Thursday Thirteen

On Saturday in the county seat, Fincastle, VA, there was a big to-do that was over 200 years in the making.

The county and the federal government installed at the Botetourt County Courthouse a special NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) disk commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition. It is the second such disk in the state: the first is at Monticello.

Why install this in Fincastle? A very good question. Some believe that the Lewis and Clark expedition actually started in Fincastle, not St. Louis. However, the real reason belongs to the ladies: William Clark's wife, Julia aka Judith Hancock, was a Fincastle gal. He knew her before he and Meriwether Lewis set out on their historic trek across the fledgling nation, and named the Judith River in Montana after her. Clark's second wife also came from this area (but nothing was named after her as she came after the expedition).

The Lewis and Clark expedition, for those who may not know, was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson. It was the first transcontinental venture and the men kept detailed journals of plants, wildlife, and people they met along the way. The journals are still studied today by enthusiasts of history. But knowledge was not the goal: economic and commercial growth was. They were seeking the most viable route to the Pacific.

Anyway, here are 13 photos from the hour-long event, which was full of pomp and dignity as befits a ceremony of this import.

The Botetourt County Courthouse before the festivities begin.

VMI Cadets played bagpipes and bugle.

Folks stood around and chatted prior to the ceremonies. The man in the foreground is a county supervisor.

 The pastor and the judge take a look at paperwork prepared for the day.

The box hiding the NOAA disk.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts took part in the ceremony.

The historic sign noting when the county courthouse burned in 1970. My husband's father helped put out the fire.

County supervisor and a Roanoke news reporter.

Heads bowed as the color guard enters the area.

The judge says a few words.

The Scouts lift the box for the big reveal.

The special NOAA disk. It has important geological information embedded in it.

Folks standing around looking at the disk as the ceremonies end.

It was a beautiful day and there were about 200 people there.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 267th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

When Mercury Goes Retrograde

This is the moon, not Mercury.

In the world of astrology, which I confess I do not particularly believe in, there is a phenomenon called "Mercury Retrograde." This apparently happens three times a year and lasts about three weeks at a time. It is a time when the planet appears to move backwards instead of forward in some kind of optical illusion.

Mercury, one might recall from high school classes on mythology, is the messenger of the gods. Thus the planet Mercury is considered the messenger planet. Hence anything to do with communication supposedly is affected by this retrograde business.

That means it affects computers, Internet, telephone, the mail - most electronic gizmos, in other words. When Mercury is retrograde, you should be cautious, take care of yourself and others, and not make hasty decisions.

Generally speaking, I do not pay much attention to this, even though, as a Gemini (double trouble, that's me), Mercury in retrograde is supposed to affect me almost always, as it is my ruling planet. Or something like that.

I frequently do not know when Mercury is retrograde, but it turned yesterday. I knew this because the astrologers were predicting it would affect the elections.

I don't know about that, but I do know this: about 10:30 yesterday morning, I lost my Internet connection.

Along with my telephone service.

It stayed out all day. This was not a good day to be out of touch as I was keen to see how the voting was going.

Last night was my first-ever professional job as an instructor, too. I had spent hours preparing a beautiful power point presentation. When I arrived, everything worked fine, but within minutes, the school computer died. And would not reboot no matter how many times I started it and shut it back down.

And this morning, my electricity went out for a good while.

So I don't know if I believe in Mercury retrograde, but certainly some gremlin is playing games with me right now.

Election Day

Go Vote.

That's all I have to say about that.

Fincastle From Godwin Cemetery On a Clear Day

This view shows four of the seven steeples of Fincastle, from left: The Methodist Church, the Courthouse, the former Baptist Church, and the Presbyterian Church.

Fincastle Presbyterian Church. Parts of this structure are thought to date back to 1813, if not earlier.

The Botetourt County Courthouse stands out above the rooftops.

The steeple of the Fincastle United Methodist Church.

Peace To the World

Several years ago I joined the Blog Blast for Peace. I took part in it for several years but I think last year I let it slip past me.

You can learn more about this movement, such as how it started and how many other people are blogging about peace on November 4, at this website.

The idea is to have a lot of people posting about peace in hopes that someone with authority will take heed and realize that peace is what the little people want.

It is not, of course, what the people in power want. They want more power. War is power. Killing and death is power. Living your life and being left alone is not power.

So what is peace, anyway? Is it no killing for an hour? A day? If we went a single hour, world-wide, and no one died, would that be peace?

Or is peace something a lot more dense, something more tangible, something we all have an idea about but seldom express? Is peace actually more about equality, the brotherhood of humanity, than it is about destroying one another with machine guns?

When I say I want peace, I mean I want all of humanity to be humane, kind, and rich of soul. But in order for that to happen, people would have to have their basic needs met. However, we cannot even agree on what basic needs are. Even that seems to be a reason to argue. I think if people had their basic needs met, they would not be hungry. They would not be cold. They would not be stealing from someone else because they need more. They would not be arguing over who has the better idea. They would be shaking hands, agreeing, and moving forward.

The other day a little video of a girl crying because she was tired of the political commercials made the viral rounds. In the United States, we've been abused by horrid commercials and wicked rhetoric coming from both sides. This political season, I have felt like a bride with two husbands, both of them duking it out in front of me in hopes that I would spread my legs and let the guy with the most testosterone have at it. The political process in this country has become abusive; the political system is abusive, our systems, social and economic, are abusive. We have become a nonpeaceful place, a land where the guy with the biggest is the winner, and the rest are losers. And they know it too, those losers. They know what has happened to them: they have been f**cked.

There is no peace when there is so much abuse, abuse that comes across the airwaves and seeps into the souls of crying children. That is not healthy. This country has been on a drinking binge filled with domestic violence ever since the new millennium. A single act of terror emasculated an entire nation, and the menfolk in particular have been acting out ever since. It was loss of face to the great patriarchy, and they have been taking it out on the country as a whole for over a decade now.


So my wish for peace includes more than war. It includes fair play, civility, equality, humanity, and manners. A little of that would go a long way toward bringing peace into the realm of possibility.

As it stands now, gentlemen may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.* Is life so dear and peace - however you define it - so sweet, that it will be purchased at the price of poverty for the unemployed masses and wage-bound slavery for the rest?

Has it really only been just 236 years since this country was the next great experiment, the hope of the poor, the hammock for the tired? Where has the humanity gone? What have we done?

The Lady Cardinal

This lovely female cardinal blended in so beautifully with the fall colors of my forsythia that I almost didn't see her.

Woodpeckers

This is either a hairy woodpecker or a downy woodpecker. I am not sure how you tell the difference between the two as they look alike to me in the guidebook.

Same bird.

This appears to be a northern flicker but I am not positive. I am pretty sure it is some kind of woodpecker (as I think this is the bird that was beating on a tree at one point) and that is the only brownish woodpecker in my guidebook.

I am using the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southeastern States.

I took these photos with my Nikon Coolpix P500. This not an SLR camera but instead is a point and shoot with a 36x lens on it.

Thursday Thirteen

Today I think I will offer up 13 words of power. These are words that strengthen you. These are the words I am considering adopting in the upcoming new year. One of these will become my word for 2013. Or maybe I will do one a month. But this is what I am thinking about right now. The list is subject to change.

1. Courage/courageous

2. Creative/creativity

3. Forgive/forgiveness

4. Energy/energized

5. Spiritual/spirituality

6. True/Truth

7. Patient/patience

8. Complete/completeness

9. Excited/excitement

10. Motivate/motivation

11. Change/changeable

12. Acceptance/acceptable

13. Gracious/gratitude

What's your power word? Do you have one?


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 266th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

Did I scare you?

Of course I didn't.

Alas, I have no scary photos to share, no images of ghosties or goblins.

I thought instead I might share my favorite Halloween memory with you. This happened when I was six years old.

One year I dressed as a hobo. I wore a tie, a hat, patched pants, and makeup on my face. I was six years old, and my mother took me around the subdivision where my grandmother lived in Salem. She stood out  in the street and watched while I marched up the sidewalk, sack in hand, and rang doorbells.

I remember it being a warm night, no need for a heavy coat, but still spooky because the trees were bare and leaves littered the sides of the roads where we trudged from house to house in the subdivision where my grandmother lived.

The owners of one home went all out for the holiday. They had a spooky sound track coming from a window, tombstones in the yard, and a ghost in the corner of the porch. I was not so sure I wanted to visit this place.

"Go on, it's okay," my mother said, giving me a little shove.

The fact that there were no other children around should have been a cue, I suppose. I headed up the sidewalk, looking back at my mother every so often to be sure she hadn't left me in this scary spot.

I rang the doorbell. Ding. Dong.

The door opened a crack. An evil eye peered out, and then the door opened.

There stood a witch.

A real Wizard of Oz looking witch, with a green face, crooked nose, and a wart. She had dark scraggly hair and a black hat on top of her head.

"Well, just who I was waiting for!" the witch cackled.

I was so scared I could not say "trick or treat" so I simply held out the bag. She put some candy in and opened the door wider. Inside stood a big black cauldron with steam coming out! It was big enough that I would fit inside.

"I just love little girls," the witch crooned. "You look like a dear. I could eat you all up. Won't you come into my house?"

I swallowed and took a step back. "No thank you," I said politely. "I'm not allowed to go into the homes of strangers."

With that, I turned tail and ran for my life. The sound of the witch calling for me to come back followed me all the way down the sidewalk.

My mother scooped me up in a hug, because by this time I was terrified and crying. She was laughing but she also applauded me for not going inside.

And that is my favorite Halloween memory, because it has every element you could want from this day of the dead. Chills and comfort, candy and a costume.

"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!"

Hunkered Down

Last night the winds howled and the house creaked as Super Storm Sandy barreled along the eastern seaboard, taking out major cities in the northeastern part of the nation and dumping snow on West Virginia.

I woke several times as I felt the house shudder, or heard something bump on the roof.

Daylight brought good news: little damage. Perhaps the windstorm in late June had knocked loose the trees that were meant to fall, for I saw only a single cedar destroyed in last night's hurricane winds. I am so grateful that we escaped the damage the storm could have thrown our way.

The breeze continues somewhat furiously, though not as angry as last night, and it is expected to last a few days.

If you look closely in this picture, you will see seven does hunkered down in the tall grasses, hiding from the wind and cold.

Like people, they seek out shelter when the cruel winds of the tropic conspire to collide with the frozen clouds from the north.

Though they have thick fur hides, the deer, I think, still feel the prick of winter's chill.

These two have burrowed into the grass, dug in so tightly they are barely visible.

I am grateful for the electricity that heats my house and keeps the cold from taking over.

I am very glad I am not a deer.

Thoughts and prayers to those in the northeast who have not fared as well as we have here. May the waters recede and the grief of loss pass quickly.

Squirrels

Around the yard of my house we have squirrels. We have hickory, oak, and mulberry trees (or something like that) in the back and they attract these critters. The ground this year is littered with acorns and the little fuzzballs have been busy burying things.

They have grown brazen, too. This year one of them is attacking my one of my flower pots on a daily basis, turning it over and digging out the dirt. Every morning I find it tipped over and I put the dirt back and right it, only to have to do it again on the morrow. The pot has some hen and chicks in it or I would just bring it inside.

Another, or maybe the same animal, ripped open a bag of mulch I had left on the deck. This surprised me. Maybe there was a grub worm in the mulch? In any event, there was mulch all over the deck yesterday morning.

Our squirrels are gray squirrels or red squirrels. They are quite large. I kid my husband and tell him that when we are old and poor (because goodness knows there isn't going to be any safety net for us like our parents have had) we will subsist on squirrel if he can still see to shoot them. I have eaten squirrel but I was quite young and I can't recall if I liked it. Probably not as I am not fond of wild game.

I enjoy watching the squirrels out the window. They are not quite as difficult to photograph as birds, and certainly not as hard to get a picture of as a chipmunk, but they still scamper quickly and do not stand still if you open the back door for a clear shot.

However, if I venture to the edge of the lawn where the trees are, and stand very still for 10 minutes or so, I am usually rewarded as the squirrels venture out. They keep a safe distance but continue with their day so long as I don't make much movement.

We can learn a lot from a squirrel. I suppose if I put more acorns aside every year I wouldn't worry so much about eating rodents when I am old. However, unlike an acorn, money doesn't just drop off of trees.

It's also probably safer if you put your money in a jar and bury it like the squirrels do the acorns. For sure the banks aren't safe anymore!

Okay, I am rambling so I will stop now. Thank you for reading and have a good day.

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence. - George Eliot

Daybreak Noises

The other morning I slipped outside at daybreak to take a picture of the rising sun as it came up over the magnificent Blue Ridge Mountains.

Ah, the peacefulness of daybreak over the mountains.

As I stood there I realized that it was not quiet. The trees were full of birds.

They made a lot of racket, nothing that sounded like a bird song. More like the sound of harpies screaming at the rise of the sun as it interrupts their nighttime shenanigans.

I am pretty sure these are starlings.

Some of you have asked if I am feeling better; I am! I am pleased to report that I finally seem to be nearly over the nasty infection I had for most of October.  It is not completely gone but finally toward the end of the week I felt like getting out of the house a little. I am still not a ball of fire but hopefully in a few days I will be all better.

Thank you for your kind thoughts and good wishes. My readers are great people!

Autumn on the Farm - 2012

Master of His Domain

Thursday Thirteen #265

1. I used to believe I did not stick with things, but after spending years obtaining degrees and 265 weeks doing Thursday Thirteen, not to mention six years writing this blog and more than 20 years writing for local publications, I think I need to rethink that notion.

2. If I can do this stuff for this long, surely I can write a novel.

3. Writing for me is somewhat like eating candy - you stuff, you stuff, you blow out your guts. Eww. Not a pretty visual!

4. Let's try this: Writing is like seeing a unicorn dance across a rainbow as it chases a butterfly - full of imagination and fancy, a dream that can't be touched. At least it doesn't involve vomit.

5. "Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success." - James Baldwin

6. "Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer." - Ray Bradbury

7. I'm posting quotes because I ran out of things to say. It is 7 a.m. as I write this and I don't do mornings all that well.

8. However, I don't really want to post more quotes so now I'm just making stuff up to get the 13 items in.

9. You may have noticed I am going to be teaching a class in journaling soon. I am looking forward to this; I have been keeping a journal since I was about 8 years old. However, I burned all of my early ones after my mother found them and read them, so I don't have those. I sometimes wish I did; I'd like to meet that girl again.

10. Blogging is a kind of journaling, not so introspective, though, at least for me. Some of my journals are so crisis-centered or self-centered that they need to join my old ones in the burn pile.

11. Okay, here's another quote: "The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home." - John Campbell

12. And another: "It is perfectly okay to write garbage--as long as you edit brilliantly." - C. J. Cherryh

13. And another: "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E. L. Doctorow



Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 265th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Autumn Comes

Deer bathe serenely in sunlight

Acorns at their hooves.

Autumn comes.

Leaves turn dull brown

flung to the earth

by ruthless winds.

Rains slash skies,

gray, dark, light dimming

like a mother

drowning love.

Autumn comes.

Okay, so maybe not the best poem ever. :-)