Empty Chairs

The large hotel across the street from ours had a beautiful patio filled with white tables and chairs. It appeared to be an ideal place for a wedding reception. When we visited Mackinac Island the end of September, the weather was clear and sunny, but the crisp morning air let us know Fall was already here. Although we saw two different wedding parties, none of them chose to have an outdoor reception. It was two weeks away from the shutdown that takes place over the winter with many of the local businesses.

Guests stay warm inside

Cold white tables sit empty

Waiting for snowfall

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Haibun Monday at d’Verse Poets Pub. Linda asked us to write a Haibun that references Autumn.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Towers of Babel

How quickly time covers

structures once thought permanent

lost and forgotten

leaving them now crumbling

as nature swallows them up

***

Time and nature

having been here before us

will win in the end

***

As we foolishly

think our towers of babel

will be our answer

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Cotton Fields

On my way to work today, I saw the sun shining on the cotton fields and had to stop and take some photos. It won’t be long until the cotton picker will come through and collect the cotton bolls into big rectangular bales. This is quite different from cotton picking by hand two-hundred years ago.  When I see cotton growing it always brings to mind the song, “Cotton Fields,” made popular by country music star, Charley Pride. Synthetic fabrics became a trend during the past century, but nothing matches the feel and comfort of cotton.

Blanket of white cotton

stretches into the distance

Waiting for harvest

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Jackleg

J ust an old man having fun

A cting on his impulses to try something new

C reating something out of the discarded

K nowing it will be an interesting project

L earning as he goes

E xcited to see the end result

G reatful he is still able to follow his dreams

***

This is my project that I have been working on for a couple of weeks during this unseasonable warm Fall weather. I decided to try making a resonator guitar from a discarded Craftsman Router case I got from the Habitat Restore where I volunteer. I used a paint can lid for my resonator.

Some may call me a Jackleg, but I like to try things that are different from the norm. Sometimes things don’t work as planned. In this situation, I thought I would make a long neck scale length that would have great resonance. But what I did not realize was that with the long scale length, the fret spacing increased and was too far apart for my fingers to reach for the chords. So, I went back to using the scale length of my old Washburn guitar and moving the nut up the neck to compensate. I put a piezo stick-on pick-up in it. It seems to have worked well and plays very well. It has that tinny banjo sound like the music of Scott Joplin on a Mississippi Riverboat!

A jackleg builder

Finding pleasure in process

Fall guitar project

***

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Spectors From the Past

Traveling back from Michigan, I noticed our tire was beginning to lose air. We stopped in a small town of Mt. Eaton, Ohio and had it checked. He said he thought he had found the problem and plugged it. We drove on and stopped for the night at Marietta along the Ohio river.

In the morning our tire was half flat. The person at the desk told us of a place in the middle of town that fixed tires, so we drove there. A very old three bay garage with an old 47 Chrysler up on jacks greeted us. It was not the kind of shop I would normally choose, but we had no choice if we wanted to make it back to Charlotte that evening.

The chairs in the waiting area were too dirty to sit on, so we stood outside.  A young man in very greasy jeans found a nail in our tire and fixed it, for which we were thankful. I talked to the man who owned the garage. He was friendly and shared his view of the country and politics, which I did not pursue. Thankfully our tire was fixed, and we made it home by late afternoon.

Nail in tire was fixed

Political shadows hang

in greasy garage

***

A place not of our choosing

Meeting the need of the day

Photo; Dwight L. Roth

Pokeberry Stains

Pokeberries turn from

green to purple, birds leave stains

on my car windshield

***

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

One Last Sip (Haiku)

Fall flowers dying

Petals fade and fall away

Bees take their last sip

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Premonition

We arrived home form our trip late Tuesday afternoon. After traveling in the car for two and a half days we were excited to be home and sleeping in our own bed again. But, that night for me was restless, with chills and achiness, and in the morning, I tested positive for Covid. Ruth tested and she was negative.

Since I had gotten sick, we thought there was a possibility she would get it as well, so she immediately called our daughter-in-law and asked her to go to the grocery store and get what we needed for the next week. She spent the day making the most delicious chicken soup. As it cooked the aromas floated over me making even a sick man hungry.

By Saturday, she also tested positive, and we were stuck homebound for the next week or more. We lived on her great chicken soup for the next two weeks as we both floated in a yucky covid soup of our own.

Fall Covid season

Time for homemade chicken soup

Soup helps ease the pain

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Mish asked us to write a poem about soup! I love soup so this was an easy prompt for me to write.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Raindrops Keep Falling… or Do They?

While shooting these photos I got caught in a rain shower that sent me under the barn overshot to keep dry. It is beautiful to see the raindrops against the backdrop of the old corn crib. As I watched water dribbling from the downspout, I thought how often we/(I) take rain and water for granted. In the Southwest, the water levels are continuing to drop in reservoirs like Lake Mead. More people use more water in a dry and thirsty land. Water and rain should never become an assumption.

Refreshing Fall rain

Grass stays green until the frost

Precious assumption

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lake-mead-water-level-historic-low-drought-heres-what-that-means/

Au Sable Scenic River Highbanks Overlook

While we were in Michigan a couple of week ago, we visited the Au Sable High River Overlook, near Mio! It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful view of the river. The fall colors were just beginning to show. I decided to do some notebook sketches and watercolors of our trip.

I did this one last Saturday when I was recovering from Covid. I thought I was about through it all and then this past Monday, I work up with a bad head cold and tested positive again! Ugh!! Today is the first I have felt better.

Fall colors shining

Nature paints stunning landscapes

Covid returns again

Photos and watercolor: Dwight L. Roth

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/hmnf/recreation/recarea/?recid=18550&actid=64