Melissa and Eliza, Casey and I, made the 5-hour drive from Sonnystone to Dublin, Ohio, on Friday, checked into our suite, then picked up Emma from the airport around 11pm. So good to see her!
I took a series of photos in the worst lighting ever, chronicling the metamorphosis of the girls into Irish Dancers’ hair (wigs and a lot of poof). They will take a lot of work to make them legible; in fact, none of my pictures turned out well.
We started out at the Feis, where Emma won the “Dance-off” competition for the second year in a row. The honor involves a heavy traveling trophy and the opportunity to perform at the Dublin Irish Fest that evening during the Parade of Champions.
My video of her set that evening pretty much sucks, but you know what she really looks like, so I’d like to share this small badly focused clip of her introduction:
My heart was so full just hearing that!
We absolutely loved the Fest and plan to make it an annual tradition! There was music and dancing, whisky and fest-food, Great Company and good weather – what more could you ask for?
Though we had to give up Camp Sonnystone due to certain humans growing up, we didn’t give up the “hands” sign with this year’s Word. This was a big reason we flew Emma in, actually! We needed her paw-print…
This may be the last year, the final word, so to speak…or maybe not. Be what may, I will cherish these memories Forever…
Melissa and Eliza arrived on…um…I think it was Wednesday… I’ve lost track of the days.
Nova and Samantha joined Eliza and me to visit the Mall on Friday, I do know that.
The Jrs joined us yesterday for our Family Picnic (inside, of course) – green beans and new potatoes, corn on the cob, fried chicken, sliced tomatoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon filled us up. I don’t know why on earth I didn’t take pictures, but we all had a good time playing yahtzee after our feast.
Our plans have gang agley – gone awry, if you will. We had planned to go to Ellis Park today, but Excessive heat shut down the thoroughbreds for the week, Eliza is feeling under the weather (get it?), and I’m out of ideas of air-conditioned entertainment, so we’re just hanging here, talking and enjoying each other’s company.
I think that’s fine, really. We are still maintaining the gardens in the early mornings, though most of the plants in the Edible garden are shocked by the heat. I seem to be mentioning “heat” pretty often, so let me add some adjectives: blistering, sweltering, scorching, oppressive…it’s as bad as I’ve ever experienced and I hate to see my utility bill next month.
The Company is cool, though, so I’m living my best possible today – whatever day it is. I promise I’ll take more pictures as the week goes on. Thanks for dropping by!
It was a soggy week here at Sonnystone. I’m personally sick of it, and even the gardens seem over it. Despite the assault of storms, we made our way through a fairly mundane 7 days – time with Samantha, hair appointment with Dusti, monthly phone call with Kathy. Now, we are ready for something Fresh!
Eliza and her mother will be here by Wednesday evening and the Fun will begin. The rains are supposed to recede and we’ll put our pool up for floating and frolicking. Ellis Park will be dried by next week-end, so we’ll have a Day at the Races. Eliza is demanding Orange Chicken from the Mall food court, so it had better be there. They will be here until August 1, when we’ll head up the road to Ohio for the Columbus Feis and the Dublin Irish Fest. Sooo excited!
We’ve kept most everything propped as relentless rains pelted down, and that’s about all we can do. I’ve harvested and am still harvesting tomatoes of all sorts and green beans are plentiful.
After I talked smack about the squash and the bell peppers, they decided to give me some fruit…
My poor Peace/Bird Garden is simply saturated. It looks a little tired overall, but if you focus on the blooms, they are bursting with energy!
We’ll be finishing up the preparations for our company these next few days. I would love to hear from any of my dear readers who might want to meet up with us. Let me know! You know how to find me…
It was a good week here at Sonnystone Acres, despite “feel-like” temperatures in three digits and humidity described as “Very”. We were up with the birds getting the gardens watered and weeded and tied and propped, then I, personally, took it easy doing inside work or at the very least, shady porch work like swinging…
the view from the swing
The dang deer ate all of those lush purple garden phlox blooms in the Peace/Bird Garden. There is a little fawn running around in the meadow that I’m partial to and I’ve been lulled into thinking they are just cute little pets. I missed my chance to save those this year, but I’m dragging out the hot sauce spray for the rest of the season.
Our squash are still not producing fruit and their bloom time is over. I blame the excessive rains in their early days, because now our pollinators are buzzing around. I’m starting some seeds and hope to put some new plants out in a couple of weeks, as they are 55 days to harvest and that gives me until mid-September to get a good crop. Hopefully, the bees will see them this time.
This week in the Edible Garden…
butternut squashsweet cherry 100s
Samantha and I went to the $5 matinee on Tuesday, viewing Disney’s Elio. It was okay, good enough. Disney has really blown it with their recent films and I’m kinda sad about it. This one had no strong opening advertising and I guess they felt like they had spent enough on it. They need to take a look at their creators and try to get them back in touch with the audience. But it was cool in the theatre and we had a good time.
Hope you had a safe and happy holiday! We tried to ignore it, but our neighbors put on some very loud fireworks displays – we couldn’t see them, but we could hear them. It was just too humid to go downtown for the Eville show, so we tried to watch them on TV, but failed. Oh, well.
We’re back to living in the “family” room, though I’m still arranging shelves and such. That may never end, if you know me…
Next Week my calendar is Blank, so I may just do nothing — I’m very good at it.
It was a Good week here at the Acres, even though we didn’t see the sun until Thursday. Samantha came over for a piano lesson on Monday, and Nova did a beautiful job singing at the EMA Recital.
I was up early today so I could get some work done in the garden before the heat index becomes dangerous. The edible garden stays in dappled shade until noon and it was pleasant for a couple of hours before the humidity crept in like a kudzu vine, activating every sweat gland on my body – and I think I have been over-endowed with sweat glands. I managed to plant some pole beans along the arbor in the spots where our watermelon shriveled, and a couple of areas where the cantaloupes are stunted, then did some work on our washtub containers, which were flooded during the Monsoon Days.
The Edible Garden is thriving…
The middle picture is of our “early girl bush” tomato, a determinate that currently has eleven tomatoes on it and another half-dozen flowers coming on! I’ve never grown them before — hope they taste good!
The Peace/Bird Garden looks lovely, as well…
All of the books that were in the family room have been moved into the living room and we are very close to pulling up the carpet.
We had planned on this project being done by now, but the cataract thing changed things up. It’s worked out great, though, as the Heat Dome keeps us indoors.
Our #3 grand-daughter, Eliza Belle Mayne Jose, graduated from 8th grade on Thursday. She will continue on to 9th grade at the same school, Avenues The World School, so it’s called a “Stepping Up” celebration. We watched on Vimeo and I wasn’t much impressed with the videography, but when my beautiful grandie walked up to pick up her certificate, I felt that overwhelming surge of emotions where your heart swells up and pushes tears out of your eyes. I love this girl more that words can say – well, you know that. When she was little, we would do a pretend morning show together. She was the OG musical.ly and would often facetime me so I could watch her latest choreography, usually to music that made me blush. She was born with a fabulous sense of fashion and she’s the one who I consult on which sneakers to buy. I’ll get to see her at the end of July and I can hardly wait.
Happy Fathers’ Day to all the Dads out there! I had a good one, but he’s been gone 28 years now. He would visit me every Wednesday, an event we dubbed “Music Night”. He would play the uke and we’d sing; he’d have me play the piano and we’d sing; I’d play some good tunes on the stereo and we’d sing.
Me and Dad at the Eaton Family Reunion, Grayville, IL 1979
We also drank and smoked and talked and laughed and sometimes argued, but we’d always end up singing. I haven’t done much singing since he died and my voice has gone to hell, but in my mind those harmonies still play.
Had my second cataract removal on Tuesday and it’s gone well – not as well as the right eye – but every day is more clear. I expect I’ll be seeing a lot of fog soon, anyway.
“Surely we’ve had enough rain this week to last us a couple”, I wrote last week. Surely we did, but the ever-whimsical Spring disagreed and brought us a deluge of four inches on Friday, another 1.5 on Saturday. Luckily, we had most every plant staked or propped and there was very little damage to the gardens.
I would have preferred to be sitting in a lawn chair at the Handy Festival, but since our Entire Day here at Sonnystone was decidedly un-sunny, I assumed it was the same over in Henderson. I was soo disappointed when I found out on the evening news – rain still pouring outside my window – that it was sunny and dry just across the river.
Here comes the humidity! We still haven’t turned our a/c on, but looks like we will soon. I’m beginning to start moving books off of shelves in the family room so we can pull up the carpet back there. Casey is restless if he can’t work outside, so this might be a good time to start.
Not much to report this week, but a picture is worth a thousand words…
Tuesday I have the cataract removed from my left eye and I should be seeing in 3D by Wednesday. The W.C. Handy Blues Festival starts Wednesday, as well, and I hope to feel well enough to attend – and that the weather is co-operative. Surely we’ve had enough rain this week to last us a couple… New Harmony Antiques Show is the 14-15th, and the Wilson Auction House over there will be having a seriously good selection of collectibles for us to bid on, so I should have lots more to share with you next Sunday!
And since all this loveliness can not be Heaven, I know in my heart it is June.” —Abba Louisa Goold Woolson.
After a cool and rainy May, June met us with Sunshine and balmy breezes. My cataract surgery went super great and I’ve been outside breaking all the rules to finish up the gardens and porches. I have been careful, but I couldn’t resist.
Let’s take a walk around the house, starting in the Edible Garden. Along our trellis, the cantaloupe, butternut squash, cucumber. and watermelons are all coming right along. None of the lima beans I put in sprouted, but I’ve got two more cucumber plants to fill the bare space soon.
On the outside of each side of the trellis are 14 bell pepper plants – 8 California Wonders and 6 Big Berthas. In between the peppers and the trellis are sunflowers of all kinds and they are going to town! At the south end of each side are moonflower vines, sure to shine.
In the back and on the sides are nine tomato plants – 4 Better Boys, 1 Early Girl Bush, 1 Celebrity, a sweet cherry 100, a husky red cherry, and one called chocolate sprinkle that is alleged to taste like a black cherry.
Nine squash – five zucchini, four yellow straightneck prolific – are having the time of their lives, flowering like champs, but where are the bees? I have anise hyssop to attract them, not to mention a yard full of clover, but so far I’ve seen very few.
The peas are flush with edible pods (Oregon sugar pods II) and I’m often out there snacking.
I’ve been so bored with my own cooking lately – like for the past year – and decided to learn a new style: a countertop griddle. So far, Casey is better at it than I am, but I warned him if he is tooo good, he’ll end up doing all the cooking. We used an old highway sign as a heat shield, which I think is kinda cute.
Around here on the front porch, walking in from the north side, I’ve moved all the coleus that I propagated last winter and they look great! I guess I’ll end up with twice as many next year….help!
In the Peace/Bird garden, the hummingbirds are back buzz-bombing each other at the feeder, and Casey had a skirmish with a squirrel (he won) the other day. This garden is all native perennials and they are so reliable and calm – you might say peaceful. I am so thrilled to be able to see the avian display with a clarity I’ve never experienced. It’s a dang miracle.
I think I’ll grab a handful of those sugar peas, sit out on the swing, and enjoy. Wish you were here…
We made our cemetery rounds on Wednesday, or I should call it Windsday since the gusts were intermittently 20mph. Placing the saddle on Grandma and Grandpa Eaton’s grave was a challenge, but Casey got it held down with wire and we figure if it didn’t blow off on a day like that, it was set to last. It’s the thought that counts, right?
We wandered around the cemetery in Albion looking for Grandmother and Grandad’s marker, even though I visit it every year. These folks, especially Grandmother, were so influential in my life. They were my great-grandparents and I was so blessed to know them. The font on their gravestone is so unique. I wonder who chose it, and if it means anything.
Since we were walking the property, we looked for my Aunt Thelma and Uncle Aub, but couldn’t find them, so we cruised up to Marion Church Cemetery to check on our grave-cleaning.
I am thrilled and more to see how well the wet-and-forget had worked. These two graves of Chester and Herbert, my great-great uncles who died quite young, had been black with age and look at them now!
I am fascinated by the inscription on the side of Herbert’s stone and want to go back with etching paper and see if I can read it. Herbert’s marker has a book open on a bookstand-like thing on the opposite side, so I wonder if he was a bookworm, like me. He died at 14 of fever.
Back in my youngster days, we called it Decoration Day and it was the 31st of May, whatever day that happened to land on. I have fond memories of my family – Mom, Dad, Brother, and Sister – meeting up with the Albion Maynes – Grandmother, Aunts Ruth and Bernie, and Uncle Harry – and hitting up the old graveyards in the area. I’d get to ride in Aunt Ruth’s Oldsmobile and we would glide all the way up to Parkersburg, then down the gravel roads, and around the loop that I still take every year to decorate. There was a story to go with every grave except one, and that was my grandfather, my Dad’s Dad. I remember one year seeing Grandmother standing at his stone, crying, and I felt very sad, but everyone just looked away uncomfortably.
It was a serious “We don’t talk about Bruno” situation. I got as much info as I could about him from Dad and Bernie before they died, and when I researched him, I discovered that there just wasn’t much good to say about him – he died at 43 after abusing alcohol, drugs, and all the people who loved him. But for one brief, shining moment, he was “that funny comedian, Bobby Mayne”, headlining for traveling vaudeville shows, an actor, a musician who could play every instrument, and the fans followed him, loved his shtick and admired his talents. He married a beautiful girl, had a baby boy, and then blew it all…
This year, I decorated his grave for the first time. He didn’t actually fight in WWI (that’s another story), but he was a Star, a handsome, talented Star of the Stage and we shouldn’t forget that. I think it fits him well…
I still need to go out to my Mom and Dad’s Mausoleum and switch out their bouquet. I like that I don’t have to worry about wind and rain on my decorations with them. I’m out there four times a year, changing with the seasons, just like my Mama taught me.
The News from Sonnystone Acres 