Ashokan Farewell

I love this tune. I never knew it actually had lyrics until my son Devon sent me the link.
It was used as the main theme music in Ken Burn's excellent PBS series "The Civil War"
I find it haunting but sentimental at the same time and at the risk of sounding somewhat morbid I would like it played at my memorial service after I've made that last "double haul"
Anyway here are the lyrics and music...enjoy!


Ashokan Farewell (Words Grian McGregor; tune Jay Ungar)

The sun is sinking low in the sky above Ashokan,The pines and the willows know soon we will part.
There's a whisper in the wind of promises unspoken,And a love that will always remain in my heart.
My thoughts will return to the sound of your laughter,The magic of dancing, of moving as one.
And a time we'll remember long ever afterThe moonlight and music and dancing are done.
Will we climb the hills once more?
Will we walk the woods together?
Will I feel you holding me close once again?
Will every song we've sung stay with us forever?
Will you dance in my dreams or my arms until then?
Under the moon the mountains lie sleeping,Over the lake the stars shine.
They wonder if you and I will be keeping,The magic and music, or leave them behind.

There ain't no cure for the summer time blues

Dog days of August does not apply just to the baseball season to me at least. It's this time of year that the coastal cutthroat trout have retreated back into the salt water bays and estuaries because the coastal rivers are just a mere trickle right now. The Deschutes summer steelhead have not shown in significant numbers and the Deschutes trout are spawning and should be left alone.
Of course there is always the salmon fishing circus of the lower Columbia river at buoy 10 but I refuse to participate in that fishery. I don't do salt water very well and John Montana has yet to convince me of the wonderfulness of fly fishing for carp (great looking family JM) So after a pilgrimage to Mecca aka Metolius and another one to the NF Umpqua I'm just biding my time until the summer steelhead dam counts over The Dalles are numerous enough to entice me and my faithful fishing partner John Ramey over to the Deschutes. I therefore must amuse myself with major league baseball where my beloved Dodgers are precariously perched atop the NL West with a weekend series ahead with the hated Giants.


Or I can continue my search for the "holy grail" of fly reels, to me at least! The left handed retrieve Hardy Perfect.


Now you watch John Montana will claim to have one that he uses for carp and I will be forced to call the fly fishing authorities on him.

My God! Do you think he had me in mind?

This quote says it all! He surely must be talking about me.

"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." Paul O'Neil - 1965