Big Goose on Campus

Oh what great joy to visit my son’s college campus on our “private family weekend”. Ben was a wonderful tour guide, cordial and helpful. He filled our parking meter with just the right amount of change to get the sixty minute tour which was just the right amount of walking for this old goose.

For weeks, Ben has been sending me text messages with pictures of his lake on campus. I haven’t heard of too many college campuses with their own lake. This lake is creatively named, Campus Lake. As a waterfowl, I was very excited to head there directly. And believe me, it’s more beautiful in person than my Silly Pix camera can capture. And yet I tried…

Ben would like to live in the dorm across the lake for next year…

Mother Goose loved the large lily pads on Campus Lake.

It seemed to Mother Goose that some of the architecture of the department specialty buildings reflected the nature and personality of the distinct disciplines.

The Engineering Building

Wham! Educational Building

And then there are the classic designs which we might expect from a college chartered in 1869.

The iconic clock tower with quarter-hour Westminster chimes

A campus castle behind the canna

Shryock Auditorium

The Morris Library is a much more modern structure than the others, and named for former university president, DeLyte Morris. Mother Goose just loves that name! They’ve named one of the cafeterias, DeLyte Lunchroom, in his honor and there’s a nice statue of him in one of the common areas near Shryock Auditorium.

The modern Morris Library

There’s a forest right smack in the middle of campus! It’s called the Thompson Woods, and there are signs at the entrances warning us not to enter the paths and the woods after dark. We did see a six-point white tail deer near Ben’s dorm on Friday night — he was just munching grass under a streetlight. Mother Goose nearly had a conniption — how exciting to see an antlered buck on a college campus!

I believe there may be a sasquatch somewhere on this woodsy campus.

We found an outdoor sculpture app entitled “Here” and it was so very reminiscent of Stonehenge. The college seems to have an Egyptian theme — their mascot is the Saluki (a long-haired Egyptian canine) and there are allusions to pyramids and Sphinxes here and there around the campus. But Stonehenge? Hmmmm…..

Possibly the sun would align with these mini-monoliths at certain days and times…

Well, who is that goose peeking out from behind the sculpture?

Yes, it was a lovely tour. And it ended all too soon with the “goodbye” session near Ben’s eighteen story tower dormitory. My tall and handsome college man walked away, thinking of many things: the good family fun we enjoyed, the five-page paper that would be due in the morning, the 100 pages of reading he had to do by Tuesday.

We all loved our visit with Ben! Not ALL of us got a piggyback ride though…

We pointed the goosemobile north and headed for home, hearts full of love for our Ben and our family time together. Blessings and happy faces to you from your friend, Mother Goose!

Mother Goose in the Giant City

As I strolled the streets of Giant City, my mind continually trailed back to the thought, “Abe Lincoln could have possibly walked through these narrow ways…” Indeed it was an idea to ponder as we hiked and explored this unique state park in southern Illinois on Saturday.

A geological wonder… wait…what’s this tiny little warning sign say?

Poisonous snakes! Omigooseness, we won’t be exploring the Fat-Man Squeeze!

Here’s AnnaRose having heavy thoughts about the monoliths all around her.

Ancient civilizations made their abode here, carving arrowheads out of the rocks and cooking smores in these caves.

We strolled through the narrow alleys until we were nearly lost. Oh wait, we DID get lost!

This boulder has been balancing for at least 10,000 years.

The moss and ferns were so lush on one side of the street, bare rock on the other.

We were shocked to see graffiti from the 1800’s. Mom always said, “Fools names and fools faces are always found in foolish places…”

An ideal hike for thin people like Jessi.

These sheer stone walls, probably built by ancient aliens…

Four of my tiny offspring.

Mother Goose always hikes with her stylish fabric sandals…

Thank you gentleman Ben for helping your mother down from the big rocks!

Located just a few miles outside of Carbondale, Giant City State Park is 4,000 acres of rugged and beautiful terrain. Our hike only covered one mile of the great geological wonders — plan to stay all day to enjoy the full array of rocky structures. Maybe next time we’ll do a little rappelling off the Devil’s Standtable…

Juice with a Goose

There comes a time in the life of a goose when we must make a choice, to juice or not to juice.

There are the obvious health benefits to the practice of extracting the juice from our fruits and veggies. Of course, Mother Goose is much too busy these days to research what those benefits might be…..but you can probably just trust me on that.

We are told that the enzymes and vitamins which our bodies crave can be pulled out of the fibers of these veggies. It has been suggested that drinking the nutrient-packed juice causes these tiny yet explosive atoms of energy to be more easily quickly and easily digested and entered into our cells.

I would even go so far as to say that by the time I’m done washing up all of the juicing equipment, the energy from the juice has been transferred to my body and have exploded into a million various movements of dishwashing activity. In other words, drinking the fresh juice gives me the energy to wash the juice making machine. It’s a perfect cycle of caloric spin. Nothing wasted, not much gained…

Today’s juicing recipe called for lemons, cukes, ginger, apples, pears, parsley, lettuce, spinach, kale, celery and cilantro. No animals were injured or maimed in the process.

I am the proud owner of a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer! Note to self: Jack’s birthday is coming up on September 26th — he’ll be 99 years old. Who DIDN’T grow up watching Jack do his exercises on TV? Remember how Mom really loved to watch his show? Maybe your dad didn’t watch Jack Lalanne, but I bet everybody’s mom did…. Also, remember all of the urban legends throughout the years that Jack had died of a heart attack? All proved false — Jack actually lived until 2011 and then succumbed to respiratory failure as a result of pneumonia. He did his workouts up until the day before his passing.

Jack Lalanne in 1961. Oooh la la.

Oh yes, l threw in some little tomatoes at the last minute. And oh yes, I DID grow them in my little goose garden…

Your mouth is watering, right?

It does not take long for Mother Goose to prepare the fruits and greens for the juicing experience. I have found that I can save approximately ten minutes of prep time by just skipping the “washing of the produce” step of the process… And if there are any bugs or small proteins caught on the fruit or greens, I simply chalk that up to bonus nutrition.

After you have extrapolated all of the juice and disposed of all the remnants of greens and veggies into your backyard compost pile, then you are ready to enjoy the distinctly natural and raw flavor of the juice AND you will begin to reap all of those benefits of which I haven’t quite yet googled…

As healthy and green as a spring meadow…

Drink it fast. As fast as you can.

Now Mother Goose has the energy to wash up all the equipment — the juicer and the strainers and accouterments — and get it all ready for the next juicing experiment.

Thank you for stopping in to drink juice with a goose…

Juicify!!! Have you had your juice today?

They Fly Away

The ultimate goal of motherhood

Is to raise up baby birds

Who will someday fly away.

We know that we’ve succeeded

When they no longer need us

To drive them to school

To walk them home from school

To brush or comb their hair

To give them sweet milkie at bedtime

To advise them of the dangers of riding the Blue Line at night

To advise them of the dangers of smoking cigarettes

To advise them of the dangers of drinking too much beer

To advise them of the dangers of premarital “relations”

To advise them of the dangers of washing their whites with their darks

God bless all of my fledglings today!