Summer and Cranes

After a few days of marathon paper grading, the semester finally released its grip on me and, in the midst of three or four frosty mornings, allowed me to begin "the summer." I spent yesterday in a desultory way mulling over what should go into the book about Audubon's 1843 journal and expedition, and this morning set to to begin transcribing and making notes about the diary John G. Bell kept on the expedition. A pair of Sandhill Cranes regularly lands in the little upland marsh just east of our house in the mornings to hunt for frogs and snakes, and we enjoy their loud raucous calls. This morning they were especially loud, and they were calling at the same time that I was transcribing Bell's account of seeing many Sandhill Cranes near St. Louis on April 15, 1843. Inspired to try to photograph them, though still in sweatpants and sandals, I grabbed the new camera and moseyed through the high seedheads of the dandelions to the edge of the marsh, where they actually allowed me a few shots. So, that was lucky and I thought I'd show them to you.

We have many plans for the summer, so it will probably go by far too quickly, but it promises to be a fine three months. Alison will run the Bay Shore Marathon on May 29; then we'll drive to South Carolina for a longer visit than our usual rush-job. When we get back, Jenny will arrive for a visit of a few weeks, and Shane will come up for a visit, and some work on a deer stand. Sometime in June or July, I'm going out to the Beinecke Library and the Boston Athenaeum to read manuscripts by Audubon and others for the 1843 book. And Alison's running will take us to the Grand Island Marathon the first weekend in August, followed by the Marquette 50-miler on August 21. Her training for the 50-miler has been going well; she is very dedicated and I take inspiration, and some good camping trips, from that.

Two years ago, when Alison made her first attempt at a 50-miler (in the Manistee National Forest), she got the hydration wrong and tanked--that is, stopped after running only 26.2 miles. This time all the indications are favorable, and I believe we'll be celebrating her successful run on the shore of Lake Superior the weekend before classes begin. What a glorious finish to the summer that will be.

When I'm out East, I will hope to see David, who's still having trouble with his legs at Officer Candidate's School in Newport, Rhode Island.

The manuscript of the 1826 Journal is going to a copyeditor soon, and I'll have the copyedited version for three weeks in September, so that's good progress on that project.

In the meantime, we'll do our best here to make the summer last as long as possible.