In a recently-discovered box just marked "Aileen Hall papers" I found some of my mother's school papers, letters, and diaries all from about 1934 to 1953. She kept several years in each diary, writing very tiny, so these will take time to go through. One diary covers the WWII years when she worked in a Maine state program to help women to can produce from their victory gardens.
Also in the box are letters home from my Uncles David Boutiler and Foster Boutiler who were in the Army, addressed either to my mother ("Sis") or their mother, Jesse Springer Boutilier. David flew as pilot or co-pilot from Africa to Europe. Foster was in a mechanics division in Europe. One letter mentions what he was doing just prior to the Invasion of Normandy -- in charge of a supply depot in Glasgow, sending out supplies as fast as he could. I have scanned these letters and put them online. David's letters are first, followed by Foster's.
The photo, right, is my father, Jonathan Hall, age 2, August 1914. Probably taken by Ethel Taylor Hall as it is part of the album she kept documenting his childhood from birth to 18.
I spent the week working on a major web project at work and performing in a mummer's play at the yearly office parties. I played Hind-Before, a clown with clothes on backwards who helps the action along. It was fun, if a bit hectic. I also made the dragon costume, which turned into quite an art project. This is the second year that I played Hind-Before, and It is a fun part. Next year the plan is to create new roles. I don't feel I am done with work on the Dragon yet -- for next year I may add more dramatic wings. A challenge is to make the costume so that it can take a lot of bumping around. The Dragon is killed by St. George, then brought back to life by the Doctor, so it needs to allow the performer to fall down without losing pieces off of the costume.
I think this photo was taken by Guha Shankar, but I need to check on that-- several people took photos. Left to right are Valda Morris as the Dragon, Joanna Russo as Captain Thunderbolt, David Quick as Beelzebub, Steve Winick as Father Christmas, with the wreath on his head, Jennifer Cutting as Clever Legs supplying the music, Todd Harvey in the back as St. George, I am the Hind-Before with the broom, and the Doctor is Thea Austen.
( Read my comments... )
Just getting caught up with some photos uploaded today. A few spring wildflowers and photos of the 2011 Spoutwood Fairy Festival. Friends in the Ocean Orchestra performed at the festival and I went up for a day to take pictures. Jennifer Cutting performed both with her band, Ocean, and for the crowning of the Fairy King and Queen. Stephen Winick was a festival MC, as well as performing with Ocean, and was involved with festival organization this year. Lisa Moscatiello was the female vocalist. Visiting Kluge fellow Judith Cohen guested on vocals and hand drums. I took so many photos that selecting and editing has been quite a job, but the result of intentionally over-shooting was that I got some great shots. The Greenmen were out in force, and staged a dramatic march, as well as holding court at one of the workshops.Right -> Jennifer Cutting performing with Ocean Orchestra.
On the 21st I attended the Enrollment Ceremony for the repeal of Don't ask Don't Tell. This is the official signing of the bill by the Speaker of the House before sending it on to the President for signature. I hadn't been to an enrollment before. I was able to go because my boss received an invitation. It was a very emotional event, which included the many people who had fought for repeal as well as personnel who had been discharged under DADT. Also one of Nancy Pelosi's last public appearances as Speaker, so that added another layer of emotion. What was most striking was the repeated declaration by speakers that this was a civil rights victory, and that it is a fight that will not be over until LGBT persons have the same rights as any citizen. There was a formal apology from Congress (at least representing those who favored the legislation) to the military personnel who had been hurt by the former law. There was also a moving statement by former Air Force Major Mike Almy who had been discharged simply on the basis of an email home in spite of an exemplary career and, ironically, was recommended for promotion even as he was on trial. He said that, if allowed, he would reenlist because the military needs role models to achieve positive change. As a citizen on the street, who has signed petitions and written congressfolk on various issues related to GLBT civil rights in addition to this one, I felt glad to see that the system works, slowly and painfully at times, but it works. Improving America's civil rights made a wonderful Solstice celebration and a great way to go into the new year.
I was in a mummers play, playing the clown, "Hind Before" with men's cloths on backwards and stuffed to make me extra-round (far right with the broom). The play was put together by Stephen Winick (Father Christmas), selecting parts from collections in the American Folklife Center Archive. Hind Before symbolizes the old year going out. It was a lot of fun. Here is a photo of the players in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. (Photo by John Barton)Jennifer Cutting, who is holding the accordion in the photo, released her Ocean Orchestra album Song of Solstice in December, and so there was a round of record release events. Stephen Winick and Lisa Moscatiello are singers on the album. This culminates six years of work, which I have witnessed in various forms, including practice in the car pool, so it is exciting to see this work come to fruition. (Ocean Orchestra albums are available on CD Baby).
So this weekend I am measuring and documenting a dragon -- a costume from the mummers play that we borrowed from the Washington Revels. Should the dragon character appear in coming years, we want to have a costume ready. This one, of stuffed fabric, worked well as there was no danger of harming it when the dragon falls down. The mask was a bit more fragile, and we will have to figure out how to make a more sturdy mask.
Whenever I can find a couple of spare daylight hours, I have been hiking in the woods with a mushroom bag and field guide in my pocket, but so far I have not found any more edible mushrooms. This is the time of year to look for the Hen-of-the-Woods mushroom, which can grow to be quite large. I am looking about some of the local parks where there are large oaks, but so far I am just getting fresh air and exercise, which is an end in itself. Today I saw three mule deer, two does and a buck. I followed them into a hollow where enormous oaks, beech, and poplar grow. Places like that, where there has been no clear cutting or plowing for at least a hundred years, must surely be good places to hunt mushrooms. But large oaks in my suburban neighborhood could just as easily be a host to the particular fungus I am looking for. On Saturday I hiked along a cut-through made for power lines that provides some easy access to older forest trees. A deep vermilion shelf fungus, good to look at but not to eat, was the most interesting find (may have been a cinnabar shelf fungus?). The woods edge was lined with blackberry bushes, though, so that could be a good reason to hike up there again next summer.
Poking in leaves and thumbing through field guides to make sure that I can identify mushrooms that are poisonous, reminded me of a story about myself that my parents told me when I was a child. I had forgotten all about it. They told me that when I was about three they took my brothers and me camping. I found, and sampled what my mother called a "toadstool." My parents realized what had happened just a moment too late. I vomited it back up fairly quickly, which may be why I lived to tell the tale. My mother remembered having to pack my brothers, me, and an example of the mushroom into the car for a trip to the nearest hospital, which was a long way away. The doctor who examined me told them not to worry too much. If it was going to kill me, he said, it would have done so already. My mother described the mushroom to me as the red one with white spots, just like in a fairy tale book (remember she was talking to me as a kid). If I remember right, my father, who taught biology and so certainly looked it up, said that it was called Fly Agaric, which would also make sense given my mother's description. This most famous of toxic and hallucinogenic mushrooms, Amanita muscaria, is one used in shamanic ceremonies since prehistoric times. Unfortunately, since I have no intention of repeating the experiment, I only remember being told the story, and do not remember the experience.
Yesterday I went on another mushroom hike led by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7){kind=small}
dmiley. The hike at Catoctin only made me want to learn more. I have always found mushrooms photogenic, but now I also want to learn enough to identify and eat mushrooms without getting killed in the process. We found few mushrooms that were good to eat at Catoctin, and none that were ready for the skillet. But on yesterday's walk we did find Oyster Mushrooms that were in good shape, guarded by a fierce-looking toad. We were careful to check the identification with a good guide book. I took a mushroom home, and, according to prudent mushrooming tradition, ate just a sliver sauteed in butter. It tasted fabulous. Having survived that test, I will now eat the rest of it with dinner.Photos from the walk are in my gallery.
I have put up a gallery of photos I took during the 2010 Catoctin UU retreat. These are mostly nature photos, including several photos of mushrooms found during a mushroom walk led by dmiley . The photo at the left is an early morning photo of a spider's web with a rainbow caused by the sun hitting the filaments. The rainbow only lasted a few moments. I tried to catch this again on other nearby webs as the sun moved, but couldn't get another photo as striking as this one. My old camera would never have been able to snap this photo -- its auto-everything features would not have figured it out.
I knew that my grandmother was an artist, though the only works I had seen were an oil of pansys and a deteriorating floral painting on the top of an old side table. She mainly depicted the subjects that young ladies at the turn of the twentieth century were supposed to paint or draw, such as kittens and flowers. Even with the limited subject matter, she showed that she had skill. I think the baby portrait shows more about her character than the other works I have seen. Her best art form, though, was performance, by all reports. I wish I could go back in time and see the funny skits she was said to perform.
My disappointment at the photos of my grandmother's artwork led me to buy a new camera. I have been wanting to get a true digital SLR for a while now, but have put it off because I needed money for work on my house. But I got a Pentax-kx that will take my pre-digtal Pentax lenses. It is a steep learning curve to figure out all the things this camera will do, but so far I am very happy with it.
Work on my house stopped when I ran out of money. Immediately after that, my health improved. It sure feels good not to have workman knocking on my door early in the morning! It took some work to get another loan, but I have that, and am now trying to figure out which tasks should have the highest priority for the money that is left. The main thing is that my house is now livable, with a working kitchen. I have been moving the furnishings back in fits and starts. When the weather is good, as it is now, I don't have much motivation to stay inside and sew curtains or unpack boxes. But I have unpacked most of my kitchen-ware and tried out all the new appliances.
I have had some opportunities to make new acquaintances among shamanic practitioners in the area. I visited another circle and went to a meeting of experienced shamanic journeyers.
I gave a sermon at the UU church on spirituality and states of consciousness, with an emphasis on shamanic journeying. It was very well received, and had an unexpected result of re-energizing some of the folks in the Gaia Circle, which had been in a long hiatus.
I signed up for an advanced handbuilding class (ceramics), and I have started making more clay drums and learning some embellishment techniques.
dmiley 's Reenchanting the Land program at church has gotten off to a good start. This will involve several presenters in a program that will go on for two years. I went to the kickoff herbalism workshop, which was very interesting. I will write more about those as the program progresses.
Freeing the ladybugs for the garden. The harsh winter reduced my praying mantis population, and it is too late now to replace them. So I bought 1000 ladybugs to help keep down pests without pesticide. They specialize in aphids and thrips, and I particularly want to reduce the thrip population since they lay eggs on daylily flowers, damaging the blooms. The female ladybugs are shipped pregnant, so there should be lots more soon.
