Family Thanksgiving in North Conway, New Hampshire

 All right, so the pictures are a bit out of order, but we'll try to do our best.  This is the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we had had a wonderful meal cooked by Paul and Deb.  I was most impressed at breakfast because Paul had smoked the bacon.  Wow! was that ever good!  He did not laugh when I asked him how he kept it lit.  (The other food smoker I know had laughed.  Oh well.  One out of two.)

Below is as we walked across the park to the tree on the far right.  The kids are ice skating (in their shoes) on a puddle.  To the left and out of sight is the framework for the Town skating rink which had not been filled yet.

This guy (below) was wagging his tail in time to the music when the singers began.

And here are the a capella singers.  They were quite good even though it was quite chilly.

 We, however, were dressed for the cold!

Below is the sidewalk side of the park.  The train station is on the left, out of sight.

Thank you, Paul, for taking pictures of us!  The North Conway train station is on the left and the Holiday Special train left during the singing, blowing it's whistle during "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."

Another shot of the singers before the tree lighting.

Here is a full shot of the picturesque train station.

Below are two shots of the sidewalk opposite the train station.  The stores flank the church and after the lighting, we did a stroll down the street and into some of the shops.  It was very crowded, so we didn't stay too long.

And here is the fully lit tree!

We also made a trip to the stove shop in North Conway.

I was very surprised to see that the pots people put on top of a wood burning stove (to evaporate water into the air) have become an art form.  Below is my favorite: a fire breathing dragon.  The picture doesn't do justice to it because it's over exposed.  Sunlight was streaming in all of the windows.

I thought this stove above is gorgeous.  Although, I never want an actual wood stove because they are too much work for me.  But I would love an electric one that looks like this!

If I remember correctly, those bags contain fat wood.  We found out (Emily and I) that it's high resin wood, treated with something that makes it fat.  I wonder if in the old days, people actually added fat.  Maybe not.

And, Deb took us to the famous North Conway outlet stores.  It was so crowded, I decided to show you the packed parking lot on the side where we entered.  I knew I'd never get a shot of the clustered shops because there were so many people.

We all managed to buy some things.  Look at the size of the line behind Deb.  We were waiting for Emily to try her purchases on so by the time Deb got to the register, the line of people waiting to pay had doubled again to about 20 people waiting.  (There were five cashiers.)

And that was our fabulous Thanksgiving in North Conway, NH!  Thanks, Deb and Paul!

Three Women 12-9-13

Accident of Birth

As I watch a moth struggling, fluttering, between my window and screen, I wonder where he has come from.  He must have hatched there last night when it was below freezing and snowing.  And he’s doomed only because of his accident of birth.  I wonder how many people mourn the circumstances of their birth. 

“What if I had been born with a mother who loved me for me and paid some attention to me?”

 “What if I hadn’t reminded my mother of my father who abused her? Would she have not shown so much anger to me then and now?”

“What if I hadn’t been one of five children and told by my parents, ‘you’re on your own’?”

I know of three women who fit these accidents of birth.  And I am amazed.  I would think that they grew up to be neurotic, conflicted people.  Instead the woman in the first case, Jane, is a beautiful accomplished mother of three overachieving young adults.  Her mother gave her custody over to her 15 year old sister who later snapped, ran away, and got into drugs.  It’s clear that there was (and is) untreated mental illness on the mother’s part, but Jane harbors no animosity.  In fact, Jane has let her mother move in with her now that she is aged, and Jane somehow ignores the fact that her mother still ignores her unless it is to demand attention or food.

Jane is totally engaged in her young adult children’s lives, has a loving husband, and in-laws who love her as their own.  She has a positive spirit, a very spiritual side, and a playful “addicted to bling” side.  She works full time, is going to grad school, disguises her high intelligence with a ‘blonde personality’ but will share it in serious discussions with friends.  How did this happen?

Woman number 2, Helen, again has a truly mentally ill mother who heaps verbal abuse on all of her children.  Over the years the mother verbally drove away family and friends, causing the children to mourn the companionship of cousins and others.

It has taken a lot of years for Helen and her siblings to understand that “Mom” needs serious psychotherapy, which might not work now since the woman is elderly.  But Helen has become a thoughtful, generous, ethical person who has a strong spiritual side even though she is an atheist.  (That’s the subject for another monograph, but not now.)

Helen has suffered more than her share of tragedies in her personal life, but she continues to seek her own kind of therapy and healing.  Much of this healing comes from, I think, following the old Beatles’ line of “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”  She, too, is a positive person who has a fun side along with her intellectual curiosity. She has one surviving young adult daughter who is making her way in the world knowing full well that Helen has her back at all times.  Helen is raising her granddaughter in a joyful manner while remembering the greatest heart wrenching time of when her daughter passed away.

Finally, there’s Linda.  (You know by now that these are all pseudonyms, right?)  Linda means “beautiful” in Spanish and Linda is truly beautiful.  She was lost in a crowd of many siblings with a mother who basically said, ‘I’ve given you clothing and shelter – get on with it.’  There was no malice, but perhaps this Mom never had a nurturing environment herself and was repeating what she knew.

Linda is a peacemaker and doesn’t want anyone to suffer through arguments.  She smoothes troubled waters and tries to make every situation better.  She has two overachieving young adult children.  Linda is a scientific person (as in biologist) who still sees God in every other person, full of compassion and the desire to make any situation better.

To a woman, all of these women are fabulous mothers.  They have been, and are, fully engaged in their children’s lives even during those times when the ‘adult’ child might be pushing them away. They have been scout leaders, church school teachers, the Mom who baked for the school class, the volunteer at the church fair, etc.  They are not Harriet from “Ozzie and Harriet” because many of them were working outside of the home as well as being mothers and housekeepers.  So they definitely were more than one up on Harriet.

Again, I say: how did this happen? It’s wonderful and I admire all of these women.  I am humbled by how they were able to overcome not-so-great parenting from their mothers.  I can only come to the conclusion that at some time in their life, these women said, “I am not going to be like my mother.”  And they did it.

I am humbled to know these women, but please don’t tell them. I don’t want them to think that I am scrutinizing them.  I’m only admiring them.

Thanksgiving 2013

Well, of course, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!

So I was cruising FB and I ran across this: http://www.upworthy.com/the-problem-isnt-racial-profiling-in-stores-its-just-that-people-dont-know-how-to-shop?c=ufb1.  In my opinion, it's very funny.


Yes, you're supposed to watch it now and then come back.

The subject, however, isn't funny.  I had my own shopping moment when I was at Manny's (a local appliance store). I was going to buy an electric dryer from them and Emily asked if they had an interest free charge account.  They did, for one year (as long as you make monthly payments).

The sales man said, "You know it's a credit card and you have to be approved?" I told him that, yes, I did know that.  (I've been using this method of conserving my funds for years.)  He kind of fussed around a bit and finally said, "Well, we can try to see if you'll be approved."  I think I put down that I wanted to finance $500 even though the dryer was about $300.

"This will take a while for the approval," he said.

As soon as he finished that sentence, the approval came back.  "Well, look at that!" he exclaimed, "and they approved you for $1,000! You must have a good credit rating."  Knowing full well that I have an excellent credit rating, and that my then credit card balance was next to zero, I wasn't surprised.

Why did he have those doubts? I have no idea.  No, I did not go there after having painted a wall and still wearing paint stained clothing.  (I was wearing business casual.) I can only guess.  But I get that feeling that black people must go through constantly.  And it's not fun to have someone automatically assume you can't pay for something.
******************************************************************************

So I went to Jazzercize today.  That's my little secret: I've been going for a couple of months now.  I can move a lot better. I still have problems with my back (like today after hefting a huge turkey into the oven).  And, no, I haven't lost an ounce.  But I do move better.

Anyway, I thought it was so nice that they had a class (at 9 a.m.) on Thanksgiving, that I brought them a little treat of three kinds of seedless grapes.  The class was jam packed with 30 to 35 people so it got really HOT in the studio.  The grapes were still cool after an hour and were quite refreshing.

There were 5 instructors! The sixth one had to work (elsewhere).  They took turns leading two or three songs each.  One young girl got so into leading that she mixed up her words and said, 'Now right knee up," as she raised her right arm.  We laughed because we were following her movements so we did the right thing.

But it made a Saturday Night Live type of skit pop into my head.  You would have a big class of Jazzercise clients closely following every move of the instructor.  When she gets warmed up and hot, it becomes apparent that the instructor is smashed with too much holiday cheer.  She proceeds to give them instructions which leaves the class looking like Twister gone wrong with everyone tangled up in arms and legs!
********************************************************************************
Speaking of the aforementioned turkey.  I cooked it for the dinner at the Senior Center.  It was 26.5 pounds!  Nancy put it into my car for me last night and I was so proud of myself that I got it into the fridge.  And this morning I managed to get the stuffed bird into the oven.  But I knew I could never get it out of the oven -- and drain the juices for gravy -- on my own.  Larry, bless him, came to my house and picked up the turkey.  He delivered it too!  I followed later with a big pot of gravy to add to their (groan warning) stock
at the Senior Center.

Nancy is amazing! This year, she will have fed 150 people.  "My" turkey was number six.  90 guests will be fed in house, the rest received delivered meals.  In fact, I took mine to go -- it's big ibuprophen time.

*********************************************************************************
It's almost a ghost town in the center of Amherst.  It was really nice.  I am really angry at the big stores who are making their employees work today.  They claim, "Our customers want that."  Black Friday isn't enough? Online shopping isn't enough?  No, your customers want you to recognize that your employees should be with their families or going to a community Thanksgiving dinner.

*********************************************************************************
O.k.  I'm outta here.  The tryptophan has made me stupid and in need of SLEEP NOW.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Sleighbell Fair 11-23-13

The South Amherst Congregational Church had its Sleighbell Fair last Saturday and I got to be one of the bankers in the Craft Ladies' Room.  It was great fun.  Here's a sampling of the Fair.

These sea shell ornaments were unique!

 These are cake pops, frosted to look like trees.  The kids loved them. (Chocolate inside.)

 Silent auction

 We be jammin!

 Ho, ho, ho!

No, I didn't make the quilt.

 Believe it or not, the 'birds' sitting on the twig are pecans in the shell!

These metal containers looked great!

 T
 Yup, I bought some hot pepper relish.  Gotta remember to bring it for Thanksgiving.

 The kitchen, before the lunch craziness.  The open faced pork sandwich with gravy and homemade applesauce was to die for!

 Ya gotta love this sheep!  I do!

 Our church hand painted on ornaments.  Some people are so talented!

 Felted coasters on the leftl

 My favorite "dotty" glassware hand painted by Sue McCoy.

 These are Dammit Dolls and if you get frustrated, you smack them around.  One woman suggested putting pins in them, but I thought you'd have to use hat pins or you'd lose them.

 This was the entrance to the clothing room across the hall from where I was stationed.  The White Elephant Sale and Book Sales were upstairs.

 These cats are about 2.5 inches tall.  Ann made about 60 of these little tote bags with cats, rabbits, babies, turtles, etc.  Some had as many as 5 babies plus their own mini quilt in them.  She worked on them for months!

 A couple of Ann's potholders.

The baked goods sold out fast!

Snow Farm in Williamsburg 11-17-13

Snow Farm is an artisans' retreat. They were having a seconds sale. I wanted to buy everything. In these shots, my back is to two other studios.

Below is the working glass blowing and fabricating studio -- one that was behind me when I took the pictures above.

Now I'm just going to give you a tour!

 Sea urchin inspired?

 Telephone table anyone?  Loved it.

 Loved the horses! All of them!

 Might have to get me a noodle bowl!

 See the saw? They glued scrabble letters on after painting.  Lazy susans on the lower right.

I want everything above -- love the blues!

 Above were my favorite (after the blue wine) glasses.  They were on the poster that attracted me.

Drunk on color!

 Celery colored ceramics.

 This blue piece makes me think of catching a wave.