Outdoors – Page 6

First Drive Out

Not in ever, but today was my first drive-out since my accident and recovery. Under the laws of my State if a driver has a medical emergency of a certain type while driving, they must relinquish their driving privileges for six months. The first two months were spent in the hospital and recovering at home. But whether it is six months or four months, for someone like myself who is used to the freedom that a car gives; it was a long time.

Although I could get rides to the store or the doctor, I could not drive myself to the park for a morning walk or to the woods for a hike.

But today, the six months were done, and I could get into my car and drive myself out to the woods and fields beyond my City for a walk.

You may have noticed that I have not characterize the length or the intensity of my walk or hike. Right now, that is not what matters. I am preparing myself once again for a long hike. So, I need to engage in re-conditioning. I am preparing for a mountainous hike; a hike with both length and intensity. But I have to start with a simple walk in fields and wooded hills. I will build up to the longer, more arduous hike. My preparation is physical, and it is mental – and perhaps also spiritual.

My walk today, through woods and open fields, was my first in six months. And the drive by myself out to these woods was also my first in six months. My first drive-out was for my first walk-out. A drive in my car should not be just for the drive itself. In these days of changing climate, my drive should have a higher purpose. Each of us must be aware of and reduce our impact on the atmosphere which is driving the changing climate of our Earth. Does my simple drive out to the woods tip the scales? I don’t think so. But I must be aware that my short drive, added to your short drive, plus his and her short drives, multiplied by several billion short drives, has a significant, multiple, negative impact on the atmosphere and on the climate of our world.

But I consider my drive worthwhile. For me it is part of my physical, mental, and spiritual recovery. My walk took me back into familiar patterns and into familiar places. I walked down to the foot bridge that crosses a stream that can swell in rainy weather, but is now a wandering rivulet. My return path took me past the small wetland that resides on the back side of the upward slope of a hill. On its upward slope the hill is covered in grasses and wild flowers. It is a browsing ground for the local white-tailed deer. At a point on the far side where the woods line the open field, a stream enters from the woods. This stream on the lower part of the hill has created a wetland. The wetland resides on both sides of the the course of the meandering stream. Horse Tails and Broom Sedge dot the wetland among the other wet grasses. It is is bordered with the last of the late summer flowers, Red Clover and Queen Anne’s Lace, along its margins.

My path takes me from hill top to stream to wetland to hilltop.

It was a grand, first walk-out.

The art work is from pictures I captured this morning. In it my shadow is superimposed on red clover (an introduced fodder plant) in the field.

There is also a picture of the Chinese Chestnut at the hill top.

Wetland plants identification using https://plants.usda.gov/core/wetlandSearch

Water Stress

Where I live, we have been without appreciable rain for nearly two months.

My garden wilted. My flowers wilted. The leaves on the trees started dropping early. But I have no real problem. I may be concerned for my garden, but I can take a hose and water it. I could do the same for my flowers, but I know they will survive and will return when the rain comes back. And I am sure the rain will come back.

Where I live, when compared to other places, we are water rich. We have clean water that flows from our taps whenever we want it. Where I lived before was along a wide meandering river that flowed down from up-state. My water came from a well. In my current location, I have water from the city. Both of these areas may be considered water rich. But where I had a well, I had to work at it a bit and have the well drilled deeper. Why? Because the water level of the native aquifer was slowly but continually falling.

Why was it falling? Was there less rain? No. There was plenty of rain throughout the state and the region. In many instances, it seemed there was too much rain. So why was the level of the ground water aquifer falling? Because there were more people. There were more people upstream and all along the river’s banks. There were more people taking surface water and ground water for their personal use and for industrial use, and in my state for agricultural use. So the aquifer level was falling – and it continues to fall.

About every five years I would notice my pump was struggling to lift water up the well. I would need to call a well-driller and have my personal well drilled deeper and deeper. This was not a solution. If anything, I was exacerbating the problem.

In that state, along the Atlantic coast, the total population of 24 coastal counties grew between 2000 and 2007. Several of the counties lost population or had a low growth rate, but half of the coastal counties had a growth rate greater than 15%. All these new people and their jobs were using more and more water. The counties up river were experiencing even more growth. The metropolitan areas drew in more and more people. And they took their share of the surface water and the ground water.

But compared to many places in our country and around the World, these 24 coastal counties were water rich. Some of the population increase was due to people moving into the state from other states. Part of it was the growth of the existing population. Both of these trends continue. It can be seen even on the state level that the more people there are, the more water is needed.

When you look at the World, our nation as I have mentioned is water rich. The September 14, 2019 issue of Science News, including an article , “One in four people live in a place of high risk of running out of water”. The article highlighted a growing, World-wide water crisis. It discussed a series of tools used by the World Resources Institute to calculate what is considered a high level of “water stress”. The article states that the World’s use of water increased 150% from 1961 to 2014. In that same time frame the World Bank indicates that the World’s population has more than doubled, from 3.1 billion to 7.2 billion. At a glance it might appear that the World’s population has learned to reduce their water requirement. But in actuality it indicates, that overall, the World’s people have less access to water.

In a water rich country like the United States, this is not evident, unless you have a well that you have to push deeper every few years. But for many people in the World safe and adequate water supplies is an issue.

As the World population grows toward 8 Billion, this issue will get worse. New methods of water use that conserve water will be needed, and new sources of water, such as the salt filled oceans, will have to be tapped. This will require improved – or new – technologies to prepare the water for consumption, including desalination of ocean water, and new distribution processes to get the water to the people, the animals, and the crops that need it.

The picture of the map is taken directly from World Resources Institute, https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/ .

The Science News article may be found at, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/one-4-people-lives-place-high-risk-running-out-water .

Yellow – Rain

I have always thought that yellow was a good color for rain wear. It shows up!

On the most gloomy and rainy days you can see a person in a yellow rain coat even when they are a good distance off. A a recent study reported this week by several science news organizations that provides information related to another benefit.

In the recently published journal article, the authors describe their study in which they polled participants in 55 different countries. They present their findings that the color yellow can give rise to feelings of joy, a yellow-joy association. However, the level of rise of joy was found to be dependent on the climate and physical environment of the country. Less than 6% of the participates in Egypt found joy in yellow. The countries in which there were more sunny days did not rate high on a yellow-joy association. But in Finland where the weather is not as sunny, and clouds and fogs and plenty of snow all abound, the color yellow leads to expressions of joy in 88% of the participants.

The study not only investigated emotions related to yellow, the 6,625 participants across the 55 countries were asked to rate their emotional feelings of 12 colors. The countries in which the study was conducted span the globe and include all continents except Antarctica. The study is representative of many cultures and climatic conditions.

Of the twelve colors, only yellow could be specifically linked to an increase of emotions and be related to environmental conditions the participants found within their home country.

Across the full set of participants, the study found a yellow-joy association in over 48% of the participants. But as presented earlier the countries in which sunshine was prevalent had a lower association. In the countries where sunshine was less prevalent, there was significantly higher yellow-joy association.

When I was a child I had a long skirted yellow rain “slicker”. I remember enjoying rainy days because when I was outside I could enjoy the world in a different way. There were puddles to jump in. I could feel the rain being blown into my face. I could hear the wind blowing through the canopy of the trees. I not only enjoyed the experience, but according to the study my enjoyment may well have been enhanced due to the yellow slicker that I was wearing. The picture below is based on a drawing I made when I was a child. It provides an expression of my feelings at that time, in the rain.

Today, I have a yellow rain suit. Now there are streams in the woods that I enjoy forwarding. The grey skies to me mean that I can enjoy the natural aspects of the woodlands and fields, and still experience what is not an every-day occurrence. And wearing my yellow rain suit becomes an amusing experience for me – and perhaps for the squirrels too. The color yellow can make you happier. When the sky is grey and there’s a chance for being moody, put on yellow and enjoy the day.

The study by D. Jonauskaite (et. al.), The sun is no fun without rain: Physical environments affect how we feel about yellow across 55 countries, is published on-line in The Journal of Environmental Psychology, as a pre-proof edition.

3 BILLION

Three Billion birds are gone. And all in just 50 years. It happened in the trees and fields. It happened where there were no longer any trees and where the fields had been treated with pesticides. It happened when a cat left out at night brought home a bird it had killed – as a gift – but in this reckoning it might as well have been in a tiny body bag. It happened without much notice. It happened in our yards, at our offices, along our streets, on our favorite country road. It was happening all around us. But it happened without much of a hue and cry.

There might have been a Fall when you said, “That “V” of geese overhead looks smaller than when I was a child”. But geese have found places to stay without going farther north.

And your cat seldom brings home birds, and then its only one. Its not only roaming domestic cats; its the wild, feral cats. The lower end of the estimate for feral cats in the United States is 65 million. If that number of cats each dropped one bird per year at someone’s doorstep that would surpass the 3 Billion count over the 50 year time frame.

And Dogs are not free of the blame. Ground dwelling birds and their nest are particularly susceptible to dogs. The dogs may catch the bird and will most often eat the eggs if they are in the nest. I’ve seen both of these events happen.

Another ferocious animal that can decimate bird populations are feral pigs. A pig will eat anything, acorns and other nuts, snakes, lizards and other reptiles, young dogs, eggs in ground nests, and birds. Feral pigs are worst in the southeast United States from North Carolina to Texas and Oklahoma. And California has a large population of feral pigs as well. These wild pigs can decimate wildlife populations. They can also severely damage the habitat for birds reducing nesting and breeding area.

These bird deaths can invade your home and office building. Did you hear that thump? It was a bird that thought the sky reflected in your penthouse window was a space to fly through. The bird flew right into the window. Buildings, especially high rise building, end up being death traps for bird. The light of the big cities compound the problems for birds on their historical migration path. Studies by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of Michigan, reveal the scope of these issues. The Cornell study named Chicago as the worst city for bird deaths from flying into windows. This is chiefly because the city and its tall buildings, including the tallest in the U.S., is on the historical Mississippi flyway. The flyways are highways in the sky that birds follow on the migrations.

Birds in the United States are in trouble, animals, construction activities, wanton destruction of breeding and nesting area, office buildings, confusion due to lighting; all these are playing a role in the loss of bird populations in the United States.

What will we miss? We will miss the sight of birds wheeling in the air. We will miss their song in our yard, in our city parks, out in the countryside. Insects will be less in control and will feast more freely on our plants and crops. A fictional movie from 1971 played on this idea. The Hellstorm Chronicles, implied that the results of insect populations breeding without any natural check on it and the horrifying results. A loss of birds can result in the loss of a lot more.

What is it that we have lost in the 50 years since 1970? We have lost 3 billion birds. We have lost their song, their beauty and their economic benefit. It has been gradual, but it is real. According to an article in Smithsonian magazine, the loss of 3 billion birds equates to a loss of more than 29% of the bird population in the United States.

Take four quarters out of your pocket and throw one away. Every time you want to buy something for a dollar, you only have 75 cents in your pocket. You go away unsatisfied. That’s where we are heading.

Quoting from To a Skylark, by Percy Shelley.

Hail to thee, Blithe Spirit!

Bird thou never wert,

That from Heaven, or near it,

Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest

Like a cloud of fire;

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

How, knowing this, could we ever let it pass?

The Cornell study and that of the University of Michigan mentioned about are summarized in an article that may be found at https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/08/skyscrapers-usa-birds-death-studies/
Both the article in Dezeen magazine and on the Cornell Lab for Ornithology website present actions that can help stop the decline.
The Smithsonian article may be found at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/north-america-has-lost-nearly-3-billion-birds-180973178/.
The art for this article is a modified version of he art on this catastrophic loss of American birds at https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/.
The entire poem To a Skylark may be found at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45146/to-a-skylark .
Sign-up for Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Birds) eNews which may be found https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/enews .

On the Beach

There was always a boat on the Neuse River. The first one I knew was my Grandfather’s boat. I remember when he built it down on the beach. I got into the paint pots, and after being cleaned with turpentine my mother rubbed my hands with mayonnaise to replenish the moisture. It was a rowboat of a heavy work boat design. It was big and wide with lots of seating. We used it for crabbing on the hottest days ever.

Then there was the SunFish, a sailboat. My brother and I spent many a day in that boat out on the wide portions of the Neuse. The only thing that would bring us in was when we saw our Mother waving a towel for us to come in to dinner. If we were in good position for the wind we could cover those two miles in 15 minutes. And then we would sit down to a home cooked meal with vegetables from our garden.

Years later my daughter and I would take the SunFish out far into the river. My son would row out, and in the middle of that old stream we would jump in and swim.

The next boat is the one pictured. My father bought it when he was deployed to Norway for a NATO exercise. He bought it in Norway. It was large row boat, but light for its size. It had two sets of oar locks for rowers fore and aft. We could have taken this boat out on the ocean. The waves on the Neuse can be pretty big, and sometimes my father and I had to work hard at our oars to bring the boat safely in. Other times, I would row across the river with our dog as my passenger. We would cross the river and explore the open pine forests on the far side. We spent hours in those woods.

This would be our last boat.

But my Uncle George next door across the gully had an aluminum row boat. He had it for a long time. He would sometimes put a small Evinrude on the back and tow Elizabeth and me on our inflatable (they were canvas then) raft. We got mouths-full of gasoline, exhaust smoke, and oily water as that engine charged along. It was great fun. And later, in that boat, I would teach my son and daughter to row. The oars we used had come to that boat from my Grandfather’s rowboat modeled on flat-bottom Core Sound boats. I wonder where those oars are now?

We finally had to pull the old Norwegian boat out of the water. We had patched and caulked it as best we could, but over several decades the wood had broken down. We kept it on blocks for a couple of years and would talk about trying to get it back in the water.

But it was not to be.

We burned it on the beach. It seemed appropriate. I still have a couple of the lead rivets from its hull.

All those days out rowing in sun and in rain and in gales, they were tremendous days. I still will go down to a nearby lake and rent a boat for a morning’s rowing. Its always terrific, especially in the Fall when the trees along the bank are covered in red and gold. On a cold morning even when the lake is calm no one else will be out. I have the world to myself. And I give an extra pull on the oars and feel the boat surge through the water.

Sweeping the Sky

This morning was a wonderful Fall morning. It was clear. It was cool. As the sun came up it burnished the tops of the trees down in the woods. Some high, thin clouds were out to greet the sun. And as they passed overhead they were swept by the top most branches on the sun-lit trees.

At least it appeared that way.

But these trees did not touch the clouds. As the clouds drifted by they only appeared to be swept by the upper branches. However, this is not always the case. On mornings when the day is foggy, the clouds can engulf and move through the trees, and the trees clear out lines in the fog.

But today it appeared that the trees might be touching the clouds. Yet this was only my perspective. In reality, the trees did not touch the clouds. They touched the sky.

The real effect of the trees extends way beyond their height.

The leaves on the trees are the main component in clearing the atmosphere of carbon dioxide (CO2). The leaves absorb the CO2 and use it in the photosynthesis process. Photosynthesis, roughly translated, means, made from light. The light provides the energy of the sun to the trees. The trees use the energy from the sun to change CO2, absorbed from the air, into glucose (C6H12O6) for the tree’s metabolism. Through photosynthesis the tree manufactures C6H12O6 to enhance its own growth. This process uses water (H2O) drawn up from the soil in which the trees roots are bound. From the process glucose is produced, as well as oxygen (O2). But more O2 is produced than the tree requires of its own use. The excess O2 is released back into the atmosphere. There the oxygen is available for our use with every breath we take, and for all other creatures. It is not only the trees that carry out photosynthesis but all plants with chlorophyll use this process to enhance their growth. And thereby they all release the excess O2 into the atmosphere.

The basic chemical reaction that takes place using the energy from the sun is shown as follows;

This is the respiration of trees. Through this process we are supplied with the oxygen that we need for life, to run our own metabolism, and by which we grow and succeed. This is true for birds, for creatures in the trees and creatures on the ground, and for fish in the sea. The trees support us all.

The pumping of O2 into the atmosphere can be seen on the Keeling Curve (see article dated 02/15/2019, the Keeling Curve). The level of CO2 is measured and shown on the curve as a saw tooth edge. The rise and fall of this saw toothed edge come about as the leaves on the trees open in the Spring, and the CO2 falls. Then when the leaves fall from the trees in Autumn, the CO2 rises.

The trees sweep up CO2 from our atmosphere and replace it with oxygen, O2.

The trees hold our atmosphere in place. They are “sky anchors” which bind the chemical makeup of the atmosphere close to the earth where we can all use it. We must treasure our trees and protect them.

However, as the world population soars, more land for farming is required, for both subsistence farming and large scale farming. The land is also required for living space. As whole forests are cut down and burned, each of us needs to work to replace the trees. The Nature Conservancy is leading a campaign called “Plant a Billion Trees”, https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/plant-a-billion/. Its goal is to stimulate reforestation. Large scale efforts like this and even individuals planting trees in their garden can ensure clean air for all of us. The trees are “sky anchors” that can hold the sky in place.

Starling Starlings

Fall is almost upon us. The leaves on the mid-Atlantic are beginning to change. They are taking on their yellow and russet colors. When the morning sun first hits the tops of the trees they look like gold.

We are having our first string of cool mornings. Its great to sit outside and listen to the day start. The birds are singing and welcoming the sun. The chipmunks are running under foot with more stores for their winter larder. The last of the hummingbirds are still around although we are not putting out nectar for them any longer. I have seen two hummingbirds in the last two days. They stop and look at me in my chair before they fly on. They need to move on south. Its going to be cold here this winter.

But the greatest shows of the Fall are going to be the Starlings and Cowbirds as they come together in massive flocks that will lift off and swirl and pirouette in the sky forming fantastic images of depth and shadow. I will see some of these when I go out to the countryside and hike the trails that look across fields and are bordered by trees where the birds perch in the evenings.

Over the last few mornings I have watched Starlings gather in the treetops of the nearby woods. The fly in in small groups of five to twelve birds. They gather and squawk and chirp as more groups come in. A small group may lift off but they settle back when the entire group does not rise with them. The first day I saw them, it was a small group of less than 50 birds. The next day there were upwards of 300 birds, and the day after that there were at least 2,000 birds. When they rose in the air the sound of their wings drowned out the traffic from the nearby roads. They would swirl once or twice with the thicker portions of the flock becoming darker with the greater mass of birds. But the depth and shadow would shift and rotate as the birds lifted and eventually flew off to the south east.

These birds are not native to North America. They were first imported in 1890 and sixty birds were released into Central Park in New York City. Why? Supposedly because they are mentioned in Shakespeare. But their mention is not a pleasant one nor for beauty or pleasure. In Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene III, Hotspur, who is in rebellion against the king, fantasies of teaching a Starling to say the name of the king’s enemy, Mortimer. Hotspur will give the bird to the king in whose court the bird will continually speak the name of Mortimer, and the bird’s utterances will “keep his [the kings] anger still in motion.”

The birds released in 1890 in New York City survived the winter and began to flourish. Now, nearly one hundred and twenty years later, The Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) have become widespread across North America. They number into the hundreds of millions.

The clouds of birds that wheel in their flocks, are known as murmurations. From a distance, they may be amazing. But up close these large groups of birds create a hazard. They are noisy. The ground below their night perches become fouled with their droppings. Clouds of these birds have caused planes to crash. They can devastate crops in the field. A US Department of Agriculture article stated that in 2000, the damage by Starlings to agricultural crops was estimated at $800 million. And millions more have been spent on trying to chase the birds away from airports, from significant buildings, and neighborhoods. The birds are an invasive species. They are truly pests.

Yet when I watch my few Starlings in these Fall mornings, I am amazed at their flocking and flight.

But I watch them closely to make sure that they are not taking up evening residence.

Other articles on Starlings may be found in the New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/01/opinion/100-years-of-the-starling.html

and in the Smithsonian magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-invasive-species-we-can-blame-on-shakespeare-95506437/.

The USDA article may be found at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/07pubs/linz076.pdf.

Road Side Apollo 8

When I have a chance to drive across country I look for new roads and new sights. That’s part of the fun of traveling, to see and learn about new places and ideas. But I also look for remembered sites, places I have seen before and remember with enthusiasm.

On a recent trip into the mid-west, I drove across Ohio on Interstate 70. Not always the best way to see the country, but I was in a hurry to get back home. While I was on the road I looked for a remembered place. I would often drive that road in the 1970s. I had favorite places along that route that I liked to see. There was a campground outside of Indianapolis, where I could stop and pitch my tent and spend the night. I often stopped there back in those days, nearly 50 years ago. I looked for it on this trip and may have seen it on the south side of the road. But now it was more modern, and there were more recreational vehicles than there were sites for tents or small trailers.

The other place I looked for along that road was a barn. It was an old barn even 50 years ago. I would see it whenever I drove back and forth to Chicago. This barn stood out from the others I would see along that rural route. It was not big, but it had a mural painted on the side that faced the road. The barn was less than 500 yards from the road and was well cared for as were the house next to it and the fields surrounding it. What made this barn stand out was the mural of the Earth rising over a lunar landscape, as seen during Apollo 8’s 1968 orbit across the far side of the moon.

At the time it was a very famous picture. Its image or images based on it could be seen in many places. People were fascinated by it. It was views like this that caused the popularization of the phrase ”big blue marble” as that was what the earth looked like from space. It was also pictures like this that tugged at the American consciousness, and perhaps the international consciousness, of how beautiful, and yet how fragile, our home, Earth, actually might be. These were the early days of the environmental movement. The government of the United States worked with the people of the United States to pass legislation to improve and protect the environment in which we all live. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act were all enacted in the 1970s. The people wanted these laws enacted to improve and protect the environment and human health, and the government responded.

When I would see that barn, well into the 1970s, I would feel pride in our accomplishments in space and in protection of the environment. And I knew that the people who had painted this mural on their barn felt a similar pride. We accomplished a great deal in the 1970s and into the 1980s. The environment is now cleaner. Pollution is now less. And yes, yards and roadsides and the air and water are now cleaner than they had been in the 1950s and 1960s, because of environmental action. It was a great time in which improvements were everywhere. And it still a great time, and the potential to change and improve continuous all around us. It is on our curb, in our front yard, in our town, in our nation, and in the international community at large. But each of us must still act to protect it! It is our responsibility.

On this recent trip. I did not see the barn with its iconic “Earth-rise”. I may have been removed or it might have collapsed due to age. It might be a parking lot now. But the image with always be with us. That picture of our fragile home hung in the blackness of space can always remind us of the necessity to keep it clean and to improve it for its growing population.

Thank you to whoever you were that painted that mural. Perhaps I will see another on my next cross country trip.

Hotel Flower

I have been away from my keyboard, but I am back now. An unexpected emergency caused me to have to travel out of state.

Picture yourself on a journey, you are walking down an unfamiliar sidewalk in a familiar – but unfamiliar – part of a town. But it is an area that you used to know so well. It has changed. Everyone you see is a stranger, and who knows, perhaps a potential danger. But they don’t seem to be paying attention to you as you walk down this unfamiliar sidewalk. You are no longer a citizen and neighbor; you are now a visitor within their gates. You are an outsider. What do they think of your being here?.

You furtively glance around to see if there is danger from any side. You can feel eyes looking in your direction. Some are actually watching you walk down the sidewalk. It’s like being in the woods, and knowing something, perhaps a deer or rabbit, perhaps a wolf or bear, is watching you pass through their territory.

You feel a cool breeze – and suddenly something catches your eye. It is movement on your right, a flash of white. You turn towards it.

Being in an unfamiliar place can be scary. And among the things we might look for as we glance around is an exit, or maybe a friendly gesture. We look for something familiar. We look for something that might give us a moments peace. We seek for reassurance that we are not in danger.

On my recent trip this is what I felt. And on one afternoon when I came back from a day of hard work, I saw this flash of white, and when I looked at it I saw the familiar. It was a flower waving in the sunshine. It was among in the plantings in front of the hotel entrance.

I was not in my garden. I was in a different place. I felt alone, but I was not alone. I was surrounded by millions of people in the home of the tallest building in the United States.

I am back in Chicago. The lake is close. The grand parks are nearby. The forest preserves are a short trip to the west. But here in this place is steel rising above asphalt streets that lie above subway trains and utility pipes. The steel and stone of the buildings rise to staggering heights. And here in their shadow and the heat of the afternoon streets is a flower bed with blooms of late summer.

They are Autumn clematis (Clematis ternifolia). They are blossoming after others of the clematis family have faded from their spring time glory. These hardy flowering plants brightens a late summer day with their massed blooms waving above their planted bed in a breeze from the lake.

I stop and gaze at the massed blossoms in the planted bed. Just the sight of them carries me to cool, dark woods far from the city.

But I hear something behind me.

Someone has said hell-o. And I turn and respond with a thankful smile, and a hell-o.

Shadow of a Song –

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to drive across the country. I was going from the east coast to central New Mexico. I intended to take advantage of the time on the road and see as many sights as I could.

The trip was in the Spring. There is not a better time of year to travel. Its cooler, and we would not be running into the larger summer crowds. I have made the drive several times before, but by different routes. I always enjoy it. This is a beautiful country, full of beautiful people most of whom are happy to tell you the best place to eat, the best routes, and the sights in their state not to miss. When traveling, the old adage, “You can draw more flies with honey than with vinegar,” is excellent advice. People are friendly. And I believe they are more than willing to help someone who asks them a question. Especially about their hometown. It all has to do with Sense of Place. The people you meet are at home, and are generally proud of their home, and are happy to brag about it.

When I am traveling this far I like to stop and see the country, and what better places to go and see than our National Parks. We decided to first go to Arizona and see the Grand Canyon; we would circle back to New Mexico. I had been to the Grand Canyon twice before, but it is always worth the trip. The first time I saw it was in 1971 on my way to California. but I drove past Winslow, Arizona without a thought (1). At that time, I had not heard of The Eagles or any of their music, so going past Winslow made no difference to me. I was heading to California for duty in the Navy.

However, during the early 1970s in southern California I heard numerous songs by the Eagles. They fit a shift I was making in what I listened to on the radio. So when I first heard the song “Take it Easy” (2) by The Eagles, like many people, I was hooked. It had a bit of a country feel to it, but I felt it to be more of a folk ballad of missed opportunity. And it fit my life.

When I drove back east from California in 1974, I went past Winslow again. But this time when I saw the sign for the turnoff, I started singing the song, but I zoomed past heading east on I-40. I would stop sometime in the future.

It would be 45 years before I came to Winslow again. In 2019, after seeing the Grand Canyon, we had turned around and were heading east to Albuquerque. The Grand Canyon had been a terrific extension of our trip (3).

This time I would go into Winslow and see what there was to see. Maybe I would find that corner and stop, and take it easy.

In 1999 the City of Winslow had selected the corner of Second St. & Kinsley Ave. as an appropriate place to erect a statue and to create a mural of the scene that reflects the story of the song. I was glad to see the statue and mural and to know that others had an attachment to the song and the story it told.

The morning was cool so after we visited the statue and mural we crossed the street for a cup of coffee and a sweet roll. When we came out we walked around for a while and then went past the statue on the corner on the way to our car.

I saw several people around the statue and the mural. I was happy to see others had come out to pay homage to their youth. We were grey beards all.

“Lighten up while you still can
Don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy.”

(1). I did stop at the Meteor Crater and then got back on the road heading west. I wrote about my experience in my post of 27 January 2019, “Meteor Crater”.

(2). Lyrics of “Take it Easy” may be found at, https://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/eagles/take+it+easy_20044576.html .

(3). You can read my post about that experience in my article of 18 March, “Grand Canyon – Sweet”.

The City has an annual festival centered on the song. Information about the festival may be found at; https://winslowarizona.org/event/annual-standin-on-the-corner-festival/ .