Hundred Acre Woods

I took these photographs while walking in the Hundred Acre Woods located off the Perkiomen and Skippack trails in Graterford, PA. Some words from Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne accompany them. I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend.


A Goldfinch hidden in the yellow flowers

Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way,
in that enchanted place on the top of the forest,
a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.


A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.

Nobody can be un-cheered with a balloon.


Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.


They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them.


When looking at your two paws, as soon as you have decided which of them is the right one, then you can be sure the other one is the left.


You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

Some people care too much, I think it's called love.


It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.
And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.

11,383 Miles To Go 10 Blocks

A short while ago, unlike Lemony Snicket, I experienced an series of fortunate events. I'm not exactly sure how it started but I was reading some blogs at lunch time in my office in Lansdale (Hold that thought now, I'm in Lansdale).

I think I either went to the Chicago, Illinois area to visit Living the Life of the Wife of Riley or I might have gone to a place 'between your sofa cushions' (according to her profile) to visit Call Me Cate.

That visit in turn, led me to Southern California to visit A Corgi In Southern California. You know I just can't pass up patting a dog!

The day of my visit, I learned that Koda the Corgi was going on a virtual vacation to the Tampa Bay, Florida area where he was going to visit Martha's Menagerie (or at least of picture of him glued to some cardboard was going to at any rate).

Now, Martha has these really neat virtual parties every Friday, and a couple weeks ago, she said, "Visit the person that commented right before you" as part of the party hijinks. So, I looked and the person before me name was "Martha". So I commented, "I here already!".

I was soon made to realize that there were more than one Martha at the party, in fact there were at least three of them! So I dutifully visited Martha's A Sense of Humor is Essential in the Los Angeles, California area. I'm turning into a real cross-country surfer, aren't I?


I went back to the party at Martha's Menagerie in Florida and then on to view the "other Martha" profile. Imagine my surprise when I see her blog is named New Adventures in Lansdale and Beyond, Rediscovering Home!

Goodness. According to Google Maps, I surfed 11,383 miles and ended up where I started at. I started an e-mail correspondence with my fellow Lansdalian blogger and in short order learned that I had gone to the same High School and the same Church she had ... during the same years!

She mentioned her older brother was sadly killed in the Vietnam conflict - and told me about a memorial the Key Club in our High School had dedicated to those that died in Vietnam that were in our school district. I promised her right then and there I would go visit the memorial.


Lansdale has a lovely memorial park. It is only ten blocks from my office. There are two big 155mm? howitzers there that I played on when I was only four, five and six years old.


After playing on the "boom-boom", my Dad would take my brothers and I across the park to the ball field to watch the American Legion's Lansdale Tigers play ball. I remember catching foul balls in the stands and passing the ball cap for donations around during a break in the action. My Dad gave me and my brothers a quarter each to put in the cap. That made us feel real important.


Lansdale's Memorial Park is, of course, home to the memorials honoring the local Veterans that served to defend our country's freedom. I can recall standing in attendance when the invited speaker gave a talk on more than one Memorial Day. My "Uncle Tom," Sargent Major Thomas J. Avery, USMC (Ret.), badly missed, gave such a talk one year.


The sad row containing the names of Lansdale's Fallen Heroes


With its one bright spot
But the monument Martha in PA mentioned isn't here. It is across the street and down the road a very short distance, at the quiet corner of the block with the administration building for the our school district and is very nearly hidden view.


A small grove of pine trees form a circle around it. I was appalled by the trash and weeds that I found there. I picked up a shopping bag full of trash and pulled out the largest of the weeds - I will try to go back sometime with a larger bag and some gloves has the weeds are largely spiny and very prickery.


I stood there a while in the warm sun and paid my respects. I have two brothers who are very much alive today that I treasure and hold dear - and cannot imagine the loss.

I didn't know Sargent Miller. I wish I had...and still did. I'm very happy to have 'met' Martha once again.

"But united we are steadfast, vigilant and strong."

Article in local newspaper mentioning Robin Miller during last Memorial Day's ceremonies.

He is also honored on the Philadelphia's Vietnam Memorial

Project Nanny Noseprint

Yesterday, while waiting for it to get dark, I walked around the Hundred Acre Woods planning Project Nanny Noseprint. This ultra-top secret project would involve a covert walk around my neighborhood to actually look into people's windows to check out their TVs and what they were watching.

I realized I would need to change into dark clothing, stick to the shadows, and avoid the streetlight at the corners. I printed out a map of the 'hood' and charted those lights, and places where I knew dogs would bark when someone walked nearby.

It was going to be like traversing a mine field. Getting ready, I got the dark shoe polish out from under the bathroom sink and smeared it on my cheekbones. I turned the ringer off on my cell phone.

The only flaw in the planning was tonight the moon will be near full and there isn't a cloud in the sky. It was a risk I would have to take.


My neighbor is the first house to be surveilled. The floor plan of his house is similar to mine. Ugh, he's in the bathroom. Let's move on.


Ah, here we see a ballgame. The TV looks pretty nice, but nothing exciting. I can't make out who's playing.


Oh! This is probably the best TV on the block - it takes up a whole wall and points directly out into the street through a huge picture window! Hell's Kitchen is on! Let 'em have it Chef Ramsey! In 3-D surround sound!


Whoa! What's all that noise! Oh.. it's just NCIS. I better move along quickly, some dog is going crazy in there somewhere.


Ugh, what a stick in the mud. This neighbor's TV isn't on and his out in the backyard talking to someone on his porch. I think he is actually talking to his cat.


Judging from the music I hear, I'd say this neighbor is watching some porn.


Let's see here... what are they watching? Ack! Suddenly a bright flash of light nearly blinds me! I hear this old lady querulous voice shout, "Hiram! Turn the Rottweiller loose! There's a peeping yaya out there!" and then screen door slams!

Then I hear the most terrifying deep baying, "AHWOOF! WOOF!"

Oh my god! Run! Run! Huff huff huff...I whisper hoarsely, "Aaron is that you?"

"Wo..eeerrrwoof?"

"Oh Aaron! You scared the bejeebers out of me! Ugh, no Aaron! Aaron! I don't need my face washed! Stop that! Here, have a nice milkbone with some peanut butter on it! And dang it Aaron! You slobbered all over my camera lens. Go home and tell Hiram you were brave and chased off the peeping yaya, Ok? It's time for me to head home."


Oh Geeze, my neighbor is still in there!

A word from the wise:

1) Turn off the automatic flash on your camera before starting out on your mission.
2) Be familiar with all applicable 'Peeping Yaya' laws for your neighborhood.
3) Know the names of all the dogs in your neighborhood and carry a doggy treat within easy reach.

The Deer are Hard to Find

I've not been out and about much lately - but I thought some of you might enjoy these photos of the same location over the course of the summer at farm I walk by while down at the wharf. You may recall the dramatic effect of the seasons from an earlier entry - What Half a Year Can Do. Here we have only three months of change.

I was, of course, looking for some deer while I walked.


I wrote about a rainy day at the wharf when I took this picture on June 20, 2009. Nary a deer to be seen.


July 29, 2009. The golden field of wheat was harvested and who knows, perhaps we have eaten some of it in an English Muffin with all its nooks and crannies. If you look really closely you will see, interestingly enough, an orange traffic cone chasing a solitary deer in the picture above.


Last weekend, August 29, 2009. The continued wet weather has helped whatever this green stuff is (beans? peas?) grow like crazy. I think in three weeks it has grown nearly knee high. Nary a deer to be seen.

Returning to the wharf a while back, I had a great thrill. I encountered a deer upclose and was able to get close enough to pet and feed it. Now I usually don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things - but this was an exception.

I mean, its not every day you get to pet a deer, rub its soft leather hide and admire its flanks and indeed, even to sit and ride on it. It was so delightful.




And having seen deer run - I can attest to the fact that, "Nothing runs like a Deere."