From White to Green

I'm still in culture, or should I say, climate shock.  After this winter, it seems strange to look out the window and see green.  It's hard to think of opening the door to the porch and leaving it open.  But, it's here and it will be this way at least until September.  Wonderful.

The green has meant we have been busy getting gardens ready.  Mary's flower gardens around the house look great, but some critter has already started on her flox.  I have one more row of carrots to plant and then I can take a break and just watch everything grow.  

There was a lot of green along Joe's 26 mile marathon route this weekend.  Not sure he had much reason to take it all in, at least after mile 6 or 13.  One man at the finish line asked me if it was Joe's first marathon.  He then offered that this was a particularly hard one to do for the first marathon, with all the hills.  The biggest hill I think started at mile 25.  But he finished it, and has bragging rights.  I had signed up for the half-marathon and toyed with the idea of running even though my toes and my back had stopped me from training.  I chickened out the night before.  Congratulations, Joe.  Margaret wrote him and asked if he pooped in his pants.  We drove home in the same car with him and can reliably affirm that he did not.

Annie was up here as well for the long weekend.  She is getting ready for her cross-country train trip which she starts this week.  Another marathon.  She is planning many different stops, including Chicago.  We hope to see her when we are in Seattle.  Yes, next week we fly to San Francisco for a Peace Corps conference, and then take advantage of being on the west coast to drive up to Seattle.  Only two states away, but two full days of driving.  We miscalculated since we thought it would be like driving from DC to New Jersey, also just two states away.

Other big news were graduations!  In case you missed all the Facebook photos her proud parents posted, Annie had two graduation ceremonies, one for Teachers College and then one for the whole university.  She carried the banner in to the cathedral for her psychology cohort of 100 people!  And Maura also had two graduations, one for her nurse pinning and one for the school.  Congrats to both.  Mary went down for Maura's graduation, and then stayed on to swim in a memorial for Dan at the YMCA, that Annie also came up to swim in.  Patrick, Kathleen, Maura, Elsie and Mary Fort joined for that event as well.  

Annie hopes to see the Dundee folks on her way out west.  Andrew and Lur too will be traveling shortly after that, off to Myrtle Beach SC for some deserved R&R.  Lur, by the way, is taking a pottery class.

Margaret traveled to Pittsburgh this week for work, and I told her to sabotage anything related to the Pirates and the Steelers. We also see on Facebook California travel by Melodie and Jeffrey.  Fun, fun, fun.  And a little work. 

Nature notes - The quiet Sunday morning on the porch was interrupted by a quiet, but very healthy fox, wandering by.  He eventually saw me and ran off, but it was the closest I've been to a fox.  Funny thing is that the cat decided not to go out for the whole day. Wonder if he could smell what I could only see.

Summer reading this year includes lots of Shaker books, another Melville novel, four Shakespeare plays (finished my class on the histories) and hopefully something fun.  I thought that would include listening to Great Expectations in the long car rides back and forth to Amherst.  But I am not sure if I have any expectation that I will finish that one.  

We had some birthday celebrations - Matthew and Sean!  Congratulations.  And whenever Matthew has a birthday, it means Peter and Janet have a wedding anniversary.  Hope everyone had spectacular celebrations.  

We close with two photos of hair, Daniel at his prom and Pop on his honeymoon with Mom.  Am I the only one to see the resemblance in style across generations?

No better brothers

Do you know what a power snap is? Do you know what a dun is? Do you know which trout tolerates the widest range of temperatures? Have you ever seen a tippet (hint: it's not a bird)? Do you know what a Royal Wullf is? Ever tied a surgeon's knot? A nail knot? Do you know what a ferrule is (hint: it's not a lizard)? Have you ever held a Hardy Zenith? How small is a midge (the one with the nasty hook on it)? Done any tying with deer fur? Where is your Hendrickson? What kind of back cast do you do? Have you ever wanted to shoot line? Flourocarbon or monofilament? Have you used a tie-fast? Did you learn the rule of 11? The rule of 4? Do you know why is there a piece of red yarn tied on the end of my line?

Do you know the sublime feeling that comes from standing in the middle of a lovely stream dappled by sunlight and making a perfect cast to the far side and watching it drift behind the targeted rock?

Well, I did, and I do, and I have. What a transcendent weekend. John and I took an intensive two day and three evening fly fishing course at the Joan Wulff Fly Fishing School at the southern end of the Catskill Park, in a lovely meadow and mountain setting way out of cell phone service (thank goodness for that). It was very intense but also relaxed, about 25 people, most beginners but some better. We had five instructors, and Joan Wullf herself, a legend of fly fishing. She and her late husband just about invented the modern pursuit of fly fishing. She spent a few minutes with me and showed me exactly how to get my cast perfect, and the light went on and I am hooked, as they say. Very nicely organized: lecture with demos, then practice at one of the two ponds outside, another talk, more practice, practice tying knots. Talks about trout and their feeding, and what flies to think about. I thought it was funny that it wasn't until late Sunday afternoon that they told us what to actually do if you hook a fish. And one of the instructors tried to hook one of the stocked fish in one of the ponds, and although they were throwing pellets in and several fish were feeding, none took either of the two lures. Even teachers have bad moments.

This was a birthday present from the three best brothers anyone could ever ask for. It was the real deal, no frolic, worth every minute and sore muscle.

John and I opted out of the pricey Inn accommodations and meals near the school and stayed in a simple cabin about 20 minutes away on a pretty stream. We each brought a home cooked supper – thank you Mary for that great marinara sauce – and ate breakfast at the Roscoe Diner, where they also made sandwiches for our lunches. It rained Saturday afternoon, so I practiced in the rain, but hey, it's fishing. While it would have extravagantly enjoyable if I had gone by myself, it was an added bonus to spend time with John.

So a thousand thanks and more to David, John and Andrew. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving. David, get ready for Mountain Springs to show your two fly "toddlers" more of the lore.

Happy Mother's Day

Here's one from the archives.  Take a look at the shoes and stylish black socks.  A poster for all that mothers do out of their love.    

​Surely there must be a mother's day song to go with the flowers and cards and love and bottomless gratitude.  We will have a quiet day here, with rest and gardening and newspapers and coffee and maybe even a nap or a bike ride.  We are ready for one, as we had a whirlwind visit yesterday from Marj and Lew and Marj's mother.  

We went from winter to summer in 3 hours it seems.  It sure is nice, but we don't want to hear any complaining about the heat until at least the end of May.  It's so nice to leave the house without a jacket or boots or gloves.  We have taken advantage with a lot of yard work, and Mary has been busy prepping flower beds and re-arranging and of course keeping the local nurseries afloat, single-handedly.  Our project today is to plant a weeping cherry tree at the corner of the house.

Lots of academic news this week, with Annie and Maura finishing their course of studies!  Final papers and exams done.  Maura graduates this coming week and Annie on the 19th. Congratulations.  Annie will have a good long six weeks off before she starts her job.  You earned it, chica.  When this gets posted, Margaret will only be hours away from finishing her semester.  And Claire must be getting close to the end of the semester.  Celebrate all.

Travel is a big part of these letters.  And, we have the first member in the family to visit Azerbaijan.  I couldn't even remember where on the map it was.  Joe came and went for a quick visit this week.  I will leave it to him to describe the charms of that country.  We made travel plans for the first two weeks of June to go to San Francisco and then head up to Seattle by car.  I've never really been to California, except for 2 San Diego day trips and one unexpected airport stop in SF.  And Margaret and Andrew got their tickets to South Africa for August.  

David and Paula spent a few days in New York City this week, taking advantage of some consulting work for David to go see the King and I at Lincoln Center.  David highly recommends it.  They are doing some infrastructure work to their house (gutters and soffits - I just found out what those were.)

Also highly recommended was a concert that Andrew and Lur went to featuring Steve Winwood.  Andrew also passed around a couple of photos of Daniel at his prom.  I think in the next letter, I will find a photo of Pop and compare it with Daniel's prom picture if only to see the genetic carryover of the hair!!

Peter and I found each other watching the same Mets game on ESPN one night, which the Mets won.  They look like they are for real, though I am not sure Mets fans are quite ready to embrace the confidence yet.

Mary is off swimming this morning, and I will settle down to read some more about the Shakers.  Fascinating group, and I have a ways to catch up with all that David knows on the topic.  He had a head start with Darrow School being on the site of the central Shaker families for over 150 years.

So, here's to all the mothers who read this, and even those who don't.  Thank you, we love you, you are the greatest.