Thanks for machine guesses

Thanks to the folks who offered suggestions for what the mysterious piece of machinery at Cape Henlopen State Park might be. You can see them at the bottom of that blog – everything from threshing machine to porcupine groomer. Take a look. The question I have is how did a threshing machine or porcupine groomer get into the park’s piney woods? There aren’t many porcupines out there and that sand isn’t much for raising grain.

We’re still looking for three straights days of winds with south in them to signal the end of this winter. That was always Grayson Smith’s test for the arrival of spring. It also signaled time for him to buy a new pair of white tennis shoes to wear with his khaki suit. Grayson was an adherent to the church of the latter day Frisbee. That faith proclaims that our souls are like Frisbees that have landed on a roof and slid down into the gutters, stuck there for an eternity, never falling to earth again.

I’m keeping my eyes out for the reddening tips of maple branches and the earliest shoots of unfurled skunk cabbage leaves in the local swamps.

Happy birthday today to my sister Mary. She teaches piano and spreads good humor from her home along the Intracoastal Waterway between Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. She likes boiled peanuts and other North Carolina ways.

One day she told me about teaching a student a Christmas song. The song mentioned reindeer prancing.  Mary asked if the young student knew what prance meant. “Sure,” said the student.  “It’s like the marks the animals make in the mud with their feet – like footprance.”

Mary liked that one.

Spread a little love wherever you go.