No, I've not forgotten this. But the "new blogger" approach to photographs confused me back in February --- then I got sidetracked. Now I think I've gotten it figured out (just added a photo of Elizabeth E.E.F. Hammer's tombstone to the previous entry) and just could be back on track.
It was cold then, and a beautiful sunny May day in Iowa now. Easter morning, I left Mason City at 5:30 a.m. and arrived in Chariton before 9 a.m. to view the effects of our big freeze during the previous week: Tulips and daffodils flat on the ground, magnolias (blooming the weekend before) looking like they'd been horsewhipped, all the budding trees turning brown.
By now, nearly everything has recovered and I'm going to try the same 5:30 a.m. stunt Sunday, hoping everything I've planted will be standing tall. The "spite prairie" bed just south of the house --- so-called because I'd hoped it would deter the neighbor who sneaks across the lawn and sprays poison on my dandelions --- is flourishing. The prairie bed hasn't deterred the neighbor by the way, but I guess that will just have to be OK. He's given up on saving my soul and now seems content to try to save my lawn ("creeping charlie doesn't grow uphill you know," Mrs. neighbor said the other day, referring to the fact I live on higher ground). I hope those poor folks aren't lying awake at night, worrying about my charlie creeping closer and closer.
Some things don't change: The Iraq war goes on, no less deadly it seems; no closer to resolution. We continue to pray for the dead and for peace Tuesday evenings during compline at St. John's. But why aren't more people gathering in more churches to pray? Surely prayers for peace, even by the most militant, couldn't be viewed as "not supporting the troops."
And the price of gasoline just keeps going up and up and up.
But some things do. Freed of Republican control, the Iowa Legislature this session added gay and lesbian youngsters to new anti-bullying legislation directed at our schools; then followed up on that by adding LGBT folks to the list of those who cannot be discriminated against in public arenas. Who would have thought it? In Iowa?
Hope does spring eternal in the spring: Even if, damnfools that we are, we succeed in wiping ourselves out, the planet probably will survive; tallgrass prairie will break through cracks in the Interstate and sweep toward, then through, Mason City --- until there's only the sound of grass in the wind and running water again. My prairie bed, accompanied by creeping charlie and the dandelions, will rise up and conquer the neighbors' perfectly manicured lawn. And the dandelion shall lie down with the bluegrass ...
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