Lily pads on the reservoir

It's September. The squirrels are gathering the walnuts. The Amish are taking their produce to the local markets. The children linger on their walks home from school.

The weather is glorious. Not so hot, not humid. Perfect weather for bicycling, walking, rowing, a hundred things. Soccer games, baseball games, fishing. The fishermen glide the river like water bugs.

This is just a short note to say, please have a wonderful day. Tomorrow is September 11th, not today. Hug your families. Laugh. Play. Sit on a quiet dock and look at the peaceful lily pads. Who knows when you might get another chance.

It's Good to be Back

After a long summer hiatus, I am back. It was a busy summer, with trips to California, Illinois, and the Lake Michigan shoreline.

 Indiana Dunes State Park is my new favorite August day trip from Fort Wayne. After driving just over two hours, a family can pay $5 for parking and play in the clean waves of the oceanic lake. My husband said he was expecting the familiar taste of salt water when he dove under, and it doesn't happen. Stress free swimming - no spiny things underfoot, no jellyfish or sharks. Just beautiful big sky views and sparkling water.

It was so dry in northern Indiana the summer of 2012, there were no fireworks in Leo over the Fourth of July. Instead, they were rescheduled for August, and they were wonderful over the reservoir - we could see them twice their size as the full reflection of the display was projected on to the still body of water in front of us. It brought the magic of summer to life, and gave us another set of memories to cherish.

We met up with family in rural Missouri, where we hiked and swam, and the children watched a penguin movie projected on a big screen outside on a beach in the evening while they swam in the water. I made a trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for a get together with childhood girlfriends. Lake Geneva was impressive, ringed in expensive estate homes and drenched with social history. The wealthy from Chicago and other nearby towns and cities have made this a playground since the 1800s. Lovely restaurants and shopping top off the good vibe to this scenic town.

Hopefully I'll be back to posting on a regular basis. I have a new idea for a writing project, so I'll be spending a lot of time in the near future starting my work on it. In my story, a 50-year-old woman rediscovers a package of 27 love notes and letters that were passed to her between classes by a high school boyfriend long ago. She had saved the notes but forgotten about them over the years, as they were buried with other old papers in a cardboard box. But as she re-reads them, she gets a new window to the past and to the precious joy and hope that blooms with young love. It gives her a new perspective to her life and to her long-time love, who is not the author of the notes. I may not have time to blog as much while I write my story, but I'll keep you posted on my progress.

 Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again soon. I've missed writing, even though I had a memorable summer. It feels good to be home.

Coney Island Hot Dogs are a Fort Wayne Tradition

The Coney Island Weiner Stand has been in continual operation in Fort Wayne since 1914. It sits in a traditional downtown storefront building on Main Street, and smells of steaming dogs and buns. Customers are lined up approaching the grill, but parties are seated at old tables. Down the length of the place is the counter bar, with ancient stools propped to view the grills and the workers behind.

The menu is limited and does not change. So customers have been eating the same coney dogs, chili soup, and cheeseburgers for generations. If you came in here to eat in the 1950s or 60s, or 1970s, 80s, or 90s - well, you get the idea. You would get the same coney dog that is a small amount of thin chili over the dog, with a steamed bun, minced raw onion, and yellow mustard. The hamburger or cheeseburger, which is exactly mustard, ketchup, pickle, onion. And no fries - chips, because they used to serve only the hometown traditional brand, made nearby: Seifert's.

The chili, which is more accurately described as chili soup, is great and is unique. The ground beef pieces in it are fine, not chunky. It is somewhat watery but packs a kick in flavor - I really liked it steaming hot in the bowl, served with oyster crackers. You can also get a fountain Pepsi or a Coke in a small traditional bottle.

Food is brought out on trays, and is served on served on tiny, hard plastic plates that would remind a baby boomer of one's grade school cafeteria. I noticed people walking in and out from the back door, picking up box-fulls of dogs, and there it is listed on the menu - served by the dozen. This is all new to me, but I did not grow up here. The locals have always talked about stopping here like it's a favorite haunt. If restaurants are full and you need to get the ballpark on time, the waiting list would be a lot shorter here.

I was too full for pie but I asked about it - the waiter said they had lemon, coconut and apple. Yum! That sounds really good. Coney Island is found at 131 W. Main St. near the intersection with S. Harrison. They are open at 7 a.m. during the week- does that mean it's hot dogs and chili for breakfast? I'll have to ask an old local about that.

Mount Baldy along the Lake Michigan shoreline

A few miles down the beach from the Michigan City scene here, stands Mt. Baldy, a 126-foot high sand dune rising up over Lake Michigan. It is starving, meaning there is more beach sand going out than coming in. When a breakwater was built down the beach for Michigan City Harbor, it prevented the new accumulation of sand at Mount Baldy, hence the 'starving'. But Baldy is traveling.

From the water, the sand moves in to the spot when the prevailing northwest wind exceeds seven m.p.h. This all means Mt. Baldy moves about four feet each year.

It's a fun park, where you can take a boardwalk around and down to the beach, or take a more challenging hike to the summit. Very few plants grow on the dome, so it looks very desert-like. Marram grass, also called dune grass, help to hold the dunes in place. There are also black oak trees on many of Indiana's dunes.

The parking lot is easily accessible from U.S. Highway 12, Michigan City. Drive in and you immediately see the huge back of the dune, about to encroach upon the parking lot. That side of the hill is closed to climbing so as not to hasten erosion. People do swim here in warm weather, and rip tide current signs are posted. Just hiking on the trails and strolling along the beach is very pleasant. Kids like to try and run up and down as fast as they can, tripping or even rolling, but that's kids for you. It's the usual - picnics, volleyball, people burying themselves in sand. Which, by the way, is not supposed to be healthy because of bacteria in the sand. Bummer.

I love taking photographs of the beautiful water and sand dunes. Dune grasses, the aqua water, white sand - I could look at it all day. Changing lights, sunsets - I'm in heaven. It's also healthy walking and great exercise if you keep moving.

Interestingly enough, a sign says not to sled, inner-tube, or snowboard on the dunes. I guess people will try anything. Hidden dangers are cited, not to speak of the danger to other people who simply want to walk on the dunes.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is part of the National Park Service. There are more than 390 parks in the national program. This one is just two and a half hours or less drive from Fort Wayne, and I do really like to see it again and again.

Mengerson Nature Preserve is in the middle of urban sprawl

Mengerson park is just down the road from Northwood Plaza on Fort Wayne's northeast side. There are 36 walkable acres here, and it's very private as it is cut through three layers of woodland. I would think many Fort Wayne residents barely notice it as they pass by on their way to Target or the Cinema Grill. But I think it's great - donated by the Mengerson family to be entrusted as public land. A couple, the wife with the lovely name of Ursula, made this generous gift, to make it possible for all of us to be able to find recreation and refuge in the middle of the city: even if it is near Suburbia. It was donated to the public land trust organization ACRES.

It's muddy through the woodland. Bring your mud shoes in the spring. I did see redbuds and pear trees beginning to bloom, and a layer of forest wildflowers. How I wished my dear friend JoAnne, who lives in California now, could have been there - she is from Fort Wayne and introduced me to this little nature preserve ten or more years ago. I haven't returned since then, but I don't think much has changed. JoAnne is an environmental scientist, and knows the names of all the plants - including the wildflowers' names that I am rusty at recalling - and walks with such focus and understanding it is a pleasure to be with her.

There are boardwalks built up in low places, and it's great to get up out of the mud. A couple of bridges span the creeks, and water is running, since it is spring. The trees are not leafed out yet. Even so it's a thick curtain, protecting us from busy Stellhorn Road. This park is literally found between a couple of houses near Maplecrest, and Reed at the next cross street. There isn't much parking, but I found a spot on the gravel rectangle.

Look for a few giant shagbark hickories. They curve inspirationally, as one could imagine seeing giants in the dark. There are also a few beech trees, one so smooth it has attracted the love carvers. A bit of patio furniture has found its way on one patch of the forest floor, and I found it charming, if not bound to be destroyed within the next six months. But this being a land trust, part of ACRES, and not formal Fort Wayne park property, there may be no regular maintenance crew that makes its way through here.

We walked the circle that claimed to be 1.2 miles, and it was a fine day. Give it a whirl. Imagine being a middle school kid, having the time of your life carousing in here some warm, moonlight night. Hurrah to public land. Get out there and enjoy yourself some.

Koto brings Japanese back

Did you know Native Americans used moss for a variety of things, including absorbent dressings for wounds, as diapers, and as packing materials? They also stuffed moss into moccasins and shoes for warmth. In this photo, you are looking down at the north side of the base of a maple tree. I have learned that moss can grow on all sides, depending on the amount of moisture and shade. It doesn't seem as though Mick Jagger has been gathering any, with all his upsurge in popularity as of late.

I really enjoy Japanese food - it is not a fad for me. Diners in Fort Wayne that wish to turn Japanese have had limited choices until recently. Asakusa has dominated the restaurant market for years, and frankly it's hard to beat it. That place is in a good spot on Lima Road across from the Meier plaza. But I've tried Koto a few times now, and it's good to see it getting some business.

There's a large white marble Buddha sitting in lotus pose in the foyer. I think this place was a fast food joint that was redecorated - looks pretty good considering with what they had to work. The kick plate of the sushi bar is subtle and lit with blue neonish lights - l like it. We sit at a table (no booth, says my friend in the know) and we're good.

It's lunch. I've had the maki special, which includes choice of two small fish rolls, and soup and salad. That's about $9. Next time I would go for the order that is choice of three rolls, because these are small and I wasn't completely satiated. I don't know, the one that comes with three is around $12. That might be better.

My friend has chicken teriyaki - with the rice and broccoli, it's a good price for $7. The tea - so-so. The clear soup was very good (hot! Just right). Also a good choice is instead: miso soup, if you like that. Soy and tofu; healthy and tasty.

They offer a lunch bento box - which I think is a good choice for something different at a Japanese restaurant. It comes with a lot of variety - veggie tempura and choice of entree, a 4-piece roll and rice, plus soup and salad. The bento box has dividers to separate one's food. It's attractive, aesthetically pleasing, kids might think it's fun, and it's $8.

I'm a big sushi fan so I have to dive and order a raw fish roll - many of us love the creamy, spicy rolls, but the sauces tend to pack on the extra calories. I can be good and get their rainbow roll. This is crab, avocado and cucumber rolled inside rice which is then finished with tuna, salmon, a white fish and avocado in a lovely striped pattern. That with the soy sauce and wasabi, I feel as though I'm eating some super foods. I think this was cut in about eight pieces, so with the soup and salad for lunch I was happily full.

There are a couple of new Asian fusion and such places on the southwest end of Fort Wayne, but I'm glad to see Koto up here on the Coldwater/I-69 area. I'm glad to live in a climate where there is moss, and I hope it sticks around. Unlike that is Curtis Smith's beard, our local TV weatherman, who makes a deal to shave it after Christmas each year once the temperatures hit the 70s. It will be gone today.

Hugo is all about artistry and working parts

One starts to wonder if simple machinery will cease to exist. We used to be able to fix and tinker with our own automobiles: today's vehicles are full of electronic and digital components and must be taken in to a garage and be diagnosed with a computer. The lovely mechanical carousel, seen here in the photo and found at Glenbrook Square Mall, has hand-carved animals and old fashioned machinery, but there are fewer of these original wonders.

Movie making, and its final product transferred to film, has morphed its way to current day digital production. In February we saw a couple of salutes to the grand old days of traditional movie making rewarded at the Oscars. I'm thinking of the Best Picture winner The Artist, and the film I am writing about today: Hugo.

This is a story about George Melies, the fantastic French filmmaker who made wondrous, mind-bending classics such as A Trip To The Moon in 1902. In that classic film, a rocket is launched in the sky and lands in the face of the Man in the Moon, causing a burst of cheese to erupt. You probably know what I'm talking about. In Hugo, directed by the iconic Martin Scorsese, Melies is at the end of his career, running a toy shop in the Paris train station. Marty Scorsese is a master of visual imagery, and in one of the first scenes, giant clock gears symbolize the spoke-like mechanisms of the working city itself. The grand train yard with its romantic steam engines and the musicality of the trains themselves become part of the aural background in the story.

It's a beautiful film; there is so much visual poetry with spiral staircases, wind-up toy mice, and a circling of camera movements to lead the viewer. I had been planning to say more about the story itself, but I am more inclined to report on some of the other things that flashed for me watching this movie. Today's children I know would never imagine a life so unpampered as to live behind a clock in a glass clock tower, as one of the key characters does: the boy Hugo. His father brings home an abandoned automoton - a mechanical human - and the two repair it in their spare time. Several times in the film, something happens to move one of the male characters to tears, and I am struck by the thought of how painful a man's tears appear to be. It was a week for tears- I'm thinking of Payton Manning crying at his press conference this week with the announcement he was out of the Colts.

But back to the movie. Again and again, we are struck by the joy, the lost art of mechanical things. Melies, near the end of his life and having lost so much, remembers being a boy and says with so much conviction, "I used to LOVE fixing things." I have always been drawn to people like that. What if no one knew how things worked? Maybe we shouldn't be allowed to own something without this basic knowledge. There sure would be a lot fewer cars around.

The fear of being taken to an orphanage - no child worries about that today. But it was a common theme in old movies. The idea of movies being dreams, or as your dreams being viewed in the middle of the day, or dreams made alive. A movie about the magic of movies. A celebration of artistry, of all kinds of artistry. It's a great thing to celebrate.

I've said I loved the sound in this movie. The pauses, the silences, the noises of every little clock mechanism magnified - lots of suspenseful timing. The sets, props, costumes, and cinematography is great. But I was surprised to see a few problems with acting and editing. Most of the acting was good, but several times I saw a reaction would not be quite natural, a glance would not look spontaneous; I don't know. What's up with that, Scorsese? Sometimes it's in the details. In the shots of Melies' original films, the French dancers even at a distance would raise their lovely arms to reveal obvious armpit hair (I'm not judging here - they are French and this was the early 1900's.) but when they were reproducing these scenes with the contemporary actress portraying his wife, in her lovely close-ups, alas - no hair. And then back to the old shots - dark underarm hair. And then back to the re-done close ups - bare as a baby's bottom. Come on, Scorsese, you are the master. Maybe you are losing your sight, but perhaps your film editor at least needs to be let go.

One of the best actors in the picture was surprisingly: the automoton (mechanical human). It's not alive, but Scorsese figured out how to light it, frame it, add sound to the takes and make his actors react to it. Maybe the automaton should have been nominated for an acting part. I know that's not right, but I was impressed. I did like this movie, and the more I read about Melies, the more fascinated I am. Best of all, it's clean - a family film. I haven't seen The Artist yet, but I'll be making some contrasts when I do. Thumbs and mechanical parts up. With Ben Kingsley as Melies and Sasha Baron Cohen.