February Non-Stop

Whew! February just isn't quitting. Maybe it gets hyperstimulated because it wants to have as much stuff crammed into it as its neighbors January and March. Makes it hard for me to retrieve the threads of all that is going on.

The various pictures in my library and some posted by others is giving me plenty to think about and to share. First, there is Keoni's Iowa story--literally--in Burlington's The Hawk Eye article, "Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra Brings Love and Warm Breezes to Town". His name appears about halfway down the article.

As an aside, it's great seeing a smaller town newspaper thriving in the mega-media shift going on in our electronic world.

Sandy drove up to attend the concert in Iowa from the St. Louis area and Jeanenne and Larry drove up, too.

Sandy shared some photos and video...

This one flips sideways for about a half-minute, or so, then settles back to horizontal.

...and Keoni had some time with his Missouri aunts and uncle...

Jeanenne, Keoni, Sandy, and Larry.

Here's a good place to go out of the general timeline...when Sandy was home again she drew this...

Back to Iowa: Keoni had a loaner car for visiting the area schools giving music demos and talks for students. He stopped for a little site-seeing here and there...





He has more about his Iowa adventures on Facebook.

While the Iowa adventures were going on we had a very sodden snowfall that bowed trees and power lines. When it began, it was evening and a very strange light made the outdoors sort of glow...

This is at 8 p.m. No, it isn't edited. It snowed on all night. It was my good fortune that it was also about 34 degrees so never piled up against the house foundation which requires some shoveling; instead, there was a six-inch melted border all along the foundation.

The lilac bush in the side yard.

Much of the remainder of the time was spent gathering information and filling out forms for possible senior housing. Akin to doing taxes five times in one year, it gobbled up just over two weeks and another day to go over the results with the housing coordinator so she can clear away all doubt for all time that I am an honest, bill-paying, upstanding citizen who hasn't had and won't have wild parties or run a meth lab in the bathroom.

Then, I really did do my taxes.

***

There was sad news from Wendy that barn kitty Patches had died. She was one of the three that came with the property when Wendy and John bought it. Wendy thinks Patches was already old at that time. That just leaves Toby as the sole cat resident at the barn. Wendy said he showed signs of missing Patches and sent this forlorn picture of him.

A call came from California and I learned from the daughter of my old friend Gene that she had died. We all knew that Gene's dementia was taking her from us yet it still was particularly sad news. She was a long-lasting, very good friend who had accomplished a great deal in her life coming from a rural, one-room, Missouri schoolhouse to a Chief Nursing Administrator of multi-facility elder care homes while raising three children by herself. She was lovingly cared for by her daughter who said she had red roses she was so fond of by her bedside when she died. Later, that same afternoon I was given a red rose at a store where I stopped in on my way to Ash Wednesday service at church.

In memory of my dear friend Eugenia D'Arlene Huber Chapman.

Sandy took this picture while taking a walk over in Missouri and sent it to me around this time. It is a balm.

***

Yesterday, it was time to go into the city again. Aidan was in his PYO Orchestra Concert at Kimmel Center.

Wendy captured this as they left him off for his 11:15 a.m. call. I met them later when I came on the train.

It is verboten to take performance videos or pictures but I captured this as they were taking a bow.

I think he saw his mom and dad just then.

Life stirs with such great joys and such great sorrows. It makes moments I love into moments all the more to cherish.

Surprise!

One week ago on a Monday morning, Wendy started her barn chores and found a surprise. I went over to the farm to see...

Surprise!

On the saddles Toby registered his non-excitement...

Only a day or so later, Wendy sent this...





So, little Surprise is faring well with his new mama Ophelia.

Then, I got down to brass tacks and began an assemblage of mountainous paperwork for a possible senior housing apartment among the Mennonites of Lansdale. A week later and I'm at the top of a paper mountain starting to descend the downward slope hoping to finish in plenty of time to get ready for Gloria's arrival from Tucson and Marge's arrival from Charleston, which by some unplanned miracle, brings them to Philadelphia International within two hours of each other. Marge will pursue a committment she has here before returning to resume her wintering in Charleston while Gloria and I head to the Philadelphia Flower Show and another day to Longwood Garden's Orchid Extravaganza.

Keoni has been busy visiting Iowa schools. The Ottumwa Courier published a nice story about it. By the week's end another surprise was a text from him that he was on his way to St. Louis with the conductor to hear the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He texted from there...

Sandy, at some point picked him up and took him out to Jeanenne and Larry's where he stayed the night. (I think.) There, a big bunch of his cousins had quickly gathered for the impromptu visit. Here they are...

The Clark family, and Keoni and Sandy. And that's not all of them! Some were away visiting other grandparents.

Keoni has, no doubt returned to Iowa for the rest of his two-week stay there. Next weekend he'll have three orchestra performances.

This weekend Aidan played in a very enjoyable PMEA Concert. After the concert...

He and his brother are getting together sometime next month and playing at the church here. Keoni will be back on Spring Break. (I think.)

Sandy continues to draw and shared some again...

From her visit to the Flight 93 Memorial here in PA.

Marge takes four-mile walks in Charleston and shared some sights she encounters there...

Back here in PA the seagulls that hang out around a shopping center about a half mile away were grounded in the pouring, 34-degree rain...

It's a couple days ahead, but it's always a good time to send some love your way...

Bliss Visits Philadelphia

What can I say? A rhetorical quandary. The EAGLES WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!! last night. Philadelphia poured back into the streets. Fireworks resounded throughout the region. What a game, what a win!

Now it's a morning of pink clouds, sunlit crystals, and smiles.

Keoni sent this from O'Hare Int'l in Chicago where he was delayed for NINE hours on his trip from Georgia to Iowa. He made it and so did the suitcase.

From Keoni on Sunday waiting in O'Hare.

Around my own environs there were.Eagles shirts everywhere, Eagles flags flying from car windows, green, following the benediction at the end of Sunday's church service the postlude was "Fly Eagles Fly", followed by an irreligious rendition of "Raise You Up on Eagles Wings" by the choir and congregation, and a local Mennonite church displayed Soar with the Eagles on their outdoor message sign.

And, I can anticipate Aidan's district concert and get there with my pony Subaru this coming weekend. It is dead of winter, so I'll not attempt to get to Keoni's two weeks in Iowa that culminate in a weekend of concerts this month. He's soloing with the violin and with the viola. His Aunt Sandy in neighboring state Missouri got tickets and hotel reservations already. Weather is a factor since this is driving from mid-Missouri into Iowa. Here's the website... Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra. Scroll down a little bit to the concerts.

Jeanenne has sewn together the top of the quilt she has been making...

It's king-size so not all visible. You get the idea.

Sandy continues her pencil drawing adventures with a rendering of this latter day of your's truly...

The grey days have outnumbered the sunny, but here and there winter's imprint is, gratefully, illuminated by the sun...

A couple of frozen nests await spring occupancy.

Afternoon with the moon.

On the opposite end of bliss on life's spectrum lies paperwork. There was much. Many days these past two weeks were grey and wanting in splendor. Perhaps a bit of gratitude slipped in, after all; my mind and body can still sift this stuff. And, some Jonquils from friend Pat sat on my desk...