Siberian Pineapples

The weather this week alternated between warm, fairly warm, cool, fairly cool and somewhere in between. Not of course to the coastal extremes that we see on the news. Eight feet of snow in some cities back East while very little snow pack here in the West:

These are some examples of the night sky off in the west this week. On the left and right are pics of a crescent moon with (click to enlarge) Mars & Venus appearing brightly in the early evening sky.

We haven't seen such a clear vision of this type of moon in some time with the two planets so close to one another.

The picture in the middle silhouettes our pelican weather vane with a brilliant red sky at night display. None of the above stays around for very long so Dino gets antsy with me taking snaps while he is about his business . . .

One of the negatives to having so much warm weather this early in the year is why we received this warning picture to the right.

While we have not seen any of these creatures in our yard -- I half expect to at any given moment -- probably not going to happen.

I only came semi face to face once with a rattler in my yard and that was down in Southern California . . . but I have not forgotten that experience.

It is also the reason that I stopped treading through the overgrown areas of our local cemetery when I would receive a photo request from Find-a-Grave.

I have to be certain that among the uncared for tombstones are numerous rattler families.

What to Do, What to Do

When we were in our career days we used to dream of the days when we did not have to report to an employer.

We are now very much in those days. And it is so important that we have meaningful and rewarding activities to fill our days.

One of Gail's is needlepoint work. Her current project is shown above.

Another of Gail's is working jigsaw puzzles. She has a procedure when beginning a new one as seen to the right.

She is starting a great San Francisco based puzzle and this is what the beginning steps look like -- and she declares that she will "never" be able to do this one . . .

And to the left after one full week of beginning her new indoor gardening project -- sprouts can be seen in three of the seven plants.

Cilantro in the front left and right behind them are two types of basil that have come into view.

It is an interesting project and next we might attempt to grow some flowers.

For me, I could spend most of the day working on genealogical things. And I have to say that I agree with "Deidre" expressing what I know to be true quite often.

I am not sure if there is any insurance coverage for ADGD as yet or if there are any remedies.

I am almost to the point where I just have fun and let it happen . . .



Some Uncovered Tidbits

I have written about my First Cousin John C Hiles a few times in earlier posts. You can always do a search to check it out or other facts as well.

When you see charts like this it is easy to accept the information and move on. But this week I received something (from a very good genealogy sleuth) that sheds some light on the above -- actually sheds a lot of light on the above.

John C Hiles from the chart above had two wives -- nothing earth shattering as many people have had two spouses -- but the article to the left put that whole new light on the matter.

Without the article,  I would have just assumed that John and his first wife just decided to part ways and new lives and families were started.

I have seen newspaper articles offering rewards for information and or the return of things (even slaves).

This article seeks information so that John would be able to reunite with his 14 year old daughter -- he does not mention the reuniting with his wife.

I have traced some of the whereabouts of his daughter and will share some of that in another post.

I have NO idea if there was any reward given but I do know that both
John and his 1st wife remarried and had additional families . . .


Another Newspaper Find This Week

And while noodling around in "Chronicling America" I happened onto the little tiny bitsy
tidbit to the right.

I had not seen this before and felt very lucky to
have uncovered this record.

From that article hopefully we will be able to determine the actual address or maybe even a picture of the house where the family lived at that point.

This is an example of where ADGD actually got me "a lot to show for it".


Lastly

I couldn't resist putting this image in the post -- it reminds me so much of when Gail and  I raised Dino while in the GuideDogs for the Blind program.

The above photo came from the Southeastern Guide Dogs program and could easily have been one of Dino and a sibling.

That was a bit of our week. See you all in a few!