There’s something exhilarating about BIG skies – when I can stand in one place and see it from horizon to horizon, I think I can imagine how that hawk feels soaring above these Iowa cornfields. This morning’s sky is filled with pillowy clouds rolling in great waves across a background of October blue. Stretching in every direction is an endless sea of corn stalks swaying in the breeze, golden brown now, their work completed. At distant intervals, farmsteads dot the sea like emerald islands, with house, barn, sheds, and garden surrounded by trees, their tips showing the first tinge of fall. It seems to open up my chest, letting me stand taller and breathe deeper.
Kraut and Crystals
From the mid-1800s to the 1920s, huge numbers of German immigrants settled in this part of the country and many of their descendants are still here. About 800 of them showed up for the Burlington, Iowa, Lions Club Oktoberfest on Saturday. They were dishing up boatloads of brats and sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, German potato salad and apple strudel.
The “Happy Bavarian” was flirting with the help while showing off his cute knees in his lederhosen and couples were sharing the dance floor with little girls dancing with the total abandon that little girls do best!
