and stopped the harassment. They exchanged information, but she was headed overseas for her work with the Signal Corps first in Naples, then in Algiers. After a lengthy war time correspondence, which included Dad sending her blouses and other items from the U.S., they remet on Lookout Mountain and got engage.

And so, after 67 years, I learn how my parents happened to get together.

 

Topics

Summer                                                                 Most Heat Moon

Virtually nobody asked me how I pick a topic for Ancientrails. So, I’ll answer anyhow. Once in a while I have a clear idea like Latin, Kate in Colorado, thanks to Tom and Roxann, but just as often I sit down and stare at the screen until something comes.

The question of how I pick topics came to me just now and it’s really not an easy one to answer. There are certainly diary type entries that say this happened, that happened and I thought this. There are also entries that I think of as conceptual bread crumbs, a sort of Hansel and Gretel trail laid down my in the now self for my future self to follow. These can be about anything, but often they’re about politics, philosophy, religion, art. Matters on which my position may change, probably is changing, or even matters on which I don’t know what I think.

Of course there are holiday and Great Wheel driven posts since the ways we mark time as special, as sacred continues to fascinate me.  Events might trigger a post about aging, the third phase, the move to Colorado, family. The changing face of the gardening year also prompts posts, just as the changing seasons do.

What’s the point? On the macro level these are all bread crumbs of a sort, perhaps for grandkids or children, perhaps for myself or those who know me, perhaps for archivists. At the particular level it’s hard to say. Wandering thoughts, sort of a mental graffiti thrown up on the digital wall. And the keyboard, having writ, moves on.

Back Home Again, Upon the Wabash

Summer                                                            Most Heat Moon

Took my fellow Hoosier, sister Mary, out to International House of Pancakes, a chain redolent with Indiana memories. They even seem to hire Hoosier like waitresses, thin and cheerful, like blue-collar librarians. I had country fried steak and eggs, but Mary had a special, blueberry cannoli. An improbable breakfast item, but there it was and Mary liked it.

After IHOP, we drove through northern Anoka County, winding past wetlands, sod farms and older country homes to the Green Barn. There I picked up 6 bags of woodchips and loaded them in the RAV4 so I can complete the deck work today.

Northern Anoka County has that northwoods feel. In fact, the boreal forest reaches its southern most extension near here. This rural ambiance is not really found in Singapore, a modern city-state. Mary did say that there are farms in Singapore, farms raising organic vegetables for local grocers and restaurants.

Aurora

Summit                                                                   Most Heat Moon

I don’t do many of these, mostly because I rarely get up before 7:30 or so and that means dawn has come and gone. Today though, with a dog needing to go outside, I’m up. Once a certain amount of wakefulness crosses the barrier of consciousness, going back to sleep right away is a lost cause.

Mary and I are going out to breakfast, then up to the Green Barn for woodchips to finish off the deck. Beisswinger’s surprised me by not having much in the way of mulch, just some more expensive shredded bark, which was not what I needed.