Old Pictures, Bittersweet

Relatives I hardly knew, people I can't name, houses I wish I'd lived in, wars that surely shaped my fathers' personality. I'm putting my parents photo albums on disk. My grandaughter Shay was here for a week , taking pictures of each old photo, with me uploading them to my computer, editing them, looking into faces I can barely remember. My mom & dad on the beach at Stony Point; my sister and I, my dad as a high school soccer player, my parents at her parents house, smoking cigarettes in front of the fireplace.

My sister and I rarely smiled; perhaps we knew what was coming.

Both my parents have passed, dad in 1966, mom in 2006. So we'll never find out more than the cryptic statements near the pictures: Seneca Falls, 1937, Niagara Falls, Lake Lucille. Winters in deep snow (it was New York) and summers in backyard blow-up swimming pools, and, like clockwork, the posed pictures of Easter Sunday, and every Sunday "ready for church."

We hung out with bunches of neighbor kids, dressed in Cowboy and Indian suits, building forts for plastic army men, carving acorns into doll dishes. It was actually a pretty idyllic childhood, there was a brook to explore, dams to build, frogs to catch and release. The outdoors was a wonderful place to play. Indoors was another story.

I'll post more pictures as I work on this project.

Lovely Days, Lovely Nights...

Here's Betty, checking me out while I take pictures of some of my latest creations. She's a very good helper, making sure things are set up right and everything's in focus. She helps Mr Foxaz also, keeping track of his turquoise and watching out for intruders.

Sometimes I wonder...

Does anyone read this blog?

I know it's not as exciting as reading other blogs, the ones with giveaways and gossip and drama.
But drama really isn't my thing. I leave that to others.

I also wonder:

do men wear cowls in the summer?
will my cucumbers produce great cukes?
will Sotomayor be confirmed?
has the housing market hit bottom?
will we get rain this week?
how many goodnplenty would fit in a gallon jar?
is Etsy really a cult?

If anyone has answers to these questions, please leave a note.

How about these IRISES!

I love their little bearded throats, and the colors are sooo cool. The easiest flowers to grow, and they reward you every spring / summer with color. What a photo op! I never get tired of admiring their beauty.

When it gets HOT in Arizona...

We decide to have a yard sale. Are we crazy? Maybe we are.

We spent the last two weekends sitting in the shade with icy non-alcoholic drinks, our little fanny packs strapped on with small bills inside, for change. While we didn't make much money, because America as a whole has no money to spend, we did get a chance to meet and greet with neighbors and passersby... and with the exception of one woman who spent her time screaming full blast at her unruly children, we had a great time schmoozing with the customers.

I would say our little yard sale / social experiment was a success. We cleaned out the shed and the garage, and will have a nice donation for the local thrift store. We decided upfront that we'd sell or give away the stuff we will absolutely never use again. Tools that we bought to use once; tools that we bought with hopes they would work properly and never did; things too heavy to lift, peculiar oddities I've rescued from dumpsters and swap meets, the kind of things we love but have no place for.

I've had a love affair with red glass for years. And copper. And things that make me laugh. I put these precious things out for sale, knowing people would snap them up.

But this particular yard sale was different. People wanted things for next-to-nothing....

If we'd had furniture- chairs, tables, dressers - we could have sold them all day long. Computer monitors? Not so much. Turns out, you can't even give those away.

Over the next week or so, we'll be packing up the leftovers for donation. At least we'll get a little tax deduction. I guess that's all we can hope for.

Remembering the Kentucky Derby...

When I was a kid - long ago in a land so far away (just north of NYC) my sister and I used to get real excited about the Derby. The Sunday paper would have pictures or paintings of the horses; some were nice enough to cut out and mount on a piece of cereal -box cardboard. The horse I chose was black as coal, a real beauty.

The Derby was run late on a Saturday afternoon, usually.
Our dad would be fishing. That's what he did on weekends, and we were just as happy he was gone, since when he was around he cracked the (figurative) whip and made us do chores and clean our rooms.

Our mom got in the habit of allowing us to have a healthy dinner of Wheaties and ice cream on tray tables in front of the TV. There we'd watch the Kentucky Derby, or perhaps some other horse race. New York was a good place to live if you liked to follow the horses. So many NYC race tracks and upstate ones as well. The Belmont, Triple Crown, Saratoga Springs... all the races were televised, and we watched them all.

I loved horses back then, and when I was 30 , I finally got one, riding a lot in the mountains around Jerome, AZ where I lived.

My black beauty never won that long ago Derby, but I still have that cutout in a box of memorabilia out in the shed. I'm sure my grandkids would be (will be) impressed.

Finally! My First Cowl / Hat / Headwrap / Neckwarmer

I resisted, oh I did, I did! I didn't want to be just like everyone else... I march to my own drummer, after all...

But here it is- Cowl #1, in blue and purple - purple homespun, blue and purple boucle, and fluffy fun fur yarn.

I'll be listing it on Etsy, the home land of all things Cowl, later today.