Beginning to See a Pattern?

During our most recent trip to the Southwest, we discovered the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa, NM. It is an 81 ft deep, spring-fed artesian well that generates 3000 gallons of water per minute. Its year round temperature of 61 degrees has made it a favourite spot for divers. Blue Hole has been used as a watering spot for thousands of years. Route 66 passed right by the pool which was a welcome stop for weary travelers on their way to California during the dustbowl '30s.

A chance reading of local attractions on a trip to the Hill Country of Texas led to our discovery of Hamilton Pool. Even with directions it was a challenge to find this gorgeous oasis in Travis County. The pool began as an underground cavern thousands of years ago. Eventually the dome collapsed leaving this U-shaped grotto. Of the three pools pictured here, this is my favourite.

Blue Springs near Eureka Springs, Arkansas was a side trip on our way home from South Padre Island, TX. If there were time, I would stop at every park, mill, cave, spring, trail, historic site, nature preserve, waterfall, etc. that was along my path. But then we would never get home.

Blue Springs was one of those lucky stops we did make. The area around this 54 degree natural spring is more developed than the other two. The plantings and walkways are lovely additions although I prefer the naturalness of Hamilton Pool. There is an interpretive center as well as an arboretum.

The Cherokee people knew this spring as a healing stop during their forced removal to Oklahoma Territory on the Trail of Tears. A few miles up the road, on the border between Gateway, AR and Seligman, MO is a small natural spring and pool on private land. I first saw this farm back in the 70's. I fell in love with the stone house, stone barn and spring. It was unmarked back then, but a sign at the spring now identifies it, also, as a stop on the Trail of Tears.

Now that I recognize a pattern, I believe I will begin plotting side trips to blue pools, holes and springs around the country; trying to discover as many as I can.

February Reads

February is not only the shortest month of the year, it has the distinction of being the month during which I read the least number of books since?????
It also marked the first time I have not checked out books from the Gibson Memorial Library since joining. When I returned the last stack of January reads on February 2nd, I did not come home with a single library book. Don't think that didn't take will power!
Instead, I decided to read some of "my" books. My daughter and I had a discussion about this - how having books from the library makes reading those a priority, while books from our own library can be read 'anytime'.
So here is my short list of February reads: "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery was a xmas gift from son Mark. It is a French book translated by Alison Anderson. It received the following prizes in 2007: The Brive-La-Gaillarde Reader's Prize, the French Booksellers Association Prize, The Rotary International Prize (France) and The French Librarians' Prize for Culture. I don't know anything about those prizes, but it should be an indication of a worthwhile read.
Barbery, a professor of philosophy, uses two protagonists to tell her story. Renee is the 54 year old concierge of an elegant hotel in Paris. She is "short, ugly, plump and cantankerous". She does all she can to keep her secret: that she is a self taught person who furtively devours art, philosophy, music and Japanese culture. In other words, she is smart and doesn't want anyone to realize it.
Paloma is a twelve year old talented, precocious, also smart, girl who has decided to end her own life on her thirteenth birthday because of what she sees as life's futility. She is also hiding her extraordinary intelligence.
I think it is my love of philosophy that makes this book special. I read right through it the first time. The second time I will read it more slowly. There will be lots of underlining and writing in the margins.
"Amagansett" by Mark Mills is a book my friend Kristina passed on to me several years ago. Usually when she gives or recommends a book I read it right away. I don't know why this one languished so long. The setting is The Hamptons on Long Island in the years after WWII. I love to imagine what it was like when the residents were fishermen and working-class people before the wealthy began buying up the area for summer homes.
This book tells the story of one such fisherman and the murder he was caught up in when his net pulls in the body of a beautiful young woman from one of those summer homes. Mills' descriptions help me imagine what the area was like before development.
I love it when 70-year old people publish their first novels and they are hits. (Makes be believe there is still hope.) Alan Bradley says he was writing another book when eleven year old Flavia de Luce hijacked the story and it became "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie".
Flavia is the youngest of three daughters being raised by their single father in 1950 England. She is an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. When she discovers a dying man in the garden of her family estate, the once grand mansion of Buckshaw, she is puzzled by his last word: "Vale".
Her father is arrested, charged with murder and hauled off to gaol. It is up to Flavia to discover the real murderer and save her father.
Do I still remember being 10 and 11 in the 1950's? Do I still remember imagining being able to set wrongs right and save the day? You betcha'. Thank goodness Bradley's second Flavia book, "The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag" is to come out this month. I just hope Mr. Bradley lives a good long life and we have a whole series of Flavia de Luce mysteries.
My fourth February read was a Patricia Cornwell, Kay Scarpetta mystery: "Black Notice". It was a beat-up paperback I bought at the library's used book sale for just the purpose it served - a road trip book. I've read a few other Scarpetta mysteries. They are what they are: well written, entertaining for we forensics junkies and easy to read. I enjoyed the trip to France to Interpol and the Paris morgue where we met Scarpetta's counterpart and learned they do things a whole lot differently in Paris. I finished the book while at Lorrie's which is where I left it. Seems she is a forensics junkie, too.
Finally, I read Ian Rankin's "A Question of Blood". Dear John Rebus is nearing the end of his career in this one. (I have since read his final book - unless Rankin changes his mind.) I love Rankin's writing and I love John Rebus. He is such a flawed maverick kind of hero. His irreverence kind of reminds me of 'House' and 'Inspector Morse'.
In this mystery, Rebus is under suspicion of murdering his partner's tormentor when two students are killed and one injured in a random shooting at a private school. Rebus dives into the school shooting case only to discover he is related to one of the victims.
Rankin's plot development, red herrings and glimpses into his characters' private lives make for one good mystery book. The Edinburgh settings of the John Rebus books adds to my enjoyment of them.
And that's it. My very short February reading list. Being on the road - on vacation - for 10 of those days contributed to the brevity, I'm sure. March has already begun with a trip to the library......

"Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona ---"

It has been two long days of driving for these old folks - 650 miles each day. Started off this morning driving in dense fog. By the time we got to New Mexico, that had lifted some. Finally burned off and we drove in some sunshine before hitting snow showers in AZ. Not the forecast 6-10 inches of snow. Thank goodness.
Saw several herds of antelope. Only other wildlife was huge ravens. Didn't mention the baby calves we saw in TX yesterday. They were so cute as only baby calves can be. One little white faced black one romping and kicking up his heels.
Now I'm whirlpooled, showered and relaxed. Went to sleep too early last night and woke up at 5:30. Going to try to stay awake later tonite but doubt that happens.
We'll be at Lorrie & Kevin's by tomorrow afternoon. Hope they'll understand when all I want to do is mellow out.

"Amarillo by Morning....."

We got out of town early enough this morning - 7:30. There was some very light moisture in the air. I wanted to drive first because it looked like we might be in freezing rain by Maryville. Ha! I was driving in snow by the time we got to Clearfield. On Hwy 2 east of Bedford it was almost a white out. From Maryville to St. Joe we were in and out of snow. After St. Joe it was mostly heavy rain all the way past Topeka. Once we made it to Oklahoma it was mostly dry but cloudy. We didn't see sunshine until western OK. Yay! Sunshine.
We have stopped for the night in Shamrock TX, so we should definitely see Amarillo in the morning. The plan is to stay on I-40 until Flagstaff then head south to Phoenix. Tonight's weather channel tells us Flagstaff is to get 6-10 inches of snow. I thought we were leaving that behind!
In the meantime, Kari is talking about gardening this weekend in Portland. No wonder. They just showed the temp there and it is 55. Maybe we should have headed NW instead of SW? Should we duck south at Albuquerque tomorrow or stay on 40 to Flagstaff? Stay tuned.
Good news is that Shamrock now has some nice new hotels to choose from instead of the very old one when we were here last time.

"Your Happiness Lies Within"

I remember my Mom telling me, "Your happiness lies within you" when I was only twenty years old. I thought I understood what she was saying, but I didn't know how to get there. I was still relying on outside things to make me happy - more money, the right man, a new car, a different job. I had yet to learn what contentment was.
Perhaps age has something to do with being happy. We want so much when we are younger. When we are older, we want/need less. This was proven to me when I purged at least three-fourths of my 'stuff' before moving to Creston. I am so much happier without that baggage. I love having cupboards and closets that still have room. I did not/do not need five sets of dishes and every item of clothing I had bought in the last 25 years.
There is an expression about "finding your inner child" which has some truth to it. I have discovered that some of what makes me feel happy today are the same things that I enjoyed in childhood. I distinctly remember a time in my late 30's when I was at Mom's, possibly when we were doing the chores when her hand was hurt. I had started the pump to fill the tank and went out to check on it. It was early morning, there was a light rain falling. The tank wasn't quite full so I stood there watching and waiting for it to fill. I was absolutely overcome with a feeling of such immense joy just standing there in the rain. I could trace it back to playing in the rain as a child.
Our middle years are so crammed with work and responsibility it is hard to carve out time for oneself. Which is probably why it is easier to be happy as we age - we have time for ourselves. For me, being outside in nature brings the most contentment.
I hope all of you can find your own "happiness from within".

The Twins

This has always been my favourite picture of my brother Ron, his wife, Ruthie and their twins when they were babies. Andrew is on the left, Lorrie on the right. This was taken in the east pasture of our home farm almost 36 years ago. We were all so happy when these two little ones joined the family.

Lorrie grew up, got married and had twins of her own. This picture of Aiden and Erick with Great Grandma Ruth was taken in November of 2003 shortly before Mom died.

It has been quite awhile since I've seen Aiden & Erick and their little brother Carston. That is going to be remedied soon as we are going to spend a couple of days with them in AZ next week. I can hardly wait. Sunshine and 70's and family - a winning combination.

I don't know what the odds are of a twin having twins. I've heard that twins run in families. The only ones I know of in our family were on Dad's side. His maternal uncle and wife had twins as did the daughter of another of Dad's maternal uncles and wife.

I remember how OLD my great aunts seemed to me when I was a kid. I wonder if Aiden & Erick & Carston will see me that way.

B & R Painting Plus

When Kari, Preston and I moved back to West Des Moines in August, 1984, it was a very scary deal. I rented an apartment at Normandy Terrace on the phone. I had very little money saved and no job. We borrowed a pickup and horse trailer to move all our earthly goods. Well, almost all. We stored some things in Mom's corn crib and she agreed to keep our dog for us.
The kids started school and I started job hunting. I finally got a position as secretary/bookkeeper for a small printing company. The pay was only $200 a week - hardly enough to pay our apartment rent. It was obvious I was going to have to find a higher paying job or another part-time job.
After awhile I got acquainted with the other employees. One of the guys worked on weekends painting for a man who owned several office buildings. I finally asked Chuck if he could get me a job painting, too. I told him I had done a lot of painting, papering, cleaning, etc. where I came from. Luckily, Alan Z. said he would give me a trial so the next weekend I met Chuck at the building Mr. Z was currently updating. He had just purchased twin office buildings on Linden St. near downtown.
I had always considered myself a very neat painter - not a perfectionist - but nearly so. I had no idea what perfection was until I painted for Alan Z. He would come in in the morning, tell us what he wanted done and leave us to do it. Later he would come back and check our work. There could not be so much as a drop of paint on the woodwork or a run in the paint on the wall. But the pay was good.
When Bud moved to WDM to live with us, (25 years ago tomorrow) he found some temporary work through Manpower, but nothing full time. So he started painting with Chuck & me on weekends. By then Mr. Z had bought a large building in Highland Park. We met him there on Saturday morning. He came in and said, "Now boys and girls, here's what we're going to do." "WE??"
Eventually I found a better accounting job at Wright Tree Service. And with Bud working and helping pay the rent, things weren't so tight. At some point we gave up working for Alan and started our own company: "B & R Painting Plus".
There's a house at 22nd & Ashworth in which we painted every room. I still remember taking wallpaper off the walls so we could paint. What a job!
I think the last official job B & R did was wall papering a kitchen in one of the Normandy Terrace apartments. What should have been an easy three or four hour job took all day. The paper the woman chose had a pattern of squares which I was determined to make match up perfectly (even though she told me I didn't have to).
Since then I've only painted and papered for myself or family or friends. Whenever I do, I am reminded the next day that it's a young person's game. I'm going to tackle the guest bedroom this spring. But I'm taking my own sweet time doing it.