Reading together

"The whole life of the average house, it seems, is a sort of indigestion." Frank Lloyd Wright, "Chapter 4--The Cardboard House" Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930, page 65

I recently came across a wonderful description in a guidebook about Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the western US. It's in the section on the Hanna or Honeycomb House at Stanford.

"Jean and Paul Hanna both grew up in Minnesota. Married in 1926, they had three children. When they were both teaching at Columbia, between 1925 and 1935, they came across a review of Wright's Princeton lectures of 1930. They subsequently bought the book of them, Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930, and sat up all night reading it to each other. They were so taken with it that they wrote to Wright, and met him in Taliesin the following summer on a trip to Minnesota." From Heinz, Thomas  A. 1999. Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide: West, Volume 3, page 33

It goes on to describe the process they went through to work with Wright to build a house at Stanford, where they re-settled in 1935.

I post on here about Wright buildings not because I'm enamored by his homes and want to live in one like them but because they are interesting, many are in the Madison and Chicago areas, and I'm attracted to his ideas on organic architecture. What I've been thinking about is how the couple became so enthusiastic together that they took turns reading to each other into the night and I guess breaks to talk about it. I wonder if they laughed together at the quote I put above and talked about what it meant. This kind of closeness is what I think is important in life.

Here's the first part of that paragraph starting Chapter 4:
"Any house is a far too complicated, clumsy, fussy, mechanical counterfeit of the human body. Electric wiring for nervous system, plumbing for bowels, heating system and fireplaces for arteries and heart, and windows for eyes, nose, and lungs generally. The structure of the house, too, is a kind of cellular tissue stuck full of bone, complex now, as the confusion of Bedlam and all beside. The whole interior is a kind of stomach that attempts to digest objects--objects, 'objects d'art' maybe, but objects always. There the affected affliction sits, ever hungry--for more objects--or plethoric with over plenty. The whole life of the average house, it seems, is a sort of indigestion."

Paul Hanna was a leading figure on elementary school education and the Social Studies Editor for World Book Encyclopedia for 35 years. [More on him  in "Paul Hanna at Stanford University"] Jean Hanna was also an expert on childhood education, but I haven't found much yet on her career.

Paths--Stony Run Trail in Baltimore

"Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking." Henry David Thoreau, "Walking," essay published in The Atlantic Monthly in June 1862, after his death [I picked this quote because last week was the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth and this comparison with a camel seems ridiculous to me.]

One of the hiking or walking trails/paths in Baltimore I like is Stony Run Trail, which follows a creek of that name northward from about Jones Falls. According to one website on trails, it's about three miles mainly on or near a former Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad line, nicknamed the "Ma and Pa," that ran from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania, until the 1950s. (According to the time schedule, the trip took about four hours, that is, about 20 miles/hour.)

Here is a map: http://stonyrun.org/what-we-do/walking-path/maps-full-size/ I enter near the Remington Road bridge or by University Parkway. On my way back from Northern Parkway, I usually try one of the roads south, such as Charles Street, to take a look at the houses. The ones with huge porches interest me because I wish more houses had them. When I was a preschooler, our house in Mechanicsburg had a small porch, but I rarely went on it since my mom asked us play in the backyard away from the busy street. One summer while I was in law school, I subletted a room in an old house with a small front porch that had a swing on which I'd read to get out of the heat of indoors.

More information at the Friends of Stony Run: http://stonyrun.org/what-we-do/walking-path/

This sign emphasizes the benefit of reducing stormwater runoff:

From bridge over Stony Run north of University Parkway:

Part of the path. The creek is on the right and houses can be seen behind the trees on the left. 

This was in a garden near the path.

Mulberry Trees

One of my memories that stand out to me of when we lived in Mechanicsburg, PA, when I was about four and five years old, was walking along the railroad tracks and picking mulberries, which we then took home to eat with sugar and I think some milk. After we moved to Kansas, I sometimes found some to eat along former farmlands, one by a vacant lot near our apartment complex in Shawnee and others near our Lenexa home.

This is a tree by a path than runs through Madison's Rennebohm Park, about a ten-minute walk from my apartment there. Madison allows foraging of fruit from city parks, but I make sure to pick just a small number so as not to hog them. Bicyclists, runners, and walkers go by and stop to eat some. The stains on the path are a useful sign that there's a mulberry tree, although that's one reason homeowners should take care where they plant them.

Even though this park has been close to me for about eight years, I've rarely walked through it. Whenever I head out to Hilldale Mall or Sequoya Library, I usually walk along Sheboygan Avenue.

Promoting fruit tree plantings on public lands for harvesting by anyone is becoming more common. The Baltimore Orchard Project runs a Mulberry Madness Festival throughout June to encourage the eating of mulberries. The city of Madison has started an Edible Landscapes program, which includes allowing and encouraging people to plant something edible on terraces (the strips of land between sidewalks and streets).

The view  from Segoe Road of the eastern side with evergreens when covered with snow reminds me of idealized winter scenes of my childhood, especially the cover of the "Christmas with Chet Atkins" album. I only have photos of this view without snow, as in the picture below taken from the sidewalk.