Three Weeks in May: Memories, Maintenance and Festivals

May 2016                                                                                           Most Recent Posts:
Charlottesville, Virginia                                                                       Abracadabra, We’re Back in Virginia Again
                                                                                                          What a Surprise

 

 

Those of you who follow along know that my Disney posts from mid April were done in quite a bit of detail. 
My previous post covered our quick trip back to Virginia to be in time for Carrie’s baby shower on April 23.  I’ve already posted on the shower so if you missed it, there is a separate post on the shower here.

After that we busied ourselves waiting for the birth of our grand daughter Celia Claire  on May 19.  If you missed that, You can see her sweet self at this link.

Today’s post is about some of the things we did in the month of May. Both before and after the big event.

While we waited, I got up in the attic to see what sorts of toys, baby things and just general ‘put it away’ stuff was up there.  What fun it was finding all the baby things and toys that many parents save and then wonder why.

Here’s some of what I found.  Boxes and suitcases, little person rockers and doll beds. Remember the View Master?  Celia’s too little for any of these just yet but I hope Carrie will enjoy the memories of these pictures.  I sure did.

 

 

 

Most of the things up there were protected in old suitcases we had picked up over time for a song at the goodwill.   Looking down from above there were quite a few and a couple of old metal trunks too.

 

Opening them up I found a treasure trove of memories of both my Carrie and my her Great Great Aunt Carrie for whom she was named.   Aunt Carrie was an amazing creater of dolls and toys.  All by hand.  There’s kermit the crocheted frog on the right, and the gingerbread boy below him. 

 

 

All of the dolls and animals in the next 5 pictures were made by her.

 

 

I think their faces are just amazing.

 

The bunny rabbit with his stiff ears, pants and shirt with pockets is just amazing.   The doll in the center Aunt Carrie made for ‘baby Carrie’ when she visited in 1980 shortly after her namesake was born.  Aunt Carrie was 93 and flew to visit on a prop plane from Ocala Florida.
She named the doll Barbara Ann after her mother which would be Carrie’s Great Great Great Grandmother and Celia’s 4th Great Maternal Grandmother.

 

 

 

These are all priceless family heirlooms that Aunt Carrie intrusted to me and I hope Celia will want to keep them, care for them and continue passing them on.

 

 

This is the pair of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls she made for me when I was five years old.  They had multiple changes of clothing and I had great fun acting out all the stories from the books.   How I miss my wonderful Great Aunt Carrie

 

Of course there are many of what Carrie called her “friends” that were not created by our Aunt.  Like Cabbage Patch twins.  Remember them and at least half a dozen or more puppets which when she was just a few months old made Carrie laugh and laugh especially the cow.

 

A Fisherprice School house complete with bus and playground, desks, chairs and bathroom fixtures.

 

Wonder if Allegra played with the Fisher Price Doctor’s kit when she came over and spent the night?

 

I find a bag of Duplos.   Pretty sure they still make these younger children’s version of Legos.

 

Big Chip and little Dale and a bag of blocks.

 

Well I don’t see anything to take up to baby Celia just yet but it sure was fun looking at all of this.  It will be interesting to see what things eventually will interest her most.

 

On a couple of Saturdays I walked down to the Charlottesville Farmer’s market which I must say has changed into being dominated by caterers and one entire isle has become a food court.

 

But my friend Maggie is still here with her beautiful pottery. 

 

 

 

On this Saturday,  I meet my friend Pam there and we started walking back to the house.  We stop at Southern States nursery to look at plants and it starts to sprinkle.  When they find out we are walking they graciously loan us umbrellas and we didn’t even buy anything.  How nice. We promise to return them and the next day I do.

We continue walking. Then it starts to pour so we stop under the porch at Pampered Pets where Pam works until it lightens up a bit.  Rachel Carson says a rainy day is a great day for a walk and we actually do have a good time.  What’s a little water even if by the time we get back we are soaked.  We’re waterproof and our clothes will dry.

 

Another fun day, mostly for David, was doing an oil change and a grease job for Winnona.  The farm road is just too rough and too overgrown in the woods for Winnona so she stays in Charlottesville but this is not a town with level streets.  It’s a town with hills.   We bring her over to the parking lot of the high school one Sunday and David takes care of it all.  Boy do I love having my own repair and maintenance man.  Thank you David!

 

Can you see him under there?  Look closely and you might see his ear.  He’s looking down.

 

Maybe now that I’m a little closer.  Lots easier than getting under Ruby that’s for sure.

 

On another day, early in the morning,  I walk to the Downtown Mall to see the LOOK Festival of the Photograph Pictures.   This isn’t the only one of several festivals that happen in Charlottesville.

 

In March, Charlottesville has the Festival of the Book, a fabulous week of authors and publishers and talks and discussions all about books,  in May/June there is the Festival of the Photograph which celebrates extraordinary photographers with viewings of their works, discussion and talks and in November is the Virginia Film Festival also held in Charlottesville

Today is all about photographs.  Fabulous Photographs hanging from the trees all up and down our downtown walking mall.  I wasn’t thinking about the festival when I walked down and didn’t bring my real camera so these pictures are all taken with my Samsung Galaxy 5 android phone whose camera, at least as I use it, is not so hot.  If you have this phone and can give me some tips, PLEASE DO.

 

This pride of Lions photograph was taken in Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our very own big cat, one of my very favorite photographs.  Although this cougar’s picture was taken in Central America, he is our East coast big cat. 

 

 

What fantastic  eyes!!

 

Fountains and photographs.

 

 

All of the photographs have small information plaques somewhere near them. You can see the ones for these pictures on the flagpole below. The white rectangles. These say the photographs are titled Lionesses at Twilight and Elephants at Twilight.  Both were taken in Botswana in 1989.  For the pride of Lionesses the photographer Frans Lanting followed them for weeks to get to know them .  Here they are scanning the bush, awake and ready to hunt.

 

 

For this picture of the Elephant herd, Lanting waded into the water and waited, the full moon in the background.

 

These zebras were grazing in the lush grassland of East Kenya in 1996.

 

This Emperor Penguin family portrait was taken in 1994 and has become very famous.  In a greeting ritual the parents bow their heads over the chick they raise in the brutal Antarctica climate.  The chick’s out stretched flippers look like joy.

 

 

As you can probably tell from these pictures, I was on the mall very early in the morning.  The sun was a bit harsh and there were few people at the many outdoor restaurant tables over which these giant photographs hang.  A few folks begin to show up as the morning moves along.

 

 

 

Wonder what these two would do if this macaw actually flew this closely over their heads.

 

 

This Orangatang, whose name means “man of the forest” in Borneo where this photograph was taken in 1991, came flying through the air with his scare look as he tried to grab the photographer’s camera.

  It was all for show.  Lanting comments, “Orangatangs are our close cousins, yet we have not treated them particularly like relatives”.  Thousands have been taken over the centuries from the forest as pets, for medical research and for zoos.  Now the greatest danger to their existance is habitat destruction. 

While I was taking several shots this young man was concentrating on his cell phone and then all of a sudden he looked up to see what I was shooting and the relationship was striking.  At least to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My single constructive suggstion for the placement of these photographs would be not to put this Caiman above the toddlers merry go round.  Maybe a cute penguin instead?

 

 

These gray langurs would be nice there too.

 

 

My first thought was that this looks like an single Emperor penguin babysitting the lot of chicks. I learn it’s not.

 

Once Emperor Penguin chicks are a month old, their parents go off foraging in the waters around Antarctica.  The chicks gather together and wait.  Emporers and their offspring recognize each other by voice rather than sight so when the Emporers return to the colony, they find their young by trumpeting and the chicks chirp in response.

 

This photograph of the sun setting behind the Bayobab trees in Madagascar in 1985 seems like a fine one to end this look at the really fine photgraphy hanging in the trees here on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.  An interseting tidbit: these are the trees from which  Disney patterned the Tree of Life.

 

There is definitely a lot to see in this town and a lot to do including hiking which will be up in the next post about our last weeks in Virginia.