Saturday, November 30, 2019

Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

This idea came from a Facebook meme:
Over 10 days, post your 10 all time favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:me favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:


The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952) Gilbert Roland, Angela Clarke

Friday, November 29, 2019

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Since there is no mail delivery on Sunday, I didn't have to go out in the pouring rain to the mailbox.

2. Asked the Eldest if we'd be able to Skype on Thursday night. She said she was invited to her elderly neighbor's family for Thanksgiving. I'm so glad she won't be alone for the holiday.

3. Mailed a package to the Eldest. Pleased to find out it should arrive by today (Friday).

4. I ran out of mozzarella for the Parmigiana we were making to bring for Thanksgiving. Himself knows I hate grocery shopping and crowds so he ran out to pick more up.

5. Lovely Thanksgiving at the Brother-in-Law's.

How was your week?

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

T Stands for Lancaster Morning

While the Young One slept, Himself and I ventured out on Saturday morning to take a ride up to the farm and explore the town. It had been unseasonably warm on Friday and not much color to the trees. Friday night was very chilly and when we went outside we were in for a surprise.


The colors just popped.


A drive down Martin Meadow Pond Road where the farm was/is


The farm was 98 acres of land and sold sometime in the 1970s after Grandpa K passed away. This is the driveway up to the farmhouse. Whoever owns the property now put a chain link fence up.


A picture of the farmhouse from back in the day. The family used to congregate and hang out on the front porch.







Martin Meadow Pond






Looking down Martin Meadow Pond toward the farm.


Lancaster Fairgrounds. The fair is held each year on Labor Day Weekend. Himself and his siblings looked forward all year to this annual event. Rides, animals, food




Downtown Lancaster


Quintessential New England a little white church



The town fountain. Himself said when he was a baby, someone (most likely his dad) had to go to the town fountain to bring back water for Baby Himself. He said there was something about the water at the farm, that he couldn't tolerate as a baby. 


Inscription on the fountain.


Drink reference #1


The post office. I ran in to buy stamps as I was going to send the Eldest a postcard from Lancaster.





Setting up for the Farmer's Market on the Town Green


War memorial 


The bubbler (bubblah), where you can get a drink of water. Drink reference #2.


Memorial to the pioneers  "the brave men and women who redeemed Lancaster from the wilderness"


I thought it was a statue of a wolf, but it's a statue of a fox



The William D. Weeks Memorial Library


More of the downtown


And the Rialto theater. From the days when movie theaters had cool names.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Alphabet Sunday

Since nothing much will be changing in How Does Your Garden Grow?, I'll show a letter of the alphabet I found while on Enders Island in July and October. Alphabet Sunday will be interrupted if anything of interest happens in the garden or an obligatory whine about snowfall.


The Seaside Chapel

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

This idea came from a Facebook meme:
Over 10 days, post your 10 all time favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:me favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:


Mighty Joe Young (1949) Ben Johnson, Terry Moore

If you haven't seen this movie, it's available for rent on YouTube.

Friday, November 22, 2019

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I finally got together with my Cousin for lunch. We had a nice lunch at Legal Seafood. I brought the picture of the 1939 Carver Dress Company's company picnic. Her mother and father (my Godparents) worked with Ma. L. had never seen the picture before.

2. I was notified by Ancestry DNA that the test once again went through refinements. On the first past I had less than 1% Polynesian, 78% Italian/Greek, 11 % Middle Eastern, 6% Jewish. On the second pass Italian/Greek got boosted to 89% with the balance made up of areas in the Caucasus. On this pass, I am 100% Italian from the province of Avellino in the Campagnia region, just as I knew, and I can hear my Dad: I told you so! I will miss being less than 1% Polynesian as that was so exotic.

3. We've been invited to Himself's Brother's for Thanksgiving. Everyone was asked to bring a side dish that meant Thanksgiving to them. Himself and I are making eggplant Parmigiana as that was also on the table for my family's holiday and special occasions. The disposable pan Himself bought to serve 14 will fit in the oven!

4. It was a quick moving stomach bug

5. 8 eggplants sliced, fried, and in the freezer to be made into a Parmigiana for next week.

How was your week?


Thursday, November 21, 2019

The New Toy

Not that I really wanted a new toy, but when buying from some sites, you need to spend a minimum dollar amount to get free shipping.Gawd forbid you don't get that free shipping. So I poked around the site to see if there was something I needed, wanted, or could use.


What's this?


A mini Buddha board. 5 inches square. The case opens up, and folds back like an easel. There's a small paintbrush, too. You can use any soft brush and water.


You wet the brush in water and then "paint" or doodle on the board. Then the drawing begins to evaporate. The board is clean, and you can start all over again. No paints, no inks, no real mess unless you spill your water container. I got this through Barnes and Noble. There's also a larger 9 inch x 12 inch board, too.

The perfect item to play with while you're on endless hold with customer service.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

T Stands for Road Trip and Genealogy Sighting


I had mentioned in an earlier post that Himself started getting interested in his genealogy. Since we had time I suggested taking a trip up to Lancaster, New Hampshire where he spent weekend Summers at his grandfather's farm when he was a kid. We could go look for his grandparents grave and get in some leaf peeping, too. It would be a nice long weekend trip. The drive would take 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

We had heard that color had arrived early up north so we picked the last weekend of September for the trip. Peak color would be around the second weekend of October. The roads would be jammed with Leaf Peepers and we hoped to avoid the crowds.


The White Mountains looking very green. Not much color in them there hills. Oh, well.

Himself is the oldest of 5 children and on the way up he told of making the drive on the weekends. Most times he said his family made the trip up at night with the kids in their pajamas so they would fall asleep in the car. That way, no arguments and fighting from the back seat.

When they made the trip during daylight, one of the biggest and most exciting attractions on the side of the road was to watch for the Old Man in the Mountain, a natural rock formation that looked like an old man.  He was really only visible from a certain angle and then all of a sudden would pop out of the mountain. Himself had taken me to see the Old Man back in the mid-1980s when some friends got married up this way.

In 2003, after much weathering, the Old Man fell off the mountain! As we approached the site in Franconia, Himself said, I think this is where the Old Man was.

Where?

Right...there..

I was on the wrong side of the vehicle and I think I snapped the photos too late.




This is what the Old Man in the Mountain looked like. An iconic image that came to be a symbol for the state of New Hampshire.  Himself said when they saw the Old Man, they knew it wasn't much longer to the farm.

If you're interested, you can watch this YouTube video about the collapse, the debate whether to restore the icon, and the solution.



We followed this truck for a long time.

How much wood would a wood truck truck,
If a wood truck could truck wood?
A wood truck would truck all the wood it could truck,
If a wood truck could truck wood.


There's my drink reference. The word coffee etched on the window of the cafe in downtown Lancaster.

After getting settled at the hotel, we took a trip to the Calvary  Cemetery to locate his paternal grandparents grave. He hadn't been to visit since he was a kid. He had a vague recollection of the gravesite. Near a river and at the back corner of the cemetery.

Usually, on a weekday, someone is in the cemetery office can help direct one to a grave site, but there was no one in the office on this Friday afternoon.

Himself parked the car and the Young One and I roamed the cemetery. 


A Mary on the half shell without a Mary (Common to find a statue of the Virgin Mary in a shell)



The view across the cemetery.

From the back corner, The Young One and I didn't really find a river and there no grave stones. Just empty lawn. Himself a short way away from us said his grandparents didn't have a grave stone, just a plaque in the ground.. He saw this monument. This is it! I think the Hartley's are some sort of relation.




Indeed, the Hartely's were some sort of relation. His grandfather's mother. They were his paternal great-grandmother's family. And the original owners of the farm. A working farm in the day, but not when Himself spent Summer weekends there.

Most of the plots in this cemetery were family plots with lots of people buried in the grave.  The stones were badly weathered and covered with lichen. I had a notebook with me so took down all the information. It seemed his grandfather had two siblings which Himself didn't know about, both died young. Some other children who died on the same day. Now came the fun part to try to put the pieces of the who were these people puzzle together.



Lovely ivy vine motif on the Hartley stone.


I was also excited to find a Woolly caterpillar, a prediction of Winter weather. If the black ends of the Woolly Caterpillar are wide and the brown middle is small, a harsh Winter is ahead. But this Woolly was all brown! No black head or tail. Hooray! A mild Winter!


We left stone markers at the Hartley stone


One other puzzle was his grandfather's first name, Irving. It never sounded like an Irish name, and it turns out, the name isn't Irish. It's Scottish and means "green river, sea friend."

I remember Himself's grandfather, a sort of funny memory for me as a kid, but as an adult it's meaning is sad.

I was probably 7 or 8 years old. Himself's grandfather was living with them. At one point, the grandmother was living there, too, but I don't have any memories of her. One morning, I was in my front yard when the Grandfather came out of the house, wearing his red, long johns, shoes, his cane, and a hat. A gentleman never went out without his best hat. I don't know where he was going, but he was off. 


On the way out of the cemetery, I asked Himself to stop the car so I could take a picture of the Smith monument. The most impressive monument in the cemetery. A beautiful Celtic cross with an angel.


Whatever the angel held in his hand had broken. Maybe a bouquet of flowers?


There was something written around the ring of the cross, but it was so bright out and the sun behind the cross so I couldn't make out what was on the ring.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.