Music

Every Sunday after Mass my Dad and I would sit on the dining room floor listening to records. Always Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album which included the lyrical Scarborough Fair and my favorite Homeward Bound.

In the 1960’s seeing the weirdly disembodied faces of Frank Sinatra and Count Basie on the album cover of It Might As Well Be Swing lying on our red carpeted floor. I have an image of my parents dancing to Fly Me to The Moon across that same red carpet - real or imagined, I’m not sure.

Regretting forever the time I did not turn my car around and go back to visit longer with my father who was in a short-term rehab facility after surgery for cancer. Getting into the car, cranking up Little Feat’s live version of All That You Dream (probably the best lead-in build-up to any song anywhere, anytime).  The slightly lost look on my father’s face up against the self-imposed work deadline. My gut told me to turn around but the deadline won out. I would do it differently if given another chance. Songs do that, remind you of the regrets, the wished for do-over’s.

Recently I went to the Dublin Ohio Irish Festival specifically to see the incredible Eileen Ivers. But an unexpected surprise happened, the discovery of a band called Slide. Their singer Dave Curley’s version of The Maid of Culmore was a gift.  If you are not Irish or part-Irish, that band, his singing, that song will make you long to be.

Download The Maid of Culmore at:www.slide-ireland.com  
Album: Slide BEO-Live

When my father was going through cancer treatments, I would drive him to his doctor appointments. Every time we got to the end of his street he would say, “Hey instead of going left (towards his Doc) let’s go right to Jersey to see your Aunt Jill" (his much loved sister). The other day I was on my way to my own doc appointment, one that always makes me nervous - when I turned on the radio and Homeward Bound was playing.

Sampling from Beth’s IPad:

Chasing Strange - Lizz Wright

The Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young

Soul Cake - by Sting

The Maid of Culmore - Slide, sung by Dave Curley

These Days - Jackson Brown

The Way you Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra

Classical Gas - Mason Williams

County Line - Pousette Dart Band

Moondance - Van Morrison

Don’t you Worry ‘Bout A Thing - Stevie Wonder

A Taste of Honey - Lizz Wright

Blackbird - Sarah McLachlan version

Ohh Ooh Child - Valerie Carter

Perfect Weekends

This weekend was perfect!  On Friday, dropped off twelve photos at TwistStyle hair Salon for their community artist wall - the theme “Women.”   Later a visit to ComFest - a community festival in its 40^th year - nothing like a good-old fashioned hippie alternative funky festival to kick off your weekend.  Had a couple of kids over for the weekend - always great to have children in the house. 

Saturday started with the Clintonville Farmers Market for fresh flowers and amazing organic cheese followed up with a walk in my childhood neighborhood - big old houses and shady streets.  Quick stop by Ragorama vintage clothing shop - purchased a pair of classic brown corduroy pants for a nephew. 

On Sunday fourteen photos put up at Corner Stone Deli. Then a trip to the Columbus Museum of Art - free admission on Sunday!  Meanwhile had  been thinking about making lemon cupcakes. After endless looking through my cookbooks with no luck decided to wing it and use a simple white cake mix from the internet, adding  my own touches to create a lemony flavor.

White Cake Mix - to Lemon Cake

1 cup sugar

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk, ¼ half & half (or just use ½ cup whole milk)

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

Mix wet ingredients

Add & mix well:

1 ½ cups flour (I like unbleached)

1 ¾ tsp baking powder

Cupcake liners in tin, pour ½ full in each

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Icing

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1 to 2 tsp of vanilla

¾ box of confectionary sugar

Touch of milk

Mix until creamy smooth

Add & mix:

Juice of one lemon

Zest of ½ lemon (or more if you like)

Beating the Heat

For the last several summers we have enjoyed sitting in our walled backyard observing  Mrs. Squirrel and her annual brood.  Two summers ago we watched her move her young babies, one by one, carrying each one protesting and mewling in her mouth, jumping from one branch to another on to the roof-top to their new location.  Why she decided to move her offspring is still a mystery.

Last year two tragedies struck. The day after her youngsters emerged from the safety of their nest, tentatively moving up and down their “home” branch scurrying back to the nest if spooked, one fell to our patio and I found the following day. Then in the Fall a fierce wind storm shook the nest down, completely destroying any remnants. In early Spring, the trees still bare of leaves it was obvious that no new nest had been built, much to our disappointment.

But good news,  last week semi-hidden amongst the leaves, the nest is back - same exact location, sturdy-looking and ready for occupancy.  On the evening of this year's sweltering summer solstice (90 plus degrees), low and behold Mrs. Squirrel made her appearance. Stretched out along two  branches, her goofy little front feet clasping a narrow branch, her head resting along side, her big pregnant belly splayed out between the two wider-set horizontal branches. She looked like any soon-to-be mother, ready to burst, desperately trying to find a comfortable position on a hot summer night - waiting, waiting, just waiting for her job to begin.

Irish Recipes

Bread recipe from a lovely cooking book called:  

The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews

Treacle (Soda) Bread

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups White unbleached flour plus more for dusting

1Tbls sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup treacle or Black -strap molasses

1 ¾ cup buttermilk  (save 2 Tbs back for brushing on dough before baking)

Butter for greasing

Mix flour, sugar, salt and soda into large bowl with hands, make a well and add wet ingredients (which have been mixed together) and mix with hands or wooden spoon - don’t overdo it.

Place on floured surface and knead lightly for 2 to 3 minutes

Shape into a round loaf, place on buttered baking pan, cut a cross on top, brush top with the 2 Tbls of buttermilk

Bake at 400 degrees (I would do it at 350 to 375) for 40 to 45 minutes

Serve warm with salted butter

Beth’s Recipe:

Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients:

1 to 2 lbs ground sirloin - browned

1 medium sweet onion - chopped and sautéed

1 cup or more sour cream

Salt & pepper for taste

(Mix all three together and set aside)

Bag of frozen peas (thawed)

6 to 7 Yukon gold potatoes boiled, then mashed with real butter, salt and Half & Half cream - make it loose so it doesn’t dry out during baking

Layering:

In large casserole dish layer as follows:

-Peas

-Meat/onion/sour cream mixture

-Mashed potatoes

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees

My Weekend - New, Old and Redo’s

I recommend all…….

New

Best Ever Ginger Bread by Mary Leffingwell of G Bar M Ranch, Montana

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil

1 cup molasses

2 eggs

2 tsp of baking soda in 1 cup of boiling water

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp cloves

Mix well in large bowl - (per Beth I just hand mixed)

Bake in a 9 x 12 greased pan at 350 degrees - (per Beth I used salted butter to grease the pan)

Or

(Per Beth - I baked it at 400 degrees for 10  minutes and then at 350 for 20 more minutes - made the corners and top a tiny bit crunchy.)

Mary Leffingwell suggests serving with applesauce and whipped cream but since we didn't have any  - we decided a scoop of Whit's vanilla ice cream (or vanilla Hagen Daz would work) was the perfect match!

Old

Started thinking about music that I’ve listened to over the years, Here are two that I absolutely love - YouTube them or download to your Ipod- well worth it.

Ooh Ooh Child by Valerie Carter- from her 1977 Stone’s Throw Away album produced by Lowell George

County Line by Pousette -Dart Band

Redo

I just reread one of my favorite books of 2010, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Even better the second time around - fantastic dialogue, sweet premise, lovely funny story.

Animal Observations

There are few things in life better than watching animal behavior. This morning started with a diminutive red squirrel dangling from my bird feeder while a gray squirrel sat beneath eating the cast-off seeds.  Later during my morning walk I watched Mrs. Robin gathering tufts of this and that to add to her nest. Then further along, a male cardinal sat high in a tree calling out to friends and foes alike.  A few days ago, while walking the same streets I came across an unlikely pair, a Great Dane and a Dachshund - and took their photos. Every animal species whether domestic or wild has a rich and varied social life - devoid of any need for input from us humans.

I spent a good deal of my life being paid to watch animals - in my case captive gorillas.  Mornings in the Ape House were spent prepping and feeding - giving drinks, handing out vitamins, cleaning cages, hosing sidewalks, washing windows, refilling cages with bales of fluffy hay then spreading seeds, popcorn and cereal for the gorillas to search through for later.

Late in the morning after shifting animals outside, making sure everyone was settled and comfortable for the day we would get supplies - more hay, more bags of monkey biscuits, more seeds. 

After lunch we sat and watched gorillas. In the winter it was lovely to be in the building (which was closed to the public) and observe gorillas being gorillas - playing, sleeping, nest-building, browsing. The layers of heavy hay bedding sent dust-motes floating up through the shafts of light from the overhead sky-lights. The building smelled of gorillas - a strong musky odor. Rumblings of contented adults searching for food bits in the hay echoed down the row of cages, youngsters played Tag or King of the hill or just wrestled with one another - issuing their deep-throated chuckling laughter or letting loose with a a deep-bellied sigh, trying to catch their breath before starting on another round of play.

In the middle of the night I have been privileged to observe a mother and her new-born in the quiet of the dimly-lit building. The mother looks down at her clinging son, pulls his hand then his feet away from her own body to carefully examine each finger, each toe - when the baby squeaks in protest the mom vocalizes a soothing rumble and quickly gathers the infant back against her body in a warm embrace  - as if in guilty apology, as if she simply cannot help herself, her delight in her infant is just too obvious.

Small Space Gardening

Have no yard but want to garden - no problem. I love to garden but in essence we have no large ground space available to us- not to worry as small spaces can be just as effective and transformative as large spaces - in fact I prefer them.  Many Europeans (Holland for me was a gardening revelation) have small plots in which to garden and I find their gardens inspiring. 

Most of my gardening is done with container pots but we do have two small plots of ground that I use for my bulbs, perennials as well as annuals. In the back yard the “garden” measures a mere 23  x 23 inches,  I have planted tulip bulbs, tall phlox and there is a pink flower (that somehow got in there and I have no clue what it is) all make their lovely appearance known in early Spring. Once the tulips have had their run, I’ll plant that area with annuals such as wave petunias  

Our front garden plot measures 35 by 83 inches. Each year I plant tulip, grape hyacinth and daffodil bulbs as well as some creeping phlox. Interspersed among the bulb plants are the hostas which are now just breaking ground  - daily unfurling their tightly folded  deep-green leaves like some hidden treasure - they make great ground cover plantings and come in a variety of green colors, some solid and some variegated.  Other perennials are also making an appearance such as the wild geraniums. Once the hostas are done revealing themselves it’s time to plant annuals to fill in the space - pink & white impatience, blood-red geraniums, purple salvia.

It is a pleasure to walk out every single day beginning in March/April to see the emergence of buds, the sprouting, the colors changing. I’m already thinking about what bulbs to buy for planting in the Fall for next Spring.

What influenced my interest in gardening:

·        -My Mother’s row of tall red tulips in front of our white fence and black lamppost

·        -May Sarton’s memoir, “The House by the Sea” given to me by my friend Cici back in my mid-twenties

·        - Living briefly in Amsterdam

·

Recommended reading:

Container Gardening: the complete practical guide to container gardening, indoors and outdoors By: Stephanie Donaldson & Peter McHoy

 The House by the Sea by May Sarton

Best buys for flowers and containers: 
TJ Maxx on Henderson Road for inexpensive and unusual pots and containers.

·         Marc’s grocery store on Henderson Road: Best prices on annuals, they do have some perennials but is limited - check their stock frequently throughout April and May - have had great luck with their flowers - always hardy and healthy.

·      

Spring is Here

Is there anything more glorious than Spring with all of its daily colors and transformations? And is there any better place to be than in Columbus Ohio during Spring? I think not! Three weeks ago I drove up from Florida with my Mom and nieces and this is what greeted me when I pulled up to our house (photo above). There is nothing more beautiful than a tulip with their tapered stems, elegant petals just at their beginning bloom looking like long-limbed ballerinas - all slenderness and grace when they sway in the breeze. 

Due to the loony winter with little cold or snow, this Spring has been wildly off-schedule with everything blooming at once, the Bradford pears, redbuds, crabapple trees, lilacs, daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths, even the peonies are coming up early and will bloom weeks before normal. Last year at this time, tulips were just coming up and in bloom, this year everything is at least 4 weeks ahead of schedule. 

During her visit my 13 year-old niece (the dedicated gardener) planted all the early Spring pansies and violas in pots lining our front steps - adding a cheerful greeting to those who come to our door. It’s almost time to visit the garden stores to select the annuals that will fill our many pots and planters. Wish you were here E!  More on gardening tomorrow……

Ordinary to Extraordinary - The Power of Photography

I came to photography later in life. It had been niggling away on the fringes of my life since I was a small child, hints left here and there. My father was into black and white photography when I was very young, developed his own photographs  but then inexplicably stopped abruptly. I have his 1950’s film camera on my office shelf.

When I was traveling across the country in the mid-1970’s, we picked up a hitchhiker that ended up leaving his camera and telephoto lens in our car. We only discovered it after we had dropped him off, immediately turned around, backtracked in search of him but no luck. I have often wondered about him, how devastated he must have been when he realized he had forgotten his camera. We decided to sell the camera as we were broke but I've wondered what if? What if I had bothered to keep it, to use it, to take photos.

In the 1990's while working with gorillas I met one of the best wildlife photographers out there - Michael “Nick” Nichols from National Geographic. His photos continue to inspire. Nick is an integral organizer for the annual Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia every summer. Please check out Nick's new APP on his Nat Geo web site - bottom of page.

It was only a whim on a snowy Montana day in 2007 that I grabbed my husband’s old Canon film camera taking it with me for our back-country drive.  I took a photo that showed me the magic of a well done photograph - it was of an abandoned US Fish & Wildlife Service cabin near Nye Montana. 

Photography allows me to explore, to be creative, to focus - to shut out the rest of the world while trying to capture that elusive image - most times (and I mean 9 out of 10 times) I don’t succeed but every once in a while you hit it just right.  I keep a camera with me at all times because you just never know what you might see or what you might miss - the above photo is of my neighbor's dogs when I pulled up to my house one afternoon - for some reason they just cracked me up, so I took the picture.

Some of the photos posted with this blog were taken from the car (Smith Brothers), or on a meandering weekend drive where I came across a Civil War reenactment event in a small Ohio town, or on a boat coming around a river bend (Elephant & Egrets) in Africa. Even tourist cliches like the Cliffs of Moher - taken by every person who has ever visited Ireland - can still feel mystical and magical with the right light and angle. It is sometimes the the most ordinary of things that catch your eye and at the right angle, just feels right. I love that photos can tell a story, in "Proud Auntie" my sister-in-law is walking in front of our niece who is in the background being made-up by her best friend - the look on my sister-in-law's her face is just lovely - funny but proud - it speaks to the excitement of my niece's wedding day. None of these photos have been enhanced, - some are a bit overexposed, some don't have enough shadows/light contrast but each is taken just as I saw it at that moment. 

I’m happy to say that photography seems to be running through the family, a grandson is now taking a photography course at the age of 10, my youngest niece began taking photos at the age of 10 as well and has photos on my web site. Another niece in her 20’s has just started her own photography business and web site - while going to university and working her other job. See web sites below.

My web site: http://www.photosbybetharmstrong.com

On my site click on “The Next Generation” to see photos by my youngest niece

My older niece’s web site: http://www.emmaparkersphotography.com

Nick Nichols: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photographer-michael-nichols/ See Nick's new App at the bottom of this page

Look3 Festival of the Photograph: http://Look3.org


Good Read:
The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great by Steve Simon

Hearth & Home

There is nothing better than a house that smells of cooking and baking and nothing better than soup and bread on a cold day. Below is a soup recipe that is a combo of different FO soups I've made over the years or seen on cooking shows (Jamie Oliver in particular). And for dessert is my Great Aunt Ida's pound cake - also known as Poor Man's Pound Cake. Aunt Ida was born in 1904, oldest of the eight Shuler girls. She was known as the baker in the family as well as being quite the stylish dresser.

Home is as much about the cooking as it is the coziness of small details like a beautiful tablecloth, fresh flowers and pretty dishes. You don't need an abundance just a few items. With that in mind I have attached some photos from two of my favorite stores in Columbus, Cottage Street and SoBo - found right next door to one another on High Street in Clintonville.
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French Onion Soup

Soup:

4 to 5 large sweet onions (sliced thin)

Tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

½ cup vermouth or white wine

1 bay leaf

6 to7 stems of fresh thyme (leaves only)

6 to 8 cups chicken stock

Salt & pepper

-          In a large sauce pan drizzle the olive oil and sliced onions, add sugar - should take 30 minutes or more to carmelize the onions.

-          Place onions in big soup pan

-          Add the vermouth and chicken stock

-          Add bay leaf and thyme

-          Salt and pepper to taste

-          Cook on low heat for an hour

Bread & Cheese

Rustic hard bread

Butter

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Gruyere cheese

Cut bread in 4 inch wide slices,  butter top of each bread slice and add parmesan cheese - place on cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 400 F.

Serving:

Place bread slices in bowl, ladle soup over, place shredded parmesan and gruyere cheese on top and broil until cheese melts and browns.

Great Aunt Ida’s Pound Cake

1 cup Crisco (cream with vanilla)

1 to 2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups of sugar

3 cups Cake flour (sifted)

2 ½ tsp baking powder (add dry ingredients to sugar, Crisco, vanilla.  Beat on mixer till mixed).

1 cup of milk

4 eggs

Put milk around, add one egg at a time till mixed

Beat two minutes

Use 1 tube pan as Aunt Ida did or grease and flour two bread loaf pans

Oven temp: 375*  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes

Changes:  Beth Armstrong – Pauline Shuler’s granddaughter

Replace Crisco with 2 sticks of unsalted butter – softened

Add the zest of 1 lemon and the juice of one lemon * may need to bake a bit longer*

On Being an Aunt

I have been many things in my life, gorilla keeper, conservationist, photographer,………but perhaps the one title I cherish most is being an Aunt. Today my family celebrates the 28^th birthday of my niece, the oldest of the bunch. My nieces and nephews range in age from 28 down to 13, each of them unique, charming and lovely in their own way. They are an interesting and diverse crew, one  is  an amazing photographer and a traveler, her brother an avid snowboarder is spending this winter out in Colorado doing what he loves best.  A nephew is finishing up his final year of college while another has just started that journey. One kid still in high school is taking college courses, works and plays HS football. One niece is so hysterically funny and disarming she keeps the whole family in stitches. Some play soccer, some softball, some ride horses. They all have a love for cooking and one of my favorite things to do is spend the day baking with them, one nephew is a budding chef.  All the girls seem to share a love of cozy space - making your room your own signature space. The youngest has just discovered the joys of gardening - and she too is a photographer.  I have been most fortunate that I have sister-in-laws all of whom have shared their amazing kids with me.

But it is the eldest, the one I have known the longest who this blog is for. I remember the day your mother told me she was pregnant with you, standing in Grandma and Grandpa’s kitchen - how thrilled all of us were, each of us so looking forward to meeting you. In your early twenty’s you lived for a year in Korea teaching English to little kids - you are an adventurer. Now in addition to working full-time you are working on your Master’s degree - since a little girl you have always been a hard worker. This last year you were married and what a joy it was for all of us to be there to witness your happiness. When you come to town, there is nothing more I enjoy than sitting in my living room chatting late into the night with you. You have inspired me with your wisdom, your ability to be thankful for the daily blessing we each have - how did you figure that out at such a young age - took me decades. What a lucky Auntie I am indeed to know such a person as you.

Simple Things - Thankful Things

I'm thankful for.....

• My Grandmother’s cookbook on my kitchen counter 
• Good food
• My garden in the morning
• Evening shadows on the ornamental grass in the front yard
• My stink-bomb-jones dog, who is starting to get old, and doesn’t want to go on as many walks
• My niece’s who hang a lot at their Auntie’s house
• My nephew who called me for a ride today and we talked about everything and nothing while driving to his job
• A nice period piece on PBS on Sunday nights - Downton Abbey
• Fresh flowers in the house
• A stranger today who helped me move a snapping turtle off a busy road into a pond
• A side table with flowers and a favorite book
• My funny Aunt Jill who sent me a letter today
• My dad and his sister Jill's smart-ass sense of humor
• A really good book: Just finished The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman; currently reading The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht and A Radiant Life by Nuala O’Faolain
• My sister-in-law for sending me a book by Nuala O’Faolain My Dream of You - How did I not know of this writer?
• Looking forward to reading a book - Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron 
• And for Lisa who talked me into taking that blog class
  

Churches

Here's an unusual occurrence - I went to Mass today. Truth be told my brothers and I were raised Catholic and as such we spent our youth going to Sunday Mass and attending Catholic school. After school we were told horror stories by the older kids about what happened to people who dared to touch the holy Host. Back then getting a communion host stuck to the roof of your mouth was cause for alarm, being petrified that you might unthinkingly and reflexively try to pry it off with your finger - and then die before confessing this terrible sin was pretty spooky stuff - yep, nothing like scaring the crap out of kids to keep them in line. 

Even at a young age I never could truly buy into - or maybe I give myself too much credit, maybe I just wasn’t paying attention - the stories being told. Mary and her husband Joseph  - interesting story that - a bit more complicated than we were ever given to believe. Joseph doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his forbearance and his love and protection of his step-child. I don’t remember the priest giving any rousing sermons about the fact that Jesus was a rebel, or focusing on the most basic aspect of his personality that he was in the end just a good guy, a kind man,  I don’t recall the church encouraging us children to question and to embrace being different - as Jesus was. 

I was a dreamer given to spending my time in church gazing at the stained glass windows - the brilliant cobalt blues, deep greens, the textured browns of the gowns of Mary, Jesus and their saintly friends. The traditional medieval architecture was another distraction.Checking out the kinds of hats  the women were wearing especially at Easter was something to do. To make the time pass more quickly we counted the number of children lined up for Communion from individual families just to see who had the most. Our kind and gentle family doctor had a whopping 17 children while we, the Armstrong’s were a bit of a disappointment being on the low end with only 4. All these things were welcome diversions before feeling that enormous sense of relief once Mass was over and you could run home to get on with the business of just being a kid.  

But what I did love most were the rituals both from church and school- the tartan school uniforms, brand new beanie caps, school book covers made of brown paper bags, the smell of incense during the Stations of the Cross, the altar decorated at Christmas with laurels of pine (another lovely smell) and live poinsettias, the ash cross we wore so proudly on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday refusing to wash off until the next day, or picking your own confirmation name.  

Maybe I was a little dodgy on the actual belief scale but I do think rituals have provided a comfort and a touchstone to go back to. Nowadays I say Hail Mary's when I need to get a grip on some stress or other in my life. Still one of my favorite things to do is to go to my childhood church when no one is around just to sit in the quiet and breathe in the smells from my childhood….. fixated on the light illuminating their burnished windows.

I make a habit of going to churches when in other cities.  The photos of stained glass windows are from United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg Florida.

Gorilla Keepers

In 1982 I was hired into the Ape House as a gorilla-keeper by then head-keeper Diana Frisch. It was the dream of a lifetime and I will forever be in her debt for taking a chance on me. Let me tell you a story about a gorilla that we both worked with.

Mac had a sweet nature, extremely laid back. His eyesight was a bit iffy and he had a tendency to glance at you from the side, peering as if trying to focus.  Early on I learned just how laid back he was. He was very particular in which order he received his food in the morning preferring his celery sticks before his lettuce. I made the huge mistake once of doing the opposite, giving him the lettuce first.  Mac grabbed my arm pulled it through the cage bars, held it while he looked intently at me and then let go. He could have easily inflicted a bite wound or broken my arm but he made his point and was satisfied. I never made that mistake again.

In 1984, during renovations of the existing Ape House, Mac was housed at the old zoo hospital. As we could transfer him from one cage to another (something we were not able to do in the Ape House, hence the renovation) we were able to give hay as bedding - which could be removed later during cleaning. One day Diana called me on the walkie-talkie asking me to come down to the hospital. As I entered she motioned for me to come closer but to remain quiet. Gorillas have a wide array of vocalizations to communicate with one another, in the past Mac did his usual greeting vocalization to us but rarely anything else. Diana had given Mac about a 1/3 of a bale of hay, he was so engrossed in making a nest that he was oblivious to us. As I drew closer to his cage I heard soft uninterrupted rumbling  vocalizations as if he were having a conversation with himself as he created a beautiful circular nest, with high walls and a cozy deep center. Every few minutes he would step into the nest as if to ascertain the shape and height, then step out and make adjustments, adding to, shaking out and fluffing up his hay - all the time talking to himself. He had not had bedding material since taken from the forests of west Africa 30 plus years prior. 

Mac was transformed, absorbed in the work at hand seemingly transported back to his African home. He was doing what all gorillas will do when given the proper materials, make a proper sleeping nest. By the time it was finished it was truly a masterpiece - perfect in every way. Both Diana and I  were humbled at having witnessed such a transformation as well as being a bit teary-eyed as we left Mac to his memories. 

Mac died a few years after the nest building episode. Diana passed away a little over a week ago. She was part of a 4-member keeper team at the Columbus Zoo in the 1980’s that forever changed the way we perceive gorillas, the way we house and treat them, the way we value them just for being the remarkable creatures that they are.  Diana, say hello to Mac for me when you see him …….

Imagination

My nieces spend a lot of time at my house. I don’t have an x-box, video games, or even now a computer as the desktop died recently. But we do have board games (Clue, Life, Monopoly), jigsaw puzzles, lots of decks of cards, books and movies. When the girls were 7 and 8 I bought a dollhouse kit and spent Christmas Eve putting it together for them. Since then I purchased a second larger one (already assembled) which is the one they have in their bedroom at my house. We use dogs and cats rather than dolls - we agreed that the dolls sort of creeped us out a bit. They are now 13 and 14 respectively and they still mess around with that doll house. I found them in there just the other day meticulously arranging the rooms to absolute perfection.(see photos to the right)

Yesterday I went to the doll house store to have a look-see.  They have a wide array of doll houses, both assembled as well as do -it-yourself kits, loads of teeny-tiny furniture, and all the other bits and pieces needed to create another universe. I started talking to a mother and her daughter while there, the daughter in the process of buying her very first doll house, She already creates little scenes using doll house furniture but as yet does not have an actual house. Got the impression she was doing the buying - good for her. As we were talking, I found out she’s a big reader and loves to bake - shades of me at that age. It was a treat talking to a kid who revels in using her imagination - and good for her Mom for supporting it.

Sometimes when my nieces have left to go back home, I walk by their room catch the doll house out of the corner of my eye in a somewhat disheveled state and am compelled to stop what I’m doing, grab a chair, sit myself down to rearrange a whole new world.