a place of my own...2

Black Hawk Monument, overlooking the Rock River, Oregon, Illinois

Yesterday, Joy and Alan, Karla and Vicki and I went up to Oregon, Illinois to see the Black Hawk Monument, a huge concrete statue on a bluff overlooking the Rock River. A very pleasant trip, Joy's home--a modern log house--was a a highlight of the trip (the same people that own the Belgian Draught horses). We had dinner at White Pines State Park lodge, a log-cabin affair built by CCC workers (like my dad, maybe my dad?) during the Great Depression. Dinner, chicken and ribs, was ordinary, but with good company, we had a very nice time. An all-day affair, I left at 11am and got home at 11pm in the midst of a gully-washer rain storm.

a place of my own...1 Autoritratto

...a Self Portrait in Shadows
area where I'm making a new garden


I have had two days in a row off from Lowe's...a rare event. Yesterday I went on another road trip with Joy and Alan, Karla and Vicki, generally to Oregon, Illinois to see the Black Hawk Monument on the Rock River.

Today, Thursday, an at-home day, Jim, my house-mate wanted my plants removed from the back deck. A Midwestern reality, many things that grow outdoors beautifully for spring and summer and fall, fade and wither and die in the winter. So, although a little early, the back deck is more or less orderly and barren again, awaiting powerwashing, clean-up, and growing things that need to winter over in the house are lined up to be brought in before frosts come. I've planted some new enchinaceas and scabiosas, also Madonna Lilies, which will survive in or below the ground for the winter and pop up in the springtime; tomorrow, time permitting, I'll move some irises into the same area with little bulbets of allium, creating a new garden area with established roses and dwarf evergreens already there.

the landlord

Jim's the landlord; he owns the place where I live. A good friend, we don't see eye-to-eye on every issue, but we manage to get along.

~Katie Lopez~

Rachel's niece, Katie Lopez, 26 years old on October 5th, died in Oxnard, California yesterday from the complications of stomach cancer. She leaves two young boys, her partner, her mom and dad, and a sister. I remember her as a witty, spunky, energetic, bright kid who always seemed to be smiling. Life is sometimes very swift, too brief.

Katie did not want a funeral or a memorial so her family will gather with friends for a barbecue in the park for an upbeat gathering.

I will remember Katie...

Me---again!

Me at the entrance to the Maquoketa Caves, State Park, Iowa

I'm a little too claustrophobic to actually go into the caves at Maquoketa, so next best thing, a photo on the edge, going down some stairs. Vicki took this photo which I really like. I forgot to turn the flash off, so some glare, like on the tip of my nose, but I look like I would want to look. A sense (at least to me) of something "inner"...inner life, inner thoughts, inner being, intelligence, hard knocks--they show. And that's good. This was sort of midway in our Saturday rural Illinois-Iowa outing. A good time.

David in the Alien Corn

Near Erie, Illinois September 30, 2007

This is an "edited" version of a photo that Vicki took of me near the parking lot of the Shell Truck Stop where you turn off to enter into Erie, Illinois. Originally it was too red, swarmy with weird tones of red, a problem with the camera. I sent the bad photo to Lauren and she "photo-shopped" it and now it looks fairly decent.

Cate's Song

My grandaughter Cate Rosenbaum asked her mom for a piece of paper so she could write down a song she had made up. After a while she came back to her mom and presented (see photo) a page of text. She asked her mom to sing along. When Lauren, her mom, was unable to decode or fathom the "song", Cate was a bit surprised. So, a helpful child, she sang the song to her mother, prompting her mom to follow the text. I think this is a lovely invention and the notion that Cate would put down to paper her "tune"...well, that's bright!