the grandparent project

Photo from the New York Public Library Digital Archive.

So, lately I've been talking to my grandmother about her past and all the amazing things she has done (and continues to do) through the course of her life.  The floodgates have opened and she is telling me all sorts of things I never heard before.  I am completely in awe of her experiences and, well, her.

In order to wax eloquent about what I hear and learn and in an effort to begin to make all of this random information into some sort of cohesive form I've started a new blog over on Wordpress dedicated entirely to Oma and her story.  You can read the beginnings at Tangle Of Roots, and there will be much more to come as I start to sift through it all and ramp up my own research on what she tells me as well.

This is going to be fun!

summer knitting

I've been (re)bit by the knitting bug lately - nothing says "summer" like knitting with wool! - and here's the latest result. It's from a pattern entitled "Sugared Violets" by Rose Beck. Pretty, easy, fast and still pretty! When I saw the name of the pattern I just had to whip it together for Esther. She's been on a violet kick for a while now. That, and as pretty as this yarn is, it's just not a color I would ever actually wear. So, yeah. The knitting needles are back out!

out and about

Whew! The sickness has passed! Unfortunately not in time for me to make my yoga class, but hey! at least I can swallow!

Last week was a bit of a whirl and I am just now breaking the surface of normality again. Rather than bore you with photos of the wedding (I'm sure my sister will ensure more than enough of that) here are a few glimpses of Mother and I in our walking tour of DC, in it's entirety....

At the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetary:



The Lincoln Memorial: (a bajillion steps)

The Korean War Memorial (my personal favorite):

One of the cool flowers at the Botanical Gardens:

AND Mother being dwarfed by the Capitol Building and some guy on a horse:

Boy, did we have a good time!

i feel like uga

Well, we're back. The wedding is said and done and the Greene family is scattered back all over the place. After a week of moving pieces, late nights and long talks I'm home with Beulah and I feel terrible! I guess it's the inevitable crash after all the excitement, but it looks as though Emily is going to take herself home early today, try to manage to get Beulah outdoors for a bit and then crawl onto the couch and try not to think about how much my throat hurts.

It was worth it, though. It's worth a zillion sore throats and stuffy heads to see my whole family in the same place at the same time!

pickle paradise

This weekend, the long-awaited, much-anticipated pickle party happened. One of Esther's (thankfully diminishing) list of DIY projects for her upcoming wedding was to pickle a bunch of stuff for folks to nosh on through the day leading up to the wedding.

Neither of us had ever pickled before, but thankfully there were two other helpers who showed early in the process and the internet is a wonderful thing. It was much easier than either of us had expected. Ok, well easier than I had expected anyhow. The hard part is going to be letting them sit for the next two(ish) weeks and allowing that pickling process to take full effect.

I'm actually thinking I might have to do some pickling myself this summer...

love in the mail

I'm not gonna lie, the past few weeks have been kind of rough here in Emilyland. Seems like 2011 is shaping up to be a year of big changes and hard choices.

Which is why I was so happy to receive this package from my father last night. It made "home" feel just a little closer...

I can't wait to make some of the tons of German goodies he managed to pack in that box, but my very favorite part of the whole thing was this:


My favorite flower!