Tag Archives: sister

Living in One’s Element

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Life is good

I met Mrs. Green only once but she made quite the impression on my 10 year old self.  While I was staying with a friend, we took Mrs. Green a bouquet of flowers and in return, she offered us cookies and one of my first ”Ah Ha!” moments.  Mrs. Green opened a camel back steamer trunk filled with old photographs, journals, letters and postcards from what was already a long life.  She let me rifle through her collection of memories as she told us tales. Her adept storytelling, accompanied by the amazing artifacts of a life lived well, galvanized my attention.  I was dazzled and vowed to fill my own steamer trunk.

Snowy breakfast

My sister and I have been car camping together since the summer of 1989.  We sometimes head out onto the road for 1000’s of miles without staying at a motel or campground.  This was true even when we were driving a compact car.  In 2004, Shaunna bought the Honda Element and we have been traveling in luxury ever since.

The following slide show is a visual poem about small roads, living out of a truck, adventure, sisters and The West.

Living in One’s Element

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

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Yvonne and Shaunna under the Cathedral Tree

Lincoln recieved 13.5 inches of heavy, wet snow that stuck to every surface it touched.  This was hard on some trees but for me and my sister, it was an invitation to wander. There is something exhilarating about being out and about on foot in weather that keeps cars parked.  Snow covered the now surreal landscape.  The weight of the snow transformed the ordinary into forms that even Dr. Seuss would admire.

Looking up into the Cathedral Tree

Much of the morning was spent exploring the neighborhoods between my house and Wyuka Cemetery.  Snow plows and 4×4  trucks with snow blades were our only competition for the side streets.  The two passenger cars we met were the ones we helped push out of the deep snow.

I took another walk about in the evening after dark.  It was a muffled and beautiful world.  Like Joel Meyerowitz, I too love it when artificial and natural light mingle in unanticipated ways.  Using only available light and long exposures, I delighted in the strange colors  being bounced around and reflected by the snow.  The cloud curtain became sheer and the moon started making guest appearances above the parking lot trees.  I would have done a cartwheel in response if only my boots were not so heavy.

Chocolate Skies over Lincoln with the Moon

Morning sunshine beckoned and I was dazzled by the ice crystals and shapes of snow that still clung to the branches.  I see many more walks in the days to come and life is good.

Elm Tree with Morning Snow

Glowing Tree Across the Street

24 Adventures in 2012: Summiting K2

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I love concept gifts.  They are the best.  For Christmas this year, my sister, Shaunna, gave me an invitation to 24 adventures yet to be determined and a kit which included a corvid mascot (black crow in this case), a roll of 24 postcard stamps and a small black journal.  A couple of days ago, I received my first postcard invitation to adventure.

Invitation to Adventure

I filled out the cleverly designed reversible postcard she made for this very purpose and sent it back to her.  The next day a card arrived with instructions and a provisions list.

RSVP to Adventure

She arrived with the mysterious announcement that only 6 women in the world have successfully done what we would attempt today.  There was a small tableaux of K2 related objects:  Pakistani scarf, Cliff Bars and books on the mountain, K2.  She handed me a Lincoln Telephone book and directed me to find K2.  (There is a city map in the middle of the book.)  She said she hadn’t peeked ahead of time.

K2 Tableaux

We discovered that K2 is located in the extreme north and east part of Lincoln with most of it outside city limits.  The interior of K2 is not really transected by roads so we mostly flirted with the perimeter roads of Arbor road on the south, 40th St. for the West, Bluff Road on the north and Highway 77 for the eastern wall of our rectangle.  (I 80 does cut through the extreme southern end.)

Discovering K2

We set out on our constructed adventure with a stop at Schlotzky’s Deli to take along for a lunch inside K2.  It is a small area and we circumnavigated the whole thing before finding our picnic spot behind a gas station, pointed towards a little boggy area with cat tails and willows.

Boggy cat tail area behind gas station.

Though warm for January (44 degrees), the wind made the sunny day quite brisk.  We explored some round bales and the serpentine willows that arch over the muskrat lodges.  The pond was frozen with dry cat tales blowing in the wind.

Willows over bog

Willows over bog

Round bales silliness

Round bales silliness

Our next stop was at a small creek that runs under 40th street to see what we could see.  I first saw a deer frozen in a death rictus.  Then another and another.  We counted six dead white tail deer including does and fawns that appear to have been dumped here without having been butchered, though coyotes clearly visit this place at lonelier times of day.  It felt a little dreadful.

Grisly find

The next bridge on Bluff Road also had a strange find involving deer.  It appears that someone threw a large cooler full of skinned deer flanks onto the frozen creek.  Contents shattered many directions upon impact.  This all felt in contrast to the beautiful sunny day around us.

Bridge on Bluff road

Our final stop was at a farm house that had a chicken coop with a repeating crescent motif.  I obtained permission to photograph and felt nostalgic listening to roosters posturing for top cock of the walk.

Crescent Chicken Coop

It was time to return home and though we barely left city limits, it felt like we had a full adventure.  Thank you Shaunna!

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