Sunday Passage, May 25, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

It is early Sunday morning and my front porch is covered in sun and shadow from the surrounding bushes that I just can’t cut down. I love this time of day and my town is still sleeping even though I have been meandering around for hours.

I woke early, put on jeans and a sweatshirt, slung my camera over my shoulder and, on my bike, headed for the center of town. I wanted to photograph the sun coming up over the town monument. I was a bit early and just sat on the sidewalk watching shadows change and the few cars scurry on their way.  I was hoping Rachael’s coffee shop was open this early, but alas, she was opening late on this Memorial week end. The weather is still chilly in the early mornings and the ground was heavy with dew, but as the sun began to peek out, I was able to get a lot of good photos.

As I came back inside the scent of this late spring day was strong with lilacs and peonies that are just starting to bloom outside my kitchen door. I have been collecting more perennials this year and, more often than not, I find a paper bag of bulbs or plants deposited on the front stoop of my house. It is a treasure to fill a garden with plants from friends. I don’t know how old my peony bush is, but it is huge and fragrant and was planted by a housewife years ago. I went to a lecture a few weeks ago on old house restorations and learned that garden paths were planted with peonies and lilacs and delphiniums to mask the odor of the outhouse. I also learned that if you have an outhouse on your property, it becomes part of your historic preservation as an important part of American culture. I can only guess where mine sat in the back yard!

I do know that my yard could quickly become a forest. I have raccoons nesting in these bushes outside my window. The first day I saw the raccoon I thought he/she was traveling through, but now I know they are nesting within two feet of my writing. Matthew found a robin’s nest with four beautiful blue eggs in it in the bushes to the South and there are numerous other surprises showing up this spring. The deer ate off the tulips in the front yard. My neighbor saw them traveling through town one morning at 3 a.m. My neighbors on the other side have a nest of blackbirds in their gutters. That is to my north. I see them flying in and out all day long with newly hatched blackbirds crying for their morning breakfast. I think spring is a time of total awareness of nature and the beauty that is ours each day as we pull open the curtains! After just finishing the book, The World Without Us, I do believe that within months my house and yard would be filled with trees and critters!

School is finished for me…..a sigh of relief after a long year. We finished up so many storytelling/theatre projects these past two weeks. The fourth grade finished up their year with an Indiana wax museum where each student researched a character from Indiana, wrote a small narrative, costumed the piece and then delivered it at the wax museum. All the students were frozen, or in tableau, as the classes walked through and asked each one to tell a story. They did a wonderful job. The fifth grade had a Revolutionary War tea party with parents. Alas, there was no tea as we had dumped it all into the harbor! They bowed and curtsied and shared their story in costume as well to all their guests. And the last project of the week was a photo art gallery. This was the first year that I introduced photography as a class. It went exceptionally well and their art gallery was proof of that.

It was good to lock up the door of the Backstage and whisper farewell to another year. It seems as if the projects get larger and more complicated with each school year. We have already received several grants and been the object of fund raisers for next year’s dinner theatres.  All I have to do is show up to be the guest of honor and take home a check!

As for family news, my three sons just left for a butterfly/moth collecting trip to Nicaragua. They are staying in a small cabin minus electricity, plumbing etc. for the next ten days. This was accomplished through permissions from the U.S. government and the Nicaraguan government. I was tempted to go with them for the experience and the beauty that they will find!  It is odd to be out of total contact with them. The wives are all busy, they have adapted to the lifestyles of these boys. Tonya flew up here for the week end and spent last evening with her high school girlfriends. They were just getting in as I was getting up to go watch the sun come up. I think I might have to ground her when she wakes up!!

As for Karen, she entertained a film crew from Indianapolis who is filming a documentary of Aaron and Karen and their butterfly/moth preservation work. They set up cameras all over the yard and in the house watching and filming more than 20 luna moths hatch. I spent some time watching the filming as well…fascinating. This will air all over Indiana in the fall.

It is Memorial Week end and no where is it more evident than in a small town. Flags are everywhere along with barbecues and garage sales. Tonight I am hosting a large barbecue complete with a campfire and smores…who knows?  Maybe I will actually get the guitar out and play my Pete Seeger songs! Tomorrow morning I will take Jonah and Matthew down for the Mayor’s speech and the parade. It is never too early to learn patriotism. I will tell them stories of their great grandfathers and great uncles who came before them with stories that still need to be told!

On this week end, fill your time with the scent of great-grandmother’s peony bushes, new warm sunshine and a hot charcoal fire with friends and family….the mowing and laundry can always wait until Tuesday!

Love to all, Lou Ann

 

Bye Bye Blackbird

Lyrics by Mort Dixon

Music by

Ray Henderson

Pack up all my care and woe, Here I go singing low,
Bye bye Blackbird.

Where somebody waits for me, Sugar’s sweet, so is she,
Bye bye Blackbird.

No one here can love and understand me, Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me;

Make my bed and light the light, I’ll arrive late tonight,
Blackbird bye bye.

 

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