7/12/10 FIFTY YEARS AND STILL DANCING AND GROWING

FIFTY YEARS OF MARRIAGE...AND FRIENDSHIP
AND STILL DANCING!
BUTTERFLIES AND PURPLE CONE FLOWERS
TALL GRASS PRAIRIE WITH COMPASS PLANTS
Monday, 7:45 AM. 65 degrees, wind W, light with some gusts. The sky is blue but hazy and the barometer predicts rain. There is .25” of rain in the gage and a puddle in the driveway. We encountered some brief but torrential squalls on our trip.
The 50th Wedding Anniversary party was a great pleasure, as it was a tribute not only to a long and successful marriage but to the family they have raised and all the fine things they have done for their community and professions. Bill and Allene are independent, resourceful people who started with little and have created a wonderful life for themselves and many others. Joan and I are fortunate to have been their been friends for all those years.
We stayed two nights with my cousin Susan in Elm Grove for two nights and caught up with a lot of family news and had a good visit. We had time also to visit the prairie in Whitnall Park that I planted almost a half century ago as a MS degree project. It was not quite in full bloom but still very colorful and diverse. Many people have cared for it over the years and I thank them for that, but it is being encroached by trees and shrubs and could use some work at this point. I am amazed at the hundreds of six and seven foot tall, yellow flowered compass plants (Silphium terebinthinaceum) that the great ecologist Aldo Leopold mourned as nearly extinct seventy years ago. We can and do make progress, but often forget how resilient nature is…at least with a little help!