Coopers Hawk Bluffing Squirrel

Large but immature Coopers Hawk is trying to scare off a squirrel who may have never seen a hawk. I watched and the squirrel was curious and went below the hawk on the rail the boards are fastened too. The hawk then threatened until the squirrel went lower to pass. Actually, the squirrels use the top of the fence to travel along the yard and everything else moves for them but the hawk didn't move. It was funny to watch but it was over when one or the other got bored. The hawk can and does something grab a squirrel and eats them.

Ivester Inn

Surrounded by large trees

IVESTER INN

Such an elegant building

My mother used to bake all the pies that were served at Ivester Inn and while I no longer remember how we got to Arcanum from Gordon each morning or how we got back home; but we did and I spent most of my time in the kitchen area sitting at a small table staring out the window and watching the business people come inside for their meal at noon.

The place was also called "The Ivester Tavern" at one time though I am not aware of them serving alcoholic drinks at mealtime.

Nowadays the building is part of the Arcanum Library and it has a long history that fits the library and seems like it would be a nice place to read a good book about Arcanum and the village founder named Gunder.

When I was growing up in Gordon, the Gunder family had been in the chicken business and I believe it fell through during the Great Depression and the family were reduced to poverty like the rest of us in Gordon, Ohio.

Medieval Monks

A mailing envelope showing a medieval scribe at work in a room in a monastery that was set aside for writing or copying manuscripts. A scriptorium in some venues found scribes standing but rarely sitting as they listened to speaker or reader of what it was they were supposed to write down.

The slope of the writing desk was at 60 degrees. The reason was that when the quill was dipped in ink and held in the hand to write, the ink in the quill settled in the center and not on the tip where, when touched to the parchment it would run out and leave a blob that was difficult to clean up. The monks had to prepare their writing parchment before the day began; and they had to make their ink using lamp black and water and their sepia ink was made from the cuttle fish. When their writing tools and desk setup was complete; and after morning prayers and a meal of bread and water was done, off they marched to the cold, damp, room ready to begin recording what the master read aloud.

A monk listened carefully as the work to be copied had to be correct or, if in some error, the scribe would be whipped and be forced to say many extra prayers.

Cleaned Up Backyard

Pepper Jax was outside almost all day watching Patty and I work in the yard pulling up Dark-eyed Susans. What a mess they had gotten to be. When they go to see they must drop a million new seeds so we got them up and out before the seed dropped. At least we hope we did. They will be taken in paper bags that we buy from the city for this purpose and stacked one or more next to the big trailer they use to haul all the green stuff in the bags to the proper dump.

Tenskwatwa. The Prophet

Tecumseh's brother, "The Prophet," was best know for his ability to see the future and told how his brother and many Americans would be killed in battles.

Tenskwatawa became a religious leader. Known as "The Shawnee Prophet", he advocated a return of the Shawnee and other American Indians to their ancestral lifestyle and rejection of the colonists and Americans. He attracted a large following among Indians who had already suffered major epidemics and dispossession of their lands.

In 1805, Tenskwatawa led a religious revival following a series of witch-hunts following an outbreak of smallpox among the Shawnee. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of other prophets. Scattamek and Neolin told about the coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.

Morning Glory Seeds

Morning Glory seeds ready for another year of growing pretty flowers on the pole at the end of our patio.

I think the seeds are as interesting as the actual flowers.

If you keep planting the same flowers that formed from the same seed then you will see the flower itself go back to it's original color and shape.

That is why it is a good idea to collect seeds from flowers that are annuals and come up each year from seed.

Mackinac Island

Patty and I sat at a photography studio on the island of Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. The costumes were open-back and slip-on over your clothes. The hats and sword were handed to us just before the pictures were taken.

We could then choose which picture we wanted and this was our choice. We stayed in a very nice downtown hotel. A quaint place upstairs over the tavern below where we ate all our meals.

We did go for a carriage ride around the island pulled by a team of local horses that are brought over to the island in the spring and taken back to the mainland in the fall where they winter over and rest up.

It was a good experience for us and we thank our daughter Becky who footed the bill for the adventure.