Tuesday 4 - Me

 It's time for Tuesday 4. This week is about describing yourself. Join me if you'd like.

Me at 5 years old.

1. How are you unique or different from your friends or family? How typical are you?

This is a hard question. Maybe I should ask an outside observer to get a better perspective, but I can't find anyone. So I give it a go on my own.

I feel like I am very similar to my sisters - detail oriented, good at thinking through plans, like simple things. I am different than my husband's family where most things are examined from an engineering/physics perspective. I, too, am science oriented, but physics is my least favorite and hardest science discipline for me. 

I am different from some of my friends in that I tend to try to find the positive in most situations. I can be annoying in that way sometimes so I've been told. But that is not to say that I don't enjoy a good complaining session at work as much as the next person.

2.  How do you spend your spare time? books, hobbies, visiting, tv etc. I like being outside and observing nature, so I often work in the yard. Except when it's really hot. Then I melt. :) I also read, watch TV, play computer games, and pet cats to relax. In the past, I did knitting and cross-stitching.

3. What was high school like for you? Overall, high school was pretty good for me. When I was a freshman, I tried out for everything I could--student council, cheerleader, class play, etc. And I lost every single one of them. I was not the prettiest, curviest, or richest which were all things that were of great value to 14 year olds. But I came back the next year and tried again and had a few successes. By the time I was a senior, I was student body president, a varsity cheerleader, and valedictorian. When I look back, I'm not sure where I got the courage to overcome all of the rejections.

4. This question has multiple parts:

a. Handbag: designer style or any will do?  My bag has to be not too big and have a good carrying strap. Designer or not, I like to get a well made one and carry it for years until I get embarrassed about how worn it looks.

b. Pajamas or night gown? Pajamas. I've never understood nightgowns in that they always seem to end up in an uncomfortable ball around my waist when I have worn them.

c. Shoes: sturdy or pretty ? Definitely sturdy. I have various issues with my feet, so when I find a pair of shoes that are comfortable for me, I tend to wear them all the time. Until, much like the purse, I get embarrassed about how worn they look.

d.home decor: classic, modern, farm house style, traditional? I don't know what our style is. I'm not sure we have one. But in general, we lean more to the traditional and less to the modern. And uncluttered. That's not to say that we always achieve that, but I generally don't like a cluttered space. Which is one reason my desk is bothering me right now. But not enough to do anything about it. Same goes for my nightstand. :)

e. Movies: feel good, drama, romance, action? We watch very few movies, but I enjoy a feel good comedy more than an intense action movie.

To There and Back Again

 Ward and I just spent a long weekend in West Virginia for a family reunion with my family. 

Let's get the COVID concerns out of the way that you all are wondering about. It was a small vaccinated crowd, outdoors with plenty of room to socially distance. And even though we were all glad to see each other, there was little to no hugging. I felt as safe there as I do anywhere else. Now onto the trip.

On the way there, we left the beaten path to visit this Amish planing mill. Ward enjoyed seeing their processes and talking with the workers. I did not enjoy how hot it was.

The next day we were up early to set up at the Ft. Boreman Historical Park where the event was held. 

The park overlooks the confluence of the Little Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. Originally the site was a Civil War fort to protect railroad facilities.

The following day, we visited the WV Botanical Gardens before heading home. The gardens were at the site of an old reservoir and had different garden rooms carved out of the forest. 

One of the many gardens was a fairy garden. You can see some of the fairy houses that have been built in the background.

There was a butterfly garden.

Close to the butterfly garden was a gazebo
where Ward was doing his thing of seeing how it was constructed.

There was a pond with marshy ground around it.

And a boardwalk through a swamp.

To summarize our trip:

It was HOT! Thank goodness for fans.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery both in the mountains and along the river.

I am very lucky to have the family I do both immediate and extended.

Until next time...

And We're Off!

The group that started it all.
My father is the tallest one in the group.

 

This morning we begin another trip across the mountains to my family reunion in West Virginia. I'm up early waiting for Ward to join me so we can begin the loading the car. 

Besides visiting with family, we have two new-to-us parks we plan to visit. I'll share some of the details with you next week.

Until next time...

Tuesday 4, Let's Cook!

 This week's Tuesday 4 is about cooking. Play along if you like. 

If you've read here for very long, you know that cooking is not my thing. I know how to cook, but it's just like the laundry. It's a necessary thing that I don't mind doing, but so many other things are more interesting. Also, I'm not really into the big eating experience. All my life, I have eaten small amounts frequently. My mother said I was born that way and I never really grew out of it. What that means, is that I'm full before the appetizer is done. This causes problems sometimes because people/restaurants think I don't like their food because I'm not eating much of it.

So the questions this week are harder for me to answer than some other prompts have been. But read along, anyway, if you're interested.

1.What is/are your favorite meal(meals) to eat and to cook?

I'd say that my favorite meals are heavy on fresh vegetables. I like them prepared many ways, but the carnivores in the house like them best roasted, so we do that a lot. I like them that way, too, especially because they are easy to prepare. When I was growing up, we got to pick the supper menu on our birthday. I usually chose creamed chicken and biscuits. And when I got a little older, that was my favorite meal to make. 

2.How often do you cook at home and what kind of  meals do you make? 

We get take out once or twice a week, and eat in a restaurant once a month or so. The rest of the time we tend to make easy meals in large quantities so we can eat the leftovers for a couple of days. Big pots of stew and casseroles lend themselves to this. My husband is a fan of Costco chicken (big rotisserie chicken for $4.99), so he tends to buy those a lot.

3. When you go out to eat what foods do you find yourself ordering most?  

When we are in an actual restaurant, I tend to order salads or vegetarian entrees. The carnivores can get their big piece of meat and everyone is happy. And I have been known to be one of those people who eat the fries off of other's plates.

4. Can you recommend a restaurant in your area?  Why do you like it?

I'm not a foodie, so I'm just as happy with a Subway sandwich or a Domino's pizza (tomatoes and feta cheese) as anything else. 

Tuesday 4, Weddings

I'm almost a week late, but here are this/last week's Tuesday 4 prompts about weddings. Join me if you'd like. 

 1. If you are married would you share how your husband proposed to you? How long were you engaged before you got married? If you aren't married, what would be ideal for you?

There was no formal proposal. We talked about getting married several times and after a while decided to make it formal with an engagement. We were/are very practical people and the whole idea of a surprise proposal seemed strange. Wouldn't it be something you'd need to discuss? At length. However, I know that it is much more of a romantic gesture than anything else. And decades ago, it wasn't such a big thing when there wasn't social media to document everything. I'm don't remember exactly how long we were engaged before we got married--maybe 6 months. I was finishing up my thesis, then spent a couple of month's at my parents house planning the wedding.

2. Did you receive an engagement ring? Would you show us or describe it for us? Yes, I did receive an engagement ring. It is a simple brilliant cut diamond. The stone came from my husband's grandmother with the instructions that if we ever broke up, it had to come back to her. Fortunately, we've never had to make good on that promise. However, I did lose the ring once and was panicked about telling her. However, after several months I found it. If you want to read more about that and a ring Ward lost, you can read it here.

3. What kind of wedding did you have? Was it big or small, formal, informal, religious or justice of the peace. Inquiring minds want to know! Our wedding was in my small, home town church. It was a simple affair with only two attendants - one of my sisters and Ward's best friend. There were maybe 50-75 people there and the reception was in the basement of the new library with church friends making all of the food. It all went just as planned. However, I can't say that it was a comfortable day. I wasn't used to being the center of attention for such a long period of time and I found it tiring. 

4.Was there a honeymoon? Where did you go, how long did you stay? There really wasn't a honeymoon, so to speak. Ward was just a few months into a new job and didn't have any vacation time built up. His company gave him one personal day for the wedding. Time constraints was one of the reasons we got married the Friday after Thanksgiving instead of a more traditional Saturday. I also was starting a new job the next week, so the "honeymoon" was a long drive back to New Orleans from WV. We only drove a few hours the first night to a scenic spot, so I guess that was our honeymoon. But we've had plenty of time to travel since then.

When I reread this, by what you see these days, this was a very plain and simple affair, both the engagement and the wedding. But the wedding was, hands down, just right. Because we got married and eons later, we're still happily married. 

An Interesting Trip, Part 3

Here are a few more pictures from the genealogy trip that Ward and I took to Reading, PA. 

About halfway home we stopped at the Conowingo Dam. The large hydroelectric dam on the Lower Susquehanna River is the largest in the state of Maryland.

The dam's visitor center was guarded by this large eagle carved by a chainsaw.

And it was flanked by beautiful flowers.

But the real interest of the group was seeing
 how the dam worked--at least for Ward anyway.

This sign puzzled me at first because I wasn't sure what vultures would want with cars. A bit of research said that they can peck at the rubber from the sunroof and windshield wipers. 

And speaking of things that can do damage, I saw my first spotted lanternfly on this trip. This is the fly with the wings closed.

And this is the fly with the wings open. The lanternfly is native to China and was first found in the US in 2014 in Berks County, PA, which happens to be where Reading is. The fly can lay its eggs on anything, alive or not, which is one reason it is spreading quickly.
And why should we be concerned with the lantern fly? Because it already doing a lot of damage to fruit crops. and adapting quickly to many more plant species.

Well, that's it for this trip. Time to get ready for next weekend's family reunion.

Until next time...

An Interesting Trip, Part 2

 Ward and I recently went to Reading, PA, on a genealogy expedition for his family. The beginning of the trip was described in this post. Since I'm sure you found that post riveting, I will continue with our travels.

After piecing together a few more bits of information, we started our morning in the cemetery looking for a marker we hadn't found during our first visit. With some good map skills, we found what we were looking for.  (BTW, the cemetery is older than 1944. We're guessing that is when a new wall was built around it.)

We hoped to learn some local history by a visit to the Reading Public Museum. Unfortunately, it didn't open until later in the day. However, we did enjoy the park and arboretum around the museum. The park contains many sculptures including the one of the guitar player you see in front of the museum.

The group was fascinated by this sculpture as we tried to figure out the physics of how it was balanced.

There was also much discussion as to why deer hadn't eaten all of these hostas.

The paths through the arboretum followed along the Wyomissing Creek.

The ducks in the creek liked this protected area to search for food in the mud.

This statue was titled, Efflorescence II. In my simple mind, it looked like a giraffe.

This was also a subject for discussion. The conclusion was that it had
something to do with a dam that used to go across the creek.

I understood the name of this sculpture. It was simply titled, Bronze Root.

But I didn't quite get the meaning of the title for this work-Troy.

Soon we were on our way home. Next time, I'll show you some of the sights we saw along the way.

An Interesting Trip

Ward and I just returned from a trip to Reading, PA with his brother and wife. The purpose of the trip was to do some on-the-ground research about Ward's grandfather, Stanislaw, and his great-grandfather, Franz. Franz immigrated with his two brothers from Poland around 1910 to Reading, PA. However, both Stan and Franz died when their children were young, so there's not much family oral history. The results of this trip added several bits of information to the online records that have been found recently although there are still big questions to be answered. However, it was an interesting, productive, not to mention, fun trip. 

After 3 1/2 hour drive, our first stop was the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery which had served the Polish population. We found a few of the family markers we were looking for, but they were not the ones we were hoping to find--meaning Ward's grandparents and an uncle. We had an interesting time trying to say the multi-syllabic names and guessing the meaning of Polish words during our search.

We spent the next morning searching church records. They were often difficult to read both because of handwriting and because of the multiple ways names were spelled. Ward was excited when he found the baptism of his grandfather. This is an example of an easy-to-read record.

Next stop was the Berks County Genealogical Society. It was in this repurposed goggle factory. Today the former factory houses various art endeavors as well as the genealogy society. It was originally built in 1871 and was the first factory in the world to manufacture optical glass. This was one of a plethora of factories that were present in Reading around the turn of the last century. It's easy to understand why Reading would have been a popular destination for incoming immigrants.

After spending much of the day looking at records, we decided we needed a break. We then drove around to find various addresses where family members had lived. Along with several dwellings, we located St. Mary's Church where Ward's grandfather and many of his cousins were baptized. The church was locked, but a member of the church who lives across the street saw us taking pictures and let us in to see the inside. It was one of the grandest churches I have ever seen. 

We had seen this pagoda on a distant hill, and at the end of the day, we thought it would be fun to find it. The pagoda was built in 1908 as a hotel/restaurant for a planned resort. That didn't work out, so they gave it to the city of Reading. It was interesting to think about Ward's great-grandfather arriving in Reading and seeing the giant pagoda on the hill just like we did.

A little further up the hill from the pagoda was the William Penn fire tower.

This tower was built in 1939 to be used as
both a fire tower and a tourist attraction.

After a long day, we retired to the hotel where we tried to think about something other than Ward's family history so we could sleep. That was met with varying degrees of success but we were all up early the next day to do more exploring before we returned home.

Tune in next time for more Reading adventures. :)

Another afternoon

It was a bright, sunny day before the storm.

It's almost 6 pm and I'm sleepy. It's too late for a nap and too early to go to bed. So what to do? This situation usually sends me outside to putter in the yard, but the rains are tumbling down. Recently, our weather has been much like it was when we lived in New Orleans - a thunderstorm every afternoon. In New Orleans, it seemed that it stormed every day after work as we were walking to the bus. I wish I could say the storms cooled things off, but they didn't. If anything, the air was even more humid afterwards, but we are luckier here in that regard--after the storms, the air is usually cooler. 

I have to work tomorrow, but I had today off, so I spent most of it trying to process produce so it won't go bad while we are away. After I ran out of ingredients for pesto, I put the rest of the basil into the dehydrator. Herbs dry at a very low temperature and it seems to take forever. In fact, the temperature outside was higher than it was in the dehydrator-98 F and 95F, respectively. As I was expressing my impatience with the drying basil, Theo suggested I take it outside where it was warmer. :)

The last sauce I made, I used the food mill.
This time I used a blender.

Also, on the produce menu today was tomato sauce. After preparing it this morning, I've been cooking it down all day and now it's cooling. The goal is to get it into the freezer tonight. However, if I still had my canner, I would can it. Several years ago, I gave the canner away after not using it for a long time. If this keeps up, I may need to get another one. Besides the basil and tomatoes, throw in some dropped pears and apples and it's been a full day.

The rains have stopped and I'm going to go find Ward, who has wondered outside somewhere.

Until next time...

This and That

There's a lot more basil to pick.

 I don't go to work until this afternoon, so I am devoting the morning to processing basil. I have my third batch of pesto in the food processor ready to go. However, Ward has a meeting now, so the actual chopping will have to wait because the food processer is one noisy appliance. (Our food processer, by the way, is almost 40 years old! We got it as a wedding gift.) So while I'm waiting for the go ahead with my noisy project, I've decided to check in here. 

Ward and I have two trips planned for this month. One is going to Pennsylvania to do some genealogy work for Ward's family, who were Polish immigrants around the turn of the last century. Both his grandfather and great grandfather died young, so there's not much oral history to go on. We are going with another brother and his wife and plan to explore church records, cemeteries, and the historical society. I like trips that involve exploring with a purpose - they're like scavenger or treasure hunts. This one fits the bill and I'm looking forward to it.

The other is to West Virginia for my annual family reunion picnic. We take turns among the families hosting it, but because of some difficulties, the next-in-line are not able to do it. So, I've stepped in to make it happen. The numbers have dwindled over the years, but it's not something I want to give up. Normally, we have a much longer planning horizon, but it's all doable. Thank goodness for the internet and phones or this job would be a lot more difficult than it is. We don't live close to where it's going to be held, so the logistics are a bit complicated. 

An earlier family picnic when we would gather for my grandmother's birthday every year in July. There were 13 more cousins to come after this. In case you're wondering, I am the one with the curliest hair.

I've been given the go ahead, so back to the kitchen and the wonderfully smelling basil.

Until next time...

Tuesday 4

Here's another set of questions from the Tuesday 4. Play along if you like.

1. Reading anything good lately?  How about magazines? Do you buy any?

I recently reread, The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly by Rebecca Ansari with my book club. This is a children's book but my book club liked it and it garnered a fair amount of discussion. I first picked it up after hearing about the premise that Charlie remembers his little brother, Liam, but no one else does. It was as if he hadn't existed. I won't go into the story any more so as not to give any spoilers in case anyone decides to read it. Suffice it to say, the book weaves an interesting, complex, and well written story.

As far as magazines, my husband gets a woodworking magazine which he enjoys for the tips and plans it has. I enjoy perusing it, too. 

2. Do you belong to any clubs, societies, or do you meet with friends regularly to chat?

I don't belong to any formal clubs or societies except my book club. I have other groups of people with whom I meet from time to time to catch up. Because of COVID, I have a lot of catching up to do with some of these groups.

3. Where are you from originally and if you moved why did you move? 

If you visit here very often, you know that I grew up in West Virginia. I have also lived in Virginia, New Orleans, and Houston, along with Maryland where I have lived for the last 20 years. All of these moves were because of jobs.

4. Do you like a good Western Movie? Who was your favorite movie/TV Cowboy?

I used to enjoy a good Western movie, but I haven't watched one in a long time. When I was growing up, we watched Gun Smoke every Monday night at 8 pm. I still enjoy checking in with it from time to time in reruns. But I think my favorite was/is the Rifleman because Chuck Conner reminds me of my father.

What's blooming this week?

Nature in general makes me happy, so it shows up on my blog more often than not. And here it is again-another post of flowers around my yard. What is blooming where you are?

One of several sunflowers that the birds planted.
However, tomato plants win the prize for the most plants planted by birds this year. They were everywhere. When I could, I dug them up and gave them to friends saved and a few for myself.

Lady bug on a zucchini leaf. I didn't realize that there were so many different kinds of lady bugs until I saw a chart from Cornell. This one is a North American native species, Coleomegilla maculata.

The ever-faithful begonias that I plant in front of my house each year. They require essentially no attention and just keep blooming.

Mexican sunflower 

Coneflowers

Bumble bee on allium. Notice the large pollen sacs on either side of its legs. I have never seen ones this big before or ones on both sides at once. This has definitely been a busy bee. :)

Black-eyed Susan

Marigold

Cosmos

Until next time...