~ vintage photo Saturday...

I missed last week's vintage photo day -- so for this week, I printed a group of vintage photos -- and then took a photo of them to share with you!




I never met any of these people.  I pretty much didn't know some of these people even existed until a couple of months ago!  After many, many years of searching on the internet for my family history I found a living relative in Asti, Italy.  Actually, she found me!  :-)  These are some of the photos of family members that she has shared with me.

Top of photo (left to right):  great-great grandmother Carolina Rissone, family photo, family photo, great uncle Marcello (young/old).

Bottom of photo (left to right):  great aunt Adele, great uncle Giouseppe, great uncle Ernesto, great uncle Alberto, great aunt Ida.

All of the aunts and uncles are sisters and brothers of my great grandfather, John Audenino.

Unfortunately, the three brothers who immigrated to the USA are not shown in the photo (great grandfather John, great uncle Francesco, great uncle Paolo).  Hopefully at some point I will also have photos of them.  I would also love to have a photo of great great grandfather Luigi -- maybe if I dig a bit more he'll show up too! :-)

~ sunflower update...

Upon inspection of the sunflower, the travelocity gnome notices some unusual activity...



...he's off to get the bug spray!

~ goodbye elementary school...

...way back then

~ supporting hugs from big brother...



~ on the bus...



...and now

~ all grown up...



~ with big brother by her side...



~ on to new adventures!

~ graduation day morning...

...the graduate is not feeling well :-(




The morning ceremony started at 9:30 a.m.  She'll be missing that one.  Please think some good thoughts and  send them Sofia's way -- hopefully she will be able to attend tonight's 7:00 p.m. ceremony.

~ on my sewing table today...

It is such a rainy day here today, so I have been busy in the sewing room instead of the garden.  I am designing a new dress pattern for my blythe dolls.  Even though they are much smaller in size than the projects I have worked on for Sofia -- the designing process is still quite consuming -- but enjoyable :-)




Tomorrow is Sofia's 6th grade graduation ceremony.  It will probably be a hectic day, so I am really appreciating the quiet time today.

~ time for a sunflower update...

It's been 12 days since the last photo {click here}...




Good thing Mr. Gnome can stand in the shade today -- Sofia swiped the sunscreen and took it with her to the 6th grade graduation pool party -- and hopefully she is using it!

~ happy father's day...

...a belated "vintage photo saturday" post :-)

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I would think that the few people who read my blog would recognize who's in this photo.  But, just in case you don't -- from left to right:  ~ moi ~... my father (Larry) holding my sister Lovey... my sister Lauren.  Photo was taken in front of the garage at 26 Hatfield Place.  The "cool" car is a Mercury -- and it has fins but you can't see in them in the photo :-(

Looks like the 4 "L's" are enjoying some time together on an early spring day in 1969!

~ and...after the rain...

...there's a rainbow...or two! :-)

Photos taken during a lull in this evening's thunderstorms.

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You can click on all of the photos to view them in larger format in my flickr stream :-)

ETA:  I have just learned that in a double rainbow, the upper rainbow has the colors reversed from the lower rainbow!

~ the calm before the storm...

We're having such a beautiful evening here that I can't imagine the horrible weather that is forecasted for tomorrow. Heavy rains and wind with possible derechoes.



Derechoes are large clusters of thunderstorms that produce widespread wind damage, usually as a result of one or more curved lines of thunderstorms known as bow echoes. The word in the Spanish language means "straight" and these windstorms leave wide, long swaths of straight-line wind damage. These winds can be as strong as 50 to 100 mph (or higher)!

We have secured the hanging plants, figurines, etc. on the front porch and also the patio furniture in the backyard.  While we were doing this, I mentioned to Rick that I hope tomorrow night I'm putting everything back in it's rightful place and saying...that could have been alot worse...

I'm posting tonight, for tomorrow -- just in case we lose power.

Stay safe!

~ the last one...

Yesterday morning, I had a chance to spend some time in the garden.  At this point in the season, my work in the garden is limited to maintenance only.  The focus was removing the spent iris flowers.  I was almost finished when I saw this lovely little springtime late bloomer gazing up at me...




...only nine more days until summer is officially here :-)

~ she who hesitates...

...wakes up to a morning mess on the front porch :-(  Last night I went out on the front porch and moved my figurines to a "safe" area -- just in case we had some storms during the night.  As I closed the front door, the last thing I noticed was this plant, but I thought "nahhhh..."



Guess I better go clean that up...



...before the thunderstorms arrive today!

vintage photo Saturday...

Easter 1968...




Photo of some lovely ladies wearing their holiday best.  From left to right:  My grandmother, Aunt Ida, Nonna, and, Mother.  Small boy in background is my Uncle Charlie.  Nonna is wearing a casual sweater over her favorite holiday dress because she was the holiday hostess -- and busy cooking -- and they probably had to practically carry her out of the house to be in the photo.  They are standing in front of Nonna's house.  She was quite independent and lived there, on her own, well into her 90's!

~ a little helper...

The travelocity gnome has a bit more time than I do -- so he volunteered to watch the seedlings today while I tend to other (more important) chores.




The UV index is a 10 today -- I hope he is wearing sunscreen!



P.S.  Can you see how much this sunflower seedling grew since my post yesterday???  :-)

~ sunflower update...

12 days since the last photo {click here}...





And in the photo below, you can see the progress of all three we planted under the kitchen windows.  I am tracking the progress of the one on the left -- closest to the hosta.  In past years, the plant in that spot grows the tallest.  Let's see what happens this year.



Also, in the photo above, the plants in the foreground are a small hosta and a carnation. (I didn't want you to think they were weeds ;-)  They are both in pots right now.  The hosta is from a single sprout taken from the 26 Hatfield grouping.  The carnation is a transplant from Baldwin.  There are more sunflower seedlings popping up around the yard -- I will take photos of those when they take on their individual personalities  :-)

I'm off to the enjoy the gorgeous weather outside...

~ vintage photo Saturday...

Photo of my father, wearing his summertime loafers.  He only wore them after he had finished working for the day and bathed -- and then he put on some Old Spice cologne...  My grandmother is sitting on his knee -- and even though she looks a bit serious in this photo, she probably giggled after it was taken. :-)




You can click on the photo to take you over to my flickr stream where you can learn a little bit more about it.

This hot and humid close enough to summertime weather puts me in a vintagey mood.  You know, the kind of mood where you want to sit outside on the porch, drink a cool glass of lemonade, and have a light hearted chat with someone...

I'm off to do just that :-)