A favorite flower that came to my attention while living in the ashram is, alas, also a favorite of the deer who graze our yard. Like other fav blooms, this has gained a host of warm associations ad memories over the years.
Category: Postcards
Small-town Fourth
The codfish relay, using local salmon, is one of our many Fourth of July and Homecoming Week traditions.
Pitcher plants after a goodly rain
An ascent of Mount Washington in New Hampshire in 1974 and then in the high country the Cascade Mountains starting two years later introduced many magical arctic flowers to my awareness, along with prickly pear cactus in the desert to the east where I lived and worked for four years.
The fly-eating pitcher plants, found in arctic peat bogs in our corner of Maine and New Brunswick, continue that exotic delight.
Lupine island
I came to appreciate lupines in the high country of the Cascade mountains in Washington state. They proliferate on the island in Maine where I now live, too.
Apples to be
Although I lived near an apple orchard in Indiana, the blossoms became a special memory once we made the big move after that, as you’ll see. These are beside our house in Maine.
Her namesake
Reminders of a very special introduction I had while living in Upstate New York. We’re still in touch all these years later.
Not-so-smiley faces
Violas.
Blue pride
Warm weather brings out old car buffs who love to show off their restoration efforts. Owners will sometimes drive hours just to show off their pride and joy, sometimes then just cruising up and down the Ave.
Did He rise? Hear it, ye nations!
Music written with distinctive shapes for each pitch became a way of training American amateurs to sing harmony in a choir. Fa-so-la plus mi, rather than do-re-mi, for starters. Known as shape-note singing, it led to a distinctive style of hymn performance called Sacred Harp, especially popular in the South. Here’s a bit from the Easter Anthem by colonial New England composer and tanner William Billings. I learned the piece with Mennonites and can attest that shape notes can be so much fun.
The bluest sky
The intense depth of color in a frigid winter sky stirs up memories of living in the interior Far West, where its usual lack of humidity produced similar firmaments through the hottest seasons. Consider this, then, from coastal Maine, a preview of some journal entries ahead.
Jnana's Red Barn 