Dear Reader:

Yesterday was a “cobweb in the brain” day! Ever had one of those? It’s not really a headache as such…or if it is…only a hint of one deep back in the recesses of the mind…it feels more like a fuzziness or cobwebs in the attic (as Grandmother Wilson called the feeling.) You just want to keep shaking your head…hard.. to knock it out and clear your brain pathways again.

As the day went on…the fuzziness continued… and then suddenly around mid-afternoon an unexpected summer shower arrived and blessedly cooled things down. So I got in my car…rolled down the windows and just started exploring Summerville…turning down back roads, taking detours, and finding some of the most beautiful “rural” areas in vacant fields and empty lots. The scenes filled me with such beauty that my brain settled down and I could feel the calmness start to cut through the cobwebs.

*There’s also a lot of be said for turning off the air conditioner and breathing in fresh air in an ‘open windows’ car!

Look at this amazingly gorgeous corn field I found…standing tall and straight after the summer shower. Imagine finding this in an old neighborhood within town limits…I had never come across it before.

I pulled over and parked the car…and just let my mind rest and wander. It is astonishing what happens when you do that…my old brain reverted back to the wonder of a child.

I remember learning and later teaching about the importance of maize…the most important gift our Native-Americans taught us to plant and use. The gift (corn) that keeps on giving.

Colonists soon learned how to use Corn (their most staple food product) to make cornbread, cornmeal, corn flour, johnnycakes, corn pudding, popcorn, corn on the cob, cream of corn, corn chowder, etc.

Today corn is still the most major ingredient…particularly as a filler in cheap hamburger patties and other meat products and in corn syrup used in practically everything imaginable. (Not exactly what the Native-Americans and early colonists used it for…certainly not the healthiest by-products .)

When I think of corn…I immediately think of corn on the cob…and don’t forget the butter…is there anything better? I remember as a child literally squealing when I looked at a boiling pot and asked Dora if she was cooking corn on the cob…she would smile…and go to the refrigerator and pull out a stick of butter as a response to my question…I would scream and run outside to tell all the neighborhood kids we were having corn on the cob. (I got some mean looks I remember…every kid could eat corn on the cob every day, every meal.)

By now my ‘child wonder brain’  had drifted off thinking of expressions using the word  “corn”…and suddenly I found myself wondering why corn is so good…but “corny” has a negative connotation…as in being “un-cool?” How can anything with corn be “un-cool.”

So until tomorrow…This post might seem pretty “corny” but it got rid of my cobwebs and for that I will be very appreciative. In fact I am going to go pop some corn right now in celebration of a clear mind again!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*A special shout-out and thanks for prayers of support for so many things going on these past few days and especially for “the girls” tight web of friendship and support, not only for each other, but our children too. 🙂

I love houses where the owners have purposefully added a flavor of “country” right outside their door…my kind of people! (More cobwebs vanished taking this picture too)

Anne admitted it is going to be hard to leave fiddle camp in Maine…wonderful people, fun, and oh the weather…cool wonderful weather. But we all miss ya Anne and pray for a smoother passage home than going.