And We're Back!

View from the front porch

Barn doorway Our vacation to Pa was wonderful. You know it’s a good trip when you don’t want to come home at the end. Our beloved old farmhouse was the same crumbling, creaky, time encrusted place we’ve grown to love as our home away from home. The fields around us abounded with wildflowers more beautiful and fragrant than any hothouse could produce. The long grasses rustled with perky little chipmunks, rotund, waddling groundhogs, and songbirds of every kind.Wildflowers
The weather was a welcome respite from the 100 degree days we were having at home. I think it hit close to 80 a couple of days, but the evenings were downright chilly, and we all huddled appreciatively under our fuzzy blankets. In the morning, we sat up on the back porch, warming our hands with mugs of hot coffee as we looked out at the hillside swathed in ribands of mist.One morning as we rumbled and bounced along one of the myriad dirt roads, looking for old houses and little family cemeteries, we chanced upon a flock of wild turkeys grazing in a field. Our arrival caused them to part-fly, part-trot down towards the woods, and a flock of little goldfinches swirled up out of the bushes by our cars; black winged bolts of sunshine startled into mass exodus.My eldest nephew rode up with my dad this year, and as it was his first trip up we gave him the tour. In spite of my dad’s protestations that he can’t remember anything about family history, while we were up at Cherrytree (oldest church in Venango County, with a cemetery to match) I caught him showing my nephew the graves of Henry Ross and Susannah Baney, and explaining that they were the grandparents of Minnie Gahring Toy, his grandmother. I know that somewhere, maybe in the air all around us, his grandmother was happy to see a tradition of hers perpetuated.Oh, and those stories about Grandpa Jake that I said we would be hearing while we were up here? I laughed to myself all Sunday night as my dad told those very stories to his grandchildren.On Tuesday, we took a day trip down to Kittanning, to meet up with the Velveeta Wingnut, my long-lost cousin and evil twin, and show her around the ancestral stomping grounds. I was really glad I’d gotten lost a few times there before; the main road across the river was under construction and traffic was being shunted in several convoluted directions. We figured it was our karmic debt for getting around Pittsburgh with minimal construction delays.We found a bunch of different old cemeteries that held family members from several of the seven branches we’re researching, and it was really gratifying to see everyone get caught up in finding the headstones of family members. We broke for lunch and ate at the Allegheny Mariner, which is just about the nicest place in Kittanning, with an awesome view of the river from its dining room. I guess we could have been working instead of having a sit-down luncheon, but I thought it would be nice for us to take the time to get to know each other and break bread, as it were, with fellow family members.

Back up in Oil City and Franklin, there's so much to see. This is a place that peaked in the Victorian period and it shows in the architecture. We spent a couple of days just walking around and taking in the sights.

Detail of stairway in the old Transit Building
One of our favorite places, the Yellow Dog Lantern. This is one of two places that have been in business continually for over a hundred years

Interior of the Yellow Dog Lantern

The neck grip helps calm the little critter

The most amazing antique mall/auction house ever

In Franklin, there's an antique mall/auction house housed in the old armory building that's like no other antique place I've ever been to. The owner has one of the most incredible collections of Wild West Show memorabilia, Pennsylvania long rifles, Civil War artifacts, Native American artifacts, flintlock and black powder guns I've ever seen. The regular antiques he has for sale are pretty amazing as well, but we were all blown away by his "museum" upstairs, where he housed his personal collection. I've never seen this many artifacts in one place, not even in a real museum. My dad, who usually doesn't go in for antiquing, was hard pressed to leave this place!

This next week, we're off to the Outer Banks, so I'm up to my ass in packing again. Because Murphy's Law is never more apparent than when you're pressed for time, the washing machine died first thing this week. I've been hoofing it up to Bea's to wash clothes for the upcoming journey until the new washer gets here, so needless to say, I've been a bit busy, hence absent from the blogosphere. I'm totally out of the loop with all of you, but after this week, when the summer doldrums set in, I know I'll be doing a prodigous amount of back reading and catching up with everyone.

Summer night on the porch

Blog? What Blog?

I have just fallen off the face of the earth, and it feels pretty damn good. I might even have to make a habit of it, because blogging wasn't looking nearly as good as the Real Life thang - sorry kids.

We had a lovely Mother's Day weekend here. We got up early on Saturday and went to the Farmer's Market to buy flowers and vegetable plants for our garden. We ran a little late because I had to have that first cup of coffee before we hit the road, so I was expecting a little traffic at the market. Oh my Aunt Edna's ass - the place was packed like a mall at Christmas time. I don't know who the hell told the Cary-ites about the Farmer's Market, but those kill-joy urbanites were out in full force. We snaked our way through the sardine-like insanity, and lucked into a little Parking Karma (as Bea and I call it) - a spot right up at the front. We headed into the melee to make our selections.

There were so many beautiful flowers and plants to choose from! Both the Bohemian and I wanted some of these sunflowers, but I wasn't sure where to put them in my mostly shady yard, so we had to "take a picture, so it'll last longer!" The Bohemian was very excited at the prospect of shopping for flowers for Mother's Day. He had his flowers already picked out, but he was a good sport about looking for other options and posing for me. The Professor was not in the mood for photo-ops, as you can tell from his palm-first pose. I think he needs a haircut, but evidently the third grade girls like it - you should have seen the little circle of them around him at carpalooza on Friday - OY! I'm dreading the teen years, chile!
We got home and set to work, digging and planting all our new plants. On Sunday, I did absolutely nothing, and it was divine. The boys made me lovely cards and the dear husband man took care of all the school preparations and waited on me like I was the queen. I tell you - it was simply divine. On Monday, my darling man took the day off and we spent the whole day together, sans children. It was such a breath of fresh air, to get a break from the perpetual kid-thing. I love my boys, but they tend to suck the air out of the room, without realizing it. It was nice to be able to just be together, the man and I, with nowhere to go, and no one to tend to.

I am just the luckiest girl in the world!

Its Always Something

Scrawny Joe is feeling much, much better. His abscess is almost completely healed and he was well enough to go out for a few hours this weekend (thank the powers that be - he was climbing the walls on house arrest!).
The spring flowers are really in full force right now. I took this picture of cherry blossoms during the monotony that is carpoop. I like to get out of the car and pretend I'm a professional lunatic/photographer, just to liven things up (for me, anyway!).
You can imagine the looks I must get as I'm laying in the grass on the school's front lawn, taking pictures of dandelions. Hey, I don't care if they're weeds - I like dandelions. They at least have the grace to bloom and prosper even during a drought. If you want a green lawn in a dry place, you might want to consider leaving some of the weeds - it'll look greener with less water and chemicals, and you know - its a far more green thing to have a lawn of weeds than a lawn of chemically treated fescue. The number one source of water pollution in this country is lawn fertilizer and the other chemical crap folks put on their yards to achieve that ridiculous swath of green made popular by the Ancienne Regime. Does it strike anyone else as bizarre that we, a country of immigrants and outcasts, should want to ape the Baroque royalty of Europe with the cultivation of useless green lawns?
One of my favorite spring flowers is on the Eastern Redbud tree. They look like tiny little lady slippers, or wild orchids. We had a whole grove of them come up along the side of the creek, years back, and they always look so incredibly beautiful when they bloom.
The azaleas are out now too, along with the myriad of new leaves, each in a different shade of green. The Bohemian found some maple seeds and had endless fun throwing them up and watching them propeller-spin back down to the ground. Ever the budding scientist, he now has an array of different maple seed pods lined up on his nightstand. I know they're going to end up all over the place, but I also know I have to let him do his thing, in spite of my desire to sneak in there and commit a neatness with a vacuum and a trash bag. Ah, the many ways we say "I love you" !
We had a little visitor on Saturday. A small black cat showed up looking pitiful, and of course we took him in, because we're crazy people (this IS the Temple of Bast, too). He's very sweet and gentle, and we named him Simon. He was so happy to be somewhere safe and to be well fed, that he slept most of the day. Here Simon takes another much needed rest under Bea's chair. The colors outside are just incredible right now! Look at the red of this ornamental plum up against the green tree behind - it's so vibrant it looks fake.
The other cats weren't really sure about the new cat, so they took turns keeping an eye on him and reporting back to the others. Squeak has the vulture position down here, but he's just not very menacing, the big silly.
The weather blew and threatened all day, until finally, around sunset, we got a good dose of steady rain that washed some of the pollen down and cooled off the air nicely. We're supposedly out of the drought conditions and the lakes are back to normal, but it does seem a bit precipitous and short-sighted (to me) to lift ALL the water restrictions right now, when we still have to get through June, July and August. Summertime here isn't known for being really wet, unless a hurricane or tropical storm hits, so not trying to conserve water while we have it is pretty stupid. If ever one needed an adjective to sum up our town and city leaders, Stupid would be it. I took this shot of wisteria leaves with the sun setting behind it because I loved the golden glow of the leaves and the dark twisty vines supporting it all. For me, the many shades of green in spring trump even the colors of all the beautiful flowers. Something about that yellowy green just charges my spirits up!
See? How can an old white iris compete with that vivid green up there? Granted, I took this without any sunshine on it, but have you ever tried to shoot white flowers with the sun shining? I get so much blow-out trying to do that, I gave up and shoot them in lower light instead. You get so much more detail - look at the raindrops on the petals~
Weekends are always way too short to truly feel relaxed and get everything done, but thank goodness we at least have those two short days to look forward to every week!

So, how was your weekend?