Late Bloomer (Azalea) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
In early spring the south and gulf coast are abound with azalea blossoms. When we moved to the Arizona desert from the gulf coast, we brought along a potted azalea plant. Each spring our little plant had many blossoms. However this spring there were no blossoms. But much to our surprise in September one blossom emerged. — kenne
Lake Robbins Bridge on a Foggy/Frosty Morning– Photo Artistry by kenne (March 14, 2003)
Enough sun breaks through
The foggy/frosty morning
Misty white to gray.
— kenne
Katelyn Turner, Janie Turner, Joy Otrey, Kenne D. Turner, Mary Ann Turner-McCloud, Buddy McCloud, Katie Turner-Bailey and Kenne G. Turner (Lupe Tortilla’s in The Woodlands, Texas, July 27, 2018) — Image by waiter, Saul
We have been planning Joy’s 70th birthday for several months. We knew Kate and her Family who now lives in New Hampshire would not be able to make it to the beach house gathering in Galveston this weekend. We also knew that Katelyn, Janie and Kenne D. would be camping in Central Texas.
Then, a couple of weeks ago we learned Kate would be attending a conference in Houston this week, so plans were quickly made to have dinner on the 27th — Kate was very pleased. We arrived in Houston at 3:30 pm with plenty of time for dinner at 6:30 pm in The Woodlands.
Tomorrow we leave for the Galveston beach house.
kenne
The Woodlands Artfest (April 2009) — Digital Art by kenne
— kenne
Foggy Morning (The Woodlands, Texas, March 2003) — Image by kenne
— Carl Sandburg
“Yardwork” — Art by kenne
“yardwork”
BMW 328i and 318i
BMW Family, 328i and X1 — Image by kenne
Morning Walk in The Woodlands Texas, 2008 — Collage by kenne
Darkness in transition
Embracing the solitude
Pondering the moment
Filled with emotions
Posturing the thoughts
Consoled by pod music
Tempering the walk
Framed on the cover
Of the Rolling Stone
In the shadows of reality
Light in transition
Sharing the solitude
With morning shadows
Appearing in the light
Vanishing in the darkness
Stepping in alternation
Moving to the front
Moving to the back
Dancing to the music
In the shadows of reality
Kenne
Winter Solstice (December 19, 2009, The Woodlands, Texas) — Computer Art by kenne
— kenne
Panorama of Sabino Canyon Taken From Tram Road Near Stop 9 (February 16, 2010) — Image by kenne
At the time I took this panorama I had no idea the role this beautiful canyon would play in my life for the next seven years. In February of 2010, we drove to Tucson to explore our making a move from The Woodlands Texas to Tucson. Now the rest is history. (Flickr Album)
— kenne
Galveston Beach Front Devastation (September 13, 2008) –Source: http://strangecosmos.com/
Water’s Rising
water’s rising, and you who were caught
in last year’s flood, you are ready to scramble
onto the roof of the car and scream
but on this lonely backstreet, with a good
meal still warm in my belly and the wine
still sweet in my mouth, there are no lights
there is no cell phone, no traffic
no friendly strangers out for a stroll —
there is only the dark, and the current
— Bryce Milligan
Lake Woodlands Drive, The Woodlands, Texas (September 13, 2008)
Born in the Eye of the Storm
A storm in the Gulf
Satellite views as big as Texas
On track for Galveston
Strong winds of medium strength
Pushing a wall of seawater
People boarding up windows
Placing valuables in cars
Preparing to run from the storm
Others preparing to shelter-in-place,
Hoping the storm will turn away
Outer bands begin coming ashore
Bringing water from the sky and the Gulf
Providing a taste of things to come
As cars head north, one is headed south
With baby to be born
Arriving at the Medical Center
The delivery process begins
Outside the winds gain strength
Choreographed with mother’s labor
Moving toward a crescendo of life
Suddenly, there is peace and calm
As a baby is born in the eye of the storm
A prince of strength – symbol of the storm
A prince of peace – symbol of the eye
Forever in the eye of the storm.
kenne (Written for James, September 9, 2009)
(First Posted July 11, 2008)
The Water Flows
It’s hard for me to believe that it was six weeks ago
when I ordered the materials and began the preliminary
preparation for a fountain in our backyard.
There are many reasons why so long,
not the least of which was the delayed delivery of
the fountain pedestal, which finally can in yesterday.
By working with nature, you can look into your own nature.
“The secret of life is enjoying
the passage of time
Any fool can do it”
kenne
Images by kenne
“Everybody is ‘you’. Everybody is ‘I’. That’s our name. We all share that.”
— Alan Watts
Red Hot Blues — Computer Art by kenne
When I think “Red Hot Blues,” I think Stevie Ray Vaughn. We were able to see him at The Woodlands Pavilion in the summer of 1990, less than a month before he died in a helicopter crash in southern Wisconsin in route to Chicago. Stevie was the “Prince of the Blues.”
— kenne
Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Agnes.
(The following was originally written and posted September 5, 2012.)
Willie Agnes Poe passed away (September 8, 2006) after three months fighting post-surgery infection. During the last few weeks of Mother’s life, she shared stories of her childhood and often talked about playing with her close childhood friend, Fern. (They remained close throughout life.)
“We had so much fun playing in the cemetery — Can you take me back to the cemetery on the hill?’ she would ask. “I can see the man in black with a big black dog,” she would go on.
In her last days, the man in black visited her. As we were talking, she looked straight ahead, “…see him, he is here! Don’t you see him?” Then she would turn and ask, “Can you bring me a big black dog? I want a big dog! Can you get one for me?”
“Yes, we can,” would be my reply, We were making arrangements for Jill to bring one of their black labs by for Mother, just two days before she passed on.
On August 26, 2012, the family gathered in The Woodlands to celebrate the life of Willie Agnes Poe, which involved a brunch at Cru’ Wine Bar and a gathering at the pedestrian bridge over Grogan’s Mill Road.
After moving to The Woodlands in the mid-1980’s, Mother would walk the trails from her Grogan’s Landing apartment, which included the pedestrian bridge in a six-mile walk around the TPC golf course. Over time, Mother became functionally blind, limiting the trail walking, but not her walking. Early each morning she would spend a couple of hours walking back and forth over the pedestrian bridge. Our gathering at the bridge ended with a symbolic walk over Agnes’ bridge.
Why this celebration now? Because Mother had donated her body to the Texas Medical Center after her death, we didn’t have a family gathering to celebrate her life. It was our understanding that Mother’s ashes would be sent to us 2-3 years after her death. As it turned out, we didn’t receive her ashes till this past May.
Hall Cemetary
Several months after Mother’s death we got word that her brother, J.C. had died. I knew immediately we were going to Alabama. How I know just how important it was to bring closure on the Mother’s life. While in Alabama, Joy and I made a point of going to Lincoln, then two miles out to the country church and cemetery in Refuge. She was always at her happiest when talking about her childhood in Alabama, even more so during her last days with us. She always wanted to go back but knew she would only be able to in her vision of those childhood memories. It doesn’t go unnoted that with the importance of Hall Cemetery in Refuge, Alabama, Mother didn’t desire to be buried there. For her, a higher priority was to give her body to medicine.
While visiting Hall Cemetery, I wanted so to turn around and see two little girls playing in the cemetery on the hill – to see the man in black with the big dog – to hear the laughing, and see the joy when the big dog came running to the children. Instead, Joy and I walked silently, on this sunny fall morning through the small cemetery on the hill, which now represents the burial-place of the last surviving member of the Confederate army. As fate would have it, as we walked through Hall Cemetery, a black dog appeared.
By making the journey to Hall Cemetery, I have for my life captured the feeling of two little girls laughing and playing in a world that never vanished from Mother’s vision of happiness. Real or not, it was real for her – now it is real for me, and I might add, Joy.
kenne
A Celebration Of Life
“When the child was a child, it didn’t know
It was a child
Everything for it was filled with life and all life was one
When the child, when the child
The child, child, child, child, child
And on and on and on and on, etc. And onward
With a sense of wonder
Upon the highest hill. Upon the highest hill
When the child was a child
Are you there
Shassas, shassas
Up on a highest hill
When the child was a child, was a child, was a child
Was a child, was a child, was a child, etc.
… and it’s still quivering there today”
—from, Song of Being A Child. Music by Van Morrison, Words by Peter Handke
Related Articles:
Potted Azaleas On Our Tucson Patio — Image by kenne
— from “Azaleas In the Spring,” by J.B. LeBuert
Having lived over 25 years in the Houston, Texas area, one of the things we miss are azaleas blooming in the springtime. Here in the desert, our little plant began to flourish a month ago.
— kenne
