Bards Do Sleep

While the taste of spring is all over the place, the smell of smoke and sight of it on the horizon from West Texas fires filled the air on a strong North wind from the passage of the cold front in and during the first bells of the day and throughout the daylight hours. The storms all moved along the cold front North and East to Minnesota. There were only very light showers, although, I am taking the morning weatherman at his word because all I remember is hearing the air conditioner come on a couple of times during the night. The temperature actually rose over night until the passage of the cold front. So, we were able to dodge a bullet on the tornadoes and strong thunderstorms.

It was a few minutes shy of one o'clock before I was able to leave the house. With the beautiful sunshine, but North wind and much cooler temperatures, I dressed in layers. And, as expected, I was peeling off the top two layers as the afternoon wore on and the sun beat down on my back. Yesterday, I was in shorts with and a T-shirt as the temperature hit 83-degrees. It's been a weird winter and the spring has started out that way, too! In fact, maybe that is why my days have been unside down and right side backwards of late.

The Creighton University women's rowing team has been at White Rock since Monday and will be here until the competition race with SMU is over by noon on Saturday. The lost a coupe of half day practices because of high winds earlier. I got a chance to talk to the bus driver that I have chatted with for a couple of years. He was telling me that he is about to retire and that this would be his last trip down here. His wife will be retiring also, he said. But it isn't to be precluded that he is going to set on his Iowa porch and watch the corn grow. He has a business plus he has a farm, he also manages a farm that is in the family and he plays golf. I have always enjoyed talking with him because he has a since of humor like I do.He doesn't worry about things that he can't control, like me and he has that same viewpoint that I learned from my dad that has a bit of sarcasm at times. Of course, the secret of that is knowing when to use it and when to keep quiet. I'm going to miss his visits to White Rock.

From there I made my way to Winfrey Point, parked overlooking the lake and ate my Fuji apple. It would tide me over until dinner. Then, as a final check on wildlife, I found the Bard owl and the nesting pair of Red Shoulder hawks. The female red shoulder was on the nest again and the male did bring here a bit to eat. There were two more photographers in the area that drifted over. But my images of the day are new growth for cards and marketing pieces and the cute Bard was actually caught sleeping with his head dropping. I had been a bit worried about him falling out of the tree, but then I saw those massive hooks embedded into the bark of the tree. Better the tree bark than in skin, that's for sure. 

Click on any image to enlarge all three.

A wasp nest already underway for 2017 with a wasp working on the nest.

A beautiful Ukulele. The man strommed a couple of cords. The sound was ever so mellow.

An there sits the Bard Owl fast asleep! So cute. Animals are just like us. Or, we are very much like them. There are still people who think that they aren't like us at all. Pain, Blood, Hunger, Life, Death. I sure can't tell the difference. To me, animals actually help us understand who we are more than anything else on this planet.

Aristide Cavaille-Coll

For some reason, the name Cavaille-Coll always invoked the Grand Organ at Paris' Saint Sulpice Church. Or that Daniel Roth was the titular organist there, having his name added to the long list of famous organist who have been organist at St. Sulpice; Paris' second largest church out side of Notre Dame .

It's only been the last year that I have researched Aristide Cavaille-Coll, (1811-1899) the builder of that famous organ and the importance of the systems designed by Aristide, an engineer as grand as the organs he built. There were some 600.

He came from a family of French organ builders. His father, Dominique of the French city of Languedoc and his grandfather, Jean-Pierre Cavaille of Barcelona. The family's legacy is traceable to before 1700.

French organs placed importance on color and contrast. The two things that I have always liked about French organs. In the states, I choose a Casavant Frères,  a prominent Canadian company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building fine pipe organs since 1879. The sound is as close to a Cavaille-Coll as it gets.

Aristide invented many of the systems that took the old-world tracker action organs and allowed them to do things that had never been able for organist to accomplish because of pneumatic wind pressures that made pipes speak instantly when the keys were pressed. In the old tracker actions, you pressed the keys and waited for the sound to catch up. Needless to say, the delay between key press and sound was not only hard work manually, but mentally as the timing generally had  you pressing keys to play when the keys released were just producing sound. In other words, you were playing ahead of the sound that you were hearing. Add the echo factor in a great cathedral and you became an expert in delay management. Pneumatic motors and wind chest redesigns brought the organ into a more constant ratio of key press to sound hearing.

I laugh at the Lay Family Organ at the Meyerson Symphony Center here in Dallas. First, the organ is a muddy sounding Fisk and second, it appears to be a tracker yet it has all the modern features of pneumatic. The Meyerson would have been better served and the Lay Family's grateful donation, as well, had the organ been of French design with," a whole blossoming of wonderful colors ,a rich pallet of the most diverse shades, harmonic flutes, gambas, bassoons, English horns, trumpets, celestes, flute stops and reed stops of a quality and variety  unknown before," wrote Charles-Marie Widor about his Symphonie V, written especially for the Cavaille-Coll at Saint Sulpice.

The thing about Casavants in Dallas is this: They are generally found in large Methodist and Large Presbyterian Churches! I understand that characteristic very, very well. With the exception of SMU who in a weird way has many Fisk instalations that sound like a little Meyerson. Ironically, two blocks from the Meyerson in a Methodist church you will find a Casavant. If only Aristide were alive today and living in Dallas!

Dallas on the World Stage--Again!

SAM 29000 parked at a FBO at Love Field

The fleet of 5 helicopters returns from Waco and West,Texas

A Dallas Policeman prevents well-wishers from getting to the better picture spots this time.

A beast of beauty

Good Bye until Next Trip

The dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, on the campus of Southern Methodist University, was a success for all concerned. With all five living Presidents in attendance and a long and impressive dignitary list, security was tight. The event was by Event Ticket and Invitation only.
Even the protest gallery across Central Expressway from the event had a national television personality in their group.

The activity and security around Love Field was also tighter than in the past when Air Force One or SAM 29000 has been in town. It's never as much fun when security must be tightened but it is still exciting to see the most visible form of our government either arriving,parked or departing the field.

At Love Field, the crowds grew while waiting for the fleet of helicopters to return from Waco and West, Texas. The arrival was a bit late but just short of the seven o'clock hour, the 747's four big engines kicked up dust on the runway as it rotated and lifted off  and began its climb out in the glare of an early springs setting sun.










 

The Bush Center Opens Thursday

The West Side is the entrance to the Bush Institute. The North Side is the entrance to the library.  The tall building to the East and at the south end is the Merrill Lynch building just North of Mockingbird Station  on the East side of Central Expressway.

The landscaping is native Texas wildflowers. To the South there are several acres with winding paths that allow one to walk through the large garden.

From an architectural standpoint, the addition fulfills the general theme of SMU architecture.The red brick and white coping doesn't seem out of place with the construction of several new 5-story dorms across the street.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and the Bush Institute open this Thursday on the eastern side of the SMU campus. Security was already tight today and the massive stage for the 15,000 guest only who are forecast to be in attendance were being set up.
It is being reported that there will be all five living US Presidents along with former British PM Tony Blair.The security will be tight and with invitation only for the guest, it's going to be difficult at best to even photograph from  Mockingbird.
Hopefully, later on in late Spring, maybe some images of the  large field of Texas Wildflowers will be able to be photographed.

The public will be admitted beginning May 1,2013.