Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: October Skyward by guest blogger, Dr. David Levy

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: October Skyward by guest blogger, Dr. David Levy:   Skyward for October 2021     David H. Levy   Fond memories of Carolyn Shoemaker          One clear evening during the summer...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: eBay is Destroying the doll collectors market! Sa...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: eBay is Destroying the doll collectors market! Sa...:  Here is the link to Rachel Hoffman's YouTube channel where she speaks out about eBay's latest move which is hurting doll collecting...

American Doll and Toy Museum: American Doll and Toy Museum is Open!!

American Doll and Toy Museum: American Doll and Toy Museum is Open!!:  Yes, it's true!  Our preview was a smash, and our regular hours for a while will be Saturdays 11-3 or by appointment. We welcome groups...

The Museum is open; click the link above.  It is now early fall, and we are looking forward to the cool weather, pumpkins, and holidays.  Each morning, I feel the chill in the air as the days grow shorter.

Mums are out, replacing late summer flowers, but my roses hang on till at least October.  We may get one pumpkin from the volunteer plants that have taken hold, but that's fine with me.  We have birds all over, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals, a woodpecker, blue jays, robins, black birds, red wing blackbirds, crows, doves, pigeons.  The occasional duck couple rests in my flower bed, and gees fly over head.  Since the factories moved or cleaned up their act along the river, the water birds are back; gulls, pelicans, herons, cranes, more ducks.  The eagles are here, and many hawks.  We have a back yard owl that hoots for us, and once in a while, visits from wild turkeys and pheasants. 

Our crows caw caw to each other, and I had a friend who used to leave pizza out for them.  

Each day, some memory is stirred for me of my family and lost friends.  I encounter them working at the museum, which is a 24/7 job, or at home, cleaning, or in the yard clipping, planting an pruning.

I see my grandpa puttering in what was his yard before my parents bought their house.  He planted violets, many varieties, peonies, roses, many bushes including lilac, snowball and mock orange.  My mother did coral bells and zinnias, a few miniature roses.  Lilies of the valley, a few tulips, hibiscus, were also there.  When they bloom, it's like a time capsule opening.

We still have woods around us, and the deer visit often.  The day after my Dad died, I saw a beautiful buck.  Maybe it was a message.  Who knows?    

Cool weather will be here soon; we are having an surge of Indian Summer, but the trees are starting to turn.  We will have a Spoon River festival this year, and tombstones of Edgar Lee Masters' characters will be set up along the river.

How quiet the nights are, but for the owl, and few buzzing insects.  When I drive somewhere early in the morning, I see the towns waking up, the lines  for coffee at coffee shops, the doors opening, front steps still being swept.  Dogs are walked, and a few cats are come home exhausted from their night meanderings.

Squirrels are very busy despite the unseasonably warm weather, and chipmunks run all over like made, tails at attention.   We name them all Alvin; they have sanctuary on our deck, sleeping into an old doll buggy.  My husband rescued one from a neighbors glue trap; "hold on Buddy," he crooned.  He got him loose with baby powder.  The little guy ran off like a little white ghost, frantic but safe.

Since them, we are chipmunk haven.  

So the world spins, and the seasons turn.  We plod on day to day, grateful each day no matter what comes.  Have a save, blessed fall, and here's to Autumn and Halloween!!

American Doll and Toy Museum: Preview Opening American Doll and Toy Museum

American Doll and Toy Museum: Preview Opening American Doll and Toy Museum:   Preview Opening American Doll and Toy Museum   3059 30 th Street Rock Island , IL 61201   September 17, 2021 4 pm to 7 pm ...

A Garden of Pot Pourri

 I was thinking of Rumer Godden's An Episode of Sparrows, and the concept of "stolen" earth.   Can earth be stolen?  I suppose we could steal bags of potting soil, theoretically, though stealing anything just is not my thing. I cherish a letter Godden wrote to me when I was doing my dissertation.  Also, a letter from Tasha Tudor with her illustrations is among my most prized possessions.

We can't dig on other's property; this is trespass.  I wish my idiot neighbors knew that.  He keeps trying to claim my ravine is his, and he mows down  my papyrus and castor beans.  She keep trying to plant things I don't want, and to snoop.  Ridonculous.

My lawyer said to ignore it.  So, I do.  They can't claim adverse possession, and all the survey's taken show it's my yard.  

On to happier things.  Not a great year for flowers, but  I'm trying.  The ornamental red pepper seems to do the best.  It was only a dollar on sale.  Next, there are some colias thriving, as well as a red petunia that is doing well.  I did some fairy garden effects, not as many as usual, but here and there you can see them.

I see more bees; that's good.  Tip:  leave a spoon with sugar water near the plants.  It will attract and feed the bees.  Also, plant flowers and plants that bees love to pollinate.  Our local community college extension is offering classes on making your own compost.  I'm sure this is going around the country.

With more mask updates and another possible lock down coming, finding gardening and home projects is a good thing.  So is reading and writing and art work.  Those of us who have hobbies and collect have fared better over the last year; we things to work with at home and too look it.  Minimalist living is not for me; too much like a prison cell or hospital room.

To me, downsizing is bad.  We work all our lives for what?  To have our things taken from us, our individuality sacrificed, and we are locked in a sterile white room in some nursing home with nothing.  It is as if aging is a crime, punished by isolation and loneliness.

Sometimes, it can't be helped, but more and more people turn to private home care.  I did for my family; they stayed home with me, and kept their personality and individuality.  It's all important these days.

Thinking also of projects involving fall foliage and pumpkins.   I hate to think of winter, but October is definitely my month.

Actually May Skyward Photo later

 

Skyward

 

 

By

David H Levy

 

June, 2021

 

A long time ago, while I was writing my biography of Clyde W Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, I learned from him that he had discovered other objects during his long search at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.  He found many asteroids during  his time at Lowell Observatory, at least one comet, and, surprisingly enough, one nova.  In February 1986, I visited Flagstaff in an effort to locate the nova that he found. It was a painstaking, tedious task but I loved it anyway.  Because Clyde had been so careful recording his observations from each photographic plate onto the envelopes surrounding that plate, I had only to read through all the notes from each envelope.  On one of the envelopes covering the year 1931, I saw the nova on a plate dated March 23 of that year. He remarked that must be "quite an interesting star to brighten from fainter than fifteenth magnitude in less than a day.”      

         I later found nine other observations of this star while going through old plates at the Harvard College Observatory, and then I reported them all to Brian Marsden, then director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.  He said, “I will announce it, but not yet.”

         “Why not?” I asked.

         “Because you are an amateur astronomer.”

         Them’s fighting words.  But before I had a chance to use them, he said, “If you were a professional astronomer, you would never look at the field again, and that would be the end of it.  But as an amateur astronomer, you have a lovely 40 centimeter (16-inch) telescope with which you can observe the field every night.  When the star erupts again, you will catch it, and then I will announce it as a current item!”

         Six months later, on March 23, 1990, I saw the star in outburst with that telescope.  It was 59 years to the day after Clyde’s discovery, and I was thrilled to let the discoverer know of it. The observation and history were announced in a subsequent announcement card.  Since the I have seen the star in outburst over and over again, and one of those sightings was on another March 23, which by this time had assumed more than one new significance: it is also the discovery date of our most famous comet, Shoemaker-Levy 9. It is also our wedding anniversary.

          TV Corvi is now my favourite variable star.  On each clear night I check the field. Onbe time I caught the star so early in its brightening that I was able to create a movie of the event. When there is an always welcome outburst, it is fun to say hello to my old friend, and I really have a feeling that the star answers me, from the depths of space, with a cosmic “hi there!” right back.

I'll be Back

 Soon, I will be blogging again on a regular basis.  I haven't been that well, but am bouncing back.  Was gifted many flower pots; plan to do flowers, and maybe some herbs.  I'm trying to re-seed smashed pumpkins, too.

A giant oak fell at my house; thankfully, no property damage and no one hurt.  It knocked out our electrical pole, and my neighbors', who are also close friends.  We all got through it.  It wasn't expected; tree had been trimmed, and checked by at least 4 tree surgeons, including those who work for our city.  It was huge; I could have stood in its trunk.

Here's hoping for violets.  There are more organic cooking shows out there than ever; our favorites are those by Jacques Pepin.  Iowa Ingredient is great for vegetarian ideas.  Lots of shows on organic gardening and farming.  Lots on using spices.

Recycling and upcycling with our nonprofit museum. American Doll and Toy Museum.  We soldier on.

Hope all of you are well; thank you to my followers.