Travel on the Gravel

Thank goodness, late last week the creek receded, and life got back to what passes for normal around our house. On Saturday it was cheering to hear, and then with effort espy, the first flock of sandhill cranes high in the sky. As I write, late this night, we have a frog chorus from the muddy creek banks. I don't know my amphibians, but there is one species that gabbles like ducks, and another that chirps like crickets, so we have a rich range of sound all around. Enough of my obsession with seasonal transitions--I'll get back to posting images from the recent New Zealand research junket.

After our research at the Canterbury Museum, we headed up-country, with a stop in the lovely country town of Geraldine. There were two reasons for the stop. First, this was the long-time home of memory artist Preston Young. We found a stained-glass window devoted to him in St. Mary's Church of Geraldine and resolved to return for investigation of his life there. Second, we came to see Elsie Gillespie, who with her husband Rae once operated Lindis Motors, in Tarras. We intended to collect an interview from her as part of our project to document the Tarras Church kneelers.

We were not disappointed. Not only was the interview outstanding--Elsie was generous with her recollections--we also were royally entertained! The interview material eventually will show up in publications, but how about those pikelets! For the benefit of my American students, I'll explain that pikelets are like little pancakes, commonly served for afternoon tea, with rich whipped cream and jam. See the photo linked below for the evidence of Elsie's able hospitality.

After the interview we drove over to Geraldine's Vintage Car & Machinery Museum, where Rae's Case L1 tractor is on exhibit. Tractors figure largely in the Gillespies' story from the Upper Clutha.

One more thing to note about the jaunt to Geraldine--not far from there, we stopped to view a wonderfully bedecked fence around a sheep paddock. I had heard of something like this in the high country, around Cardrona, but we were previously unaware this particular outbreak of bra-draping. Image below.

Paddock fence bedecked with bras
Elsie Gillespie, who shared her memories of life in Tarras
Elsie's pikelets, with jam and cream
Rae's L1 Case tractor, in the Vintage Car & Machinery Museum

A program upcoming at NDSU on the evening of 26 April features the mysterious New Deal documentary film, Rain for the Earth. Here's a flyer (PDF file) about the program.

Here, it's wet. Yesterday morning we set off for church and never made it. Creeks were out, the Sheyenne River was out, and we found no roads open to Maple-Sheyenne Lutheran Church. So we decided to drive west and scout the water situation. The Sheyenne north of Mapleton was more than a mile wide; its eastern-most tributary creek, two miles from our house, filled most of a section. This was a bit ominous, so in the afternoon I made a trip to Fleet Farm to pick up some sump hoses and an extra inverter, just in case. By night, though, the Maple was reported to be receding.

Meanwhile, last Friday I heard a plop-plop in the creek and saw that the first two wood ducks had hit the water. This morning (Monday) a pair is swimming around our garden. On Saturday mallards began pitching in. Hiking the floodway that day, I saw the first killdeer and a meadowlark, with a flock of swans winging overhead. The rhubarb in the garden is bulbous. Redwings have returned, adding to the welcome bird chorus, although soon I'll come to consider them a nuisance.

There--back to the New Zealand expedition. Arriving in Christchurch, we had some research on the memory artist, James Preston, to do at the Canterbury Museum. After that we strolled along the Avon to get photos of the monument to women's suffrage.

Canterbury Museum
Women's Suffrage Centenial (1893-1993) Monument