Month: May 2016
Foggy morn & French polishing
Foggy sunrise over Lake Springfield this morning! Shortly after the sunrise, the fog rolled in densely and blotted out the sun altogether!
I did a bit of maintenance on the veggie garden to prepare it for seeding and planting of some small plants, but really my focus today is French Polishing the guitar. Put 3 more coats on yesterday, but was not pleased with the smoothness of the surface so I took it back down a couple layers….
Did you know that after he left the Navy, Sean Connery trained as a French polisher, working on the finishes for pianos and coffins…? He also took dance lessons for 11 years. (Source: The Independent UK). Maybe if he is in the neighborhood, he could stop by and give me some pointers?
Illinois Police Officers Memorial Day
The annual Illinois Police Officers Memorial Ceremonies were held today in Springfield, Illinois to honor those police officers who have given their lives in performing their duty to protect and serve the people of this State. I specifically want to mention those close to me who made the ultimate sacrifice while we were in the service of the Illinois State Police…
Trooper April Rapp Styburski EOW 1/5/90
Special Agent Gary Degelman EOW 5/5/89
Sergeant John Kugelman EOW 11/10/86
Where does the time go…?
For someone with nothing but time on my hands, it seems I am quite busy, and had nothing to show for it! Least of all, keeping up with my walking/hiking postings! So I am going to cheat just a bit here, and cover a little mini-holiday The Mrs & I took to Starved Rock State Park just a week & a half ago by linking to HER posting about it…. she even has some wonderful photos!!!
And this posting is about our arrival at Starved Rock a couple days prior…
Let me confess that while I have been wanting to post about Starved Rock since we got home, I have found so many other things to busy myself with, and sitting at a computer keyboard was not at the top of the list… However, I received notification that my friend, Charles Hawes, made a posting on HIS website, titled Walking the Blog, and it motivated me to sit for maybe 15 minutes and update OGW…
(Charles, if you are reading this, I hope it is okay that I called you my friend!!)
Grace & I met Charles and his wife, Anne Wareham, last summer when we went hiking along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path in Wales… Last summer Charles completed the EPIC WALK AROUND the WELSH PERIMETER!!! He is a hard-core walker, and his writings about all his walks are quite fun to read. I encourage you to read his most recent posting as it has just about everything you could want to read about… a Welsh metropolis, Welsh mountains, Dr. Who type-trees, the (upscale) Waitrose, sheep (both surprised and not), exuberance portrayed, bracken, fancy huts… plus MORE! What more could you ask for?? Oh, gardening? Did you ask for gardening?? Check the link to Anne above, it takes you to her garden blog!!!
Back to Starved Rock for a moment… I grew up in a small steel mill town on the Rock River in northern Illinois. Starved Rock is about 70 miles from where I grew up, and as wonderful as it is, I only went there ONCE until I went again last week… It is about 130 miles from Springfield. The Mrs & I have already planned another trip to Starved Rock…
Old Guy Walking 