September 9, 2022 by drkottaway

frogseptember

My weekend at the Nowhereelse Festival would have delighted any frog. It rained nearly the whole time. I had a rental car, a tent and sleeping bag, and all of the music was in a much much bigger tent. I frogmarched back and forth from my small tent in a field, to the music venue, the volunteer tent and the food trucks. By the time I packed up my tent on Monday, the field was no longer absorbing water and it was 2-3 inches deep within a few feet of my tent. I hoped I would make it to the airport and not get caught by flooding roads. The fields and ditches were flooding but I was out before the roads were too bad. Whew.

The first photograph is the storm rolling in Saturday morning. The second is my tent from inside the rental car. WET.

For yesterday’s Ragtag Daily Prompt: frogmarch. If there is a frogmarch, there must be a frogseptember too, right?

September 5, 2022 by drkottaway

tent flounce

This tent looks like it has a flounce along the upper edge. I spent the weekend at the Nowhereelse Festival, camping in Ohio. The music is fabulous, hosted by Over the Rhine, and the Ohio rain was very impressive. I took the lightest camping gear I could, since I arrived by plane and rental car. My tent and sleeping bag stayed dry inside. Outside everything was sopping. I went barefoot for most of the three days except in the pokey field bits, and then I wore water slippers. None of my shoes would have stayed dry. I bought the slippers for indoors, but they are great in heavy rain and easy to take off when I was back on the grass.

Here is the tent in the evening, with clouds piling up.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flounce.

August 10, 2022 by drkottaway

Centrum Blues Fest

I took this last Saturday at the 1:30 pm Blues Fest Concert. This is Jerron Paxton and he just loves the music so much. He started by saying everyone participating in the Blues Fest is tired by the end of the week, it’s so intense! Then he played. Completely delightful.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: concert.

July 29, 2022 by drkottaway

huge thanks to Trinity

The Summertime Singers had our tenth concert in twelve years last night at Trinity United Methodist, in Port Townsend, Washington.

And here it is, a video of the concert:

Summertime Singers – 2022

Trinity United Methodist hosts the Thursday Candlelight Concerts monthly. In September KPTZ will resume live broadcasts of the concert. Half of the contributions last night went to Jumping Mouse, the counseling center for children age 2 to 12.

Many thanks to Trinity United and to the folks who came out! And to Colleen and John, our directors, and Helen, our pianist. And a special thanks from me to Sidney, for some very timely voice lesson help!

Enjoy the concert and thanks to the church for posting it on their website!

The buck was right across the street on Tuesday, right before our dress rehearsal. I parked there and got out before I saw him. He didn’t mind. He continued to eat the hydrangeas. Yum.

July 15, 2022 by drkottaway

early wren

I recorded this in Wisconsin, with my phone. You may need to turn it up to hear it.

Recording of me exchanging songs with a wren.

I adore wrens. If I hear one and sing to it, it will sing back. Wrens change their songs all over the place. This one is very very patient with me, even though I am a terrible wren. At least I am trying, and this graceful musician is kind and encouraging, even though she is a professional.

I don’t think I ever saw the wren. I started chirping and trying to imitate the song when I heard it. Then I started recording. I don’t know how long we practiced together.

I am not good at wren songs. I am very good at chickadee, fairly good at eagle, and had a great blue heron back track and land in a tree when I tried that “BRAACCCKKKKK!” noise. Great Blue Herons sound like I imagine a pteradactyl sounded. There is an even more odd sounding bird, though. My daughter and I are walking around a small lake here and hear a monstrous sound. We stop and listen. We can’t identify it. We decide that it is not a cougar or a bear, and quietly walk forward, with caution.

It is a group of cormorants. It is twilight and there is a log sticking up out of the water. They are jockeying for position on the log. We think they are trying to roost for the night. As each one clambers up the water end, someone else is jostled and someone falls in the water. They are arguing in deep hoarse voices.

My daughter and I watch for a while. I don’t try to imitate the cormorants because I am afraid I will spook them. They are getting ready for bed. It is nearly dark so we walk on the the car and home.

__________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: noises.

June 8, 2022 by drkottaway

yellow iris

For Cee’s Flower of the Day.

And this is gorgeous:

May 29, 2022 by drkottaway

more tulips

For Cee’s Flower of the Day.

May 13, 2022 by drkottaway

tube cat

Do you know the song? Tube Snake Boogie?

My cats LOVE the tube. But it’s a little disquieting at times. I don’t have a photograph yet, but when there is one cat head first in at one end and another cat sticking out at one of the side holes or the other end… well, it’s a tube cat. A bit worrisome. Kind of a cat/snake cross. It doesn’t help that the tube really matches Elwha’s coloring. I am learning to step over the tube quite carefully because sometimes there are hidden paws.

Elwha barely fits in the side entrances. Cats can do that snakey thing of going through a space that really looks too small for them.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: disquieting.

May 6, 2022 by drkottaway

April A to Z reflection

April was a very interesting month! I went to Europe for the first time since 1988 and got covid, so had to stay an extra 8 days. The version I got was a mild cold and my lungs did not get worse. Traveling on oxygen is really challenging. I was anxious to get home because my son and daughter-in-law got married after postponing in 2020 and 2021, so they married on April 30th! It was a wonderful wedding!

So, I had to do some planning for the A to Z, writing about women artists, mostly Helen Burling Ottaway, my mother. I took a number of my mother’s etchings to give to friends in Europe and used those because they were what I had. In typing up her resume, I learned more about her! She was a prolific artist and I want to get more of her art out there. I had originally planned to set up an on line shop of her work, but the Europe trip, covid and the wedding derailed that idea! I still want to do that, but I am a bit slow about it. I need to catalog and photograph her work, after I recover from the wedding extravaganza.

When I got home from my trip on April 12, I started doing two posts a day. I did the present letter and then worked from the end of the alphabet, setting up Z for Zarathustra to go live on April 30th. By the last week of April, I had it all set to go live day by day. This is good, because there was no way I would have posted from the last Wednesday on!

I did not get to surf other writers blogs as much as I had planned. Too busy in Europe and too busy with wedding. This week I mostly want to do not very much. I am sorting wedding photographs, the ones I took, and sending them to the new bride and groom.

The picture is of my two aunts at the music rehearsal. I was cantor and led the two hymns. Both of my father’s sisters are church organists. They played four hands for the processional and the recessional and were wonderful! With both my parents gone I was very very grateful to have them present.

April 26, 2022 by drkottaway

Stages of Peace Playlist I

Dang, I’ve got a lot of stages. So it is a long playlist! I can’t complain (yes I can), after all, I wrote the stages. Hmm, to work, to work, to play, to PEACE.

Twisting words- The Grass is Blue – Dolly Parton