Seldom Seen #17

This is the first of 5 trellises revealed here. This is the Seldom Seen one, as it is in a little bricked-in garden off of the prioress's apartment and seldom seen. Its trellis is really wobbly and weather-beaten, but being in a corner, it seems to be able to hold up the yearly crop of lovely white and purple flowers. July is their blossoming month.

I had great fun over the last couple of years trying to get these three trellises and their climbing plants going. This one has the plant that's having the hardest time--it bloomed early, then withered up and died, but seems to be coming back again.

This trellis and the next one were "stolen" by yours truly and brought to the inner courtyard. I "found" them leaning up against the Mount, totally devoid of any climbing plant and really "invisible" up against the building. So I pulled them out, got one of our great maintenance guys to secure them up against the building here and started plants under them.

As you can see, they are both doing pretty well. I laugh to myself every time I see them and remember them living in obscurity in the back of the house. Now they will be front and center for years to come.

Here is the oldest, largest and most seen--the one behind the Blessed Mother statue. It really needs to be trimmed and some of it dug out so that it's not so thick and overwhelming. Its flowers are beautiful nonetheless. Maybe this fall...

NAH is 20

Congratulations to the Neighborhood Art House for twenty years of providing literary, performing and visual arts to children of the northeast center city neighborhoods of Erie. They celebrated the anniversary Sunday with a three-hour ice cream social with loads of events for children and top notch entertainment for the adults. The setting was a warm, sunny summer afternoon and both present and past students and teachers stopped by for a glorious reunion!

Here's Sergio with a unique face painting at the 20th anniversary gathering.

Erie's #1 music group, Tennessee Back Porch, thrilled the NAH attendees with three non-stop hours of music. They are beyond fabulous!

Seldom Seen #16

The arbor and its surroundings that are tucked away in the corner of the library courtyard. It has recently been spiffed up and was given in memory of the parents of one of our sisters who's into gardens and beauty--big time!

The two hanging gliders are perfect for spending some time just swinging and "listening" to the quiet out there.

The gurgling of the fountain is very soft but the view into the rest of the garden is lovely. A true hide-away that probably even many of our regular visitors have missed,

Life at Lakeview

A fuzzy tree!

The course has a number of old, old willows. All are beautiful.

Daisies are out all over town.

Red berries for the birds on these bushes.

The "water holes" are made less menacing by scenes like this.

And this.

Grapes are very small and quite green at this time of summer.

Lots of the arrangements hold a variety of summer blossoms.

This is along East Lake Road, less than a mile from us. A huge, long array of orange tiger lilies. Click any photo to enlarge.

The three-day holiday weekend was beautiful in Erie--no rain, lots of sun and warmth. We are blessed and very grateful--after a rainy June! That said, I had the opportunity to play golf twice (!) which is unheard of, but it's a matter of "taking the opportunity" as the next few weekends are busy, busy! Here are scenes from Lakeview Golf Course, a lovely, rural, yet very well-kept nine-hole course on the PA-NY border near us. I grabbed my camera at every hole and this is what we found. 

Yes, we did golf, too!

Seldom Seen #15

We have a very large patio on the back of the monastery. It's probably about 15' wide and as long as the dining room and community room together, maybe 60'. It's a great place for eating meals outdoors, for the special morning prayer we had during retreat, and for guests to mingle at summer events. However, a few years ago we were having "troubles" with the many birds that inhabit our woods, creek and lakeside. One of our sisters read about how birds will fly clear of owls, so she purchased two "fierce" looking plastic owls and, sure enough, the problems disappeared.

This is our usual view of the owls we have on the patio--keeping watch.

This is the seldom seen view that the birds encounter if they venture too near! Fierce.

However, we do like owls and hear them often in our woods. So here's yet a third view of them:

Owl Poem

One has to say this for the rounds of life
that keep coming and going; it has worked so far.
The rabbit, after all, has never asked if the grass wanted to live.
Any more than the owl consults with the rabbit.

Acceptance of the world requires
that I bow even to you,
Master of the night.

Mary Oliver

What I learned on my vacation--Part 2

A common sign along the Atlantic coast this time of year.

Great areas of lagoons and salt marshes separate the barrier islands off the east coast of the USA from the mainland. These marshes are the environmental home to many species of shore life--particularly birds and fish. This time of year you're likely to see the above sign as diamond-back terrapin turtles are making their way to the high ground adjacent to the marshes to lay their eggs. Often this means crossing the man-made causeways at the beginning of the summer tourist season.

This weekend I witnessed this on two occasions: We were in the left hand lane crossing the long road to the beaches. Suddenly the first car in the right hand lane, a little ahead of us, came to a rather abrupt stop; the SUV right behind screeched to a quick stop also; we slowed down to a near stop, too. As we all got going again I saw, off to the right, the one large turtle that made it across the road but wouldn't have if those two drivers hadn't been on the alert! Then, later that same day we were on another lagoon-crossing two-lane road when both lanes slowed considerably as all the cars carefully moved past a certain spot. When we reached it we saw a turtle on the middle lines of the road. At that moment a biker came by, stopped and as there was a break in the traffic went right out, picked up the turtle and placed it in the marches at the side of the road.

Diamond-back terrapin turtles

P.S. Now we also know the reason behind the naming of the University of Maryland sport teams: Go Terps!

What I learned on my vacation--Day 1

When I was in the novitiate my mother's best friend, Rosemary, had a baby. What was unique about this was that no one in their crowd of 8-10 couples had a child under 10, and most had teenagers. At that time such an event was called "a change of life" baby! What I still remember about it was how Rosemary regaled her "girl friends" with stories of how much the whole pregnancy and birth experience had changed since they had all had their children in the late 40s through late 50s.

On my first day of vacation this week I had a similar experience with a visit from a young couple with a two month old. What a difference from the last time I was around an infant for a day! Here are the top 3 things I learned:

1) Diapers are baby litmus tests! Did you know that diapers have a yellow line on the outside of them which changes color depending on what's "happened" inside? Our little visitor's turned "blue" about 4 times that afternoon.

2) Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock is no longer the "bible" for mothers. It has been replaced by Mom blogs. Thousands of mothers are posting their experiences of raising children and sharing helpful hints with new Moms online daily. Our new Mom consults them all the time, but did add that for medical questions she goes directly to her physician.

3) Strollers, car seats and rocking chairs are the same thing. The car seat, when lifted out, fits into the frame of the stroller and when brought inside, sits on the floor or table and rocks the infant when pushed. What a deal! And the stroller itself is like a portable camping tent, complete with cover flap that you can see through, yet keeps the sun out.

On the other hand, the paraphernalia available for infants has reached volcanic proportions: i.e. the diaper bag has been replaced by a suitcase-sized tote. Such a disappointment to the new parents when their baby still chooses the empty box and kitchen pans as his/her favorite toy!

"Toto, we're not in Erie anymore!"