Mulberries

A couple of summers ago I noticed that we have two mulberry trees in our yard. I didn't really know what to do with them until I Googled it today. Turns out mulberries are very high in resveratrol, which is a powerful antioxidant.













So this represents my first harvest of the berries. A little bit sweet, but delicious, and they leave your fingers (and teeth) red. Depending on how much ambition I have, I may either try drying them or making a pie or jam. We'll see.















Of course Athos wanted to check out the situation, but after her first investigation, she went to look for something else to do. No doubt she would prefer something she could chase, like a bug or a mouse. That's fine with me.

The Farm

A guy came up to the farm a couple of days ago with this photo, taken about a week ago.


I had seen a plane flying around then, but really didn't pay it much mind. If I had known he was going to take a photo, I would have cleaned up around the barn a little more (normally I don't care that much). Buckaroo is on the right.

But this is my liberal little sanctuary in the midst of all the conservatism, for better or worse. You're still all welcome to come hang out.

Dog Creek

Being a bleeding liberal in a really, really conservative part of Iowa has its stresses. I guess I shouldn't need to say that (again).

So I have to try to find stuff to concentrate on that remind me of the good things about living here. One of those is Dog Creek County Park, just two miles south of the farm.


Featuring two small campgrounds and a beautiful man-made lake, it is a regular stop on my fair-weather bike journeys.








I recently chose a calm spring day (very rare here in Iowa) to take some pictures to show you of this lovely place. This is a view of my swimming course, from the beach across the lake and back. Can't wait for the water to get warm enough to start enjoying that.






And of course I had to baptize the Trek in the waters of Dog Creek Lake. This is my beloved bicycle, in whom I am well pleased.

You are all invited to come on down for a ride and a dip in the lake with me.

Omaha

What do you think of when you think of Omaha? Cow manure? Marlin Perkins getting mauled by an angry beast on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?






I wasn't sure what to expect when we first went down to drop a couple of violins off for servicing at Nielsen's Violin Shop downtown. What I saw, and experienced the next weekend, completely changed my perspective on this wonderful Midwestern city.

The people who live and work in, and manage, Omaha have done a marvelous job over the past several years of transforming their city into a vibrant, progressive haven for lovers of art, history, culture, and fine living.


In a space of just over a day and a half, we stayed near, and greatly enjoyed, the Old Market area, ate an outrageously marvelous variety of foods, saw a world-class classical concert (Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Assad Brothers) at the world-class Holland Performing Arts Center, toured the magnificent Joslyn Art Museum, hitched a ride in one of these lovely horse-drawn carriages, and walked the new Senator Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge across the Missouri River. Sensory overload to the max, and I was beat by the time we left to come back home. I can't wait to go do it again.

We didn't even leave the downtown area, this time. There's lots more to enjoy all over the city, which we are looking forward to many times in the future. If you ever find yourself around Omaha, don't worry about not having anything to do. They've got you covered, and then some.

(I've posted more of these photos on my MySpace page; follow the links.)

Lucky Me

In honor of Tony Banks' birthday, from his first solo album:

My name is unimportant
And my job you could call mean
But I like the work and I do it well
That's enough for me.

I think there was a time when I
Could do, and did, much more.
I have dreams in which I captain the ship
And hear the ocean roar.

I've lived alone for all I can remember
That only means some six or seven years.
I would rather be nobody else,
I'm happy as I am.
All I need is in my way
And you see no one expects too much from me.

People cry, but no one asks me to advise them.
They want to know but they don't ask me how.
That's for someone else and not for me, I don't know.
Lucky me.

My friends think that I should be trying
To find out who I was.
But I feel that road would bring me pain
And too much would be lost.

How I am is how I'm meant to be now,
Anyhow there's things I see more clearly
Than those whose heads are searching in the clouds
to make discoveries,
And maybe fail to see
What's on the ground beneath their feet, not hard to find.

People cry, but no one asks me to advise them
They want to know but they don't ask me how,
That's for someone else and not for me, I don't know.
Lucky me.

Copyright 1979 Crossound, Ltd. / Run It Music

Grotto of the Redemption

www.westbendgrotto.com

I'm not the most religious guy around, but yesterday we had the chance to pay our second visit to the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. I have posted about 60 photos.

Words and photos do not do this magnificent structure justice. If you ever get the chance to come experience it, I highly encourage you to do so.










This is a photo of my Grandfather, John James Miles, standing in front of the fountain on the east side of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in November of 1962.
















This is the same view, on March 21, 2009. It is very reassuring to note how well this has been preserved, and a very spiritual feeling to follow in my Grandpa's footsteps. Next time I go I will stand where he did in the picture.


Since MySpace gives me unlimited photo room, I posted my pictures there. (Due to extreme lighting conditions, it was necessary to process all of these through Photo Shop.) Click on MySpace, then Photos.

Peace.

Religulous

I just sat down and watched 'Religulous', the movie with Bill Maher. I consider myself lucky that Netflix was able to get it to me the first day it came out on DVD. I am grateful to them.


It's a good movie, and it makes (at least) a couple of very valid points. One is that there are many people who do many incredible things in the name of religion. Another is that there are a great number of people in this world who seem to think that the pursuit of (probably nuclear) Armageddon is somehow justified in the advancement of their religious ideology. Maher, at the end of the movie, brings this point home with a bang. Literally.


He makes his point in a way that is sure to infuriate the faithful. One of the first things you notice is that his documentarial (if that's a word) methodology is confrontational. He enters the movie with the pretext that religious fanatics are severely delusional, and he isn't afraid to gather groups of religious people together, and then either constantly interrupt their answers to his questions (ala Chris Matthews), or to harass them outright. His audacity is impressive, but if I try that I tend to get beaten up. Anyway, a lot of this is meant to be put in a humorous context, but that's really left up to the viewer. You'll get out of this movie what you come into it with. I personally didn't think it was that thigh-slapping hilarious, mostly because the subject matter is, to me, pretty serious stuff.


There are other ways to make one's point when dealing with opposing ideologies. One of my personal favorites is to assume as much of a non-threatening air as I can (assuming of course I am actually capable of doing this - some people don't think I am). I call this the 'Give 'em enough rope' philosophy, named after that early Clash record. Let them go long enough, they'll hang themselves. Of course, that means I have to stifle any of my own opinions, which could be construed as a form of lying or manipulating my subjects. It's unclear how much of this Maher did during the actual filming process; in the movie's final edit, he goes right for the jugular.


This movie isn't going to change anyone's mind, as I mentioned earlier. The faithful are going to scream blasphemy, and the atheists are going to say they told us so.


I talk about my feelings concerning God elsewhere in this blog. Look there to see all of that; I don't need to repeat myself.


But one of the main points in this movie is that freedom can be a dangerous thing. Just as godless people have the right to have their views, so do the zealots. And they are inevitably going to clash. We can only hope that doesn't end up dooming our fragile planet.