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...