gravestones

There's a woman in Lakeville who has documented all the gravestones and their inscriptions in the town of Lakeville. I thought that Pa Leonard, considering all his work as Lakeville Cemetery Commissioner, would appreciate this labor of love. I helped him one summer organize his files, and Mom did a lot of work with him, too.

Here's an article and a short slide show where the author talks about her work. In them she talks about the gravestone of a child of Elkanah Leonard, a long-departed cousin and grandson of original settler James Leonard. Both were involved in the Taunton ironworks.

If you click on the image of the book it will take you to her website.

lunching in boston

Mom and I met Sylvie, Don, Nick, and Spence for lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston today. Sylvie and Don were visiting from California and were here for a just a short visit. Nick and Spence are living and working in Boston. A quick visit, but wonderful to catch up on all their lives.

please don't pick the poison ivy

I may be one of the few people to have been hit with a whopping case of poison ivy twice in the off-season -- once in October while doing some trail clearing with the Barnstable Land Trust, and again in late December while walking mindlessly through the woods, happily picking little bits of things to bring home and put in a vase. Trust me when I tell you that even though you can't see the telltale three-leaves (so pretty in the fall!), it still packs a mighty punch when you pick a branch of dried-up poison ivy berries and don't wash your hands afterward. As a kid I used to feel very superior to my sisters (who would blow up like balloons and miss whole days of school after coming in contact with the stuff) because I never really got it very badly. I guess the motto is that pride goeth before a fall. Or maybe it's "walk softly, and stop carrying sticks home from the woods." From now on I'll just take pictures of the prettier sticks -- here are a few from my walk this morning along with a few other sights.

v is for very cold

I like that this little branch in the snow looks like the letter V.
About 4 degrees this morning.

Dried hydrangeas still hanging on, and glowing in the morning sun.

this morning

I know I'm obsessed. But the striped clouds over Barnstable Village were hard to resist. This would be one of the views that Aunt Grace and Uncle Gerome would have seen near their house on Salten Point Road -- where they lived in the 1960s before Aunt Grace moved to the farm. Their former house has grown much larger since then -- many additions and wings have been added. I can remember standing in their driveway on a trip to Cape Cod one summer, though I can't recall going inside. I suspect unruly children were not welcomed in the actual house where they might climb on the antiques. But I do remember it was a clear blue day.

As you can see, this is still a lovely spot.

lighthouse beach, chatham