The Kalmar Nyckel Project - Spring 1997

At the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in 1997, they were building the Kalmar Nyckel Replica.

The Tour of the Workshop At the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Delaware - Spring 1997

At The Wilmington waterfront:  Came across the Kalmar Nyckle shipyard immediately around the next bend in the road - I had the tour -

  Blacksmith and Tour Guide at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Delaware - 1997

of the carving room - where there was a pelican with a fish in its beak, and a lion, and a cat's head - an old Swedish flag on the wall - it had been an old museum which they moved the carvers into - and piles of twisty rooty trees to be part of the bottom of the ship - around a corner - lead had been there - lead to make ballast -

there was coal in a bin - all this along the riverside - then there was a woman blacksmith - when she was at the forge she put up a black paper at the window for the photo - a bucket of water & lamp; a fire there -

later there were hooks that had been made at the forge -

there was a kind of saw where they were making pieces of wood flat -

there was a room of ropes - the ends twisted with twine and coated with tar - and extra twine around wherever they might rub and fray.

The tour was really wonderful, the rooms were great - there was a room of maps.

At The Site of Fort Christina, in Delaware - Spring 1997

(An image remained with me from my walk along the road to the Fort Replica part of the historic waterway at Wilmington, Delaware.  It was the sight of a large egg - I may find my poem later.  A large egg I think was brought far from the goose's nest and dropped along the road.) 

From my notes when I traveled to Wilmington Delaware after the AWP Meeting in Washington D.C. in 1997: ...there was an old Fort Christina Marina, & along the road where there was an asphalt dike there were men with a truck building a new fence -

beyond, peeped the silver strips of glittering river - farther there was the park - with some other markers of Swedish Settlers - there was just a tavern there -

the park seemed like mostly parking lot - there was a postal truck and I gave the driver the post cards I wrote last night.  (The logs in the photo are a recreation of the long-ago fort.)

It was too windy, when I tried to play my recorder I kept losing the tune into the wind. 

The wind blew my coat a lot.  It was sunny but the wind was a little cold.  (My coat was eleven years old but I was happy I had it along.)

Nice Weather Saturday On The Waterfront

Saturday at the Main Library I saw a front page article about the remodeling work done at the Maritime History Museum.  My plans included going that way, anyway, so I walked down past the Old City Hall to Schuster Parkway and to the Museum.  An unstable brick wall all along the front had been taken down and replaced with a beautiful glass window. 

At a small laptop with a large digital camera on a tripod, a photo booth feature was set up.  I chose a nice dark pea coat and a storm hat and they sent my photo to my email and included it on their Facebook Page.  This all reminds me of clocks and weather instruments - I think they had clear weather and stormy weather captains who came out little doors according to the moisture or the high or low pressure readings. 

The great displays included lots of really large format photos. 

I searched along the street when I had seen the museum to find the bus stop for the routes that go from the Dome Station to Downtown and on.  Waited on the esplanade where an egret flew along, beautiful.

At King's Books for Tacoma Reads Together Discussion

Lauren Walker from Tacoma City Council moderated the discussion of Wonder by R. J. Palacio at King’s Books on Wednesday evening.  About a dozen attended, including two children, their discussion was important, because the book is a children’s book.   The main character is August, or Augie, who has a facial difference and, after years of home school, enters a middle school or junior high named for Henry Ward Beecher. 

The setting was New York.  According to the story, the family had lived in Connecticut.  When our discussion also included bullying, Lauren Walker described experiences of her sons when they were in school in London in 1990.   

Another person attending brought up the idea of Connecticut as a literary enclave.  Our discussion did not continue long about literary Connecticut, we stayed with the characters in our story. When I looked that up later, I found that Mark Twain had lived in Connecticut, probably the strongest historic figure of that group.   

Henry Ward Beecher and Harriett Beecher Stowe were from Connecticut.  Also from Connecticut were Robert Lawson, Walt Kelly, and Edward Eager, among other authors I remembered from children’s books days.  The format used in Wonder - alternating narrative - was used by Edward Eager in a book called The Well-Wishers.  Since today is Paul Revere's Ride day, I should remember that Robert Lawson wrote a book about Paul Revere's horse.   Eleanor Estes and Madeleine L’Engle were from Connecticut.  (When I took the train in the Northeast in 1997, it was not in Connecticut.  My thoughts were of the area, though, of the sight of a shrub beside the train I later learned was Staghorn Sumac). 

Narration by Augie’s sister and his new friends alternated with narration by Augie to tell the story of how they were supportive of him and showed him empathy.

 

Annette Funicello

A few years back I enjoyed reading the Hollywood Autobiography about Annette - "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" I saw a television Mickey Mouse Club serial also, a few years back, and watched on video.  It seemed so very familiar. 

It was a while before I realized that our comic collection included Walt Disney's Annette, an interesting story that I read several times.  Print was ahead of the screen for the Mickey Mouse Club at our house - when I was a child we did not get television until I was in fifth grade.  Just a couple of years before that, my grandmother got a television. And of course there were neighbors.  I am so sorry to learn about the death of Annette Funicello.

April - Morning Bus Ride

So many flowering trees, pruned in close deliberate and yes nice ways, or growing up and up.  Along the streets in the rain, and the windshield wipers of the bus flick back and forth.