Botanical Specimens - Iris - 1928

Wild Iris (Flags) - Botanical Specimens - Spring 1928

Wild Iris - Plant Description

Wild Iris (Flags) - Spring 2009 

Botanical Specimens - Trillium - 1928

I thought I'd continue to post some of the spring wildflowers from James Waning's Botany Notebook. 

I love the continuity - the flowers he studied in the spring of 1928 are still here in the spring of 2010 for his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to enjoy.    

Trillium - Botanical Specimen - May 1928

 Trillium - Plant Description - May 1928

Trilliums - Spring 2009

Botanical Specimens - Lambs' Tongues - Spring 1928

Lamb's Tongue or Trout Lily - Latin name - Erythronium

In May of 1928, James Waning, a sophomore at Mohawk High School, scoured the woods and fields to put together a Botany Workbook.  The Workbook contains twenty-seven mostly wildflower specimens, and the accompanying Plant Description pages.

All these years later I am amazed at just how many of these same wildflowers grace my small part of the world.  

Lamb's Tongue - Plant Description

Field of Lambs' Tongue - May 2009

Lane County Farmers' Market - Late April

"How I Spent My Saturday Morning" 

by Beth

Mom, Lex and I headed out to the Lane County Farmers' Market this morning.  What does that mean to me?  Great food and lots of it!  "Field to Table" is a regular presence at the Market.  Their menu changes each week.  The only constant is that all their products come from the Market.  This morning I could not pass up the Scrambled Eggs with Dungeness Crab in a Mornay Sauce with New Potatoes and Toast - yummy!  The Crab was provided by Ocean Harvest.
I finished it off with Pan au Chocolate from Hideaway Bakery.

Carrots and Beets

Lots of wonderful fresh produce too - we bought some radishes.

Cheery Radishes

Tempting Tulips

These tulips would brighten anyone's day!

A Marriage - 20 April 1911

Marriage Certificate of Janet McAdam and Willard Lowe Waning

Ninety-nine years ago today Janet McAdam married Willard Lowe Waning in Livingston, Montana.  About one year after that their only child, James Willard Waning was born.

Janet, James, and Willard Waning - about 1915

Will's Celebration

The Birthday Boy

The Pizookie with Candles

The Older Brother and Mother

Schoolwork 1930

The Primary Cell - Rought Draft

As you Waning "Greats" attempt to buckle-down this Spring term, I thought you all might be interested to find that some things have not changed much, if at all, in the last 80 years or so.

Matthew, in particular, might be pleased to know that in 1930 - James Waning's senior year of high schoool - he was concerned about the word count of his essay on "The Primary Cell".  If you look carefully on the bottom left you can see the column adding his word count page by page.

I should mention that the final draft received an "A" and a "Very Good" comment!
    

The Primary Cell - Final Draft

14 April 1979 - Inishmore to Dublin

"Saturday

Kilronan

I am cheating and writing this the day afterwards - and it's kind of hard - it seems SO long ago now - I can't believe that I ever did it.  Spent most of the time travelling back to the infamous Maples Guest House.

I woke up several times in the night because my nose was freezing and I could hear the wind howling - when I finally got up this morning it was pouring rain - so Thomas, Veronica, Joanne and I decided to rent a bus to Kilronan - then the husband, Mr. Connolly offered to drive us in.  I spent most of the morning reading "Travels With Charlie" by John Steinbeck.  I absolutely LOVE that book.  It's weird but I think I prefer my authors to die of natural causes rather than commit suicide - so maybe that's why I prefer Steinbeck to Hemingway.  I got kind of sad though - the part about "...and it was Sunday and it was raining and it was Oregon".  Something about those words brings Oregon so clearly to my mind I get the feeling that even in the short time Steinbeck was there, he caught the essence of Oregon.

So we rode down to Kilronan - that ended up costing 50p and had tea at the old lady's cottage again.  We watched our boat pull in and got on after the passenger disembarked - it seemed like there were far more passengers this time - the people who come out here for a day are crazy - they can't see anything of the island in the two hours before the boat leaves again.  77 kegs of Guinness got unloaded at Kilronan - I don't know whether to be amazed or appalled - or both.  

Cliffs of Moher

The ride back was lovely, the weather cleared up, and I could see the Cliffs of Moher to the south and Connemara to the north.  The Burren looks like an enlarged Aran Island - rocks, dark and angry.  We pulled into the harbor at 7:20pm - got fish and chips and left Veronica and Thomas to catch the 8:30pm train to Dublin - it did not pull into Connolly Station until 1:15am .  I saw another beautiful sunset - ink black clouds, then blue-green, a line of yellow, and then orange to the horizon. 

The Savoy

Lots of people were still out around Dublin (Joanne and I slept on the train).  A movie let out at The Savoy as we walked past, and all down Drumcondra the "Take Aways" were still lit and open.  We threw rocks at Sheryl's window - she came right out - both she and Susie (my room mate) have cut their hair - short, short!  I was all hyper and woke up Susie and talked to her for a long time while I looked at my stuff from my Bunny Pal.  Also FIVE LETTERS!  Two from G.C., one from G.W., Dorothy Sheard, and Helen B.  The Home-Coming."      

Maples Guest House

  

13 April 1979 - Inishmore

"Friday 13 April 1979 (Friday the 13th)

As far as I'm concerned, I could not have asked for a nicer day - instead of bad luck, doom, and depression, the day was by far the loveliest in ages.  SPRING HAS ARRIVED!  With the sun shining, Joanne and I took off to Dun Angus and the other end of the island.  Dun Angus is the impressive remains of a circular fort - half of which has fallen off the cliff into the sea. Dun Aonghasa is a top a 279 foot sheer cliff - the whole south side of the island drops off suddenly into cliffs - the sky was blue, the Atlantic Ocean bright blue - gorgeous - we walked along the cliffs pausing every five seconds to admire the scenery and finally turned inland at An Clochar Beag. 

Dun Angus

Walked to Dun Eognanachta and then down into the village of Eognanacht.  Spent time in the cove of An Gleannachan and ate lunch.  Paused to look at the churches (the seven churches) and then went to "our" beach - Port Mhuirbhigh and read for an hour or two - the sun continued to shine brightly all day long - the hills of Connemar, the Twelve Bens were clearly visible as were the small settlements along the shore.

In the evening Joanne and I decided to hike up to Dun Aonghasa again to watch the sun set into the Atlantic and it is here that I run out of words.  My powers of observation are not all that hot anyway and my vocabulary is small and limited, but I will try my best.  The sun shone as it should in the ocean - trailing out golden into the water.  The clouds were painted by an Impressionist - black and then streaking off into wisps of grey and white.  The cliffs were amazing - high tide and the waves crashed and banged  sounding like thunder and sending spray far over the tops of the cliffs - this on a sunny calm day - a storm would be truly overwhelming!  The waves whirling and swished in endless patterns - spray and foam - churning - POWER!  

We walked down Dun Aonghasa before the sun set, but before we left the islands od Inishmaan and Inisheer were soft and grey and clearly outlined.  Dinw on "our" beach, the sunset was spectacular - covering all the way from the hills of Connemara, over our heads, to the hill of Dun Aonghasa - orange, and crimson, and tea rose red - picking up and catching the puff-ball clouds over our heads.  The Connemara hills looked mossy and velvety in the fading light - along the ridge of Dun Aonghasa and to the right the clouds fanned upward like the sun's rays, and the sunset seemed to burst into the sky - for me it was a perfect day and though I'm unhappy to leave so soon, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful encore."     

Happy Birthday Will!

Margaret Waning and William April 1996

William - Spring 1997

William - The First Car 2000

William and Scary Girl Cousins - 2003

William - 2008

11 April 1979 - Inishmore

"Thursday

Here I am and I still can hardly believe it - kind of a grey day, but warm nonetheless - none of the fierce winds I'd expected off of the Atlantic.  Two Englishwomen let us use their bicycles for the day, and so we headed off toward the village of Kilronan and then on beyond it - bicycling proved to be alot of hard work - I guess I'd rather kidded myself, saying I was in marvelous physical condition by walking the level streets of Dublin daily.  Got red, hot, tired and out-of-breath, but had a basically great time. * We cruised through Kilronan and went on to the airfield and stayed for a while at a very nice beach there shell hunting...Found some lovely shells.
On the way back stopped to look at the ruins of a round tower - have come to the conclusion that in Cashel, Joanne and I climbed the only climbable round tower in Ireland!  First of all the thing that strikes me most of all is the desolate nature of the island - because there are no trees - and having been surrounded by trees for most of my life, a treeless landscape is both frightening and awesome.  The colors - the grey of the sky, the sea, the stone fences contrast with the green paddocks and white-washed houses.  Rabbits run wild - over-populating the island - far more rabbits than people.  Brown ones with white tails.

We had tea at an old woman's thatched cottage in Kilronan - served us delicious soup, three kinds of bread, tea and milk - all for 60p.  Talking to some of the older islanders is difficult.  Though most speak English they do so with a sing-song lyrical cadence that is quite beautiful, but hard to follow clearly.  Cars, television, "Grease", discos, and electricity have invaded the island, but there still remains the never-ending pattern of stone walls, the occasional thatched cottage, the potato beds, and the older women all dressed in black or in a coarsely woven dress.  
I chanced to talk to Veronica and Thomas (a Frenchwoman and an Englishman) and we went to the pub with the,  Before that, biking home, Joanne and I followed the lower coast home - gazing constantly at the veiled hills of Connemara.  The pub proved to be an interesting experience - Gaelic the first language, and Joanne soon noticed that we were the only women there.  Men played darts in the corner and sat and talked and smoked.  Womenless - perhaps they stay home and knit Aran sweaters!  It was still strangely light at 10:30pm when we came home, which was nice since there are no street lights - the moon haunted out of dark clouds, before going into hiding again."  

*It was humiliating at the age of 20 to watch 70-85 year-old women riding their "no-speed" big black bicycles with no exertion while I huffed and puffed and wished for a ten-speed!      

The Aran Isles - Easter Week 1979

"Wednesday 11 April 1979 Galway to Inishmore

I'll never complain about the Irish again ha-ha!  Our B & B family was so nice - the husband drove us down to the dock right to our boat this morning so that we didn't have to get up super early in order to walk down.  Got on the boat - it was a LONG ride - left at 7:30am and got to Inishmore at 1:30pm.  I was kind of upset that it was such a dull day - we could have seen alot more if we'd had nice weather. 

Lots of kids on the boat - Joanne and I came up with the brilliant solution that they were Island kids going home from boarding school for Easter break (and we were right). 

The most interesting part of the journey was when the boat stopped off shore from the two smaller islands and them men came out in their curraghs to take supplies and passengers.  We stopped off the middle island, Inishmaan, first - about four or five curraghs came out to meet us carrying three men a piece.  It was exciting to watch them bobbing about in their little boats - picked up passengers, barrels of Guinness, cupboards, doors, orange drink, and cement. I could see both Inishmaan, and the smaller island of Inisheer quite clearly as we rested out from them.  Inishmaan had two or three settlements with runs of an old castle on top.  Inisheer was quite small with a large sandy beach that extended up to part of the village.  

We landed and got a ride to what we thought was our guest house - but she was all booked up - told us to come back later - so we wandered around - tried to find an old fort - got lost in the mazes of rocks.  But the guest house thing worked out - we share a very cold room with two English women - rather distant.  After dinner we walked down to the beach - great stuff!"   

Easter Weekend - Saturday

Tulips

I was amazed at the variety of flowers and vegetables available on the first Saturday in April in Eugene, Oregon. I think the floral vendors knew that their customers were looking for special Easter bouquets, so the tulips and daffodils were in great demand.  The Lane County Farmers' Market is truly a jewel in our crown!

Just look at these glorious leeks...

 

All kinds of fresh greens and carrots too!

Easter - 1954

James Waning and Margaret Upton Waning

Wishing all the Waning Clan a Joyous Eastertide! 

Easter - 1965

Edward  and Beth - Easter 1965

Easter - 1995

Easter - 1995