happy music

Think funky chicken on squeezebox, guys with beerguts and leather shorts, corn dogs and bratwurst, bad belly dancers balancing swords on their foreheads shimmying to California Dreaming.

Reach!

Hair

It's hubby's BD. Had the strangest dream. Was giving daughter a BD party and presents of bran and hay and oats while a two-headed orange and black dog whirled in the front yard.

Milky, smug at unpacking my lingerie all by himself

Reflection

knick-knack

last of summer's produce

spider and friend

orange is in

golden

Frog's bane

This watery plane I cleave in two.
Pictured calm thus I undo.

I am the dark and toothy rule,
Frog's bane and no one's fool.

Come closer sweet and see my smile
I'll whisper secrets. For a while.

weaving

I get to take lessons from this lady. Whohoo!

I love trees

an october valentine

sheltiegora

Current spinning project. Wool on the spindle and dog on the lower bobblin. Complete with fiber source sleeping on the left. Not a great picture, but the four legged guy tends to hide when he sees the camera. He knows it is going to flash at him.

I will ply the grey wool with the dog yarn. Since the French word for dog yarn is chengora, I think sheltiegora would be a good thing to call this yarn.

What do you think?

turn Left

PLEASE!

Pleasant Burg

Carolina Wren

Found these absolutely lovely and detailed Carolina Wren cards at the TR Art Fair. I got two. I'd like to keep one, but already know of two people I'd like to give a set to. Sigh.

knitters - Franklin yarn shop

the road goes ever on

The Road Goes Ever On

The Road goes ever on and on
   Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
   And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
   Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
   And whither then? I cannot say.

   -- J R R Tolkien

some of summer's bounty

goats

sunflowers

My sunflowers were awesome this summer. And, most mysterious, I didn't plant any!

elf

Is history doomed to repeat?

This is a pic of my Aunt Gypsy. She looks so like my sister M that if I didn't know that M had not worked as a short order cook in the 50's, I would say that it was her. Same overweight, same heavy glasses, same manner of dressing, tennis shoes and socks and a long dress. Although you can't see it here, they even have the same gap between their front teeth.

Gypsy married Charles Ager and divorced soon after. There was some problem, I don't know what. I was a child, it was spoken of in whispers. Short as the marriage was - 10 weeks, I think they said - it left her pregnant. She had a son, much adored Chuck.

She took endless photos of him as a child, same as M did with her son. She spent her scant earnings on keeping him current with the latest 50's little boy toys. I have a suitcase full of pics and early childhood accomplishments.

No one knows where Chuck is, by the way. My father and Uncle N. tried unsuccessfully to find him.

You see, Gypsy, like so many of her siblings, developed Huntington's. When Chuck grew up he left, probably running away from the family genetic curse, or trying to. Did he marry, have children, inherit Huntington's? We don't know.

Aunt Emma was left to care for Gypsy. Emma seemed to take in all the stragglers of the family - a girl named Katherine (I don't know her story), Evelyn who also had Huntington's and then Gypsy. Was Emma the caregiver of that group of siblings? How did she feel about it? Did she chaff sometimes at the role?

I am left, perhaps, as the caregiver for my sister M.
The other night she calls crying. Her son "borrowed" her scant savings and now has vanished off the radar. Just like Chuck.

Am I Emma? Was she conflicted while caring for her ailing siblings?

Are there some people life just designates to be caregivers? Why is that? Why can't they get out of it?

Pain

Not a good day - yesterday and the evening before.

My disabled, mentally ill sister called in tears. She was in pain with her teeth from some long delayed dental work. Long delayed because she had no way to pay for it and apparently her medical coverage didn't extend that far.

In pain because her beloved 19 year old son "borrowed" $500.00 last month - all she could scrape together. Now he won't return her calls and she doesn't know if she has enough money to make it through this month.

I sent her some money, wrote him a letter which I cc'd to my husband and his Great Uncle. I was a lot more gentle than I would have liked to be.

But I doubt anything will do much good and I am afraid I will have to pick up the pieces again when she falls apart.

It almost destroyed me the last time. I don't know if I can do it again.

mid century toys

These are photos of my cousin.  I love the mid-century curtains, wish I had some.  Check out the monkey and the odd clown doll.  Gypsy was a single mom and had to make do with little.  She didn't have an easy life.  She worked harder than many of us do, went through the Great Depression, had both of her parents die, her mother just after WWII.  Her father some years before.  She struggled with weight issues, worked as a cook in a restaurant, had a genetic disease and adored her only son.  I think the saddest thing was that all that was left after her death was a makeup case full of photos and old letters.  We could not find her son to return them to him.

I think old photos that go adrift with no owner are so lonely.

Charles William Ager 1934

?

comic books

The bike

Merry and her dolls

Charlie Joyce and William 1936

Charles William and his calf

unknown date 30's?

Ohio River

Ohio River, 50's, probably from the Newport side.

they grow up so fast

American Beauty

Emma Cunningham with one monthTommy and Patsy at 22 months on her American Beauty wagon, July and August 1952

unknown sledder

Image from my Aunt Gypsy's photo stash. She is so cute, I hope she is a relative.

cat TV

Cat TV became interactive this morning.

Kamath likes to sit in the front window and watch the wildlife outside, lashing his tail and gnashing his teeth. As a matter of fact, we have to raise the blind every morning for him or he bashes it with a paw until we do.

This morning I went back upstairs after B left to get a shirt and there was Kamath, tail going like a windshield wiper and hissing softly. On the roof outside the window a squirrel danced back and forth, sometimes sitting up with his front feet folded on his chest, other times turning his back and violently flipping his tail.

This went on for 10 minutes.

Neither could get to the other through 2 layers of glass and I guess it was a good way for them to start the day - the animal equivalent of my cup of coffee.

On another note, Bubba caught a chipmunk today and waited until I got back from the feed and seed to eat it. I saw her in the front yard after something when I left at 3 and it was nearly 5 when I got back. It seems the need to show off is not limited to humans.

gnome

Do you think he could be the original garden gnome?

crooked window

red couch

tomato bird

a flower with teeth

he fiddles while the water falls

sheep

From a recent visit to the Appalachian Folk Center in Tennessee.

Boxed Ladies

Not sure why these two were in a box at the Farmer's Market. It was early. Maybe they were cold?