Masses of cloud rise up in the east

Masses of cloud rise up in the east
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Every cloud different, yet still a cloud. I took this through the raindroppy windshield on Levering Road last night.
What a lucky life I lead! Tonight as I write, on XM radio the soulful French horn theme from Strauss's tone poem Don Juan catches my attention. I remember Wendell Rider filling the San Jose Symphony with this gorgeous melody.

And I am laughing out loud halfway through Gogol's Dead Souls, which I never guessed from the title would be so funny. This is the new Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation. In an attempt to capture the tone of the original, they use a lot of slangy British formulations. I like it, but it makes me uneasy, because it is so unlike the familiar classic fiction translations. I can only compare it to the three volumes of Natsume Soseki's I am a Cat, also translated (from the Japanese) by British writers. That has the same slangy edge, which I also like.

While I enjoy my life, we are undergoing another American crisis which I am powerless against. Up the road, the house which a man inherited from his grandmother, which he mortgaged and lost, is now for sale with the eight acres it stands on for $50,000. The house is well-built, but will need work, since he removed the copper plumbing pipes to sell just before he was forced to leave. This is only one little American story. We drive past signs of many others every day. Many homes in this rural area have been for sale for two or three years. I hope it is Morning in America, but right now, it does not feel like it.

Levering Cafe; home of the Big Chicken

Levering Cafe
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

We took an outing to the Post Office and decided to continue on to a nearby town for the locally famous special chicken they serve here. The restaurant was full of rooster effigies, to carry out the theme. Alas, someone had just placed a huge order to be picked up and taken out--the special chicken machine was tied up for half an hour. So we just got regular chicken, his grilled in a toasted sandwich and mine "smothered" in swiss cheese, mushrooms and bacon. We each brought half-a-portion home. It was fine, but we still don't know why the special chicken is so famous!
Walking into the place was like a trip back in time. Several people were smoking in the dim brown light. The walls were plain wood with various rooster items hung on them. We sat down at a dark-red-oilcloth-covered square table. Most of the other tables were full; there was one waitress and one sub-waitress who brought your drinks and cleaned off the tables. She also filled the pepper shaker, after I removed the lid and set both shaker and lid artfully on the edge of the table. A heavy woman helped a man with a damaged left side to a table. A teen with a funny haircut, like a cartoon baby with a curl on the top of his head, was eating dinner with his parents. He held his mouth about an inch above the plate. Lots of ordinary people, just like us, chewed and swallowed. I was quite comfortable. It made me think of the video I saw today about the Mad Magazine artist, Rick Tulka, who sketches every day in a cafe in Paris. He was comfortable in that cafe, even though it was famous, in Paris, and the former haunt of famous writers like Hemingway and Henry Miller, it was comfortable to him. He rode his bicycle there every day at the same time and often found that he had already drawn all the patrons of that hour. I wished I could sketch, invisibly. And then I drove home through the rain and looked at the clouds.

Waldron Pond

P1240274upp
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Because trees cannot grow IN the pond, there is made a cylinder of light coming down from the sky. This lights the trees and bushes, weeds and grasses on both sides of the pond with a sort of heavenly illumination. Now, leaves have just begun to fall; the light in autumn's opening spaces is very soft and beautiful. Just behind you where you are now standing looking down into the pond, there is a roofed picnic shelter and several bird feeders. You are guaranteed close views of birds and yesterday a chipmunk running back and forth through the grass.

Two

Two
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Nancy brought apples, cider and cookies to serve after the Petoskey Audubon Society birdwalk at her nature preserve this morning. My husband said, "What beautiful apples these are!" So I took a picture. Then we ate them. She said she got them at Bill's Farm Market.
The day was perfectly sunny and crisp. The highlight for me was Palm Warbler, which I have only seen once before on a birdwalk at Point Reyes. Lots of warblers are on the move. The palm warblers seemed to be traveling with a flock of American goldfinches. They flew before the advancing birders and then began to flit in and out of the first two rows of corn nearest the path when we came to a field of standing corn. Someone said he thought they could find bugs in the tassels.
We also had good scope views of migrating Sandhill Cranes hunting in a mown field. It was quite a long walk, and we sort of rested up all afternoon.

Peekaboo reds

Peekaboo reds
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Just before I took this from the porch, two deer bounded into the woods. I saw only the white flags of their disappearance. Each day now brings more red leaves; it is hard to accept that the summer is really over.
Inspired in part by Ted Kooser's tales of thrift stores and garage sales, we stopped at Challenge Mountain on the way into town. I found a clear heavy pressed glass pitcher to use for water on the dinner table; I had been wishing I had one. Also toys for granddaughters and even a toy for myself, in the form of a stuffed muslin rabbit in pinafore that looks like the child of the one I got from my daughter's garage sale. They sit together now on top of the living room bookcase. It's a nice distraction from politics. Sigh, as Charlie Brown used to say. Sigh.

Black willow hung with autumn vines

Black willow hung with autumn leaves
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

This is an experiment to see if infrared that I've processed with a slight blue cast works with this blog design. I have started another blog to post most of the infrared on. It is called WHITE LEAVES. That, too, is an experiment, since one blog is more than I've shown myself able to handle every day. Today was warm and sunny. The people at water exercise are overwhelmingly grateful for this kind of weather. Michigan winters have earned their respect, if not their love.

Two Cranes

Two Cranes
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Yesterday's re-sort yielded two boxes of paper to recycle. We took it today. There is no recycling pickup here, but large bins are placed near the new Fire Hall. It also turned up a Poetry Flash from 2005 with WONDERFUL long articles on Kay Ryan (who is now the poet laureate), Robert Creeley, who was very influential and much loved (his readings enjoyed almost rock-star popularity during the Sixties) and Robinson Jeffers, that fierce and craggy Pacific Coast poet. Each article was solid, informative and interesting. NOw I am having trouble throwing away a newspaper that I should have tossed unread. . .