Indian Summer

As long as I can remember, Indian Summer is what the old-timers called these hot days after a sharp frost.  Indian Summer is a temporary revival.  I like to think of it as Mother Nature giving us a second chance to enjoy the season.
 
Geography defines this time of year.  We who live in the the eastern and central United States have a lot of hardwood forests that put on a spectacular color exhibit.  Mother Nature opens her watercolor tray and mixes colors that blend into brilliant reds, oranges, rusts, yellows, browns, and golds.  It is a breathtaking time of year.  If you get a high from Nature like we do, well, this is the time of year to overdose.

And, that's exactly what we three gallivanters did yesterday.  We headed east to the secluded logging roads of a forest...one of our favorite placeS ever!  When this solitary gold leaf latched itself onto the windshield right in front of me, I figured it wanted its picture taken.

Whenever I see ferns, my mind flips back to childhood and remembers my mom's pet fern.  It stood like a leafy octopus on its special fern stand in the living room.  All households back then had fern stands for these big floppy green things that really never did anything except droop.

Midway through our drive, the hungries got to us, so hubby stopped at a tiny-town convenience store and bought us three plastic spoons and a quart of Blue Bunny I Do I Do Wedding Cake Ice Cream.  Omigod, it had strawberries, cake, and vanilla ice cream mixed together.  We sat on a picnic table along the Mighty M and had an Indian Summer picnic that rated right up there as one of our favorite picnicS ever!  The fuzzy one lapped up her portion from a margarine container that we keep in the glove compartment for just such times.

If you look close, you'll see one of the trail riders who, too, were taking advantage of this weather revival.  Outdoorsy ones were sightseeing, tenting, fishing, hiking, biking, riding horses, boating.....all with the thought that this just might be the last nice weekend of the season.

 It's refreshing to watch the pace slow down.  The horses leisurely walking through the trout stream, teaching their riders to take it slow.  When we're out on our day trips, we happen upon the friendliest people.  A group of 14 motorcycle riders stopped in one place we were, and one of the guys was taking a picture of the group.  Hubby right away offered to take the photo so the whole group could be on the picture.  They lined up their Harleys and lifted their ladies up on rocks in what had be an absolutely gorgeous photographic memory.

My bare feet had to be careful here not to slip on the mat of moss beneath them.  There was no way on this green earth that I would give up a chance to walk through these gentle Indian Summer waters. 

Ta-ta for today!

Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux (1863-1950)

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle,

and that is because the Power of the World
 always works in circles,

and everything and everything tries to be round.

In the old days all our power came to us from
 the sacred hoop of the nation
 and so long as the hoop was unbroken
 the people flourished.
  The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,

Native American Wheel

and the circle of the four quarters nourished it.
 The east gave peace and light,
 the south gave warmth,
the west gave rain,
and the north with its cold and mighty wind
 gave strength and endurance.
  This knowledge came to us from the
outer world with our religion.

Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.

the sky is round
 and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball

and so are all the stars.
  The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles,
 for theirs is the same religion as ours.

The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
The moon does the same and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle
 in their changing
 and always come back again to where they were.

The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves.
Our tepees were round like the nests of birds,
 and these were always set in a circle,
 the nation's hoop,

a nest of many nests,
where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.

October Wedding

Oh, what a purr-fect day for a wedding....sunny, breezy, leaf-strewn, and Indian Summer-y.  The Great Spirit is blessing all brides and grooms who are starting their lives together on this their wedding day.

The ceremony for one special couple begins at 2 o'clock, followed by a reception and dinner.  How I wish we could wrap up all the lessons we've learned together through the years of our marriage and give it to them as our gift!  I remember when we got married, we didn't have a clue what we were in for.  At 21, marriage looked like a soap opera, and we all know what soap operas are like.

Marriage is a give-and-take deal, with a mix of hammers and sugar cookies thrown in to keep everybody awake.  Both the guy and the gal are guaranteed of sad and difficult days while trying to save their ship from sinking.  We women are profoundly different than men, and both genders spend years struggling to figure the other one out, with absolutely not one ounce of success. 

Reaching our age and our stage, we look back with deep sighs and pats on the back for having successfully crossed all those bridges and climbed the many hills together.  There's a surprisingly sweet element to marriage that we're just now discovering for the first time in 44 years.  We've grown to be "best buds."  We rely on the other one more all the time.  Each of us has our strengths, and those strengths help fill the gaps for the other. We're finally finding out why men and women are so different.

If a couple wants to see their 50th wedding anniversary, the groom must always respect his bride, and the bride must always respect her groom.  Never allow the degrading and verbal bashing to start, because that's the first sign that the wine is turning to vinegar.

Eskimo Love Song

You are my husband, you are my wife

My feet shall run because of you

My feet dance because of you

My heart shall beat because of you

My mind thinks because of you

And I shall love, because of you.  

National Frappe Day

Frappe (pronounced 'frap') is a chilled or frozen drink.  It comes from the French word 'frapper,' which means to chill.  We usually think of frappe as a coffee drink, but it can also be made with fruit.

I came across Paula Dean's recipe for an Iced Mocha Frappe.  (I figure if Paula makes it, it's gotta be good!)

Step 1: In a pitcher, add 4 cups of brewed, hot coffee.
Step 2: To that, add 4 (1-ounce) packages of dry hot chocolate mix (3/4 cup mix) and 4 Tablespoons sugar.
Step 3: Stir until well combined.
Step 4: Pour the mixture into ice cube trays and freeze, covered, for at least 3 hours and up to 1 week.
Step 5:  Put the frozen cubes in a blender.  Add 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and puree until smooth.
Step 6:  Divide the Frappe into glasses and top with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.

Have a Happy Frappe!

Thank You, Steve Jobs

Life has no favorites, and that's evident by the untimely death of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Our heroes are taken first.

He is quoted as having said, "Life is an intelligent thing, that things aren't random."  The older I get, the more I agree.  Scores are evened, sooner or later.  After all these years, I now comfortably trust and rely on the Force that vigilantly tends to business, night and day, while we are preoccupied with our personal dramas.

Jobs struggled with difficult situations, like we all do.  But, he said, "I'd rather quit than change my core values."    Wow, that's a zinger!  Once we let go, or even just ease up, on our morals and our standards, we lose integrity and compromise our earthly mission. Maybe that's what America has done over the past twenty-five years.  We've loosened the reins, and the horses now are running wild, completely out of our control.  The generations before us knew that pleasure came after everything else was done.  It's sad to say, but that core value is being sorely compromised.  For America to be mired in the mess it's in right now, it's glaringly obvious that we have done something mighty backward.  I think all of us wish for a big eraser that would clean the slate and let us start over....with the core values our ancestors embraced.  

Jobs felt "We're here to put a dent in the Universe."  To leave our fingerprint.  We don't need to aspire to heights like he did.  All we need do is sprinkle and toss casual kindnesses to those we know and those we don't.

Steve's life taught him that "the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do."  His lifestyle was simple.  "He just didn't believe in having a lot of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected."  Restraint.  "It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much.....it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important."

Thank you, Steve Jobs, for the dent you made in our world.  You have left us with your honorable principles.  By following your core values, you created a venue for learning that wraps around the world and brings us all closer together.

Tree Planting

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."  ~Nelson Henderson

Young trees are vulnerable little souls, easily damaged by deer and other animals.  That's why the tree farmer puts these plastic sleeves around their tender trunks for protection.  The farmer has to periodically check to make sure the sleeves aren't too tight for the trunk as it grows.

The Sentimental Sally in me remembers the big elm tree that grew beside our old stone house on the farm.  Its roots were above ground, so I pretended the space in between the roots were separate rooms of my make-believe home where I entertained ladies in fancy dresses, serving them tea in my tin teacups that I pretended were shiny silver.  My tree was my space, and nobody bothered me there. 

Who doesn't love trees?  Squirrels use them as cupboards, birds build nests in them, kids climb on them, and dogs pee on them.  Everything on Earth that breathes depends on the oxygen they release into the air.  Trees add value to our property and provide place for us to lean back and relax when we grow weary.  Their silence nourishes our souls, and their perseverance and strength teaches us how to stand tall in all kinds of weather.

While hubby was checking out a fishing hole in one of our nearby rivers, I stayed in the car with the fuzzy one.  This big old tree was close by.  A tree fairy urged me to save the moment, and I obeyed.  Such a regal tree, out in the middle of nowhere.  But, in the tree's youth, it, too, was a slender and vulnerable bit of a thing. The years passed, it weathered harsh storms, and all the while its trunk grew wider and sturdier to sustain the weight of its growing responsibilities.  The tree fairy was trying to tell me something.  How silly of us human beings to judge ourselves through the eyes of vanity.  To the tree, a good foundation is critical.  Why should we be any different?

A Day on the Mighty Mississippi

Twenty-four hours ago we were loading the boat with fishing poles, tackle box and cooler.  The temperature was October outstanding, so we decided to hit the road and head for The Mighty Mississippi.

The waters of the Mighty M are low now, but we carefully squirmed our boat to back waters where we caught a nice bunch of bluegill and crappie.  Of course, our hooks and lines got snagged in the branches beneath the water, but that's one of the 'hangups' of fishing.  I just think it would have to be a hoot to see all the costly Cabela's lures dangling down there never to be used again!   

Our day on the river wasn't only about fishing. The flag reaching to the sky on top of this bluff speaks of public allegiance to America.  Not only does one see a sacred blend of the spiritual and the patriotic here, but feels it in the heart and soul.  It feels good....really good. 

Two barges and their tugboats were on the channel, so we slowed down to watch them go under a bridge and around a sharp river turn.

I could never understand why we call them 'tugboats' when they push and maneuver.  But, I come to find that tugboats were originally used to help sailing ships get into and out of harbors when the wind was weak or in the wrong direction. In order to do this, they had to tug.

We here in the Midwest take water transportation for granted because we're used to seeing barges go up and down the river moving our grain.  We forget its energy-efficient impact on our economy and environment.  A single barge holds as much cargo as 15 rail cars or 60 semi trailer trucks.  Statistics show that one barge can move one ton of cargo 576 miles on a gallon of fuel, while a truck can only move that ton 155 miles on one gallon.   

"The world has a thousand creeds, and never a one have I;

Not a church of my own, though a million spires are pointing the way on high.

But I float on the bosom of faith, that bears me along like a river.

And the lamp of my soul is alight with love for life, and the world, and the Giver."

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

What Would We Do Without Towels?

• The terry cloth bath towel dries and covers after we bathe.
• The colorful beach towel wipes sand off of us and gives us something to lay on. 
• The paper towel, the perforated one, is used once and thrown away.
• The 'good towels' aren't used, but are strictly for bathroom decor.
• The gym towel wipes sweat.
• Dish towels dry dishes.
• Tea towels dry expensive china tea sets.
• Bar towels assist the bartender in keeping the bar clean.
• Barbers use steamed towels before giving a shave.



Towel Animal

• Cruise ship workers create towel animals and leave them on the guests' freshly-made bed.
• Remember towel snapping as a kid?
• Women wrap towel turbans around their wet heads.
• A towel sling serves a sore arm.
• The boxer's towel, thrown in the ring, admits his defeat.
• Massage towels maintain modesty during  rub-downs.
• FYI:  Hotel towels now have RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags in them. 

Quick Slick Calculator Trick

456+654

258+852

159+951

753+357

741+369

147+963

789+321

987+123

Simple Celebration

History repeated itself. Yesterday's weather was exactly as it was in 1967.  Sunshine, cool air, blue skies, crisp leaves carpeting the ground.....loveliness everywhere.

Roses on an Amish farm

We filled our anniversary with a highway venture to the Amish country.  Pork tenderloins at a small cafe sounded appealing to both of us for lunch, and we splurged with mounds of crispy golden-brown french fries on the side.  We ordered 'em 'well done' cuz there's nothing less appetizing than limpy wimpy fries that refuse to dip into a puddle of ketchup.

Beauty of the Bluffs

"I wish they'd hurry up!"

Being it was Friday, we hit town-wide garage sales in one of the towns we passed through.......oooooh, did we have fun.  The fuzzy one went along, and she waited in the car while we scanned the sale tables and racks.  She's accustomed to the routine and doesn't put up a fuss.  Since she was a puppy, we've told her "we'll be right back," and she understands what that means.

We took New York Strips out of the freezer for supper, stopped at Kwik Star for baking potatoes, to have with stuffed acorn squash from our garden  Yowza, how good was that.  Today we are joining family for a special dining experience at a Japanese Restaurant to celebrate our anniversary, brother's anniversary, and niece's birthday.  October is starting out with fireworks!

I see the frost fairies were dancing during the night hours.  Nature keeps right on working at the easel while we snooze, creating surprises for us when we wake up.  Our morning is quiet.  I look out our front door and watch a single leaf float down from its parent tree.  It's difficult to imagine that parts of the world are at war right this minute.  I wish I could offer those suffering ones a slice of my morning's peace, but I shall offer a compassionate prayer instead.

"There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir,

We must rise and follow her.

When from every hill of flame,

She calls and calls each vagabond by name."

~William Bliss Carman