Grandmother Wren

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This week’s Craft It Wednesday event hasn’t been posted yet on the host blog, but I’ll go ahead a do mine and link it later. I surely do understand how easy it is to start running behind with blogging projects!

This week I’m sharing the corn husk crafting tutorial I’m doing on my Thrifty Creativity blog. Maya and I will be making some corn husk dolls. I’d like to try doing the natural color husk tree (I’ll have the directions for that one up later this week.)

Check it out if you’re interested – corn husks are great for fall crafting! Check back later in the week and early next week while I finish up the projects I have to post.

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Plans gone awry, mistaken ideas, overdevelopment, maybe even elements of greed…? Land lost to grand schemes cannot be reclaimed, concrete and abandoned strip malls will not melt away, the damage cannot be undone.

And yet…
behind, under, around, just past (the mess) -
the land lies patiently waiting.

These are the pictures we took from the trail we walked a few weeks ago – part of the work of The Hockanum River Linear Park Committee, a subcommittee of the Manchester Conservation Commission. Since 1970, this group of volunteers has maintained the approximately 15 miles of hiking trails alongside the Hockanum River. These volunteers and other civic organizations, such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, have worked to preserve the scenic woodlands, wetlands and wildlife on the river and to provide hiking trails for public recreation.

This is Oakland Trail - running behind a Kohl’s Department store, under the highway overpass, within sight of the VIP “adult oriented” (yuck) shop, past two auto dealerships and an abandoned machine shop.

A place of peace, a place to walk along the water while your soul is restored – keeping your eyes on the water and your heart among the trees. The damage to the land can’t be undone, but it can be uplifted and overcome.

Trail Description from the HRLPC website

Distance: About 2 miles.

Maintained by: The Hockanum River Linear Park Committee (HRLPC)

Parking at the beginning of the trail:
The most accessible trailhead for this path is on the right side of the Kohl’s parking lot at 155 Tolland Turnpike. The green and white sign on the road reading “Hockanum River Hiking Trail” is the first clue. The brown sign, “TRAIL” with a “No Bikes” symbol, marks the hiker entrance.

The trail walk: (Note that the HRLPC favors locating the trail as close to the river as possible when laying out and clearing trails.)
This is a 2.0 mile loop trail, in a green belt along the north side of the river close to I-84, and with a return along the south side of the river. The trail runs behind multiple businesses on the south side of the river behind Tolland Turnpike.

50 feet from the trailhead, the path divides. Straight ahead are 5 steps down to a 30 foot bridge with wood railings, across the river to a 4 acre Bryan Island in the river with its 1/2 mile loop trail through a very scenic meadow and forest. Deer hang out here frequently.

Back off the island, the main Oakland loop goes either up or downstream. Upstream, the path goes down 8 steps and across a 20 foot bridge through a small meadow, then behind Conyers garages, and over another footbridge. It then proceeds around a chain-link fence, down a slope, through a meadow-and-forest area, behind various industrial and auto dealer sites seen off (through the woods) to the side, and eventually out to the Quality Inn vehicle bridge.

The trail turns left over the bridge, then left again now downstream, over a Boy Scout footbridge and along grass, enters the woods and proceeds past Court House Plus. The path follows close to the river still downstream, through meadow and forest, with the river on the left and I-84 close to the right behind trees. Try to ignore the traffic noise and focus on the scenic beauty of the river, the water birds, the bench for a brief relaxation, and the wildflowers.

At 3/4 miles downstream the path goes under I-84 entrance and exit ramp bridges, over several mini-footbridges, up a steep flight of steps, through a meadow and numerous white pines planted as seedlings in 1983. It then goes left across the river on our big steel footbridge.

(Historically, this large footbridge was constructed in Minnesota and installed here in April, 2006, to replace an old bridge erected by the Connecticut State DOT in 1951.) This bridge is also part of the Union Pond Trail, another trail managed by the HRLPC.

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Simple Instructions: “THREE THINGS EVERY PARENT SHOULD TEACH THEIR KIDS”.
You don’t have to be a parent to participate. Everyone was a kid at some point, so you know important things they should be taught.
To keep from getting alot of the same obvious answers, try to be specific and let’s bypass some of the obvious: be honest, love your parents, love God, be kind to others, accept Jesus as your Savior (Christian parents will feel obligated to list some of those).
This is not a list of the MOST IMPORTANT, so do not feel like you must list the highest priority or the obvious, which will end up having the same thing repeated by everyone over and over. Try to be specific and creative. List your three items with a sentence or two explanation.

The most important? ( and like it says in the instructions, I do feel obligated…)

Jesus said: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

After that – What Three Things do I think would serve a child well to know?

1. Learn a good, basic recipe for baking yeast bread. It’s not a hard skill to master once you’ve tried it a few times and you’ll never be at a loss for what to bring with you when invited to share a meal. Everyone loves home baked bread.

2. Develop interests and hobbies that you can pursue on your own. Learn to be happy by yourself. A happy person is a blessing to others.

3. Remember that you and everyone you know are mortal. Use your time wisely.
Remember that you and everyone you know are also immortal. Rejoice! And use your time wisely.

I’m glad we stopped at a list of three – I’m afraid that’s all the wisdom Grandmother has to share. Please stop by the other Blog Hop participants to read their entries. Why not add one of your own?

Special thanks to Shoplet.com-Purell Hand Sanitizers for sponsoring this blog hop.

FOR TODAY…

Outside my window… another warm late summer day – we’re bouncing back and forth from late summer to fall to late summer again

I am thinking… my mind is whirling with excitement and happiness – today we were shown the apartment we will have at the senior Mill complex!

I am thankful for… everything. Always. Today, most of all, I am thankful for a charming new home.

I am wearing… who cares? (oh, sorry…) a soft green shirt with an embroidered tee underneath, khaki pants, bare feet

I am remembering… every detail of the apartment we saw today – captured in my mind like a photograph – high mill ceilings, big mill windows (an extra window because we’re on the corner of the building – three big windows in the living room), the original wood floors (luck of the draw on that one. Some of the apartments are fully carpeted – maybe where the floor couldn’t be restored? and some are wood. We pulled the lucky card – Wood Floors!)

I am creating… getting back to work on the knit patchwork coverlet for my bed. I finished Russ’, got discouraged about ever moving and set mine aside to pout. It’s time to get back at it!

I am reading… finishing Peace like a River, then it’s back to the library for more local history books – another project I abandoned in a fit of angst while waiting for the apartment. Why read about the history of a place you’ll never live? What a pouty brat I am. Shame on me.

From the learning rooms… cornhusk dolls, acorn dolls – it’s time for Autumn nature crafts

Noticing that… it’s a lot easier to cope with feeling tired and a little over done (you know – from over doing…) when I got that way while being happy

Pondering these words… “Don’t you stay at home of evenings? Don’t you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

From the kitchen… oh dear. Macaroni and cheese. From a box. With Hamburger. It was a very busy day.
Maya liked it…

Around the house… seriously now – Packing!

One of my favorite things… very old buildings with clock towers and maybe even ghosts…

From my picture journal…

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