A new perspective

Last year on July 25

August 17 - all flowers, no pumpkins

Not being a real farmer with a cash crop to worry about, I could leave behind my pumpkin patch during the worse drought in years and travel to Alaska with rarely a homeward thought, except about Ozzie and how he was faring from his inside perch. All the same, I silently hoped to see pumpkins peeking out from behind the overgrown vines that immediately sprouted after planting in late May. I am even quoted as predicting a "killer crop" this year, based on the early growth. I told myself it really didn't matter if my pumpkins perished in the heat and extended dry spell, but felt the disappointment welling up in my heart as soon as I viewed the sorry sight. Vines with no runners. Flowers with no fruit. Comparing last year's progress is even more disheartening. The pumpkins are not behind schedule - they're completely off the schedule.

Last spring

This August - low in the middle

Dry at the edges

Covo Hills is drying up in this summer of 2012 drought. The ponds that were still full in May are evaporating - some are already dry.

Last year

This August - empty creek bed

I wondered, what is the message in this summer calamity, this summer of unfruitful harvests and cracked earth. Then I saw it - standing tall next to my perishing pumpkin patch on the edge of the dry pond - its tiny electric flowers reaching heavenward -  a gorgeous bush - flourishing even in the dry summer heat. Too often we see the things we want to see and miss the things we should see.

"...the whole earth is full of His glory." -- Isiah 6:3

It takes a village and then some

No one is happier than Jeff about the Katherine Legge Memorial Park Disc Golf Course. No one. Not the disc golf enthusiasts who put in a collective 500 hours or more in the sweltering heat, Jeff included. Not Kevin Dvorak, the eagle scout who used troop manpower to install poles in concrete. Not even Gina Hassett, the director of Hinsdale Parks and Recreation, who gave the project her blessing and support ten years after it was eliminated from the 2001 Hinsdale Park Facilities ten-year master plan.

Nick was 15, Katie was 11 when Jeff went to the initial master plan meeting in January 2001 to propose a disc golf at Katherine Legge, the first anyone heard of such an idea.  Later that year, when the course was in jeopardy and on the verge of being eliminated from the master plan, our family set up a couple baskets at the Hinsdale Fall Festival and asked residents to sign a petition in support of the project.  Jeff attended many village meetings, submitted a design and proposal and a final letter of disappointment in February 2002 when disc golf was removed, not just from year one, but from the plan altogether. He called Katherine Legge "our largest underutilized parkland asset", a truth echoed many times by many residents over the years.

The completion of the KLM course is a joy for many - in true "if you build it, they will come" fashion. We saw a group of four teens out the first night after the baskets were in. But for Jeff, it is the culmination of a ten-year vision for Hinsdale. I only wish it was completed when our kids were here to play with him.

First morning after the basket installation

Custom crafted and painted signage poles

Pathways over the creek an extra provided by the enthusiasts

In December, we mapped out the course for fun. See Jeff in the distance where a basket would go

The basket

          

A beautiful course even in the drought of 2012

Jeff and Gina

Before the baskets were installed, the disc golf enthusiasts, created, painted and cemented in each hole's numbered sign posts.

Home Alone

I didn't want to leave Ozzie home alone while we went to Alaska, but then I met Kaitlyn and knew he would be okay. Ozzie was raised in the arms of teenage girls.  Katie, Meghan and many others cuddled him as a kitten, and he still likes the attention today.  Later, I heard Charlie got involved so Ozzie was in good sister-brother care.  Now if he would only stop waking us up at 3:30 a.m.