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"The poor girl had to stand in the same place three times to make a shadow"
I haven't updated in awhile - I've been busy trying to cram all the stuff I should've been doing all summer into the last couple weeks of August. And I don't foresee it slowing down much, either - Thursday to Ocean City, the weekend camping with family, the next week to Ohio to visit family, who knows what else.
Today, we went to my grandfather's house for a family picnic - all his descendents except one were there, along with his two favorite sisters and various inlaws. It reminded me more than anything of the picnics we used to have at my other grandfather's house, except there were a lot fewer people there. And also, I'm now the Cool Older Cousin instead of the annoying baby! Yay!
So the big news at Pop-pop's house is that he has a Very Special Goldfish. (He has a goldfish pond out back, that he made himself out of a concrete burial vault that he got free from the cemetary where his father-in-law works.) I tried to get a picture of it, but it tended to sink back into the depths before I could - the first one I got was just its tail as it dove, so I took some pictures of the fishpond and the rock garden it's in instead; this one shows a neat view of the Old Workshop reflected in the water. Here's a little statuary group that's been there as long as I can remember, with the wall of the New Workshop (which is about twenty years older than I am) behind it. (The rock garden is built on the foundations of a barn, which Pop-pop went out and knocked down during a hurricane in order to get the insurance money.) Eventually I got some better shots of the Special Fish, though - here it is in a kind of swishy shot that shows how different it is from the rest of the goldfish; here's a clearer shot - at this size you can almost see how far apart the scales are stretched on its belly. Pop-pop says that when it finally dies he's going to to an autopsy and find out just what that *is*. (Pop-pop thinks it's just very constipated. Pop-pop likes poop jokes. The rest of us think it's probably a non-cancerous tumor. Giant mutant fishy!)
This is just a pretty still life on the back porch, by the rock garden; it's a pretty typical shot of Pop-pop's house, though. This is a pretty still life from inside the kitchen. The roses were brought by Pop-pop's youngest sister, in memory of Mom-mom, who liked pink roses, she said. Except Pop-pop doesn't remember her liking pink roses, but he's not going to say that to his sister. He's also not going to say anything about it to his other sister who was there, because then *she'd* get all huffy that *she* didn't bring any flowers, and get in a fight with her other sister, at least according to the first sister, so nobody's allowed to mention the flowers to her, or at least, not without lying about who bought them. Meanwhile, the two sisters are huddling together and griping about how she went to all that trouble to bring flowers, and Pop-pop didn't even care enough to say anything about them; see if they ever do anything like that again! I got sent around the yard to pass *secret messages* about what other people were and weren't allowed to tell certain people about what other people thought about those flowers, yo.
These people are all at least 75 years old, mind. And they love each other a lot.
Duke-dog, in the dining room, thinks they're silly too. Especially when they could be petting him instead. Pop-pop likes dogs, but this is the only cat allowed on his property, or else he's fetching the shotgun.
Meanwhile, out in the back forty, my aunt is being swarmed by grandchildren.
***All pictures from here on down are friendslocked to all friends.***
Here's a few shots of the gathering in general: Lawn chairs and card tables; Samwise and the Duchess plotting something; Horseshoes action shot!; Uncle and grandson and dog; the ladies in a huddle.
That last shot was taken from a perch among the trunks of a blossoming crepe myrtle tree. When the little cousins finally spotted me up there, Samwise and the Duchess came running full tilt, and tried to swarm up after me, with encouragement from my mother. They had mixed sucess, but I got some interesting shots.
Later, most of the small ones and mothers adjourned inside, to attempt to find the hallowed state of "clean" and "quiet". Success was mixed. The light was also dim, so these pictures are a bit grainy. here's Mom helping the kangaroo walk around the house! Here's Mom reading to the Duchess and Samwise! - that shot was taken with a 1-second long exposure, in an attempt to capture the energy in real-time. That's why you can barely see the kids. This serene picture was taken while the kids and the dishes were being washed. :D And here's a really nice shot of Pop-pop talking to his littlest great-grandson.
Near the end of the day, there was an attempt to get pictures of Pop-pop with all of the great-grandkids. They did not sit still for it very well. I was at a bad angle, so none of mine came out well, but here's the best one Mom took: The Duchess and her little brother, Pop-pop, Samwise and his little sister. Yes, that was them at their least squirmy.
I think that's the only good shot I've put up of Sam's sister. She's very quiet and tends to get overlooked when the others are around. She's about a year and a half old, she has a giraffe that she must hold on to and she's always sucking her thumb - if the littlest boy still looks like Charlie Brown, I think she's turning into Linus. I hope she does; her parents are getting a little worried - she understands English, but she communicates solely by hissing essess and offering people toys - she won't even wave or nod or shake her head. The Kangaroo is nearly a year younger and is much, much better at communicating. (Also much, much fatter. And he refuses to learn to crawl.)
And then we packed up and came home. And then we stopped at my Aunt's house to drop off all the stuff they'd accidentally left behind at Pop-pop's.
Oh, and on the way home, Mom drove by the old family farm, that was established by my grandfather's great-grandparents (I think I've got that right), and still owned by his oldest brother's widow and farmed by her kids. I've never been inside, but it's visible every time we drive down Route 50 on the way home.
Thumbnail gallery of the pictures is here. And here's a picture of me and the cousins at my aunt's house on Sunday, mostly to show off my hair.
Today, we went to my grandfather's house for a family picnic - all his descendents except one were there, along with his two favorite sisters and various inlaws. It reminded me more than anything of the picnics we used to have at my other grandfather's house, except there were a lot fewer people there. And also, I'm now the Cool Older Cousin instead of the annoying baby! Yay!
So the big news at Pop-pop's house is that he has a Very Special Goldfish. (He has a goldfish pond out back, that he made himself out of a concrete burial vault that he got free from the cemetary where his father-in-law works.) I tried to get a picture of it, but it tended to sink back into the depths before I could - the first one I got was just its tail as it dove, so I took some pictures of the fishpond and the rock garden it's in instead; this one shows a neat view of the Old Workshop reflected in the water. Here's a little statuary group that's been there as long as I can remember, with the wall of the New Workshop (which is about twenty years older than I am) behind it. (The rock garden is built on the foundations of a barn, which Pop-pop went out and knocked down during a hurricane in order to get the insurance money.) Eventually I got some better shots of the Special Fish, though - here it is in a kind of swishy shot that shows how different it is from the rest of the goldfish; here's a clearer shot - at this size you can almost see how far apart the scales are stretched on its belly. Pop-pop says that when it finally dies he's going to to an autopsy and find out just what that *is*. (Pop-pop thinks it's just very constipated. Pop-pop likes poop jokes. The rest of us think it's probably a non-cancerous tumor. Giant mutant fishy!)
This is just a pretty still life on the back porch, by the rock garden; it's a pretty typical shot of Pop-pop's house, though. This is a pretty still life from inside the kitchen. The roses were brought by Pop-pop's youngest sister, in memory of Mom-mom, who liked pink roses, she said. Except Pop-pop doesn't remember her liking pink roses, but he's not going to say that to his sister. He's also not going to say anything about it to his other sister who was there, because then *she'd* get all huffy that *she* didn't bring any flowers, and get in a fight with her other sister, at least according to the first sister, so nobody's allowed to mention the flowers to her, or at least, not without lying about who bought them. Meanwhile, the two sisters are huddling together and griping about how she went to all that trouble to bring flowers, and Pop-pop didn't even care enough to say anything about them; see if they ever do anything like that again! I got sent around the yard to pass *secret messages* about what other people were and weren't allowed to tell certain people about what other people thought about those flowers, yo.
These people are all at least 75 years old, mind. And they love each other a lot.
Duke-dog, in the dining room, thinks they're silly too. Especially when they could be petting him instead. Pop-pop likes dogs, but this is the only cat allowed on his property, or else he's fetching the shotgun.
Meanwhile, out in the back forty, my aunt is being swarmed by grandchildren.
***All pictures from here on down are friendslocked to all friends.***
Here's a few shots of the gathering in general: Lawn chairs and card tables; Samwise and the Duchess plotting something; Horseshoes action shot!; Uncle and grandson and dog; the ladies in a huddle.
That last shot was taken from a perch among the trunks of a blossoming crepe myrtle tree. When the little cousins finally spotted me up there, Samwise and the Duchess came running full tilt, and tried to swarm up after me, with encouragement from my mother. They had mixed sucess, but I got some interesting shots.
Later, most of the small ones and mothers adjourned inside, to attempt to find the hallowed state of "clean" and "quiet". Success was mixed. The light was also dim, so these pictures are a bit grainy. here's Mom helping the kangaroo walk around the house! Here's Mom reading to the Duchess and Samwise! - that shot was taken with a 1-second long exposure, in an attempt to capture the energy in real-time. That's why you can barely see the kids. This serene picture was taken while the kids and the dishes were being washed. :D And here's a really nice shot of Pop-pop talking to his littlest great-grandson.
Near the end of the day, there was an attempt to get pictures of Pop-pop with all of the great-grandkids. They did not sit still for it very well. I was at a bad angle, so none of mine came out well, but here's the best one Mom took: The Duchess and her little brother, Pop-pop, Samwise and his little sister. Yes, that was them at their least squirmy.
I think that's the only good shot I've put up of Sam's sister. She's very quiet and tends to get overlooked when the others are around. She's about a year and a half old, she has a giraffe that she must hold on to and she's always sucking her thumb - if the littlest boy still looks like Charlie Brown, I think she's turning into Linus. I hope she does; her parents are getting a little worried - she understands English, but she communicates solely by hissing essess and offering people toys - she won't even wave or nod or shake her head. The Kangaroo is nearly a year younger and is much, much better at communicating. (Also much, much fatter. And he refuses to learn to crawl.)
And then we packed up and came home. And then we stopped at my Aunt's house to drop off all the stuff they'd accidentally left behind at Pop-pop's.
Oh, and on the way home, Mom drove by the old family farm, that was established by my grandfather's great-grandparents (I think I've got that right), and still owned by his oldest brother's widow and farmed by her kids. I've never been inside, but it's visible every time we drive down Route 50 on the way home.
Thumbnail gallery of the pictures is here. And here's a picture of me and the cousins at my aunt's house on Sunday, mostly to show off my hair.
no subject
Yay! Pictures!
The pics are really not clear, but is there no possibility the fish is just pregnant?
no subject
no subject
Come to think of it, I may vaguely recall something like that. I guess that's too long for a fish pregnancy. hmm.
no subject
The hair rocks. :)