waiting in line

The Gordonville Fire Co. hall is lined with glass cases filled with trophies and memorabilia. Two sides of the hall groaned with tables stacked with food.



Sarah, Joel, and Steph are still patient after thirity minutes of wait. About fifteen more feet to go, ten minutes at the most.

Real birth hero

Here's Dorcas, r., and one of Dr. Rutt's nurses. When it comes to birth, there's no hero but the mother. There are some attendants. In our case including the father. But Mother's Day doesn't come often enough to show the life leadership of mothers themselves.

family doctor retires

First you go to Gordonville. Then you wait in line. Then you finally chat with Dr. Rutt, left. At right are his two totally successful births, Sarah and Joel. Back to camera is Dorcas, who really did the heavy lifting in 1981 and 1984. Center is Steph, soaking in the family history.

Dr. Rutt had a solo practice close to Gordonville, specializing in births in the birthing room in his office. With both births, Dorcas and I were able to drive to the office in the wee hours when no one else was there--except for Dr. Rutt, who had given up a night's sleep to usher in the blessed events.

low mid-day January sun

Here's desk number two. There's the fax and telephone. There's the 1:04 p.m. mid-day sun coming in at such a low angle.

This is the office along Eby Road where I work and where the blogs come from.

I'm also trying out a new lens for my camera.

heavy equipment on Eby Road

Looks like big time operation in Monterey. Standing on the road at the triangle tip of the property, here's what I saw this morning.

To keep the trees healthy "green," major surgery. That's in front of the house that won the Monterey Christmas light contest.

Here's the question: how many tree years will it take to offset the petrol carbs being burned up to ensure more tree years?

more of that snow

Snow makes Monterey look better. I couldn't resist another shot I got.

Look at the dark barn door to see some flakes.

Foreground shows the new plantings from the flagstone walk landscaping. Expensive flagstones just disappeared.

first 2008 snow

Snow in January--kind of a cliche. But when you haven't seen snow for a while it looks enchanting all over again.

Here's 3 o'clock at Monterey yesterday. That's the white oak, left, which won't let its dead leaves fall until the buds push them away in the spring. The oak is huddled against one of our live Christmas trees from yesteryear--a fir a think.

the cat

A stray that stayed. It gets blamed on me because I fed it. It has no name. I still ask visitors if they want a free cat.

For gratitude it hisses. I thought it was crazy. One time I suspected deafness, because I noticed if you surprise it by sight before it hears you approach it freaks.

So always let it know by loud sound that you are approaching.

The pipes at Bryn Mawr

Inside those stones at Bryn Mawr, a town on the mainline just west of Philadelphia, these pipes sit in the balony at the rear of the church. My mind was drifting just a little bit during the master class seminar led by Wilma Jensen. I just spun the camera up and to the right.

To the left is a stained glass window celebrating hymns, with the hymn, "When In Our Music God Is Glorified," and the notation of the tune.

More church work

Seems like doing more requires doing more.

Besides more work hours since the end of October, I've been putting in more resourcing hours.

Last Saturday I attended an American Guild of Organists seminar at this artfully arranged pile of stones, the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

The two morning seminars were organ playing by Wilma Jensen and a new anthems reading. In the afternoon it was adding percussion to congregational singing and techniques of inspiring singers.

What happened at Monterey? It achieved the miracle of unchangeability. The cat was still hungry and winter was still heavy on the land.

Pipe organ at work

Front page of Mennonite Weekly Review: new pipe organ being installed at Hesston, Kan., Mennonite Church.

Don't often see pipe organ or any other kind in Menno church papers. Understandable--because there aren't many. In fact, there aren't many people who off the top of their heads would say they want one, or want to hear one.

Since late November I've been working with a pipe organ again. It's the one at Zion Mennonite Church in Souderton, Pa.

www.cbfisk.com. Go to instruments, then small organs and you'll find #51.

I'll have to get a sound file and a pic.

Canadian geese didn't fail

I've often noticed that in the first week of the calendar year Canada Geese get moving. The days, afterall, are getting longer.

I thought of this again towards the end of December. Sure enough, yesterday I heard and then saw a medium sized vee of geese. I tried to snitch a photo of one online, but gave up.

My father was not one to be afraid of animals. But he had an irrational fear of geese, left over from an experience of being attacked by one when he was a child.