"Special Day" Today

About a dozen years ago, when our first grandchild, Michaela, moved to Rhinelander, we established "Special Day". One day a week. we'd drive to town and pick her up and spend the day doing fun things and bonding in a special seniors to toddler way. As four more grandchildren joined the brood, each was added to the fun and we've had the rare privilege to know and love the little ones and are now so proud to see them all blossom into very special people. Today we had the three younger ones and it was great. We planned halloween costumes, planted some perennials, picked some flowers that managed to avoid last week's frost, picked apples, watched some DVDs and played charades. The pictures show Grandpa and the kids picking Honey Crisp apples and the flower arrangements we made with the frost escaping flowers. Summer has transitioned to Fall and the joyful beat of the Earth's rhythm goes on. The dance goes on.

Freshening the Blog

Well, the old way of posting doesn't seem to motivate me to write so I thought I'd try more of a diary type - short and sweet and topical of the days here at Lakeside Gardens. Today it was a dark and blustery day but with the bluster came some much needed rain. The TV weatherman said that we just lived through the third dryest September ever up here and we're about a dozen inches of rain behind for the year. So it was joyful rain. I made my morning rounds of the grounds with a jaunty green umbrella and I could hear the vegetation slurping in the water and gasping long sighs as their thirst was finally quenched.

Underground Magic

My three sons write blogs. Their blogs are so much deeper than this epistle. They speak of gravity and timelessness and transmogrification and galaxies beyond ours and atoms, molecules and the wherefore, the why and the impossible when of existence. And today we will discuss the potato! I love the potato. It is a humble unlikely purveyor of life. It spends its days underground. It exists to bring life and carries within it a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals that provide our bodies with health and vitality. We had some leftover potatoes in our root cellar this late spring. They were shriveled and full of eyes that were sprouting. I planted them and soon forgot about them because they weren't in the garden but on the hillside and in the compost pile. Then one day I remembered to look for them and I was happy to see that they had grown to be nice plants but that the deer must have thought so too and they munched off their greenery. Then today as I went to aerate and water the compost heap, I decided to see if the potatoes had survived. Wow, it was fun digging them up and finding firm healthy food under the dirt! I see why potatoes helped the nation of Ireland survive the great famine. From a shriveled inch long piece of potato, comes a hundred times more food. In spite of weeds and neglect and lipsmacking deer, the stalwart veggie produced. I thank God for potatoes and all our forebears that have devised such delicious ways to partake of them. There are hashed browns and baked and parsley buttered and french fried, scalloped, au gratin and potato salad. Salut! P.S. that's a leprechaun I just happened to capture in the picture.

Reunion Time

This past weekend we attended the first gathering of the Mark and Agnes Scobey children and grandchildren. Mark and Agnes brought forth my two brothers, Mark, now 70, and Paul, now 69, and me, 67. Each of us have been married since the sixties and together we have ten children. Mark and Alice and all of their children live in Nebraska. Paul and Marianne and one of their two girls live near Milwaukee and the other daughter and family lives in Ohio. Bing and I are up here in the Northwoods where one son and his family live. Our oldest son and his two children live near Green Bay. And the middle son and his wife live in Portland, Or. When our neice put out the feeler e-mail early this Spring to see if anyone was interested in gathering at their house , every single one of the family units responded in the positive. Wow, I was really excited because that meant that the folks were willing to set aside the time and the money to travel from far and wide to meet and mingle and reacquaint. My giddy excitement stemmed from the deep deep family love that is forged by growing up with siblings. For better or for worse, you have started your life stories together. You've shared joys and sorrows, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the family home, values and personality traits. We three siblings last lived together in 1961, and have kept in touch through the last half century by snail mail, attending various weddings and funerals, sharing some holidays and vacations and more recently by the magic of computer communication and Facebook. We've raised our families as best we could, brought forth some kind, friendly, funny people and tried to live and love and learn. The reunion was great and it meant so much that the younger generation cared enough to be there. We shared old memories and made new ones. Thank you, God for family.

Cherries, Pea Pods. Blueberries and Death

Our garden is outstanding this year. It's 2 or 3 weeks behind but it's picture perfect. We think it's because we actually weeded it well, right from the start. It's one of the worst growing seasons in decades, weatherwise - cold, cold nights - cool, cool days and not much rain. But Bing has a pump in the lake, a hose up the hill and sprinklers placed just right - so the water has been ample. This week we're picking pea pods, baby beets, Romaine lettuce, kohlrabi, cherries and blueberries. We have another half of summer to go, so we think the other crops will come in.

I worked at church today on a funeral luncheon. The parish women have a system to help the family of a deceased member feed the mourners after the service and cemetery. The family can pick from a variety of entrees, salads, fruits, potato dishes, and cakes. We prepare the food, set up the tables, serve and then clean up. The family just pays for the food. Today we served, shredded turkey and gravy on rolls, scalloped potatoes, veggie trays and dips, cole slaw, fruit trays and marble cake. It's fun to work with the women and we eat together after the others are served. The families really appreciate it and it helps all of us feel closer.

I didn't know the deceased lady but I felt a closeness to her because she was 67, like me, she had 3 children, like me, and she and her husband owned a nusery and landscape business, so she must have loved plants and gardens and nature's bounty. It was an unexpected death. She just had a successful hip surgery and was in the recovery room talking to her husband and kids and said she wanted to nap. Later they couldn't wake her. She died. They did an autopsy but don't yet know the cause of death. It set me to thinking, which almost anything does, because I have an inquiring mind. 67 is just too young to go. I have just begun to understand so many things and each day I find so many more things I want to know and do, My faith tells me that JoAnn's, the deceased lady,) number was up and her spirit lives on but I do so hope my body and spirit live on and on here on Earth until I'm so tired that I need a rest. May she rest in peace.

Happy Fourth of July to You!

It's a nice holiday - smack dab in the midst of summer days. For workers throughout the United States, it brings with it an extra day to revel in the joys of summer. As with all holidays, food plays a big part - corn on the cob, strawberries, grilled meat and potato salad. Our town has a parade and fireworks as do most towns across the states. Parades are mainly fun for the participants and their families and we usually have skipped it unless children or grandchildren have wanted to go. One year, when Michaela was about five, she performed a karate display with her instructor throughout the parade route. Another year, Jamie and Kayla rode the truck with the water ski show performers, and so we went to those parades. This year the three local grandchildren revealed that their reason for wanting to go to the parade was to get the candy that the clowns throw. So, the clever parents bought some candy and a pinata and they'll have a party at home instead. Last night our Lake Association set off their annual fireworks display and it was great. It eliminated the need to go to town, mingle in a crowd, find a parking spot and a blanket spot. Instead we life jacketed the three little ones, sprayed with mosquito repellant and drove the pontoon boat out to a strategic location, anchored the boat and watched a spectacular sunset give way to a spectacular display of colors and sparkles and sizzles and booms. I've always thought that I didn't like the whole fireworks rituals but I really did enjoy the show and now I think it was just the hassle of the crowd, parking, etc.. It gets dark here about 9:30 pm now and we were back home a little after ten so it was about a half hour show. Another truly nice aspect of the gathering was that unlike the noisy frenetic movements of the boats and jet skis during the day, the hundred or hundred and fifty boats attending glided slowly and silently into place. After the show they, just as quietly glided away with happy holiday people soaking up the special memories they had just banked in their brains.

Happy Fourth of July to You!