Clear Weather for New Year's Eve

Seems it will not rain on New Year's Eve.

Christmas Morning Service in Swedish

Because I have undergraduate Swedish studies background I have been able to do a few things in Swedish, but this is not fluency. In other times First Lutheran was not always the Jul Atta Christmas Morning service site, but in a few of the recent years people have gathered there for a Swedish Service.

This is Christmas morning 2004 - at First Lutheran Church after the Christmas morning service.

God Jul -

Lilla Mors Bok Jul 1923

This advertisement is from Lilla Mors Bok Jul 1923 - look closely at the machine to see the word Record on it -

Every Mother of the house dislikes darning stockings

But if she has a

Rapidknittingmachine Record

It becomes a pleasure to knit

a pair of new stockings instead!

One can use homespun or reused yarn and thereby

avoid many expenses, even earn money

For the complete information with no obligation

Rapidknittings AB (company limited) Record, Department X

Gamlabrogatan (Old Bridge Street) 21, Stockholm

Public Domain

Color xeroxed from a small photo in the pages of Husmodern's article about the mission to search for lost Swedes in the United States, Julius Wellhagen and Otto R. Carlstrom stand, between them the 1938 announcement board outside First Lutheran Church where is lettered, white on black, that the Swedish Service will be Sunday and feature Kykoherde Wellhagen - the pastor's lettered name is Carl Rydell, who was still minister in the 1950's. The page is on a bulletin board at First Lutheran Church in December 2007. This treatment of material is allowable within the context of an educational purpose and with contained use. Distribution is piracy. According to the public library, public domain begins after about seventy-five years.

My perspective on controlled use includes my observation that if control was complete, no creative work would ever be viewed people.

Cozy Knits - joyeux noël

The month is décembre, chilly air......For

joyeux noël

a cozy knit French Poodle Bath Salts Bottle Cover

---

chanukah

With the sky just becoming pink and it really still dark, there is still one light left to light on the Chanukah Menorah next to the downtown tree. Then after a wait in the post office lobby, a walk along the Bridge of Glass and the waterway where one or two boats had lights. Sunday the cold brought along a few flakes and I took the bus ride to Olympia as snow filled the evergreen trees along the highway. Olympia was so holiday white with wet thick flakes falling that I had to turn around, leave my bike on the bus and not take my bike ride to my holiday party. There are more great holiday outdoor things to do, lights on houses as one bikes back from the store.

Harder for The Mother Cat

This is from Husmodern Jul 1937. The mother wears a nice dress and high heeled pumps as she knits near the Christmas tree. She and her children are inset into panels that show the mother cat, with eyeglasses and an apron, and her ten kittens. In the middle panel, one kitten has the skein on its paws while another rolls it into a ball, but in the bottom panel all the kittens and the yarn are unraveled while the kittens roll around with an upset look on their faces. Do these kittens look a little like the Katzenjammer Kids?

VÄRRE FÖR KATTMAMMAN

HARDER FOR THE MOTHER CAT

Mamma berättar: Ja, nog kan det vara svårt hålla reda på er utan att tappa alla maskorna. Men det är forstås värre för till exempel en kattmamma...Om hon nu har tio små ungar i nästan samma ålder och vill lära dem sticka, så kan det till slut bli ett enda nystan ava alltihop och en fyrtio stycken klösande klor - ja tänk er bara det!

Mother says: Yes, it can be hard to keep it all in order without losing the mesh. But it is, you understand, harder for, for example, a mother cat...If she has ten small young ones in the nest of the same age and wants to teach them to knit, so that can end up a single ball for all of them and a forty-piece scratching of claws - just think of that!

Made in Finland

This glove was probably made in Finland. The gloves were with things that belonged to my mother. Her mother and grandparents came from Finland. It is for a hand the size of a woman's and has a long gauntlet.

Yarn Named for Louisa May Alcott

A yard named for Louisa May Alcott.

Dickens

Among city neighborhoods throughout the United States and England is Stadium nearby - from last year's Dickens Fest I have this of the carriage and horses.

I Do Not and Cannot Knit

The fact that I do not and cannot knit leads into my Louisa May Alcott knitting reference, which is not about knitting. Maybe it is because I sprained my ankle in first grade and remember my mother wrapping my ankle in an Ace Bandage, and I remember holding the skein of yarn for my mother while she wound the ball of yarn that whenever I remembered this Alcott passage I replaced the bandage with a ball of yarn.

In Eight Cousins Rose has pined after losing her parents, and finds a new home with two aunts and nearby relatives who provide boy cousins only. Her fears are relieved as she meets a housemaid who befriends her and finds her cousins to be interesting and friendly. This passage is from a chapter in Eight Cousins called "Ear-Rings":

"Well, I happen to have a little story with a moral to it in my mind, and I will tell it, though it is intended for younger children than you,"...

...once upon a time, a little girl went to see a young lady who was very fond of her. Now, the young lady happened to be lame, and had to have her foot bandaged up every day; so she kept a basketful of bandages, all nicely rolled and ready. The little girl liked to play with this basket, and one day, when she thought no one saw her, she took one of the rolls without asking leave, and put it in her pocket."

Here Pokey, who had been peering lovingly down at the five warm nuts that lay at the bottom of her tiny pocket, suddenly looked up and said, "Oh!" in a startled tone, as if the moral tale had become intensely interesting all at once...

"But an eye did see this naughty little girl, and whose eye do you think it was?"

"Eye of Dod," murmured conscience-sticken Pokey, spreading two chubby little hands before the round face, which they were not half big enough to hide.

Rose was rather taken aback by this reply, but, feeling that she was producing a good effect, she added, seriously, -

"Yes, God saw her, and so did the young lady, but she did not say any thing; she waited to see what the little girl would do about it. She had been very happy before she took the bandage, but when it was in her pocket she seemed troubled, and pretty soon stopped playing and sat down in a corner, looking very sober. She thought a few minutes, and went and put back the roll very softly, and her face cleared up, and she was a happy child again. The young lady was glad to see that, and wondered what made the little girl put it back."

"Tonscience p'icked her," murmured a contrite voice from behind the small hands pressed tightly over Pokey's red face.

"And why did she take it, do you suppose?" asked Rose, in a school-marmish tone, feeling that all the listeners were interested in her tale and its unexpected application.

"It was so nice a wound, and she wanted it deffly," answered the little voice.

"Well, I'm glad she hadsuch a good conscience. The moral is that people who steal don't enjoy what they take, and are not happy till they put it back. What makes that little girl hide her face?" asked Rose, as she concluded.

"Me's so 'shamed of Pokey," sobbed the small culprit, quite overcome by remorse and confusion at this awful disclosure...

"Come Rose, it's too bad to tell her little tricks before every one, and preach at her in that way; you wouldn't like it yourself," began Dr. Alec, taking the weeper on his knee and administering consolation in the shape of kisses and nuts.

Before Rose could express her regret, Jamie, who had been reddening and ruffling like a little turkey-cock for several minutes, burst out indignanatly, bent on avenging the wound given to his beloved dolly, -

"I know something bad that you did, and I'm going to tell right out.

You thought we didn't see you, but we did, and you said uncle wouldn't like it, and the boys would tease, and you made Annabel promise not to tell, and she punched holes in your ears to put ear-rings in. So now! and that's much badder than to take an old piece of rag; and I hate you for making my Pokey cry."

---

Your smile counts. The more smiles you share, the more we donate. Join in!

Christmas Won't Be Christmas Without Any Presents

This is how Little Women by Louisa May Alcott begins. During this discussion, the four March girls were knitting. Knitting enters the Alcott books again and again. Knitting Christmas Stamps would not be Knitting Christmas Stamps without any Alcott.

talktacoma

This week there are community discussions called Talktacoma planned. Probably I will attend one.

The free conference on blogging was the South Sound Technology Conference, The Blogging Boom, How Journalism, Private Enterprise, Parenting and Civic Action have changed.

Pogo once featured sleuths tracking through the swamp. They worked with chihuahuas, not bloodhounds, because bloodhounds were so difficult to control. I was reminded of this when a panel member admitted, "more eyes / more errors" as she described "distributive reporting" - with technology, newsrooms can now search more diligently.

Wearing Red - Friday, November 30, 2007

I published A Long Poem at Salt River Review this winter. which relates the experience my uncle had in World War One. Today we are asked to participate in Veteran's History Awareness Month by wearing red. In a book about Scandinavian knitting, I noticed this paragraph: "Warning. Red caps. The wearing of red caps has lately become so prevalent that they are now considered a type of protest. Wearing of these caps is forbidden beginning on Thursday, 26 February 1942. From that day forward, the caps will be confiscated from whoever is wearing one..." This was a public announcement from the police in Trondheim. Wearing a red cap was considered a political statement against the Germans. It was such a strong symbol that elves' red caps on Christmas cards were censored that winter. From Nordic Knitting: Thirty-One Patterns in the Scandinavian Tradition by Susanne Pagoldh.

My father was in England as a pharmacist with the United States Army for a year and a half during World War Two. He was already in his 40's and had worked his way through the U of Washington pharmacy school in the 1920's. In the photograph, late winter 1950, I wear a Disney knit with Thumper, from the movie Bambi, probably from the 1940's.

Free Conference on Blogging

Tomorrow there is a free conference on blogging I plan to go to.

Tinsel Garland at the Post Office

This year a commemorative stamp honors holiday knits. That this is a reflexive experience appeals to me - as we unpeel several one by one for several envelopes we necessarily reflect on the wool or wool knit sweater we have on. And the holiday spirit enlarges at each cross walk as we meditate about the check-for-your-gloves-or-mittens while you wait sign. And the Jacquard machine has been noted as an early mode of the computer.

Meyercord Decals from the 1930's

At the pond on Thanksgiving was a black one that swam past, maybe it was a female black scoter, but it was rather small. There was a male bufflehead, there was a goose. There was a flock of American Widgeons.

Thanksgiving Recipe

On Thanksgiving I count birds. This year there was a project at the park pond, so I went on the free bus to Point Defiance and watched the birds at the pond there. Before I left I put together Steve's Beans, from a recipe I searched for that I remembered from the Sunday Buffet at Steve's Gay Nineties in South Tacoma - we could sit at a booth with buggy wheels at the sides, like riding in a buggy. There were postcards of Steve's Can-Can Girls from the Cabaret Music nightlife side to Steve's Restaurant.

Last week I wrote a poem, this is the poem:


The Mirror and the Weather

How wind blows across the trees,
rows of song,
all over the floor in pieces.

A figure up at night
in a tent who knows what,
who knows.

Waves, waves, how it happens,
hair, hair, then hair
hear over hair now all howl.

Moths. It falls. It drifts and sleeps now.

This poem was not directly associated with a visit to Tacoma Art Museum where one display was landscape photography by Mary Randlett. I walked through and returned to a group on one wall and I thought - These I am rather especially fond of.

And then I read the copy - one photo appeared on the cover of a poetry book by Denise Levertov, and I am especially familiar with that photo, have looked at is peripherally many times.

Cement Pot Very Like Pots Made By My Mother's Uncle

Here we see a cement cast pot very like pots made by my mother's uncle. He was from Sweden and returned there to retire. For years there were pots made by my mother's uncle, like these, on the house front steps where we lived.

A Poem by Gerald Stern

A poem by Gerald Stern in a recent New Yorker tells of a music box that plays a piece of classical music. At the end of the poem the setting changes - the music box is in a small boat, its bottom filled with an inch of water. Gerald Stern has used the setting to transpose the poem, the poem changes key. It is a comment on the experience of art in uncertain times. The poem came to mind for me in church as the bell choir played.

Robert Hass and a Poem by Tomas Transtromer

Now And Then: The Poet's Choice Columns 1997-2000 (Shoemaker and Hoard, 2007) by Robert Hass, includes a discussion of a poem by Tomas Transtromer for November 29, 1998 (page 111). Robert Hass had been to Shanghai, where "The main experience of Shanghai...like the main experience of New York, is the sheer mass of people on the teeming streets..." The poem by Tomas Transtromer, "Streets in Shanghai", immediately came to mind for Haas:

Behind each one walking here moves a cross that wants to catch up to us, pass us, join us...

The cross in this line is the subject of Robert Hass last paragraph - "One wants to know what that cross is in Swedish and what its resonances are..." The word wants used both by Transtromer and Hass expresses layers of want. One layer is that ambiguity is a kind of aesthetic happiness. To want to know is a joy in itself. This is one part of Hass meditative column about Tomas Transtromer. Another layer is the desire to see the poem printed in original Swedish side by side with the translation - a desire supported by small press.

With the internet we assume answers can happen on the text. This changes the experience of ambiguity for writers.

Historic Papers About Japanese Internment Found

In today's News Tribune there is an article about historic papers about the Japanese Internment. My experience with the historic items is that they exist in the present, and in their tactile testimony we find a difference to our era of Global Warming concerns and our direct experiences with overcrowded highways and ecological concerns in general. We are reminded of the novel by David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, the setting had a dominant part in the novel, as the title shows.

Barn

In September The News Tribune featured a story about a barn. The barn was built by John Udd as an immigrant.

November Household Suggestion

When you need to clean dirt off vintage pilgrim candles, you can rub them gently with an old nylon stocking.

Focus the Nation

I learned about a project called Focus the Nation concerned with Global Warming that plans information efforts that culminate in symposia on January 31, 2008.

Another view of the Altarpiece by Bror Hjorth

The Altarpiece, another view of the altarpiece by Bror Hjorth.

First Lutheran Church

This view of First Lutheran Church, January 2007, during the two-week snowfall. The 125th anniversary will be acknowledged with a Sunday Service on October 21, 2007.

At the Reading by David Guterson

At 7:40 forty reserved seats in the center front remained a mystery. That was when a person came and took the Reserved signs away and a few people went over to sit there.

I read Snow Falling on Cedars in 2003. This year I saw the movie on a DVD. I was happy with the cinematography. But the mystery resolved in a similar way to our reserved seats mystery at the reading. The book was a trial detective story with a convincing and well-explained missing clue that solved the question in a way that helped portray the setting more completely.

At one point my DVD screen began to separate into tiny rectangles, but I do not think I missed anything.

Important to me about the book's setting was the Scandinavian aspect of the fishing enclave. In the movie I hoped for more development and a larger portrayal of the Scandinavian aspect.

I thought the novel was very traditional in its size and aspirations, one that echoed novels of that time, the late 1930's, the 1940's.

Western Literature Association and Questions for David Guterson

Question One: Regarded David Guterson's father as a sports writer at Roosevelt High School in Seattle.

Answer: Yes Murray Guterson was David Guterson's father. Murray Guterson's mother wanted his to be an attorney, go to law school. Later he could become a writer. He should keep his options open.

Question Two: What was his reaction to Snow Falling on Cedars being made into a movie?

Answer: David Guterson answered that the movie was hard to follow. It was nominated for an Academy Award for cinematography. D.G. felt neutral about the film.

Western Literature Association and Questions for David Guterson

Question 3: An audience member said he knew D.G. at U.W. 30 years before and was in Scandinavian House with his brother John Guterson.

Answer: D.G. said he would talk to the fellow at the reception.

Question 4: A question about the poetry David Guterson read: What effect does it have on the prose?

Answer: D.G. wants his prose to be clear and plain.

Western Literature Association and Questions for David Guterson

Question 5: Why a cedar tree?

Answer: Rich, red and dry, the cedar tree is used for everything. The tree of life.

Question 6: The audience member, reading Snow Falling on Cedars in a seminar class, asked: What inspired the novel?

Answer: Bainbridge Island, where everyone of Japanese descent was interned in World War Two. D.G. saw transcribed oral histories.

Question 7: How were the characters created?

Answer: D.G. sees a balance between how another person is like oneself and how they are different. He works to strike that balance in his characters.

Western Literature Association and Questions for David Guterson

Question 8: When did D.G. write the memoir?

Answer: After Lady in the Forest, before the new novel.

Question 9: How does the central character in the the woods in the new novel compare to Into the Wild (a new movie by Sean Penn)?

Answer: D.G.: For the new book the character seek fulfillment, socially, politically, spiritually, not adventure.

Question 10: Is your work Western? Puget Sound?

Answer: D.G.: For D.G. writing is about place, to a fault. This is home. People of European descent have not lived here a long time to grow an indigenous literature. This contrasts to the South or the Eastern Bay area. We are part of the Pacific Rim...

Psychologists Who Use Public Transportation

Again and again I look for a psychologist who uses public transportation. There are particular traumas associated with catching a bus or making up your mind to walk instead now and then.

First Lutheran Church's 125th anniversary celebration Official Sunday Service will be Sunday, October 21st. The building, in the Wright Park area for 125 years, began on Tacoma Avenue North and soon moved to a larger building. The present building is the third main location. Between buildings, Sunday School met temporarily at the Valhalla Hall.

The church steeple is the the distance in the center of this photo.

Blue Sky and Golden and Red Trees

The rain let up before it started to get dark, clouds farther away, but blue sky and golden and red trees. He watching over Israel, slumbers not nor sleeps. Should thou walking in grief, languish, he will quicken thee. Mendehlsson.

Tubby

To Kill A Mockingbird had not been stocked by the library when we were to read it for the First Tacoma Reads Together in 2001. All the copies were checked out so I took out a stack of other novels to read and started with an old favorite, Mrs. Wallop, by Peter Devries. Tacoma Reads Together has been a good experience as I, right then, continued with a novel I found, Uninvited Daughters, by Eleanor Spielberg. It had a setting of chilly houses and reading while making soup out of vegetables and beans, that late fall before Christmas reading novels fit in to the idea of that novel.

A novel by Kazuo Ishiguro reminded me of a few novels I had read in an English literature tradition. The style was very appealing to me. In When We Were Orphans is a usage of the term tubby - in the context two boys play has evolved into uncomfortable tests of courage -
"I can still see my friend, his tubby figure stiff with tension, his face, whenever he glanced back at me, shining with perspiration, willing himself a few steps further..."

I think the descriptive term tubby refers to the trunk of the figure and evokes a particular appearance I recognize.

But in our earliest year of Tacoma Reads Together, 2002, we read biographies of Charles Darwin in December and I brought in The Voyage of the Beagle, which I skimmed, and the CD of Bossa Nova music (not Joao Gilberto, but Jobim) which has a booklet with not one but two spines.

David Guterson to read at Western Literature Conference

When the Western Literature Conference opens Wednesday in Tacoma there is to be a Welcome with a speech from the mayor of Tacoma and a Reading and Question and Answer Period by David Guterson. Some of the events are really open to the public, so I hope to attend the Guterson reading.

When I first heard of Snow Falling on Cedars, I intended to read it. It is in a list of Books Read in 2003, after I had intended to read it for years. I have noted down that I read it with a small amount of skimming. I remember that I was happy to read the setting descriptions and thought of the book Woman and Nature by Susan Griffin. In a page from that time I wrote: On May 20th i was returning a book in the evening to save 20 cents & came upon a meeting for the environment - I began to see the necessity of response to the idea of Description of Setting, and Setting...I feel response is important. Each individual can make a difference, and how we get about, how we choose the products we use has an effect on what happens.

The Setting seemed then to me to be the focus of the book. The nature descriptions of the San Juan Islands worked for me -

Later I suggested the book as a possibility for Tacoma Reads Together. One reason I suggested it is because the fishing community in the San Juan Islands is described by David Guterson as being a Scandinavian Enclave. That worked for me, too.

political correctness

After World War Two a shorter term for Japanese Americans, like Swede (like the language of my grandparents) or Slav - was so baggaged with derogatory usage that it no longer was the same. There are so many cultural considerations to be made - in my family my mother's piano playing was consistent expression and we visited my grandmother's home twice a week. Among the few stories my mother told, about the only story about the Japanese Americans was that her brothers were told to play where they could watch the road so they could run up the hill and tell her the Japanese vegetable man was coming with his wagon. My mother would show us the silk handkerchiefs my grandmother got from the Japanese vegetable man.

A POEM PUBLISHED IN AUGUST, 1971

This poem refers to a street in the neighborhood listed as Japantown at the site, Tacoma Then and Now. It was published in a small magazine called Odysseus in August, 1971.


THE OLD PART OF TOWN

There are fighting cocks
with feathers red as blood
in another country.

In fall the poppies bloom
by the wire fences, whispering
"Death, death," into the countryside.

They kill another dragon.
His bones burn out like bridges,
fierce and tall and unamazed.

The men drive rats into the streets;
their death slips out like sweat
from hours of shooting.

Then the rain comes thick as cloth
falling through the blood
as an answering river.

Streets end in every city.
Cars drive past the empty houses,
carrying the old and the infirm.

Orange Rye

At Oktoberfest the Scandinavian Days Festival sign was placed close to a very large horse made of ivy, two floors above a basement exhibit of tiny Hans Christian Anderson pieces in Coperhagen resides enormous horse statues - one could sit near this topiary and think on them. At church Sunday I put out slices of Swedish Rye Bread with orange I brought back - our Orange Rye Bread was a kind of wonder bread that tasted wonderful and that I have never been able to find again. It was long ago.

Smithsonian Day at the Museum

Yesterday I printed an entry to Smithsonian Day at the Washington State Historical Society Museum, the history of bridges across the Tacoma Narrows and Evolution of the Art Quilt. Only one death happened during the collapse of the original Narrow Bridge, in a car left on the bridge, a cocker spaniel. Named Tubby. That endearing sweet name reminds me of so many historical moments - like some I transcribed on a typewriter when I volunteered for awhile at the previous History Museum site - unloaded with bananas at the port, a record-size tarantula spider. For some reason these points are considered peripheral, but when we agree we all know why, some of us do not know why. Across the Sports Bowl Stadium from that gracious Greek Temple, Tacoma's Stadium High School has gained a place in the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest Reunion - over 3,200 alumni at their 100th anniversary restoration celebration a year ago.

Bror Hjorth Altarpiece

There is a work of art, an altarpiece, at Jukkusjarvi, by Bror Hjorth.

In September, Still a Few Butterflies or Moths

Shadows of leaves on the blue planks of the wall, like the wings of butterflies.

Rain Stick

The rain stick is filled with tiny heavy granules that slide through the emptied wooden stick to sound beautiful. A couple weeks ago a large truck load of rocks of an even size was arranged and rearranged along the ground by a shovel machine - recreating folk music.

Nacken's Polska

Nacken's Polska is a song and also a sculpture by Bror Hjorth. There is a photo of the sculpture on the internet. The photo is on Flickr.

World Car Free Day - September 22

Along the sidewalk with my bicycle I encountered a youth on a bicycle. Did they know that next week is World Car Free Day?

Autumnal American Sparrows

Two sparrows lift up simultaneously to a low rhododendron bush by the sidewalk, three other sparrows already are along the same low branch. Their wings shine and blur in a shaft of sunshine. More sparrows are along a brown red board fence top, more shine and blur as they fly up to the same fence top. Some of these sparrows carry pieces of fluff from some seed pods the same white sunshine color as the shine and blur.

A Holiday Listed On The Internet

Listed on the Internet is World Car Free Day, a day to recognize that people walk, use public transportation, or ride a bicycle.

A PENNY

We work for the money we save when we bypass a convenience. Work matters, earned money is heartily deserved. In Poor Richard's Almanac, a penny saved is a penny earned. Franklin should not be warning us about a peril, Franklin should be reminding us that our thrift has an added quality of merit. Probably there is more - work is supposed to remind us of how important it can be to not waste our resources. Today I found a penny.

Build A Bench Out Of Slats

Idéer för vardagsrummet
From Husmodern 1971
RIBB-BÄNK
Material:
Fyrkantstav 70 x 70
10 st 150 mm.
Bräder 70 x 28
2 st. 2500 mm,
Ribbor 70 x 22
med två rundade
kanter 30 st. 800 mm.
Lim. Sprik eller skruv

Placera ut benen (5 st påvar sidar),
limma och spika
fast bräderna på benen.
Limma och spika fast ribborna
med jämna mellan rum
och låt dem sticka ut
ca 5 cm på var sida.

Material pris ca 95 m

On Line Magazine to Read All The Time

Salt River Review, an online magazine to read all the time.

Sometimes there are reasons to visit Project Runeberg.

It is a Big Project

Around the park are several churches. At one busy street are two white lions. The claw was sorting big pieces of sidewalk from the park Rose Garden yesterday while two people dug out some of the rose bushes with spades and put them in the back of a pick up truck parked inside the chain link fence. Today more of the rose bushes lay on their sides on the other side of the fence, and chain saws cut trees the big project is removing into pieces on the sides of the empty pond. It rained this morning, some of the rainwater was part of what they were pumping out just then. They will be working on this until early next year. With this project over sixty new trees and shrubs will be planted to renew the pond.

white lions, blue truck

The week after Ethnic Fest on the last weekend of July, the park department put up chain link fence. At the pond, thick white gravel over the grass makes a driveway for their trucks.
I got a newsletter mailing about the Thanksgiving Bird Count. (What about November?)Until August15, gardeners watch for hummingbird nests when they prune.
Today a blue Mack truck drove past and reappeared by the yellow claw at the lions. The yellow claw had stopped with a large square piece of hedge. It rotated the claw around and dropped the piece in the truck back. The claw driver kept picking up hedge pieces close to the white lion, it seemed he could tell there was no danger. When the claw rotated all the way around, rotated the last hedge piece back around past the lions, dropped the piece into the truck back, lowered the claw back down, just for a moment it touched the lion's pedestal.
Some people, myself included, had mentioned the hedge during public meetings. Long ago as a child I saw the complication at the edge of our gravel street, which without any cement curb became a parking. Language existed. It exists when we try to protect a park from intrusion. The hedge had formed a physical, non-verbal definition of the word park - enclosure.

mjuka kokoskakor

Still thoughts of Husmodern. Here is 16 Augusti, 1971, a line drawing of a lady, each hand clasping a side of the cover of an interesting box. It turns out (with a dictionary) that if you want to keep your coconut cookies moist, you can tape a bit of skumplast (foamplastic) on to the top of the cookie tin. You moisten this with water. The coconut cookies stay moist.

Lighting

Now I have fluorescent tube lighting with more natural color range.

fluorescent tube light upgrade in process

Soon my kitchen will have daylight fluorescent tube lights replacing econolights. A library book explained how to remove the burned out tubes. My standing as a handy-person begins to rival those park re-creators who saved the park footbridge last December. Photo. There is a sense of purpose and meaning that exceeds my reality.

concert of scandinavian music

First Lutheran Church will have a concert of Scandinavian Music on Sunday afternoon, during the time Ethnic Fest is at the park.

partly-grown squirrels

One was showing the other how to dig in the potting soil in my tree.

HAN SOM SÖKER EFTER VÅRA FÖRSVUNNA

---

The project of looking for Swedish people in the United States is compared to the story of the Good Shepherd.

Husmodern Number 43, 1938 (Part One)

HAN SOM SÖKER EFTER VÅRA FÖRSVUNNA

is the Husmodern article which discusses the trip made by Kyrkoherde Julius Wellhagen in search of those whose families had lost contact with them after their emigration to the United States.

Husmodern Number 43, 1938 (Part Two)

300 Brev - Kyrkoherde Wellhagen briefly quotes from some of the letters from people whose relatives in the United States had not been in touch with them for some time.

rain for an hour

Where I picked up photos they told me it rained hard for a whole hour, with a pond on the street where I dodged through shrubs by a building to go around the corner.

Husmodern Number 43, 1938 (Part Three)

Note: Laura Jensen is not fluent
in Swedish

These two paragraphs describe the West Coast encounter with Otto R. Karlstrom of the Compass Mission of Seattle in Summer, 1938

Det stod tämligen klart för mig att individuellt sökande efter alla dessa människor var en fysisk omöjlighet. ingen av dem kunde tänkas infinna sig till det väldiga släktmötet i Wilmington eller på planen framför svensk-museet i Philadelfia. De gamla adresserna dugde inte heller som ledtråd. Husen där de bott var kanske försvunna och själva kunde de vara i en annan del av Amerika. En mor frågar efter sonen "en tid i Minneapolis, sedan i skogarna." "I skogarna" är liktydligt med spåren av en flykting västerut, kanske till Washington, där otaliga svenskar arbetar i skogslägren. Men det lönar sig ju inte att söka på måfå i skogarna utan genom observation på platser dit arbetarna föras under pauser i arbetet. En adressavlämnare talar om Västkusten. Det ar en hel kontinent. Det kan hända att vederbörande bot i en storstad vid Stilla havet eller i en liten avkrok vid kusten. Den amerikanska landsbygden har milliontals hus, login och krypin. En människa där är som en knappnål i en hundramilaskog. Svenskar har arbetat i skogar och gruvor, svenska rallarnävar har vräkt undan hundratals mil av de väldiga naturhindren i Klippiga bergen där nu järnvägen förenar öst med väst. De kanske bor någonstans utefter järnvägen och har annan sysselsättning. En svensk rallare kommer inte bort, därtill är han av alltför hållbart virke.

På resan hade jag sällskap med den eminente kännaren av Svensk-Amerika, pastor O.R. Karlström, en småländsk sjöman, som efter fantastiska öden blev präst i Augustana-Synoden och föreståndare för den vittomspännande Kompassmissionen på Västkusten. Han lövade hjälpa mig och vi beslöt att utarbeta en lista, vid vars uppdelning vi skulle följa Augustanas gamla indelning av svenskcentra, sådan denna uppbyggts sedan 1860. Det finns 13 s.k. konferensområden, vartdera med en president i spetsen. Till dessa skulle vi lägga ett fjortonde, d.v.s. upptagande personer til sjöss, i Sydamerika eller utan egentlig U.S.A. -adress. Men det brådskade med tryckningen och manuskriptet var inte utarbetat i en handvändning. Vi hade inte råd att leja hjälp men vi infångade en präst som var på resa till en vilokur på Västkusten. Honom tog vi med oss till Pastor Karlströms lilla blockhus och satte honom i verksamhet med oss under två 18-timmars arbetsdygn. Resultatet var en åttaspaltig lista av en meters längd, upptagande samtliga adresser och ledtrådar i U.S.A. samt den efterfrågande parten i Sverige. I hundratals exemplar sändes denna lista ut over landet, till konferenspredikanterna, till konsulat och föreningar, till svenskspråkig press. Den löper nu genom storstädernas människohav genom Västerns och Kanada skogar, bland sjömän och fiskare och gruvarbetare, över prärierna och genom bergsbyarna. Namnen läsas av ett gäng skogsarbetare i Washington. 'Kalle K. - honom sporde jag i Alaska i somras', säger kanske en. Eller: "Han jobbar i en brädgård i Portland." Vid The Compass Mission i Seattle går dagligen ända till 800 svenskar ut och in, de läser listan och det upstår ett helt nät av kommunicering. Jag är säker på att det finns anledning att hoppas, att det framemot jul skall ha ingått en mängd livstecken från de eftersökta.

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Missed the show? Watch videos of the Live Earth Concert on MSN.

Husmodern, Number 43, 1938 (Part Four)

To Be Revised
At the end of this section of the article from Husmodern, the author refers to his errand (inspired by the Good Shepherd) also as a net - seventy years later, this effort reminds us of why the internet is called an net - the author reaches out into a "sea of people".

stellar's jay

Mid afternoon, on the bike I saw a Stellar's Jay loft up onto a cyclone fence. That was the start of bird watching, a Stellar's Jay on a tree branch, the top of the tree above, in Spanaway.

bald eagle

It was quiet on the bike ride to the library. Then I stopped a moment, above was a shape I saw before, a bald eagle. We have a few bald eagles around here. When I walked past my window I once noticed a sparrow hawk in the tree. Blue sky, a few clouds, past some firewords litter where fireworks were illegal here, yesterday.

rain in June

How there was rain in the air and I carried my raincoat to the post office, then the sky cleared. Later in the day the rain was really coming down and I walked along in my jacket.

cool for june

All month it has been cool for June. This morning it was raining.

birdwatching

There has been a place where I have seen a killdeer. The area is only a little farther in elevation with more open space. The search in the birdbook I have years back for the bird was a peaceful, pleasant time, which reminded me of other times searching through the book

star

Sammy Davis Jr. was a big star. I checked out the new photography book - photos taken by Sammy Davis Jr. of lots of big stars.

ryska gummifabriks, A. - B.

A nice pair of canvas shoes, Malmo Gymnastikskor - molded into the sole in the ad we see RGA Malmo - Ryska Gummifabriks, A. - B. - Aktiebolag - Company, Limited.

what does A.-B. mean

A. - B. means Aktiebolag - like Co. Ltd. (Company Lmited) We might have found this at Ikea.

mangeln

"Vi trivs gott i mitt lilleputt-kok - min T - T och jag!"

Har ar mangeln som aldrig ar i vagen, fast utrymmet ar smatt. Och vad skall jag med en storm skrymmande mangel nar T - T gor precis samma nytta....

How my own grandmother had a mangel in her kitchen. Here is the ad in Husmodern -

"We get along well in my Lilleputian-kitchen - my T-T and I."

"Here is the mangle that never is in the way, surface space is small. And what would I do with a big bulky mangle, when T-T does exactly the same use..."

Her mangle is on the table top on her checkered tablecloth.

Eleventh Street Bridge

I watched a float installed at a restaurant, there was a dog on the boat that towed the float, and the float came from a place on the other side of the eleventh street bridge. The float fit the posts that had been driven into the ground underwater, and the boat with the dog went back where they came from.

#33, 1937 - Serva

Husmodern 33, 1937, has its cover missing, but on its front, page three I find an object familiar to me from a drawing I did in Sweden in 1990 - it is the stove with the same tight spirals of thick wire for handles. The handles must have gotten hot, so thick metal was the best material for them. A potholder must have fit into the spirals, ready for the time to open the oven door.

Serva: till verklig tjanst i ert kok - Serva: to truly serve in the kitchen

Om familjemedlemnarna ata pa olika tider, ar Serva den spis, Ni behover! (If family members eat at different times, Serva is the stove we need!)

The drawing has draped across its top a piece of rhubarb from the garden.

when cleaning

When cleaning, I carried the three boxes of Husmoderns to the other room and piled them behind a file cabinet. Each box has at least Hus on it in red marker, along with 30's, 40's, 70's.

flaxseed meal

Working around the Husmoderns on top of the spool table, I made biscuits with flaxseed meal for breakfast this morning. At the drug store for Vegetarian Multiples, I noticed Red Bull is an energy drink; it was product placed in a novel I just returned, BOOMSDAY.

Three Boxes

Now all the Husmoderns are packed in three boxes. Out the window today there was an Oregon Junco perched on the edge of the little tree.

husmoderns

The kitchen is full of two big containers of Husmodern, 1937 to 1939.

swedish white beam tree

Rain today. Told my cousin about the Swedish White Beam Tree. The park could not locate one to replace the one that had been there a long time. It had to be taken out as part of the replacement program. The tree had white blossoms in spring, then leaves with decal edges, then red and yellow leaves and red berries in the autumn. It was pretty. Seattle Street Trees lists several in Seattle. It appeals to butterflies that live in a different part of the world.

japantown

Good web site at www.tacomathenandnow.org - http://www.tacomathenandnow.org

pigeon standing on the street

There was not traffic just then but the pigeon was standing - was it a little one? I biked back a little and made flying upward pushes from just nearby the pigeon. And it walked across the street to the other curb.

critical mass baby boomers undergrads

The universities were at critical mass for all undergraduates at the summer of love, all the entry-level jobs could be filled with baby boomers. There were so many of them, there had been an opportunity to supply their needs. Then there were so many of them, it was hard to employ them all. The pig in the python.

white crowned sparrow

There are white crowned sparrows and have been each year for awhile.

still calm

Oh, so many repetitions of the themes of this all - short leash. Then this one new tree has perfect flowers and leaves.

tagoxe and chickadee

So the songs of the small songbirds exist, and there are robins. In Scandinavia, there was the talgoxe. Here we have the chickadee.

outside the library

Outside the library it had been raining.

cloud of soft golden discs flowing in the air

Always makes me feel nice to walk a little up towards the duck pond where you see the pond at eye level. The cloud of soft golden discs flew along in the air, ahead one was soft with a fissure in the center, farther on they were petals on a thin bit of branch with leaves. Rhododendrons were much larger, red, white, at a farther place another tree had the petals and a tag way above the head level, Scotch Elm. Wind began to flow another cloud of the soft discs along the hedge where golden sun glowed, the cloud flowing in the air into the park distance.

books

There were books and it remains true, there are books and their ideas matter.

cool for may

Cool for may.

car-busters

How nice to connect to Carbusters. There is a car-free day every year.

sparrow in the lilac bush

I could look right in and see the chickadee in the lilac bush. Now with lilacs, lots of leaves, you can find it a challenge to locate the sparrow that makes the lilacs swing up and down.

mid-spring

A foredrawn conclusion that summertime will go by so fast, very little will get read, clutter clear will be sluggish, not enough time spent going along paths close to the beach. We must not be so unwilling to go ahead and go along the paths and see the ants and chickadees.

sparrow

News article about the endangered owl controversy, does the sparrow that leaps on to the side of the planter and lands back on the sidewalk see the photo of the owl on the front page of the paper?

intellect

Years ago I read in Jacques Barzan about intellect - a category of individuals and their pursuit. Their behavior, a human performance, is different from their pursuit. And the category challenges the pursuit by dailiness. Blogs are diaristic and free and antiintellectual.

yesterday

Although it really was Tuesday yesterday, the cloudy wind in the leaves is about long ago. It can even be about the song Yesterday.

nora alice in the night

Oh, roar a roar for nora. Nora Alice, in the Night.
For she has seen aurora borealis burning bright.
(Walt Kelly)

pink trees

Now there are pink trees with flowers. I want to Link to the International Geophysical Year, it will be fifty years this year and next.

vintage plastic horses

Used to bring the horses out and play under the lilac bush.

kinglet

Golden crowned kinglet among branches and another year an empty neighborhood with few tall trees, a high hill beside it, from a porch flew a ruby crowned kinglet up from the warm sun on the street toward the high hill.

a rodent at the window

As I looked here and there into several books this swirl of fur appeared on top of the new soil in the new larger pot for the small tree. It could see me, it looked right at me and dug into the new soil in the new pot a little.

lilac flowers

Flowers of purple out on the lilac bush. The song from the trees of many themes, sung together.

pale yellow tulips and daffodils

pale yellow tulips, pale yellow daffodils one camelia placed on the lawn

tulips

tulips arrayed and still in a circle like poker hands suspense after the rain

small pears

Over ten years since the small pears were planted. Not Spanish Chestnuts, but they are ten years larger.

Bicycle

Sunday after church, my most recent bike ride was to the store to buy celery and other items.

cloudy skies

Between the buildings were cloudy skies.