Happy Halloween

I celebrated Halloween today in an unusual way. I drove 60 miles to Dodge City, Minnesota for a wedding that started at 1 p.m. A light rain was falling as we sat outside. All the men on the bride's side of the aisle wore green and all the men on the groom's side of the aisle wore blue. I have known this bride since her birth as I was the birthing coach. She wore a beautiful white dress. This was a pagan wedding. The officiant was her younger cousin and he did a great job. They did a hand binding. As the bride and groom held hands a strip of cloth was looped around both of their forearms. I had not seen that before. I believe it is a Celtic custom. The wedding was held at a former farm. There was a building for a photo booth. There was a building for the bathrooms. The dinner was held in the first floor of a barn and the dance was held upstairs. We had tacos for dinner. I didn't do any dancing but I watched the others dance. The bride danced almost every single dance and she was good at dancing. What a wonderful way to celebrate Halloween.

Something To Look Forward To

 I am a big fan of Fannie Flagg's writing so I was happy to find Something To Look Forward To at my library. This is a collection of short stories from all over the country. The writing is charming and hilarious.

 

 

In The Lake Of The Woods

Tim O'Brien served in the Vietnam war and that is the topic in many of his books including In The Lake Of the Woods. There are stories in here regarding the May Lai massacre that are hard to read. The soldier at the massacre goes on to run for a U.S. Senate seat. When the story is published that he was part of the massacre he and his wife go up to the Lake of the Woods to relax and avoid scrutiny. Later, when it turns out his wife is missing, he acts suspiciously. This was a difficult yet important book to read.

 

 

Timber Rattlesnakes

Last night I went to the historical center for a lecture on timber rattlesnakes which are present in the southeastern corner of the states including here in Winona. The talk was given by Stephen Winter who works for the U.S. Fish And Wildlife (when the government isn't shut down). He is not allowed to work or talk about volunteering at work but since he volunteers when he is off work he can talk about his work with timber rattlesnakes. When off work and he gets a call, he will go to a home owner's house and safely remove the timber rattlesnake and take it to a safe place. The safe place has to be within a half mile other wise the snake won't get back to it's winter den. The snakes come in two phases; the yellow phase and the black phase. The snakes don't change color. If they're born yellow they stay yellow. If born black they stay black. He collects up to 20 snakes some summers. Most of the calls come in July. The earliest is May and the latest calls are in October. Timber rattle snakes are not aggressive. The number of rattles indicate how many times the snake has shed it's skin. Sometimes the rattles can be broken off. He does not get paid for this work. His reward is seeing a timber rattlesnake. If bitten by a timber rattlesnake the pain is horrendous. Medical advice includes laying down, calling 911 for help and keep the bite lower than the rest of your body. Try to remain calm and keep your heart rate low. All of the snakes he has collected here in Winona have been up on the goat prairie on the right side of Garven Heights road. Up until 1989 there was a bounty on timber rattlesnakes. Rattlesnake hunters could go to a den in the spring or the fall and kill they as they left or returned to the den. That is why there are so few left.

 

Score

Every fall I scour the stores and markets looking for Haralson apples. These are the species of apples we  had in our back yard. No apple tastes as good as a Haralson. I found a big bag at Midtown Market today.

 

The Donner Reed Party

 On Tuesday morning the Winona Historical Society has learning parties. Today was my first one and the topic was the Donner Reed party. The same teacher who taught my arboretum class taught this one. The party consisted of 87 people traveling from Missouri to the San Francisco area. They decided to take the advice of Hastings who knew of a short cut. He had taken the short cut by horse which is way different that people walking besides horse and oxen pulling wagons. Due to spring rains they got a late start. That winter was the second heaviest snowfall at the Donner pass in history. Half the people died. We looked through the date on deaths and survivals. More people over fifty died. Men who were wagon masters and living on their own tended to die unless they were a wagon master with a wealthy family. More women survived because women have between 1 and 2 percent more body fat than men. Some people left via snow shoe and about half of them survived. Four rescue parties were sent up to Donner Pass. When they got there they saw nothing. The cabins were completely covered in snow. Some of the first rescue made it. The second rescue had to be rescued by the third rescue. By the time of the fourth rescue only one man was left. Yes, there was some cannibalism. All the game animals left before the snows packed them in. Interesting story. Hastings was never prosecuted even though his advice killed a lot of settlers. None of those accused of murder for cannibalism were ever prosecuted.

 

 

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch is the author of The Last Lecture. Jeffrey Zaslow was a co-writer. Randy was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Faced with death at an early age he decided to record his last lecture as a gift to his children. His wisdom and his encouragement for us to grab the most out of every moment will be his final legacy.

 

 

The Four Romanticisms

 Today I took my first (of 8) classes in the four romanticisms. I am afraid I am in over my head. This class is taught by a retired English professor. The topics include English, philosophy, and linguistics. I was very confused. For next week our assignment is to read a six page essay entitled "What was revolutionary about the French Revolution?" by Robert Darnton. Towards the end of the class things started making more sense. Our teacher does not have a positive outlook on the future of our society. He said part of the problem is that people are not reading paper books. They are reading e books on their phones. The other problem, according to the teacher, is that many college courses are taught via Zoom. If people could meet in person they can exchange ideas and ask each other for help. Will I stick this course out until the bitter end? This remains to be seen. I think it is good to be challenged.

My Train Leaves At Three

 Natalie Guerrero is the author of the coming of age novel called My Train Leaves At Three. Xiomara is thirty years old and she lives with her ultra Catholic Puerto Rican mother after her older sister suddenly died. She wants to be a singer and an actress. She works two minimum wage jobs. One job is a photo developer. The other is a singing waitress at a diner. Xiomara can sing really well. Even with both jobs she isn't able to keep up on the rent payments. Her mother is so grief stricken by her sister's death that she hasn't worked for months. How will she get ahead in this world where the men hold all the cards? The story has a happy ending for which I am glad.

 

 

The River's Daughter

 Bridget Crocker is the author of the auto-biographical novel called The River's Daughter. Bridget grew up in California. Her father was violent so her mother moved her and her little brother to Wyoming. They lived in a trailer house near the Snake River. Her mother married another man and they had a happy life together. When her Mom was 45 she underwent a drastic personality change. From an attentive and church going mother, she now had an inattentive and wild mother who took off with an eco-terrorist into the mountains. Bridget had a hard life. Sometimes she led wilderness hikes with her mother and her new man. She eventually trained to be a white water rapids guide on the Snake River. Later she and her boyfriend went to Africa and guided trips there. I enjoyed reading about her travels and all the rapids she went through.

 

 

Theft

Theft is a novel written by a Nobel Prize in Literature winner Abdulrazak Gumah. The story is about three people from Tanzania, Karim, Fauzia, and Badar. The time spans from the 1980's to the 2000's. Karim rises from an overlooked child to a government official overseeing environmental initiatives in Zanzibar. Karim marries Fauzia who is an accomplished teacher. Badar is taken to work at Karim's mother's home. He starts out as a lowly house boy but rises with his hard work and good attitude to be a great cook and an important member of the household. Later, at Karim's advice, he moves to Zanzibar to work at a hotel. Badar becomes an important person in the marriage of Karim and Fauzia. This wonderful historical fiction novel is about belonging and identity.

 

  

This Kind Of Trouble

Tochi  Eze is the author of the historical fiction novel This Kind Of Trouble. Set in Lagos in the early 1960's two people fall in love. Margaret is a headstrong secretary. Benjamin was born in the British Isles but his father was half Nigerian. He could pass as a Caucasian. They visit Margaret's family to ask for their blessing. The village priest says they should not marry because one of Margaret's ancestors never paid for his sins against the village people. They marry anyway. Margaret has mental health problems. She sees creatures in her house and they talk to her. After the birth of their daughter, Benjamin flees from Margaret's mental health problems leaving her behind alone except for a baby. They don't see each other again until 2005 when Benjamin's and Margaret's grandson starts to show signs of the same mental illness. This is a sad and complicated story but still worth the read.

 

 

Blazing Star And Lead Plant

This morning and part of the afternoon I traveled to the Nature Conservancy office at Weaver Dunes to collect prairie seeds for a new section of land that is being converted from farm to prairie. The weather was foggy and cool and I started out with a sweatshirt and two fleece jackets. When I left I had just the sweatshirt on.

We had about 25 people helping. We had five priority species to focus on plus ten secondary species. I decided to focus on two priority species.

I filled a quarter of a paper envelope with lead plant seeds. The orange is my water bottle. The blue are my shoes. Lead plant can have roots 10 to 15 feet in length. Lead plant prefers dry and sandy soil. Lead plant is in the legume family so it secures nitrogen in the soil.

We collected a couple of gallons of blazing star. I started out putting the seeds in an envelope but quickly dropped that idea and put the blazing star seeds into a milk jug I had attached to my pants. Monarch butterflies and other butterflies appreciate blazing star. While we were working a half dozen bald eagles flew over our heads-a good omen, not? One guy found the shell of a map turtle.

 

Typewriter Beach

Meg Waite Clayton is the author of the historical fiction novel called Typewriter Beach. The story is told from two timelines, the 1950's and the 2010's. The setting is Los Angeles and Carmel By The Sea. Leon Chazan was a successful screenwriter in Los Angeles until he was black listed for refusing to answer questions about Communism. Now he lives in Carmel By The Sea. He brings his chair and his typewriter out to the beach and times screen plays he knows he can't sell unless someone else takes credit for his work. Isabella Giori is an actress in Hollywood hoping for a part in Alfred Hitchcock's new play. She is 10 months into a standard seven year contract. A Hollywood "fixer" takes her to a small cottage at Carmel By The Sea and tells her to stay inside and not come out. People will bring her food and necessities. When she is awoken at 5 a.m. by the sound of Leon's typewriter she goes to his cottage to complain. Soon they take off together for car rides to Big Sur. Leon never gets off the black list. Isabella gets some big roles. After Leon dies his granddaughter, Gemma, comes out to his place to go through his things. Gemma is also a play writer. She learns much about Leon's work. In fact, other movies credited to other writers were big hits. This wonderful story is about the difficulties of being a woman, being a writer, and being famous.

 

 

Northern Catalpa

Today was my second class at Winona State University about their arboretum. I left my place at noon and was walking there when I came upon this house that I have walked past numerous times before without noticing this figure on the chimney. To me I see a devil with horns and a short tail holding the head of a male human. What kind of person chooses such a bizarre chimney attachment? How had I missed it before?

We met at the gazebo. Our class held about 25 people, all retired. We were given a booklet, paper, a clipboard and crayons. Our assignment was to commune with a tree we thought was interesting. From my seat in the gazebo I spotted the tallest, greenest tree around so that is where I went. This is a northern catalpa tree. This tree has elongated seed pods. This tree brings back fond memories. When Offspring #1 was in fifth grade I volunteered to help on a field trip. His teacher was in her last year of teaching and physically she couldn't keep up anymore. We had 3 women chaperones. One kept wandering off to smoke but the other mother and I kept to our duties. One girl's camera kept falling apart. I think I put that thing together six times. Once we noticed a couple of kids had been walking on top of a wall. They kept going and now they were inside the animal enclosure. We yelled at them to come back and they did safely. For lunch we had a picnic under a catalpa tree. I had never noticed one before. I opened the seed pod to find beautiful brown, shiny, waxy beans inside. I stuck the bean in my pocket. When I got back to work I put the bean in my desk drawer. Every once in awhile I took it out and rubbed it. Why? I don't know. The bean gave me pleasure I guess. I kept that bean until my retirement and I had to clean out my desk. I like catalpa trees!

 

Seaside Sunshine

 I picked up Seaside Sunshine at the Winona Public Library. I didn't know it at the time but this is the sixth in a series of nine novels by Kay Corell. Darlene runs an bed and breakfast on a seaside home on an island in North Carolina. She was abandoned by her young husband before she gave birth so she worked hard to raise her son. Now her granddaughter is helping her run the bed and breakfast. In comes a new customer to the bed and breakfast. Mark comes here to get away from his grief filled like at home. His wife died two years ago. So far he hasn't been able to move any of her things. Her coffee cup is still on the kitchen counter. Her toothbrush is in the bathroom. Mark has not been able to write since she died; not a single word. His editor is putting pressure on him to write the next book. He hopes living in this bed and breakfast will help him escape the writer's block that is crippling him. Staying here with Darlene does help him start writing. Darlene's kind friendship helps as well. This is a cute story. I suppose it would be considered women's fiction but I liked it.

 

 

Flamer

This week the banned book club met at the Winona public library to discuss Flamer, written by Mike Curato. This is a graphic novel about a boy at a summer camp two weeks before he starts high school. He was bullied at the Catholic school he attended before so he is looking forward to the change. He enjoys the time at camp though. His home is not a safe place and he worries about his younger twin brothers. He enjoys campfires, picnics and sleeping in a tent with another boy. Although he hasn't worked it out in his head yet, he is gay. He corresponds daily with a younger girl named Violette and she knows all of his secrets. I am not a big fan of graphic novels but I did enjoy this story. 

 

 

The Last Lecture

 Randy Pausch cowrote The Last Lecture with Jeffrey Zazlow of the Wall Street Journal. Randy decided to write this book after learning he had 3 to 6 months to live. He had pancreatic cancer. His oldest child, a five year old would probably remember him but the two younger kids wouldn't. He decided to put a life time of fatherly advice into this book. He wrote for his children. The book has 9 chapters and is full of good advice. It was a best selling book in 2008. Randy was a Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He also worked for six months at Disneyland. His hero was Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek. He eventually got to meet William Shatner at this virtual reality lab in college. Although the book is sad because the author will die it is also inspirational.

 

 

Absolution

 Alice McDermott is a great writer. In Absolution she writes about Saigon, Vietnam in 1963. Tricia is newly married to a wonderful man who works for an oil company in Saigon. There she meets other young wives among the lush plants, stunningly high heat, and insects. Tricia meets Charlene who is cunning and manipulative. Charlene comes up with a plan to have her dressmaker make clothes for Barbie dolls to distribute at hospitals, orphanages and even a leper colony. Tricia goes along with Charlene's ideas until she doesn't. Fifty years later Charlene's daughter, Rainy reconnects with Tricia and they trade memories of like in Saigon together. This book is wonderfully written.

 

 

WSU Arboreteum

Today I went to Winona State University for a class in the University for Seniors. This class was about the WSU arboretum. On campus they care for every native tree that grows in Minnesota. Many of the trees have a sign at the base of the tree and also a QR code so you can get more information from your phone. We have another class next Friday which will be outside looking at the trees. I am looking forward to that.

 

Anxious People

 I listened to a new book by one of my favorite authors named Fredrik Backman. He wrote A Man Called Ove. This book is named Anxious People. The author lives in Sweden. In this story a real estate agent is holding a viewing for an apartment for sale. Eight people are attending the viewing. Two are an elderly married couple. Another couple is having a baby any day now. Another young couple, an 87 year old woman who comes to viewings because she is bored and a younger man who is paid to disrupt the viewing. The real estate agent hides in a shaft above the closet. A bank robber comes in and takes them all hostage. The bank robber needs the money because her husband left her with her two kids, took all the money. If she can't pay the rent the courts will give custody of the children to him. They spend hours together drinking wine they found in the closet. They order pizza. The police bring up the pizza. The bank robber says she will let them go free. Now the people in the viewing want to protect her. This charming story is humorous, wise and compassionate.

 

 

The Boy From The Sea

 In the book The Boy From the Sea, the story starts in 1973 in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. A boy, merely days old, is found in a bucket in the sea. A man sees him and carries him to down. As the author, Garret Carr, writes, the boy is adopted by Ambrose and Christine who already have a two year old son named Declan. They decide to adopt this boy and name him Brendan. Ambrose has a fondness for Brendan. Declan gets jealous and rightly so. Ambrose is a fisherman more comfortable on the sea than on land. Declan decides to go into the fishing industry so he can be closer with his father. I greatly enjoyed reading this historical fiction novel set in Ireland.