Maya seems to be a very kind and loving person --- even to those of the stuffed persuasion! She also kisses her stuffed animals, and opens the kitchen shutter so "bunny" can see out the window! If you missed her patting her gingerbread cookie on the back - go here.
For several years my old business - The Toycrafter - created wooden Easter Eggs for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. It was always a terribly stressful time. We would create, paint, and print up to 30,000 wooden eggs, often working round the clock to meet the last minute shipping deadlines. Various folks in Washington would take their own sweet time deciding on colors, artwork, etc, always very sure that we would deliver on time no matter how long they took to decide which shade of blue to use! We always did deliver on time for the folks in D.C. to run the boxes through their security checks, and get them to the White House for the Monday after Easter.
A series of great pictures by Maeve. She was in New Orleans with her Mom visiting Tulane - which seems to be choice number one right now for next year's "off to college" venture! Leftover Mardi Gras beads on a fence above, and a fountain close-up below.
A Gaslight below.
Street performer launches over 6 very brave folks below.
Oh --- Tulane quad below. I wish it were me heading off to college!
We're getting a new street today! They came by bright and early to scrape up the old one!
These are good ones to click for a bigger view.
Maya watching a squirrel in the yard.
Maya watching me - with remnants of that skeptical look she used to use on me so often!
I should wait till I get a little video done, but I can't resist.... I've been working on this concept for a while, and finally seem to have it right. The dancer rocks for over 3 minutes on a good run! A very simple concept, but strangely compelling. I've got lots of ideas for other "Balancing Act" pieces, but suggestions are very welcome! This one is about 8" tall overall.
Another picture from last weeks "search for old stuff" trip to Naples, NY. Here lies Bart and wife Kittie. In the diary (1886), Bart is 17 years old, and is off working at Leicester Fox's farm for $15 per month, plus food, laundry, and mending. His dad gets the $15. Bart and Kittie are my great grandparents. I have vague memories of Kittie, but Bart died before I was born.
I'm fascinated that while I don't remember them, Clarke and Jennie Drake certainly knew me because I was two/three when they died. Clarke appears in Henry's diary a bit later in the year, and thus I think, is the only character in that 1886 diary that I knew, smiled at, threw up on, sat in his lap, ???? I was about the age of my granddaughter Maya when I knew Clarke and Jennie Drake! As you will see later in the year, my great grandfather Clarke- age 22 at the time, bought raspberries from my great great grandfather Henry, years before their grandchild and great grandchild would marry and create me! Here in New Ingleside Cemetery my two sets of great grandparents lie just a few yards apart, with Bart never knowing that they were more than just neighbors!
In late February/early March, 1886, my ancestors - Henry, Omar, Bart, and Mills Olney, cut ice on this pond. Solid blocks of ice, cut with special hand saws, hauled 4 miles by horse and wagon, and stored in an "ice house", insulated with sawdust from their own wood cutting, and from a local sawmill. Even city folk didn't have refrigeration in those days, but the stored ice would last all through the coming summer and fall. General day to day use of refrigeration was not a common practice. Milk, eggs, fruit, etc. was grown on the farm, and used on a daily basis. The ice was probably used for special cool drinks, and maybe ice cream making when they had company? Click here for more details. I was sort of disappointed with how small the pond was, but even a small pond - frozen solid - is quite a bit of ice!
Robins, and maple syrup are high on the list of signs of spring in my part of the world, but the sound of spring peepers (actually small frogs looking for sex) starts my heart beating faster, and brings a smile to my face! These peepers were recorded near Atlanta, NY on Tuesday night, after a wonderful evening of digging through the history/genealogy stuff at the local library, looking for information to add to my blog of Great Great Grandfather Henry Cadmus Olney's 1886 diary. I confess - the video/audio is mine, but I borrowed the picture.
The robins have been around for a couple of weeks, but here is a particularly healthy looking one from the neighborhood. The gull below probably was here all winter, but she also looks quite healthy and happy in the spring sunshine!
Click to enlarge
Seeing the world through the eyes of one so new to it all is truly a wonderful thing! Walking by a car in a driveway is a chance to explore her favorite letters and numbers!
Where you and I would sort of naturally stick to the sidewalks, Maya runs over to gently touch the crocuses, and to declare them purple!
And while Grandpa nervously wonders if the folks who own this swing set in a back yard at the other end of the block will come out and yell, Maya wants to slide, swing, and generally test her skills!
On Sunday we took an old fashioned Sunday drive along Lake Ontario. Sort of figured that Lighthouse Road must have a lighthouse, and sure enough! This is The Braddock Point Lighthouse from the shore side --- below is a view from the lake side borrowed from an old web site when the lighthouse was for sale (1.9 million) back in 2005? Originally built in 1896, and restored between 1990 and 1998, with the light re-lit in February 1998 - an official Coast Guard Aid to Navigation.
My kidney stone finally came out to get his picture taken this morning around 8AM. Rather a handsome fellow - sort of like you might find in a nice collection of rocks and minerals at the local Museum and Science Center? Just a bit over a quarter of an inch across, and with lots of interesting stuff in it! Such a little thing to have pretty much taken over my life for the past 3 weeks?
Got in a short walk around the neighborhood this afternoon!
Snowdrops
Crocus
Baby maple tree!
Maya pats her gingerbread cookie on the back. Her love of Grandma Cheryl's cookie did not prevent her from consuming it however!
I love the table level shots I get at the diner! Above - Maya ----- Below Grandma Cheryl at her birthday party!
My nephew Wyatt took this one. The Bird of Paradise flower is sort of a recurring theme in my family. Thank you Wyatt! This is one worth clicking on for a bigger view!
My friend Rick Shannon looked over that picture of my ancestral family, and concluded that something very much like the camera above was used to take it...... probably on a glass plate? Rick knows more about photography that pretty much anybody, and as a collector of stuff, happened to have one sitting around that I could take a picture of! Thanks Rick.
I've been pretty much away from the computer, and from most of my "regular" life for the last 10 days or so. My radiation treatments seemed to have finally caught up with me, and a great deal of distress was occurring "in the neighborhood"! At the urging of Cheryl, I finally gave in and went to to see the oncologist. This was last Thursday, and I pretty much needed Cheryl to lean on to get there! Very severe discomfort. He asked lots of questions, looked quite concerned, and after deciding it was not radiation side effects, he sent me over to the Emergency Department! They kept me for about 4 hours --- but with no real diagnosis, they sent me to the Cardiology Department for a Holter monitor - a sort of 24 hour EKG - and from there to home. I successfully fended off Cheryl's urgings that I go back to Emergency, call my regular doctor, or SOMETHING, for most of the weekend, (the Vicodin from the emergency room doctor was some help) finally giving up and calling my regular doctor's emergency # around 3AM on Monday morning. He answered himself, and told me to come into the office in the morning - no appointment necessary.
