Thinking about eagles and light and stars

Our drive down to The Lake today confirmed our reasons for going there at least once a day just to see what's new.  Today we were surprised to see that the ice in the channel of water leading into the marina was nearly totally SMOOTH!  And this is strange because the last time we saw it on Saturday, it was a jumbled mess of frozen ice chunks.  So, what happened?  How did it get all smoothed out because it certainly wasn't any result of melting!  It's been too cold for that.  But it's also been very windy, so perhaps surface water blew inland and everything froze to almost a skating-rink smooth condition.  Just a hypothesis, of course..."I'm not a scientist."  (Hmmm, where have I heard that before?)

Our other sighting today was eagles--actually four eagles!  They were sitting out on the ice edges and finding something tasty to interest them out there.  

Here's two of them together.  The other two were over to the west but even further out...so even smaller specks in my picture.  While we were there, we saw Laura Erickson who does a blog about birds--Laura's Birding Blog.  She is from Duluth but has family connections here and often comes to visit her favorite bird haunts.  Today she was looking for snowy owls which have been seen here lately, but not by us!

********************

What's really been on my mind lately has been my cousin, Ingabritt, from Sweden-now-Greece.  Early yesterday morning I received an email from her husband, Harry (Hariton), telling me that she had passed away on Saturday.  She is the person who was my inspiration to begin blogging just a year ago when I reconnected with her for the first time since the early 1980's.  In spite of breast cancer and all the necessary treatments since 2007, she has lived life to the fullest as a journalist, wife, mother of three, and friend to many!  I'm so glad I found her last year.

 I met her husband, Harry, when we visited Ingabritt in Stockholm in 1979.  Jeff and I were on a three-week Eurail trip through Europe after being discharged from the Army in Augsburg, Germany.  Harry was an astronomy student back then and is now an astronomer in Greece.  In an email I received from him today, he said that as part of the UNESCO 2015 International Year of Light, highlighting for the world the importance of light and optical technology in our lives, he was able to name a star Ingabritt-Maria in her name.  So nice!  I usually go out on our front porch on clear nights to see the stars and check for northern lights.  Our dark skies always make it a great show!

I hope I'm not sharing too much, but he also said that she was brave and at peace to the end.  Her daughter will be having a baby any day now and Ingabritt was sitting up and knitting baby clothes for her first grandchild until Friday, the day before she passed away!  I knew she was my mentor for my blogging project, but today I realized she will also be my mentor on how to live and now even on how to face death.  What a gift!

Adjö, Ingabritt, och många tack!

Blogging to the sound of fierce winter winds!

Wow!  First post of the new year and where have I been these last seven days?  Here, nowhere but here, so what's my problem?  As usual, I have no excuses and no good reasons for NOT posting, so I will just begin the year as if it was January 1!

Actually I have many good reasons TO post!  While the sun hasn't been showing itself lately, we had this BEAUTIFUL sunrise back on New Years' Eve morning.  The East was on fire!  This is looking to the southeast which seems a strange direction for a sunrise.  It should be rising on the far LEFT side of this photo--and even more left...but I guess that would be summer and we wouldn't be hearing these fierce winter winds outside.

Our trip down to The Lake that same day (no more sun!) showed our two fishing boats sitting in their over-winter position in the middle of the backwaters.  I haven't checked with anyone official, but I think they park them like that so it's an easier straight shot out of the harbor when fishing can begin again in March...or April...or May.  Sign of the season, for sure.

Last Sunday we could feel the resurgence of winter when the winds started up and the temps started down.  This picture is a combination of some blowing snow and the cold making the little bit of open water steam.  If this was happening on a big scale, it's what would be bringing us our lake effect snow.  On the bottom of the picture you can see the ice in the channel and how it has been piling up and stacking up.  Up close it looks like sharp shards of glass.  It all looks promising for more ice caves this year, but we need to stay in this frigid condition for the next month...and do we really want to do that?

And this was a few of our deer friends at our feeder late this afternoon.  It's been below zero with wicked wind chills, so it's not surprising that they are stepping up where the eating is easy!

So, I have had many reasons to post, but my most important reason came yesterday when I was reading some of the blogs on my Feedly list.  I noticed my cousin, Ingabritt, (originally from Sweden but now living in Greece) had posted a new blog post.  I still have to use Google Translate to read her blog quickly--or to get more meaning out of it than my feeble Swedish skills give me--, and right away I saw her title translated to "My Hardest Posts."  And my heart sank.  As I read on, she said this would be her last post because of health reasons, that she was closing down her blog about her life in Greece that she had been keeping up for the last seven years.  I knew that she had been fighting cancer for the last several years, but I also knew that she had continued her blog throughout many times of treatments and medications.  So when she said she was closing it down for good, I knew something more had happened.  

Here's a translation of part of her blog, and remember, this is a "Google Translate" translation from her Swedish so it's not as smoothly written as if it were her original words:

You may have noticed that the blog has been a bit sporadic and uninspired the last time and it is due to poor health. And I put it down rather than have a half bad blog that is not updated. But oh, how it feels difficult. The blog has been my companion for more than seven years. The idea of it has been with me everywhere and almost everything I have experienced, I have done in the company of it.The blog and my camera has been my extended arm. And among the best of all, of course, having been in touch with you readers, both known and unknown! Your comments and questions and positive feedback. Some of you have been following me for years and some have also become my friends in real life. But now it will not be anymore. So even though it feels like that sad as it may cause goodbye to a good friend, so I must do it. THANKS for being with me on this journey!

I've called Ingabritt my blog "mentor" and in the short time I've kept this blog, I understand when she says it became a companion to her; strange as it may sound, this blog is always in my thoughts (even when I don't post), and, yes, it's always great to hear from readers!  But mostly I was so happy to reconnect with her as family.  It meant so much to me to find her--and her blog--on the Internet last February!  And look what that started for me!

So, posts that are hard to post are also very hard to read, and accept, Ingabritt.  Thanks so much for your influence in my life!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And as happens in life, we also had some very good news today!  Leann's sister, Kristi, was back at Mayo for a checkup today a month after her cancer surgery, and she received great news!  The cancer appears to be gone and she will start up a pre-emptive chemo dosage, but pills rather than infusions!  Yes!  I guess what all these ups and downs teach me is to live each day to its fullest possibility, and not let anyone, anything, or any excuses keep us from living our best life!

December 1st - A long-awaited day!

Why long-awaited?  Find out down below the fold...and not because it's unimportant!

First, I see that my last few posts have been basically the same location here in Port Wing.  And my excuse for that is this...for those of us enamored by--and feeling blessed--to be living up here...it seems there is always something to see.  Take yesterday, for example.  Sitting out there on the ice ridge is an eagle.  My iPhone camera is not quite adequate for this zooming situation, but his white head shows he is definitely an eagle.  And watch what comes next...

I got into my car, because it was cold, and I looked up to see him flying away with something white in his beak.  Not sure if it was a seagull or what, because I didn't seem him dive after anything.  Again, not zoomed enough, but still cool.

And today, it's even colder (8˚ at 3:30pm or so says my car) but seeing all the ice chunks out in the lake intrigued me.  So I took another walk along the pier.  So beautiful.  And see the moon?

I decided to walk out a little bit farther (further?) today and this is what I found.  Ice!  Waves must have splashed up and over at some time recently.  Or else it's wind-blown down to ice.  So...I stopped, looked around, took a couple pictures, and turned around to go back where the traction was better!

View to the right - northeast.

View to the left - northwest.

Now, the reason that this is a long-awaited day.  Today is the day that Leann's sister, Kristi, is finally able to have the surgery to remove the cancerous areas in her pelvis, recurrences after her original colorectal cancer back in January, 2013.  But this time she's in Rochester with her team of Mayo surgeons, doctors, and other specialists.

In the past year Kristi has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy over 16 weeks from April to July (done near her home in Fargo, ND), 5 1/2 weeks of radiation treatments in September and October--every day for 28 days minus the weekends--done at Mayo, numerous scans and doctors' appointments at Mayo, all leading up to her surgery day today.

Her team consisted of a surgery oncologist, urologist, vascular surgeon, and radiologist, and a host of others in support.  A final part of the surgery today was doing a blast of intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) after all of the cancer was removed to try to get any remaining cancer cells in that area.  And surgery went just fine!  She's visiting with Leann and their other sister, Sandy, tonight and she was soon to take her first little walk still this evening!  And when I asked if she had her post-surgery pain button this time like she had in Fargo, I was told that they do pain management differently there using no narcotics.  Evidently they've found that people heal faster using this plan.  Amazing!

We're so thankful for the skills, knowledge and expertise shown to her in this process, and so proud of her and how she has dealt with everything she has gone through the last couple of years.  And we hope she will make this the first day of the rest of her life!  She deserves all the best!

And I'll try to find some different photo scenery tomorrow!

A frosty weather reprieve & time at the Lake

BTW...the big storm predicted for Tuesday evening turned out to be pretty tame--a little wind, a little rain, but nothing dangerous.  Then the big threat last night was a possible freeze overnight.  This is when people usually get out the sheets and/or blankets to cover up the more tender garden produce.  So, since it was only September 12th and we'd like to get a couple more tomatoes from our gardens, we got out our own covering cloths. (But we're tired of beans so we didn't cover them.)

But first we picked anything that was close to being ripe!

And I'm happy to report that this morning there was no sign of frost.  In fact, I don't think the temp went below 40˚, mostly because it stayed pretty cloudy all night.  And THAT was why we couldn't see any of the predicted Northern Lights last night.  I think it's still possible for tonight.  Below are our late-summer flower boxes.  They stayed nice and perky all summer.  Back in the distance is another tomato bed covered by a sheet.

It's kind of quiet tonight here.  Leann left to go be with her sister for the start of her 5 1/2 weeks of radiation therapy at Mayo in Rochester.  The eight chemo treatments did their job of shrinking the tumor down to a size for possible surgery, but she needs to do radiation to zap it some more.  We're thinking positive thoughts and thankful for all she has gained from her experiences at Mayo.  

Late this afternoon I went down to the Lake to read for a while.  It was a little too breezy to get too comfortable for long.  A couple people were fishing on the end of the pier, and the water is still reddish from all the wave action Tuesday and Wednesday.

I chuckled when I saw all this driftwood mess.  We're always telling our B&B guests about our "beautiful" sand beaches.  This one didn't look very beautiful today!

I thought this was pretty though.

As I was walking back to my car I saw these mushrooms.  They start out as these little balls oozing out of the ground and then blow up to look like the one on the right.  I don't have anything to show size comparisons but it was about 6-7 inches high.

And then I checked an area in our yard that usually has mushrooms this time of year and I found this colorful specimen. (Is that how you spell specimen?  Looks weird!)

No frost tonight and it should warm up for the next few days.

Next year: Raspberries!

Last week we created a spot to plant raspberries.  Before even the bed was finished and filled with dirt, I started searching online and local greenhouses for raspberry plants.  And I found out that the middle of June is NOT the time to be looking for raspberries.  Not a plant to be found.

But then, on Leann's drive to Mayo Hospital in Rochester with her sisters earlier this week (more on this later), she stopped at our friends J & H in Bloomington (MN) and guess who had raspberry bushes that needed to be thinned out?  So they gave us 12 raspberry plants!  (Thank you!)

Yesterday we got them planted after selling at the Saturday Market in the morning, attending the Swedish Midsommer Fest at church around noon, and then my cousins' 50th wedding anniversary party later in the afternoon.  (It was a big day!)  

Then today Leann put down straw around the plants and mulched the rows.  Now we just have to keep them from trying to grow berries this summer so they will be ready next year.

Update on Kristi:  The news was very good this time.  Her eight weeks of chemo made the spots of cancer in her lungs all but disappear, and partially shrunk the other nodes in her pelvis.  So she's starting up 8 more weeks of chemo tomorrow and then will be checked again at the end of August.  And based on everything the doctors could see, the one doctor who was so pessimistic last time said she would have "many more years" to live.  So, thank you from Kristi and her family to all of you for you prayers and positive thoughts!

Blogs in the Spotlight: John-Robert McFarland

I haven't done a "Blogs in the Spotlight" lately, but today seems like a good day to feature my friend and once campus minister, Rev. John-Robert McFarland.

John-Robert back in May, 1972, shaking hands with my roommate at his going-away gathering.

When I went to Illinois State University in September, 1971, John-Robert was the campus minister at the Wesley Foundation which was the United Methodist presence on campus.  The first weekend we were there, my roommate (see above) and I went to the "Inner Ear" coffee house (it WAS the early '70's after all!) where all the campus religious groups were doing their introductions and giving out information.  Even though John Robert left after my freshman year to go on to get his doctorate, the Wesley Foundation became an important place for me, as well as an employer, for the rest of my years at ISU.  I still have contact with lots of WF friends.

There are lots of reasons why I would feature him here, and I suppose the main reason would be because he is a blogger---but he'd probably relate to being referred to as a writer more than a blogger.  His blogs are his vehicles for disseminating his daily writings.  And he actually has three blogs to his name--two are now the more active ones.  

In Christ in Winter he writes from his location in Upper Michigan (that's the "winter" part) and subtitles it, "Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…" Just recently he began a blog that I think he would like to call "Just Words," and this was at the request of the publisher, Black Opal Books, of his latest book coming out soon, Vets.  Today's post in this blog explains the situation with Amazon Books and Hachette Books, both Goliaths (as he calls them) in the book biz, and the negative effect both have on authors and all the smaller book sellers.  As an Amazon addict with my iPad loaded with Kindle (Amazon) books, I really need to think about this.  So, support your local little bookstores when possible, and think about the authors who get caught up in the politics of this situation.

John-Robert is also a cancer survivor...big-time cancer survivor!  Back in February, 1990, a seemingly minor issue sent him into the hospital, finding himself in the operating room at midnight, and waking up to learn he had colon cancer and only part of his colon--something he now calls his "semi-colon."  His oncologist then told him he would be dead "in one to two years."  That was 24 years ago.  So much for predictions.  But based on his experiences and his year-long cancer drug trial, he wrote the book, NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them, which I think I have whole-heartedly recommended here in a previous post to anyone who wants to look at life in a new way, cancer or not.

If you ever have been asked or thought about who those top five significant people might be in your life, John-Robert is one of them for me.  He has done so many interesting things in his life with so many interesting people, which he writes about in another of his books, THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry.  And I'm sure I will write more about him in the future!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update on our deer - We think Mom and Little One, or LO as I'm calling it, are still here and doing fine.  I did see a fox or coyote coming near to where LO was resting, but no damage done.  And, several crows were attacking a raven which upset Mom very much, so she was chasing the crows around the yard!  Quite the show indeed!

Compost, cherry blossoms, forget-me-nots...and bones

After our day away yesterday, we felt like we had to hit the grounding running this morning.  Our first task this morning, however, was doing tech support to help Leann's sister get some pictures on her Caring Bridge site.  It's tricky to try to help someone over the phone without being able to see their screen...frustration on both ends of the phone call.  But we got it done!  Starting a Caring Bridge site has been so great for Kristi as she deals with her cancer, and chemo, and all of the stresses that go with that.  It's been a great way to keep her friends and relatives up on what's going on with her.  If you know Kristi or would like to wish her well on her site, please email me and I'll get you the info you need.

So back to the yard work and gardening.  Leann used some composite boards she got from her other sister and made this second compost bin.

Now we can start moving compost from the old one to the new, revealing the "black gold" in the bottom of the old one.  We hope...

Next, we made a trip through the orchard where we saw the trees had tiny beginnings of leaves, with blossoms soon to break through.  And then we saw this...

...the first cherry blossoms.  If you looked at all the buds that will soon open up, you'd think that tree would eventually be LOADED with cherries.  Somehow it never works that way, though.  It would be great if we could keep the temps up above freezing from here on out.  If the blossoms freeze, then no fruit, which was what happened to all our apples and cherries two years ago.  

A couple weeks ago I mentioned in a post that the forget-me-nots would be coming up in our ravine soon.  Well, soon is now and there are blue forget-me-nots all over.  

Unfortunately, they are so little that they don't show up in pictures very well.  I love all the shades of green!

Forget-me-nots and dandelions - that's spring to me!  After the dandelions turn into the stems with seed fluff, I'm not as interested in them!

Hidden in all this long grass and forget-me-nots are some of the rocks that form the outline of the labyrinth we made last fall.  I was going to try mowing the labyrinth for the first time--it's going to be tricky, I'm afraid--but I was reminded that we can't mow the forget-me-nots!  

And finally, the bones.  I looked down and saw this -- part of the jawbone of a deer.  You just have to wonder how things like that show up without the rest of the bones.  And not far from this is the feather evidence of a couple of turkeys.  Hard winter!

Earth Day, 3 sisters & toxic chemicals -- signs of life

The day started early when we set out at 6am for Fargo, North Dakota.  That's 45 miles of Wisconsin, 4 1/2 hours across Minnesota, and a leap across the Red River to get to Fargo by noon.  The scenes along the road were pure Earth Day - fields full of deer, an eagle that was enjoying something dead in the road and almost flew into our car as we went by, and all kinds of hawks and birds rejoicing in the absence of snow...just like us!

The reason for our early morning cross-country trip was Kristi, Leann's sister, who was going in for her first chemo "infusion" today.  Third sister, Sandy, met us with our new t-shirts--all in different colors with "Team Kristi" stamped on the front and "Determined" on the back.  (The word "determined" was something that Kristi came up with, independent of all of us, to set her course as she battles this cancer.) So the four of us all walked into the cancer area of the hospital to wait for Kristi and surprise her with our colorful, new "Team" shirts.  

The last part of today obviously centers around the toxic chemicals hinted at in today's title.  This is really the first direct experience that any of us have had with close family members going through cancer treatment and chemotherapy.  They call the combination of drugs that are given to her a "cocktail" for a reason--beginning with an anti-nausea drug and followed by several more substances sent in to kill the cancer cells.  And the final drug was loaded into a pump that she will carry around in a backpack until Thursday.  It's highly toxic so that if something goes wrong with the pump and any part of it leaks, she has a whole list of precautions to avoid getting it on her or her clothes.  And, of course, as soon as she got home she noticed a drip coming from a joint in the tubing.  It was a little tense for a while, but a quick trip back to the ER, and she's all fixed up again.

I guess what amazes me is all the science and research and drug testing that goes into finding out which of these highly toxic substances works best on which cancers and in what combinations, how to best administer it for maximum effectiveness, and the ARMIES of caring medical people around the world who every day are there to help people like our sister Kristi to get the best cancer care and information needed to make these weeks of chemo a path toward healing and wholeness.  

It was a different kind of Earth Day, for sure!  Go Team Kristi!

Second grade reading, Mayo Brothers, cancer fighter/survivors, and...oh, yeah, snow

This is going to be kind of a ramble, so buckle up and put on your boots because there will be snow at the end.

Back in second grade in Glenwood City, Wisconsin, with Mrs. Bonte as my teacher, our classroom library (that's all we had back then) contained some biographies of famous people.  As I remember, they were "chapter books" which meant few pictures, lots of text, and I either chose to or was told to read a couple of them.

The first one was about George Washington and I think that was kind of a struggle because I don't remember much except the cherry tree...really, it was in there.  Another one was about Civil War nurse Clara Barton and I must have been impressed, because I've been interested in her ever since.  But one that really got my attention was about the Mayo Brothers who founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I think I've been imprinted on that place and hearing about it as the go-to place for extreme medical situations since reading that book.

Well, now we are in the midst of some actual personal experience with Mayo Clinic.  Recently I wrote about Leann's sister, Kristi, and the recurrence of her colon cancer.  The three sisters--Kristi, Leann and Sandy--all went to Rochester for her diagnostic tests and consultation appointments with oncologists and surgeons.  Who knew that there could be such highs and lows in a short 24-hour period of time?!

Without going into too much detail, there were immediately surprises that only showed up on Mayo's more sophisticated equipment (which brings up all kinds of questions about local medical care).  The first consultation was with the oncologist and he filled them with all kinds of hope and possibilities; the second consultation was with the surgeon and...not so much.  And as with all things human and choosing which extreme--positive or negative--gets our attention, the power right away went toward what the surgeon said.  And I'm sure the oncologist would say his words and expertise should have some power, too.

And that brings me to the next phase of my ramble, to my friend, Rev. John-Robert McFarland, whom I will say more about in the future when I feature him in my "Spotlight on Blogs" for his Christ in Winter blog.  For now I go to him once in a while for his thoughts as an almost 25-year colon cancer survivor--and survivor of spending a tumultuous year back in 1991 being in a chemo drug trial which he talks about in his book, Now that I Have Cancer, I Am Whole.  (It's a great book whether one is experiencing cancer or not!)

When Kristi first had this setback a couple weeks ago, I emailed him and his thoughts back to me advised learning to take every day one-moment-at-a-time, which is not always easy when the stakes--and the hurdles--are so high.  But today he said that even in the midst of chaos (like that which is going on in our heads right now), there is always a moment of grace, a chance to say thanks, like the encouragement of the oncologist with his knowledge and experience with chemo, the support of two caring sisters, and the smile of a little guy at home who thinks he has the best Mom in "the whole, entire world."

So my Miracle Mayo Brothers haven't giving us a cure just yet, but perhaps they have opened the door to a whole new way for all of us to look at how we spend our days, what we give our power to, and noticing our moments of grace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now my promise of snow--not sure it's a moment of grace though.  I'll have to get back to you on that, but here is my snow progress stick and the view in our front yard.  They forecasted 6-12 inches today...maybe the good news here is that we only have about three inches so far...

That's down to 13 inches at the line.

Tapping our way into spring

Our spring break excursion was over and we came home to eight inches of pretty, new snow.  The town plow had cleared our driveway but there was still lots of snow up by our house and garage.  I and our trusty little Toro snowblower made quick work of clearing that away and we were all settled in again.

Since it was a beautiful, sunny day, and since the temperature is supposed to be quite warm tomorrow and Sunday, we hiked out on our snowshoes to a couple of maple trees right up close to our house.  Because of her eye surgery, Leann isn't supposed to do anything crazy--like drilling holes in trees with a hand drill--so she stood by to offer encouragement to me and take pictures.

I drilled holes for two taps on each of these two trees.  

And then we hang our modified milk cartons on the taps to catch the drips.  When I reached into the holes I had drilled to fish out all of the extra wood chips still in here, I could feel how warm it was in there and it also felt a little damp.

Imagine my surprise when, as soon as I pushed in the tap in the last hole, sap started dripping out right away!  Listen to this sound and imagine being in the midst of several maple trees all dripping at once.  Listen...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting the maple sap routine started today was really to help us feel better after hearing today's news from Leann's sister, Kristi, whose cancer is back again.  It seems like the circumstances surrounding her previous experience with colon cancer and now again with this next phase have all been unusual.  Now the cancer is in such a strange location that they say it will be really difficult to get it out.  And it needs to come out.  

So, if all of you who read this blog could keep Kristi and her family in your thoughts and prayers, we would all really appreciate it.  And if you have any quick thoughts from your own experiences or people you know on how she can get her mind and heart ready for the long haul ahead of her, please email me directly [mlchilds@gmail.com] and I'll pass it on to her.  And thanks so much!

Keeping things in perspective - even the weather

The tag line on my blog says, "Points and perspectives as innkeepers and inhabitants of Port Wing, Wisconsin."  Today's blog will be in the form of a "perspective" on the relative importance of weather.

It's snowing again today.

And like most people in the Midwest, we're all pretty sick of snow and cold.  But, even though it's very bleak and gray outside, from my perspective here - safe, warm inside, don't have to go anywhere - I just can't get too down about our "spring" weather.  It's still so pretty.

And it provides us fun things to look at outside our windows.

And what completes this perspective on the weather for me are all the other bigger concerns out there that don't come close to weather worries.  Just like everyone else, I'm sure, we have people in our lives who are dealing with various stages of cancer treatment.  We're waiting for word today from Leann's sister, Kristi, whose cancer we now know has returned, and another friend is having a new treatment today for breast cancer that has spread.  And we think about the other people in our lives with other health problems and concerns going on in their lives.

So when you balance it all out, yucky weather is just that - yucky.  And it will pass.