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.

Spotted: Dog On It!

 

Dog On It!

   A site inspection requires a little jaunt to Philadelphia Saturday to explore the possibility of creating some art for a public trnsportation area. Warrior and Edgar stay home with Wizzer and Domino; a friend meets me near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We walk to City Hall, and take the subway to the Girard Avenue station at Broad Street and Girard.

   My friend asks what is another one-word name for decrepit and all I can come up with are compound words, such as run down. Delapidated comes to mind now. The streetscape features fast food restaurants and check cashing establishments. A bicycle repair shop is busy; a former exterminator business is not in service. The pests and vermin painted on the storefront are worth capturing, I think.

Year of the Rat

here kitty kettle

God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen

  The Phillies are not the only famous organization with heart happy colors and a buoyant spirit this mid-July. Walking near the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia at sunrise Wednesday, we see a familiar sight often associated with December:
   The Salvation Army put a kettle on the northwest corner of 12th and Filbert streets. Somebody’s ringing the bell.
  We revisit during lunch hour. A horn quartet, with tune books tucked under their wings, plays carols.  A beach umbrella protects the traditional red kettle from summer rays. A navy baseball cap with the Salvation Army’s red and white logo hangs on the tripod.
  ”The first annual Christmas in July!” said Major Beckie Murray, cornet in hand.  “We happen to be musicians and this is our lunch hour.”

   Murray says six kettles are out today.

   “The Salvation Army is lending a hand in these lean times,” Murray says. “Two more Wednesdays in July (7/22 and 7/29) we’ll be available for giving.”

   The quartet is composed of Murray, Major Fred Hagglund on euphonium, and Charmian and Brian Cavanaugh: tenor horn and cornet.

www.salvationarmy.org

Summer Evening Stroll: The Golden Link

 

Cathy Wegener

Robert Hopkins

 

  Nature and structure were predominant themes of  Wednesday’s Interpretive Series: Summer Evening Stroll along the Tulpehocken creek near Reading, Pennsylvania. Cathy Wegener, Superintendent of Interpretive Services and Robert Hopkins, West Nile Coordinator for Berks County Conservation District, led the event at Gring’s Mill.

   Wegener handled the structure side with well-chiseled facts: the 79.5 mile Union Canal was called the Golden Link,  joining Philadelphia to Middletown.  Boats 1/3 the width of river boats transported people, goods and produce. Canal’s demise partly due to construction flaws: “It leaked!”  Did you know: canals were built with clay bottoms and a kind of submerged wood floor?

   Hopkins is a man so comfortable in nature he can hold purple loose strife in his hand and live to tell us about it.  He also touched on subjects such as wild bergamot, colony collapse disorder and rhus juice.

Water, Cool

 

Water Works

 

   First of July: When the dog days of summer come, sit and stay, one of the most refreshing destinations we can think of is the Fairmount Water Works, 640 Water Works Drive, Philadelphia. It is 100% cool all year round.

   On a recent visit we found many fetching exhibits. We discovered lots of things to do. There is a well put-together film documenting the history of the water works. Air conditioning!

   The building is situated along the Schuylkill river in a place both hidden and prominent as a bone. In its heyday, Frederick Graff’s design was the glory of Fairmount Park, providing the first municipal water in the country. There is a sense of pristineness about the waterworks we just can’t shake.

   What’s in it for me?  The Interpretive Center informs and illuminates. Its displays have a high “touch it” quotient. We dug the pollution portion. We felt part of the water cycle.  We were challenged by mind-quickening questions, e.g. What is the water content of …a tomato? the human body?

  The staff were very welcoming, including serving us a treat, fresh shad salad during the spring shad run.

www.fairmountwaterworks.org

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

 

Bookmark It

free market tool

 

 

 

Dear Free Library of Philadelphia  and friends,

Thank you very much for the delightful festival and

for opening up some of the more private nether

regions of the Parkway Central Library.

 It could not have been a more perfect day.

Yours truly,

Seraglio and Lions

ZizzyphuZ

tree with Z

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What starts with a Z

and ends with a Z?

Zee Sky

Don’t Give Him Any Ideas

The Lion in Winter

   He’s got ideas of his own, the lion in winter does! Stay, men!

   If you are looking for a bright idea, Philadelphia, check this out March 1 through 8:  The Philadelphia Flower Show, theme: Bella Italia. Site: the Philadelphia Convention Center. Pick out favorite plants not in the Plantagenet family if you please. Tiger lilies? Bring on the pistils. 

flower snow

Half the World

Polar Snow Cap

  Is half the world not covered in snow? Strangers and intimates under one snug  blanket. Evidence of global warming. No holes in the ozone layer! The polar ice caps are fine. Don’t worry! Go about your business as usual. Soon it will be spring.  The temperature will be temperate. The snow and ice will melt. The world will be green. Converse! Convene!