Just Plain Lazy

This summer has, in a word, sucked.  And the reason it has sucked is the weather.  I do not remember a hotter, more humid year than this one.  It's been too uncomfortable to do anything.  I can't even remember the last time we had prolonged rain.  So as a result, I haven't taken any day trips.  My car is getting old and I really don't want to push my luck when it's this hot out.  I also haven't been super motivated to cook or bake so that I don't have to use the stove and oven.   That has meant a lot of take out this year.  Laundry has to be washed and dried by 9 AM, the latest.  

And the traffic.  Everyone is talking about it.  It's always heavy in the summer but this year has been the worst, with more idiots who drive like shit and don't use their turn signals.  

So in the house I sit.  Doing cross stitch and chores and watching TV.  I'm sorry I haven't been making the blog rounds.  There were quite a few real life issues that have come up the past few weeks.  I promise to visit everyone's blogs really soon!!

This one is called 'Wanda's Witchery' and it was a lot of fun!  So many pretty colours!  I bought the frame already painted and am thinking about doing a little touch up around that bottom star.

Here's a project that I stitched in tandem.  I wanted to make one for me and one for my friend Miki, but I knew I wouldn't want to start all over once I finished the first one.  It got tedious at times but it took about a week to do them both which wasn't bad, and I love how they came out.  

I dove right into this snowy owl when I finished the hippie ones.  This one had way more beaded cross stitch than the other kits.  I bought the frame already painted like that, from the 123 Stitch website.

Close up.  Hard to tell but most of the pine needles are tiny crystal and light green beads. Plus the dark blue and dark blue/grey were hard to see against the blue perforated paper.

This is my latest project.  I have 4 separate patterns for each state I've lived in and I wanted to do them on one piece of cloth.  But how to center them, since I suck at math.  Well I knew I had a 50-50 chance of messing it up and sadly, I fell into the bad 50.  I should have stitched Maine after Mass, but I did California after Mass, and it's all off center.  I have to move it way to the left, closer to the left edge of Mass.  Otherwise Washington won't fit under Maine.  And also, California is too high.  The top of the state needs to be at least 5 rows under the word 'Maine'.  That means ripping out all of CA and starting over.  I'm also making some minor changes in the pattern/stitching.   

Some moon shots, end of July.

Full moon a few days ago.

Been pawing through some shoeboxes of old pictures that I borrowed from my mom.  This is a picture of my dad (left) and Uncle Frank with their pet goat Meggy, probably taken sometime between 1927-29, in British Guiana.  It's one of only 2 pics I have of him when he was little.

This one is from my cousin Sandy's wedding in 1970 in Yonkers, NY.  It's been bittersweet to see these old pics and realize how many people have passed away.  Those are my parents, with my cousin 'Little' Anne sitting on my dad's lap, her husband Carlo behind, and Anne's sister Jeannie on the other side of my dad.  Jeannie & Little Anne were my mom's fave cousins so they always had a wonderful time together and a lot of laughs.  They'd stay at my parents' cottage on Spring Hill Beach for a couple of weeks each summer and we all looked forward to it.  Missing from the pic is Jeannie's husband, Skee, who used to tease me mercilessly when I was little.

Me, September, 1966, not sure if this is Sandy Neck or Spring Hill.  Hard to believe my hair was ever that blonde.

Looking thrilled beyond belief at Santa's Village in New Hampshire, 1973.

First or second day of 5th grade, September 1974.  That's a pencil case.

Intently tearing into a box of flashcubes, 1966'ish.  

Wearing my cousin Jeannie's sunglasses at the beach house, summer 1967

1967 in Yonkers with my Aunt Gloria.

Also in Yonkers, April 1976.  There are so many photos of me in Yonkers that it looks like I grew up there. 

I hope to be able to get out of the house more now that summer is drawing to a close.  Fall in this region is the best season anyway, so it's more conducive to day trips.

Yonkers

Y is yet another letter with which I struggled to find a topic.  I was completely out of ideas.  I thought about maybe driving to Yarmouthport and shooting some pics but didn't feel like going that far, what with gas prices and all. Frustrated, I finally said to my squeeze, "I'm out of ideas.  If you can think of a topic for Y, have at it."  Without missing a beat, he goes, "Yonkers?"  Just like with the letter N, it was a major league "DUH!!!" moment!!!!  How could I have not thought of the place my family settled when they came from Italy?  A place I've been to hundreds of times?

My great grandfather, Giovanni Marganella, came to Yonkers from Corvara, Italy, and worked hard to afford the cost to bring his wife Filomena and their two small daughters, Ersilia, and my grandmother, Maria, to the USA in 1911 (Filomena's parents, sister and brothers settled in Connecticut).  Yonkers is very hilly and has a few that rival San Francisco's hills, especially in the neighbourhood in which my grandmother lived, Nodine Hill.  In 1645, a land grant was given to Adriaen van der Donck, who was known locally as a 'Jonkheer', which is Dutch for 'gentleman'.  Yonkers is derived from 'Jonkheer'.

It's only about a 20 minute train ride to Grand Central Station in NYC, so it's an attractive place to live for commuters.  Parts of the city are beautiful.  My mom grew up there and all of it was nice in those days, but unfortunately the area where my grandmother and some aunts & uncles lived has deteriorated.  I only have one aunt and uncle left in Yonkers now, when once all my aunts, uncles and cousins lived there.  But throughout the 70s and 80s, they began to leave.

I spent a lot of time there as a child, and I have fond memories of making the rounds to see everyone.  I loved visiting Jeannie & Skee because I could see the clock from Yonkers Raceway out their kitchen window.  If I went down to the corner of their street, I could see part of the track and watch the trotter races.  I wish I had more pictures of Yonkers, but I don't.  And I don't see myself going there any time soon to shoot them.

Here's me and my dad, sometime in the spring of 1965, in front of the building in which my Aunt Gloria & Uncle Steve lived at the time, on Alder Street.  You can see the iconic water tower at the top of Nodine Hill in the background.  I always thought it kinda looked like the Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space."

1968 or 69.  I loved that cowboy hat.  I lost it in Genung's Department Store on this trip.  Could my shorts be pulled up any higher?  They are practically in my armpits!

Looking all angelic, November 1968 at Nana's apartment.

Alder Street, 1974, walking my Aunt & Uncle's poodle.  Dig those groovy bell bottoms.

July 1972, me, Nana and my mom, on our way to my cousin's wedding.  Those 70's fashions....my grandmother is wearing silver shoes.  Mom's rockin' the "Maude" look.  And the less said about my short hemline, the better.

This is my grandmother's apartment building on Alder Street, as it appeared in the mid-80's, one of the last times I was there.  There was a little alley between this building and the one next to it, and her apartment was down the alley, almost underground.  Therefore, her apt. windows are not shown in this picture b/c they can't be seen.  She moved there in the late 60s, from an apt. across the street.

I doubt I'll return to Yonkers again but I'm glad it was such a big part of my childhood.