Featured image: Wild roses at Spicer Lake Nature Reserve. MEANDER #8 Saturday 1 July 2017 Half a year behind, half a year ahead. Actually, my thoughts go back more than two decades to the time when our long-lived cat, Miss Kitty, first came to live with us, the happy and occasionally head-scratchingly mystifying times we had, and the day she left …
MEANDER #7 Saturday 24 June 2017 Four days does not a summer make, yet here it is. Here's a quote from James Thomson, Scottish poet and playwright (1700-1748): From bright'ning fields of ether fair disclosed, Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes. --The Seasons Ya, I had to look up "fields of ether" and "refulgent." The latter means radiant, …
Featured image: Sycamore trees in the heart of Elkhart's Island Park. MEANDER #6 Friday 16 June 2017 My dad, Lloyd Bender, would be approaching his 105th birthday. He died in 1998 at age 85. Thanks to enterprising niece, Amy Harder, our family has a wonderful record of Dad's life. Amy put together a Creative Memories publication that includes …
MEANDER #5 Saturday 10 June 2017 June, the sixth month, is named from the Roman Junius. In old Saxon it was called Seremonath (dry-month) and Lida aerra (joy time). How about that. Did you know that the names of months derive from the Romans and the days of the week are of Anglo-Saxon origin? I …
MEANDER #4 Saturday 3 June 2017 Flesh out the word "eat" in a phrase and you get quite a literary feast. I've taken selection of "eat" phrases from The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Wordsworth Editions, 1994). "To eat its head off. Said of an animal (usually a horse} that eats more than it is worth, or whose …
MEANDER #3 Sunday 28 May 2017 We're just home from seeing four productions at the Stratford Festival of Canada, a visit to the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale, and a visit and feast with family. The 2017 Stratford Festival includes14 shows, ranging from Shakespeare, musicals, family, classics, and modern. We have been going to the …
Featured image: Overnight in London on 10 May broke up our hop across the pond. Besides a fine cup of tea (a lift in its own right, feet up in our hotel), we enjoyed a super-delicious Indian dinner. A couple from Spain at the table next to us chose the restaurant because of the tantalizing aromas …
MEANDER #1 Saturday 13 May 2017 CORNWALL COGITATION wraps up for the present, replaced by MEANDER. Wrapping up even a brief chunk of time in Carbis Bay/St Ives, Cornwall, UK, as you might guess, is bittersweet. But it's onward. Outward. Upward. Forward. Meander-ward. I use meander as a metaphor in the sense of a turn or winding of …
CORNWALL COGITATION #14 Saturday 6 May 2017 The Revelation to John, the last book of the New Testament, has a fascinating posit on the present. Chapter 21, verse 5: "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" That's present tense. Right now. Today. This hour. God is making all …
Cornwall Cogitation #13 Saturday 29 April 2017 It's a truism, the title is, April expires on Sunday night. Not to worry, we have now and Sunday. May will take care of itself. A historical note: Another April 29, this one in 1380, is the date Catherine of Sienna died. She was a teacher of the Faith. …
