Future Plans, Remembered yesterdays.

Lue had us for chicken and biscuit dinner Saturday night and Paul took this picture of Greta. The picture looked great, but it appears darker than it did in the camera. She's a beautiful dog and acts much like a six month old puppy would, except she weighs close to 60 pounds. Lue has been very careful with discipline. She and Gracie have a lot in common - as far as being puppies, but I must say, Greta is the better behaved. We haven't realized how much we're letting Gracie get away with. If I picture Gracie the size that Greta is, and she is able to act like she does, well - it's not a very good picture. We DO have to do some more disciplining. No jumping. No teeth.

Another week has begun. I'm heading out, the end of this week on Thursday, to meet my new little granddaughter, Evie, and to help Nancy out with life in general - especially cooking - Dan has to be away - overnight - and it's good to have an extra set of hands available when there's a newborn around. I don't know how those single moms manage - even those who had planned having babies. There's so much to do, and so much can be left because of "time/hand" constraints. She and Dan requested a list of foods I needed to have so that their freezer could be filled with whatever I cooked. To be used in future weeks, days, whenever needed. I feel a little guilty with the list that I sent them. I think it was a mile long - but then, I've been told a million times not to exaggerate. I am leaving Paul home till Monday to do whatever needs to be done here and to take care of Gracie. He surely loves that dog. It's so nice to see him around her.



We had a long church service yesterday which I dislike. Okay, I know. I know. It's not christian-like to complain about length of service, but to be honest - I don't like it. (That plus not having "amens" at the end of hymns. In Florida, they put an "amen" at the end of the first hymn to placate us older folks who have difficulty with change.) It was world-wide communion - and Paul and I left after communion - it was almost the end - and went out to breakfast. Which we have in place of lunch on Sundays. I took my camera with me to take tree pictures, because it was a perfectly gorgeous Fall day, but Paul convinced me, and I agreed, the colors weren't at their peak yet. Soon. But not yet. The newspapers wrote - Adirondacks - first. We're - second. Long Island - third. And they're right.







Been thinking about Aunt Ella these past couple of days. My son, Jil, in the Philippines, and several others have written a comment requesting more stories about her. There are so many. She leaps out at me in my mind because she was such a colorful character and so integrated into my early life.







My parents built their home in 1936 and moved there with my mother's mother, my grandmother, Grandma Grace. Now, I realize I have named my dog Gracie, but I don't think I was consciously thinking of Grandma. I just thought the name Gracie was neat for a little dog. Same with Ella, my cat - she was named after Cinderella - ash color, white. Who knows? But I digress.







There was a building lot beside mom and dad's that faced the back of our house (we lived on a corner lot). Grandma had two sisters, Aunt Ella and Aunt Mabel whom we would call maiden great aunts because they never married. They bought the lot and built on it. She had another sister, Aunt Jenny, who did marry but lived out on Long Island in Amityville with her daughter and family later in life. and there was an Uncle Walter - the only brother. So Aunt Ella was one of five children. Aunt Jenny, Aunt Ella and Grandma Grace all had beautiful white hair at an early age. Uncle Walter was bald. Aunt Mabel, my mom, and I didn't receive this white-hair gene. We were destined for dreary mousy brown and gray later in life. Oh, well. It is what it is. And later on hairdressers could make me beautiful again. And my mother also.







Because Aunt Ella and Aunt Mabel never had children, Bob and I became theirs - in spirit. Our houses were very close to each other. The building lots in those days were small. Aunt Ella's long L-shaped driveway went past the back of our house - not more than twenty maybe twenty-five feet from her wall to our wall. She had rambling rose bushes and sweet peas growing on trellises at this side facing our kitchen and back steps where I can remember as a little girl, collecting some of her rose pedals and sweet peas, and grinding them, to try to make perfume.

Aunt Ella was a retired school teacher - but to everyone's consternation - she always voted against the local school budget. She couldn't understand why she had to support those high teacher salaries, since she never had kids. (Thanks for reminding me, Cousin Carol.) She would cut out newspaper clippings and show them to anyone whom she could get to listen. Of course, her teacher's pension in the mid 1940's was extremely little, and it was amazing how she got by. It must have been hard. They didn't get raises on their pensions either, and she lived til she was in her 90's.

So - I hope I haven't bored you with Aunt Ella stories . . .but there'll be more to come. Perhaps I'll put out an "Aunt Ella Alert" in the headings from now on, when I decide to write more about her. I appreciate any input from anyone.

Okay - that's all the news from the Woods Edge. What's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?