Thursday, September 29, 2011

Catching up: September in pictures

September is almost over and Summer has packed her bags.  
Autumn is here.  Here are some pictures to remember September by.

Moravian Tile Works: Doylestown PA

We love history in our house

Nana, Uncle Richard, Aunt Lynn and Viki (plus Jenny) took a trip here in
early September

What a great place! Did you know you can be an intern here?  Uncle Richard
is thinking about it.

Dinner with dear friends: Marshall Taylor and Samuel Hsu
The view from Marshall's House

Autumn through Adam's camera- this is Autumn 2010 but we just developed
the film!

The Perkiomen Trail: photography by A

I wonder if Autumn 2011 will look like this? 

Crazy Cats

These crazy cats make us laugh and give us love during long weeks.



Clara in the bath tub.  This is her new favorite place to be.


Sometimes Claude needs some help with his grooming

Ah much better! Every night he comes for his brushing.

Maggie is ready for Autumn to come. This is her usual spot- curled up in front
of the fireplace.  She often stares longingly at the fireplace.

Harriet, our shy kitty, is becoming braver and sleeping downstairs! She blends in so
well with the couch sometimes you miss her.  This is her usual sleeping pose.

Clara, dreaming.  She must be eating a mouse in her dream.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A new friday tradition: Where's your foot?

Many of you have probably heard about or even participated in a relatively recent blogging tradition called "This Moment," in which people post a picture every Friday, unaccompanied by text. You can see such a post here, here, or here, for instance.

I have decided to start my own tradition, with a slightly less poetic title: "Where's your foot?"

Every Friday, sometime around 9 AM, I will take a picture of my right foot, and write a bit about why it's there.

I actually took my first picture for this purpose back on the last Friday in July, but lost my nerve about posting and committing myself to a weekly tradition like this. I invite you to answer this question for yourself, either once, or weekly.

Where's your foot?

Friday, 29 July 11
08:50


The Perkiomen Trail, about half a mile from Wm. Rahner Memorial Park, where I usually get on the trail. I often don't work on Fridays in order to spend the day researching and writing my dissertation. And, in fact, as of the end of May, I no longer had a "day job," so my schedule was even more flexible. Over the summer I often found myself on the trail (Isn't it sort of sad to speak of the Summer in past tense?), and off the trail, taking many detours through the woods. I ride one of these (don't pay any attention to the price, as I bought mine very used), which are most definitely intended for rough terrain. Riding is, by far, my favorite form of exercise. Mountain Biking would be my second or third choice of impossible dream-full-time-jobs, after playing the organ, and possibly cooking.

Where's your foot?

9 Sept 11
09:30

Yes, those are wood shavings; Poplar, to be exact. Liriodendron tulipifera, to be more exact. And that is also the base of a drill press. Because at 09:30 on a Friday I was at work; building pipe organs, to be exact. I won't be more exact about where, just yet, as we are in a temporary-to-permanent, try-each-other-out sort of arrangement at present. Your prayers in this area are most definitely welcome.

In case you didn't know already, I am a direct descendent of four generations of pipe organ builders:

Johan Jacob Dieffenbach (1744-1803)
Christian Dieffenbach (1769-1829)
David Dieffenbach (1798-1872)
Thomas Dieffenbach (1821-1900) - this one is actually my great, great, great uncle, so it would, perhaps, be more accurate to say I'm a direct descendent of three generations of pipe organ builders. Oh, well, you can't have everything.

I'll post some more about that some other time, but for now, at least you know where my foot was.

a

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Get Aways

We'd hoped to take a proper vacation this summer to visit a dear friend. But we've had to postpone that until a later date.  So we took 2 quick day trips this week to help us remember
to breath again in the midst of some crazy writing and dissertation deadlines.  They were lovely pressure free days with beautiful weather after the hurricane.
We went to Glen Onoko Falls in Jim Thorpe Pa where
the falls were amazing

The sun through the trees 

What is is about the sound of water that sooths a tired soul?

To end the day we went to Beltsville State Park, which has a lovely beach

Two days later we headed to Long Beach Island New Jersey to hear the ocean
and see what the beach was like after Irene- it was perfect

Then we went to the Edwin B Forsyth Wildlife Preserve: Bird Sanctuary

There were herons, ibis, egrets, gulls

We couldn't find C.S. Lewis's Marshwiggles, but maybe next time.