It's Nice to Be Home!

I had class in Portland this week-end and came home to find this on the whiteboard in the garage when I opened the garage door.

Joyous Easter!

Me,Marc,Dad
Los Angeles, California
Easter 1955

Portland Anti-War Protest

While my Archives class was examining and reporting on archival collections at the Oregon Historical Society (see blog post in Adventures in Library School),an anti-war protest was going on right across the street in the Park blocks.
Here's an article about it from the Oregonian. I took these photos when we had our lunch break.

For My Fellow Bird Lovers

I love birds, especially the little woodland ones. If you love birds too, you may be interested in this, from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The naturalist John James Audubon attempted, in the 19th century, to paint every species of North American bird. He got through 435 of them before running out of time and money. Now the University of Pittsburgh Library System, with a little more time and money, has digitized all 435 of the images and mounted them online.

Only 120 sets of the large, hand-colored works — acknowledged as masterpieces of ornithology — are known to exist. Pitt’s Digital Research Library used a high-resolution scanner to create the digital set for the Web, along with reprints from Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, his five-volume text describing each of the birds.

Life in the Clouds

This article, When Life Goes Cloudy by evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson, discusses the idea of microbes--bacteria, algae, fungi, and other tiny organisms--living in clouds. The paper in Geophysical Research Letters which she is basing this post on went further, claiming that not only do microbes travel via clouds, but that some of them actually live there - growing, metabolizing, reproducing - until plummeting back to earth when the cloud rains. Some scientists don't believe clouds are stable enough to sustain life, but the idea that the apparently lifeless clouds over our heads contain fully functional complex microbial ecosystems is an intriguing one.

Life finds a way.

Happy St. David's Day!

The daffodils are not quite in full bloom and the weather today was rain, wind, and hail, which is not very spring-like, but we did have the traditional leek soup and then lemon cake and tea for dessert. It is traditional to wear either a daffodil or a small leek in your lapel today, although I did neither.

Advice to Myself

by Louise Erdrich, from Original Fire: Selected and New Poems

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

Daffodil Shoots

The daffodils are coming! The small, green shoots have poked up out of the ground and it looks like they'll be blooming just in time for Saint David's Day on March 1st. On that day, we'll have leek soup and roast chicken and lemon cake to celebrate and I'll put vases full of daffodils around the house. It won't quite be Spring, but it's a reminder that it'll soon be here.

When I see daffodils, I remember the lovely autumn day John and I put sacks full of daffodil bulbs in the little cart he'd made for his tractor and we sat baby Jack there too, on a blanket, and went down our long gravel driveway, planting hundreds of daffodils along both sides. What a sight that was when they bloomed in the Spring!

February's Almost Here!

February is one of my favorite months. For one thing it has Valentine's Day which doesn't require all of the rushed activities involved in the holidays from just a few months past. I can bake and decorate a few cupcakes or "fairy cakes" as I've seen them called in some British blogs. I can read romantic valentines. I can enjoy pink, important to me as someone who raised four sons. The tulips and daffodils are getting ready to bloom. And best of all, it's a short month and I know winter will soon be over and we'll have our glorious spring weather once again.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
~ Robert Frost

Baby, It's Gonna Be Really, Really Cold Outside!

Well, that's the prediction anyway although right now it's 43 degrees which isn't bad. And they're saying it'll be really, really cold for this part of the country which doesn't mean 40 degrees below, but temperatures in the mid-teens range and that it'll last about a week. Still, it's nothing to ignore and it's always prudent to make preparations.

We lived out in the country in an uninsulated, 150-year old house with only a wood stove as a heat source for 20 years so this is something I have experience with. The cars are gassed up, the anti-freeze and windshield fluids checked, and there are basic provisions including dried food, water, a good flashlight, extra gloves and hats and clothing plus a quilt and basic tools in each of them although both vehicles are pretty new and are well maintained. The one John will be driving to work early Monday morning will be garaged.

Our cell phones are fully charged. I'm making sure I'm caught up with the laundry. There's gas for the generator. All the flashlights have good batteries. There's plenty of propane for the portable heaters. There's wood for the fireplace. I've put a half dozen quilts in the bedroom in case we lose the electric at night.

We went shopping last night and made sure we had all the basic food staples--bread, milk, eggs, coffee, tea. I'm roasting a chicken for tonight's dinner and I can use the leftovers to make a chicken pot pie and then chicken noodle soup. I've got bread dough in the freezer, the ingredients to make a big pot of chili and a pan of cornbread, and there's still half a peach pie.

I don't have to worry about losing the water as we're on city water, not a well, but I have some potable water anyway. The vents were blocked at the beginning of winter and the outside pipes are insulated.

And I haven't forgotten my little song birds either. Their feeder has been filled with bird seeds. I have lots of books, my I-pod is charged up, and there's baskets of yarn to knit.

Bring it on! We're ready!

A.A. Milne (January 18, 1882 – January 31, 1956)

Today is the birthday of A.A.Milne, the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Now mind, he wasn't very happy at being remembered mainly for that as he thought of himself as a serious writer. In fact, he was quite bitter about it. And I could rant a bit about how the Disney Corporation ruined the books and made rather quite a mess of them, but then it was Milne's widow who sold them all the rights. The family later sued, a suit that went to the Supreme Court in 2006, but lost. I digress.

Today is A. A. Milne's birthday. When my sons were very small we would celebrate that day with a "Pooh Party". We'd make cookies which had honey as part of their ingredients and then eat them while I read one of the Pooh books. The stuffed Poohs were, of course, the guests of honor.

Here are some of my favorite quotations from the Winnie-the-Pooh books:

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.

Some people care too much, I think it's called love.

If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

I used to believe in forever . . . but forever was too good to be true.

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

Just a Bit Distracted

I'm supposed to be working on an assignment for my Archives class which involves the Library of Congress website but I've became distracted. Just a little bit.

Here are some children's books from the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room.

My favorite (so far) is Ballad of the Lost Hare/ By Margaret Sidney [pseud.]. Boston: D. Lothrop, c1882.

New Year Resolutions

Each New Year resolution is a small gift wrapped in shiny paper that we give ourselves and I want to chose mine carefully. My resolutions aren't always practical or concrete or measurable. They're certainly not easy.

1. Nurture serenity.
It doesn't mean to hide out from life and avoid problems but to deal with them as they come. It doesn't mean being arrogant or cold or unseeing or not being empathic, but exactly the opposite. It means being brave and patient and showing kindness.

2. Simplify.
After spending time at my in-laws house, a house crammed full of stuff everywhere you turn, where it's impossible to focus on anything because there is just too much, my resolution includes getting rid of things that I don't need, don't want, or will never use. There are some things I will keep for sentimental reasons, others because they're practical, but I will begin looking at the things in my house with a far more critical eye. I do not want to be in my eighties and spending most of the little time I have left on this earth taking care of inanimate objects while also trying to figure out how to get rid of them.
I also want to simplify my inner life. I have a tendency to make everything much too complex. I examine things too closely, try to determine all the possibilities beforehand and spend inordinate amounts of time making decisions about things which really aren't all that important. I do that partly because I dislike unpleasant surprises, have a tendency to be a perfectionist, and want to feel in control. I need to learn to let things go.

3. Pray
I pray in bits and pieces throughout my day. I don't use long and formal prayers except when I say the rosary, which I try to do daily. I pray when I'm driving, when I fold laundry, when I cut carrots for stew, and roll out pie dough. I pray when I sweep the kitchen and water flowers and hear the little birds singing.
I make prayer a natural part of my everyday life.

4. Expect Joy
Sometimes I miss the little pieces of joy that are all around me because I am just not paying attention.

5. Accept Grace
Accepting grace is far more difficult than it seems. Ann Lamott wrote: "(Grace) is unearned and gratuitous love; the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you; grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there."

The Weather Outside is Not at All Frightful!

A belated Merry Christmas! The weather reports indicated we might have some snow but it never materialized. Snow is rare here on Christmas Day. We are far more likely to get it in January or February. We got a little dusting and enough for John to put together a snowball, but that was all. Now it's raining. I went to the market and bought eggs and milk as well as noodles for the turkey noodle soup I'm making. I'm also baking a couple of loaves of bread. I made the pea soup from the last of the ham yesterday. I'll be sending boxes of food home with Owen, Gavin, and Hugh.

Tonight we are visiting with John's parents and going out for Chinese. Gavin and Hugh are heading home afterwards. Hugh has to go to work at 4 am tomorrow. John 's vacation is also over and he's back to work tomorrow as well. I'll be driving Owen and Sarah to Salem and then visiting with Merrialyce at the Oregon State library. I'll be interviewing her for an article I'm writing. Friday night Jack catches his flight to NYC. By the week-end it'll be just me and John once again and we can relax by the fireplace with tea and cookies and oranges.