how the river turns

how the river turns

walls and windows into 

fluid squiggles

The River Kaw, also known as the Kansas River, runs through Lawrence, Kansas, dividing the city, which is connected by the Massachusetts Street bridge.

The Bowersock Dam crosses the river under the bridge. A low impact dam, it is the only hydroelectric dam in Kansas.

Suspended above the dam are electric high lines. On these perches with a view, crows gather. They come and go, but there is always room for more along the wires.

I walk down below the bridge for a closer view of the water. Someone has inscribed LOVE in red letters on the underside of the bridge. For awhile I watch the way the water reflects buildings, turning stone and glass into free-flowing abstractions. 

Across the river, the sun setting behind bare trees turns the water to liquid gold.

On the north side of the river near the bridge, someone has constructed an amazing sculpture composed of driftwood and river trash, set among the limestone boulders of the flood bank.

 

The river hones the wood, revealing the grain, turning it silver. And the river casts up the junk that has been thrown, dropped, lost in the water, so that humans with beauty in their eyes can turn it into art.

amber glass turkey

amber glass turkey

filled with lists of gratitude

for Thanksgiving Day

So many families spread out across the country. What to do on holidays? My younger sister celebrates Thanksgiving on the Sunday before the official holiday for her family and friends, who are then free to visit other relatives on Thursday. 
          We drove five hours west to Lawrence, Kansas, for the event. Three generations, 18 people, spread out down the long dining table, with an extra card table at one end and a little low table with stools for two of the youngest girls.
          My sister set the table with our mother's blue onion china. An amber glass turkey, another keepsake from Mother, was the centerpiece. My sister passed around a little notebook and pen and each of us wrote our list of what we are grateful for and placed it inside the turkey. Next year we will read our list from the previous year and add to it.
          My sister roasted the turkey with dressing and made mashed potatoes with gravy. Everyone else brought a side dish and dessert. We had all the traditional foods. In addition to roast turkey and mashed potatoes, we had apple cider, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry relish, creamed onions, green beans, salad, rolls, pickled okra, olives, spiced pears, pumpkin pie, blueberry pie, maple syrup pie and spice cake. Of course, everyone was as stuffed as the turkey.
          I am grateful that we still have this tradition, even though Thanksgiving seems overshadowed by Black Friday shopping mania (which now begins before Thanksgiving) and early Christmas decorations and lights. On the other hand, I am grateful that we just have a chance to get together with family and friends, even if the food is not traditional. Today, Thanksgiving Thursday, our family in Fairfield will gather for a no fuss no muss pizza dinner followed by movies. And I'm sure we'll still get happily stuffed.

first day of spring -- snow

first day of spring -- snow

crocuses open frail petals 

among dead oak leaves

When I leave home on 17 March, it's still winter in Iowa, 14 degrees F with snow on the ground. By the time I park at my sister's home, 100 miles southwest in Kansas, spring has already arrived, with St. Patrick's Day green erupting from bare ground.

On the sunny Spring Equinox, the lilac buds of the snow crocuses open, but instead of poking through snow, they are thrusting up through a thick layer of dry oak leaves. 

These appear to be the wild variety, C. tommasinianus. Some intrepid "tommies" are springing straight up through gravel, their delicate petals as luminescent as stained glass.

Six pointed purple petals form a chalice for three inward curving golden anthers surmounted by a ruffled tripartite stigma.

The pollen, the color of turmeric, is so heavy it's spilling onto the delicate petals. No bees in sight, but the sticky stigma will remain moist for quite a long time, waiting for a princess charming to give it a pollinating nuzzle.