Sixth Day of Advent

 I really liked the composition of this photo, even if I have no idea of the context! 

Chris, looking down the street, with other people.

Are they watching a parade? What city is this? Can anyone tell by looking at the buildings? Are the people nearby friends, or just random bystanders? Is this the late sixties/early seventies?

Chris says: My imagination tells me that we’re at a parade in downtown Oshkosh. We had a ‘float’ in the Homecoming parade.  I don’t remember much about it as, we were likely under the influence!! It would have been a fund raising project for Gamma Sigma Sigma(a service sorority). Fall/winter season of 1969.

Fifth Day of Advent

 We recently had a wedding anniversary - so let's have a wedding picture! (But not our wedding picture.)

Uncle Timmy and Aunt Joanie at their wedding.
September 1962

It's kind of nice when the pictures come with dates printed on them! (Although, is this the date when the film was developed, and not necessarily when the photo was taken? Did they actually get married in September?)

Aunt Joanie has a very Jackie Kennedy look going on here, and I like Uncle Timmy's suit with vest and tie too. (This was clearly before ties and lapels got wide again!)

Jackie says: Tim and Joanie got married on Sept. 22nd, which is our wedding anniversary also.  And their reception was at the "Hob Nob", where your Dad and I had booked our wedding reception (11 years later).  Unfortunately, the Hob Nob burned down in July before our wedding and we had to scramble to find another venue.  

Fourth Day of Advent

This picture did not come out of one of the albums. It was one of three sitting in the frame of "Jackie's picture" when I adopted it and took it home a few weeks ago.

Gordon, Chris?, and Grandma Ruby?

If that little girl is indeed Chris, this must have been the early fifties. In this picture I can see how much my mom and Jeff, especially, look like their dad! As for Grandma Ruby, the coat, hat, and handbag give her some serious Queen vibes!

Jackie says: I just question if that was Grandma Ruby in today's picture with your Grandpa and Chris.  Ruby was always "round" and always smiling. This lady looks too stern. Hmmm. Mystery. 

Third Day of Advent

I think this photo came out of one of the photo-finishing envelopes, and not from an album, but I may be mis-remembering. I like this one because Grandpa could practically be standing in my backyard! 

If I had to guess, based on the quality of photo-finishing and color balance of the original photo, this was taken in the mid-nineties at the earliest. The environment and apparel suggest it's probably the hunting shack - maybe deer hunting?

Second Day of Advent

 It seems that commenting on this blog still remains a challenge! I am going to dive into the settings, but in the meantime, please feel free to text or email me if you have something to add, and I will edit the post to include your information.

Bette at Jeff & Darleen's wedding in the summer of 1979. 

I had assumed this was Jeff & Darleen's wedding - I seem to remember that's the album it came out of! Was this wedding in Fond du Lac or in Walworth, or somewhere else? I wonder if Gramma took that picture frame home and put something in it? She sure did have a collection of old picture frames!

I liked this picture because it was kind of silly, but also because I like the dress! I have had a number of navy blue dresses over the years, and this seems to be a taste I shared with Gramma. Those curtains in the background would have made great play clothes for the Von Trapp children as well!

December 1 - First Day of Advent

It was so nice to see so many folks at OUR HOUSE for our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I have always wished it was possible for me to host. It was a treat to be gathered around a big table, eating a delicious meal that everyone helped to craft, enjoying time together. 

My mom asked me whether I was planning to do Advent Calendar blog posts again this year, and I hadn't really thought about it, but I had an idea that I think we will all enjoy. (Maybe this is the superpower I acquired from my COVID booster earlier today?)

Over the weekend, we poured through tons of old photos, and we all grabbed the ones that sparked our memories or made us smile. This Advent, I'm going to post a photo a day. If you know more about the photo than I do, please feel free to leave a comment with additional info. If there's a photo you'd like to share, let me know - I'm happy to share this project and would be grateful for contributions!

From back of photo: "Chicago Museum"
(At least, I think that's what it says - Gramma's spelling and handwriting could be creative.)
L-R back - Bette, Gordon; front - Jackie, Jeff, Chris

This must have been a special day out, because everyone seems so formally dressed! Joe is not in this picture, and I wonder if that means this is pre-Joe, or if he was just too little to come along. Based on the ages of the kids, I'd guess this was perhaps the late fifties. Do any of those pictured remember going to this museum? 

Jackie says: The picture of the five of us in the old car was taken at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  Daddy took us to downtown Chicago on the train from the old depot in Fond du Lac.   We stayed overnight at the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago - very fancy!   That's probably why we had to be dressed up.  I'm guessing Joe was just a baby and stayed home with Grandma McCoy.  Your Grandpa always loved museums!  

Chris says: I think that we had silhouettes done there. Don’t know where they are. 

Great Hike!

Earlier this spring, two different people recommended a hiking spot, but we didn't have a chance to check it out until yesterday. They were right - it was fantastic! 

Since we were expecting a cooler sunny, day with highs in the sixties, we thought it was time for a longer hike. Lower humidity and a bit of breeze meant that the bug weren't bad, and we were comfortable in long pants and long sleeves. We drove about an hour and a half up to Black River Harbor, in the Ottawa National Forest. Trail map: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd530082.pdf

We decided to park at the harbor and hike up the river, have our picnic lunch, and then hike back. On our road trips last fall, we bought an Interagency Annual Pass, and it covers National Forests as well as National Parks, so we didn't have to pay the parking fee! First, we walked down to see the harbor and the beach. There is a CCC/WPA-constructed pedestrian suspension bridge that crosses the river and leads to the beach - a sign indicates a two-person limit on the bridge, and it sways as you cross it!

The harbor is protected by stone jetties, and we hiked out onto one of them to see the views. It has been a while since we've scrambled on big boulders like that! There is a hiking trail along the north side of the river that we will have to explore another day. We crossed back over the bridge to the south side and headed up through the parking area to reach the North Country Trail.

This part of the hike was steadily up hill, with a few steep climbs. We got off-trail early on when we missed a blue blaze and had to backtrack a bit. Our first stop was Rainbow Falls, where there were steps down to a viewing platform (and some other visitors complaining about having to climb the steps on the way back up!)

After Rainbow Falls, the trail crosses Route 513 and loops around some private property. This meant we skipped the next waterfall along the river, with the intent to see it on our way back to the car. This section of the trail included some grassy areas as well as forested areas, and it crossed back across Route 513 to Gorge Falls (the first viewing platform is closed, but the second is available and lovely) and Potawatomi Falls. Again, lots of steps up and down to the viewing platforms!

The path from Potawatomi Falls to the waterfall farthest from the harbor, Great Conglomerate Falls, wound along the river, with lots of ups and downs and a few places where the paths were blocked by fallen trees. In one case, the tree with the blue blaze was the one that had fallen! However, we made it, and it was worth it! 

We headed back down the path to Potawatomi Falls, where we had seen the nicest bench, to stop and have our picnic: cheese sandwiches on Bryan's rye bread and some trail mix. We also overhead a memorable line from a child hiking with a family: "Mom, there is NOTHING fun about this waterfall!" Poor kiddo! I bet Mom was thinking something like, "Well, it WOULD be fun for me if I didn't have to drag you along!"

Mindful that we had already walked five miles and not wanting to overextend ourselves, we headed out to the road and walked the short stretch to the waterfall we had missed, Sandstone Falls. This one had large, slanted, awkward steps down to the water's edge. We enjoyed a rest break on a rock overlooking the waterfall and spotted a strawberry plant growing in a crevice in the rock. Was this native, or a remnant of someone's long-ago lunch?

We climbed back up to the path, then hiked back to the road and down to Rainbow Falls again to hop onto the trail back to the harbor. The entire hike took us about three and a half hours, and the Apple watch indicates that it was 7.88 miles. 

If you want to come visit us, we'd love to do this hike again, with two cars! It would be nice to be able to park at point A or B on the map and hike all the way to the harbor without having to do the hike in reverse.  If you don't feel like a long hike, there is a parking area for each waterfall, with a walk of a quarter to a half-mile from the parking lot, although there are still stairs to get to every viewing spot.

Nature pictures!

Winter was so quiet up here. With the warmer days have come the sounds of … yes, tourists, but also nature! I've been snapping pictures when I can. Time to share!

Let's start tame. Deer are our constant companions. The neighbors told us that the next house over used to feed them regularly. We've seen up to three at a time wander through our yard. We even scared a little spotted fawn out of the pushes behind the garage a week ago. That one was too quick to photograph, so I only have the one above, wondering why I'm staring, to share.

Low-light pictures are tough … but this moth has a winspan of six inches or more! I searched for common moths of Wisconsin, and got over 400 hits, so I haven't yet identified the exact variety. This one first showed up late at night while Amanda was up reading. She thought it was a bat before she got a good look. It makes a ton of noise trying to get through our front window to reach our lamps.

The WI DNR has many webpages dedicated to informing the public that this is not an Asian Longhorned Beetle. It is a White Spotted Sawyer. It eats old dead pine trees. Hopefully the old dead pine trees nailed to the outside of my house are coated in enough paint to be unappetizing!

Finally, the one our neighbors have been telling us about since February. They had seen, and plugged, holes burrowed into their hillside, but never the actual animal. Well, today, about ten seconds after watching a chipmunk alert and skitter off the driveway, across the road comes this beautiful fox. The chipmunk must have run into the wood pile, because the fox spent several minutes investigating.

… which gives me an excuse to post one project picture: the new shelter into which I need to move that wood pile. This design is based on free plans you can download from the EPA. It goes up pretty quick, when the heat and the flies will let you get to it!

It's like she's in the room with you!

 In case you missed it in Jill's newsletter, she was interviewed last weekly her friend Meenal for a series from The Art Brand Alliance, an artists' organization of which she is a member. 

The interview is on Instagram. (Unclear whether you have to have an Instagram account to watch - both Jill and I do, so we couldn't test it.)

Click here for the video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMDL01OnI_O/

It is a lovely way to spend about an hour!

(If you want to subscribe to Jill's newsletter, you can do that here. I love getting an email from Jill once a month!)

Exchange Gifts: Arman's Gift to Jeff and Emily's Gift to Chris

Two more gifts have been delivered this week - and it just proves that good things come to those who wait! 

Jeff received a collection of six homemade extracts from Arman: vanilla, cinnamon, lemon, orange, lime, and coconut. (Jeff, I think you will have to make us all some fabulous cocktails next time we can be together!)

Chris also received her gift from Emily:

Beautiful lampshade! I recognize some of those photos too! 

I think there may be one more gift that is still on its way! And, if anyone has been trying out their gifts and wants to send photos of items in use, please feel free to send those to me, and I will put them up.

We got about eight inches of snow today! Hooray!