April Moon

It was big and full and luscious last night, that April moon. The night air was cold when I waltzed outside with my camera to catch this image of a southbound freighter about to intersect the rising moon.

I set the camera on handheld twilight and two seconds on the self timer. Put the camera on the broad arm of an Adirondack chair and stepped back. Ah, the moon.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Ruth Road Moon

The April full moon floated up over a wheat field on Ruth Road last night around 7:30. My Chevy Volt cast a long shadow along with a nearby utility pole when I stuck my camera out the car window and snapped this image. Tony Bennett was singing on my car stereo.

I wished on the moon

For something I never knew

Wished on the moon

For more than I ever knew

A sweeter rose, a softer sky

On April days that would not dance by**

 It was a good moment in early April and I wished on the moon last night.

**Lyrics to "I Wished on the Moon" by Dorothy Parker and Ralph Rainger

Copyright 2012

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Where's Perry?

My grandsons, Max and Finn, love Phineas and Ferb, the Disney cartoon. Like most kids, they are big fans of  the clearly anthropomorphic Perry the Platypus. Perry is supposed to be a pet and appears in the cartoons on all fours, like a cat or dog, when he is Perry.

But not too far into each episode Perry turns into a flying platypus with special abilities. This metaphorosis from one character to another occurs when someone in the script says, "Hey, where's Perry?" Then Perry appears as Agent P, a secret agent who wears a fedora and fights the evil Dr Heinz Doofenschmirtz.

Here's my Agent P impersonation. I'm wearing one of the black fedoras that I sent to Max and Finny so they can be secret agents. Very cool!

Another Perry blog post

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

My Father, The Poet

One of the benefits of climbing into a pulpit week after week is the discipline of writing and speaking. My father, The Reverend Stanley C. F. Hayes, added another aspect to his preaching by writing poetry. The poems were often four or eight lines, usually in a quatrain form.

Many of them are in his hand writing, jotted down as time permitted and the muse moved. Here is one in typewritten form. Written in January of 1955 while we lived in Marshfield, Wisconsin, it is a reminder of the years when writers depended on typewriters to advance and preserve the words that they wrote.

The family in 1955 -- Penny, Wanda, Tim, Carla. Mary, not in photo

I would have been almost seven years old when Dad wrote this. There were five of us Hayes kids -- Wanda, Carla, Tim, Penny, Mary -- by then, so Mom would have been involved in guiding the very young family through each day's waking and eating and sleeping times.

I remember that on Saturdays Dad would head to his study in the church basement where we could find him busy at his desk with its typewriter. Saturday was when he finalized the week's thoughts and polished the manuscript for his Sunday sermon. Often he wrote a poem that formed the focus for the weekly sermon.

Dad had a black chunky typewriter that was moved to the middle of the desk so he could convert a longhand draft into a typewritten manuscript. He'd welcome a visit from any one of us when he was working. I don't ever remember being shooed away from the basement study that was filled with shelves with books and paper, his desk with pencils, pens and photos, and houseplants in the high basement ground level windows.

Dad's poety was published as Behind The Plow,  a poetry collection that my sister Heidi edited. Heidi and Dad worked from Dad's files and were able to compile a small volume of poety that is representative of a body of work that spans more than six decades of writing and preaching. Released in 2006, this book is a testament to the discipline of weekly writing that Dad followed for most of his adult years as a preacher and pastor.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Young Eagle

A young eagle landed in the very top branches of a cottonwood tree near our lakehouse late yesterday afternoon. For ten minutes or so, the eagle clung to the branch and kept a watchful eye on White Rock Shoal. Ed spotted the bird just as it came to the tree.

This eagle looked to be almost full size with some of the white mottled spots of an immature bird. The beak is markedly hooked; the feet and talons very apparent.

Raptors like eagles are easily spotted in spring when the trees are just budding. This one chose to oversee White Rock Shoal from the high vantage point of Cedar Bluff. The bird might have been hunting fish or mice. Then, too, it might have been waiting for the evening breeze to kick up a fine thermal or two.

Copyright 2012

Wanda Hayes Eichler

Home Place Barn

The barn on my mother's home place has been restored and is now the home of Thangles, the quilt product company owned by my sister. Yesterday's lovely spring weather produced this image of the home place barn.

The grayed board and batten siding is set against blue and white skies. From the outside this structure looks like a barn. Inside there are offices and a shipping department and lots of storage.

In today's new understanding, this barn has been repurposed.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Cat Think

My Dad's cat, Mikey, luxuriates in his bay window many times a day. Mikey views birds at the feeder, birds in the bushes and birds in the fields. He swishes his tail and does that throaty cat snarl.

On a sunny day Mikey sleeps in the bay window and catches some rays. He even has his own personal Elvis Chicken Foot attached to one of the window cranks. The Elvis Chicken arrived at Dad's house as a gift from my Memphis Sister Martha.  Intended for Blackie the Dog, the Elvis Chicken lost a leg within the first hour of play. Obviously the leg must be enticing for the cats in the household.

Maybe the Elvis Chicken Foot just gives Mikey something else to think about.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler