Fairfield 5: Bursting into Spring

Late in March I returned to Fairfield, Iowa for another two weeks of R&R. Due to the record-setting warm temperatures in the eastern two-thirds of North America in March 2012, I found the town and MUM campus in a phase I had never seen before. The redbuds were in full bloom at the Argiro Student Center.

From the middle balcony I took three overlapping pictures to produce this panorama, looking towards the east. The Golden Domes are visible to the north (left), and the Dreier Building at right.

As long as we're at the Argiro, I'll offer a picture of the central lobby.

Early in the visit I took a walk on a new (to me) stretch of the  Jefferson County Loop Trail with my friend Cary Davis. We started at Chautauqua Park, where the redbuds were also stunning. Was it really still March, here in the continental interior at 41° north?

We headed south from Chautauqua Park, where before I'd always headed north. Soon we were passing through the Lamson Woods area. This is my walking companion, Cary, cheerfully providing scale and a splash of blue.

The trail now has elegant mile markers with the names of sponsors.

After the walk Cary and I relaxed in front of Revelations Café with some Raja's Cup, enjoying the cool air and clear sky. The top of the county courthouse kept track of the time for us.

A wispy cloud created a temporary conjunction with the moon rising in the east.

The mild winter had allowed campus construction to continue. The two new wings of the Golden Dome Café were complete on the outside,

but were still a work in progress inside.

When the expansion is complete the café will have its own kitchen, and depend no longer on the main kitchen at the student center. Here, the meals are priced by weight, so a small meal is less expensive than the fixed price for all-you-can-eat at the Argiro. A unique offering at the Dome Store is the produce from the MUM Farms, as explained by this sign.

The idea of chanting over vegetables may seem odd to you, but compared to feeding chickens banned antibiotics and arsenic, just who are the crazy ones? This next picture is of two greenhouses for MUM Farms tucked into one side of the campus.

The other big chunk of campus construction was the Sustainable Living Center, which opened just a couple of weeks after I left. Here are images from last November, and then March.

The nearby photovoltaic shed sported new panels, too.

Let's take a closer look at the entrance to the center.

That's an interesting zig-zag in the sidewalk, isn't it? This is probably a feature to bar negative influences from having a direct path to the door, although I can't cite any Sthapatya Veda references. Feng shui, the Chinese architectural tradition, suggests curved entrance paths to a home so that the energy, or chi, enters gently into the home rather than rushing through.

When I first arrived, a wind turbine was waiting to be erected a stone's throw from the Sustainable Living Center, between it and the library (and the old sustainable living classrooms).

Then one day suddenly it was up! I wish I had seen that action.

Off campus, the store Everybody's  continued to expand. While I was there they put up a small portico.

I'm told that Everybody's will be installing outside dining this spring/summer. For the first time, I noticed the bike-shaped bike rack on the west side of Everybody's.

Another off-campus note was new photovoltaic panels, about 20 kilowatts worth, at the AmyRam office building.

Downtown, in front of the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center, I spotted a topiary rhino.

Speaking of spotting, I was enchanted by this bicycle parked in front of the MUM student center. (Are you a Dr. Who fan?)

Even the forks and stays have mottos or tag lines on them.

Interestingly, this bike appeared to be a conversion to a single-speed ... looky here!

Eventually the spring winds starting bringing down the redbud blossoms.

The spring visits to Fairfield have more daylight hours than my November ones, creating more early- and late-light photo opportunities. One morning a rainbow appeared as I walked to the Dome. It looks like the pot of gold resides in Maharishi Vedic City.

One clear morning was breathtaking; this photo was taken outside the house where I was rooming.

I even managed to coax two nighttime scenes from my point-and-shoot camera. First, a moon with a fine gauze of mist.

Admittedly small, here is Venus in its gibbous (more than half, less than full) phase above a window. Click to enlarge.

One afternoon I drove out to photograph the Maharishi Vedic Observatory.

I took about 250 images to create a ZoomWalk through the observatory; it's not ready yet, so it and two other ZoomWalks from this trip will be the subject of a later post.

And that's my fifth Fairfield report.