Riverside Ramblings

A First Time for Everything

2011-10-02T19:13:00.000-04:00

During my evening walk, I discovered for the first time in my life there was honeysuckle blooming in October! I've always seen the mid-to-late May show, but October? Has this been happening every year and I've been too busy to notice? Maybe... And then it dawned on me, this is the first year (since the mid-1990's) I've been away from my involvement in Fluvanna County's Old Farm Day which happens on the first day in October. I'm usually tied up the week before the event and then I'm a tired zombie for several days afterwards. Maybe I missed the honeysuckle blooming in October because I was so preoccupied with Old Farm Day? I do tend to hyperfocus when I'm working on a project, maybe I've always had something in October to keep me from noticing the honeysuckle... Whatever the case, I'm ecstatic. Honeysuckle is one of my favorite flowers.

By the way, I hear Old Farm Day had a good turnout yesterday. My neighbor was kind enough to take my son with her two boys. I was at the premier Mountain Spirits Arts Festival in Rocky Mount, Virginia, with a Cedar Creek Publishing table. It was a bit breezy but hanging out with fellow literary minds and fresh mountain air was good medicine. For a first time event in Rocky Mount, they really did it up! Cedar Creek author Becky Mushko had a hand in planning the event and was in charge of the literary tent. I give the event an A+ for their red carpet service for exhibitors. Golf cart shuttle service to and from the parking lot... an exhibitor and volunteer hospitality room in the (warm) Franklin Center with coffee, tea, fruit, homemade chili and cookies... and not a snooty-thumb-up-their-butt "official" to be found!

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Feels good to be bloggin' again. Since my last post many months ago (shame on me) I have a new grandson, Isaiah Gray, born July 6... Speaking of which, it's time for me to Skype the grandkids. Peace!

Mary Hopkin

2011-01-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

Those Were the Days, My Friend (SONG FACTS)

Old Farm Day & The Harvest Celebration

2010-10-05T08:30:00.007-04:00

The Fall season and harvest celebration starts for me on Fluvanna County's Old Farm Day held the first Saturday of each October. For the community, it's a reunion of old friends and neighbors and a time for newcomers to acquaint themselves with the heartbeat of the county's farming heritage. This year, for the first time in my life, I entered the Homemaker & Gardener's Exhibit. My eggplants won a blue ribbon in the vegetable category and my Asian pears received second place in fruit. This represents a major milestone in my gardening life, and a slice of what it means to celebrate the harvest...

There was a time when my answering machine message read, "I'm sorry I'm not able to take your call. I'm either on the other line or I'm out in the garden. Just leave your name and number and I'll get back to you shortly." Aside from family, the garden came before business and anything else. Nowadays, it's a constant juggle of tasks that get rearranged by the hour depending on what "to do" issue arrives first in one of my e-mail boxes! If I had to explain why I wasn't answering the phone these days, my voice mail message would read, "I'm sorry I'm not able to take your call. It's complicated. Just know your call matters to me and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm able." But the garden hasn't fallen by the wayside. Yes, I've had to cut back on the amount of gardening I do, but what I've sustained has become a source of sanity and inspiration. Those eggplants and Asian pears, along with a variety of other vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers, fill the view of the only window I have in my office - fortunately, a six-foot wide window. I have a routine of tending the garden to keep me grounded, and anytime I feel overwhelmed or reach a creative block while I'm in my office, I just glance out the window to clear my mind. If looking out the window doesn't suffice, I just step outside to tend the garden a bit more and everything settles into place. When I'm traveling and need a little grounding, you might see me tending the flowers or shrubs in the office park!

Today, I not only celebrate the harvest of what grows in my garden, but what grows in me as a result of having a garden... Peace!

Make it Quick - In 115 Characters or Less

2010-06-22T13:33:00.009-04:00

Last night I had an interesting phone call from my oldest daughter (age 30). She suggested that if I wanted to attract the attention of her generation to my fundraiser for Sandra and Matthew (www.giveforward.org/matthew/), I'm going to need to cut the message back to 115 characters or less because, after all, they are the Facebookers, Twitterers, texters and so on of the social media world and they don't have time to read long texts. I agreed, partly, because I know I tend to be long-winded when I talk and overly-inked when I write. I also partly agreed because she has a fairly recent degree in business administration and I figured she must be on top of the communications trends for her generation. But, I argued, I'm a traditionalist trying to adapt to this digital pace in life and it's going to take me a little extra time to be brief. We both giggled in revelry as our generation gap seemed to open and close and open again. Finally, she respected my dilemna and suggested maybe I should bullet-point the facts at the beginning of the fundraising letter and leave the rest for anyone who has time to keep reading on. Fair enough, I'll work on it. In the meantime, I thought it was interesting when I received her weekly e-mail update with photos of the grandkids this morning and noticed it was three paragraphs long! I couldn't help myself, I decided to make my response a quick read, in 115 characters or less:

"thx 4-px! lv m! M"

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Some data for those who
are still reading this post:

It's been since 2006 that a report has been issued on reading trends in the U.S. My guess is, a current report would indicate even less time is spent reading.

In contrast, I thought it was interesting to see the 2006 data on writing abilities of high school graduates and college graduates entering the work force:

For Matt at Home

2010-06-17T21:14:00.009-04:00

When Adam and I were planning to build our home, I told my husband I wanted it to be one level and wheelchair accessible. This idea was inspired by watching my Uncle Charlie (who has a form of Muscular Dystrophy) try to navigate his way into and around my parents' old farmhouse in his wheelchair when he and Aunt Shirley visited. I was also inspired by the home my uncle and aunt designed and had built so Uncle Charlie could enjoy his home for many years to come. As Adam and I started drafting our house plans, we asked my uncle lots of questions and had him review our drawings. Having spent so many years in a wheelchair, his suggestions were invaluable in helping us plan and build a home that would help us be better prepared should the unfortunate need ever arise. You never know, anything can happen...

Such is the case with one of my high school classmates, Sandra Beazley, who is now faced with the challenge of adapting her two-story home to meet the needs of her 19-year-old son, Matthew, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a 2009 car accident and is now paralyzed from the neck down. To make a long story short, Adam and I doing what we can to help. Adam helped with the wheelchair ramp construction and has also volunteered to build the much needed deck extension. Others in the community have pitched in, too, and have helped Sandra and Matthew get closer to their goal, but there's still a ways to go... Finances are the challenge, now, and I've made a commitment to help with the fundraising.

To read more about how we're trying to make things better for Matt at home, please visit https://www.giveforward.org/matthew/.

Stone Soup Books & Cafe

2010-05-23T10:32:00.015-04:00

Friday, May 21, 2010 -- Becky Mushko invited me to be her guest for Waynesboro's "Kid's Alley" event where she read her book, Ferradiddledumday, to about 16 children at the Kids and Sew-On store on 141 N. Wayne Avenue... A lovely and colorful store with all kinds of neat things for children (and moms!), and some precious little dresses that would look great on my granddaughter, Eva. (I'll be going back there, for sure!)

Becky's appearance was sponsored by Stone Soup Books & Cafe. Mary Katherine Froehlich, owner of Stone Soup, played her dulcimore during Becky's event and later we saw her working in the kitchen at Stone Soup's Cafe where Becky and I were treated to dinner after the Kid's Alley event. (Becky had the salmon and salad plate special, I had the brie, pear and honey sandwich... Yum!) While Becky and I talked about books and publishing, we enjoyed the Celtic sounds of the Scruffy Murphy Band (right) that was playing outside on the patio... The joint was jumpin' and the place was packed!

Kudos to Mary Katherine, who wears many hats and wears them well! She's passionate about local culture and literature, she's an active player in the revitalization of Waynesboro's downtown district, and she has created quite a literary landmark with her 908 W. Main Street store... I had heard great things about her and Stone Soup Books & Cafe, and I'm glad I was finally able to discover it myself!

Rubber Ducks, Cutting Boards, and Underwear... Oh, My!

2010-04-09T11:48:00.004-04:00

TRICLOSAN is in the news again. This is the antimicrobial chemical sometimes found in "antibacterial" products like hand soaps and shaving creams and also in compounds used to make cutting boards, counter tops and even underwear. Public health and medical advocacy groups, including the American Medical Association, have been after the FDA and calling for the removal of triclosan and related antimicrobial chemicals for years. Recent studies, however, have apparently caught the attention of the FDA since their last review of the ingredient and they've teamed up with the EPA to do some studies of their own. (The results will not be available until Spring 2011.) The data most noted by groups that have been after the FDA to wake up to the alarm clock are results from animal studies that have found triclosan to be an endocrine disrupter, which means it interferes with the body's production of hormones, such as those that regulate the thyroid and reproductive systems (in some cases, hormone disruption can lead to a bigger problem like cancer, insulin resistance, or obesity).

Case in point on how quickly TRICLOSAN is absorbed in the body:
Rick Smith and Bruce Laurie, co-authors of a new book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things (Counterpoint, 2010), subjected themselves to a weeklong science experiment, using products as any normal person would and then measured the levels of chemicals from those products in their bodies. They ate out of canned-food containers, microwaved in plastic, ate food made in nonstick pans, and used everyday personal-care products like scented shampoos and antibacterial soaps.

In an interview with Emily Main, writer for the Rodale Institute, Rick Smith was asked, "What's the most disturbing aspect of what you found?" In Smith's response he revealed, "...the most mind-blowing increase was with triclosan. Our levels of triclosan increased by 2,900 times over a two-day period, just by using common household products. A 2,900-time increase in a two-day period is just mind-boggling..." [Triclosan is also known under the trade name Microban.]

I'm certainly not a role model for choosing all things eco-, green- or organic-, but I'm trying... A few of the periodicals I read that have helped me with my choices are: Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening, and Kiwi.

Eva and the Daffodils

2010-03-18T14:43:00.003-04:00

On March 11, my life was enhanced with the arrival of a granddaughter. Around 5:10 p.m. I was at my desk addressing envelopes, and in a vision I saw my father standing next to me. Just a few minutes later the phone rang. It was my son-in-law calling to announce Eva's arrival... In a flash, her photo was on Facebook and I was able be with her even though she was thousands of miles away. How fortunate and blessed we are to have technology to bridge the miles, and Spirit to bridge our hearts and minds... and the daffodils that bloomed and danced the same day.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. . . .

from "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth

Chopin's 200th Birthday Today

2010-03-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Claire Huangci, age 19, from Lansdale, PA, became the first place winner of the 8th National Chopin Piano Competition in Miami, FL - www.chopin.org - Chopin Foundation of the United States. She's heading to the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. As part of her U.S. concert tour she'll be performing live in Virginia on April 29 at the Paramount in Charlottesville - www.theparamount.net. Congratulations to Claire and to her teacher, Arie Verdi, at the Hanover Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Germany - www.hmt.hannover.de/en/.

Looking Back at February 2010

2010-03-01T09:21:00.004-05:00

1. Honored the memory of family friend and mentor Kate Armstrong on what would have been her 116th birthday. In her memoir, In the Direction, she shared how the dream of owning a farm came to her after reading Thoreau's Walden. At age 44 and being a single-mother, she began her search for a farm and embarked on a journey that would bring her to Virginia to become one of the finest sheep and cattle farmers in the my county during the 1950s.
2. Celebrated a wedding anniversary during the big snow storm of 2010... Lived off the grid for a week and loved it.
3. Got the car dug out and off the farm by mid-month so I could enjoy a great Richmond Writers meeting with guest speaker, Mary Montague Sikes on "Writing Romance Novels." Her newest novel, Night Watch is coming out shortly. www.marymontaguesikes.com. Mary is also an artist and I gave her a copy of Channing Penna's book, Moving Line. www.channingpenna.com.
4. The rest of the month was a race to catch up on work after that one week of living off the grid. With more green showing in the yard now, and most of the fallen trees cut up, I am looking forward to sowing seeds in the garden again. By candlelight, my inspiration started by reading the 2010 Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Catalog and Garden Guide www.southernexposure.com.

Life on the Edge

2010-01-29T21:18:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite things to do when I'm in the mood to read, is to randomly grab a book or magazine off the shelf that doesn't necessarily grab my attention because of the title or author, but because it's on the edge and speaking to me... It's saying, "take me, I'm the one..." And so was the case one day recently when I grabbed the June, 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine. I sat and prepared myself for the "experience of awakening and enlightenment" that always happens when I choose something to read in this way. As I thumbed the pages and allowed the book to open where it chose, it fell open to an article entitled, "Solace at Surprise Creek" by William Albert Allard. The piece is a follow-up article to a previous trip (and article) from 37 years ago when he went to Montana to photograph the Hutterites of Surprise Creek Colony. While there, he became close friends with those he had set out to study. The teachings of the Hutterite elders, passed down through the centuries, to "live simply, share everything, and trust in God," became a comfort to Allard while there on this second trip when he received the news his son had passed away. I was moved and inspired by Allard's experience that he so eloquently and bravely captured with paper, pen and camera, that I thought to myself, "this is a man I would love to meet." Because of my passion for writing and photography, and losing a close family member myself in 2006, I felt a kindred connection to this man. So, I Googled his name to become better acquainted... I was surprised not to see more on this brilliant talent who has been a photographer for the National Geographic since 1964! However, much to my surprise, I learned he lives right here in Virginia! ... But enough about my selfish desire to meet everyone I'm inspired by... I think you will find it a rewarding read to seek out a copy of the June, 2006 National Geographic and turn to Page 120. The man is noted as a "photographer," but he's a genuine "photo-journalist" in every sense of the word.

To close, the inspiration doesn't stop here. In another Google search I found a perfect quote from Mr. Allard posted at brainyquote.com that sums it up for me today: "I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don't find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges."