La Crescent Generosity

Park alongside the new pool

Where we live,  the economy is not nearly as bad as in other parts of the country, it"s the thriving Midwest, where the restaurants and taverns are booming even though the cost of gas is up and so it the cost of everything else.   People of the Midwest are known for generosity and thinking about others, sharing, etc.  So a year ago when we had a local referendum to increase property taxes on  those who reside in the city limits to fund a new community swimming pool it passed.  We did not vote for that referendum because the cost of repair was 1/3 the cost of new and besides, we firmly believe users should support such an extravaganza, not just burden the property owners, most of whom will not set foot inside it.  This city already has a hockey rink and golf course that are drains on the treasury because the fees do not support the maintenance of the facilities, so a new pool is bound to add to a greater cost draw down too. 

One benefit  of the pool is that while the  line forms to enter, kids can use the park right there  and its accouterments.  This morning some Moms waited with others who were not in swimming lessons.  We have many nice parks in La Crescent that get little use.  I mean who's going to set out amidst the mosquitoes?

Nevertheless, the referendum passed, many  saying, "well the kids need it."  Oh baloney and humbug says those of us who have no kids, but we are now contributing with a higher tax  payment.  It was only a week after its passage that the old pool was opened ready to go another year, did anyone  raise an eyebrow at that coincidence, no! Although it was perfectly clear that  the property taxes would increase this year, many paid no attention until they received their new tax bills and then it  was, "what's this!"   And, comments like, "I didn't know it would cost me $$."  Oh pray tell, you thought Santa Claus would pick up the cost for the good little boys and girls?  And so this summer when we are home, and the pool is only several blocks away, I intend to get  a bit of our money's worth.  Two years ago I took a water aerobics class and enjoyed it so I signed up again this year, classes on Monday and Thursday 5:40-6:30PM. 

Check out the great double slides, which folks
say rival what is at the Dells, a spendy place

The pool opened June 9 and a day last week I took my morning walk over to the pool just to check out the lay of the land.  It is no longer just a community swimming pool; we generous taxpayers have subsidized an aquatic center no less.  Those of you who live in bigger metropolitan areas likely pay $$ for memberships or daily passes, but our generosity allows $2 per day for residents and $3 for non-residents.  In this area, non-residents come from across the river in La Crosse, WI because this facility is cheaper than  what they pay across the river in their state.  I told you we are generous, especially spending someone else's $$.  Sound familiar?

Keep an eye on the boys at the fountain

All this leads up to what I have discovered.  Yes it is an aquatic center and lovely.  And that morning many children were either in the pool, awaiting their entry or watching and waiting their turn as it was time for morning swim lessons.

 I gotta say, I got a big kick out of watching the kids, still not sure if this is worth what it costs me, but enjoyment is not cheap.   And for any grandparents who want to watch the days entertainment such as the couple entering there with their backs in the photo, there are rows of very nice lounge deck chairs.  The place really has something for all, an expanded diving pool, a climbing wall, the big slides which empty into another large area and a few  lanes for lap swimmers who will have to get there during restricted lap time only as the kids are invasive.


Here's a crew just anticipating the wet.   See the chairs




This is the expanded kiddie pool, twice the size of what it was
with a large Apple tree playhouse.  Notice one little guy is quite reluctant to
join the others.  "Mom, I don"t want to go!  Nooooo"



Diving pool and climbing  wall to the right of boards,
center of this photo

As I observed, I noticed some boys barely able to contain themselves from jumping in.  But their instructor was adamant, "not till I tell you."  BTW we are employing over twice as many lifeguards, etc for this as the previous.  Great youth summer employment but more cost.  When the instructor gave the, "OK  get in the pool"  all the boys jumped from the side.  Except one, who jumped forming a cannonball, the choice of boys down through the ages, creating a big splash.  To this there were giggles from the boys and "aaws" from the girls.  The young man  instructor said, ""I have told you to get in normal" and the human cannonball shouted back, "Well that's normal for me!"   It was hilarious.  



The boy who will become the  human cannonball is  in the middle,
camouflage suit between two girls.  This class has two  teen instructors
and the lifeguard perches in her chair

  I wandered back out still laughing at the waterpisodes when I heard the young gal who had a class of children detained in front, it was not yet their time to enter.  I could hear the kids, mostly boys again, "why can' t we go in?  We wanna go in and just watch.  Puhleeeeze, let us go in"  I'm thinking to myself that some young instructor is earning her pay.  As I walked out, I remembered this group of boys were there when I went it, so no wonder they are impatient.  They are about 5-6 years old and all little boy, one little girl has a need to oversee and the young instructor is sitting down.  I heard her say, "OK guys just sit here with me until it"s time"  And see those boys at the fountain?  Not having it!  "Nah, we want to get wet!"  And so they busied themselves splashing with the water fountain.  Problem solved as they giggled, I did too. 



"C'mon boys just sit here awhile..."  "Nah, we want to get wet!"



So it's time to walk on back home.  Across the street, at Breyers, a local business,  the John Deere's are lined up waiting for buyers, oblivious to the splashing fun going on so close.  Breyers sells and services mowers in the summer and snow blowers, removers in the winter.  Locally owned and operated for years.  Next door was the old family home.  The old folks are now gone and I went there when they held an estate sale.  Just looking.  It is a neat old  house with an upstairs deck.  Something different. It looks like they have not sold the old homestead but use some of it for the shop.   Dave, the owner, has other talents and often sings with his guitar on a morning radio show, especially around holidays when he may have more time.

And speaking of something  different on south 7th street is another small house with an unusual lawn decoration, perhaps they are retired dairy farmers. 

This ends the introduction to our La Crescent Aquatic Center and adjacent sights.

Walk with me

Red Knock out roses  adjacent to  salvia in the front rose garden

This time of year, I love to be outdoors and keeping up with our landscape & floral gardens give me ample opportunity.  I have been fighting some aches and an annoying flare up of that  right Achilles tendon, but when I say fighting, you know me, I will not take this sitting down.  So rather than Curves workouts, which I am about to give up because I cannot get in there at the time I'd  prefer and because it is so beautiful around here,  I have been walking in the mornings.  The high school is about 1/4 +mile from our home and there is a wonderful quarter mile track around the football field that makes it easy to monitor the distance, so on mornings when I don"t feel like venturing uptown and farther around the neighborhoods, I head to the track.  Sometimes I bike to the school and lap it on wheels and then head to the track.    Because I have had so little time to blog, I took some photos the other morning to show you where we live and so today, walk with me as I log another  mile and half before patrolling my landscape.  It really is beautiful here in our corner of the country. 


I love the AM shadows from all the trees. 
Down our driveway to Cedar toward south 14th

New neighbors  will be next door, Maders daughter.

Dianne and her hubby who are also Morrison's will
be the new residents.  This is good, they are about our age,
empty nesters but it will confuse the post office to have
Morrisons two in a row.



It doesn't take long to reach So. 14th.  There is our local Community
Center, aka Hockey rink and fields to the left

Turn right and we are on South 14th

We  cross to the sidewalks on South 14th and go along





Wild flowers anyone?  A sweet scent wafts up.







Approaching  our destination, the track



On the right is our local La Crescent High school, back side



Now we are closer and ready to cross the street



Right across the street and past the fence, the track awaits



Enter and begin the serious swifter walking  This is a gorgeous
rubber based track and I have it all to myself



Some hurdles left over this morning...here we go



Almost to the first curve, looking back toward So. 14th
 from whence we came

Second curve going down the back stretch looking toward stands



Lap 1 done,  to the right off track are more sport fields and hills



Lap two we can go faster now

We have warmed up



After four laps and we head back down south 14th



Along the way home, this grass caught my eye
The phone pole appears to have an eye on me







Yellow mallow with salvia has me singing Mellow Yellow

Such are the entertaining thoughts that can enter on a

pretty sunny quiet  morning.  It's a good and bad thing I don"t walk with

earphones or any attachment.  I can be content with my own thoughts

 



Approaching Cedar to the right, Hockey Rink to the left

Still quiet on the roads and all is well

Home again home again....you know the rest.  Inside a K-cuppa will  be
good, hazlenut this morning I think



We still wave old Glory



Memorial Day 2012

Mom and Dad
New pilot, Lewis S Ball Army Air Corps

Last  night as we attempted to watch the National Memorial Day concert from DC prior to its being called for bad weather, the story of Brigette Cain, young widow had me sobbing.  Showing the children was too much for me!  It hits too close to  home for so many  like me, my siblings in AWON who lost our fathers in WWII, mine  prior to my birth.  It is a deep wound that has not nor will ever heal--68 years later on life's path.  You can find his stories on this blog.   What inspired me about Brigette Cain is that she vows to keep her husband"s memory alive and is making books for the children.  My Mom never did that; as many of her generation, no one talked about my dad' I have learned it was their way, move on, etc. She remarried and her second husband likely would not allow mention of my father.  I can remember fantasizing to myself, "wait till my dad comes back, then it will all be OK..."  That was because no trace was ever found of his plane and crew, despite the reports of searching according to the official government records.  Memorial Day brings me right back to wishing I could have known more what she could have told me when she was alive, in later years she shared a little more about how there was never anyone like him, his humor and his wit and how I was the spitting image of him.  For Brigette Cain and all the widows of wartimes, I pray for you all and  hope the family of your fallen warrior treats you and your children with respect and love and surely  better than my father's family ever did.  I hope you find the peace of acceptance and can once again enjoy life. Here is a link to the PBS special with a photo of Brigette. 

     http://www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert/features/losing-my-hero.html   

This recalls thought of how ashamed I am of a niece who lives in Ohio and who made a political ad endorsing a candidate who helped her sort out something about a bill sent to niece's boyfriend who was deployed to Afghanistan.  When I saw that on You Tube I was disgusted, there blabs my niece on  and on about "a love one deployed..." and praising this congressional candidate; further the political ad touts help about her husband..NOT.  So many thoughts shot through my mind along with the initial disdain of "how could you...." but  I know she  is striving for her  five minutes of fame....and to some it doesn't matter whose coat tails they ride.  

This appeared today in our local paper the La Crosse Tribune.....a story that needs to be told across the country.  Somehow here in the Midwest and in the east we are better at remembering. 

I was thinking that we used to call this Decoration Day, the day we went to the cemeteries to decorate the graves in Pennsylvania.  I have found that was right and not until sometime in the 1960"s was it changed to Memorial Day.  Whatever else we do today, let us lift a prayer of remembrance and gratitude.    

Just a test if this were a real post you would receive further instructions...o

Before I ascend upstairs with the mix and tequila to engage  the margarita blender on this sultry  day, I am testing to see if blogger is still insisting on rotating Van Gough....this is quite a puzzle as all the other photos are posting correctly.  Have not had this experience before...some  Google forums claim it happens when it is a direct camera or phone upload but these are not, they have already been saved to the computer....well this  is mysterious...I switched  to Google chrome to upload and here it still rotates...as I said previously WTH!!!

 Let's try another photo.    Well this of the backyard bird feeder area comes out just fine.  


OK Blogger, whatcha got against garden gnomes?  Call in the trolls, this calls for action!

Been BZ

Bumble  bee on salvia

This is the time of year  that I love, spring has sprung, the first roses are in bloom and offer fat promises of more to come with their buds, the peonies which are my next favorite flower after roses are  just breaking loose (of course we had rain yesterday--needed but it sags the peonies)and all the salvia and cat mint display a waving carpet of purple and lavender next to dusty miller in the rose garden.  The bees love the salvia and we have ever so many again feasting on the purple potion.  They make quite a racket with an incessant mmmmmm and buzz so loudly that it makes me laugh, especially when they want me to get out of their way as I monitor for a weed or unwanted growth around the roses.  I have heard that salvia plants are banned in some places because they are used to make hallucinogenic substances.  I have no idea if this is really true or not but if it is, that might account for my wacky B Z bees.  I used the salvia as fill in the middle of the rose garden and periodically I have to whack it back or it would take over.  Even more invasive is the cat mint.  Last year I dug half of these out to share and this year here they are again.   I really enjoy these perennials and their show. 

Salvia next to cat mint at sunset approaching

I really miss blogging but outside work beckons, well demands my attention and so there I spend my time.  Michelle asked me to post some blooms on Facebook which I did happily.  But as ever, once I get that camera going, I cannot just limit photos and find I have way too many to download and deal with.  So in the midst of effort I will post some of these lovely sights here to the blog.  The rose garden is a sight to watch  from our living room window, but I find myself called there from morning to evening and it is never just a minute or two.  The red knock out roses are in glory already--I had some concern as all put out red mahogany growth and then we had a frost.  Well, we were leaving for our trip and I had only time to snip them back with a solid lecture (yes I talk to my plants), "OK wise guys and gals, you know you are spurting growth too early for Minnesota.  But if you insist you will just have to toughen up because I cannot spend  time with you fixing your frost bitten tips.  So if you think you are big enough to bloom so early, you can just figure it out."  Several locals rushed to cover their roses when the frost came but I did not.  And it appears they took heed and have not complained.  The knock out roses have earned their keep because they winter without any special treatment.  That is another secret to my Minnesota roses, I refuse to baby them and bury them over winter.  They get a  heaping of mulch and clippings and they survive the snows.    



Red Knock Out roses,  by Bill Adler, WI hybridizer

Another champion Apple Jack rose, an Iowa Buck rose with Bon Chance
below it..Apple Jack adds to the feast of bees and the smell is
noticeable the minute we open the door

Close up of an opened nearly spent Apple Jack bloom with
many more buds to open yet

Front of the house from beyond rose garden  taken  as  sunset
approaches....notice the two dots from reflection on the camera lens.  I am intrigued
with this photo.  See the red knock outs at one end and the big
Apple Jack  anchoring the right

Red Knock Outs   Blue globe,  dragon fly with
vigilant smiling lady bug stick

First pink peo



Front rose garden looking down the cul de sac





The dreamy creamy peonies are the first to bloom out
along the back garden fence 

Even the tiny hens and chicks are running wild this year



First pink peony just yesterday.  I love these peonies even
with the black ants swarming them to open their petals.

Even as  a child I adored the  big peony  bushes off our front porch.  And I thought Mom a big grouch because she refused to allow me to  bring a bouquet inside admonishing me about their resident ants.  I learned soon after moving to Minnesota that she knew where of she spoke as I  brought a huge pail of peonies inside.  I could barely set them on the table before the ants came out and about.....oh me!  Mom was right.  I have heard that they can be sprayed to rid the ants but I am a natural gardener and do not use chemicals because we have so many beneficial insects and birds that I fore go anything harmful.  If it is bad for  a living creature it is probably bad for me too.  Now if and when those nasty demonic Japanese beetles arrive as they are bound to do here, I become quite violent.  I pluck them early morning and down into the death jar they go where they swarm and try to swim atop each other in a jar of detergent.  You see I do have a mean streak protecting my roses.  But it's all natural.   

Let me close today by introducing you to Van Gough, one of my cherished garden gnomes.  He was given to me by an elderly lady in CA who made him for my rose gardens there.  She was almost 989 and still doing ceramics; each year I bought something from her at a craft show in April or so at the Auburn Fair grounds.  Well, Van Gough is so named because he lost an ear, long ago who knows by what critter.  It was in pieces and could not be restored, but he still keeps his pleasant demeanor and annually he gets to set with the newest of our front Alberta spruce trees.    Blogger wants to post him sideways so I have removed the tree and try to show  Van Gough alone here so you can see the detail of her work and perhaps his missing ear which he does not seem to mind at all......he has adjusted, as we all must do when life gives us what we do not expect.



My apologies but I cannot get this photo rotated...Tilt

WTH Blogger?

May Travels Gettysburg 4 of ??

RV Ladybug

It was goodbye to Mt. Top and onward eastward, smiling along with my newest lady bug gadget, photo to the left courtesy of Carlie.  This cutie bug really waves her wings from sunshine she gets from the window on the ledge by the table, I think she likes the road. We are in our self declared ladybug year and so we are always on the lookout for our buggy gals to exchange.  
If April showers bring May flowers the roof high fully blooming azaleas and rhododendrons in PA validate that proverb.  I missed the flowering dogwoods which were very early this year, because March was so warm however, here and there were many gorgeous bushes to behold.  Like these twin beauties off Millerstown Rd near Mt. Top RV our home while back home.  You will notice the hillside, I come from a land of hills which makes it look as though one house is on top of the other but it is not.  Just look at the house  closest to the twin bushes, that  is the a rooftop of the house and yes the flowering shrubs grow that big.  We have seen some that were bigger than the home to which they belonged.  Absolutely gorgeous. 

Millersburg Rd, Tarentum, blooming beauties

 Today was mostly good fair travel weather, only a few sprinkles of rain and we logged a mere 202 miles in 4 hours and 35 minutes total time, less a 10 minute stop for  4 hours  25 minutes drive time.  Because Jerry had read something about the Lincoln Highway in some RV article and because Godfrey recommended it, we departed the turnpike (I 76, all good road) at exit 161, Breezeway to PA Highway 30.  Oh wow! 

Such a twisty, turny, curvy one lane primarily road through the Allegheny mountains with some spectacular views,  wildflowers through the trees and even a few dogwoods still in bloom this way.  BUT, I know there's always a but.....well, it was a road to travel one time.  For our RV and towing a car, it was tedious as Jerry adhered to the truck caution signs and drove in low gear at no more than 30 mph on over half the way and being a courteous driver he pulled over frequently to allow vehicles and motor cyclists to pass on the one lane.  There were plenty of motorcyclists on the hills and curves enjoying themselves.  The road made us deeply appreciate those hearty stalwart early colonial settlers of Penn's Woods back in the early days of 1700"s and later.  That anyone ventured and successfully arrived at Ft. Pitt (today's Pittsburgh) on the western side of the state through the mountains, the weather and the Indians at that time,explains a lot about the attitude of western Pennsylvanians.  The eastern elite (Philadelphians) considered the westerners riff raff, not as polished, not as distinguished as the ones who remained on the eastern side.  There is some truth because many of the early settlers were thieves, criminal element, etc.  It was their ticket to freedom to settle the country and they took it.  That roughness helped them persevere over trials on trails.  All these years down through history some of that attitude  prevails between the eastern and western state residents.  We westerners are more the rowdies, they say. 

We are signed up for a Battlefield guided tour tomorrow via climate controlled bus.  We have some light showers this evening and more predicted for tomorrow, so I selected the  enclosed air conditioned bus instead of the open double decker with audio phones.  I will be able to question the park ranger who will guide our tour instead of just having to listen to audio.  We find that it is a good practice to take these tours when available for a first time overview of the entire place.  Looking forward to tomorrow's morning departure. The tour will pick us up by van here at the RV park tomorrow and take us into Gettysburg to catch the bus.  We have two hours around the battleground and then are transported back here although the desk staff said, the tour company will allow us time in town if we wish and return us later.  That may be very handy if we get more liquid sunshine.

Artillery Ridge RV Campground Entrance

We are staying at Artillery Ridge Campground and RV which is also the home of the National Stables.  They offer battlefield tours on horseback.  Jerry thought that would be a good idea, I did not.  It has been far too many years since I have been on a horse and I am no longer featuring an Annie Oakley venture.  This RV park has a mixture of sites ranging from tents, to fifth wheels, to cabins to big rigs. On a short walk around the park I spotted the colony of tenters and there asleep in the front seat of one car that belonged to them was a young woman who apparently opted for the front seat of the vehicle in lieu of the ground.    And of course they have stables for horses and room for horse trailers for those who tow their own.  As soon as we arrived I could smell the horses; a horseman statue on top the roof welcomes arrivals.  

These are a few of the rental cabins offered by Artillery Ridge

 We are anxious to compare this to Vicksburg, MS where we visited in February.  The Gettysburg Battlefield is bigger, I believe.  The history that surrounds us and the town is amazing and gives us a sense of wonder just to be here years down the road honoring what held our country together.