Category Archives: Summer at Sonnystone

One Week at a Time

By Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , 1 Comment

We’re resting after a busy week here at Sonnystone.  My thigh returned to its normal size after two weeks of antibiotics and I’m feeling much better.  That said, there is still some yuck left and I’m going to visit my NP next week and see if we need further treatment. This is a persistent bug I’ve been growing and I want it totally eradicated, never to return.

I may never go back to wearing pants… Unable to wear my usual uniform of shorts and shirts, I’ve bought several dresses and skirts that are so much more comfortable.  I feel a little like I’m walking around in my nightgown in the dresses, but I’m getting used to it.  Hell, I may burn my bras (again) and live in Total Comfort…

Casey, Michael, Olivia, Samantha, and I went out to Ellis Park on Friday.  I don’t think I have been to the track more than once each year in the four years since I worked there.  I was seriously burnt out after watching 300+ races per season x 5 seasons, but when I’m there I miss the days when Mom, Sister, or Cousins were likely to show up, too.  Olivia picked a winner and won $4.60–excellent payout for a $2 show bet, but the horse was 31-1! I came home po’.

I’m officially into Prep Week for the Upcoming Camp Sonnystone… Cleaning and menu planning, mostly.  Emma usually requests caprese using my garden’s basil and tomatoes under thick slices of fresh mozzarella drizzled with balsamic– which makes my mouth water thinking about it  Not all of the kids share my zest for tomatoes, but I have convinced them that my tomatoes are nothing like the tomatoes they eat in restaurants.  Everyone loves to pick the cherry tomatoes and pop them into their mouths right off the vine!

The best part of Camp Sonnystone is making the Sign with their handprintsand doing the annual height measurement.  The girls are growing 4-6 inches a year, forcing JoJo to acknowledge the passing of time. The sign has to be engineered to fit Large hands now.

We Will be painting birdhouses and there Will be Music and Dancing and Games.  Of course, we’ll have to go back to Ellis Park, too…and maybe New Harmony… Henderson is having their Bluegrass Fest the week-end the girls are here…  And you know, they are just such nice company!!!

I’m trying to stay calm…

So we’ll pick the Jose’ fam up next Sunday around 10:30am our time…

6 more days..

Peace

 

 

Monday’s News

By Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , Leave a comment

The Rain was unrelenting this morning, and I woke up to a Sonnystone Acres shrouded with drab drab.

But there’s a Bright Spot on my calendar, bright enough to dispel the Any gloom:  The New York City Girls and their Mother will be Arriving on August 4!!  Melissa will be staying until the 7th; Emma and Eliza will stay until I take them back to NYC on the 14th.

Because Olivia has to start school on the 7th, we’ll do an abbreviated Camp Sonnystone from 8/4-8/6.  We still haven’t decided on a Theme, but we’ll brainstorm once we’re all together. I haven’t seen Emma and Eliza since March at Disney, so I am Ready to give them some hugs and have them hang out with me.

I should probably insert the brag here that the Girls are Rocking the Irish Dance World.  Just last week Emma got her first 1st in champion level and Eliza got three 3rds in her new prelim level.

I am weaning myself off of Ancestry in prep for the Visit.  I am to a place of blogging the ancestors where I need to start a new line of research on several grandmothers’ families which will take weeks.  It’s hard to stop, though!  Check out my latest post great-great-grandparents Leander and Emma Mayne ,

Livvy, Sam, and I went back to the Zoo to visit the Budgies last week… I really love those Parakeets, but you have to be patient.  I have the Jr girls for a day this week and I wouldn’t be surprised if we went Again…and of course we’ll take the New Yorkers. when they are here.

I’ve got to open up the upstairs and get the rooms ready, but not much else.  I can hardly wait! I’m horrible at doing countdowns — does today count — but I think it’s about 12 more days..!

Peace

Rainy Day’s a Monday…

By Posted in 2019, Monday Musings, Summer at Sonnystone Tagged , 1 Comment

It’s been a tough week, guys.  What the H is going on with me?  It’s one weird malady after another. On the one hand, I don’t want to talk about it.  On the other hand, damn,  why shouldn’t I gripe…

Shortest version: A small cyst on my upper thigh suddenly blew up into a Giant Invading Mound of Infection and I had to go to the doctor and get it lanced and get a shot of Rocephin and take a bunch of doxycycline  and the swelling in my thigh was serious and cellulitis set in and I only had one dress (that fits) to my name so I have worn it out and bought three more but two haven’t arrived and it hurts when I walk and I’m worried we didn’t get all the goop out and it turned out to be a rare strain of staph and I prefer average everyday staph and nobody gives you good pain medicine anymore…   >stops to breath<  But it gets better every day…

Yeah, so I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired… Hmm…you didn’t need to know that at all, did you?  Judging by my productivity — 4 blog posts, about 5000 words — you never noticed and had no idea I took all those naps, did you?  Damn, I just blew my entire superwoman image…again…

I was heartened to be with my Jr. girls again.  Saturday we went out to the mall and messed around and I bought them some new shoes, at a real shoe store where they measure your feet and put the shoes on them and feel for your toe…  They both chose converse, Olivia’s in Orange and Sam’s in Rainbow.  I got a little carried away and got Samantha a unicorn dress and unicorn headband, and Olivia a sweet yellow top.  Their parents barely recognized them when I took them home.  I had forgotten my phone, so this picture is one I stole from their mother’s fb page…it does not show the cool shoes, just my pretty girls.

Sunday we got together again and went to Central Library.

We needed this rain today– I thought I’d never say that again after Spring! I’ve got more beans to snap and cook and the last of my cilantro is going into a lime marinade for some chicken breasts.  This year’s bell peppers have been the best I’ve ever grown and I’m dipping them and the cucumbers like a fiend.  I couldn’t do much in the garden last week, so it was all on Casey, and he came through like a champ and planted three rows of green beans.  If you’re not keeping with the Gardens at Sonnystone, you should!

I think I’ll take advantage of the rainy weather to do more Ancestry, as usual.  I was so relieved to finish up all the Eaton family work, but there is no real finish to it!  I’m ready to get back to the Maynes soon, and as long as I’m still solving mysteries, I’ll keep going. Check out Last Week’s Work…

  Peace

 

 

 

A spot of News…

By Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone Tagged , , 2 Comments

My NYC grandies were in Vancouver, B.C. last week, dancing in the North American Irish Dance Championships.  They both have worked so hard to qualify and have practiced their little hearts out.  I am so proud of them and was overjoyed when Emma Placed #30 in the U13 group!!  These girls love Irish Dance and make friends as they travel around the World.

 

It’s typical Eville summertime now, humid and buggy.  I’m doing my best to keep up with the vegetables, cooking and chopping, snapping and slicing…  If you haven’t been reading my garden blog, you should visit the Gardens at Sonnystone.

The Jr girls are still at their Other grandmother’s this week, so Casey and I are having to entertain ourselves…super fun times, if you know us…

I’m still caught up in the ancestry, too. Come on over and Climb the Family Tree with me.

Peace

If it’s Monday, I must be musing…

By Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , Leave a comment

I’m especially bored with The News right now…as there is so little news, even during this 4th-of-July-Week…  The NYC kids are in Vancouver, B.C. for the Irish Dance National Championships and I’m sending Strong Peace+Love vibes their way.  The Jrs kids are spending the week with their maternal cousins, in from Ohio or thereabouts, and I won’t be seeing them for a bit.

While I’m obsessed (still) with my ancestry research, I’m neglecting to write much other than timelines. Oh, I’m still going about my usual chores and duties to the house and gardens, spending plenty of time in the pool, reading and listening to music, and even playing the piano (12th Street Rag), but The News just isn’t happening…

So I’ve set some serious blogging goals here…

 1. Stop the genealogy research right where it is Now and write it up for All My Ancestors. That’s easier said than done, mind you, because one little question leads to hours of study.  For example, the blog I’ve been trying to write for weeks about Grandpa and the Button Factory has taken me in new directions regarding my German immigrant relatives.   I am thrilled and excited to share what I’ve learned, but I’ll have to accept that this work is never quite finished and go ahead and write it anyway.

2. Start a series of Proust questionnaire interviews here at The News. There, I said it.  I published a series of interviews back in 2006 or so and it was fun.  At that time I emailed friends and family members who were kind enough to fill in the blanks.  Many of those folks no longer speak to me, but I’ve made New Friends and maybe I can get some cool responses.  Are you familiar with the Questionnaire?  The questions were part of a Victorian parlor game called “confessions”.  The French writer, Marcel Proust, answered the questions first when he was 14 and gets a lot of credit for “inventing” them, but he really didn’t.  The questions have been changed by others throughout the years, so no one gets exactly the same questions.  Here’s an example:

HERE ARE DAVID BOWIE’S ANSWERS:

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Reading.

What is your most marked characteristic? Getting a word in edgewise.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Discovering morning.

What is your greatest fear? Converting kilometers to miles.

Which historical figure do you most identify with? Santa Claus.

Which living person do you most admire? Elvis.

Who are your heroes in real life? The consumer.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? While in New York, tolerance. Outside of New York, intolerance.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Talent.

What is your favorite journey? The road of artistic excess.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Sympathy and originality.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Chthonic, miasma.

What is your greatest regret? That I never wore bell-bottoms.

What is your current state of mind? Pregnant.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? My fear of them (wife and son excluded).

What is your most treasured possession? A photograph held together by cellophane tape of Little Richard that I bought in 1958, and a pressed and dried chrysanthemum picked on my honeymoon in Kyoto.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Living in fear.

Where would you like to live? Northeast Bali or south Java.

What is your favorite occupation? Squishing paint about a senseless canvas.

What is the quality you most like in a man? The ability to return books.

What is the quality you most like in a woman? The ability to burp on command.

What are your favorite names? Sears & Roebuck.

What is your motto? “What” is my motto.

Would you be interested in taking the questionnaire?  My readers are (nearly) as clever as Bowie, so I know it will be entertaining.  Lest you think I’m making You do all the work, remember that I will write a short bio and add a photo…I’ll be contacting as many of you as I can throughout the coming months.  Think about it, dear friends.  Maybe we could even meet up, face-to-face, which would be incredibly cool since I haven’t actually laid eyes on most of my FB friends in 20+ years…

We have no plans for Independence Day…perhaps I can get #1 goal marked off the list this week… then I’ll be in touch, pals.

Peace

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Musings

By Posted in 2019, genealogy, Summer at Sonnystone, updates Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

It is raining again … I’m fighting the gloomies, aware that some summers here in Eville have involved too much rain to suit me or my garden and this could be one of them…

Last week there were a kajillion activities around town…I had planned on getting down to see the Ultimate Air Dogs, my favorite feature of the Shrinefest Air Show, but the planes and dogs were rained out.

In between thunderstorms, we took the kids to the zoo…I adore the new Budgie Walkabout.  There are 350 Parakeets (did you know Parakeets are also called Budgies?  I didn’t) in a rainbow of hues flying in a roomy screen area.  You purchase feeding sticks (hey, it’s for a good cause), put out your hand and oila!

I took in an inside-fest: Midnight Madness at Willard Library.  Each day there was a speaker or two and the librarians were there until late to help with local and regional genealogy from their extensive collections.  I’ve attended before, but not since the Willard addition of The Browning Room.  The new room holds a lot more people comfortably and the  two days of presentations that I attended were excellent.  I immediately started using my new-found tools to run down some details and killed many of the rainy hours living in the Past…

I have always enjoyed planning Trips, so that’s another way I’ve piddled while I wait for the Sun.  I’m working on a foray into New Mexico.  We took a quick visit before Casey retired and Ihad a fall and injured my knee the first day out, to say nothing of the fact that we took the Wrong Road to Taos… We didn’t have enough time, either, so I’m thinking we’ll head back this September and do it right.  I’m also tweaking our March 2020 Getaway –Florida Keys, Naples, Melbourne, and (of course) Disney –Just another way to wait out the rain…living in the Future.

I’m failing to live up to my Motto:  Be Here Now… but Now is wet, dark, dusty, and just plain depressing…   Is the Sun still out there?

It is, it really is…

(Brush up on your Spanish as you sing along with George…and get outside if you can see the Sun)

Peace

 

Weekly Wrap-up

By Posted in 2018, Summer at Sonnystone, updates Tagged , , 1 Comment

Here’s a quick wrap-up of the Porch Project that morphed into the Porch-and-Patio-and-Gate Project.  I think it’s pretty impressive, even though the 6 weeks it took was 2 longer than the 4 I had allotted.

I learned peaceful patience, but that’s a project that never ends…

The garden is transforming from summer to fall.  I brought in the last of the tomatoes and made a big greek salad.  Today I’ll bring in the last of the bell peppers and chop them for freezing.  Meanwhile, the broccoli is burley and the cauliflower is,um, climbing? calling? where’s my alliterative skill?  It’s all growing…

Watching the hurricane slowly wreak havoc on the east coast, I feel very grateful to have a beautiful week ahead to finish up summer.

Peace