Gull Down!

Remember the Hitchcock movie, The Birds, when those winged creatures swooped down on the people? In our case, it was the gulls, who swooped down on all of us while we were at the beach. One moment my granddaughter happily took a snack out of the food bags, when a gull swooped down and took a chip out of her mouth and another one bit her finger while making off with the red licorice from her other hand. A few seconds later, another granddaughter opened the bag of chips and left it open, when a flock of gulls descended and all hell broke loose.

 

I managed to lose it, yelling something about morons who open and leave food exposed in a not so grandmotherly way. All the while a ton of seagulls were swooping down on us. One of the adults swung a long handled shovel in the air to get the gulls off of the little kids, when contact was made. A thump sounded, and a gull went down with a broken wing. There was nothing but silence; the silence was deafening. This was amazing because there were four adults, a baby being fed a bottle, seven kids between the ages of 1-year- old to 12-years- old, who started screaming and yelling. One son moved incredibly fast with his wife and six kids across the hot sand, the rest of us got up in one fluid movement, grabbed our beach gear, and scurried on back to our beach rental.

 

I felt sorry for the kid who got bit, the other grandchildren who were traumatized, and for the person who had such great aim. But mostly, I was sorry for the wounded gull.

 

I’m happy to say – no one got arrested, we were more cautious with our snacks and I got this incredible story to blog about – gull down.

Hollywood Cemetery

Located amid 135 acres of green valleys, and lush rolling hills, Hollywood Cemetery is bordered by the James River in the city of Richmond, Virginia. It is the final resting place for two American President, James Monroe and John Tyler; two Supreme Court Justices; 22 confederate Generals, amongst them – General J. E. B. Stuart, General George Pickett, and their families; and thousands of confederate soldiers and residents of Richmond. 

The famous Cemetery was designed in 1847 and began operating in 1849. One of the first things that struck me in the cemetery are the beautiful and stately lush trees, well maintained greens, which includes the beautiful and massive magnolia trees. The magnolia flowers are as big as a human head.

 

Driving through the cemetery, one notices the architectural beauty of thousands of markers, monuments, statues, buildings, fences and tombs. One can actually do a walking tour of the cemetery, a driving tour, and even a virtual tour.

 

We stopped at Stuart’s and Pickett’s graves. There was a bench by Pickett’s grave with a plaque honoring Michael Shaara, the writer of the book, The Killer Angels. The bench was given to the Pickett Society by actor, Stephen Lang, who played the role of Pickett in the movie, Gettysburg. Gettysburg was based on Shaara’s book and it revived interest in the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War.

 

Another photo op for me was a tall monument
made of stones, commemorating the Confederate
Dead. 

I have been to Hollywood Cemetery once before
and loved the tranquil surroundings. It is a peace-
ful place. To me, it represents another lesson rich
in history.




 

A Visit to Richmond, Virginia

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Richmond, Virginia with my son and his family for a wedding. The weekend was great. We attended the wedding rehearsal at The Mill at Fine Creek, which was developed in the early 1730s as a gristmill. It also served as the site of General Robert E. Lee’s last camp site during the Civil War. The wedding itself would take place here on Sunday evening. The ceremony would be held outside in an open area of the mill. The stone walls were covered by vining foliage. The windows were arched and without glass, giving the place the rich rustic history it deserved.  It was a two story building without a roof and I could actually picture how the soldiers probably kept guard on both levels. The area was surrounded by flowers and it was the beautiful colorful hydrangeas that stood out. A few feet one could here and see a stream, where there was a clearing, and I assume that a wedding ceremony could be conducted there as well.

 

The wedding reception would be held indoors. The Mill is used for weddings, events and it is also a winery. The food for the wedding was simply delicious and the wait staff was on its mark. The best part was the Pittsburgh families brought in a bit of home. They had baked cookies and set up the typical Pittsburgh Cookie table to the delight of all. The people attending the wedding from Richmond were surprised at the Pittsburgh custom and made themselves right at home with the plastic cookie bags that they filled up.

 

 After the rehearsal lunch, and a bit later, we did drive around to tour Hollywood Cemetery. We also drove along the beautiful Monument Boulevard to catch a look at the historical monuments. Monument Avenue is in the Fan District (it was given this name because the area is shaped like a fan) and home to the upper class of Richmond. The homes along the area are positively large and beautiful. The monuments celebrate the famous people who were important to the history of Richmond. The monuments include: General Robert E. Lee, General J.E.B. Stuart, General Stonewall Jackson, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, oceanographer Matthew Maury, and the legendary tennis player, Arthur Ashe.

 

 

 The weekend went by way too quickly. It was fun being with my son and his family. Richmond is a great city and there is so much to do there. I know that I am going back one day and see all the historical sites that I missed on this trip.

My International Week

One of my son’s went on a family vacation with his wife and daughter. His oldest daughter, stayed at home to work. And that’s where I come into the story. I volunteered to stay with my granddaughter. It was a pretty good, fun-filled week.

 

The first night we went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner. The next day, I attended a family birthday party, while Hannah went to a graduation party and bonfire. Sunday, Hannah worked and I managed to entertain myself.

 

 

 

One day, we went to the bookstore, a show and of course we ate lunch/dinner at Red Robins – Yum! We fit in a visit to hang out with my six grandchildren and got invited back for the next night to celebrate one of their birthdays with a cookie cake and ice cream.

 

Another day we went to the Museum, despite that I took a wrong turn; we did get to our destination. We met up with one of my other son’s and his three children and toured the Museum together.

In between, Hannah and I either watched some interesting shows on television, like the American Pickers, and the History Channel. I did learn some interesting facts from the history channel shows. Or we read our own books. Since we were on our own vacation, we decided to eat out and we covered American cuisine, Chinese, Italian and Mexican. It was our salute to each nationality.

 

 

Neither one of us went away on vacation. But, I think both Hannah and I took our own vacation here with each other, along with some of our favorite snack foods. Besides, Hannah’s a pretty cool person to hang out with.

 My granddaughter, Hannah, and I spent one hour at my old workplace, LMS greenhouse, planting our own miniature Fairy Garden. Jane, one of the garden employees, has become quite an authority on Fairy Gardens. She had everything assembled for the gardens, and we, along with two other women, dug into our 10” pots of soil. To our surprise and delight, we unearthed our own miniature fairy, resting beneath the center of the soil.

 

Then we went to work, picking three miniature plants, some stones and rocks, and a few other things. Each of us had chosen certain items that we wanted to include in our garden. Looking along the shelves in the garden area, we selected certain items to buy. My granddaughter picked a miniature arbor, two gazing balls on stands, and a tiny watering can. Hannah made a fish with a pipe cleaner to put on the blue stones that she had fashioned into a small pond.

 

 

 

I picked out a bench, windmill, small wheel barrel and tools, along with the watering can. Jane handed out some birds on wires and an animal for us to choose, if we wanted, to add to our gardens. Then we, along with the other women, let our imaginations run wild and created our own special Fairy Garden. All the while we were working; Jane interacted with each person in her usual cheerful manner.

When we were all done planting our gardens’ they reflected our own interpretation. We paid for our additional purchases. Included in each Fairy Garden kit was the pot with soil, a miniature fairy, three small plants, the stones and pebbles, birds, and an animal. The class was well worth the money and time. The time spent in the peaceful happy surroundings of the greenhouse with my granddaughter – priceless.

 

If anyone is interested in working on a Fairy Garden, go to the website (http://lmsgreenhouse.com), or call Jane, (412-767-7090). Or better yet, take a drive to the greenhouse, located on Wagner Road in Hampton.

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming

Don’t always judge a book by its cover. Book covers are supposed to catch the reader’s eye. Unfortunately, I have bought books solely because the cover or book jacket caught my eye. Sometimes, the books were good. But, more often they weren’t. I have been burnt and have come across a number of books that were real lemons. After reading a few pages, I closed the book in disgust, and placed it in my discard pile

 

Recently, a friend lent me a book to read, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life. The book was written by Rod Dreher, a journalist, who goes back to his hometown, following the death of his sister Ruthie from cancer.

 

Dreher could have done a better job of showing and writing more about the wonderful ordinary life that his sister lead in their hometown, and pointing out more about her life as a mother and a teacher. Instead, I learned and read more about Rod Dreher then about Ruthie. I wanted to know more about Ruthie, and less about Rod.

 

When I looked at the information on the inside of the book jacket, I realized that because Rod is a professional journalist, and  his connection enabled him to get this book published. Maybe the author could use some more lessons from his sister and become a bit more humble in his life.

 

FYI – the cover of the book is a nice, appealing one.

Writing Again

It has been a very long time since I have worked on any stories for a magazine article or another book, other than writing in my journal or blogging. That seems to be all the writing that I have been doing lately. I email daily to a high school friend and writer. We have been able to help each other out when our writing is going well and when our writing seems to have dried up.

 

Blogging is fun and it keeps me writing. What frustrates me the most is wondering if anyone reads my blogs? I do get a few Likes, or comments. Some of these are through Facebook and sometimes someone will comment directly on my blog page.

 

But – the other day, I found a file with my paper copy of a book that I have been working on, The Cook’s Apprentice. There were 32 pages that I had typed up. On the pages were notes, corrections, ideas, and expansion for the book. I read it and decided that I liked what I had written. I also figured out that with all the additional comments that I had written in the margin, I could easily expand the manuscript to 50 pages. With adding the food blogs that I wrote, I had even more pages to add to the book.

 

I put all my papers back into a folder, and started to work on this book again. It’s exciting once again to be working on my writing. My writers block seems to have lifted and I’m back in front of my computer working on another book. And that is a very good feeling!