The
Killer Gourd From Outer Space. When you’ve
been away from home for more than a month, it’s hard
to know what you’ll find. Will the grass be brown or
green? Will the cats be there, or will it take them a while
to figure out that we’re back? Will another family
have moved in and taken up residence in our house? That
would be weird. But, I digress. Last fall, Morgan got a
gourd plant from somewhere or other. He wanted to plant
the seeds, and at that time it was cold and we didn’t
think anything of having him toss them into the front flower
beds at our house. I was thinking that it was cold, the
seeds would likely die and all would be forgotten. But,
they did actually take root and begin to grow. Before we
left they were a few inches long with some nice leaves forming.
“That’s nice,” I thought. “Morgan can
see that his gourd plants have grown.” But we get very
little direct sun, so I figured they would die before we
returned,
Well. When we came down the driveway after being away for
five weeks, the first thing we noticed was the huge amount
of green foliage that has completely overtaken a large portion
of the front of the house! It didn’t just grow. It
exploded! I couldn’t believe my eyes! It completely
filled the flower bed, grew across the step leading to the
porch and across to the next flower bed. AND it climbed
up and over our bedroom window!
It’s at this point I find myself wishing that a gourd
was a useful vegetable. Can you eat it? Is it good for anything
but decoration? If so, I’m not aware of it. But there
it is. We’ve decided to let it run its course. Little
gourds are forming. We’ll have autumn decorative bliss.
And Morgan will want to sell them, no doubt. He’s quite
the little entrepreneur these days. He sells bookmarks he’s
made at my concerts now, and people actually buy them.
You can’t really see this from the photos, but the
gourd plant has large yellow flowers all over it where the
gourds are forming or will be forming. Very attractive flowers,
too. You could say that they are gourd-geous.
The ‘Eyes Have It. You’ve heard
about life imitating art. Here’s a case where life
imitates tee shirt. Sheri’s mom, Betty Lou, bought
Morgan a shirt that has a cartoon of two fish. There’s
a large fish with the caption “my fish,” and a
much smaller one with the caption, “my dad’s fish.”
Ha ha. Well, on one of our last evenings in Canada, Sheri
and I decided to take the boys fishing. They have been eager
to fish this summer like starved dogs who smell fresh steaks.
Sheri’s dad, Ed, has been the one to take them. He
is an avid fisherman, and an avid granddad. Perfect guy
to have small fishin’ buddies. But we thought maybe
we should take them to show that we’re interested in
their newfound love for fishing. We are interested in what
they love, but not fishing on its own merits.
So we drove our boat into this little bay where we figured
we’ll find some little perch or sunnies to catch. We
finally got situated with bait and rods and the whole thing,
including getting two little boys situated where they won’t
hook each other’s scalps or anything. After a while
I got a bite. I reeled in a 15” walleye. Not huge,
but good enough to keep. Now, mind you, there should NOT
have been a walleye in this little bay. Not really deep
enough, and not the terrain where you’d expect to find
one. “What are you doing here, little fella?”
So another couple minutes went by, and Carter, holding his
Lightning McQueen rod and reel said, “I think I got
a fish.” He handed off the half toy, half real fishing
rod to Sheri who reeled it in. And what was on the hook,
you ask? An 18” walleye! A very impressive fish, caught
by a three year old, where it should not have been, on a
rod straight out of Toys R Us!
And that’s why I hate fishing.
Skinny Atlas. On our way home we stopped
in Syracuse to play at the Westvale SDA Church. We had a
beautiful time playing and camping in the parking lot. More
people took CDs at this church than at any other church
I’ve ever played. I was thrilled. We also met Fred
and Beth Burghart, who invited us to join them on a trip
to Skaneateles Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. We thought
it would be nice to go along and be outdoors on a really
pretty day. What we found was an absolutely gorgeous place!
It really was a little slice of heaven. The lake is jaw
droppingly beautiful. Clear, blue water, surrounded by green
trees, punctuated by lovely houses. Sailboats darting across
the water. Kids swimming happily. Seagulls. We were told
at least twice that Skaneateles is the most beautiful of
the Finger Lakes. I’ll let the residents of Upstate
New York battle that one out, but it really was amazing.
And now we know how to say Skaneateles. We’ve driven
past it so many years, seen it on maps, puzzled over it
on road signs. I always guessed it was skin-AT-uh-leez.
But we learned that it’s skinny atlas. A thin book
of maps. It’s not a fat almanac, it’s a Skaneateles.
Good to know. And I really have to recommend going there.
Really cute town there at the base of the lake, and the
lake itself is just amazing. It was an amazing day we will
always remember. Oh, and Fred, Beth, and their family were
super nice to us and welcoming in letting us crash their
party. You should really look them up, too!
