A Great Pumpkin

      

 Edgar Allen Poe and Raven

were taken with this pumpkin

 (see the Oct. 19 post),

 a round straw bale

 fancifully transformed

 into a pumpkin

 to let people know

 about Duncan’s Corn Maze along the Robesonia-Bernville Road.

 Ingenious, honest solution to the problem. Happy Hallowe’en!

Where’s Edgar?

Edgar Allan Poe and Raven on location

DURO 6 Arias, Constitution Day 2009 and the Paper Czar

Constitution Day by Allison Huyett

 

 

   We the editors of  The Heron Report present the preamble of the United States Constitution and some items donated by the Paper Czar.

   Our own day begins with a kind of preamble. We walk along the creek. We come to the studio and office and and convene with our in-house representatives, including the Paper Czar. We make arrangements.

   Breakfast is one of the sweet spots of the day. The bakery frequently employs paper bags. We like to read the printing: brand and size at the top, name and date stamp on the bottom. The stamp reveals who made the bag and when. A creators mark! Here is the work of Arias, from June 29, 2009. We wonder what Arias looks like.

    From our preamble along the creek, we report one big heron, airborne from a large sycamore. The big bird swoops large, wingspan big as the Ben Franklin Bridge.

French Creek: Halcyon Day

     Find sneakers in #4 locker at Y where they were left for overnight sleepover. Optimize late afternoon by walking around the lake at French Creek state park. A halcyon day. Sapphire sky, golden sunshine, days that live forever. Days that never return.

   One of charming features of the park is a small number of  board walks and rail-less wooden bridges over marsh and small-creek areas. When feet hit these, the sound and the feel of it echoes the distant seashore, places like Cape May or the lowcountry of South Carolina or the Outer Banks, where boardwalks are prevalent and human user friendly. Echoes of the summer day, the autumn respite.

   Great Blue Herons? None. Two sets of humans fishing, two by land and two by boat. Bright leisure, with a glitter of water to the eye and mellow atmosphere. It is like being touched by God, a day like this.

   Upon returning to the starting point, a little green heron flits up and out from the boggy upper end of the lake.

Sign of the Times, Reading PA

   Our stance is neutral.  This is a visual of interest that we photographed on a three day and put in the bitemyhorse.com digital image savings account to ripen and mature.

Sotomayor Sign

Weekend Warrior: Roadside Pinwheels

   Today is the day to capture the pinwheels we have travelled past so many times without stopping.

 

 

Celebrating, creativity and children.

Along the road near Tuckerton.

Dashboard Warrior

 Driving Miss Daisy.

Edgar Allan Poe and Raven Pathlings

Are we there yet?

We commemmorate Independence Day. Tomorrow, interdependence.

Dark over Park, Bright over Light

   Traffic Tally: 378082.

   Pick of the litter: a piece of light blue paper.

   Little squirrel leaps out of the trash can when I make a deposit. I’m free!

   Oh so quiet compared to yesterday. No Odorama, no drama.

    At last, a heron in the creek at picnic bend. It reminds me of how humans look when they wade into the ocean, water up to the chest.

   The path I walk is naturally and easily divided into three sections about a mile each. As it happens, I find one heron per section on the way out.

    The second wades near the fishing pull-off  area, where two fishermen stand.  The third is in parallelogram-pennant position in the water near the metal bridge.   

   At the metal bridge,  a park ranger vehicle turns into the upper lot, part of  Blue Marsh territory. A dead crow lies at the edge of the field by the end of the bridge, an intense, sad sight  that make us think of happier times with Poe and the Raven.  Nevermore.  The ranger, clipboard in hand, marks the traffic tally one can read from the mechanical counter. 

   On the way in a heron squawks at the creek. Two little green herons dart up a fallen tree crown at the locks pond. Darling!

  Midway back: meet Victor.

  “Is there an umbrella in your back right pocket?”

  “I carry it, so it will not rain!”  says Victor, freeing the accessory as proof.

   A heron scoots along the creek and makes what Victor refers to as a nearly prehistoric noise.

   Meet Shirley and Pat, sisters, whose doctor tells them their blood tests show improvement with walking.

   A heron wading on this side of the creek by the eight marker. Perfect! (It’s an eight day).

   Ruth runs. Two ladies in black exercise capris, one with an aqua top, other with turqoiuse, and on the other side of the needle’s eye, there is a 649 written in the path, so I know Candelario has been here.

   Darryl, one of the park crew,  has the Sherwin-Williams Sherliner striping machine poised for action in the parking lot by the dumpster.  He shakes a can of yellow-orange paint.

   “I’m anxious to try the new tips,” he says with vigor. ” We have to keep up. We do this about once a year.”

    Dark clouds were bunched over the park at seven, as I recall.  Now the sun begins to fade in.

   He inserts the can into spray position.  He retraces the parallel no-parking area lines, making them darker than they were before. Brightens the light.

Flea Market Junkie: Bastard Files and The Secret of Rosy Cheeks

  

Bastard files and the Secret of Rosy Cheeks

    Six day. Abandon routine in favor of flea market, sunny and clear.  A friend has fed this habit by giving me a flea market guide; seems like a good day to try my luck. Go before seven. Back by ten. Finds listed as follows:

   Post Card: $1.50 Postmarked 28 Sept. 1906. Depicts Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Sender added a message on the front (picture)  side:  From Your Friend. I’ll see you on Saturday knight [sic]. Good by. S. W. A. K.  Card was addressed on plain side to Miss Pearl Hammaker, New Buffalo, PA. One cent Ben Franklin stamp. Green.

   Ledger: almost blank. Contains notes for tools/hardware. Fullest page: the F tab: Files. Example: 14″ Round Bastard with hatch marks five ten fifteen eighteen or nineteen. Is illegible, the ledger is. Also red carbon paper with typed something or other. Need to decipher.

   Fishlove Adult Novelty item: The Secret of Rosy Cheeks.

   Scrap book: 1930’s neatly pasted articles for P.O. D. class.  Includes the start of Social Security.

Walter Lippman article

 

Her Eminence Teresa Arana

Did You Ever Know Love? poems by Teresa Arana

    Thursday evening, we were given the opportunity to attend a book signing by Reading, Pennsylvania author Teresa Arana, a lovely young lady who has put together a dual collection of heartfelt poems in their original English (front) with Spanish translations (atrás.)

   The Meet and Greet to announce the publication of  Did You Ever Know Love? was held at Mi Casa Su Casa, 320 Penn St., Reading  from five to seven p.m. Guests were treated to wine with fresh fruit, cheeses, and empanadas and the author’s daughter Esmeralda twirled about in a lavender dress fit for a princess.

  “She dressed herself!” said Arana.

    Arana told the audience she began writing in a diary at age nine and credits her family, friends and  teachers, along with the habit of keeping  journals with helping develop her interest and talent.

   Her Mexican grandfather Gabino Arana, who could neither read nor write, would have the family and children all around and tell stories, she said.  

  In fourth grade she saw her own poems, written for an English assignment, displayed on the wall by her teacher  - and published – she felt encouraged to write more.

   During her first year of college in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Arana’s mother, Bonnie, sent her a box of  “stuff” including the diaires.

   ”I was cleaning out the attic!” Bonnie said.

   This inspired Arana to later collect the early and recent works. She returned to Reading, and has not only taken a diploma from Penn State University, but also produced and published her first book of poems, self-published under the name Eminence Publishing Company: Creating new horizons.

   “I wanted it to have a message,” Arana said. “A positive message.”

    It was  two-year project, Arana said, including a trip to Los Angeles in order to publish:

   “I had barely any money, but I went!”

   The message she hopes to send is: Life will have its share of obstacles. Make something great out of it.

    Although the dates they were written are sealed and secret, the poems show an openness that reminds us of an hibiscus.  As we read our signed copy we are delighted with the careful and thoughtful organization of the book, the delicate touch in graphics and the jacket photos of Ms. Arana and the dashing Carlos. She did it. She did it all by herself.

   For more information or to order the book, go to: www.eminencepublishing.com.

  

Say: What

   In the air: mosturizer.

   See: raindrops.

   Temperature: slight drop-in.

  Found object: yellow tag.

  Looks like: the plastic tags car repair places (AKA garages) use for labelling keys.

  It is written: in black Sharpie, cursive script: Washington.

   Seems like: An Omen.

   Heron flies: over the fields and trees.

  Time now: 7:14 a.m.

   Cruising altitude: that of small miniskirted plane.

  Miniskirt effect: close enough to be interesting, far away enough to cover the territory.

   Camera: inoperative.

  Since: Wednesday.

  Last picture shown: vehicular accident. 

 Did not look good for: driver of a small truck.

  Discovery made at: meeting of the Centre Park Historic District, same night.

Camera displays: engineered stripes/colored UPC codes, without the numbers. Mats.

Each frame: different colors, greens, blues, grays, black. Recorded. Recoded. Lost in transition. Translation. Transmogrification. STOP.

Telegram.

Newspaper said: driver dead.