On the Shoal

An upbound freighter on the distant horizon, fly fishermen on the shoal, marble morning skies -- it is a Pure Michigan morning at the Lake Huron Shore.

Photo taken south of Harbor Beach in Huron County, Michigan.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

2012 Iris

I have been keeping the kitchen window open all day so that I can smell the iris in the upper gardens. Two varieties -- purple/white and whites -- are in full bloom and their summer sweet smell drifts into the kitchen at the slightest breeze.

Yesterday was the start of the catch up weeding. After being gone for two weeks, the weeds have a bit of a start in the garden beds. Rainfall in mid-May has been slight. Only 0.3 inches since May 9th, so the ground is quite dry.

List of plants in this photo (most have been in place 3-4 years):

--Iris, from Plant Farm, Bad Axe.
--Variegated hosta, from Dad and Mom's farm, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
--Chives, from Ed's Grandma Clara's garden, Pigeon.
--Blue salvia, from Loewe's, Fort Gratiot. (I buy plants everywhere, even from big box places.)
--Russian sage, from Huron's Finest, north of Bad Axe.
--Low juniper, from Esch Landscaping, north of Pigeon.
--A few weeds, ever present, soon to be pulled.

--Not a plant, but a part of the architecture of the gardens at Cedar Bluff, Bay Port quarry stone, with some bird spots.
--Last, but not least, the field stone edging. We are using field stones to define the edge between the river stones and the soil. Eventually there will be mulch on the soil.


Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Time Whacked and More Pipe Organ

I'm up way too early today. It's 4 am and the world is still asleep. That's what happens to me after travelling through five time zones in less than a day. My body's circadian rhythms are trying to catch up with where I actually am.


Today's photos show the Diamond Jubilee window that has been installed at Southwark Cathedral in London. Honoring the Queen's Coronation 60 years ago, this window will be dedicated soon.

The window is located on the right side of the nave, beyond the altar. I read about it on the Cathedral website and in a BBC article.

The window, up close and personal, is a progression of color from deep cobalt blue at the bottom to a burst of yellow gold at the top.

Sparkling prismatic circles of thick glass dot the entire expanse of the window and add texture to the surface of the stained glass.

The inscription reads "Vivat Regina! Defender of the Faith Diamond Jubilee 2012." I like the exclamation point at the end of the Latin. The Queen is certainly deserving of that punctuation mark.

All of these photos were taken on Monday, May 21 which was the last tour day for the Pipedreams group. Anyone who had not been on an organ bench was urged to slide on and have their picture taken.

Here's Ed at St. James Bermondsey at the console of the 1829 Bishop organ which has been restored in 2003 by Goetze and Gwynn.  This organ has a fourth, smaller keyboard to the left of the three manuals. The smaller keyboard allows the pedals to be played from a keyboard.

We heard many, many instruments like this organ. These old instruments speak across centuries. How incredible it is to have these historic instruments in fine form and used on a regular basis.

Great Britain's history has a treasured voice in its pipe organs and the dedicated organists whose talent and skill bring that voice to life on a regular basis. 

I realized on Wednesday that I had not heard a pipe organ on Tuesday, our travel day. After thirteen days of music, I missed the sound.

So yesterday morning I removed the cellphone wrapper from the first of eight new disks of organ and choral music that we brought home from the trip. Our Bose radio/CD player does a pretty good job of bringing the majesty of the pipe organ, king of instruments, into the great room at the lake house.

It is a marvelous contrast to hear the sound of a pipe organ while in the presence of Lake Huron's expansive horizon. Somehow it seems as if the two belong together -- great organs and a great lake --linking unknown places of the soul.  

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Big Day for Finny

Grandson Finn graduated from the First Presbyterian Church Children's Care Center Preschool in Howell, Michigan yesterday. Finn and his classmates were the center of attention as moms and dads  whipped out their cellphones to capture photos of swinging tassles and graduation t-shirts.

Liesl said to me a few weeks ago, "Mom, Finny's graduation from preschool is the day that you fly back from England, but don't even try to make it. That will be a long day for you." But, in the spirit of all things serendipitous, Peter, who became the fetch-us-at-the-airport child this trip, worked out a car and parent retrieval schedule that included a stop by Howell and the graduation ceremony.

Now, I'm not very good at long flights through multiple time zones. We left our London hotel at 6:30 am London time yesterday, connected through Amsterdam and on to Detroit, so there was a awful lot of, to quote John Denver, hanging in the sky time.

By the start of the graduation at 6:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time, it was 11:30 pm back in London and I was feeling the effects of not much sleep and too much flying. Finny's big day and his sweet smile took care of my fuzzy head and brightened a long day of travel.

When did we get home? Well, Ed has amazing ability to stay awake. He drove from Howell to the lakehouse, another 140 miles. We arrived home at 10:30 pm, just as the new moon was setting. We hadn't seen the moon or stars all the time we were in Great Britain, so stepping out on the terrace and seeing stars so bright you could pluck them from the sky was a treat.

Total time in transit was 21 hours. It was a big day for Finny's graduation and for Grandma's travel. And it is good to be home in Michigan.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

London Window Boxes

London is getting all spruced up for the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Queen's Coronation. The window boxes vary all the way from formal greenery arrangements of boxwoods and ivy to colorful collections of yellow pansies and white petunias. We've seen pink geraniums and lavender hydrangeas, too.

The Queen should be quite pleased with the spiffed up city, come Jubilee Day in June.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Pulling Out the Stops

This descriptive English language of ours is loaded with idioms. After more than a week of listening to pipe organs and learning about the mechanics of how an organ works, I have a revised picture of the English idiom, "pulling out all the stops."

Organists have been geniuses at multitasking long before computers and smartphones came along. The organist's eye darts from page to keyboard to pedals to stops. The feet dance along the pedals. Hands lift and lower from one keyboard to another as fingers pull and push the stops.

Watching an organist pull out all the stops with speed and grace makes one realize that to "pull out all the stops" is a compelling, all encompassing event in music. It's a great idiom, this phrase that comes from music into general use in our colorful language.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Church Fair

St. Mary's Parish Church in Woodford put on a great Food and Fun Day yesterday. Our Pipe Dreams tour coach pulled up in front of the church on High Road where a succession of tables and booths selling garden plants, tea towels, handwork items, church souvenirs and food greeted us.

You could try a crepe with sugar and lemon juice, or chicken curry, or vegetable soup, or pulled pork sandwich, or a hot dog sausage. The sweets were plentiful. Scones, pies and tortes lined tables upstairs and down in the church. I tried the curry and it was excellent. The scones with clotted cream and jam were tasty, too.

We stood outside in the churchyard among the tombstones to eat. Tables and chairs were set up on the stairs and on the sidewalks. Children's games and sales tents lined the walks.


There has been a church on this site since the 12th century. In 1969 a fire destroyed most of the building so that the inside of the rebuilt church is now contemporary worship space. The outside retains the old stone structure so that the new interior is a striking contrast to the historic tower and crowded classic English churchyard with monuments and stones.


Our Pipe Dreams group enjoyed hearing the neo classic organ, built in 1972 by Grant, Degens and Bradbeer, an English organ firm. Organist Tom Bell took the bench to play a clever improvisation of "God Save the Queen. Tom's improv not only demonstrated the depth and range of the organ but also contained delightful dissonances that played to the strength of the pipe organ.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler