Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Lake Massabesic, springtime 2007

Originally uploaded by Broompl.

Scrawny NH pine trees and pale springtime sky–Lake Massabesic reflects them.

Tonight I’m missing my beautiful NH, even though I now enjoy similar cold, wet springtime in Massachusetts. (My daffodils are coming up, but no buds yet!)

Lake Massabesic provides drinking water to my hometown of Manchester, NH. My raffish and beloved great-uncle Joseph P Devine and his wife, the former Mae Kelly, lived right on that lakefront, when I was a little girl. Of course, it is forbidden to swim in that water–but not to sail boats on it.

Let me digress to say more about my Uncle Joe, aka within the family as “Darlin’ Joe.” Much more than my grandfather Maurice Francis Devine (his baby brother) Uncle Joe carried on the traditions of his Irish parents–and he was their favorite. He and Aunt Mae took over both the family businesses that had grown out of the very successful carpentry trade built up by Patrick Devine–the Devine Funeral Home (because carpenters build lots of coffins) and the Devine Travel Bureau (because recent immigrants want to take those coffins home to be buried in Ireland.)

But whenever the humor was upon Uncle Joe, he and Aunt Mae would shutter both those businesses (which shared one building) and gather up some of the many children who loved them both for some new adventure. Often they’d take a whole bunch of us to Hampton Beach, bringing us home bright-red with sunburn, full of lobster dinners and saltwater taffy.

Once they completely terrified my poor parents by keeping us out until something like 2 a.m. at a drive-in movie where we saw a wonderful double-feature of Nelson Eddy and Jeannette McDonald. My mother assumed that “dinner and a movie” was an event that would get her four children home by maybe, at the latest, 9 p.m.

Now, with that preparation, I hope my dear readers will not be shocked to learn that on one very hot day in one long-ago summer, my Uncle Joe took us four Devine kids on a boatride onto Lake Massabesic, in which, I repeat, you are not allowed to swim. We were all wearing life jackets because you must, on a boatride.

In the middle of Lake Massabesic, Uncle Joe stopped. “Now,” he reminded us, “swimming is forbidden here. But sometimes it just happens … that you fall off a boat!” He then picked me up and threw me far into the water! Yes, remarkably, all four Devine children “fell” into Lake Massabesic on that hot day and had to swim back to the boat.

Not that I’m recommending to anyone else to be as naughty as my Uncle Joe. But now, looking back, I realize just how lucky I was to have known him.

…when it reminds me of California Christmas?

Dead squirrel

Originally uploaded by velvetmarmoset.

Ronni Bennett’s Elder Storytelling Place is brand-new–but I’ve already found lots of wonderful new stories there.

It’s a lovely project that deserves your attention–and would be a great place for your own stories. I wonder how many stories-per-person will show up there. Will it give an insider’s view into the lives of a few of us? Or will it showcase the most story-like memories from a wide range of us?

Research by Seth Anthony (reported at Wikimania 2006 in his talk “Who is creating real content for Wikipedia?“) suggests that most people run out of energy or material after no more than ten or so “high-content” contributions.

For example, my blogfriend Bert hasn’t posted since 2005. How I miss him! How I enjoyed his memories of the 1980 Olympics in upstate NY, his scenes from the 2004 election, and his celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

For another example, I doubt that I have even nine more memories that fit into story form as well as my dead squirrel story.

Props to Ronni for starting this project, which will surely enrich us with many people’s great stories!

Waterlily from summer 2003

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

I took this photo hoping to get a good focus on the honeybee inside the flower. Instead, I got a sharp focus on all the surface-tension-droplet action at the surface of the pond itself.

Then in springtime 2007, I rediscovered this photo and re-cycled it into a background image for my posts at Twitter.com.

Surely there are some metaphors for life itself here?

My little sister and her little white dog

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

I miss my own little white dog Marianne.

But now that I’m in Florida visiting my little sis, at least I get to play with her little white dog.

Palm trees — blue skies — feeding pelicans on the St. Petersburg pier — these are all spiffy.

But spending a week with my sister is even more so.

Mmmm! Let us all eat Marie-Antoinette-knows-what, but first let us photograph it and blog it here.

Thanks to Rebecca Blood for the link, giving me an excuse to re-post this gorgeous piece of Vienna liebeschaum from 2005.

Male Brown-headed Cowbird
Originally uploaded by Justabird.

“The perfidious Mrs. Cowbird” is a heart-breaking villain in Maud Hart Lovelace’s story about a little girl adopted by robins.*

Cowbirds lay eggs in the nests of smaller birds–cowbird babies then shove aside their smaller nestmates.

Some bird species fight back–for example, by pushing a cowbird’s egg out of the nest. But, in a counter-strategy to that counter-strategy, cowbirds check up on their eggs, ransacking and destroying nests if the cowbird egg has been removed.

I’m glad Maud Hart Lovelace didn’t know about this. I cried enough childhood tears over Mrs. Cowbird.

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* The Tune Is In The Tree, now out of print.
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Thanks, Amity, for emailing a link to this study!
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p.s. In much, much warmer and fuzzier bird news, Dervala’s Ranger Tim and his bachelor rooster are more or less brooding some tiny Easter chicks.

Baby sea otter“
Originally uploaded by Hakana Akane.

Oh yeah, British television?

Oh, yeah, I’m talking to you–over there, with the classics adaptations and all the actors who can really act…

But do you have sitcoms with an adorable baby sea otter orphan? Do you, huh?

Didn’t think so.

What, people in England can still watch Animal Planet?

Never mind.

The Boys
Originally uploaded by bonsaikiptb.

The always-eloquent Zen of Motorcycling just blogged this photo of two male cardinals in a moment of (rare) peaceful coexistence.

…which reminds me to recommend to you Self Made Man, by a writer-woman who disguised herself as a man, joined a bowling team, lived in a monastery, dated women, and otherwise explored just how the other half lived.

I won’t give a long book review–I’ve almost but not quite finished reading it–but I will say that halfway through the book I walked through a busy shopping center and liked every person I saw better than I would have before I started reading the book.

If you think about it, that’s a very strong rave review.

Ah, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ballroom Dancing.

I love this book.

Frank loves this book.

We have been having a lot of fun watching the DVD and trying some of the steps. Frank, who is a genius and not an idiot, brought this book home last week. We want to improve our dancing skills–well, doesn’t everyone?

After reading a lot of the book and also dropping it halfway into the bathtub (this is the mark of honor for a book in our house, it shows that a book is truly so enthralling that a reader can’t let go of it even when taking a bath), I decided to call the author’s 800 number (in the book) to see if he could recommend a dance teacher in the Boston area. But, to my surprise, he teaches dancers in Providence, RI, only an hour’s drive away, so we signed up to take some lessons from him.

Jeff Allen is not just a good writer but also an excellent teacher. We are having a lot of fun. Would we be able to learn so much so fast just from the book without taking lessons? Probably not–but the book and DVD just by themselves are very enjoyable and informative. And if you live close enough to Providence to take actual lessons from the author, I thoroughly recommend doing just that!