Summertime Movies

A gal over on another blog put out a call for some "lighter" movie recommendations. That got me thinking about some favorite films of ours, all of which leave me with positive feelings as the credits roll. Here’s a list:

- Mad Hot Ballroom (2005)
- Love Actually (2003)
- Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)
- Notting Hill (1999)
- Dave (1993)
- It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
- Wordplay (2006)
- Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
- The Natural (1984)
- South Pacific (1958)
- Field of Dreams (1989)
- The Queen (2006)
- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
- Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
- That Thing You Do (1996)
- Ever After (1998)
- The American President (1995)
- Dirty Dancing (1987)
- Remember The Titans (2000)
- A League of Their Own (1992)

Learn more about any of these titles at IMDb, the Internet Movie Database.
What would you recommend we rent this summer to leave us feeling equally relaxed, upbeat and cheerful?


: : Red Sox Notes:

- The Boston Red Sox have been a delight to watch this year. Manager Terry Francona trusted his instincts and left Dustin Pedroia in through his meager streak all the way through to his getting hot! Likewise, Terry stuck with Julio Lugo (even after that strange attempt to steal third a few weeks ago) and he too is now heating up.
- Compliments to Lugo for adding the Ichiro Suzuki bat line-up and shoulder adjustment to his at-bat routine. Big improvement over earlier in the season!
- I still miss having Johnny Pesky in the dugout with the team during every game. Wake up MLB powers-that-be and reverse your ruling!
- Hideki Okajima - oh my goodness, he has been such an asset!
- The Red Sox have to keep third baseman Lowell. I know he’s up for free agency at the end of the season but he has been terrific. We still call him Mike “I only know how to hit doubles and home runs” Lowell!
- Speaking of Free Agents, every major league baseball player that makes it to free agency owes a debt of gratitude to Curt Flood. Sadly, center fielder Curt Flood passed away in 1997 at the age of 59. But it was the David vs. Goliath legal battle he began in 1969, to fight the Reserve Clause, that led to the increased freedom and tremendous salaries players now enjoy. Today’s players should be sending checks to all the guys who came before them and worked for peanuts.

Genealogical Thoughts

I’ve been wandering around U.S. Federal Census records again. Because the census is conducted every ten years, a great deal can happen between reports. But it never fails to surprise and sadden me when I find an ancestor has passed away in an intervening decade. It’s part of what causes me to do the genealogical research in fits and starts. Similarly, when I scan family photos into the computer I often begin with excitement, but grow melancholy at the artificially accelerated passage of time. One minute I’m scanning in the photo of a toddler and within a half an hour there they are; holding their own great-grandchild. So I’ve learned to pull back and step away for a little while.

Because of the records searches Chuck and I have been doing, we often look at death and burial records. It’s so interesting where we choose to be buried - or where our families choose to bury us. We start out being born into one nuclear and extended family. Then we grow up, move, marry and find ourselves sometimes very far away from where we started. Then we are sometimes laid to rest among an entirely different group of people than we were born to. It seems as if families are strictly structured genealogically, but factually fluid.

Another thing occurred to me as we were visiting the graves of some relatives. No one engraves their occupation on a headstone. Nor do they note their addresses, their annual salaries or net worth at time of death. All that matters are the relationships: son, daughter, beloved mother, beloved father. In the end, all that matters are the connections, the caring and the love.

Sharing

As you can see, the milkweed is popular around here. This afternoon, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly was sharing the dining experience with a Honey Bee (top right)! The butterfly and the bees were all in motion in the warm sun, moving from one pom-pom of flowers to the next. But in this instant, it felt as if the butterfly posed briefly for the camera!

Farewell Lady Bird...

Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, forever to be remembered as Lady Bird Johnson, passed away today at the age of 94. The wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), the 36th President of the United States, Lady Bird was a warm, strong, soft spoken woman. She supported her husband, raised a family, championed the Head Start Program, served this nation and brought environmental causes into the everyday conversations and activities of Americans. President and Mrs. Johnson led this nation during one of its most turbulent eras following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Mrs. Johnson’s legacy includes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which carries on and expands upon the work she began in the 1960s to preserve and enhance the native plants of North America.
She will be missed. She will be remembered.

Back To Normal

The Hostas, which were so battered by the hail storm in June, seem unfazed by their shredded, tattered leaves. Now that we are well into July, they are rapidly throwing their flower spikes up. Once the lavender trumpets fully open, the hummingbirds will begin feasting. I’ve never been able to capture those amazing little creatures on film, but I’ll keep trying!

Sweet!

These gorgeous raspberries are volunteers in our landscape. When we first moved here, we found the canes thriving in the spaces between the edges of the woods and the tamer portions of the property. We harvest our fair share, the birds take the rest. And by “harvest” I really mean very few ever make it into the house! Sweet!

The Road Home

I invite you to read the New York Times Editorial, published Sunday, July 8, 2007, entitled The Road Home. It is a thoughtful, unflinching prescription for how the United States can withdraw from Iraq.

Bridal Wreath

In honor of yesterday’s post, may I present Bridal Wreath. I actually thought I had uploaded this a couple of weeks ago when it was in full bloom. It’s very long lived and incredibly hardy, in that it can handle some pretty tough growing conditions - hot summers, freezing winters. Hmmm... more in common with yesterday’s post than I first realized!

Love, Romance, Fact, Fiction

We’ve all been sold a bill of goods. It started ages ago with fairy tales, books, television and movies. I’m referring to the “romantic grand gesture”. You know - the hero rides up on the white horse and sweeps the damsel off her feet. The engagement that takes place on the JumboTron at the 50,000 seat stadium. Jetting off from New York to Paris, just for dinner. The clock striking midnight, the pumpkin coach and the kingdom-wide search for the rightful owner of the glass slipper. OK. I’ll admit they’re fun to watch, but that’s not the bedrock foundation of romance.

Nope. It’s the small gesture. The routine, humdrum, ho-hum, daily grind of living a life together with the person you love. It’s putting the other person first in your thoughts, words and deeds. I’m not talking about subjugating yourself to someone else. Just exercising the reflexive thought that always thinks about the impact of your actions on your partner. Listening, holding hands, being there - choosing to be there with your partner - making each other laugh, holding each other through tears, taking out the trash. Seriously - taking out the trash, washing dishes, doing the laundry, cooking meals, paying bills, scooping the kitty litter, mowing the lawn - those are the household chores, which when completed, help peace reign in the home. Finding a way to take on those tasks with a cheerful spirit, or heck, just slogging through them knowing it’s for the good of your little family unit, well, that works too. And let’s not forget the social graces of please, thank you, excuse me and gesundheit. Saying I love you, saying it often. Saying I love you in the heat of an argument just to remind yourself and your partner of where it all sprang from. Saying yes to the one you love. Yes, you’ll attend the concert that you think sounds like fingernails on a blackboard, because your partner thinks it’s the sound of angels. Yes, you’ll attend the poetry reading or the Nascar race or the thimble convention or the woodworking show, because that’s what floats the love of your life’s boat. And you’ll do it with a willing smile or you’ll at least tour the convention floor and settle down in a corner with a good book until you have lunch together!

Not romantic enough for you? You really want to hire the horse and wriggle into the suit of armor? How about leaving a note in your partner’s briefcase or lunch box instead? Or jotting a quick “Thank you! I Love you!” on a Post-It-Note and sticking it in the checkbook just before they write the checks, to pay the bills, because you never have been able to balance the checkbook. Or call them in the middle of the day to say “Hi” and ask “How’s it going?” and actively listen to their answer. Remember their birthday, your anniversaries and pick a bunch of black-eyed-susans from the side of the road and bring them home.

It’s not the grand gesture. It’s the Golden Rule mentality that wins hearts. That’s real romance. That’s real love.

A Snowball For My Sisters

My eldest sister Karen lives in Arizona where it has been over 110 degrees (43 C) for many days and will be thus for many days to come. My sister Gail lives in Georgia where she is experiencing her first southern summer of 80s, 90s (32 C) and oppressive dewpoints, all punctuated with thunderstorms. So this big, beautiful hydrangea, which reminded me of a snowball, is for my intrepid sisters!
Hope you both have lovely weekends...
Sending you both cool thoughts...

Independence Day

As a child, on the Fourth of July, I used to do a little pageant/musical presentation with our family friends T & E. T was a year older than me and E a year younger than me. At twilight, we would put patriotic, all-American music on the big console style Magnavox stereo and blast it out into the backyard from my parents’ living room. We three girls would sing and march around and then for the grand finale we would light sparklers. I don’t think sparklers were illegal back then. They were so darned exciting and magical - little handheld fireworks that lasted a surprisingly long time. We would write our names in the gathering darkness, while our appreciative audience of parents and grandparents would laugh, applaud and sing along.

One year, I set up an Independence Day display in the dining room. I remember I took a little black cast iron pot from the fireplace and had small flags from all over the world sticking out of it. It was supposed to represent the melting pot which was the United States. I also had informational cards with quotes from The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I probably walked every adult through every detail of my American history project! Lord, they were patient and kind people!

I grew up believing in everything pertaining to the Revolutionary War, the founding of our nation and the brilliant fundamental beliefs that a group of intelligent, savvy and ever so wise men drew up. I believed that our country and our founding documents were quite miraculous. Not in a religious sense, but in an intense alchemy of time and place and persons. I felt blessed, lucky, fortunate to be who I was, living where I was and in the time I lived. Vietnam and Civil Rights and Nixon swirled about my childhood and were discussed in my religion class five days a week, in my post Vatican II parochial school. But the ethics of that newly modern religion were inextricably linked to the ethics of the United States founding fathers and informed my moral compass forever.

I may not have had a history display set up yesterday, nor did we have any of those delightful sparklers in hand. But I cried watching dozens of brand new United States Citizens being sworn in. I applauded the fireworks and the cannons of the 1812 overture and my heart still beat faster at the sight of the American flag, at full staff, rippling in the muggy July air. Those who read Pink Granite regularly know my anger and sadness over the current state of affairs in this country. Now you know a little more about how I came to feel so passionately about such things.

Image of The Declaration of Independence courtesy of The National Archives.

Freedom!

Wonderful news came across the wires this evening that BBC Correspondent Alan Johnston has been released! He was taken hostage back in March and was being held by a group called the Army of Islam. As the details of the escalating political machinations in Gaza were reported this afternoon, we grew concerned that Mr. Johnston would come to harm. We are grateful his horrible ordeal is over. We wish him well. We wish him peace.

Another Insult

I am both angry and astonished simultaneously. I never thought that President Bush would insult the American people, as well as the judicial system, by commuting the prison sentence component for Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby. I figured Bush would do something for Libby in the eleventh hour of his presidency, just before a new administration took office. At that point Libby would have served better than half of his 30 month sentence for his conviction on four out of five counts of felony obstruction of justice and I assumed Bush would free him. But Bush only waited for a few hours after Libby was told by a Federal appeals court that he would have to report to prison, before Bush declared Libby’s sentence “excessive”.

President Bush has been disconnected from the American people for a very long time. He and his cronies, have been riding roughshod over the Constitution and federal laws for a devastatingly long time. Bush seems determined to leave a legacy of destruction both abroad and at home. Back in 1974 President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon. It was an outrageous, audacious act. But I believe Gerald Ford was well intentioned, in that he wanted the nation to move forward. Bush is not well intentioned. He seems determined to undo the immeasurable greatness that is the Constitution of the United States of America. And he has the nerve, the gall to casually add this insulting act to the pile of his misdeeds just two days before the Fourth of July. Adams, Jefferson, Washington et al must be rolling over in their graves.

Somewhere Is Here

We spent the weekend mostly around home. The weather was cool, dry and generally clear. That was a great incentive to get outside and do some yard work. We had just finished this afternoon’s round of trimming and raking. I was about to start making dinner, when we noticed it was beginning to rain lightly. At the same time we noticed that the sun was lighting up the tops of the trees in the field across the street. That’s when we saw the rainbow! I made a dash for the camera and ran outside to snap some pictures. The rain was heavy enough that I opened the barn door to get out of the weather and took the photos from there. I believe the last photo is where you can see the shadow or double rainbow the best. It was a great way to finish off the weekend!

Summer Accessory

My favorite summer accessory is a folding fan. It’s actually more than just a favorite, it’s a necessity. I tuck one of these inexpensive little fans into my purse and I’m ready for hazy, hot and humid. Not a lot of folks carry these around here, but I don’t mind. They are simple, silent, compact and elegant. While other people are folding their programs into tight accordion pleats to get relief from the stifling heat, I’m fanning slowly, quietly and cooly! We purchased several of these about five years ago in a Japanese market in Cambridge. They were no more than a dollar or two each and have held up beautifully under steady summer use.

This afternoon the heat broke and the cool, dry air rolled in. But my fans are at the ready when our summer heats up again, as it surely will!

Phoebes

Yesterday’s fierce storm apparently brought down the Phoebes' nest from outside our bedroom window. But thankfully the baby birds were fledged. Chuck was the first to spot all three little ones sitting side by side on a tree branch. They were so sweet and still, as if their folks had told them to stay put and not make a peep. Their parents were in active evidence, so we retreated and are hoping for the best for the whole family.

Today brought another hot and humid morning followed by thunder, lightning, torrential rains and high winds. As the clouds filled in this afternoon, I snapped this picture of our milkweed plant. Hopefully tomorrow the heat wave will break as predicted, the storms will cease and the Phoebes will all be well.

Radio Me

The Apple iPod has a nice feature called a Playlist. It allows you to drag your songs in and out of various lists of your choosing. I have one I call Lee’s Shower List, which really is the musical accompaniment to my getting ready in the morning. I like to think of it as “WLEE, Radio Me!” Here are 10 songs from that playlist, in no particular order, that keep me putting one foot in front of the other:

- “Standing Still And Dancing” by: David Buskin, from: Wealthy Man
- “The Hut Sut Song” by: Mel Tormé, from: Mel Tormé's Finest Hour
- “Non, je ne regrette rien” by: Édith Piaf, from: The Voice of the Sparrow
- “History Repeating” by: Propellerheads & Miss Shirley Bassey, from: Decksandrumsandrockandroll
- “The Reason” by: Hoobastank, from: The Reason
- “You Make Me Feel So Young” by: Frank Sinatra & Charles Aznavour, from: Duets
- “Your Body Is A Wonderland” by: John Mayer, from: Room for Squares
- “God Give Me Strength” by: Elvis Costello With Burt Bacharach, from: Painted From Memory
- “Rhode Island Is Famous For You” by: Michael Feinstein, from: Michael Feinstein Live At The Algonquin
- “Baby Girl” by: Sugarland, from: Twice The Speed of Life

Bits & Pieces

- I was under the weather yesterday but am feeling much better today.
- The Pita tasted great on day two!
- I saw a cool slideshow with music over on a TypePad blog and have been scratching my head over how to load one of my own here on Pink Granite in Blogger. I can make it in iPhoto no problem and it turns into a QuickTime Movie, but because it ends in “.mov” I can’t upload it. I'd like it to be a clickable link rather than embedded. Advice?
- Foyle’s War is an excellent TV series. The latest installment is currently running on PBS here in the U.S.
- We are in the midst of a heat wave. Today it was 92 (@ 33 C). Tomorrow it is supposed to reach 95 (@ 35 C). Yes, I am very grateful for our little Energy Star window air conditioner in our bedroom!
- Del’s Frozen Lemonade (Caution: Their Site Is Noisy!) is an awesome Rhode Island Institution. I would give something precious for a Del’s right about now!
- I love the Boston Red Sox. Go Sox!

Homemade Pita

My theory is that some people are very good at baking with yeast and some people are very good at baking pie crusts and very few people are very good at both. It’s just a theory. I’m not sure if I came up with it all on my own or if my grandmother Gagee stated it as a fact in order to make me feel better. As a young child, I liked baking bread and rolls. I happened to be good at it, which was a natural and powerful reinforcer to baking. But pie crusts - not so much. Even years later, when Pillsbury came out with a pre-rolled, refrigerated pie crust which I only had to drop in the the dish and crimp, I still managed to make a lousy pie crust!

Over the years my two favorite yeast bread recipes have been an “English Muffin Toasting Bread” and “Two Day Rolls”. So naturally, when Buréka Boy over at Is That My Buréka? posted his Pita 101 Recipe back in February, I was intrigued. He writes clear recipes interspersed with lots of step by step photos. He has a warm chatty style and often includes a bit of history. But back in February my stove was on its last legs and I had difficulty getting the oven to heat reliably. But a week or so ago he posted his alternate cooking method under the heading Summer Pita. In this variation, instead of baking the pitas in a very hot oven, you griddle them on top of the stove. Hmmmm.... We just replaced our stove a couple of weeks ago, so I have a great oven, but this new range has three continuous grates. The middle grate can be swapped out for a griddle. OK! Where’s my yeast?!

This morning I made 8 small loaves of homemade pita bread. They were not perfect, in that they did not all poof up that magical little steam bubble which creates the pocket. But they are delicious. The ingredients are simple and it made a lovely, silky textured dough which was elastic and not at all sticky. Next time (and Chuck let me know how much he wants there to be a next time!) I would roll them out a teensy bit thinner. But that’s the only thing I would change. And next time I’ll have a better feel for the temperature of the new griddle. All in all, not a bad first effort.

I served them today with sliced cucumber rounds, wedges of tomato, feta cheese and olives. I also made a coarsely textured white bean spread with lots of gently sauteed garlic and a touch of lemon and tahini. It’s a nice variation on a chick pea hummus.

Many thanks to Buréka Boy!

Ten Questions Times Two

At the end of each interview James Lipton conducts on the television show Inside The Actors Studio, he asks his guest a series of questions. These ten questions originated with French journalist Bernard Pivot. I think it’s probably the original meme!

So in honor of my 200th post, I first posed them to Chuck:

What is your favorite word?
Love
What is your least favorite word?
Sweat
What turns you on (creatively, spiritually or emotionally)?
Competence
What turns you off?
Arrogance & Incompetence
What sound or noise do you love?
Lee’s laughter
What sound or noise do you hate?
The sound of a bone being crunched
What is your favorite curse word?
Sh*t
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Cabinetmaker
What profession would you not like to do?
Surgeon
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
You done good!

Then I answered them:

What is your favorite word?
Love
What is your least favorite word?
Obnoxious
What turns you on (creatively, spiritually or emotionally)?
The Ocean
What turns you off?
Cruelty
What sound or noise do you love?
Laughter
What sound or noise do you hate?
Buzzing alarm clocks
What is your favorite curse word?
Single word: F*ck - String of words: Too many to type here!
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Singer
What profession would you not like to do?
Accountant
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Welcome! You were right. Your family and friends are right over there.

: : How would you answer them?

Summer, Day One

It’s deliciously, delightfully cool and almost chilly today! I’m sure there are plenty of folks around here grumbling a bit that the first full day of summer was so nippy. I am not among them. We started out breezy, dry and sunny, followed by a few rumbles of thunder and gentle rain. Now the temperature has dropped into the low 50s (@11 C). Considering my sister Karen has been in triple digits in Arizona for several days with a high today of 114 (@45 C), I’m happy to pull on a sweatshirt! (Yes, I know Karen. It’s a dry heat!) The meteorologists who like to make long range predictions are saying that we will have a pretty hot summer. So if I could bottle this I would.

Slight jump shift...

When I was a kid living in Rhode Island, we used to love to drive down to Sand Hill Cove on the south coast and spend the day at the beach. It was a beautiful sandy beach with a long, high pavilion complete with snack bars and changing rooms with showers. It wasn’t all that long a trip, although there is a tendency for Rhode Islanders to feel they should pack a lunch for any trip longer than 20 minutes! But because there could be very big differences in the weather between where we lived in Warwick and the shoreline in Narragansett, my Mom would always listen to the weather and beach reports on the TV and radio. One day, she was on the fence about whether it would be worth the trip down so she decided to call the beach headquarters. A young man with a deep, gruff voice answered. Mom asked him what the weather was like. He told her it was pretty cool and foggy. Mom then asked if he thought it would burn off later that morning. Pause. “I ain’t no weather prophet lady!!!” he barked back.
That’s how stories get born in a family!

Summer Solstice

In honor of the first day of summer (here in the Northern Hemisphere) and in anticipation of a common summertime activity, I present the following for your amusement:

Camping

I do not want to go camping now
It is too hot
and too humid

I have lived long enough
and camped often enough
to know
that I will be more comfortable
sleeping in my own bed
on top of an inner-spring mattress
in an air conditioned bedroom
14 steps from a flush toilet
while downstairs
a refrigerator
stove
microwave
washer and dryer
stand ready to serve
Than I would be
sleeping on top of
a ground cloth
tent floor
air mattress
sleeping bag
blanket sack
sheet sack
under tent roof
tent fly
and sky
with one lone mosquito
buzzing near my ear
while hordes
of her hungry comrades
cheer her on
from the other side
of the no-see-um screen
that I pray I have repaired
well enough
for me to hold my position
for the night

Yes
I have lived long enough
and camped often enough
to know
that there are only
two weeks a year
when the temperature
humidity
bugs
and weather
are just perfect for camping
and that we have never
ever
taken our vacation
during those two weeks.

- LMR/Pink Granite

Handkerchiefs At The Ready, Please!

It’s true that Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” is one of my most beloved arias. My favorite version is Luciano Pavorotti’s on the 1994 album “The Three Tenors In Concert”. But this young guy from Wales brought me to tears. Paul Potts recently won the Britain’s Got Talent competition. He has been studying and performing for many years, but this is his breakthrough, star making performance. There are a slew of other videos of his appearances on BGT, so you can swing by YouTube if you’d like to see more.


Bravo Paul Potts!

Squished

I used to work with a gal who loved to scare the daylights out of newly expecting moms by recounting her own (and others) excruciating labor and delivery stories. It became such a habit that we used to warn newly glowing moms-to-be to steer clear of - well, let’s call her "Cruella"! We’d also try to sidetrack Cruella and move her on to more pleasant aspects of pregnancy and parenthood. It’s quite possible that Cruella contributed to a drop in the birth rate wherever she went in this world.

Bearing that in mind, I’ll simply state that I went and had a routine mammogram today. The only other thing I’ll point out is that there is no comparable male equivalent of this particular activity. Just something to think about. I know I thought about it - at least twice.

My First Hero and Heroine

Dad and Mom laughing at the back of our huge yellow Chevy station wagon, nearly three decades ago. The same wagon that they would load up every September to take me up to college. The same wagon they would load back up again in May to take me and all my stuff back home. Right there in the parking lot outside the dorms, my Dad, along with all the other dads, would be carefully packing the cars and kneeling down to peer under, to make sure that they still had some road clearance left! Eight times they did it - and that doesn’t count all the trips they made my freshman year to visit their ever so homesick daughter!

Visits, phone calls, letters, cards - all tangible little lifelines to a baby bird who so wanted to leave the nest, but had the feeling Thomas Wolfe was right and therefore home was where she should stay. Would I go back? Yes. For one more hug from Dad; one more chance to say I love you and thank you and all the things I know I said, but would love to say again. If I had the power I would go back and halt the Alzheimer’s before it robbed my Dad and all of us, of him. But would I go back and change the course? Sorely tempted though I would be, I don’t think so. I don’t know of any other way to get to where I am now. And this place, here and now, I would never, ever change. This feels like they look in the photo; joyous, victorious, full of laughter and delight.


(June 19, 2007 - I tried to post this yesterday, but nothing would upload! Not sure if it was a problem with Blogger or something with our DSL connection or...?)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads, grandpas and great-grandfathers out there! Special love to all the godfathers, big brothers and uncles who have played the roles of advisor, friend and guide over the years!

Layout & photos by LMR/Pink Granite. Software: Apple iPhoto 5 & Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Mac. Paper: from the Natural Collection by Diane L. Miller. Template: Scrap Simple Embellishment Templates: 3-D Negative Frames by Syndee Nuckles. (Both available at Scrap Girls.)

History Writ Small

I’ve been caught up in my family history the last few days. It never fails to leave me emotional. Seeing census records noted in tight cursive script, with names and ages of my ancestors, followed by how much they paid for rent, yea or nay to could they read and write English and where their parents were born, leaves me hungry for more than just those terse, yet illuminating, facts and figures. I’ve written about my gratitude, the debt I owe to all those who came and went before me. It’s something I have always felt.

Living in this old farmhouse, though not of my family, does nothing to diminish the strength of those feelings. All I have to do is reach for a garden tool hanging in the old three-holer outhouse at the back of the barn and I am humbled. The claw foot tub in our only bathroom, was taken up right after we bought this house so Peter,a wonderful craftsman, could strip, sand and refinish all of the floors. Before it was laid back down, we had the opportunity to see the underside of the tub. On it was a manufacturing date from the 1920’s. The bathroom was and still is, big enough to throw a party in. It used to be a bedroom. How elegant-swellegant and exciting it must have been the day the fixtures were brought in and a sink, a tub and an indoor flush toilet were installed. No more trips out of the house to the outhouse - in sickness or in health - at any hour, in any weather. We still use those same fixtures. Eight decades later they still do everything we need them to do.

I can’t help but wonder what my relatives must have felt every time they achieved another tiny luxury or some great leap forward in invention or prosperity. I can’t imagine they ever took them for granted.


This photo was taken standing in the doorway to our outhouse, the day the roof and floors were removed. That was about nine years ago when John and Roger, two brilliant carpenters, were rehabilitating our barn. A new floor and a new roof have left it stable and able to stand ready, just in case...

YES! To Marriage Equality!

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure.”
--- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

Today, the Massachusetts Legislature, in an overwhelming majority, voted on the side of the angels by blocking any further undermining of same-sex marriage here in the Commonwealth! The legislators agreed that it was inappropriate for citizens to vote on the rights of others and defeated a proposed constitutional amendment which would have banned gay marriage.

Read more about today’s events in this Bay Windows Newspaper article. Learn more at Mass Equality.org.

Even amidst the cheering and the sighs of relief, we must bear in mind that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

: : But right now it's really time to do a happy dance!

Stone Walls & Generations

Most of our land is bounded by stone walls. Acres were cleared by hand or perhaps with the help of a work animal. But at some point each stone was touched by human hands and piled - neatly, roughly, hurriedly, wearily - to mark the piece of the world that they would call their own. Then they raised up crops alongside a family, never knowing who or what would thrive or survive season unto season and beyond. Those stones, laid out in bounding lines two centuries back, are now patchworked with lichen. Black, gray, green patches now creep where calloused fingers once gripped. Echoes of memories of folks I never knew. Silent, solid irrefutable evidence of lives lived here long before we settled in.

From The Ashes - So To Speak

Ahhh... It’s a new day. My focus and perspective have been restored.

Isn’t this Iris gorgeous? As it unfurls, it progresses from deep black purple (like the buds below it) to this cranberry maroon. A gift from a friend, we planted it years ago. Each year, it slips back up, according to its inner rhythms, dazzles us in a crescendo of form and color, then slips away. I’m certain the word is used too casually, too often, but this natural, unattended beauty is awesome.

Thanks for listening yesterday.

Burnt

I don’t like feeling trapped.
I don’t like it when other people change the rules.
I don’t like being treated like a number.
I don’t like mean, thoughtless, insensitive people.

I am tired, crispy and burnt.

I try to go out into the world with an open, positive, generous spirit.
Today I felt myself being nibbled to death by ducks - mean ducks at that.

I know I need to let go of all the disagreeable parts of today.
I am trying to focus on all that is good, kind, fair, loving and respectful in my life.

But I am tired, crispy and burnt...

High Tea Meets Tech

I promised to tell the tale of a novice Digital Scrapbooker (me) and my adventures in this foreign, virtual landscape. I also promised to do it without jargon, and make it as much like High Tea in front of the computer as I possibly could. Apparently I was feeling pretty self-confident at the time (plus, Ronnie and Roo can be awfully persuasive)! Well, if you’re all settled in with your own cup of tea, I’ll take a deep breath and begin. Remember to extend that pinky finger! Here goes:

It’s all about the layers. Think layer cake, building up from the bottom to the top with all sorts of different fillings sandwiched in between. Think of a torte - oodles of super-thin layers with a different fruit or frosting between each circle of scrumptiously moist cake and the next. Only with this virtual torte, you can pile as many layers as your imagination will allow, without the torte ever toppling over. Now think of transparencies - the kind you use with an overhead projector (pre-PowerPoint) when you get roped into doing the presentation at work. Only instead of boring graphs and pie charts, you’re showing family photos, with captions and stories and maybe a pressed flower or two.

On each transparency, you place just one item, a photo of your grandmother on one perhaps, on another an old yellowing letter she wrote you. Onto a third transparency, you’ve typed up a few memories of when she taught you to sew on her ancient treadle sewing machine. On a fourth, you place a clip art image of an old fashioned Singer machine. On the fifth, a Title: “Stitching The Memories Together”. If you have a photo from when you were little and you spent time with your grandmother, add that as the sixth layer.

Now, place the transparencies, one by one, onto the lighted glass of the overhead projector. While looking at the big screen, slide the six different layers around until what you see projected takes your breath away; until it sends you reeling back to when you were five or six and your grandmother’s hand guided yours as you sat on her lap, while her foot pumped the treadle and you sewed your first apron. When it’s that perfect, you clip the layers together. Then, so you can still see it without the light behind it, you slip the seventh layer, a lovely piece of handmade paper underneath it all. Then you lock your layers together with a bit of magic digital glue.

That’s Digital Scrapbooking, where almost anything is possible!
Did you save me any scones? ;o)

The memories I just shared are true, but I lack all the tangible bits and pieces to make it come to life. Instead, I’ll share this digital layout with you. It features my grandmother first as a young child, then as a young mother with her own daughter - my mother Dorothy. It is set on a 12in x 12in “canvas” made up of 14 digital layers (4 papers, 2 photos, 4 separate lines of text, 3 embellishments, 1 brush). I hope this whets your appetite for digital scrapbooking!


P.S. If you like, you can put your cursor over a photo here in Blogger, click and have it open in a larger format.

Layout, photos and text by LMR/Pink Granite. Software: Apple iPhoto 5 & Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Mac. Papers: from the Natural Collection by Diane L. Miller, the Winter White Collection by Amanda Sok & the Fountain Pen Collection by Cheryl Barber. Alphas: “M” from the Persian Breeze Collection by Brandy Hackman & “Ancestor” from the Bookworm Collection by Erica Hite. Brushes: Sage Brush Set by Diane L. Miller. Embellishments: Pussy Willow from Blossoms & Blooms - Fall by Brandy Hackman. (All available at Scrap Girls.) Font: Papyrus.

If Not Now, When?

”Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you’ve imagined.”
- Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862

Breathe Deeply

The perfume, from the flowers on this Mock Orange bush, is spicy, exotic and intoxicating. This one is planted outside our living room, but stretches up to just outside our second floor bedroom window. When a gentle breeze follows a period of stillness, the accumulated scent floats in and causes us to breathe deeply and appreciate the gift.

YOWZER!

Today we came through a ferocious thunder and lightning storm. The skies grew dark, the wind howled and then the rain fell in sheets. We briefly lost and regained the power three times. Then the hail began falling, bouncing and ricocheting all around. It sounded as if someone was throwing hands full of pebbles against the windows. When the hail and rain stopped I quickly snapped a few pictures of the aftermath.

Poor hostas! ;o(

The Sweetest Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of my Mom and Dad’s first kiss. They met as teenagers when Dad was invited to sing with my mother in her church choir. My sisters and I grew up knowing this was a special day. It’s old fashioned, romantic, sweet and innocent all rolled up together. Dad’s been gone 19 years, but he and Mom shared five decades as a couple with all the joy and pain life can bring. They shared quite a few kisses along the way as well!
;o)

Source 51

When I was a teenager, I sat down with my maternal grandparents, Gagee and Gramps, along with my own parents. We sat in the living room of the house I grew up in down in Warwick, Rhode Island. My Mom was in and out because she was trying to get dinner on the table for us all. I asked them to give me the family tree. I sat with a pad of coarse, beige sketch paper and wrote down everything they said, as best I could. I knew very few genealogical note taking conventions, so there are narrative bits mixed in with rough trees made up of names, dates and connecting lines and arrows!

In the intervening years, my sister Karen and I have done research and continued to do what we can to keep adding twigs and branches. Coincidentally, Chuck has been doing lots of research on his family as well. Today, Karen called to say she had a hot lead to fax to me. What arrived was information on our maternal great great grandfather’s family. Karen thought this family of six belonged to us, but some of the information was throwing us off. I pulled out my yellowing sheets of sketch paper and sure enough, buried among the lines and arrows were the little gems of information that allowed us to be absolutely sure these were our peeps!

While Chuck was listening to my side of this very excited and animated conversation with Karen, he pulled out the laptop and began entering information into Reunion. He has been a prince of a guy in re-entering all of my family’s information which got left behind in a PC death a few years ago! Gradually I read off details as he digitally hopped from one relative to another. That’s how today, those notes from a family conversation some three decades ago, became “source 51” in our family tree!

:: I can’t encourage you strongly enough. Ask the questions of the oldest generation. Write down the answers. Enter the information into a database. Tell the stories to the younger generations. Everyone deserves to be remembered. No one wants to be forgotten...

“I Thought That You Might Like To Know...”

”It was twenty years ago today...”

Oh my!

It was actually forty years ago today that The Beatles’ album “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released in the U.S.! That was just one day after the U.K. release. I know I’m dating myself, but I remember the years before that when The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. I remember our family racing home from Sunday dinner out at the “The Great House” restaurant in Warwick, Rhode Island to get home in time to watch them on TV. We took off in such a rush, we left the doggie bag of sticky buns (wasn’t it sticky buns, Gail?) on the table!

The Beatles were great. Their music is still great. The Sgt. Pepper’s album really holds up over these two score years. And I don’t think that’s just nostalgia talking.

“It’s wonderful to be here
It’s certainly a thrill... “
;o)

The Healing and The Odyssey

The image you see above is a scanned copy of a photograph as it came down to me through the family. It was most likely taken in the summer of 1924. The child is my mother Dorothy and the young woman is her mother Marion - my Gagee. As you can see, it is in pretty rough shape. The image you see below is the same photograph after I made some adjustments to it in Apple’s iPhoto 5, then “healed” it using Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. It’s not perfect. I don’t think it is supposed to be perfect. I think you should still be able to tell it is more than 80 years old! But the damage is no longer distracting. Your eye is drawn to the people. This is what brought me into digital scrapbooking; a desire to copy and restore these family heirlooms. I want to combine them with the genealogical research we have collected, write about it and then share it all with my family. That way we all have access to the same information. And hopefully more of our ancestors will be “known” to their descendants. Later this week, I’ll share a digital scrapbook page with you which incorporates this photo.


:: I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Once In a Blue Moon...

Tonight the moon will be full. Because it is the second full moon in the month of May, it is commonly referred to as a “Blue Moon”. The meaning of a blue moon has changed quite a bit over the years. Click on this link or this one to learn a little more about the tradition of naming full moons.

Late Bloomer

We didn’t miss them all! This beautiful cluster of rhododendron blossoms was hiding down low and toward the back. I still don’t know what else I missed this spring, but I am so delighted these blooms were patiently waiting for us to discover them!

Easy Delicious Gazpacho

I used to make Gazpacho completely from scratch. Then a couple of summers ago I improvised a “quick and dirty” recipe on a sweltering summer night. Having received a big thumbs up from Chuck, I never looked back. Be warned, if you are a Gazpacho purist, stop reading now. Or, if you require precise measurements in a recipe, you too should skip this one. But if you like to wing it in the kitchen and a recipe is just a jumping off point --- enjoy!

2 cans of Del Monte Stewed Tomatoes, already chilled
Yes, cans - I warned you! ;o)
(14 1/2 oz. each Original Recipe with onions, celery & green peppers)
Lime juice
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Chili powder
Ground Cumin
Cucumber - small dice
Celery - small dice
Green Pepper - small dice
V8 Vegetable Juice (tomato based) - chilled
Splash of your favorite hot sauce

Dump the cans of stewed tomatoes into a bowl and using an immersion (stick) blender, pulse the tomatoes to break them into very small pieces. Do not puree. Add the lime juice and the four dried spices. Stir and set the bowl in the refrigerator to keep chilling. Dice the cucumbers, celery and green peppers (amounts are up to you) and add to the tomato mixture. Stir. Add V8 until you achieve the desired “soupy” consistency and balance of liquid to diced bits. Taste. Adjust spices and add a splash of your favorite hot sauce if desired. Serve chilled.

You can make and serve this immediately, if you had a couple of cans of the stewed tomatoes in the refrigerator. Or make it ahead and allow all the flavors to marry. We enjoy it served with thin, white corn tortilla chips.

Service, Sacrifice & Gratitude

My grandmother Catherine gave birth to five sons. Her first died in infancy. The rest grew up strong, healthy and each married and raised up children of their own. Before that could happen Catherine and her husband Alexander had to send all four of their surviving sons off to fight in World War II. Somehow, they all came home. They were changed, but they were still hale, hearty and whole.

Chuck’s grandmother Minnie gave birth to seven children, four of them sons. Minnie and her husband Louis had to send their three eldest sons off to fight in World War II. Only two sons came home - changed, but still hale, hearty and whole. Carl, their firstborn, was declared Missing In Action in Italy. It would take six more years and the efforts of his sister Shirley, before Carl’s remains would be identified. He was finally laid to rest back home in Massachusetts. Minnie became a Gold Star Mother, part of a club no woman wants to join.

Today, on Memorial Day, we remember them all. Today we express our gratitude to them all. But most especially to Uncle Carl who never got to put his degree from Harvard to civilian use, who never had the opportunity to marry and perhaps raise a family. Carl, who missed out on ordinary moments, sorrowful and celebratory occasions and all the little joys of everyday life.

Memorial Day

Remembering

Honoring

Respecting

Appreciating


&


Hoping for

Working for

Peace

Adding Details To Your Family Tree

If you are into family genealogy or just curious about your roots, Ancestry.com has announced free access to its Military records until June 6, 2007. It’s fitting that they are opening up the records from Memorial Day until the anniversary of D-Day. Full monthly membership in Ancestry.com ranges from around thirteen to thirty dollars (US).

Last night I looked up my father in their military records section. Dad served in North Africa and Italy during World War II. I found some information on Dad, but the biggest surprise was finding JPG images of the original WW II Draft Registration cards for Chuck’s grandfathers and my paternal grandfather. I hadn’t realized there had been an “Old Man’s Draft Registration” for the War, for men born on or after April 28, 1877 and on or before February 16, 1897. The cards hold a wealth of information including current address, employer, occupation and the name of the person “who will always know your address”. My maternal grandfather was born later, so his is a standard registration card, but with just as much information. There, at the bottom of each card, is the signature of our relatives.

We’ll be going back to Ancestry.com to gather as much information as we can on all of our relatives. We’ve been downloading the JPG images of the registration cards and we’ll continue to add whatever we learn to the excellent Apple based genealogy program Reunion. I hope this proves beneficial to you in the search to fill out your family tree.

Pink Gives Way To Black

I know I’ve been busy. I know we’ve been away from the house a lot recently, attending to some family matters. But I feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle! Yesterday, as we were beginning the hour and three quarter drive from home to Boston, we passed by my friend Marion’s house. We both noticed her rhododendron was in full and glorious bloom. That’s funny, her rhody must have bloomed early this year, I said to Chuck. You see her rhody is on the eastern side of her house, in the shadow of a tall evergreen tree. Our rhody is on the southwest corner of our house and gets nearly unobstructed sun all day. But ours had yet to blossom.

Eleven and a half hours later, we returned after a day of helping a member of the family get settled back in at home after a hospitalization and then we ran some errands on the way home. It was nearly dark, but I peeked out the window to see if there were any riotous rhododendron flowers emerging from their enormous buds. Nope. So this morning I checked again in full sun. No buds, no blooms, just a profusion of tired browning stems and stamens scattered among the thick waxy leaves. The show was over and we had missed it!

After getting over the surprise, I kicked myself. How could I, who has been enjoying observing nature this year, not have seen a one and a half story tall rhododendron go into pinky-mauve-lavender bloom? Especially since this spring I have been making a point to go out each day and capture something with the digital camera. That’s when I stopped kicking myself and started blaming the black flies.

About two weeks ago the black flies emerged around here and set about buzzing and biting. Both Chuck and I got swarmed and munched every time we were outside. The black flies coincided with our family member being hospitalized and that overlapped with the wicked storm which wind and rain stripped most of the other petals I had been noticing. So rather than suit up like a beekeeper or a haz-mat worker I conceded the battle (and apparently a couple of weeks of spring) to the black flies. That’s how I completely missed the blooming of our rhododendron in the spring of 2007.

The nagging question remains: what else have I missed?!?!

Oh Goody!

I know not all my regular readers share my burgeoning interest in Digital Scrapbooking, but I have to share an excellent discovery. There’s a gal in Germany who is just as smitten with IKEA as I am. Not only that, she is also a prodigious Digi-Scrapper. Better still, she constantly updates her blog with scads of links to Free Digi-downloads - papers, kits, templates - you name it! Here’s the link to her blog: IKEA Goddess. Can’t beat that name!

If everything in that last paragraph was written in an incomprehensible foreign tongue and appears to be typed in a non-Latin alphabet, I apologize. All it means is that I have found a blog portal to lots of good things and I am very happy about it!

Stop! Thief!

A young gal, just eighteen, who we love, recently got caught up in an insidious scam. It was a variation on the African internet money scam that has been around for several years. This version involved someone who claimed to be a woman artist living in England who needed an American “agent” to help her process payments for her artwork being purchased in the United States.

At my age and level of experience both in the world and on the internet, my first thought was: “Hasn’t this so-called artist ever heard of PayPal?” But as we read the string of e-mails that flowed back and forth between the scammer and our naive friend, we felt increasingly sick at heart watching the con artist tighten the noose on their mark.

I’m a cautious, careful person. That’s partly by nature, but mostly by experience. Beginning this blog took lots of research and a fair amount of soul searching and weighing of risks and benefits. Ultimately it took a leap of faith, paired with a belief in the inherent goodness of people. That’s part of what makes me so angry about a con artist and identity thief like this one. “She” counts on that trust, plays the odds by targeting someone young and doesn’t care one iota about the mess “she” creates or the pain “she” has caused. This lying thief just takes the thousands in ill-gotten money and moves on to the next victim.

In the process of investigating this situation, we learned that this thief has stolen the identity of a legitimate artist in New York named Jennifer Claire. To learn more about this and other scams, visit this site.

So beware yourself and please, mention internet scams and frauds to the people in your life. We can all use a cautionary tale once in a while.

Three Years and Counting...

Last Thursday, May 17th, was the third anniversary of the legalization of Same Sex Marriage in Massachusetts. Happily, despite repeated attacks, equal marriage has remained the law of the Commonwealth. But it faces another hurdle in just a few weeks at the Constitutional Convention. Mass Equality.Org has been running wonderful, personal, matter-of-fact ads on local television stations. Their eloquent slogan: It’s Wrong to Vote on Anyone’s Rights. I’ve written about this issue before. Today, let me simply say Happy Anniversary --- and many more!

Happy New Year

We’ve spent an unusual amount of time on the road this week. Some of it has been for pleasure, some required, some stressful (see Warning 5/16/07 below). So today Chuck and I focused on catching up to ourselves. The Boston Red Sox beat the Atlanta Braves in the first half of the double header this afternoon. Then, in varying amounts of pouring rain, the tables were turned in the second match up this evening. We enjoyed putting our feet up and taking it all in. OK. We enjoyed this afternoon’s game much more, especially when Mike Lowell hit a grand slam over the Green Monster! But whenever the Sox are playing and we can have the game on the TV or the radio, we find it all somehow soothing. Winning is better than losing, but the rhythm of the game, the voices of the commentators, the familiar surroundings, all make for a comforting package. I won’t attempt to make the comparisons of baseball to other sports, especially American football - comedian George Carlin already did that brilliantly. (You can listen here.) But I will say that the history of the game, the gracefulness coupled with sterling athleticism and the glacial pace punctuated by bursts of fevered excitement, make it a compelling and satisfying spectator sport. Not a bad way to spend the first full day of my “new year”!

Happy Birthday To Me!

”Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday dear Lee
Happy Birthday to me -
and many more!
Wheeeeeee!!!”

Is it rude to “sing” Happy Birthday to oneself?
Hope not, ‘cuz I just did!

Also, Happy Birthday to Roo over at Lala Ween World!!! I’m either two days late or right on time. Belated or spang on, we hope you had/have a wonderful birthday, Roo!

Before The Storm

Warning

When you are halfway across the state from your home and they announce a tornado warning for your county, there isn’t anything you can do. What will be will be. But it doesn’t stop the adrenaline from racing through your system. So you try to talk yourself and each other down from the rush by reminding yourself that Massachusetts isn’t part of “Tornado Alley”. But as soon as you work through that thought, you remember the stories and the images from the Worcester County Tornado of 1953, which was absolutely devastating and deadly. Then the heavens open up and the rain comes in torrents and you have all you can do to drive without hydroplaning on the water that is falling so fast none of the manmade systems can absorb it quickly enough. So against the background noise of the pouring rain and the windshield wipers and the plumes of water spraying up like fountains from the wheels of the other cars and crashing against the windows, you struggle to listen to the car’s weather radio. The computer generated voices of NOAA weather radio tell you so much, but you want to see the multicolor Doppler radar images so you can pinpoint where the most damaging cells are in relation to your house and where you are right this instant. Eventually you just let go and let nature do what it will do, because that was your only option all along. You drive as responsibly, as safely as you can, pulling over when it is required to wait out another cloudburst. You still want to redirect the rain after the first inch has fallen, to go where the droughts and wildfires are. You’re human. You want to control, direct, have dominion. Instead you wait, and breathe and after a few hours of white knuckle driving, arrive home, just after the tornado warning has been lifted. Your house is there. You are not in Oz. The white and pink petals are trampled into the ground, like confetti after Carnivale. But you are home and whole and grateful.

Continuing To Think Ahead

Yesterday’s post sparked some discussion and caused me to remember a few things as well. Thanks to Tonya over at Ugly Is The New Pretty I have some more information to share. If you live in the U.S. and your elderly loved one falls within the low income bracket, they may be eligible for a ”Medicaid Waiver”. A waiver can provide for an in home care alternative to nursing home care. Programs and eligibility vary by state. Here’s a link to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But you can get your state’s information by Googling “medicaid waiver” along with the name of your state.

Also, a few months ago I saw a news report about an underused benefit called a “Special Pension with Aid and Attendance Benefit”. If your elderly loved one is a U.S. wartime veteran or the surviving spouse of a wartime veteran, they may be eligible for this Aid and Attendance program. As with the Medicaid Waiver, there are income eligibility requirements. But if the claimant is “incapable of self support and in need of regular personal assistance” and they meet all the eligibility requirements they could receive money toward in home care, assisted living facilities or nursing home care. The Veteran Aid website has lots of useful information about this and other veterans’ benefits. The Veterans Administration has issued a press release about this Aid and Attendance benefit as well.

Both of these programs can help specific groups of elderly receive services in their own homes. If you are currently seeking services, I hope this information and the links help you out. If you don’t need the information right now, you might wish to do what I’ve done. I set up a Bookmark Folder named “Elder Care & Senior Services”. Whenever I learn about something along these lines, I find the relevant websites and add their addresses to the folder.

Thinking Ahead

I’ve felt pulled in many directions lately. A healthcare need of a member of our extended family has cropped up and appropriately taken precedence over our typical day to day activities. That includes posting here on Pink Granite. I’ve also been thinking a lot (probably too much) about aging, independence, loss, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. A few months ago, I posted here about a wonderful concept called Beacon Hill Village. It’s a terrific, easily replicable support system which allows older folks to remain as independent as possible in their own homes. I want it to multiply and spread as fast as a rumor on the internet. I want it cloned and made available, as the saying goes, in every Middlesex village and town.

I know I’m not alone in my concern about what happens when we, or folks we love, need more care, more services as we age. A friend of mine is coping with this in an immediate and painful way right now as she tries to help her elderly Mom. We all have parents, grandparents and friends who have faced challenging, complex decisions related to growing older. With any luck at all, we will grow old enough to face such choices ourselves! So take a look at what I wrote previously about Beacon Hill Village, follow the links I embedded in that post and spread the word. Thanks.

With Love & Gratitude

We send our love and gratitude on Mother's Day to Dorothy and Betty. We send the same to Catherine, Marion, Minnie and Rose. We reach farther back to thank Leah, Fannie, Esther, Bessie, Mary, Mary, Elizabeth and Augusta. We send our gratitude back before photographs, back to when their names are only remembered on yellowing pages in record books, back to before there were any written records at all. We thank all our mothers and their mothers, all the way back to stardust.

Images and layout copyright LMR/Pink Granite 2007. Esprit Transparency Graphic Squares by During Eberhart, copyright 2006 (available at Scrap Girls)

Happy Mother's Day!

In honor of Mother's Day tomorrow, here's a little animation from Moms Rising. They are the offshoot group from MoveOn.org which has developed the "Motherhood Manifesto". Their documentary film will be shown on PBS stations around the U.S. Here's hoping their work, coupled with our support, leads to improved conditions for parents and children everywhere!

You can send this as an e-mail or embed it in your own blog by clicking on the links at the end of the video.

Nature As Nurture

Only a few weeks after September 11, 2001, my eldest sister became gravely ill. It was a shocking, tumultuous time for the nation and the world. For our family, it was a time of fear and anxiety on far too many levels. Thankfully, Karen survived after a lengthy stay in the hospital and a long recovery at home. Like many other folks during that difficult time, Chuck and I had problems sleeping. If we could fall asleep right away, we would often wake up suddenly with a feeling of dread. We would turn on the television or the radio to listen to a few minutes of news. We were trying to ascertain that nothing else horrible had happened in the world. Briefly reassured, we would attempt to fall back asleep.

It was during this time that we discovered The Sounds of Acadia CD by Nature’s Symphony. I still remember the afternoon we played it for the first time. We hadn’t slept well the night before and I had a pounding headache. Chuck slipped it in the CD player and we let the sounds of surf, gulls and streams, recorded in Acadia National Park in Maine, coupled with gentle music wash over us. It wasn’t a magic wand, but it did make us feel sufficiently more relaxed that we played it again at bed time. We’ve played it nearly every night since. It still provides comfort.

Orange Tree Productions, the company that produces The Sounds of Acadia CD, has an extensive catalogue of music combined with the sounds of nature. Perhaps you’ll find one that soothes your soul.

45 Days

45 days.
A month and a half.
That’s all the time that elapsed between these photos.
Same tree, same land, same planet.
Look how much can happen in such a short period of time.

:: What will you do in the next 45 days?

Creeping Along

These creeping phlox (or ground phlox) above, have been nestled in against this stone wall, down near the roadside, ever since we moved here. Each spring though, they seemed to suffer from the salt and sand the town spreads on the road in winter. A few years ago I transplanted several clumps up next to the barn. There they have flourished in full sun, in well drained soil. I love the new carpet of color below, that we can see out our kitchen window. But I still appreciate the feisty group where they came from.

Youth Meets Truth

When I was four, my Mom went back to work for the telephone company. My Dad was a regional salesman for a paint company. Dad would drive my Mom to work in the morning and then drop me off at my grandparents’ house for the day. Late in the afternoon Dad would come over after work to visit with Gagee and Gramps and then he and I would go and pick up Mom together. That was our routine for the next two years until I entered first grade. Yes, I was a very lucky kid.

Somedays, if Dad got done extra early, he and I would go over to Roger Williams Park. The Park was just around the corner from where Gagee and Gramps lived. It had a carousel, paddle boats, pony rides and it was lush and green and lovely. On the outskirts of the park there was a hot dog place. It was a small hole in the wall with a big sign that shouted: “Mile Long Hot Dogs”. Hmmm. Mile long hot dogs. I was little, but I knew a mile was very, very long. I must have pestered Dad about it, because one day we went in and each got a hot dog. You can imagine the visions of enormous hot dogs that danced in my head. Up came our order: two average sized rolls, each with a hot dog that extended off each end of the rolls. I was little, but I knew those were no mile long hot dogs!

We ate the hot dogs and I can’t remember the details of our conversation. I’m sure it involved some confusion and some discussion, perhaps even talk of false advertising (I was somewhat precocious!). By the time we finished our hot dogs we had settled on the best explanation. The owner of the hot dog stand most likely meant that if you were driving in a car, while eating one of his hot dogs, it would take you a whole mile to finish it. My faith in humanity restored, my tummy full of a mile long hot dog, Dad and I headed into the park. Yes, I was a very lucky kid.

Happy Birthday Sis!

”Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Karen
Happy Birthday to you -
and many more!
Wheeeeeee!!!”

Today is Cinco de Mayo and the run for the roses will take place at the Kentucky Derby. But the Queen of England shouldn’t be at Churchill Downs. Her Majesty should be in Arizona celebrating a much bigger event - my sister Karen’s birthday! I hope Karen has a terrific birthday and that the next 365 days hold only happiness for her! Love you Karen!

Forsythia

I’ve written about the lingering muted landscape of winter around this part of Massachusetts. This tumble of forsythia sprawls at one corner of our land, just in front of field cleared stone walls. Forsythia immediately sends me back to my childhood home where we had lots of bushes in every configuration. We even had a double hedge of it which lined each side of our back walk! I love the way these sudden sprays of color testify spring is well and truly here.

Carrie Says...

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! I am feeling well after my procedure and with lots of rest am back to "tip top" shape. Thanks again for all the support. Also, I am glad you feel my pain with living with a Yankees fan....I'll keep him though...he is a Carrie's fan too :)
Thanks to Auntie Lee, Uncle Chuck, Mom, Kate, Nana, Dad, and all my supporters out in blog land!
- Carrie

Backing Up

Ever since we got our laptop computer two years ago, we have been using Apple's own (plainly named) "Backup" program to back up everything on our computer to DVDs. We did the enormous, take-forever back up once and then incremental backups every single week since then. But we kept hearing about the need for additional back ups, generally triple back ups, including one kept outside of your home. Worse still, we heard the horror stories of folks whose computers crashed, hard drives died, or laptops were stolen and they didn't have all their stuff backed up! Yikes! As increasing amounts of our "lives" are connected to our computer, we realized it was time to take the "belt and suspenders approach". So we purchased an external hard drive. That's what we've been working on today. So far so good. Once we finish the process, I'll let you know how it's working. Meanwhile, take this opportunity to go back up your stuff!

The First of May

At a quick glance, everything still seems the drab brown, gray, beige of winter. But there are bright streaks of spring green and small splashes of color from all along the spectrum. Here are a few more daffodils and the first definitive buds of lilac.