Miscellaneous

Bric-a-brac

Photograph taken on Tuesday, July 03, 2018 by Henry
Bric-a-brac

Bric-a-brac

I didn’t have anything in particular to take a picture of today and didn’t get outside much, so I took this picture in our dining room. We’ve been moving things from both my mom’s house and Cathy’s mom’s house and adding things to what we already had. The photo in the center of this is a Winter & Pond photo titled “Lights o’ Juneau” On the left, the blue bowl filled with Easter Eggs is from Istalif, Iran. There are two sets of matryoshka or nesting dolls, one traditional (in the back and on the right) and one modern with (from largest to smallest) Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Leonid Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (otherwise know as Lenin).

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Garden Sculpture

Photograph taken on Friday, June 29, 2018 by Henry
Garden Sculpture

Garden Sculpture

About the time I got to work this morning I got a text from one person and an email from another asking if I had anything to do with the appearance of this little garden statue next to our parking lot. The text message was particularly cryptic, although I suppose if I had been responsible, I’d have known what it was about. As it happens, I had nothing to do with it. Later in the day, two other people asked me if I put it there. I think it’s a little funny that so many people think this is the sort of thing I’d do. Maybe it is, but not this time. One said, “well, okay, I’ll believe you, but I know you’re responsible for the geckos.” I have no idea what that’s about and didn’t even know about the wire geckos that someone has put in trees around the parking lot. But apparently I have a reputation, mostly undeserved.

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Edison Phonograph Records

Photograph taken on Monday, June 25, 2018 by Henry
Edison Phonograph Records

Edison Phonograph Records

Among the things brought out of Cathy’s mom’s house were a box of Edison Phonograph cylinder records. There was also a record player. David took that but couldn’t get these into the car, so they will stay here until next time. The two cases shown here are slightly different from one another. On the left is one that says Edison Gold Moulded Record and on the right, simply Edison Record. I would normally assume that the Gold Moulded one is newer than the plainer one, but the dates on them (which are 1906 and 1908 respectively) don’t support that. The disks inside almost certainly don’t match the sleeves. The disks in them, which may or may not be those originally in these sleeves, are Rock of Ages, by the Edison Dixie Quartet and Kitty O’Neill Medley of Reels (violin).

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Steiff Baboon Coco

Photograph taken on Friday, June 22, 2018 by Henry
Steiff Baboon Coco

Steiff Baboon Coco

This little baboon is named Coco and he was made by Steiff. This is not to be confused with Koko, a current Steiff product. Koko with two Ks is a chimpanzee. Coco with two Cs is a baboon. This little fellow is a little the worse for wear, as he put up with quite a lot of play in his day. As you can see, he is vision impaired, with his left eye completely missing and his left literally hanging by a thread. His hand are also worn through in places. But he’s such a cute little fellow and I remember him well from the good old days.

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Top. Men.

Photograph taken on Monday, June 18, 2018 by Henry
Maggie and David in Basement Storeroom

Maggie and David in Basement Storeroom

You can easily collect a lot of things if you live in the same place for 50 years. If you also inherit things from your parents as well, it can really add up. Then, if you have enough space to store it all, its easy to leave it alone. But, as they say, nothing that cannot go on forever will. At some point, there is a reckoning. That day has arrived (that week, or month, or six-month, or year, actually). David and Maggie are here and David has been doing yeoman’s work on the store room in his parents’ house, pulling out bins, trunks, and barrels that have not seen the light of day for many a year. The contents of some were in good condition while others had been infiltrated by visitors and mostly or wholly destroyed.

The title of this post alludes to the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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A Fine Summer’s Day

Photograph taken on Thursday, June 14, 2018 by Henry
A Fine Summer's Day

A Fine Summer’s Day

I was across campus to have lunch with a few people today and then went for a short walk in the woods next to my office. I took some pictures of tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) leaves and then crossed the creek and went up to the more open part of the property. There were some areas that were still quite wet from the recent rains we’ve had. The ground around here is predominately heavy clay and water doesn’t percolate very quickly into it, particularly once it is waterlogged. This is a drainage catch basin and later in the summer it will likely be completely dry. For now, though, it’s a haven for birds and dragonflies and a small oasis in an otherwise built-up (although suburban) area.

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Oenothera speciosa (Pink Evening Primrose)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 by Henry
Oenothera speciosa (Pink Evening Primrose)

Oenothera speciosa (Pink Evening Primrose)

The evening primroses (Oenothera speciosa) are in bloom and they are quite lovely. They have spread through the garden but I wouldn’t call them an aggressive species, we don’t mind. We can easily pull them up if they show up where they aren’t wanted and generally, our garden isn’t so well organized that it matters. They are native to the southern half of the contiguous United States. They make a nice addition to any garden, blooming in the evening, their airy, pink blossoms particularly lovely in the dusk.

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Loyal Order of Moose

Photograph taken on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 by Henry
Loyal Order of Moose

Loyal Order of Moose

My great grandfather was a member of the Loyal Order of Moose, a fraternal order founded in 1888 and still in existence to this day. It’s not really my cup of tea but he was a politician and public figure and I suspect being a member of this sort of thing was a career move for him. This medal is from the 36th Annual Moose Convention, apparently held in New York from July 27 to 31, 1924, based on what it says on the medal itself. He died in 1925 so it’s likely this was the last big Moose event he attended. We have another medal that says “Past Dictator” on the top and on the back says he was in that position from 1913 to 1915, at Lodge Number 259 in Salt Lake City. He was not, to the best of our knowledge, a Mormon. In any case, his daughter married my grandfather (and coincidentally is my grandmother). I have some other memorabilia from my great grandfather (Albert) and perhaps I’ll share some of that in the future on a day like today when I didn’t get out to take any pictures.

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Asiatic Lily

Photograph taken on Monday, June 11, 2018 by Henry
Asiatic Lily

Asiatic Lily

The Asiatic lilies are in bloom around the yard. This one is in a container on the back patio but there are a bunch in the front garden, as well. We worry about them being eaten by rabbits or deer but this time of year, fortunately, there is a lot for them to eat and that means less chance of them finding these. We have a lot of rabbits this year. I’ve seen as many as four at once in our front or back yard. The seem to mostly be eating clover, though, and we have plenty of that to go around.

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Stained Glass

Photograph taken on Monday, June 04, 2018 by Henry
Stained Glass

Stained Glass

As mentioned in Saturday’s post (the Emergency and Trauma photo), mom was in the hospital for a few days. She was sent home on Monday evening and after doing a little shopping, I made dinner (shrimp and grits and if I say so myself, it was really good). Then, sitting in the living room, I enjoyed the light shining through two stained glass pieces, one flat hanging (shown here) and a reproduction of a Tiffany lamp with dragonflies.

I love the color of pretty much anything with sunlight shining through it. Stained glass is sort of a natural and I’m a big fan. I also like leaves and flowers backlit by sunlight. They are quite difficult to capture on “film”, partly because of the huge dynamic range required. The brightness of sunlight is just too much for film or digital sensor. If you adjust so that it isn’t washed out, then the shadows go too dark. Nevertheless, it’s worth trying and once in a while I get something worth using.

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Glass Duck

Photograph taken on Sunday, June 03, 2018 by Henry
Glass Duck

Glass Duck

As you may know, we’re going though things at Cathy’s mom’s house. There have been many “treasures” found and one of Cathy’s favorites was a box filled with little glass animals. They belonged to her dad and she had never seen them before. Presumably they were packed up when the family moved to Afghanistan long before Cathy was born. They must have stayed packed up when they returned and so they were a real surprise. Happily they were all in really good shape, that box never got crushed by other boxes, or anything. This little duck is one of them. I may post more pictures in the future, if I have a day when it’s getting late and I haven’t taken any photos yet.

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Emergency and Trauma

Photograph taken on Saturday, June 02, 2018 by Henry
Emergency and Trauma

Emergency and Trauma

I’m posting this six days late because it’s been that sort of week. This morning I helped someone move and then the day got a bit crazy. We took mom to the hospital and spent most of the day in the ER, waiting to find out what would happen. In the end they admitted her and (I can say now because it’s six days later) she stayed there until late Monday afternoon. At about 11:00 I realized that if I didn’t take any pictures at the hospital, I wouldn’t get any pictures today. That’s always a bit awkward, because who wants their picture taken at the hospital. I took a few of things in the ER room but then, when I was leaving, at five minutes before midnight, I took a few out front, including this one. I think Emergency and Trauma would be good names for a pair of dogs.

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Reflections on Self-Storage

Photograph taken on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 by Henry
Reflections on Self-Storage

Reflections on Self-Storage

I’m not really going to reflect on self-storage but this picture is reflections and it was taken at the self-storage facility where we have a unit. I was in a meeting across campus today and when I was walking back to my building there was lightning flashing and booms of thunder all around. Most of them were about two miles away but nearing quickly. When I got to the door of my building there was a flash followed almost immediately by the thunder and before I was upstairs in my office, it was coming down in sheets. By the time I left work it had stopped raining but, as you can see in this picture, the water was still draining from the pavement outside our storage unit.

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The Reporter

Photograph taken on Sunday, May 20, 2018 by Henry
Mom's Stairs

Mom’s Stairs

Back when I was very young my parents papered the wall on one side of the stair well in their house with covers from “The Reporter” magazine. It’s a very tricky thing to photograph because the stair well is pretty narrow and the wall covers a lot of space. From the top of the stairs I was able to get a few pictures that sort of do it justice. At least if you’ve seen it in person, perhaps this will remind you of it. There’s one cover that shows up four places. We’re pretty sure there is another duplicate but we couldn’t remember where and couldn’t find it. It’s faded considerably in over 55 years, especially towards the top where the afternoon sun shines on it. But it’s held up pretty well, all things considered.

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Self Storage

Photograph taken on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 by Henry
Self Storage

Self Storage

As I think I’ve mentioned, we’re going through my mother-in-law’s house and trying to get things out so we can get it ready to go on the market. We’ve gotten rid of things and we’ve brought a lot to our house (possibly too much for the short term) to go through a little more carefully. We’ve also decided that there are things that will take too long if we deal with them now so we’ve rented a storage unit for things we know we’re going to need to go through and which are going to take a while. The largest collection in this class are pictures. If you knew my father-in-law, you may have some inkling of how many pictures there are. Let’s just say, there are more than a few slide carousels. And that’s just the start. Anyway, this is the hall at the storage facility.

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Cathy’s Doll House

Photograph taken on Thursday, May 03, 2018 by Henry
Cathy's Doll House

Cathy’s Doll House

We’ve been working on emptying out Cathy’s mom’s house and it’s a reasonably big job. They bought the house fifty years ago, so there are naturally a few things scattered about. The four ground floor bedrooms are mostly done (it’s a rambler but with a large basement). A few weeks ago we moved on to working on things in the basement. Between Cathy, our friend Julia, and me, we’ve made some good progress. Last night, two of Cathy’s nieces came and today they helped us make even more. Maggie and Laura are fun, of course, but this was no pleasure cruise. There were boxes to carry and papers to go through. And go through them we did. It was quite warm today, reaching nearly 90°F. Fortunately we were working mostly in the carport and there was a little breeze, so we weren’t too uncomfortable.

Cathy decided that her old doll house had served its purpose and it was time that it be recycled. It’s made entirely of cardboard, so that works out well. She wanted one last picture of it before it went into the van, though.

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‘Dragonflies’ Quilt by Dot

Photograph taken on Monday, April 30, 2018 by Henry
'Dragonflies' Quilt by Dot

‘Dragonflies’ Quilt by Dot

We had dinner at mom’s this evening. My cousin Becky and her boyfriend were there, as well, having come up for Jason’s wedding on Saturday. I took a bunch of pictures in the yard. The camellias are finishing up and the azaleas are just starting. I also took some pictures of Kai. But the picture for today is this quilt that my mom just made. It’s a pretty elaborate thing, with each segment on each wing being a separate piece of fabric. I also think the fabric she chose for the background is terrific, really showing off the dragonflies to good effect.

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Pukeberg Bookend Vase

Photograph taken on Tuesday, April 24, 2018 by Henry
Pukeberg Bookend Vase

Pukeberg Bookend Vase

This was, apparently, half of a pair of bookend vases, produced by Pukeberg, probably in the middle of the 20th century. Pukeberg was founded in 1871. In the 1930s, Pukeberg began producing decorative glass. We don’t really know a lot about it beyond that. We found a pair listed on eBay for $89, so they aren’t terribly valuable. I wanted to show off the various colors of the glass. In everyday room light it is basically amber colored. But I’ve shone a light through the glass and you can see reds at the bottom and greens towards the top. I think a more complicated light set up would do better but this was done with a flashlight sitting behind it and a flash bounced off the ceiling.

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Lake Frank and Clouds

Photograph taken on Thursday, April 19, 2018 by Henry
Lake Frank and Clouds

Lake Frank and Clouds

I stopped at the Avery Road parking lot above Lake Frank on the way home today. It was a beautiful, cool afternoon with—as you can see—billowy white clouds. This was taken with the sun at my back, looking northeast over the lake. I took a few the other direction, as well. This would be a good spot for sunset pictures, although it’s not somewhere you can just drive up to. It’s a few minutes walk down from the parking area. Still, if I am on my way home and there’s a good sunset coming on, it might be worth a try to get here in time. Of course, sunsets around the time I’m coming home are mostly a winter thing.

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Rock Creek After a Rain

Photograph taken on Monday, April 16, 2018 by Henry
Rock Creek After a Rain

Rock Creek After a Rain

It rained quite hard over night and into this morning. When I got to work, the drainage pond next to my building was full to the overflow. It was a busy day, though, and I wasn’t able to get out and take any pictures. On the way home I stopped and walked a little by Rock Creek. It wasn’t as high as it would have been this morning but still quite swollen. Also, this is just downstream from Lakes Needwood and Frank, which act as a flow limiter to the stream below them. The stream, seen hear over a fallen tree, is usually about three feet lower than this, though, so it’s still quite high (for a little stream).

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Another Daffodil

Photograph taken on Friday, April 13, 2018 by Henry
Another Daffodil

Another Daffodil

The is the other of my unknown daffodil varieties. Like the one pictured three days ago, these bulbs were given to me by a friend and I didn’t make note of the variety name. They were planted in the fall of 2006 and are doing quite well. This particular variety, unfortunately, has a bad habit of not always opening. Also, when they do, as they mostly did this year, if it rains the flowers are too heavy for the stalks and they all droop. But when they are open and upright, they are quite nice. I was happy we got to enjoy them at their best this year.

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Pizors

Photograph taken on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 by Henry
Pizors

Pizors

These shoes are called pizors. Searching for pictures online, I found them spelled paizar, and since this is a transliteration, it’s not surprising that there would be some variation. In any case, I haven’t found any pictures online of any as nice as these. They are from Afghanistan in the 1950s, bought by Cathy’s parents in Kabul. As you can see, they are quite sturdy looking, made of very stiff leather and with nails in the soles so they are pretty tough. They happen to be way too small for my extra wide feet and I’m not sure they would be all that comfortable in any case. The flash used when taking this picture shows the sewn decoration quite well.

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Nursery Rhyme Sticker

Photograph taken on Thursday, March 22, 2018 by Henry
Nursery Rhyme Sticker

Nursery Rhyme Sticker

Going through more things from Cathy’s mom’s house, Cathy came across a bunch of old stickers illustrating various nursery rhymes. They were printed on foil, making them bright and shiny (and a little more difficult to photograph). Some of them had words printed on them, which made it that much easier to identify the associated rhyme. There was Jack and Jill, Little Jack Horner, and Jack be Nimble, among others (hmm, just notice those are all about Jacks). This one, though, I don’t recognize. It looks like it’s raining under this poor lad’s umbrella. He and his dog don’t seem particularly pleased. Do you know what rhyme this comes from? I’d love to know.

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Spring Snow

Photograph taken on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 by Henry
Spring Snow

Spring Snow

Snow in March isn’t that unusual here. Of course, if you listen to the radio this week you might not get that impression. I heard a report that breathlessly told us how long its been since we had a snow like this was forecast to be this late in the year. Well, that’s possible, I suppose. A couple problems. Most importantly, the actual snowfall didn’t live up to the hype. We got maybe four inches of very wet snow. I remember a snowfall on March 18 not that long ago that was two or three times worse. But it’s March 21, which is, as I’m sure you can figure out, later in the year than March 18. Not by a lot, though. Anyway, as usual, much ado about not much. Quite pretty, actually.

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Fire

Photograph taken on Sunday, March 11, 2018 by Henry
Fire

Fire

After church today, Dorothy and her friends went downtown to visit another friend who is working on Capital Hill this semester and who also has a part time job at a book show near Eastern Market. They visited some other friends on the way home. I fixed a surf and turf for dinner—flank steak and salmon—and then started a fire going in our fire pit. Most of the kids stayed inside but Dorothy came out and chatted with me for a white. I had my camera and took quite a few pictures of the fire as we talked. I like the pale blue, plasma-like flames in this picture.

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Matryoshka Doll Set

Photograph taken on Thursday, March 08, 2018 by Henry
Matryoshka Doll Set

Matryoshka Doll Set

This set of ten matryoshka dolls is another find from my mother-in-law’s house. Matryoshka dolls were first made in the late 19th century. This set is different in both shape and painted design from any set i’ve seen (although to be honest, I haven’t seen a huge number). Typically, except when depicting actually individuals, the outermost doll is female.

This set of ten nesting dolls range in size from about four inchest for the largest, outermost figure to about five-sixteenths of an inch for the smallest.

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Small Change

Photograph taken on Saturday, February 24, 2018 by Henry
Small Change

Small Change

As we’ve been going through things at Cathy’s parents’ house, there has been, as there would in any house lived in for 50 years, an accumulation of things that don’t need to be kept. Some of them are just trash that got mixed in with other things. Some are things that were once important but the importance has worn off or the timeliness has passed. There are, of course, things of value, either sentimental value or intrinsic monetary value. And, of course, there are curiosities. David found two little slide mount size holders with sets of miniature US coins. Shown here with a regular quarter and penny for scale are (clockwise from center top), Kennedy half dollar, Jefferson nickel, Roosevelt dime, Eisenhower dollar, Lincoln penny, and Washington quarter.

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Azurite and Malachite

Photograph taken on Thursday, February 22, 2018 by Henry
Azurite and Malachite

Azurite and Malachite

The other day I posted a photo of a small souvenir from Republic, Michigan, where some of Cathy’s ancestors lived and at least one was involved in iron mining before moving to Alaska to mine gold. Well, my family has a little mining history, as well. My great grandfather came from England with his parents and at least some of his siblings. They lived in Canada for a while and he was in the military there during the United States Civil War. In the early 1970s he moved to Nevada where he mined for copper and silver. This is a piece of copper ore including both blue azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2) and green malachite (Cu2CO3(OH)2). It’s a small piece found in the area he lived and worked and I think it’s sort of pretty. This piece is wet, which contributes to its shininess.

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Weights

Photograph taken on Monday, February 19, 2018 by Henry
Weights

Weights

I have an old balance that I’ve used through the years for two different things. Back in the days of film, I used to measure out chemicals for the darkroom on it. I also used it for measuring ingredients for ceramic glazes in my pottery days (or daze). I haven’t used it in a while but you never know. Along with the balance, I have a set of weights in various sizes. These range from 500 grams for the largest down to 2 grams for the little one in front. There are a few weights missing from the set, including the smallest (1 gram) weight. Because the balance has a built in rail, however, I can pretty much fill the gaps, weighing anything up to about 850 grams with a pretty high degree of accuracy.

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Souvenir from Republic, Michigan

Photograph taken on Friday, February 16, 2018 by Henry
Souvenir from Republic, Michigan

Souvenir from Republic, Michigan

Cathy’s great grandfather (Grant) was born in eastern Pennsylvania during the Civil War. He grew up in the coal mining regions of Pennsylvania before moving to Republic, Michigan late in the 19th century. He and his wife and children lived there and he was employed in the iron mines. Shortly before the turn of the century, Grant left Michigan for Alaska, where he worked at the Alaska Mexican Mine in Treadwell. This was his third mining phase, having mined coal in Pennsylvania, iron in Michigan, and now gold in Alaska. This small pitcher is a souvenir from Republic, Michigan and was given to Cathy by her aunt.

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