The Next Generation

I know, if I had my own blog I would post this there, but since I don't, and since I have been encouraged to post this on Penrose Morning, here it is.

This is a link to an article that features Nate and a piece of his world. To be featured in this particular magazine is quite and honor, and to have the cover photo is another honor. Nate works hard and deals with some very difficult health challenges, so this is nice recognition for what he is doing.  I did forward this to brothers and sisters, so this is just in case other family members want to check out the article.


http://www.hotelfandb.com/biol/jul-aug2010-larkspur-tiburon-grill-local-surveys.asp

What Time of Day Was This Taken?

Check out the shadow - Again, my focus is horribly off, but this shows the burn barrell, and a little more of the Penrose scenery.

More Photos in the Penrose House

Love the haircut and the shorts. The haircut was a "Judy dare". The shorts and tops we made that summer out of pink and white checks. If I recall correctly, we could wear them around home, but not to town. Some fun things in this photo - the bread bowl, the cast iron frying pan (which I have and use constantly), the electric stove - what else do you see?

Steve, the great Chevrolet and The Truck

I love this photo of Steve. Does he look confident? Or does he look like he is off to conquer the world? Or does he look like "if Mom only knew"? I think we were headed to church the day this was taken. This was not Steve's normal attire. That car was amazing. Steve, remember when we were being followed on the cemetary road and we took off on a side road (who says that was a smart move?). The Chevie could go reallllllly fast. I think I was actually the one driving.

Steve

I apologize for feeding the blog so much this morning. Recovering from the flu bug that was generously shared while we were together last week (thankfully it is about a 24 hour bug), has given time to just sit and start on the photo scanning again. I ran across this photo of handsome Steve and one of our many cute kittens. This does show a little more of the "guys" bedroom.

Legs and the Repainted Bed

The pictures on the wall have changed. I wonder what they were? Judy is busy with something and now you can see the stencil on the end of the now blue bed. Books in the bookcase still remain a mystery. This negative is on the same negative strip as the one of Judy at the sewing machine and Steve crawling under the truck.

More Judy

Judy played the cello during high school. The focus on this photo is not great, but it does give a little bit of a look at the added on room in the Penrose house. By the way, Judy was reallly good on the cello. She even mastered vibrato.

The Rest of the Story

This photo of Judy is on the same negative strip as the one with Steve under the truck. Note the baseball glove on her left hand. Did she miss the ball and it went under the truck?

A Real Truck

What do you think that Steve is looking for????  Name this truck....year and model.  Remember when Mother laid the bricks so she could have a clean walk way?  I think I see a branch of the red roses I planted on the right edge of the picture.  Ann probably took this one too.

Treadle Sewing Machine

How did I ever get Ann to take all of these pictures?  I'm sure happy that she did as I think this is the only picture of the old sewing machine.  When did Mother get it?  And at what expense?  Most of our clothes were created with the foot power of this machine, including the shirt I am wearing.  Make a list!

FOUND TREASURES

Found at the bottom of a box, don't know how I missed it.  Who can forget these and the veneer ones attached to the rosewood circles.

Pansy Curtains

A couple of years earlier with a more reasonable pose.  Notice the pansey curtains and Elizabeth's graduation picture on top of the chest of drawers.  I think we each had one drawer??? Everything fit just fine, one of the blessings of not having too much.

Happy Birthday Louise

Happy Birthday Day Dear Louise.......Happy birthday to you.

Here's Roy singing Happy Birthday to Louise!  She deserves to have that song sung in tune. 

Louise is everything Ann has said.  And whether she likes it or not she is our matriarch figure in this family in the absence of our mother.  May this be a very happy day and may you be gently reminded of the great love your family has for you.

Happy Birthday to Louise

(How is this for cheating? Elizabeth put this page together and now I am "borrowing" it, because I am too lazy to do my own, and also because I love the photos that are here - I can't do any better. So, after apologizing to Elizabeth, on to the important even of the day.)

Happy Birthday, big sister. What a dear friend you have always been to me. We have talked, laughed and cried together, you have encouraged me when I was sure I couldn't teach my R.S. lessons, you have put up with my silliness, and always been willing to overlook my flaws. Being a big sister can't be easy (having never been one), but the example you have set for me as you have found incredible ways to be happy when life isn't perfect will always be a source of encouragement for me.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Louise. Love you lots.

It Wasn't Penrose

The thing about going out to Olympia to see Mom and Dad was . . .it wasn't Penrose.

Country Gentleman

I happened upon a delightful website of Country Gentleman Magazine Covers  http://gono.com/adart/countrygentleman/countrygentleman.htm

Here are three examples that particularly caught my eye.

Enjoy!

Cousins 1984

Curtains on the Windows

I suspect if I played with this photo I could cut back on the glare, but oh, well. And what can you see in this photo? Note, the curtains on the windows. I can't imagine Dwight lived in this room and didn't have curtains, unless he dressed and undressed in the dark.

Lamps and Shades

Forget the glamorous girl, look at the lamp and shade....Do you ever wonder where it went?  Ann will know.

Summer time - Get out Your Hoes!

How the memories last of significant times in our lives. The character building aspect of thinning (finger thinning with short-handled hoes), and hoeing impossibly long rows of sugar beets and beans remains in my memory forever. In retrospect, there is a fondness for those times when Dwight and I forged long-lasting relationship as brother and sister, and all animosity and differences were forgotten in our common labors. as we drank out of the common jug of water at the end of the row. They really are good memories, if one can forget the heat, the sweat, the mosquitoes, the gnats, the horseflies and deerflies.

Father's Day -

This was taken sometime in the early 1940's. The original picture includes the old car, and Judy - I think.
This was taken during the summer of 1980, when Dad found solace from Mother's cancer diagnosis and surgery by making two big marquetry pictures that summer.
Russell Marion Blood, photo taken when he was one year old. The other picture is the classic on his mother's lap.

If I had Dwight's eloquence, I would write a wonderful essay on our father, but I will try to express a few thoughts. Dad was a complex man. He was talented in many ways, and didn't think so. Mother worked all their lives together to buoy him up to be confident of his ability to do so many things. Even though times were often tough, I remember laughter around the supper table. Memories include: waiting on the top of the cellar for a sight of the little Ford that would bring Daddy home from wherever he had found work during the depression; him and Mother taking me to the hospital in Lovell when I was 4, and his encouraging me to be "good"; on a summer morning, waking up to his coming into the house very early after he had been out irrigating, and wanting breakfast; chasing the cows on Mother's Day when they got into the strawberries; having first dibs on "The Saturday Evening Post" and the serial Westerns; sitting on the couch, reading, and swinging his foot like a metronome, keeping me on time at the piano; whistling and sniffing on the way home from movies; his love of Western movies; his love for all of his children, and his frustrations when we didn't do as he hoped for; his skill with wood, and the time we spent together in Washington making marquetry pictures;

his hopes, dreams, and love for his children and Mother. Memories go on and on. We were fortunate to have a father who loved us very much. I still want to call him to tell him something funny or interesting. Maybe some day?

Good Things to Come

Knowing our past, does this not seem familiar?  And knowing what we must yet do, doesn't the message still fit?

Good Things to Come

Memorial Day Memories

Dear Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa, We're all sorry we can't be there on this Memorial Day with armloads of purple iris and lilacs to pay tribute to your resting place in person, but we all live too far away and we each are getting closer to the end of our own earthly existence.  But we can each tell you that not a day goes by that we don't think about you, and miss you, and have questions to ask you, because, especially you, Mom, were so darn stingy with information that we wanted to know and still want to know.  We are all continually amazed as we gain new insights each year about the magnitude of the sacrifices you made and the perseverance you unwaveringly pursued to bless each of us and make our lives possible and to endow us with the qualities that we each possess.  We owe you more than we can ever repay.  Though we can't be there today, we are all sentimental cry babies and cherish all of the sights and sounds and voices and winter snows and summer flowers and hayfields and admonishments to go to bed at 8:30 even when we were 30 years old.  We thank Burchell and Ruby for bringing flowers to your graves each Memorial Day, as close as we can get to being there ourselves.  But we can tell you that we six Blood kids that you left behind have stuck together and loved and supported one another through all of these years, united in our devotion to each other and to our parents and grandparents.  See you next year.  Love, Louise, Dwight, Elizabeth, Judy, Ann, and Steve

Memorial Day Post on Summer Mornings

Dear Blog followers, I put together a Memorial Day post for Penrose Mornings and in a stupor of thought ended up posting it on Summer Mornings.  So please go over there to look at it.  I'm trying to figure out how to move the post without redoing it.  Advice willingly accepted.

In the Days when Steve was really Cool. In PINK shorts. Are you kidding me? Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STEVE

Same smile, same work ethic, just a few years in between.  Many returns of the day!

Liz and the Chickens: Happy Birthday

We've all seen this picture a million times, but the question remains, "How did Liz attract all of those chickens?"  Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth

 Does it feel as though the time has flown by? Happy Birthday to a very dear sister. I hope you have a wonderful day. Love you lots.

Picture blackout on heading

After I open this blog, the header photo shows for a few seconds, then blacks out into a big black box.  It doesn't do that on my Mac.  Does your computer black out the header photo, and does anyone know how to fix it?  Have a nice day.