Yesterday I walked in the woods. My last attempt to enter Braeburn Marsh I was met with a phalanx of mosquitoes. Outnumbered my determination crumbled, I hastily returned to the house. This summer day I walked along the edge of the marsh paying attention, quietly absorbing the late summer wild flowers. Many things that…
Close enough …! I am thinking of the Blueberry Festival which we attended at the Windy Acres Farm in Geneva Sunday afternoon. The Festival was an immersive experience, as festivals must be. Present at a festival, once more I am reminded that I am not alone. Others are raising families, introducing children to the…
Perhaps you remember April 30, 1975, when NVA tanks rolled through the gates of the Presidential palace in Saigon? I was twenty six years old then. I still carry my draft card from that era in my wallet. That offensive put an end to our attempt to make Vietnam a client state, a colony…
Braeburn Forest Preserve and Marsh is a two minute walk from our house. I received report than our grand daughter who is twenty months old, created two works by the entryway to the park yesterday. When Finlea is permitted to walk supervised in the backyard she often heads for the park, the entryway of…
In summer, when school term responsibilities are lifted from children, they utilize “vacation” time for play. One universal form which play usually takes is to walk about, or better to run, while observing all manner of things which one encounters as one passes by. Running through the neighborhood to a friends house, walking briskly…
“Life” — is an expansive topic. I’ll write about it until I die. I am an expression of life on this planet. It is not as if I am an outsider, a disinterested observer. There are times when I think that our human form of life, we are social creatures after all, — is…
Friday brings a sultry summer morning. Perhaps this will be the beginning of an idyllic day, such as I remember, or believe that I remember from my childhood. Those were endless summers. My only responsibility was to return to the house by dark. Otherwise the day was entirely mine for play and for exploration. …
Every ending is a beginning. Time to depart, to say goodby to the house where we stayed, and to Lake Michigan. We have good memories of the past five days. There has been lots of laughter and some funny stories were told. I am satisfied to know the children will remember this time for…
It is paradoxical that I spend yet another day of enjoyment by the lake, knowing that Germany is slammed by flooding, with great loss of life, and devastation. The corona virus, the latest, hyper contagious variant is exponentially increasing infections by the day, with more deaths to follow. The obvious question comes to mind…
We decided to go blueberry picking. For the past five years that we’ve spent time in the St. Joseph area we’ve visited the Bumbleberry Acres Farm. Blueberry picking by comparison to strawberry picking is much to my liking. The ripened blueberrys grow on bushes which allow a standing upright position while picking the clusters…
