01 Monday Feb 2016
Tags
a not started, not finished, bedside read…
For quite some years now, I have had a goal of reading sixty books a year, which averages, you know to five books a month. As you would expect there are years that I read a bit more, a bit less, just right. However, this year, January will come and go without my having read nary a one. The flabbergasting thing is that I cannot put my finger on any particular reason why, other than perhaps a general sense of ennui, a word I absolutely love.
23 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Seasons, Time, Totem Hall, Vacation
Tags
beach, boarding school, children, classes, college, empty nesters, life, savannah college of art and design, spring break, tides, woodberry forest school
that last sunset…
Perhaps, I should say, spring sprunged. My youngest returns back to his boarding school later today, and in Savannah my oldest returns back to the college grind today, which all means that today at Totem Hall we return to life as empty nesters today, not a bad life mind you, but a life nevertheless…
11 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Business, Gardening, Gentleman Farming, Living, Passages, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
apple blossoms, apple computer, macbook, motherboard, spring, technology, technophobe, troglodyte, video card
new boss meets the old boss…
In case you were wondering where I might have been all these days, well, did you know that on older MacBooks the video card attaches to the motherboard and that when the video card goes bad, the motherboard though still good is now worthless? Yep, I did not know that either, though I have since found out about this and much other arcane trivia regarding both my now old and now new computers.
meet the new boss…
same as the old boss…
To be honest, the Gentleman Farmer does few things well and computers are not one of them. Slowly, but surely, while my face basks in the glow of computer light, I am making friends with the newest addition and expense to Totem Hall.
Somewhere, someone promises improved productivity and instant enlightenment, right?
I just noticed the blurry image of my old and now very defunct computer, which is somewhat apropos, no?
just because it’s spring and I love apple blossoms…
12 Monday Jan 2015
Tags
camellia japonica, camellia sasanqua, christmas camellia, christmas day, christmas presents, fried egg flower, matilija poppy, romneya, weather channel, winter storm gorgon, yuletide camellia
Not long ago, I looked up from whatever little task I had at hand and realized there were no flowers blooming here at Totem Hall, anywhere, anyhow.
christmas camellia…
That is so unusual, since we have an abundant blessing of blooms year round, which of course I absolutely love, since it gives me a reason to go outside, and make my picks of the day. I blame November. There was a brutish cold snap followed immediately by a deluge of biblical proportions and then another bit of nasty cold weather.
fried egg flower…
Those absurdly sweet harbingers of winter flowers, the Romneya, Tree Poppies, or Matilija Poppy, and the Camellia Sasanqua, the Christmas Camellia, the Yuletide Camellia, said “see ya, outta here, done”.
or yuletide camellia..
or matilija poppy…
And so we were, that is until Christmas Day, when miracle of miracles the Camellia Japonicas, which had been promising, burst forth in all their single, semi-double, irregular semi-double, formal double, elegans, and informal double glory. Spectacular stuff, kid you not, simply one of the best Christmas presents ever.
camellia japonica…
more camellia japonica…
camellia japonica once again…
penultimate camellia japonica…
the final camellia japonica
Now as I type this out, Winter Storm Gorgon has come and is now slowly leaving the scene. Before I go any further, can I ask when we started naming winter weather patterns, honestly, what is up with that? Is this a Weather Channel conspiracy, a new way for marketers and t-shirt makers to sell “I survived Gorgon” kitsch?
Anyway, the damage to my precious winter blooms was extensive, all the flowers freezer burned, and, as for the buds, time will tell. Thankfully, the camellia is a hearty plant and our winters mild, so I fully expect to enjoy bringing flowers into the home sometime later this winter.
01 Saturday Nov 2014
Posted in Living, Nature, Passages, Seasons, Totem Hall
Tags
crowns, daydreaming, doorways, entries, etruscans, fieldwork, greeks, harvest, old, olympics, owls, power, romans, tractor, wealth, wikipedia, wise, wreaths
harvest wreath…
I came back from the Woodberry Parents Weekend to find the front door of Totem Hall all decked out with a brand new wreath, courtesy of my mother in law, celebrating the best of fall.
one view up close…
Later on my tractor, working a field, I started thinking about wreaths, the whole who, what, when, and where.
another view up close…
So I turned to Wikipedia; I mean, after all, who doesn’t? Did you know that wreaths appeared during the Etruscan era, worn as crowns? After that, the Greeks and Romans appropriated the wreath concept, wearing them to celebrate, for instance, Olympic achievement, or to designate wealth and power.
wise old owl up close…
Of course, wreaths on the head are all good and wonderful, but how does one get from the dome to the door? Well, by way of Wikipedia, one again turns to the ancient Greeks. It turns out the Greeks enjoyed hanging a harvest wreath by their door, just like mine.
one more look…
before you come on in…
And there you go…
29 Friday Aug 2014
Tags
bulldogs, college football, dawgs, dreams, georgia bullogs, hedges, heritage, sanford stadium, season opener, southern boys, tradition, uga 1
For me, the high holy season of college football begins this Saturday when my school, my team takes to the field.
me and uga one…
It is an acquired taste, not for everyone, though very important in my part of the world.
We start young, us southern boys, playing and dreaming as long and as far as our playing and dreaming will take us.
Throw in the generations of family men who played and dreamed before and will play and dream to come.
Mix in the atmosphere, the pageantry, the tastes, smells, drinks, sights and sounds.
Add the excitement, the energy, the contact, controlled violence.
Then you can see why it is in the blood. Then you can see why it is who we are.
26 Tuesday Aug 2014
Tags
back pain, bed making, bloglovin, books, contemplation, iphone, reading
As in, flat on my back, as in back pain, as in immobile, as in how the heck does this happen when making a bed, for God’s sake…
view from a bed, flat on my back…
another view from a bed, flat on my back…
a final view from a bed, flat on my back…
Oh well, at least I have an iPhone and a good book, or two, or three.
12 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Time, Totem Hall
Tags
dodge, lexus, memory, moms, moves, moving, nissan, packing, pathfinder, poodles, ram 2500, roommates, rx400h, scad, sons, u-haul
Our oldest made his return to college Saturday. This was not our first fond farewell, having over the years sent him off to summer camps, boarding school, and the first year of college, but somehow yesterday was different, he was moving into his own home, well, own home with four other roommates.
folding sheets for the first and last time…
boxed up and ready to go…
The whole process was most entertaining and it brought back a flood of memories.
i’ll just stuff this in…
it doesn’t take me long to pack…
To begin with, all our carefully thought out plans fell by the wayside. The big Dodge 2500 is still in the shop. She was going to be the workhorse of the move. So, you say, no problem, I am sure you have a Plan B. Well good old Plan B did not work out either. Since my son’s Pathfinder did not have wiring for the trailer lights, there was no U-Haul for us, not rentable. Surely, we can use one of the open-air trailers here at Totem Hall, right? Ooh, too bad, the Lexus, choice three, with tow package and harness, is no good, faulty wiring.
The end result: ah, stuff it in the back of the Nissan.
packed in the back…
packed on the side…
packed on the other side…
and packed in the front…
He is definitely my son.
How crazy time is, really. We move through it, try our best to hold on to it, swimming upstream, you know.
bye moms, bye poodle…
Was it just the other day that I was making my own moves, possessions stuffed into a trash bag, or two? Or how about renting the first moving truck, enlisting a couple of friends with offers of beer and lunch, forgetting to tie down everything in back.
bye totem hall…
Then came children, just the births alone seem long ago, though, in the grandness of time, not too far away, remembered, just not able to be captured again, the first words, the first walk, off to school, off to university.
bye son, fare thee well…
Life is such a funny game…
06 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Sporting Life, Time
Tags
archery, avon old farms school, bait fish, boarding school, fishing, golf, hiking, hunting, lacrosse, landlord, quail, roommates, savannah college of art and design, tadpoles, woodberry forest school
Do you ever think that life shows you, gives you, just what need, when you need it, as you need it?
stuff of boys, stuff of dreams…
Case in point, entering every day into the world of gentleman farming at Totem Hall, I pass a little corner in my home. Until yesterday, I never paid it any mind. It was just stuff. But for some reason, for some reason, yesterday was different; I sat down and, as if for the first time, I saw the stuff of dreams, stuff of boys…
gotcha…
Blessed, our family has always lived surrounded by nature. Nature has all sorts of bugs, butterflies, tadpoles, and baitfish that need catching by young boys.
boys and bows and arrows…
My two sons and I like to hunt and fish. After summer camp one year, one of the little rascals, maybe both got the idea of bow hunting and fishing. So we bought an archery set. Now the only thing left is the bow, the arrows are long gone.
walking and talking…
I take long walks on our land. Because of the possibility of running across a rattlesnake or water moccasin, just about all the time I’ll carry a stick with me. For me, it’s better than a machete, which is too close quarter.
get up and fly, dagnabbit…
My part of the world has quail. Sometimes even if your dog sets and holds, the bird might be a bit reluctant to get up and fly. The boys use this strap to beat the bushes in hopes of getting the bird to move along.
spring sports…
Both the lacrosse stick and baseball bat are relics of the past. My oldest son earned a varsity letter playing lacrosse at Avon Old Farms School. My youngest tried baseball when he was much younger, maybe not even ten, in the end deciding the sport was too slow for him.
I did not even talk about golf, or tennis, or squash, whose tools of the trade you can see in several of the pictures. And there is no way I can possibly describe how much fun I had teaching and then getting bested by my two, just a great way for me to grow up and stay young at the same time.
all gone now…
Okay, I staged this scene, but still, why not a bit of poetical license, after all we are all adults here. The oldest is off to college in Savannah by the end of the weekend, moving into a home with four other roommates. God help the poor landlord. Then our youngest son leaves for Virginia and the start of his boarding school career next week.
Time moves along downstream like a river, always present, always changing, always there, never there…
22 Tuesday Jul 2014
Tags
169 barber street, 40 watt club, athens georgia, blitzkrieg bop, catapult, death, fables of the reconstruction, lost youth, m1 abrams tank, memory, misspent youth, ramones, rem, sex drugs rock & roll, tommy ramone, university of georgia, well spent youth
rip, tommy…
Has it really been close to two weeks? My, oh my, time really does slip away. The recent death of the last Ramone, Tommy, set me to thinking, well, contemplating sort of, the completely existential existence thing we call life.
we were all younger then…
Youth, what a strange, fickle, ephemeral state, it is and though it doesn’t work as well as it once did, together we can take a trip down my memory lane.
which to choose…
During the Ramones heyday of the early eighties, I think I was spending a lot of time around M1 Abrams tank sights, living the dream of firepower, little money, and lots of partying.
m1…
After my stint with tank sights, I found my way back to Athens, Georgia, and University. An earlier attempt having resulted in a glorious flameout, my second effort would only be marginally better.
through this arch all dreams come true…
At the time a very popular local band, REM, was making good, and to my mind captured the moment best, “Ooh, we were little boys, Ooh, we were little girls”. HaHa, what a wonderful line! There was so much music, so much art, so many young, pretty people. The rent was cheap.
169 barber street home…
The food, and alcohol, and drugs, were even cheaper. I embraced everything, soaked it up, believed in it, cared not for the future, understood not the future. Went to class; didn’t go to class, fell in love; fell out of love; had lots of sex, had no sex; cared, didn’t care.
made famous…
And, true story, became a character in a song, from an album, by a band.
in here somewhere…
Now, of course, it is a hazy, distant memory, though I do wonder if I’ll be like those elderly ones who remember way back when so clearly, as if it were yesterday.
hazy memory me…
