For Posterity

This was the day of my grandmother's funeral.

Afterwards, we went to the farm to do some arranging and such, and I took some pictures of her flowers. This is the walkway being impinged upon by irises and the view from the hill. You can see all the different types in this photo: iris, cabbage roses, peonies, and a lily of some type (as well as some overgrown grass).

One of my favorite iris colors--so vibrant!

I've always loved poppies.

These are the color of the cake she made me for my 16th birthday.

Peonies in the shade.

The roses are about done. I love the cascade of petals in this one.

She hasn't lived on the farm for about a year, so this is the flowers after being untended for that long. The relative lack of weeds (there are some, but not nearly as many as in my flowerbeds) is a testament to how carefully she watched them. This is at ground level up the path. The green stalk in the middle will become firecracker flowers by July.

Turning 96...

My grandmother turned 96 last week. We had a party this past weekend, which included the *whole* family--which doesn't happen very often any more. (One of the reasons I wanted to move closer was so that I could make these semi-spontaneous little family gatherings.) Above, my grandmother and the three boys. They're actually posing for Tom who is to my left.

Here's the one I took:
And here's another one of E, "Aunt Jenny, take a picture of me acting crazy!"

Generations

This is one of my prized possessions. It is a lap quilt that was pieced by my great grandmother and quilted by my grandmother. It's, frankly, really ugly. Oranges and reds and weird color combinations, but ggma made it out of what she could get on the farm (probably feed sacks and the like).

FFF

Today the family went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. As you can see from this pic, there was plenty of silliness to be had. The museum is quite cool, and Tom and I were fascinated enough by one of the presentations to see it twice to "figure it out." But the only place we could take photos was in this huge atrium.

John Wilkes Booth was just hanging out near the Whitehouse portico awaiting his time in the sun. As were a couple of famous generals...

Of course, there was also some commodification: