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June 22, 2007

Summer

It's not summer till I hear the cicadas singing in the trees. That pulsing rhythm, it's crazy how it gets under the skin, pulling up old feelings, moods, places...

I forget, summer used to be FREE; a paradise with darkness falling late, lightning bugs glowing in jars, visits to blue Lake Michigan, birthday parties with real candy (not carab).

Presently, I'm at home. Mom's garden is drying up like a shriveled breast (she's till out of town). I tried watering it but the sun has probably soaked all the H2O up by now. Probably best to water in the early morning or dusk. I had the day off so I'm sitting here trying to process the fact that it's summer...

Posted by larawalk at 03:05 PM | Comments (2)

June 18, 2007

Fairie Origins?

I found the following article in a text book I'm reading for a class on Special Education.

Folktales from many cultures feature magical "little people"-pixies, elves, trolls, and fairies. A number of physical and behavioral similarities suggest that at least some of the fairies in the early tales might have been modeled on people who had Williams syndrome. Such a view is in keeping with the contention of historians that a good deal of folklore and mythology is based on real life.

The facial traits of Williams people are often described as pixielike. In common with pixies in folklore and art many people with Williams syndrome have small upturned noses, a depressed nasal bridge "puffy"eyes, oval ears, and broad mouths with full lips accented by a small chin. Indeed those features are so common that Williams children tend to look more like one another than their relatives especially as children. The syndrome also is accompanied by slow growth development, which leads most Williams individuals to be relatively short.

The "Wee magical people"of assorted folktales often are musicians and storytellers. Fairies are said to "repeat the songs they have heard" and can "enchant"humans with their melodies. Much the same can be said of people with Williams syndrome who in spite of typically having subnormal IQs, usually display vivid narrative skills and often show talent for music. (The large pointed ears that are so often associated with fairies might symbolically represent the sensitivity of those mythical individuals -- and of Williams people -- to music and to sound in general.)

As a group, Williams people are loving, trusting, caring, and extremely sensitive to the feelings of others. Similarly, elves are frequently referred to as the "good people" or as kind and gentle-hearted souls...

-Adapted from article Williams syndrome and the brain by Howard M. Lenhoff Paul P. Wang, Frank Greenberg Ursulat Bellugi

Posted by larawalk at 12:29 AM | Comments (7)

June 17, 2007

Hanging out with Michelangelo

Posted by larawalk at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2007

Birding...sort of

Posted by larawalk at 11:55 PM | Comments (7)

June 08, 2007

Below Deck...and Above

Dad's not really below deck here. He's finishing dinner at home!

Posted by larawalk at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

Cloudy Days

This is the light house Tom Hanks runs out to in Forest Gump.

Posted by larawalk at 03:45 PM | Comments (1)

Looking Back

Posted by larawalk at 03:12 PM | Comments (2)

Mortality Musings on a Plane

There were lots of delays going on in D.C last night so I didn't make it home till around 2 a.m. Thankfully, my sister is a night owl so she and a friend picked me up. Actually, they were fresh from Shakespeare in the Park which they heralded as wonderful.

It's funny, sometimes when I'm sitting on a plane, I start thinking about what would happen should a crash occur. Wouldn't it be strange to face death with a plane full of strangers? Would I keep to myself as I entered the last minutes of life, praying etc. or would I try to comfort people around me with words of hope and peace?

This time round I decided upon the latter. Actually, I decided I would run over to a man who was sitting two seats ahead of me. On the plane from Portland to D.C he was my seat- mate. We'd had a wonderful desultory conversation full of tales he had gathered traveling around the world during his time with the Navy. He was a very fatherly/brotherly sort so I decided he would be good company should death be upon us...

By the way, has anyone ever used the drop down oxygon on a plane or used the seat cushion during a water landing? Ummm... has anyone had to make a water landing? Just wondering.

Posted by larawalk at 12:38 PM | Comments (2)

June 02, 2007

Moonlight

I had one of those awe-inspiring moments last night. For a second I wished I had my camera but later was glad to have left it at home. Dad, Isaac, and I went down to check on the trapped raccoon. We were all feeling a little surely towards each other-- probably a condition of spending an irregular amount of time side by side. As we drew close to the house, we were struck by the silvery light coming through the pine trees. It was ethereal; it drew us in. It was like we each had to get to the porch to look out at the water as fast as we could.

As we approached the porch and stood facing the sea, the sight took our breath away: The moon was full and it's light cast a perfect stream of dazzling silver across the water. All of us just stood there in awe, even little Isaac, who is quick to add a hint of sarcasm or cynicism to a scene, was perfectly quiet. There is something about the ocean and the moon in combination that reminds one of the vastness, the "beyondness" of this world.

Anyways, still no further info about the raccoons. The mother was continuing to warble away last night but we didn't hear much from the other guys. Oh, and Isaac was quick to revert to his silly playfulness after ten minutes or so, even after looking at the scene I described above. Earlier we had watched a Poirot (Agatha Christy detective series) episode. I guess the the dark woods inspired Isaac's imagination because before I knew it he was pretending to murder me, claiming Poirot would not be able to solve this mystery! Sigh.

Posted by larawalk at 10:31 AM | Comments (9)

June 01, 2007

Racoons to deal with

The racoon is trapped! Poor thing, she was looking at me w/ such a forlorn face. The guys who do the trapping, say she probably has kits so they are letting her stay in the trap for a while to determine wether or not this suspicion is true.

For a while, the racoon lay in a stooper. Maybe she was sleeping. I'm not sure. Around 2 p.m. she woke up and looked at me from her prison. Every once in a while she made funny warbling sounds.

Can you imagine being trapped in a cage on a porch facing the open sea? Mom said she didn't feel too sorry because the coon deserved it in her mind. I protested: "She's just being the creature she's meant to be".

Mom has reason to be negative towards racoons though. Once, during one of our vacations to Lake Michigan, two coons crawled into our cabin, right under her nose. Dad was out and the kids were tucked away under blankets for the night. She was thoroughly shaken from the incident!

Despite mom's "coon phobia", or maybe symptom of it, around 3 p.m, she told me to listen up. Sure enough, somehwere near the fireplace, we heard the familiar chattering. There were more.

After we alerted Dad, he called the trappers. I haven't heard what they are going to do yet. What can they do but set more traps? I guess they are worried beause if the babies are little they may die up there in the rafters (Apparently, they suspect their current prisoner of being the mother). Not such a bad thing except the smell would be horrible. Gross, I can just imagine having smelled some of the droppings (skat) already. We'll see how this resolves itself!

Posted by larawalk at 04:51 PM | Comments (2)