The Blessing of the Seeds was to take place May 6 at 10:15 a.m. In an earlier post we had published the time at 6:15 a.m. We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.
Category Archives: Blessings
Cinco de Mayo de Cinco
Because it is a 5 year. today is triple fives: Cinco de Mayo, Derby Day and Weis – the World’s Cleanest Grocery Store - 100 anniversary celebration.
For Cinco de Mayo have lined up for a free T-shirt at Moe’s. and made some video of the event, which included cheering and a countdown at 11;)00 am by eight high school lads who were the first to arrive and were there by ten. A fellow who was about 30th in line wore a red shirt with the slogan KKeep calm eat more bananas. Come to think of it, the librarian was eating a banana this morning at 9:00 when I stopped in.
A scan of the Derby Day card has me liking Gemologist and Burgomeister as the top two picks and the chestnut horse – I like all of them and I don;t bet. Good horseflesh!
Went through more rounds of bill paying and cat feeding and errands and studio work and garden planning and am so glad that Jack White is back in full force on Blunderbuss. He’s a favorite.
Weis treated guests to birthday cake ice cream and birthday cake and the server of these delicasies pointed out to me the great deals today only on select items throughout the store and would I like a flyer? Asparagus at $1 a a per pound ah yes and green beans reduced to pennies an ounce.
Two cans of kitty food for the diatribe and a new sketchbook at Michaels. Enjoy the great outdoors and happy 5/5/5 to all. Mucho
Feliz et amor tambien por los todos!
Hi Unc!
Copy Paper
A cardboard box, empty of paper, has been sitting next to the railroad tracks for a couple of days. Earth Day was yesterday. Many were celebrations held over the weekend. Our schedule permitted attendance at the Reading event Saturday April 21 at Riverfront Park.
A band was playing as the shadows lengthened on the grass. The Main Stage lineup board indicated Umami was on. Umami has a cool sound, including an oboe and some of their songs sounded like Dr. John or else they were playing Dr. John.
In addition to the sounds, there were sights:
Hippies with hula hoops and Long flowing skirts.
Girls painting on each other’s skin.
A man with a well-behaved brindle Great Dane. The pair was magnetic and attracted comments like “he’s as big as a horse.” The dog wore black leather accessories with studs as if coming from a Harley Davidson fashion runway.
Most of the vendors had cleared their tables under the information tent. A small separate canopy housed bicycles. The sandwich board listed six cycles and a trailer to the other side carried the slogan It’s a Solar Thing – You Can Understand.
Most of the food vendors were shutting down and the choices has dwindled. Several people scooped colorful Italian ice which has almost no aroma. A woman clad in short shorts performed with a hula hoop accented with about five flaming wicks distributed around the circle and many videographers truned their attention her way.
A green cloth was hung on a line tied on two trees. The cloth was printed with words and a couple of globe shapes that gave the impression of batik. The words were Hope. Happiness. Save. Throw away your cash. Before and After, Eliminate Drugs, Help save our earth. Two young women were about to break camp and noticed I was writing in my notebook. One of them described the origin and the process of the fabric work – it was made by children in an outreach program and they used glue and acrylic paints to create the piece. Ever since then it keeps occurring to me how fortunate it is the young women and the children got together. It would be nice to make something like it.
Feeling tuned up, I returned home by way of the River Place trail along the Schuylkill river near Reading Area Community College (RACC). Piles of stone, baled with wide plastic strapping, have been placed under the Penn street bridge. The Penn street bridge, when you look up, is crumbly but maybe not as badly as the Buttonwood street bridge. Where the stone belongs is unclear.
“This has been here for twenty years!” a man cried out as we passed the stone pallets. “ Twenty years they’ve been sitting here and the city is crying for money.”
I copy. Do you read?
That’s What She Said and a Flower Walk
Bumper sticker pathling: That’s What She Said. Cute cat figure on train – part of graffiti. Low Tulpehocken creek level again, and zero herons. The area hosted a symphony of spring peepers frogs making music and boasted two toads on the trail and a pair of wood ducks hanging around a triangular rock in the middle of the creek. Garlic mustard plants are taking over the wildflower spots. Other flowers blooming are the striped violet, creamy white with faint black stripe, the bluebells and spring beauty, dainty peppermint striped flower.
Sunday afternoon walked with a group led by Dr. Susan Munch, who with a plant tome in hand and a large dose of enthusiasm. introduced us to leatherwood and jet bead shrubs and pointed out shy trilliums, tiny puffy dwarf ginseng and delicate rue anemone, among many others at Angelica Park. One person in the group was able to report on the scant rainfall this year and another revealed she has a recipe for garlic mustard pesto without revealing the actual recipe. A few defectors from the pack of antendees said they had places to go or found the pace too slow for them, but I found Dr. Munch to be knowledgable – how fast can you go and stop and spot the wildflowers? – and learned to identify a few new plants, including black cohosh. The loop up and down the mountainside is unlike any other in the county. Near the end. we were warned of the imminent arrival of mountain bikers about to finish a course. A strange woman stood by the path as we admired a luna moth resting near the base of an antique spruce tree. She advised us to move out of the way – fifteen bikers were coming down, that’s what she said.
4 ever
Fresh grey screenings have been placed on the path. Last evening, the edges were a slate blue grey. The combination is similar in hue to heron plumage.
At the 4 marker a pair of initials may be seen, having been crudely scratched above the carved numeral 4, a number which identifies the post and an area of natural interest. Below the hefty permanent 4, rough markings formed the word: ever. They have a thin, unsubstantial look of transience. It is possible they are still there today.
The level of the creek, having been kept low, shows clear water flow. The bottom is visible in most spots, revealing rocks and plant life.
One heron to report, an early bird, having flown over the house at 7:30 this morning, heading east-south-east. We do not live yet we live 4 ever.
Water Truck
Three people or groups of interest seen on the street yesterday, in addition to a water truck:
- A car driven by the Travelling Piano teacher with the logo of three frogs hop dot com.
- A tall slim man walking the wrong way up (east as it happens) a one-way street, carrying a large styrofoam container of food, with the lid flipped open. He forks food into his mouth while striding not on the sidewalk but in one of the traffic lanes.
- Two young brunettes, with broad smiles and gleeful grins, dressed in tees and shorts, working in front of Hooters, twirling lime green hula hoops around their waist and hips.
This morning became a follower of a car with a SLEEP vanity tag.
Items of overnight stowing interest:
- a book on vanishing New York storefronts
- a book of poems called ADDRESS – the cover very interesting
- Masada peppermint sea salts for soaking.
today: Painterly clouds, nice breezes, gentle temperatures and sunny sun sun. Lying on the couch, letting thoughts drift. All that is is the cat’s hip (Simon). The smell of cherry bath soak for my aching foot surrounds coffee table. The sound of a mournful dog at the nearby veterinarian’s can be heard. The soft white pines fan open and closed in sun and air.
A black SUV moves in reverse as the driver pulls away from a slot in the office parking lot. after a turn to the right, the vehicle goes forward.
“It must be about five o’clock,” I think. The clock tower bells ring and the chimes add one by one to four plus one. I have spent most of the day sleeping. No herons to report.
One Piece Flow
How we handle the events, obstacles and opportunities in the course of life is a subject of constant study, analysis and revision. In our daily receipts - of information, of material things, of alerts, tips and ideas that may be spurs to creativity, mundane quotidian nothings or deterrents that bring to a halt – we can only process things one at a time. We come into contact with an abundance of things, starting with the stimuli of our environments. There is a principle of batching to handle multiples.
Life contains inbound and outbound shipments. We take in and we put out. Out of all the possibilities and probabilities in the current past and future worlds, one life receives a shipment of goods and one produces a finished product composed of character, habit and practice to leave a stamp, or hardly a trace, or a body of work, baskets of gestures. Sometimes it is just what you ordered and sometimes it is nothing of the sort! Appreciation is one of the most valuable tools of navigation that we can have.
It takes a laser eye or ear, mind and mind’s eye to zero in on what is important among all the items and tasks before us and place it in stock, where it belongs for future reference, present use or past enhancement.
It’s nice to receive and give something to Wow! at. It is necessary to manage the average regular and the mean. The worst process is to neglect. To neglect or deselect allows us to focus on the vital: how we tag thing is our choice.
One item, one box, one shipment, one truck; one order, one package, one delivery, one present.
Feliz Wear
It is a slip of the tongue heard on the radio – feliz wear instead of fleece wear - and it is amusing and delightful because it means “happy” in Spanish. Fleece, a material blessing which makes smooth and nubby contributions to the worlds of comfort and warmth, also adds to happiness, which is not to say that relaxed, athletic and easy wear should lead to general sloppiness. Go happily about your day, if you please. Feliz Noel and wear it well!
PKGZ
Packages and more packages and a heart shaped smiley face on the mirror at the park. Today is for relationships and wisdom, enlightenment and secret plotting. A compass, with strokes and Evergreen, 99 and Geib on the roadway. Two hawks flew in the vicinity of trees that have grown bare with the beginning of November. They have limbs to perch to peer and prey. One was especially large and plump as a pumpkin, a meaty sort. No heron to report other than an internet icon. beautiful morning with sunshine and sundance. We hours of morning featured moonlight shadows that seemed patterned with Venetian blind lines. I have covered two miles and processed these things.
The Heron Report
