A Modest Little Poem About September

Sweet September

These days are clear and quiet,

Trees beginning to turn, slowly,

Toward something new.

Mornings the birds are quiet

And I hear the occasional squawk of crows and blue jays,

Not so much the sweet tune of cardinals.

Afternoons the skies are blue, the wind still,

The Big Lake preternaturally calm,

Cicadas singing their end-of-summer songs.

Night, ah the nights are so sweet,

With the great rhythmic concert of crickets—

It lulls me to sleep, nature’s mantra, litany, rosary,

My windows open, the cool night air seeping in,

Me dreaming about auroras.

Bob Coughlin / September 14, 2017

Spectacular Mid-Spring Wildflowers at Headwaters Park

Today I hiked at Headwaters Park at East Branch Reservoir in Geauga County, Ohio. This park is near the headwaters of the Cuyahoga River--by the way, pronounce it right: CUY-uh-HOG-uh--remember to "keep the HOG in CuyaHOGa." O yes, we pronounce "hog" around here something like /hawg/. We don't like people who say CUY-uh-HOE-guh or CUY-uh-guh (for God's sake!). The pronunciation is like a shibboleth (check out the etymology of that word). We detect outsiders by the pronunciation of this word.

This park is one of the best in the area for wildflowers. The spring wildflower season comes to an end when the leaf canopy closes up. This year the spring is developing later than usual, but the canopy is starting to close now. The early wildflowers are nearly gone. Today I saw lots of bloodroot foliage--but no blooms. I saw massive areas of gigantic skunk cabbage. I believe the jack-in-the-pulpit are still in bloom here, but I didn't see them from the trail. Still, this late in the season I saw about 10 species of wildflowers. I saw masses of wild geranium, blue violets, white violets, marsh marigold. I saw phlox, three types of violets, foam flower, false solomon's seal, and other flowers that I can't identify. Oddly, I didn't see any dogwood (about 10 miles north of Headwaters Park, at Girdled Road Reservation, I have seen hundreds of dogwoods in full bloom). Here are some photos from today's walk:

Great fields of violets!

Hiking, and being with the wildflowers, brings me great comfort during this time of political distress, when we have legitimate worries about America being taken over by a fascist political movement.

Full August Moon Over Geauga--Haiku Poem

Full August Moon Over Geauga (Haiku)

Yes, You are the Moon,

And I am a Lunatic--

This sweet summer night.

[Bob Coughlin / August 10, 2014]

Maple Syrup Season in Chardon and Geauga County

One of the surest signs of early spring around here--the sap buckets hanging from the sugar maple trees on Chardon Square. We like to think of ourselves as the maple capital of Ohio and are very proud of our maple syrup (and candy, sugar, etc). Here are a few photos taken this morning on the Square.

Gazebo and Courthouse in the background

"Blackwaters"--A Song for Those Against Fracking

With minor changes, Jean Ritchie's brilliant song "Blackwaters" could be used as an anthem for those fighting the devastating water pollution threat of Fracking (like Frack-Free Geauga here in Geauga County, Ohio)..

Here's a Youtube video of Jean Ritchie and her tune:



I got to meet Jean Ritchie in 1978 at Alice Lloyd College, in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. She is one of America's greatest folksingers, a national and world treasure.

Thinking about the Melonheads of Kirtland/Chardon

Lately, as the winds of autumn howl and the bitter rain falls, as the maple leaves turn red and orange, my mind turns toward thoughts of the Melonheads that roam the deep woods along the Kirtland-Chardon border, where Lake County meets Geauga County, Ohio. I know, friend, that you've been thinking about this too. About these perverse, terrible, and unfortunate monsters, created by Dr. Crowe's despicable experiments, condemned to roam forever the forested hills and ravines of this part of Northeast Ohio.

Yes, friend, I know that you've gone looking for them too (as I first did as a teenager in 1964, with Gary Czyzynski, Jay Neidermeyer, Buster Zylowski, and other Euclid friends from the St. William's-Upson School neighborhood). What we saw was too terrible to reveal back then; in fact, I can barely write about it now.

I can't bring myself to tell you exactly where to look; it would disturb the peace of those unhappy, melon-headed souls and the few normal residents of the area. I wish I could dissuade you from looking. If you don't find them, you will be disappointed; if you do find them, you will have to carry this terror in your heart until you too feel the cold clay of the grave. The Melonheads are nothing to fool with. Not everyone comes back from searching for them. Others come back, but irreparably damaged by their new and terrible knowledge.

Take care, my friend.

p.s. I have 2 other posts on the Melonheads: one from October 30, 2010; and one from October 27, 2009 (that one with photos)

Spring Is in the Air

At my Geauga County home, 6 to 12 inches of glazed snow still cover the ground despite 50+ temperatures. Only heavy rain will melt all of this snow. Amazingly, a few areas of green grass have peeked out from under the blanket of white--a promise of things to come.

The days are considerably longer than the dark days of late December. What's really amazing is the increase in bird song in the morning. And the solid gigantic ice sheet that covered 10,000 square miles of Lake Erie as recently as last week is shrinking. I'm expecting to hear the annual stories of ice fishermen stranded on ice flows and Cost Guard rescues!

It even smells different outside today. There's an earthy smell, not the blank smell of dead winter. And there's even a bit of color in the trees and shrubs. The willows are turning a yellow color; the red-twig dogwood are really red; the silver maple buds are just swelling and bursting into a strange early flowering. Holy Toledo!

Spring is a-comin'!

Long Winter in Geauga County, Ohio!

This morning I looked out on about two feet of new snow (on top of who knows how much old snow!), and thought how we seem to be the snowiest place on earth. Of course that is ridiculous. But we are indeed the snowiest place in Ohio! Cleveland has certainly had less than half of our snowfall this year. Their temperatures and snow accumulations seem like a different world compared to ours--and we are probably only 40-45 miles east of the airport, where official weather conditions are measured around here.

I just checked temperatures in my favorite places across America and the world--and we in Chardon and Geauga County are the coldest and snowiest. I checked Kalispell, Montana, where my daughter CC is training with AmeriCorps and the Montana Conservation Corps; I checked her former home in Leadville, Colorado; I checked my home from long ago in Innsbruck, Austria; I check Lexington, Kentucky, where relatives live; I checked Athens, Ohio, where my youngest daughter lives; I checked Galway, Ireland, one of my favorite cities in the world. And of all these places, we were the coldest and snowiest. Geez, in Innsbruck, Austria, it is 50+ degrees--and that's in the Alps, the skiing capital of Europe! Kalispell should hit the high forties or 50 today, and that's on the Canadian-US border! And Leadville is in the high 20's right now, heading higher, and that's 2 miles above sea-level, in the highest of the Rockies!

What's the deal here? Is it some kind of Divine Retribution? I'm so glad that I have proclaimed March 1st as the First Official Day of Spring!

"Blow Up Your TV"

"Blow up your TV

Throw away your paper

Go to the country,

Build yourself a home

Plant a little garden,

Eat a lot of peaches

Try and find Jesus on your own"



Thus goes the chorus of John Prine's song "Spanish Pipedream." This past week we sort of blew up our tv. What we did was this: we got rid of our cable TV.

The first day without television was eye-opening. I hardly knew what to do. I ended up reading a bit of Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, The Lacuna. Then I played my guitar and later my Irish whistle. Later I went to the piano and pounded out the few songs that I know. And then back to the whistle and the guitar. At some point I turned on the radio, NPR in Cleveland, 90.3 FM.

I started thinking what life in Geauga County, Ohio was like before television, which probably arrived here in the late 1940's (though reception was probably not good this far from Cleveland). And then I wondered about life before radio; that must have arrived in the 1920's. And electricity, which gradually came in the late 1800's and early 1900's. And the automobile, which probably didn't get here in any great numbers until the 1910's and later. Widespread telephones probably spread to Geauga in the 1900's to the 1920's.

An odd thought occurred to me. Right now, in 2009, we have thousands of people in Geauga County who live without most of the above--the Middlefield Amish (the second or third largest Amish community in the world). Now the Amish have very strict rules and mostly follow them faithfully (though like Catholics, they find creative ways to get around the rules). So you will see Amish people in their horse-drawn buggies--getting Big Mac meals at the drive-through window at McDonalds. Or Amish boys in Middlefield on cell phones.

Anyway, that first day without television was interesting.

Melonheads of Kirtland/Chardon?

[Top photo: possibly "Heartbeat Bridge" near Kirtland-Chardon Road; middle: this might have been the site of Dr. Crowe's sanitarium, where the terrible experiments were conducted; bottom: near the Dr. Crowe site]

I know you believe in the Melonheads, just as I do. We know they come from somewhere near the Chardon-Kirtland border, where Geauga County meets Lake County. We even think we know the name of the road near their haunt. We know that old Dr. Crowe, with his evil brain experiments and genetic research, unleashed these monsters. We know about "Heartbeat Bridge," and how our hearts beat in terrible unison with the troll-like Melonheads that lurk beneath.

People often ask me if I have seen the Melonheads. The answer is not so straightforward. I began searching for them back in 1964, when I was 16 years old. Once, in the Kirtland woods on Halloween, I glimpsed dark, strange shapes hurrying through the forest near Heartbeat Bridge. I shined my flashlight on them and saw 4 pairs of red eyes and what seemed like gigantic heads. It's well known that Melonheads' eyes shine red in the dark (apparently a result of Dr. Crowe's genetic manipulations). So were these Melonheads? I think so, but I cannot be 100% sure.

Be careful around Halloween, my friend. Think twice about hunting for the Melonheads. We've all heard of the terrible things that have happened to those who hunt for the Melonheads and get trapped and tricked by these monsters. Take Care, my friend!

p.s. Is that Dr. Crowe's headstone in front of the house on Reynolds Road in Mentor-on-the-Lake (near Salida)? What other explanation could there be? How did the tombstone get there?

Astonishingly, there is a Wikipedia entry on the Melonheads. find it at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_heads

The article mentions "legendary stories" of Melonheads from Germany, England, Connecticut, Michigan, and Ohio. These might be "myths" or "legends" in these other places; but too many people around Kirtland and Chardon have firsthand encounters to use the terms "myth" or "legend."

The Early Signs of Spring

Our winter here by the North Coast of the United States, near the shores of Lake Erie, has been long and hard. Lots of snow, and at times very cold. And mostly long, cloudy, long, and dark. It's amazing how deprived we are of sunshine. There must be an incredible deficiency of vitamin D among Northeastern Ohioans. Not that I'm complaining!

But there are some signs out there of the earliest spring. We are now getting some days where the high temperature goes above freezing, the signal for the maple syrup season to begin. Any day now, the sugar maples in Geauga County will be tapped. Another wonderful sign is the tremendous increase in bird song and bird activity. The early morning birdsong makes my own heart sing! And finally, the days are getting longer. And when we go to Daylight Savings Time in about a week, sunset won't happen until 7:30 PM. We are ready for that, ready for spring, and ready for warmth and flowers and green grass!

North Chagrin Reservation and Strawberry Lane: Fall Beauty

The prettiest places on earth in the fall are in Geauga County, Ohio, the maple syrup capital of Ohio, and in the Cleveland MetroParks' North Chagrin Reservation (this straddles Lake and Cuyahoga Counties). This area is home to the magnificent sugar maple-beech forest.

The top photo is the pond at Strawberry Lane in North Chagrin. The middle photo is also in North Chagrin, near U.S. Route 6 (Chardon Road). The bottom photo is in Hambden Township, Geauga County.