January Snow

This past week we received around 7 inches of snow on Wednesday. By Thursday morning freezing rain turned everything into a popsicle. It was fun for a couple of days--by Friday, it was getting old. Fortunately it warmed up on Friday and turned to rain. I was grateful to be able to run again. However, on Wednesday I snapped on my x-country skis and took a 7-mile trip to Fircrest and back, dodging the few brave soles who felt the need to drive somewhere. I also got out on Thursday to take some abstract shots of some of the frozen plants around my yard.

Happy 120th Birthday!

Today would have been my grandmother's 120th birthday. It's incredible for me to think that she would be that old. Geesh, she was born in the 1800's. I like to look at all of the pictures she had accumulated over the years, and were handed down from my great-grandparents. A few years ago I was able to travel around the country to see some of the grave sites of some of my past relatives.

These are a few pictures from my grandmother's mother's family. Folks who were born prior to 1885. My grandma was usually pretty good about labeling photos. However, these all have the same name written on the back, Louise Honert. Honert was my great-grandmother's maiden name.

Portrait Studios of the Past

Tomorrow my grandmother would have been 120 years old. Thanks to her, we have a wealth of photographs from the olden days. I scanned these tonight from the back of photos of family and friends on her mother's side. Her mother's name was Lizzie Honert (of German descent) and resided in the Dunkirk/Fredonia area of New York state. Tomorrow I hope to share some of the photos.

I've always been intrigued with old etchings and black & white art. These remind me of the art I find in the collection of old National Geographic magazines, also from my grandmother's collection. I'm amazed at the detail and creative design going on in these. The brown paper bag I found these in was labeled with my grandma's handwriting Pictures of the 1880's. Notice the great border treatments and font styles.