Friday, before going home from school, I decided to drive over to Lake Quano- powitt to see what there was to see there. I got an eyeful, let me tell you! Dozens of amazingly beautiful flowering trees! 
Most of these were in the two cemeteries bordering the lake, and it was drizzling slightly, so the contrasts were brighter than usual. I love this time of year!
Thursday was Teacher Appreciation Day for our conference (school district). Our superintendent invited us all to Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, MA for a luncheon. I've been wanting to go here for awhile, so was glad when I got the invitation.
I drove out to my sister's school to pick her up so we could go together. We arrived early and wandered the grounds for an hour or so. It's a little early for a lot of the flowers, but there were enough to appreciate and enjoy.
I'm thinking I'll be going back, now that I've mad
e my first visit =)
I had some time to kill this morning (I had to meet someone but was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule) so I took a drive through the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. It had been raining fairly heavily just prior to my arrival, so everything looked so pretty and fresh. The flowering trees were out in full-force, so I took some pictures.
This is a favorite cemetery of mine. I wrote about it a couple years ago here. This time, I was just appreciating the beautiful trees.
Monday morning when I went back to school after a week's "vacation" (not really a vacation since I worked 5 of the 7 days), I notice a huge heap of straw outside the door at the end of the hallway. It didn't dawn on me until later just what caused the mess (the picture shows only about half what I found!).
I went out, look up, and sure enough, there on a bar/ledge underneath the grated landing upstairs was the culprit: a robin sitting on her nest. Every year, we have at least one brave (or foolish?) robin who builds her nest in the same spot. Trouble is they don't realize until too late that the landing is pretty busy with little (and big) feet running on top of the nest.
I don't know what's going to happen to the three eggs in the nest. I saw the mother on the nest this morning, but twice this afternoon when I went out, she was not on the nest. So, I don't know if she's already abandoned it. I hope not!
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,I want to be with people who submerge
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
I've been tucked away in upstate New York the past three days for Educators' meetings. We do this every April ("we" meaning the principals superintendents of education from my church in New England, New York, and Bermuda). There must be thirty or more of us this time because we have with us the ministerial directors as well. We are planning a convention for all the pastors and teachers in our "Union" for next summer. It's exciting work, to be honest, even though it means sitting and dickering about details for hours at a time. We have had interesting and important conversations along the way, and that has made the time worthwhile, even though it has come during most of my Spring Break (boo hoo).
Wednesday, we stopped at one of our schools, a boarding school on our way to Alexandria Bay. There, we spent about three hours painting the cafeteria and kitchen facilities. We were quite pleased and proud of our work!
We wanted to find something to eat after getting settled in our (very nice) hotel rooms, but as we are here out of season, most everything was closed, so we ended up eating at the hotel Bistro. No big deal, really. All I wanted to do was sleep, which came easily after the long day of driving and painting.
Yesterday afternoon, we took time out to go on a river cruise of the Alexandria Bay area on the St. Lawrence River. It's called "Millionaires Way" and not without good reason. We saw summer retreats of the rich and famous. We saw abandoned castles of the rich. We even saw a pink mansion belonging to an NFL player (so painted because his daughters wanted a pink house)! And we saw one that belonged to an ancestor of mine (via my mother), a Kellogg summer home!!!
I took 230 pictures in all on the cruise, and most of them turned out. It was all but impossible to choose which pictures to share here. Basically, I am just randomly picking a few to give you the flavor of the place. It was a lovely (although a tiny bit windy) day. One we certainly enjoyed.
Happy Earth Day! I just heard Tom Brokaw talk about the history of Earth Day. Turns out, I celebrated the very first one...and I do remember it. I was in 9th grade. Our whole school spent the day cleaning up the campus. We worked in small groups within our classes. Part of the fun of the day was a challenge for each group to come up with a rhyme/chant about their class. At the end of the day, a vote was taken on the best rhyme for each class. That made the work fun, and kept us working together. Guess whose chant won for my class? Yup! To this day, I remember the chant my group came up with: "We're tremendous, stupendous, yes sirree! Nineteen hundred and [ends with three...]"
This year, I'm celebrating the day by getting a new bathtub and shower. Hopefully this will help conserve water (and also improve the cosmetic value of my condo). Meanwhile, yesterday was one of those great days that happens only in New England. At least I like to think so. It was bright, beautiful, clear, and perfect conditions for running the 112th Boston Marathon (the world's oldest marathon) as well as playing (or watching) baseball (Red Sox vs. Rangers at 11 a.m.).
I was home working (cleaning) while watching the Marathon and the Sox game, but other years, I've been part of the thousands who start the day at Fenway Park and who end up out on the Marathon sidelines cheering the runners on. If you're lucky, the way I have been several times, the Sox play a quick game and you get out in time to see the leaders cross the finish line.
One year, I went from the Sox to the Marathon to the Bruins play-off game, all within a 7 hour shot. Now, that was a marathon!!!
Inland Empire Girl has been honoring National Poetry Month (April) by posting a poem a day. Her energy amazes me. Today, she shared a poem she had written based on one written by George Ella Lyon. You can find her poem here along with links to poems she challenged her siblings to write.
Two summers ago, I wrote a similar poem at a writing retreat at Rockport. I remember the extreme satisfaction in putting childhood memories together in poetic form, and the overwhelming sense of comfort and blessing I felt at recalling my roots. I know I am fortunate in those good memories.
Anyway, back to the original point of this post, the poem:
During my walk around Boston on Tuesday, I stopped in at two famous cemeteries. The first was the burial ground at King's Chapel. Several famous colonists and citizens are buried here, including John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, and William Dawes, the other rider who warned colonists that "the British are coming!" Perhaps the most famous fictional character buried here is Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, set in 17th century Boston.
A few minutes walk away is the Old Granary Burying Ground. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and Benjamin Franklin's parents are among the notables buried here. I didn't have time to ramble leisurely through this tranquil spot in the midst of a busy city, but was able to linger long enough to think about the importance of each person, not just those who made the history books.
Tonight, there is a full moon, or very nearly so. I always know, without looking in the sky, if the moon is full because things get crazy at school. I love this shot the Red Sox camera man took of the moon over the Sox at Yankee Stadium. The best part, of course, is the score =)
I took the afternoon off to meet a friend in Boston. She is in town with National Honor Society students from her school in Maryland. They were walking the Freedom Trail today and I set out to try to catch up with them. It was a fruitless effort to find them as we were both walking, and there was virtually no way for me to catch up. I finally gave up for the time being and just enjoyed the sights.
It was a beautiful day, not too cool to revel in the hour's walk through the historic Government Center, Theatre District, and Boston Common. Many times when I wander through Boston, I like people watching. This time, the architecture interested me. I found myself being drawn to the tops of the buildings, several of which I'm sharing here.
I finally caught up with my friend a few miles south of Boston at the Kennedy Library. While her students (and other adults) went through the library/museum, we sat outside and talked. It was an all too brief reunion, but worth the minor frustration of not finding her for nearly two hours...
In spite of my happiness at seeing my friend, the day was tinged with sadness. The daughter of our maintenance man was killed yesterday in a freak accident in San Francisco. She had been walking her dog and was putting it in her car when a huge branch from a redwood tree fell down on her, taking her life instantly. It's a devastating loss. I went to high school with her, but haven't seen her since then. Still, I feel overwhelmed with sadness for her parents.
Last week was so intense, that I have been drained of almost all thought ever since. It's been hard to do much, let alone write. After the exit report I went home and just sat for an hour. I went to bed early and couldn't even read, something rare, believe me.
Thursday, we had a candidate for next year flew in from New York and I had to take him out to eat (along with our vice principal). I didn't get home until after 10. Friday afternoon late, we interviewed him, and then the next day I took him with me to a teacher's retreat at the camp our school goes to at the beginning of each year.
The camp is at an altitude so that the ice on the lake has not melted yet, but the temperature was warm enough to cause a fog to rise off the ice. It was eerily beautiful. Unfortunately, we had to go right to the meeting, so I didn't get a picture of it. I regret being a "good teacher" now, because by the time we had free time to go check it out, the fog was gone.
One thing I'm learning... and trying to do more of... is that with photo- graphy, you have to go for it, take chances, seize the moment. If you wait until "a better time," you'll most likely miss it all together. Carpe diem. Take the opportunity when you have it. I'm working to do more of that so I have fewer missed photographic opportunities...
I was working in my office this afternoon when the office manager came in saying "Come! Bring your camera!" I grabbed my camera and went to see what the stir was about: a turtle, a slider turtle, I think. Some kids found it out in the ball field and brought it to our science teacher.
We let it go in one of the gardens. Usually we have several coming out of the swamp across the playground to the gardens around the building to lay their eggs. several weeks later, dozens of tiny turtles scramble their way back to the swamp. Kind of cool!
While I was watching the turtle crawl away, I noticed something strange under some bushes: a little graveyard for a bird the 4-6th graders found dead on the ground. I thought it was kind of sweet the way they buried it, complete with flowers and grave markers...
The other cause for excitement came when two boys came running in from the dumpster to say that a raccoon was sleeping in it! I went to check it out, and sure enough, a coon was curled up at the back of the dumpster. No amount of banging on the side would wake him (or her) up. Our theory is that he gorged himself on garbage and then was too full and sleep to move. "We put a board inside to give him a way out. An hour later he was gone.
Aside from these native visitors, it was fairly quiet today as our visiting team left last night around 7 p.m. after delivering the exit report and giving us the recommended accreditation term: the second highest possible--6 years with an interim visit at 3 years! I am so relieved! I didn't realize the weight of the stress of this evaluation until it was over and a two-ton weight dropped from my shoulders!
