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Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 303

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Sepia Saturday edition 303 featured a prompt image of a Halloween greeting card.  Since today is Halloween and Sepia Saturday, I  might as well combine them both and post images of ghouls from the collection of family photos!  These come from the collection of Romayne Louella Greenaway (30 May 1936 – 7 Jan 2014).  They were negatives, and an old size of negative that wouldn’t fit in my negative scanner.  Fortunately, they were flat enough that I was able to lay them on a light box and use my DSLR to photograph them, invert the image, and there they are!  Romayne was my grandmother (step-grandmother if we’re getting technical, but she married my grandfather long before I was born so she was always grandma).  I believe that’s here in the right image with the crazy mask, but it’s hard to tell!  The other images in the series show four children, three of whom are Romayne and her two siblings, but everyone has a mask on, so I can’t be certain who the extra child is or even which child is in which costume.  In the left  image, again, I can’t be sure who that is, but I love it too much to not include it for the theme as well.  It’s a fairly simple costume – big bows on her hair and ankles, long  coat, and a mask!  If I had to guess, I’d say these were taken right around 1950.  The others in the set of negatives show Romayne, and she looks to be about 12 or 13 which is how I ended up at that date estimate.

Even though I’m not at a trick-or-treating age anymore, I’m still treating myself to zombie movies and a Halloween themed cupcake this evening and hope you all are enjoying a little treat for yourselves today too!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 302

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The final catch-up post, I swear!  This is last week’s Sepia Saturday featuring a woman playing a harp.  I have no such similar image in my collection of family photos, but I do have plenty of other musicians including the guy in the photo above, Jaap Rop.  These photos are all labelled, two listing “Jaap” and one listing “Jake” which is a common Americanized form of the Dutch name Jaap.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of details about Jaap other than that he’s the son of Willemina Dijkema (the husband’s grandmother’s sister) and Derk Rop.  Another person on Ancestry lists him as having died in either 2006 or 2007, and I assume he was born somewhere in the mid 1930s.  All the photos above look like they were taken in the mid 1950s.

Top photo: This one is taken with his cousin, Henk (Hendrik) Dijkema who was named for his grandfather.

Middle photo: The back reads, “Van de zomer bij ons in de bleek,” which translates to, “Summer with us in the pale,” which I think might be phrasing for, “in the flesh,” but I’m not a fluent Dutch speaker so I’m really guessing!  It’s a really nice looking foot-pump organ though, but I have to wonder what it’s doing outside.

Bottom photo: Jaap Rop and his accordion.  It looks to be a different and smaller accordion  than the one in the top photo.

If you happen to be related to the Rop family and can add more detail, please contact me!

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 301

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Still catching up on Sepia Saturday posts now that I’m shedding vacation-brain and am settling back into the swing of things.  This edition featured a photo of children all looking to the left, so I’m just going with the general theme of children.  Since Sepia Saturday is officially going themeless, I thought it might be a good chance to take some identified photos and publish the genealogy data I have for those individuals since it may help someone else down the line.  In the above photo, Doroth Powis is seated on the right, and the back of the photo reads, “Dorothy + a couple neighbors.”  Dorothy, also called Dot, was the daughter of Harry Oscar Frederick “Fritz” Powis and Laura Johnson.  She was born 27 December 1926 in Beccaria, PA and died 12 October 2013 in Tonawanda, NY.  There are dozens of photos of her as a baby,  so my great-grandmother Olga must’ve adored her quite a bit.  Fritz and Laura divorced in 1936, and Dorothy shows up on th 1940 census living with her mother in Beccaria, PA where Laura was working as a seamstress.  Laura married Clair J Harber in 1942 and lived to the old age of 101, passing away 25 Jun 2006.

Dorothy married Samuel Berger and adopted two girls, living the last 58 years of her life in Tonawanda, New York.  I never had the chance to meet her, but seeing her smiling face in all the photos from my great grandmother’s collection makes me feel like I knew her a little better than the average stranger.  Dorothy is my 1st cousin 2x removed, so she would’ve been a direct first cousin to my grandfather.  As for the other kids in the photo, I have no clue who they were, but probably lived somewhere in Beccaria, PA.

 

Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday 300

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I’m catching up on Sepia Saturday after having been on vacation, so bear with me!  No theme this week which means it’s time to celebrate with something completely different! Usually the prompts for Sepia Saturday are informal, candid style photos, so I’m going with a more posed, formal photo with a very exact date this time.  The handwriting is pretty clear, but the back of the photo reads

Eula F. Patrick’s Birthday Party
July 10th 1891
8 years old

Eula F Patrick was born Eula Frances Patrick on 10 July 1883.  I haven’t been able to find out much about her mother – the only record I could find in my haste was a census from 1910 that says her mother was born in Massachusetts.  Her father was John C Patrick (6 Jul 1848 – 25 Dec 1918) who was a travelling photographer with a base in Coalport, Pennsylvania, but he lived primarily in South Carolina.  My family definitely utilized his photographic services over the years, and he apparently shared a photo of Eula’s 10th birthday with my great-great grandmother.  John was also from England which may be why my great-great grandparents, also from England, patronized his services over other local photographers.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find out much else about the Patrick Family.  Eula married Julius Sinclair Burch, and John’s death certificate lists his mother’s surname as Hardesty.

In the photo above, I have no idea which child is Eula!  The majority seem to be girls with one boy sitting in the front.  In the back, there’s a child with a shaved head, but it’ shard to tell if the child is a boy or a girl based on clothing alone.  I don’t think any of my great grandmother’s siblings are in the photo.  My great great grandmother Jessie Battin married Alfred Powis on 19 Feb 1891, so it’s possible they became fast friends after having gotten to know eachother when John Patrick took their wedding photo.  Now that I look at the two photos together, the background is the exact same background between the wedding photo and the birthday photo, so it’s possible Jessie and Alfred attended the party as adult guests!  I can’t find any hard evidence to support that, but it would make sense given that they have a photo of the children at the party.

And with that wrapping up a birthday photo, I wish a very happy 300th birthday of sorts to Sepia Saturday!  300 prompts old and still going.

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 22

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Husband is at it again for this installment of One Local Summer.  It was more like a One Local Fall sort of day – gloomy and rainy – so soup it is!  The soup is a chunky potato leek soup since we happened to have all those things on hand and husband is truly the soup master.  He somehow manages to make everything work well together in one pot whereas I tend to make disasters that skirt the line  between edible and fodder for the garbage disposal.  We used up the last of the pretzel rolls from the freezer and paired the roll with some mustard seed gouda made from local milk.  Top the whole meal off with a glass of cool cider and we have a filling and warm dinner for an icky day.  This may be the last of the meals for 2015 seeing as there was a vacation happening during the time the last three OLS posts went up, but fear not, we’ll be back next year!

Ingredients:
Flour Mill at Anselma
Egg Deep Roots Valley Farm
Butter Spring Creek Farms
Honey Baues Busy Bees
Cider –  North Star Orchard
Leeks –  North Star Orchard
Onions – Clover Hill Farm
Potatoes –  North Star Orchard
Garlic –  North Star Orchard
Cilantro – My garden
Milk –  Birchrun Hills  for homemade cheese
Whey – frozen from cheesemaking using  Birchrun Hills  milk
Non Local – mustard seeds, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 21

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Husband has returned home and cooked up this classic summer meal – a pulled pork sandwich.  A good part of this one was a long time in the making.  The sauerkraut was made months ago, fermented from fresh cabbage in a huge stoneware crock.  The pickles were started a month ago and came out as terrific sour pickles.  The buns were made last year and pulled from the freezer.  The cider in the glass was also made last year and was just kegged and ready to drink this past month.  The only thing new on the plate is the pulled pork which cooked up in the crock pot all day with some cider, peppers, onion, vinegar, and tomatoes, and came out DELICIOUS.

Ingredients:
Cabbage –  Jack’s Farm
Pork Butt –  Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – My Garden
Peppers – Steer Vegetables
Tomatoes – My Garden
Onion –  Clover Hill Farm
Cider – Fermented from apples picked at my grandparents’
Buns:
Flour Mill at Anselma
Egg Deep Roots Valley Farm
Butter Spring Creek Farms
Honey Baues Busy Bees
Non Local – Salt, pepper, spices, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 20

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Winding down to the end of One Local Summer with just a few weeks left of our set.  Usually we drag this out through November, but we’re taking a break and wrapping it up soon.  At the top of the meal, we have a bowl filled with all sorts of tomatoes, drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and topped with basil.  Next around is a mug of homebrewed beer.  The on the main plate is zucchini, sweet potatoes, lamb sausage, and banana peppers stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bison bacon.  This meal involved a good bit of prep work, but once everything was cut and wrapped and ready, it all went onto the grill (except the tomatoes).  Pretty easy!  The lamb sausage was absolutely delicious and I’m glad I sprung for it at the market.  The whole thing together made for a great dinner.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes – My Garden,  Full Circle CSA
Basil – My Garden
Zucchini –  Full Circle CSA
Sweet Potatoes –  Jack’s Farm
Lamb Sausage – Canter Hill Farm
Banana Peppers – Steer Vegetables
Bison Bacon –  Backyard Bison
Cheese –  Birchrun Hills, Blue Cheese
Non Local – Balsamic Vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper

Subscription Boxes

Kloverbox September 2015

 

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Well, Kloverbox knocked it out of the park with this one!  Super happy with this box since it’s a good mix of products and physical goods (that bag!!) which is exactly what I was looking for with this box.  As the product card says, it is indeed a September to remember.

  • Posh Skincare Bergamot Facial Oil – 1 oz / $20 – (Product is full size)  All my favorite oils in one little bottle.  I’ve really come to love the oil cleansing method so this is another great oil to use for cleaning my face.  The scent was a little off-putting at first, but it’s grown on me and isn’t too strong that even if I didn’t love it, it’s not a bother.
  • One Love Organics Skin Savior – 1.8 oz / $49 – (Product is full size) Like the product card says, a little really does go a long way and it melts with the heat of your skin  into a great oil that moisturizes really well.  The scent is incredible too – it’s somewhat vanilla and citrusy, but again without being too overwhelming.  It’s a sweet, warm, light scent.  Really love this!
  • Paddywax Soy Candle – 2 oz / $5 – (Product is travel size, full value) If someone could make a candle tailor made to fit me, this would probably be it.  I LOVE the warm, woodsy sort of smell this has and it will be wonderful for the house now that fall has been steadily creeping up on us.  I actually like the smaller tins too so that you can try out scents before committing to the full sized candle.
  • Baggu – Baby Baggu / $7.00 – (Product is full size)  This may sound silly, but I think this is my favorite thing in the box!  I love the print and  that it folds up neatly into its own little wallet.  Now I really have no excuse to ever use a plastic bag again.  We’re big on those canvas bags for grocery shopping, but sometimes I forget to bring one for a quick stop into a drug store or something, but having this tucked in my bag will keep me from wasting a plastic bag.  Plus, that print is adorable – wee little elephants on a green background.

Overall the value comes to $81 which is PHENOMENAL.  Arguably the highest value for this box or any box I’ve ever seen.  What’s more is that I’ll use every single item in this box till they’re empty and can’t be happier with the contents.  On top of all that, three of the items came with coupon codes this month which makes the value even higher if you plan to purchase from the companies offering discounts.  Can’t wait to see what you come up with next month, Kloverbox!