We visited Heidelberg Castle, in Germany, this past week. What a fantastic place to see.
A theater performance of Dracula was being performed nightly at the castle.
Above is a sundial on the wall of the Castle
Coat of arms destroyed by fighting factions over the years.
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
We celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary with a cruise up the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel. It was a wonderful week of new adventures. We met some really interesting people along the way. After a long 19 hour day of travel we were very thankful to be home again! More photos to come in future posts.
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Photos: Dwight L. Roth
Last fall the gas company cleared the right away behind our property. I was sad to see the trees go and the topsoil removed. They buried a twelve inch natural gas line and then covered it over with the original top soil. A couple of months ago they planted grass over the whole thing. The attempted to leave the natural wet areas unchanged, leveling and covering it with mesh netting to protect it. The grass grew and the natural growth came up through the mesh. Today I found wild flowers once again blooming. Nature’s resilience is amazing.
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
Linda at d’Verse gave us six painting by Jacquline Hurlbeck to choose from for our poetic prompt today. I was drawn to this painting of the bluebird’s journey. We could write a poem of our choosing, so I chose to write a limerick.
Unraveling
Join us at: https://dversepoets.com
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
The word fret has several meanings. One means to fuss or complain. Another is to carve out in parallel lines, such as in architecture. Then there are the frets on a musical instrument like a guitar, which are brass strips placed at intervals and used for giving the strings varied pitches. Today at d’Verse Kim suggested we write a Quadrille, of only 44 words, using some form of fret! I have attempted to use it as an adjective describing a long set of steps at our local park. I saved this photo for the last two years trying to think of a way to use it in a poem. This was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Father’s day always brings memories of my dad, who I always referred to as Pop! He was a caring and compassionate person who showed love not only to his family, but to everyone he met. He died at the age of seventy, back before heart bypass surgery was happening. Although it has been so many years, I still miss him.
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth
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Photos of may students in my early years of teaching. Since then times have changed and our focus seems to be on test results rather than well rounded students. Perhaps this will change as the cycle goes round and round.
For a wonderful example of what real learning can be, check out Forest Kids Learning. It is a fabulous program that does a wonderful job of hand-on learning!
https://www.facebook.com/ForestKidsCanada/
With the economy booming in our area, more and more trees are being cleared to make room for new housing developments. There is no attempt to save the existing trees. Everything is stripped to bare ground, ground up and hauled away. Giant machines turn fifty year old trees into wood chips in a matter of minutes.
What happens when we remove so many trees from our environment? Wildlife gets condensed into smaller and smaller areas. Birds lose their annual nesting locations, and more and more deer are killed by the on slot of cars brought on by development. There appears to be little or no effort to create better highways to accomodate the increased vehicles. We wonder why climate change is bringing warmer weather. Could it be that we take little thought for the tree we are so eager to discard.
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
This post was inspired by one done by Kym Gordon Moore discussing the same subject.
https://frombehindthepen.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/attack-of-the-wild/
Roth Poetry 