Walking the dog on a trail I had only taken once before on a night walk, I was startled and delighted to see an Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly, I think! I have been following Mr. Powell’s site for quite some time. His photography is amazing.
This photo was taken with my iPhone 8+ and the new dog on a leash in the other hand. I was delighted to capture this. And I immediately thought, “I am playing Mike Powell!”
Then I spotted one I could not photograph as it was too jumpy. It was a delightful almost turquoise. Have no idea what kind of damsel or dragonfly it was. Wished someone else was with me to capture the image.
We left that area and headed back to the car. And voila! There was another sort!
And another shot of same one. I even captured the shadow of it’s wings 🙂
Mike! Come help me in Ohio!!! Absolutely NO idea what this one is. I was walking near the east fork of the Little Miami river. It was a humid morning and the dog kindly cooperated while I took photos. What a champ!!
If you are interested in dragonflies and damselflies I cannot recommend a better site than https://michaelqpowell.com. He is a terrific photographer who also writes well. He is quite fun to follow. At least until he gets to the snakes.
Why are these important to me? First of all, my husband had this stone wall built to make it easier to garden on this portion of our hill. As you can see it is quite steep. Before we had the wall built I had started sweet peas from seed. I was delighted when they sprouted and bloomed for a couple years. When the men came to build the wall I asked if they might be able to save the sweet peas. They said yes. I failed to tell them where I wanted them to transplant the vine. Turns out they placed it smack dab in the center of the garden. As you can see the vines came back just fine! This year I decided instead of trying to train it I would just let it go over the wall.
But why is this flower memorable to me? Well, a dear friend told me about them. When I spotted them growing along a portion of the road we travel to get home I decided to try my hand at growing them.
Becky Sommer was my friend at school from at least 1959 (when we are pictured next to each other in the class photo). She is a highly talented artist whom I have always admired. Her parents were Dwight and Maria.
Dwight and Maria were married for 69 years before she passed at age 93. Her family was Russian and she was one of 8 children. She bore 6 children to Dwight. “Her creativity was expressed in her artwork and poetry, participation in Cincinnati’s Green Thumb Garden Club and All Saints Episcopal Church’s Altar Guild, flower arranging, and bringing style and warmth to her home and family.”
Dwight was music teacher at my cousins’ elementary school! He passed at age 98. “He was a gifted and beloved music educator at Elmwood Place School until his retirement in 1976. Dwight was so well loved and revered that 21 years after his retirement, the music room was dedicated to him. He continued to teach, mentor and follow the musical careers of many of his students until well into his 80’s.”
So besides being Becky’s parents why were these folks so meaningful to me? First off, Dwight drove me to high school along with Becky and maybe one or two others for years. Our high school was on his way to work. By playing our local classical radio station on the way to school he introduced me to a broad array of classical music!
When I joined the Episcopal church in 1965 who did I find there but the Sommer family! I had an immediate feeling of connection.
Maria once told me that when she and Dwight were dating he brought her bouquet of sweet peas. Evidently, he picked them on his way to see her. So growing them seemed like something I wanted to try. I know she had some flowers in her backyard, but don’t remember her growing them. I also remember she had terrible arthritis in her hands in her later years. I remember visiting once and being shocked to see braces on her wrists.
Still, why this strong connection to my friend’s parents? Well, when my family of origin blew up in 1968 I needed a place to live for a few months until my classes began at the University of Cincinnati. The Sommer family took me in. Maria had a huge old gas stove with a side drawer. Times I was upset she would sit me down for tea. Pulling out the crackers she stored in that drawer (being always warm the drawer kept them dry), she would fix me jelly on warm crackers to go with the tea. Then she would let me talk if I wanted to talk or just sit and compose myself. Cannot remember a better example of Christ’s love and compassion in my entire life, except maybe Mary Dirkse. She is another story for a different time.
I think Maria would approve of these vines hanging down from the stone wall, especially when the humidity leaves huge drops of dew on the flowers and leaves. Wish I had a nifty drawer to keep my crackers dry!
I know these folks are worshiping God on high. I pray their children and their children’s children follow Christ as closely as they did while here on earth! May I, too, live out their example while I walk the earth!
With all the racial unrest I felt it was time to express myself. When I was in first grade, Sharon McCreary’s house burned down. She lived near us. I urged my parents to invite her family for dinner. It was a no go. Her family was black.
We lived in Kennedy Heights, which at the time, was noted to be the most integrated neighborhood in the United States. I could not comprehend why we could not invite the McCreary’s for dinner. My mother was known to be a terrific cook and these folks were in need! Many years later I connected with Sharon. It was sweet to talk with her.
I always attended integrated schools. When I was in high school I was in the minority as a White Anglo Saxon Protestant. We were outnumbered by Black children and Jewish children. It gave me a chance to understand firsthand the dilemma of being a minority. I also learned how very different the Black culture was from how I was raised. And the Jewish culture bewildered me. I even visited the Temple on Plum Street around the time of one classmate’s Bar Mitzva or Bat Mitzva. (Coming of age ceremony.) It is a lovely building, but I almost asked where the cross was. Caught myself just in time before the question left my lips. I was/am so totally given over to Jesus that even at that age I could not comprehend not having Him in my life, or theirs.
In middle school Jackie Gibson gave me a 45 of the Duke of Earl. It was a great song and occasionally shows up today. He was a great fellow though a bit arrogant. He was also constantly teaching the entire class new dance moves whenever the teacher left the classroom. A nice Black fellow. There was a saying that it was better to live near a nice black family than white trash. I did not really understand the saying. I thought people were people regardless of color.
Cecil Williams was one of my favorite friends from school. He always had a kind word and seemed a gentle soul. He was Black. He lived with his grandmother nearby. Her front yard sloped down into a V and then back up to the house. She had a terrific garden with many hanging objects. I so wanted to go in her garden and into her house. I was never invited, but would have loved that. I heard years later from Sharon that he died very young.
I worked for a while at a residential rehab center for women called “Having the Courage to Change.” Lucretia and the gals were fine once they realized I was not a White do-gooder. I was hired as Lucretia’s assistant, taught a Bible study class and mentored some of the women. There were mostly Black women, but Brown and White women, too.
Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 (NRSV) There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. People were enslaved regardless of color at that time. We know that was not the case in American history. Can we learn to love regardless of color or ethnicity? Can we accept that just as we are forgiven by God, sinners saved by grace, so are others? Do we understand that different people have different experiences within the same society, just as within the same family?
Galatians 5:1 New Living Translation says: “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” I want to be set free and stay free to love each person who comes in to my life. I admit I sometimes have difficulty with the neighbor that totes his gun while walking his dog and threatens other dog owners. That seems rude. Yet, I am asked to love him. Some sections of the society say I must only love the ones who look like me and think like me. 1 Peter 2:8-10 (NLT2) And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” Perhaps He considers us royal Dukes and Duchesses.
No, I have not accomplished this kind of love. I pray the Lord will continue to grow me in acceptance of others, even others I do not agree with. Show us Lord, how to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Help us to be Your hands and feet on earth. You said they would know us by our love, not by our judgement of others. Help us to fulfill Your words, I pray.
Okay, so it turns out they had to pull eleven of her teeth when they brought her to Ohio. She evidently had tried to chew her way out of her “coop” for years. Just now she is able to be given crunchy kibble. We are still wetting it with some water for her and mixing with canned food. Eventually we will serve it dry with a little canned food and then, hopefully, just dry.
So the name debate has been “Sweetie” because everyone says she is a sweetie. But Bob doesn’t want to go to the door and holler, “Sweetie!” Then we moved to Lucky. Thought about Gummy Bear since she gums her food (though she has molars). Seemed a little mean. Bob thought up Chewbacca and called her Chewy. Grandgirl #1 taught us that Chewbacca was a male. So we have been tossing around Lucky and Chewy for a day or so. I think Lucky is the winner.
There is just nothing quite like watching TV with a soft beagle ear on your leg!
Robert has bordered on pet portrait here, don’t you think? She is starting to like him best. If he goes out to empty the compost she cries at the door. If he doesn’t come back soon enough she howls!
When we kenneled her recently to go the store together we could hear her barking in the house. When we returned she about flipped her tail off completely she wagged so hard!
She was bored the other day and brought me her leash out of the basket by the door. Yes, I took her for a walk. She can be beagle stubborn. If she does not want to go inside I have had to pick her up and carry her a ways. This old lady is getting a work out, not only increasing my daily steps, but lifting 20+ pounds with some regularity. Sometimes I just scoop her up to remind her she is mine and I want a cuddle.
Yep, I am a happy camper with this lovely beagle. Even though it means I swelter outside in nasty humid, hot Ohio summer weather. Oh well, I own plenty of dry clothes!
As my sister-in-law said even after you pick a name there will be pet names that might change day to day. So Lucky is a sweetie who may never know her name exactly, but she is learning some commands. In just one week she has gained our trust and grown our love exponentially. She is a keeper
Well, she did it. Tight as it was she slipped her collar and took off up our backyard into the woods. Even hot dog pieces did not stop her. So I went in the house, got my phone, sunglasses and took off after her hoping to head her off further along the woods. We used to have a trail in the green space to walk through the edge of the backyards. Between neighbors dumping over their fences and trees falling, especially from Asian longhorn beetles, the trail is now an obstacle course. EXCEPT for a little beagle! And maybe that helped slow her down? The nose on legs!
This is especially difficult when your dog does not know her name! I went down the street calling “Here, Lucky! Here Sweetie!” (the top two contenders for name.) Neighbors offered to be on the lookout. I told Troy’s beagle mutt if he found her to keep her there. I cut down the hill through Joy’s yard and into the woods. Troy’s dog barked and I thought it was at me. Then I realized there was noise besides just me in the woods. And there she was. I called and eventually lured her to me with a piece of hot dog. I called Bob to let him know I found her. He brought the car to Joy’s house. I fashioned a collar from the leash and began to guide her through the woods. The terrain was just too rough and her legs too short to follow me. She laid down.
So picture this old woman carrying a 20+ pound dog through the fallen, rotting trees and shrubs, on a hillside, uneven terrain, using tree trunks and honeysuckle branches to balance. Must have made someone laugh! As I got to the edge of the woods, I thought it was strange that Bob had changed his shirt. Nope, not Bob. The young man who had been sitting on his porch was coming to help me out of the woods. He had met Bob in the driveway and insisted on coming down. Except for the dead thorn bush that attacked my arm, I did pretty good!
We got her to the car and we were all exhausted. I drove home with Bob holding her on his lap. Had to bathe her in the utility tub in the garage as she (of course, beagle) had rolled in something. Got her into the office and she could not wait to nap. I am about ready to nap also.
This is a form of exercise that is good for me, but I would rather stay out of the woods! If she ever slips that collar again I will insist on taking her outside with the harness on and only the harness, not the collar for leash connection! Yikes.
Since March 17th or so when we began to learn more about and practice video church and video calls this song has been rolling around some place in the back of my mind. Of course, when it was written in 1967, we could barely imagine what a video phone was. Now most everyone carries the ability in their pocket! Previously I have occasionally used Whats App and even Face Time. I am grateful we can connect with our friends this way, but after so many years of in-person contact, it does get tiresome for this old lady.
Why must every generation think they’re folks are square? And no matter where they’re heads are, they know mom’s ain’t there. Cause’ I swore when I was small, that I’d remember when, I knew what’s wrong with them, that I was smaller than.
Determined to remember all the cardinal rules. Like, sun showers are legal grounds, for cutting school. I know I have forgotten maybe one or two. And I hope that I recall them all before the baby’s due. And I’ll know he’ll have a question or two.
Like, hey pop. Can I go ride my zoom? It goes two hundred miles an hour, suspended on balloons. And can I put a droplet of this new stuff on my tongue? And imagine puffing dragons, while you sit and wreck you’re lungs. And I must me permissive, understanding of the younger generation.
And then I know that all I’ve learned, my kid assumes. And all my deepest worries must be his cartoons. And still I’ll try to tell him all the things I’ve done, relating to what he can do when he becomes a man. And still he’ll stick his fingers in the fan.
And hey pop, my girlfriend’s only three. She’s got her own videophone, and she’s taking LSD. And now that were best friends, she want’s to give a bit to me. But whats the matter daddy? How come you’re turning green? Can it be that you can’t live up to your dreams?
So use your videophone, but skip the LSD. I’ve been told it can be brutal on the mind and body. Do not want to find out!
You see it started like this at League for Animal Welfare in Batavia. They try to give the dogs unique names so if you call in for records years later they can find the dog. They named her Shelia, which we all knew does not fit her.
She is a four year old very small beagle who likely was captive in a puppy mill before she escaped. She has had at least 2 litters of puppies. The vet at LFAW had to pull many of her teeth as they were worn down or rotted from chewing at the cage, trying to escape. She was found in Louis County, Kentucky at a kill shelter and transferred up here for adoption.
The above photos are our first visit. She was just as friendly on our second visit. By our third visit I was hooked as she sat on my lap for a long time. When the trainer put her in a harness to fit it for her ride home she stood stock still. Bob said, “Look! We trained her to stay!” I mean she would not move a muscle.
We brought her home in the car with Lizzie last Tuesday afternoon in same harness. She has been in shock. Getting to know us and trying to warm up to Bob. It is obvious that she was likely mistreated by a man. First night she slept in her new kennel all night without a sound! Yeah! I was not certain I would get any sleep at all that first night.
She likes out doors better than in. Sits and stares at the street or about the yard. Had not had a wild fling yet, but they warned us she is likely a runner. Suggested we not put her in a fenced yard as she would likely try to dig her way out. Good thing, because our yard is much too hilly to fence!
First hours home. Giving Lizzie kisses after Lizzie LET her drink form her water glass. Rotten Grandgirl!
With her favorite toy from the shelter!
For now, we do not have a name. The candidates are Sweetie (because everyone says she is so sweet) or Lucky (because we are her family and we are glad to have her). She does not know a name.
Stories will follow as she relaxes and we find out what she is really like!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 