More photos: New Albin, Iowa, late spring

I took a few snaps of the farmland around town. Now there is only one photographer in our family, and I am not he, but I still have fun now and then. Click on the thumbnails for bigger versions.

The first is looking up Cemetery Road toward the Tom Reburn farm, with its famous 12-sided barn.

See that up there??

I just learned how to replace my text blog header with an image.

(That photo was taken about 30 minutes ago, from the north side of town, right at the state line.)

More Turtles

When Lil Miss A and I biked to school this morning, we found Terry Lottawhiskers, one of the custodians, walking around among the bikes parked outside, looking for something. It turned out to be a turtle, a big one this time, with a shell about saucer-sized. He sighed, picked it up and said he would add it to The Collection. I said, "What collection?" Turned out kids had been bringing turtles to school nearly every day. Terry stores them in a bucket until he has a chance to take a break and carry them down to the wetlands to release them. He showed me today's bucket as he added this turtle to The Collection. She was the 4th for the day.

Terry may be big and gruff-looking, but he let a little of his soft side show in the way he tenderly stowed away that turtle for safe keeping.

Gardening as an act of faith

In the past few weeks, the children of one of our local ladies, Edna Don, have rallied to care for their mother after her announcement that she had what was probably terminal cancer. She lived in her own home to the very end, with the help of her children. A steady parade of vehicles with out-of-state plates appeared at the house as they took turns caring for her and her house.

One of the sweetest things they did was to plant her garden for her this spring. Edna had a beautiful garden every year, with nary a weed to be seen. Her kids planted the garden once more. What an act of faith, to plant a garden and assume that she would be around to see it bear fruit!

Well, this time God's answer was "no," and He called Edna home. Her children are now taking care of her affairs, cleaning out her home to be used as a vacation place for their families, at least for awhile, and going through the process of grief. Meanwhile, Edna's garden grows.

Faith.

New Albin Area Veterans Memorial

Saturday afternoon was the dedication of the new New Albin Area Veterans Memorial. There was a wonderful ceremony, with speeches, prayers and reminiscences by brothers and nephews of veterans. The three living Gold Star Mothers of our town did the actual unveiling. The Kee High Band played. I like the monument itself. Elegant is the only word I can find to describe it.

This obnoxious-looking vehicle from Sensibleiowans.org was there protesting military spending from a legal distance away so nobody could kick them out:

The next day they showed up at Kee High graduation, but they made the mistake of parking illegally, and I was able to get the Lansing patrol officer to at least move them down the road a bit.

Kathleen and Mark, married Spring 2007

After a very tough few years, during which she lost first a child, then her husband, my friend Kathleen is married to her new husband Mark Hidingout. They had a small civil ceremony, and then Friday evening a big picnic reception at the local park. Mark comes from a huge family. When the photographer said, "Okay, we need all the family together over here for pictures," about 70 of the 100 or so people at the picnic got up and moved "over there."

Best wishes for years of joy together, Mark and Kathleen.

Love, Iowa Style

This is a quote from a personal ad that appeared in our local shopper paper:

Happy 60th Birthday to my Sweetheart.
You've been my best friend for 40 years now, my cook, nurse and bale-unloader....

Yep, that's true love. When you'll cook for a man AND unload bales for him, it's for real.

No we are NOT KEEPING HIM

Turtle hatchlings are everywhere. I nearly stepped on this tiny one as I walked out my back door. He was on the sidewalk.



My pictures really don't get across how tiny and yet how perfect he is. (Was. I released him down by the river.) He was amazing, a perfect miniature turtle with teeny claws and teeny little muscles. So cute.