Sonja Says

Merry Christmas everyone. 

This post is just to show you how the “magic” of tree decoration happens at our house.  In past years, we’ve had huge, live trees which John would go out to cut for us.  About eight years ago, one of our neighbors presented me with this tree so we’d have something to set up for Mom to see.  It was wheeled to wherever she was sitting for her to enjoy.  Now it seems this little tree has become part of the family and we get it out each year.  No more hauling those large , heavy trees for us.  It was suggested that we buy one of those pine-scented air fresheners, for hanging in cars, to put the Christmas tree aroma into the house.  Think we’ll pass on that.

Over the years we’ve collected many tree ornaments.  The mama bear holding her cub, the Christmas spider from an old Chech story about a very poor family who had a tree but no trimmings.  The spider spun her web to cover the tree with glistening threads. There are birds with feathery tails and the latest addition “a major award” in the form of a lamp shade with a leg  from “A Christmas Story”,  are some of my favorites.   There are also some Depression era ornaments, formed like grape clusters, from Mom’s home.  It’s always a treat to get those out.

I hope each of you has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and will enjoy a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.  Thanks for stopping by to visit my “blog.

Katie and Rich have given me a great new toy for my upcoming birthday.  The new camera will enable me to play with any pictures I take and learn how to take better photos.  Here’s the camera:

Here I am trying it out in the back yard.

Here are some of the pictures.

These pictures are the result of dinking around, trying some of the features.  There is a ’smile shutter’ that detects smiles, which is why we have a picture of Katie showing her pearly whites.

Expect lots of pictures from me in the coming months.  My goal is to improve my photograhic skills.

Thanks Katie & Rich for a terrific birthday gift.  (It’ll keep me out of trouble too!)

Since my last post, I’ve been partying in Philadelphia at my cousin’s wedding, which was fabulous.  The ceremony itself was in what was a 1700s school house since converted to a chapel.  The reception was the most sumptuous one I’ve ever been to, with luscious food, and wonderful company.  My brother and I went together and enjoyed sitting and enjoying the occasion with family we haven’t seen for a very long time. 

You are probably wondering about the first pictures on this post.  It is a mural,  done in stained glass by Tiffany, and originally designed and drawn by Maxfield Parrish.  The glass was done in forty-two squares and then assembled in the lobby of the Curtis Publishing Building.  Even though I’d lived in Philly during my early years, I saw this mosaic only once before and that was just a few years ago.  It’s stunning!

Oops! Forgot to put a space between these two pictures, so you’re getting a totally eroneous idea of Elfreth’s Alley.  It was  begun in 1736.  The first photo is of my favorite house, which is actually in a corner of a cul du sac.  The second photo is of two houses just into the first row of houses on the Alley.  At the right end is what  was once a carriage house that we had considered buying in the early 1970’s for $45,000, a breathtaking price at the time.  The wooden doors of the stable were in need of repair and the cobbled side yard, which was once visible from the street and had an iron, circular staircase to the second floor, is no longer open to public view.   This particular property is now worth at least one million dollars.

As one of the oldest cities in the USA, of course horses played a very important part in city life.  These troughs were placed around town by the Phila. Fountain Society in the 1850s for the purpose of giving horses a much need drink while working.  Now, as you’ve noticed, they are planted with flowers.  They should probably be refilled with water as the Phila. Police Department has a mounted division on duty once again.  If you’ve never seen crime prevention done from horseback, it’s a treat to watch.  Once, there was a bank robbery in progress in center city.  The mounted officer just sat on his horse outside a revolving door leading from the bank to the street and, bingo!, the robber was apprehended. 

Ugh!  A sign you say?!  Well, it’s a very informative one about this part of old city.  Headhouse was rebuilt for Philly’s Bi-Centennial in 1976.  Across the street, to the right of the sign, was Headhouse Tavern, where designers and signers of the Declaration met for discussion over a pint.  Another of the tavern’s illustrious patrons was Dr. Benjamin Rush, mentor to Merriwether Lewis.   To be in close proximity to these wonderful old sites gives one a real feeling for the history of the place. 

These three photos are about our country’s birthplace.  A mall was begun and the Liberty Bell installed into a separate building on it for our 1976 celebration.  It was felt that millions of people going through Independence Hall to see and touch the bell (one can no longer touch it) would undermine the building.  Carpenters’ Hall, on the right, was the meeting place of the First Continental Congress in 1774.

This tiny house, sandwiched between an updated colonial storefront and a CVS, seems very humble and is probably what the family,who had it built, could afford at the time.  It’s one of my favorites.

Well, you’ve helped me relive my trip.  Thanks for visiting and checking out my ‘blog.  I would love to have any comments you’d care to make.

We had occasion to visit Goblin Valley State Park, UT, in August.  It is a very unique place, as you can see.  In some of the photos, there appear to be gaggles of rocks chasing each other.  The park sign explains the formations.  John appears to be watching a goblin who is taking pictures.  Gottcha! It was a blistering, hot day so we didn’t attempt the hikes among the rocks.

Goblin Valley is just another of the remarkable places to visit in Utah.  Y’all come.  Meanwhile, while you’re planning your trip,  your comments would be most welcome.  Thanks for viewing my ‘blog.

Katie and I had a great pilgrimage, called that because this is the third time we’ve made the trip, to Tucson.  We met some of Katie’s Cactus Forum friends and toured the Sonora Desert Museum with them.  Ed, his wife Linda, and John, members of the forum, were a pleasure to visit with.  Their knowledge is vast and there is definitely no lack of enthusiasm where plants are concerned.  We did, absolutely, choose the right time of year to go as so many cacti and succulents were in bloom.  There was a visual overload.  It was stunning, also, to watch a cactus wren venture out of her nest in a cholla right next to the walking path, get food and return to her brood.  We spent the morning at the museum and then headed out for Phoenix as we wanted to avoid rush hour traffic.

We were in  Phoenix two nights.  While there, we were lucky enough to add several birds, seen only in that part of the US, to our life bird lists.  Each of us added a Phainopepla and I added a gray hawk which soared over our heads while we were driving from Tucson to Phoenix.

Pictured above are some of the many installations of Dale Chihuly’s glass art.  To see them among the plants of the Phoenix Botanical Garden was amazing.  It was an unforgetable experience!  Before seeing these particular creations, the only Chihuly glass I’d had any experience with was a large “sculpture” in the lobby of  symphony hall in Salt Lake City.  It goes from floor to ceiling and is orange in color.  Apparently there is a chandelier in the casino at Bellagio in Las Vegas, which is also beautiful.  We’ll definitely have to stop for a look on our next trip to Vegas.

Of course, when Katie and I hit the road, we’re also looking for good food.  This year we returned to Cafe Istanbul in Phoenix for more of their scrumptious lamb kebabs, baba ganoush, and gyros.  We were not disappointed; everything was the same as we remembered.  Baba ganoush with toasted pita bread would definitely be a great treat for guests and I just happen to have two recipes.

All in all, this was another super adventure.  We’re already looking forward to the next trip!

Thanks for checking out my ‘blog.  Hopefully the photos will enlarge when you click on them.  Uncertainty is still the name of my game when posting pictures.  I always enjoy receiving readers’ comments so feel free to let me know what you think.

It’s difficult to write just a few words about such a great trip.  The 1958 class of New Milford HS had it’s Fiftieth Class Reunion, which is what prompted us to head east.  Of course, with so many of our family members and friends there, it was a trip with many purposes.

We began our trip visiting with my brother, Rich, in Philly.  He is a wonderful cook and I think I gained five pounds during the first week of our visit with him.  There were juicy German sausages, which are really missed here at home, BBQ chicken, ribs and terrific tomatoes and peppers from his garden.  Of course, there were many laughs and great conversation about “the good ole days”.

On several occasions, as a child and later with John, we had visited Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River and never really had a guide.  This time, we were very fortunate and got a young man who was definitely excited about the fort’s history and gave a very good tour.  His only difficulty was that planes from the Phila airport, a stone’s throw away,  passed over our heads every five minutes making the outside tour halt often because we couldn’t hear.

One must for us when visiting Philly is Pearl’s Oyster Bar in Reading Terminal Market.  It was our lunch stop while we were touring center city.  Pearl’s is renowned for it’s snapper soup and fresh clams and oysters.  John dreams about raw clams so this is always a great treat.  The Terminal Market is somewhat like the Pike Street Market in Seattle, selling the same sorts of items.  As a child, I remember farmers bringing their produce, sides of beef, homemade cheeses, pickles, baked goods and other tidbits into town and selling them to commuters and those of us who wandered through.  There was a goat’s milk bar at which my Dad had to stop each time for his picker-upper.

Rich, John and I also went to Longwood Gardens, which is part of a Dupont estate in Kennett Square, PA.  Outdoor pools had spectacular water lilies. Although many  of the outdoor plants were done for the season, the greenhouses had full displays of orchids, ferns and humid climate loving things.  While still touring the grounds outside, we came to a plant with brown flowers.  Now, in the wildflower books there are some blooms listed as brown in color.  John said they were hydrangeas at season’s end.  Well, I wasn’t happy with that explanation because I wanted them to be something exotic. So we talked with a young botanist who said that, in fact, John was correct.  Have you ever seen a red face among brown flowers?

Katie had suggested that we should visit the Mutter Museum.  It’s part of the Philadelphia College of Physicians and the exhibits are of  human anomalies.  There were various organs, skeletal deformaties and other things of a fascinating nature.  John and I spent several hours just looking and thought it was an interesting thing to do, but  only once because of the macabre nature of the items. 

John met two of his brothers at Gettysburg and took  a several-day tour.  They hired a guide who drove their car and filled in many of the details one doesn’t usually find in brochures, etc.  By all accounts, it was a very good trip.  John came back through Philly to get me and we went directly to Connecticut for his reunion.

While in New Milford, we enjoyed visiting with family and had more delicious food.  We were treated royally all around.  Of course, there were more stories, which is what visiting is all about.

The planning committee had arranged for a pizza night on Friday, dinner in Newtown, CT, on Saturday evening and a picnic on Sunday.  John got to renew acquaintances and I met lots of really great people.  The class was a small one, 52 graduates.  Everything was beautifully planned and we enjoyed every minute.  Took lots of photos.  (I remembered the camera this time.)

On Saturday, during our spare time, we went to a town called Kent, CT, where a friend of ours had begun a mining museum before he retired from teaching.  He had made several trips out here to find old mining equipment, tools and ore-containing rocks along with some minerals.  The local USPS had its work cut out for it when John (our friend) began mailing home boxes of rocks and other very heavy materials.  The employees were probably glad when he stopped coming in.  Unfortunately, John was not at the museum when we visited.  He was at a gem and mineral sho that day.  His friends at the museum were more than happy to show us everthing and to explain how things worked.  It was really wonderful to see John’s project, even though a work in progress, come to fruition. 

We arrived home very tired;  however, we have some great memories and pictures to share with Katie.

P.S.  Here’s the battleship New Jersey, parked on the Delaware river, on the Camden side:

We are back from a wonderful trip through Idaho in search of Lewis & Clark trails.  How lucky we were to get into our vehicle each morning, get out the map and proceed on a paved road through some of the most beautiful country.  Lewis & Clark had already done the work of mapping out the area.  After having seen the terrain where they explored, carrying everything necessary to life including heavy iron pots, rafts, etc., and having to bushwhack trails among trees in order to pass, they are greatly to be praised for their fortitude.  It’s difficult to imagine easterners and middle westerners thoughts on entering this  incredible country opening before them.  I, personally, would have groaned on seeing such huge mountains to be crossed on foot.

Above are some photos we took along the Going-to-the-sun Road, beginning at Apgar, on a very overcast day in Glacier National Park.  Road repairs were being made in several places so, while we were stopped, we took advantage of the situation to get a much better look at our surroundings.  We went as far as Logan Pass Visitor Center and doubled back.   A fellow tourist mentioned she and her family had been up there on July 3rd to find the roads flanked by 12 feet of snow.  Now that the snow was gone, there were great fields of glacier lilies in bloom and dozens of other mountain blossoms.  Bear grass, in the first photo above, is very impressive.  It’s stalk is about five feet tall with a huge puffy flower on top.

 John and I love vintage vehicles and were lucky enough to see several on an outing plus an old park service bus, also pictured above.

Our old Buick had a terrific workout which added 2,410 miles to the odometer.  My dreams of cooler weather were also realized at Glacier.  The high temperature for the day was 59 degrees.  Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!