Reub's journey

14 May 2009

Home to Wisconsin

There was a robin nesting in her magnificent home by the rain gutter.

I just returned from a trip home to Wisconsin, and am still recovering from the red-eye flight returning to Oregon, the school open house the first night back, and today the set-up for the school district art show. The trip itself was a chance to see my family, my childhood home, and the woods and farmland around it. Of course we celebrated Mother's Day with my mother, who is turning 88 years old this week. She is doing quite well; recently she set off the alarm she wears (in case of a fall) by crushing her armload of firewood too tightly to her chest as she loaded the wood stove: how many 88 year old women have done that?

It was fun to walk in the woods in the mild May weather, and to see the familiar plants.

The Jack-in-the-Pulpit is always special.

Part of the woods is a wetland, and the skunk cabbage was robust this year.

I used to call these "umbrella plants" but they are really may apples, or mandrake

2 comments:

  1. i'm sad that you were close by and i didn't get to see you...next time, please?

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  2. Yeah, I know. The last few years John and I have taken solo trips like this one, and it means we only see one half of the family. Some how 1/2 of the family fills up 100% of the time, though. I end up spending the time with my mother, for whom I am grateful to have this limited time.

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