Saffron blooms

When it appears that the garden is done for the year, the saffron blooms. This flower here is part two of a complicated life of this member of the crocus family.

First thing in the spring they look like onions pushing up. When the garden is just beginning to produce, the saffron checks out and goes underground until winter is nearly here.

Each flower sports three red filaments. That's what you pluck and lay out to dry. And they become the most expensive spice in the world.

New roof

In church conversations you hear "the church is the people." True enough.

The family is the people, too. But the house demands attention from time to time.

This time it was the roof clamoring for renewal. The shingles had been put on some 35 years ago, I would guess by their looks.

So we signed a contract with R & L Siding and in one day with a crew of about seven and cranes and air hammers we had a roof that should keep us dry for a long time.

If this crane were not enough, look at the front porch and see a smaller hoist which was how they discarded the old shingles they ripped off.

Western Maryland leaves

I won't even tempt you with a single photo here. Just hit the link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lehmangd/GrantsvilleOctober2007

Flagstone walk

Two property projects finally were done the same week--a new walkway and a new roof.

Here's the walkway torn up and the new curved path for the flagstone. Stacked up like books on a shelf are the squares of Pennsylvania Blue, the flagstone quarried in northeastern Penna. and across the border into New York state.

Maybe machines have replaced most physical labor, but not here. The Kilgore Landscaping crew just dug in with plain old shovels. They had only a few more feet to dig and they said to me, This is amazing! All this digging and we still haven't hit a rock.

That's good old Monterey.

Special couple at wedding shower

These are important and exciting days. Joel and Stephanie are getting married Nov. 10. It's kind of like building a new pyramid, a new Rome, a new civilization. You don't do it in one day.

Bible scholars point out that the wedding at Cana was probably a five-day shindig. The point is not being an extravaganza. The point is the rock-bed deep foundations.

Last week friends threw a wedding shower. I put up a pic of the gifts. Here's the couple having the first piece of cake.

Wedding shower

Here you see the gifts brought to the wedding shower for distinguished Monterey citizen Joel and his beautiful financee, Stephanie. The brunch event was held at a restaurant in Leola last Sunday, hosted by friends of Stephanie's family.
The wedding will be held November 10. We are in the count-down last 30 days. Table cloths, candles, silverware, menus, music, guest list, clothes--it's the current conversation and work.
We're all really excited for this.
Family and friends will come from Oregon, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Deleware, and many points in between.

Bill Moyers uses sounds from Monterey

Well, Monterey isn't the center of the world, but for a few moments anyone in the world who was listening to Bill Moyer's Journal would have been hearing a few sounds generated here.

Weekly, Bill Moyers produces a reflective television piece. Last Friday it featured the book Amish Grace. The sound of the hymn and the schoolhouse bell were supplied by Harmonies. We get a little link and credit.

This link should get you to it: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10052007/profile4.html

I dream of marrying...Jo Pee and Fundi

Bennerblog picked up another of my attempts at humor.

If you want to read it go here: www.bennerblog.com

Find out who Jo Pee and Fundi are and what kind of pre-marital counseling I would have provided them if Falwell had asked me to sub for him. All very suppositional.

Toadstools?

Mushrooms cuddling? Toadstools? What are these growths in the lawn?

Here are some definitions: "an edible agaric (contrasting with the inedible toadstool)"--whatever agaric is. "Fungi of Basidiomycota with a cap at the end of a stem arising from underground mycelium."

Well, my Latin is not very good today, so whatever that means.

I remember seeing things like this which had popped up overnight when I was a kid. I was so fascinated. I don't think my parents (or any of my fiends' parents) ever bought mushrooms at the local pop and mom grocery. What a waste! Buying air. It's not food. It won't fill you up or stick to your ribs.

I knew enough to know that some people eat them. My Mom knew enough to tell me that some are poisonous. Which ones? She didn't know. I don't know. There was no internet to tell us how to tell the difference. The online dictionary reserves the term "toadstool" for the bad ones. So am I looking at a scrumptious topping for my hamburger or agonizing indigestion and possible death?

I'll never know, because I had to mow them down.

It just leaves me with the thought--why isn't the atomic bomb cloud called the toadstool cloud?