Michigan photos....August 2011

Grandma Fiedler's house in Port Huron, MI

           
Standing on the Port Huron waterfront in downtown ...You can see the freightor in the background.  The Blue Water bridge to Canada is just south of this location.

The Krystal Bar in old Port Huron...dad designed and built the bar....now it is famous for Chicken in the Rough!!  We ate there one eve.....delicious!!

                                        Cousin
                                     Val Hartel and her daughter Lorie in Val's living room.

                                   Cousin Val and her daughter Kimmee on the front porch at Val's

                   Enjoying some fresh air at Val's home......Marshall, Val, and me....Sandy is taking the
                      photo.
                    Val's home is in Imlay....a bustling burg of about 3,000 and home to Vlasic pickles!!

                        
                      Cousin Barb Forte and her husband in front of Val's home in Imlay, MI

                                  
                     Bob and Barb Forte and me on Val's porch.
                               

                                      
                   Sisters  Sandy Spencer, Barb Forte, Val Hartel and me on Val's porch.....Mary Jane, another sister was not able to join us.   The girls are Louis Fiedler's daughters.

                    Brett and Barbie (Sandy's daughter)  at the Krystal Bar...waiting for Chicken in the
                           Rough!

                  A view from the balcony at Sandy's condo in Port Huron....freightors pass frequently.

               Eileen and Jim Collins at their home in North Street, MI.....Eileen is another cousin.She was   Steve Fiedler's daughter.

More Bunnies....2012

 

Spring Photos

Hello, Fiddler Kin.  The semester is finally over, and now I have time to reconnect with my family.  Yay!  And what better way to do that than to post photos we've taken over the past few months and use them to tell a story.  I know you're excited about this.  Above, is a shot of our newly-reupholstered furniture, which came with the house (but started off in lovely 70s orange and green).  Trent's mom had it reupholstered for us and picked out the fabric herself.  She did a great job.

Here are some photos from my parents' visit in April.  They came to visit and watch the performance of John Rutter's Requiem by my church choir.  We always enjoy their visits, as do Eloise and Booley.  The other animals are fairly indifferent.

And here are a few of the best shots from Easter 2012 in Emporia.  We've got some sweet little wabbits in our family.

And now onto home improvement project #35: rebuilding the patio.  About 6-7 weeks ago I returned home from work on a Saturday evening to find Trently jack-hammering the concrete patio.  Oh my.  We spent the next several weekends removing the concrete and taking it the dump or placing it artfully in our backyard.

If you look way back in the photo below, you can see the rock (a.k.a. concrete patio) pile.  And where did all these bricks come from?  Why, from our back yard, of course.  They were being used in miniature patios and as borders all over the place.  There were approximately 2,500 bricks in our backyard, and now a good deal of them are in our patio.  Essentially, our back yard bricks and concrete patio traded places.  Pretty slick, tater chip.  Or, as I like say, the height of jackass-ocity. 

But look how pretty it is.  Trent is an artist.  He has a vision.  I don't always understand it, but when his vision is complete, it's pretty damn sweet.

And here's the front yard landscaping.  Trent dug up some ancient Junipers a few months ago and replaced them with rose bushes and azaleas.  We need to grab some lariopi from my folks to put around our non-functional light pole.

Home sweet home.  Fifties style.  Aww, yeah.

Easter fun

The Easter season has been a joy this year.....first, a lovely Palm Sunday weekend in Wichita with Katie, Trent, and Eloise ......Saturday's schedule included walking Eloise around their quiet tree filled neighborhood, trenching the ground for downspout drains (Marshall and Trent), tasting new recipes by Katie (loved the spinach/artichoke dip). The Hawks provided some real excitement that evening initially trailing and finally winning their spot in the NCAA Championship game!! Watching the game was fun but seeing Trent's passion for his team was even better!!

On Sunday Katie and fellow choir members offered a beautifully moving performance of Requiem .....the sacredness of these holy days recalled in song. Always a pleasure to travel to Wichita and briefly share time together!!

Our family Easter picnic yesterday in Emporia was the next step of the seasonal celebration.....fortunately Honor reserved a wonderful indoor space at their apartment.....a park venue would have been rained out!! A spring buffet of salads, bunny ears, Easter egg hunts....gee, what would we do without small people to make us smile...Mya, in her fabulous pink couture, toddling along taking in the sights; Jacob, Jessica, and James happily looking for treat filled eggs and flinging bubbles on the patio. And, once the sun popped out, a little kickball led by sports leaders Honor and Katie on the Village School playground.

Bringing families and generations together in a congenial setting is a highlight of any holiday. It was great to catch the news from Matthew and Breceda, Connie and James, Monica, Beth and Peter, and Katie and Trent !! Us old folks have lots of reason to celebrate ....praise the Lord!!

Marshall.....the snake whisperer!!

Shortly after sunrise (7:30 am) Marshall and I began our least favorite lawn project....raking leaves from along the chain link fence on the east side of the house. Every year we mutter "why didn't we mow/mulch one more time last fall."

Carefully we scooped up assembled piles of brittle leaves, dumping them into heavy duty brown paper leaf bags.....until I noticed something wriggling and writhing at my feet!! I squealed! Sudden exposure to the 55 degree morning air had roused a resident baby garter snake. Disturbed from his hidey space, he coiled himself and began his threatening "strike gestures." Our angry reptile could sense where we were and aimed his wide open pink mouth in our direction.

Wondering what to do we decided to put a purple plastic flower pot close to him as a signal to ourselves to walk a wide path. Neither of us wanted to relocate Mr. Snake via rake and risk him slithering up the handle toward us. Such "nervous Nellies!"

Marshall monitored the snake's location.....all the while chatting with it......"the sun will come out...it will warm up." After a while Marshall (the naturalist) decided to use a long stick to move this chilled harbinger of summer to a spot close to a fence post. Periodically he checked on the snake while offering further words of encouragement......the Snake Whisperer.....probably not for hire!

It's Snowing today in Overland Park!!

White silky petals float aimlessy to curbs and driveways like a fine dusting of snow...the Bradford pears are shedding their lovely lacey flowers; green leaves tentatively unfurl. It is snowing flowers in Overland Park!!

Spring has sprung ...the wonderful ornamental shrubs and trees are putting on a show! Gray rainy days provide a backdrop for brilliant yellow forsythia, soothing purple redbuds, lush pink flowering crabs, and graceful whitebud blossoms. My lone columbine has emerged....I will have to fence it with chicken wire to keep bunnies away...they do seem to love this plant. My jonquils are fading but the tulips are stepping up to take their place. Daily the thin reedy iris shoot up another inch....flower stems will follow....I can hardly wait to see these colorful flags.

Ah....joyous spring....renewal!! Enjoy!

ellen

KC Weekends......

Whew....when you cannot remember your blog password things get a little tricky...but now I have written it down....thank you Katie!!

Marshall and I have also been entertained quite nicely this past weekend. Friday night we ushered at the KC Rep for a premier production of The Great Immensity presented at the Copaken Theater in downtown KC, MO. This drama/musical presents scientific info on climate change, rain forests, the gulf stream and saving polar bears via creative, lively lyrics. Saving a species is easier when a large furry white mammal is at risk...less interesting when an insect becomes extinct. Environmentally conscious Student Ambassadors representing many nations board (illegally) The Great Immensity, a Chinese container vessel. In a bid to call attention to the extinction of humans......the Ambassadors vanish (almost) without a trace.
The world's attention is suddenly focused on their disappearance....at the play's end we are left to ponder out fate as a species if we choose to continue to corrupt the planet. Lots of material; lots of questions.

Saturday night we ushered again for The Rep. The Plaza location presented The Whipping Man...another premier. A gravely wounded Confedrate soldier returns to his battered home to find two of his former slaves barely surviving in post Civil War North Carolina. Early in the first act the soldier's gangrenous leg must be cut off...on stage; pretty grisly/realistic. Slaves and former master must redifine their relationship.... secrets revealed are intense
and even more horrifying than the amputation scene. Very well acted drama.

Sunday Andy and I attended the opera Nixon in China at the Kauffman Center. Amazingly well done with exellent female voices, staging, and lighting. I was really amazed by the whole production. The version I saw on PBS television performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York looked like a Saturday Night Live parody by comparison. KC knows how to opera!!!

Anyway....this weekend we have the tax man to look forward to....yikes!!

Wichita Happenings

Spring break has arrived, and I'm getting caught up on various tasks at work and at home, including posting on the blog.  Woohoo!

Like Honor, I am taking advantage of some of the cool things to do in my new city.  This past weekend, and friend and I went to the opera at WSU, and we saw a performance of Il Viaggio a Rheims by Rossini.  It was fabulous!  Funny, visually and mentally stimulating, wonderful acting and singing.  The English translation of the Italian lyrics was projected onto a screen above the performers.  I think I like the opera, and I definitely need to make a point of attending at least one event on campus each semester.  Last year, I attended an a cappella choir performance (fabulous!), and this past summer Trent and I attended an outdoor bluegrass concert at the Ulrich Museum. 

Yesterday, a friend introduced me to the Nifty Nuthouse in downtown Wichita, and I definitely plan to go back.  I got some Chicago-style popcorn (cheddar and carmel--yummy!), ultimate malt balls, and some butter toffee pecans.  So, so good.

And, last but not least, I'm actually involved in an upcoming performance that I'm both excited and nervous about.  My church choir (College Hill United Methodist Church) is performing John Rutter's Requiem on Palm Sunday (April 1).  A lot of it is in Latin, and it's one of the hardest selections of music that I've ever encountered; even the experienced musicians in the choir agree that it's difficult.  It definitely challenges my brain and my ego, as I fumble over the pronunciations and the notes.

Here's a selection from the Requiem.  It starts getting good at about 2:15:

My folks will be down in Wichita that weekend to see the performance with Trent.  Anyone else is welcome to come too.  We can have brunch at our house afterward.

Hope to see you all in Emporia on April 7 for some Easter Egg hunting.  Perhaps Jacob, Isaiah, Mya, and Hudson will receive more instructions from the Easter Bunny (The Easter Bunny says "Dance!").

Walk Forward

I recently attended a wonderful concert in Beach Hall on ESU's campus. The Japanese Association Sakura Choir performed there Sunday night. The choir is comprised of Japanese college students. It was formed, as part of ESU's music department, in order to entertain guests at the University's International Food Festival in March of last year. That was the only goal. Then the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and the students decided to raise money for those afflicted in the homeland by performing for the public.


The performance we enjoyed Sunday night, on the anniversary of the earthquake, was very professional and moving. The music was beautiful. The ability of the performers was amazing. The songs chosen are popular in Japan. They are songs the Japanese people learn as part of their education while growing up. The words of the songs were printed in our program. The students sang them in Japanese. One song, Walk Forward, was also the name of the program. I thought my family would enjoy reading the English translation of that song. I wish my family could have joined me to hear these gifted students perform.

MAE-E
WALK FORWARD
by Kentaro Sato

I remember
Your warm hand.
I remember
Your kind voice.

I remember
Your honest eyes and quiet prayer.

When I close my eyes
I recall the time we spent together,
And the time we sang together

The end of music is not farewell.
As music lives again,
So you will live again and again in my memory.

I remember
A dream you cherished.

I remember
A smile you beamed at tomorrow.

With memories of you in my heart,
One step at a time, I walk forward.
Embracing every day's happiness and sadness,
One step at a time, I walk forward.

One step at a time, I walk forward.

Poem

I found a poem by the poet, Rumi, which is new to me. It is titled Tending Two Shops. I found it in a book called The Essential Rumi. I will not post the entire poem because it is too long. Here are some of my favorite lines:








Tending Two Shops





Don't run around this world


looking for a hole to hide in.





There are wild beasts in every cave!


If you live with mice,


the cat claws will find you.





The only rest comes


when you're alone with God.





I hope these lines brought new insight. These words strengthened and enlightened me. It makes me happy to share them.

The End of 2011

Well the end of another year is fast approaching and it has seen some major changes for members of our family. We saw moves, a new arrival, a new dog, a retirement, a knee replacement and an engagement. In many ways we were a family of movers and shakers; so to speak. So come on Fiddler Kin and share the year in your life on the blog!

John and I started the year with a trip to Hawaii---wooohoooo! I highly recommend Hawaii in the winter. I must say there is nothing quite like sitting on a beach chair in the ocean while talking to your sister back in Kansas and hearing about the snow that is falling. A partly cloudy day in Hawaii still beats a snowy day in Kansas.

The year flew by and as usual John and I led pretty boring lives---eat, sleep and work was our MO for the most part. In May we started the never ending home improvement jobs or as I like to think of it "the feeding of the money pit beast". The first little project was a new and improved toilet for the upstairs guest bath. It is powerful flusher. You don't really appreciate a good toilet until you have one that has to be flushed twice. We also tiled the upstairs bathroom. In October the beast was fed again. We started with the atrium. We finally replaced that leaking all glass roof with a real roof. It only took us 8 years. John and his new worker bee Gary did the work themselves. John added lighting and a ceiling fan. We are replacing the outside doors this week and getting rid of the glass on the north side. Next year we will hopefully be able to replace windows in the atrium. "The Beast's stomach will be growling by then. We also replaced a great deal of the deck. I didn't realize it but our deck is over 600 square feet. We were just going to replace some of the boards, but wouldn't you know it the joints were bad so we had to replace the entire upper deck and the stairs. The lower deck will hopefully be next fall along with the ballisters(sp?). Have to feed the beast next year too. We also made another gate for the lower deck. That board we had nailed up was a bit tacky, but it kept the dogs on the deck. Maybe next year we will finally work on the kitchen, or not. We also installed a new fireplace liner. The wood burning fireplace insert we have downstairs weighs about 600 pounds, so you can imagine the fun John and Gary had removing it and putting it back. Just for fun John dug up two 20 foot redbud trees and transplanted them in the puppy yard to offer shade to the atrium in the summer ----if they survive that is. They did get several inches of rain after the planting so that was a good thing. We still have dozens of projects that will take us into 2012 and beyond. Well I hope 2012 brings good health to all, new jobs to those who seek and an abundance of laughter. Happy New Year Everyone!

Tis the Season

I have not posted for awhile. Hope everyone who reads this is well. Today is sunny and beautiful, although cold. We are grateful for the rain we received yesterday, but we love to see the sun when we get up in the morning.

I was moving pretty slow this morning. Normally, I jump out of bed and get ready for church. I usually go to the 8:00 service, but today I could not make myself get dressed and leave the apartment. Instead, I drank coffee and watched early morning tv. There was a heavy frost on my car windows and I did not feel like scraping them. I ate breakfast, and after awhile I did take a shower and go to church. I guess I am getting old.

Yesterday we unpacked our Christmas decorations and decorated the apartment. We have a wreath on our door. Our nativity scene is lit by a few white Christmas lights. It sits on the file cabinet by the window. That nativity set is about 30 years old. Doug bought it at Sears the day after Christmas for around ten dollars. We lived in Broken Arrow at the time. It has survived several moves with all the figurines intact. We have two snowmen and one Santa Clause standing by the a pot of artificial pointsettas. We also have a Santa sitting on top of our clock. He is preparing to go down a chimney. A bowl of Betty's homemade ornaments sits on top of a bookcase. We look like we are ready for Christmas.

On Friday Doug presented an advent calendar to Beth. He made it for Jacob. Beth and Jacob glued Hershey Kisses in each day slot from the first to the 25th of December. Beth remembers that someone sent a Christmas calendar to her and Tom when we lived in Oklahoma. That person also provided Hershey Kisses for Beth and Tom to enjoy on the days leading up to Christmas Day. This is a special memory which Beth wants to share with her children.

Beth and I went to Walmart to look at toys yesterday. I hoped to see a special doll that would melt my heart. There were a lot of dolls at Walmart, but they were not very appealing. Remember when we were kids and we would pour over the Sears and JC Penney's catalogues just looking at the toys. The dolls then were pretty or cute or both. My favorite doll of all time was the Tiny Tears doll I received one Christmas when I was 8 or 9 years old. I was overjoyed to receive her. That Christmas is one of my favorites.

I just finished reading two books with a Christmas theme. One is the christmas train by David Baldacci. The story is about a man, Tom, who is traveling across the country on a train a few days before Christmas. Tom is writing an article about train travel and wants first hand experience. Tom meets a lot of quircky people and eventually all of them become snowbound on the train. The book is entertaining, unpredictable, and educational. I would like to travel by train someday.

The other book is by Dave Barry, the humorist, who shares his childhood memories of Christmas. They include the yearly Christmas pagaent at church, and the family dog Frank. Frank is a huge friendly dog who is more like a family member than a pet. One Christmas Eve Frank dies. The events that follow are touching, amazing and hilarious. The name of the book is The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter, The Christmas Miracle Dog. This is an easy book to read and should not take over an hour to finish, if that long.

I have not sent out Christmas cards yet. I have bought greeting cards. So far I have lacked the discipline to actually sign, address and stamp them. It is early days yet, so there is hope.

Speaking of hope, I hope the week ahead is a great one for everybody. I am living a quiet life in Emporia, Kansas. I don't have a lot of news to share, but I am glad I have family to share it with. Take care Fiddler kin.