• Tag Archives Anne

  • This, that

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc                                                                        Valentine Moon

    The snow remains.  16 as I woke up this morning.  There will be no early spring this year.  And I’m grateful for that.  I’m not ready to get out and do serious gardening.  Not yet.  I’ve got books to write.  Latin to translate.  Rooms to clear before I sleep.

    A bit of pruning, yeh.  That’s the right stuff for this season.

    Went with Kate to her annual physical so we could then go on to Chanhassen and have lunch with Anne, her sister.  She turns 64 this year.

    A long day.  Chanhassen lies almost 45 minutes to the south though it’s well within the metro area.  We often drive distances within the metro that would have required real planning when I was a kid.  A difference in perception and habits.


    📂This entry was posted in Family 📎and tagged

  • Congratulations, Mary Ellis

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                                            Waning Grandchildren Moon

    A big shout out to sister Mary.  She got her degree!  Dr. Mary Ellis.marygetsdegree670 How about that hat.  She owns all that regalia now.  This was in Singapore last week.

    Heard an interesting theory today on Favre’s ankle angst.  Allison’s husband thinks Favre has plans to come back after the first game of the season.  Why?  It’s against New Orleans.  New Orleans is the home team for the Mississippi fan boy.  Who knows?  I do know this.  Favre’s played football for many, many years.  At this point he knows his body very well and he knows/has known the impact of the ankle surgery.  In addition this is a guy who makes split second decisions on the field, about football.  He’s not indecisive.  My guess at this point is that his wife is leaning on him to quit.  He has enough money, a pick-up truck, a dog and a farm.  What more does a country boy need?

    Spoke with a docent who taught political science at U of Wisconsin in Eau Claire.  Neither one of us have a clue what’s going on in this election, either at the state or federal levels.  These are peculiar times in American politics, unlike any I have seen.  Right wing nutjobs in ascendancy within the Republican party.  An African-American President.  A recession that will not die and unemployment that will fall away.  Environmental catastrophes and congress can’t even consider a bill on climate change.  Health care legislation at the Federal level challenged at the state level.  Arizona comes out as a state of anti-immigrant bigots.  A California judge overturns prop 8 in California prohibiting gay marriage, a decision that will almost certainly send this lightning rod issue all the way to the Robert’s Supreme Court.  I know I missed a few things.  Who ever said politics were dull?

    Kate spent the day with her sister Anne going to quilt shops in the southwestern burbs.  She got home about 7:00 and went almost straight to bed.  Exhausting.

    Tomorrow more gardening and maybe bees.  Probably bees.  We’re getting set to order extracting equipment.  That means I gotta keep these lil buggers alive and producing for years to come.  Artemis Hives.


    📂This entry was posted in Asia Commentary on the news Family Politics Sport 📎and tagged

  • One Place Above All Others

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Imbolc       New Moon   (Moon of Winds)

    Kate’s making red velvet cupcakes for Anne’s birthday lunch tomorrow.  I finished cleaning out the hydroponics and will start later today planting huckleberry and mustard greens.  The leeks don’t have to go in the pot until next week or a bit after.

    When the arugula, pepper and lettuce plants came out of the pots, they had the aroma of the fresh earth.  It reminded me that in all the jobs I’ve ever had there was one place I liked above all the others:  the produce locker at Cox’s supermarket.  The combined scents of apples, pineapples, lemons, lettuce, radishes, oranges, grapes and other fruits and vegetables smelled as close to heaven as I can imagine.   There were sweet notes, tangy notes, but most of all there was the odor of life, not the odor of sanctity, which is roses, but the vital perfume of the plant world.  The root systems of these spent plants had some of that quality.

    So far today has been more manual labor than anything else.  I miss that and find it soothing.  Working with plants and the living earth has a powerful cleansing effect on me.


    📂This entry was posted in General 📎and tagged

  • Time Slows, Becomes Sacred

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    25  93%  26%  0mph  NNW bar 30.05 steady  windchill25  Yuletide

                            The Full Cold Moon

    Go now, Christ’s Mass has ended.  This day devoted, on the one hand, to the infant who would become a world changer, and, on the other, to a joyful orgy of celebration, much like the Roman Saturnalia, comes to an end in 45 minutes.  It came and went without the usual hullabaloo here and that seemed to keep the whole season leading up to today calmer, less stressful, especially for Kate.  A good thing.

    I have felt few tugs of nostalgia for a tree, presents, even the gathering of family which I now associate with birthdays and trips to Colorado and Thanksgiving more than with Christmas.  This all helps me refocus on the Yuletide and, now, on the Useless Days at the end of the year.

    Time continues to go slow, snow comes down, as it has all day; and, the long dark has 3 more days yet to run before the sun once again stays a bit longer, headed toward spring and the glories of summer.

    Kate and Anne and I ate dinner at Sofitel.

                    kate-and-anne-and-me600.jpg

    It was a pleasant way to spend a holiday meal.  It also meant Anne had to drive only half as far as when she comes to our house.   The top Kate wore came from Singapore via my sister Mary.  Mary’s hard at work right now putting together the literature review on her doctoral dissertation.  Not big fun, but necessary.


    📂This entry was posted in Faith and Spirituality 📎and tagged