Today I have been thinking about our visual culture. The images that have come into my mind are the ladybug, Ruby Gillman- The Teenage Kraken, and the Chinese Zodiac Dragon. Out my window are the real life images of the birds that make our garden their home. I have been seeing more dark-eyed juncos. These come and stay in our garden for the winter months. Some call them the snow birds. The females and males are colored differently. The picture here is a female dark eyed junco, and the males are a darker gray almost black. I began seeing them around about a month or so ago. Today there are several of them out around our bird feeders. It is raining and they do not seem to care if it rains or not. I think they prefer snow. I am still hoping we will see some of the white stuff this winter. Traditionally February is our snowiest month here in northern Virginia.
Here is a ladybug image from my garden long ago. Ladybugs or Ladybirds have been associated with the Virgin Mary by some people.
Here is my maternal grandfather, Ernest Eugene DeVall. My sister, brother, and I are all pictured with him. I think this was the last time we ever saw him.
Here is Ernest Eugene DeVall, my mother’s father.His second wife, Talitha, is pictured next to him. My brother, sister, and I are all pictured in front of him.
These pictures were found in my father’s slides. I had written in the past about the relationship between my mother and her father, though I did not have proof that I ever met him.
He lived in California in his later life. If I remember correctly, he was an accountant. His family was originally from Pennsylvania. His mother’s maiden name was Ogden, and I believe her family was Pennsylvania Dutch. He is buried at Inglewood Park cemetery in California.
Looking at his family information from his grave site, I can see the list of his siblings. I never met any of them. I can see that he had a sister four years younger than him named Velma. She married a man with the surname, Swift!
I am more than ready to move on from my past and my family’s past. After my parents died I felt a need to explore their history before I put them to rest in my mind. Their memory will stay with me.
Yesterday morning was gray and dull as I looked out my kitchen window.
I almost thought I was in a dream when I spotted a tree in the yard diagonally behind us.
All the leaves were gone and it appeared to be covered with orange decorations.
They looked like tomatoes. This was when I had to pinch myself to make sure I was awake.
I remember this tree being planted long ago when it was young and small.
I think the Asian family that planted it has since moved away.
The tree is the perfect screen because it is no longer small, and yet not too tall.
It has spread wide across our corner view.
I have never in all the years since it was planted noticed it having orange decorations.
I wondered are these pods or are they fruit. I was unfamiliar with the tree’s name.
I quickly searched the internet, and discovered that it must be a Persimmon tree.
I don’t know the people that live there now.
It does not appear they have any interest in its fruit since it is mid-to late December.
I had a full day of errands ahead of me so I went on about my business.
I made a mental note to see if I could find a store that sells this fruit.
My early morning sighting was very fortuitous.
I knew a store that might sell this fruit, and it turned out that my search for it sent me outside my normal path, and this particular shopping center was right where I needed to be to accomplish my most important task for the day.
I found my persimmons (and they do look similar to tomatoes.)
I have since read a little about this fruit, and it made me pull out and clean my dehydrator.
I will update later with what I decided to do with these.
If I get the courage, I will drive around the neighborhood to see who lives in that house now.
It would be a shame to let all that fruit on their tree go to waste.
12/22/23 update: I sliced the persimmons and dehydrated them. I saved a few from the drying process to use in baking. I love the flavors & spices of gingerbread,so I looked at several different recipes. I could not find one that completely satisfied what I wanted to try, so I improvised. I ended up going back to my old traditional Pillsbury cookbook, and found a classic gingerbread recipe. I then improvised by adding a puree of ripe persimmon and pecan halves (about 1 cup.) I decorated with some dried slices. Here are a couple of pictures.
The cake should be good with a little eggnog ice cream and gingerbread flavored coffee. If you don't like gingerbread, another option is a big juicy gourmet pear half filled with a dollop of cottage cheese and topped off with a dried persimmon slice. Sorry no picture of this. This might be my husband's option.
As I prepare my menu and table ideas for our upcoming holiday dinner, I have been thinking about my mother and all the table arrangements she made over the years. Above is just one example where a picture was taken of the table before a dinner party. For our holiday dinners my mother would go out into our yard and clip evergreen branches and holly branches. She would add to this a few ornaments or store bought roses. As I remembered these details, I decided to make a table arrangement this year.
Long ago I had seen a succulent wreath made by a local botanical garden. I remember being impressed and thinking I would like to try and make one like it. This time of year is not ideal for such an idea, however, when I saw a sphagnum moss wreath for sale, I became interested in the idea again. I was able to get succulent clipping sent to me from an online source. They were not like I expected them to be, so I am unsure of how successful the growing process will be. The looks of the wreath are not bad, and I will try again next year. I see it as a learning process and I am a beginner.
I decided that in order to be a holiday dinner arrangement I would need to add more seasonal items, so I went out into my yard to see what I could find. I was surprised and delighted to see that the holly bush in our front yard (that I had never been able to successfully eradicate) had grown tall because of my neglect, and was full of red berries!
After completing this I began to think about how I would set the table. I had inherited wooden plates which will work well as a base for more decorative holiday plates. I am still working on the table at this point. Here is a table setting idea. I will continue to work on more ideas. Hopefully when the table is all set for our dinner, I will update with a better picture. I just learned this week that “tablescaping” is the word used these days for making centerpieces and coordinating dinnerware. There are a lot of great ideas out on the internet.
P.S. I have a clear vinyl tablecloth protector over the cloth. This should be removed before a formal dinner, however with my family, I might keep it on.
Update 12/21/23 — The succulents are growing, and it receives bright early morning sun which makes the wreath have a lovely glow!
The clouds on Friday were spectacular. There were fish and angels and flowers galore. A long feathery spine spanned the horizon.It was alive and free. It seemed like a coordinated effort between the wind and elements above. They were putting on quite a show for all to see. It came to my attention at lunch time when I ventured outside. When it was time to leave for the day the clouds had been tamed. Today is Sunday and it is raining outside my windows.
Here is another slide taken by my father, W. Keith Hartell at the New York World’s Fair. The large bronze statue is called the Rocket Thrower, and you can see the Unisphere in the background under the aerial tramway.
Look at the fashion. Most ladies are wearing dresses in this picture. This was normal for this time period.
My last post on my tree of thoughts featured a picture of my great grandmother named Hadassah (aka Hattie.) I found her picture in some scans of my father’s old slides. I had gone through his slides and selected many to scan and copy onto a compact disc so he could view them as a slideshow. He was beginning to suffer from dementia, and I wanted him to remember his family as long as he could. I did this back in the fall of 2007. He passed away in June of 2013. I made other CDs for the rest of my family.
We had gone to the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. I am not sure which year we attended. I had scanned slides of the Unisphere, the Rocket Thrower (which was a large bronze statue), and this picture which features my mother, brother, sister and myself. Behind us you can see part of the Chrysler exhibit featuring a pentagram inside a pentagon. They called this logo a Pentastar. Their marketing under this new logo was extremely successful.
The Pentastar reminded me of a starfish. A five pointed star is everywhere in nature. Here is another example of humans profiting off of nature’s design. It happens all the time. And nature copies itself repeatedly. Written history claims that Pythagoras brought the five pointed star to the prominent position it holds today.
The starfish you see here in this picture were inherited from my mother-in-law. I took this picture with my phone today. I wanted to show how when you turn the starfish over you can see the Chrysler star very clearly, and the only difference is the background is another star rather than a pentagon.
Another example of a pentagram in nature is an apple. If you cut an apple in half along its equator then the patterns of the seeds is revealed… a perfect five-pointed star or pentagram.
The pentagram has been adopted by many different groups and given many different meaning.
I found a scan of an old slide my father took long ago. Here is my great-grandmother Hadassah, "Hattie", Hartell.
The toddler sitting in her lap is my brother, David. I had not been born yet when this picture was taken.
She did live long enough for me to meet her. She was born in 1876 and died in 1965. She was a DAR member.
I decided to post her picture when I read that she married my great-grandfather, Albert Conrad Hartell, on this day, November 28, 1900.
This would be their wedding anniversary if they were both still alive! (123 years ago from today.)
I have a vague memory of meeting her when she was living in a nursing home, and I was very young around the age of 5.
Myrtle was the name of my grandmother, my mother’s mother. She had been given a Myrtlewood vase. It is pictured above, and it is labeled beneath its base. I inherited it from her.
While researching Myrtlewood I discovered that in Hebrew the name Hadassah means “Myrtle tree.” I was surprised to learn this because my father’s paternal grandmother was named Hadassah, though mostly she was called Hattie. So, it turns out there was a Myrtle on both sides of my family tree.
There are many different species of Myrtle trees.
The vase is most likely made from Oregon Myrtlewood. The Latin name of this particular tree is Umbellularia californica, and its common names are Bay Laurel, Pepperwood, or Oregon Myrtlewood.
This Myrtlewood tree can grow very tall in the wild. It is a slow grower and it may take 120 years to reach full size. They have a deep tap root system so they can regrow as shoots from stumps or nurse logs. This strong root system helps to regenerate the species in the wild.
Myrtlewood can be found in a wide variety of colors and grain patterns, and it is considered one of the world’s most beautiful woods.
The Oregon Myrtle (or California Laurel) is neither a Laurel tree nor a Myrtle tree. The broadleaf evergreen grows only on a narrow strip of inland land along the Pacific coast between northern California and southern Oregon.
The aroma is very distinctive, and some local cooks use the leaves, which are similar to bay leaves. It is said that the Myrtlewood leaves taste spicier and you will not forget their aroma
November is a month of heritage, gratitude, and grief.
Here is a picture taken in 2005 during a helicopter tour of Mesa Verde National Park.
The ancestral Pueblo people, that built these cliff dwellings, lived in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest.
They made their homes here long before Europeans explored North America.
They moved on for unknown reasons. They left behind these weather worn structures and no written record of explanation.
History is full of rising and falling that builds layers all around us.
We live in the moment of working to survive our place in the world.
Each moment of reaching out and connecting to our families,friends, and even strangers
is what breathes life and meaning into our world.
Life, death, decay, and renewal are all around us.
The constant cycling moves the world forward through time.
We seek to understand our place in all these life changing events.
My journey through grief taught me that we must make peace with this cycling process.
The holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated or mourned depending on one's personal perspective.
Giving thanks to God and having gratitude helps me to see the blessings in my life,
and make peace with the inequities of life.
Focusing in on the food helps to shift my mind away from the chaos beyond my control.
I cannot bring world peace, and yet I can make a divine dinner and give thanks for my blessings.
movingforwardslowly 