Bluffton, Indiana
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Sunday will be Father’s Day observed from the Angelkeep patio without a father, child, or grandchild to share the swing with. It would be a joy to swing on Father’s Day with Dad, at Angelkeep, one time. Dad, Harold (Doc), never lived to see Angelkeep.
His own patio on Ohio Street had a view of flowers he had planted. Three squirrels entertained his relaxed patio time. They ate from a cob of corn impaled by a nail vertically on a stump in the location Dad tried to feed birds. The three Squirrel Stooges destroyed the feeder.
Dad had his own Angelkeep backyard, complete with flowerbed veggies. It’s what retired Irish men do. How I’d love for him to just once see the peony blooms that arrive late at Angelkeep.
Every home Dad owned had peony and they were cut for cemetery display each Decoration Day. He knew only pink and white. I’d like to show him my bright red ones, with yellow centers. And my pink and white.
Surely Dad would enjoy our patio swing. On Ohio Street he used a glider but prior to that, a wood porch swing hung on a tubular A-frame similar to Angelkeep’s. He’d like our cushions.
Perhaps the red-headed woodpecker would visit a feeder for another up-close situation. Red-headed woodpeckers are rare at Angelkeep, unlike the red-breasted variety. Red-headed have a completely red head while red-bellied have a red Mohawk look to their crown.
Both have black and white bodies but the red-headed has large bright white sections rather than the stripped or barred pattern of its cousin. I call it almost a herringbone pattern. And of course, only one has the red (rose) belly. Dad would love learning the differences through the observation procedure.
Dad would tease me if he saw me mowing Angelkeep, skipping from one fast-growing clump of grass to another, by-passing the area between where the grass is yet too short to reach the mower’s blade. Dad mowed twice, once east-and-west, once north-and-south, to give a plaid look to the lawn similar to the greens seen while watching a TV Father’s Day televised golf match.
Daylilies that grow abundantly in a number of sites all about Angelkeep would be noticed by Dad. He’d follow with his reminder of the large patch of daylilies on the rural Uniondale Daugherty farm that had been transplanted from their wild location to the area beside the farm house. I would remember playing beside them and retrieving balls from their thick midst.
Dad never talked about his father growing flowers—just his mother. Jesse was much too busy with crops and work horses. But I inherited Dad’s love of growing flowers that he inherited from his mom. I also inherited his heart disease and glaucoma but I’d not mention that if he were able to visit on Sunday.
Instead of pointing out that negative, I’d take him around by the garage to the Weber grill. He’d get the option of sitting and watching or doing the chef work. Ham on the Bar-B, just like he used to do.
Dad invented grilled ham in our family. He only used Ossian boneless ham, sliced thick, one inch, cut into half moons like old-fashioned Colby cheese portions. He’d cook them slow till the juicy inside was encased by a chewy outer layer complete with black grill cooking lines.
Now the Angelkeep Weber grill predominantly does chicken or turkey breast. A healthy grill. But if Dad could spend one more Father’s Day with me, I’d make it Ossian ham steaks, for “old lang syne.”
While he turned the ham, I’d point out the robin nest under the overhand and on the downspout elbow. It held its second year of robin family, skipping one spring in between. I’d tell him of my story about the first robin family that I posted on the www.angelkeep.net website.
Dad would remind me that he never owned a computer. He never even used the electric typewriter I gave him after getting my own computer. Dad liked his manual typing.
But Dad grilled fine ham.
Dad grew beautiful bloom.
He kept his squirrels happy.
I miss him.
by ALAN DAUGHERTY
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their back yard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
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