I started this a couple days ago, the first day of the new Solstice on our Spaceship Earth. It was a broken gray sky again followed by light gray as the night turned into day. Nothing like the two days in a row last week that were sunny. They began like this...
The birds and squirrels now watch for Pat to come outside to feed them. She scatters their foods over the ground. The trees outside my window fill with activity as the light comes up.
From the Weather Desk: We count consecutive sunny days now. We are up to two.
The Farm Report: We go to Wendy for her Photojournal text that Rose of Sharon "Rosie" is Miss October on The Miniature Goat Registry 2019 Calendar. You rock, Rosie!
Across the nation; Jeanenne and Larry's wonderful family gathered at their house, donned the aprons Jeanenne had sewed for each and every one; then, they made Christmas cookie's. Mmm-Mmm, what images dance in my head!
Further West we go to Utah and see how much Sonja's young men have grown...
Dimetrios.
Elijah.
Kingston.
From the Southwest came beautiful flowers from Valerie and Tim...
Moving toward the southeastern coastal states, Marge has stopped off to see her family and loved ones along her route to warmer winter climes. Here she is with one of her grands...
Back in Pennsylvania, a recent day walking around King of Prussia Mall before the Christmas intensities reached their peak...
...a Tai Chi class began.
Locally, Keoni is back from his school without major travel travails. A first for the year, I think. He and Aidan came over to assist me moving an enormous, heavy futon out of my room so Marge can sell or dispose of it. I didn't expect I'd be living with it stuffed into a quarter of my bedroom for many months instead of a few weeks since the Dock Manor wait staggers on and on.
But I have stopped waiting. Meaning, yes, I'm still on the next 4 or 5 people wait list at Dock--but fuggeddaboudit! and get on with living where I am. Now! So, the grandsons helped with the heavy lifting and the room has taken shape so that it is much more spacious, a place to paint again and work on my own stuff. Plus, the piano fits in, too!!!
That's the keyboard on the left. Yes, it has 88 keys.
Wendy, John and family had a night of tree-trimming to do. Music was part of it as Keoni and Aidan are rapidly putting together a program of mostly Christmas music for a two-man concert next Saturday night at the church. The evening was memorable and fun.
Wendy said this is one of their prettiest trees--with Charlie Brown decorations.
I hope the season of holidays has not gotten you out of sorts; instead enjoying it and looking forward to the challenges 2019 will bring us. I'm going to stay out from under my bed and join you as we gather our wits and each other to care better for our Spaceship Earth this coming year; care more for every passenger, care more for every live thing, the land, the waters, the air, as we hurtle around our sun 365 more days. It's not complicated--the next time you meet someone at the one-way bridge, flash your lights a couple times and let the other guy go first.
From the Weather Desk: For three or four minutes out my window, the mostly clouded sky vaults into morning pastels that I see through the skeletal silhouettes of winter's trees. Squirrels and birds are in motion along and among the branches as the clouds behind fade back to grays surrounding small patches and streaks of soft, pink-edged blue.
A Shoutout to Pat: Thanks, for feeding our wild friends every morning. Their visiting spirits mingle with the jostle of humanity stirring everywhere in the early light.
The big day of this household's seasonal observance is two days past, the remains cleaned, distributed, and mingles now with the memories of 2018. Our open house was filled with good people, good foods, and good heart for three full hours.
Ahead lie more considerations for traditional observances of the holidays still to come as we move through this last month of the year.
Much remains to be done to declare "Ready!" for the holidays. I do less each year now but that's okay--not that I'm just forgiving myself for doing less--it seems more a switch to quieter observances and appreciations of the bounties of my own existence. Or, that you and I exist at all. The love of family and friends and far beyond pervades everything and I'm a little astonished to know of it.
*
Betsy, Pat's Florida daughter, shared this from her zoo workplace.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
From the Weather Desk: Just to get everybody in the mood, the Winter Goddess blew 8 1/2 inches of snow our way before Thanksgiving...
She finished up the job later that night.
The Borough's front loader is pretty scary. It came back a couple more times.
From the Upsizing Desk: A handsome set of six placemats that Pat made for my Christmas and my future residence...
Complete with my own personal snowman. Thank you, Pat.
And from our friends at Walmart, I purchased some "Rollback" bamboo cutting boards...
From the Holiday Desk: Thanksgiving was happily spent with family, mostly. Here is Wendy's kitchen Thanksgiving day...
The turkey was from Necessity Farm close by. It was wonderful meat.
Typical holiday in the Bolding kitchen. Yes, that's Keoni in the background practicing viola.
Karma Kitty, potatoes, and JM.
Ah, bliss. No more perfect space on the countertop but over the running dishwasher.
And Fancy blissfully dreaming in the living room.
Table setting by the boys...er, young men...
Aidan and Keoni. It was good, good, good food.
From the Arts Desk: Sandy sent a set of water miscible oil paints to me with some small canvasses to try them out. Yes, right here in this small space I gave them a try this morning. It is interesting and different than any other medium I've ever used. Behaves a little like watercolors and like oils at the same time. I began with blue (ultramarine) and began to get a feel of what it's like...
This is one of the five Tillandsias that Jeanenne sent late winter of '17. It bloomed through the last half of summer, still retains the bloom, and has a baby! One of its neighbors has a baby, too!
From the Figure It Out for Yourself Desk: I thought you might like to see what served so well for paint brush storage the last 20 years.
A somewhat firm fabric placemat, chopsticks for additional stiffness, underwear elastic, safety pins...
Roll them up...
And secure with rubber bands.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Good grief! as Charlie Brown would say. It's been more than two weeks since the last post. There has been more than a little going on for me and for everybody else in our country and beyond. My existential morsels are infinitesimally small, yet here I am in this Universe. I count. And so do you.
A little while back, my sister Sandy came up with a surprise invitation to meet her in Maryland where she was going to travel from Missouri to look at a house for sale. It was a converted church with interesting zillow pictures and a can't-be-beat price. She was interested and it was only a day's drive away for me. Wendy wanted to come, too, but, alas, couldn't undo enough commitments to break away for a couple of days to come along. Sandy rented a vacation house by a lake close to Oakland where the house of interest was located. The rented lake house and vistas were superb and one didn't even mind that the weather was sodden wet and grey the day we arrived. That improved.
Heading out with my pony Subaru.
Maryland!
Winding toward the lake place to meet Sandy in rural Maryland.
More deer.
As I unloaded my stuff, Sandy texted from the porch to come outside that there were turkeys crossing the driveway. She captured this of one of them.
The lake.
It was a good thing the landlord left fresh flowers and finessed a night's stay for Sandy since the first night as she readied her room to sleep, the bed completely collapsed when she nudged the mattress little to even it up with the springs. Things were quickly put right.
The next day we were to visit the house for sale. Well. The zillow pictures must have been from about 20 years ago.
The owner had a carpet business he ran from it besides bringing up his family here. After the tour, Sandy said, "I knew it was too good to be true."
The time was not lost though. We had a nice visit and enjoyed touring around during the improved weather of the next day. One of the stops we made was at a glass factory and Sandy got a couple of very special pieces to take home with her. They were wrapped up before I realized I didn't get a snap of them. They are beautiful. Here are the artisans at work...
Besides serving the best food anywhere around those parts of Maryland, the surprise awaiting sale on the shelves of jellies and salsas were four baskets from Sonora, Mexico. Very much the same weavers made these baskets for which our once-upon-a-time, Tucson neighbor Barney Burns had traded with the same tribes in our neighboring country. He had a wholesale trading business with indigenous peoples of northern Mexico and had marketed their various endeavors in the States and beyond. His wife Mahina Dreese-Burns collected native seeds and collaborated with Barney and a couple of other people to found Native Seed Search which banks and propagates seeds to preserve their potentials for the future. It thrives in Tucson, Arizona, as the link will show you. Here's their mission history Sierra Madre Project. My daughter Wendy during her teen years had a small roll in its formation. She watered their early gardens next door to us (and took care of their many cats) while Barney and Mahina were on their frequent trips to trade and gather in Mexico. Wendy earned a great deal of her college money there.
This neighbor couple's activities made a doorway to entrepreneurship for people in those remote Mexican canyons and plateaus. Barney cultivated there a new, more conservative purpose for felling trees than for firewood; instead, that a single tree could be turned into numerous wooden bowls, for example. Or a blanket weaver's work to keep her family warm that led to a cottage blanket weaving industry by Barney asking the simple question, "Do you have some friends or relatives who weave, too?"
Next question: "What are Tarahumara baskets doing in the remote panhandle of Maryland?" Heidi provided the answer...
Heidi on the right and her sister.
...Their brother is part of a mission among Mexico's Tarahumara Indians that is helping women establish and market businesses.
I bought all four of the available baskets. Sometimes, it is so very well worth living long years to find circles of connections. I am smiling.
*
We rounded out the day with a (large for us, small to others) hike to Youghiogheny (no, I can't pronounce it either) River rapids through a preserved, virgin Hemlock forest...
Sandy at the Youghiogheny River Rapids.
I headed back to Quakertown on Halloween while Sandy stayed on another couple of days in the beautiful Deep Creek Lake setting. The weather held enough for me to catch a dawn and sunrise there again before starting the drive back to Pennsylvania.
Dawn on Deep Creek Lake.
Sunrise.
My good and true pony Subaru got me safely back to Quakertown.
Fall is limited this year but there are patches.
*
Over in New Mexico, Valerie made these Halloween eyeballs for a table centerpiece. (Game of Thrones, anyone?)
And Jeanenne sent along some Fall and Halloween photos of her family enjoying times together...
All seven of Jeanenne and Larry's grandkids.
Then, with their respective moms and dads though one dad was working...
Halloween!!! with Grandma Jeanenne and Grandpa Larry.
*
At home Pat reached a goal when she discovered her hair had grown enough to wear in braids...
*
It was time for Aidan's first Philadelphia Youth Orchestra concert of the season by the next weekend. Wendy and John take him and his cello early on the big day to Center City's Verizon Hall. Pictures and electronic devices are banned so no performance videos or pictures except a couple as they take the stage and warm up...
I follow them later on the train.
This time, when exiting the Center City station I stepped out the door into a parade forming to commemorate Veteran's Day...
Slowly, I wove my way along until I joined Wendy and John who were at a downtown cafe waiting through Aidan's pre-performance rehearsal.
Quiet on this street.
Ben Franklin up there keeping an eye on things.
Later, we walked to Kimmel for the concert. The PYO made wonderful music. Like always, music made from the talents and diligence of these young people, the Philly orchestral leadership and support, the community, and all the families involved. The village is large, indeed.
Time to get back to the train...
Ben is still watching.
*
Wendy's birthday came next. We went to lunch together on her special day and enjoyed a little one-on-one time to chat over some good food...
Happy Birthday, Wendy!
At the end of the week, John gathered us for a very elegant birthday dinner at a nearby restaurant. That was happily joined by Keoni who managed to come to Philly from Georgia to surprise his mom for her birthday with Aidan coordinating help after his orchestra practice in Philly to get her to walk to Rittenhouse Square where Keoni waited with his luggage and music case having arrived by train a little while earlier. Aidan said, "Oh, look at that guy over there." She was looking right through Keoni wondering who Aidan was pointing out. "Gosh, he really looks like Keoni!" Aidan said. "Wendy said, "He sure does." Well, she was thoroughly surprised when it really was him. He said that he could have been mistaken for a homeless person sitting there with a pile of stuff. We all had such a good visit that evening at the dinner table over excellent food and a good deal of hilarity.
So fun for this grandma having the boys together. At home they obliged me with a couple of impromptu pieces...
And, today, stopping by the farm gave me a chance to catch Bach Suite #6 for viola that Keoni has been working up to record for his applications for grad school.
Early tomorrow he'll be back on his way to Mercer.
*
Jeanenne reported their first snow in Missouri last Friday and we had some flurries here in PA.
View of the pond at Jeanenne and Larry's.
Jeanenne has been sewing dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World a program of Hope 4 Women International. They have patterns online and Jeanenne just completed 11 dresses. Friends of hers are making them, too. Some are branching out and making boys' shorts and shirts as well. The clothing with the logo/label sewed to the outside gives some protections to the children as its presence means someone is looking out for them.
*
Friday before last, some of us joined many others attending Shabbat in support of our Jewish neighbors after the ghastly attack on their Pittsburgh brethren. The synagogue was completely filled that Friday night...
Tiferet Bet Israel.
As all now know, very soon after the murders in Pittsburgh, still more armed, large-scale, senseless carnage took place in another state. Armed butcheries continue unabated. Some, of lower body count, barely noted but by those who grieve their lost loved ones. The maimed limp somehow through the rest of their lives. Bad news lashes our senses until it is not news. Our grieving hearts grow numb; we can no longer comprehend our known world.
We are starving for the love of one for another.
I give myself a "TED Talk"; I look out my window to watch a blue jay pause on a branch outside, then dive to a feeder Pat put out. I am saved again. Better angels' wings waft a warm breeze over my face.
"...[I am] infinitesimally small, yet here I am in this Universe. I count. And so do you."
