OVER THE TRANSOM
Is It Spring Yet?
By SANDY RASCHKE
Somehow we are caught in a loop
between Winter and Spring, with Winter winning. Since the
official start of Spring, March 21 or so, we’ve had mostly rain,
or ice pellets with rain or plain old snow and rain, and very
low temperatures. For part of a week in mid-March, it was warm
and the flowers began to bloom and the leaves began popping out
on the birch trees and shrubbery. The hyacinths looked
promising, and then—a dip into the mid 20’s overnight and that
was the end of the hyacinths. They shriveled up and the
emerging blooms turned a lovely shade of tobacco brown. Through
it all, the blue rockcress that we planted last summer and
looked as if it had died, popped out of the snow in early
February and has been blooming ever since. The big bumblebees
love it and spend most afternoons mining for pollen. At least
we have one success story in our “natural” high desert
gardensphere.
We’ve been staying close to home,
mainly because of the bad weather and the insane prices for
diesel and gasoline, but also because we needed to put up a
fence and do some work around the house. Now that most of these
tasks are completed, we’re thinking of taking some small trips
around Oregon and maybe a bit beyond. We even went to a free
Boat and RV Show a few weeks ago at the Deschutes County
Fairgrounds in Redmond and looked at travel trailers—there were
so many models—hundreds!—that it made my head spin. Some of
these palaces on wheels had plasma TVs, working electric or gas
fireplaces, washing machines and dryers, complete bathrooms with
jetted tubs and full showers, and queen-sized separate
bedrooms. Some of the bus-like motorhomes—giant behemoths—were
priced in the $250,000 range. However, given that most of these
diesel pushers or gas guzzlers get only 6-7 miles per gallon, I
don’t think they’re too popular right now
Of course, most
people were “just looking” and, given the economy, not too many
were buying. The section of the fairgrounds that featured a
dazzling array of boats, from speed boats to houseboats,
attracted a lot of lookie-loos, too. Oh well, it is
fun to look and maybe dream (at those prices, though, mostly
about winning the lottery).
Our latest “close to home” adventure
involved a local horse show. The Paint Pony Club of Jefferson
County put on a demonstration of horsemanship at our local
Fairgrounds. It was incredibly cold inside that arena—low
40’s—but everyone bundled up to watch the young, mostly teenage,
riders compete in several competitions, including showmanship
and riding (walking, trotting, cantering and backing-up). We
saw a lot of poise and seriousness, but everyone also seemed to
be having a lot of fun. And the horses were big, beautiful and
flashy, with braided manes and long tails that touched the
ground.
As for Calliope, the fiction contest
entries are dribbling in. We’ve extended the contest deadline
to June 15 and will be announcing the winners by mid-July.
We’ve also decided to go back into the archives and retrieve a
few previously published stories that we’ll be featuring from
time to time as “A Calliope Classic.” In order to reprint the
stories, we have to get the author’s permission; and that is
taking some effort, since I haven’t kept all the manuscripts
we’ve published in the last thirteen years, so I don’t have
current addresses for every writer that’s been published in our
pages. The plan is to first contact those writers who do have a
current email address, or are current subscribers. So, some of
you may be hearing from me soon.