Happy Birthday Grandma Sarah

Simon with his Mum, England, 1979(?)

Happy Birthday Grandma Sarah
Love, Imogen

The Pop-up Game

Wednesday

Waiting for Grammy

Tuesday

A Familiar Scene

Imogen May, 2 years & 2 months
Monday

Fruit Everbearing

Because joy--oh my neighbors--can be grafted to loss and bring fruit everbearing so that though there is grieving there is never true separation.

Never a leaving.

From Miserere
By Sam Green, Waldron Island resident and first Poet Laureate of Washington State

Roots

During World War II, Imogen's late paternal great-grandmother Nancy (nickname "Bat," short for Battle Axe) worked with the Women's Land Army in England.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organization created during the First and Second World Wars to work in agriculture replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the WLA were commonly known as Land Girls. In effect the Land Army operated to place women with farms that needed workers, the farmers being their employers. -Wikipedia

Imogen's great-grandfather Ronald, now 94, was a conscientious objector. He apparently was placed on the same farm as Nancy. They met when a friend of his whistled at Nancy and then ducked, leaving Ronald standing there when she looked up.

Of those [conscientious objectors] directed to non-combatant military service almost 7000 were allocated to the Non-Combatant Corps, set up in mid-1940; its companies worked in clothing and food stores, in transport, or any military project not requiring the handling of "material of an aggressive nature." Around 450 NCC members worked in bomb disposal; other non-combatants worked in the medical corps. Other acceptable occupations were farm work, mining, firefighting, ambulance service. -Wikipedia

They had nine children and he supported the family with the master gardener skills he learned during the war years.

True Places

Imogen at 20 months--six days before we left Seattle--pointing out Port Angeles and Seattle on the map.

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Herman Melville

HB/JBS.40

Forty trips around the sun, and he looks better than ever...

Happy Birthday Joel!

New Words

baby measurer
debit card
Pegasus
Paddington
'raj [garage]

The Name Imogen

The name of a princess in the play 'Cymbeline' (1609) by Shakespeare. Some people believe that Shakespeare based the character Imogen's name on Innogen, the first queen of Britain, and that the name was printed incorrectly in a play document hundreds of years ago and never corrected. However, there's a good argument here for why that theory may be wrong. Wikipedia says the name was probably created by Shakespeare for the play while mentioning the possibility of the misprint.

The name Innogen may have been derived from the Gaelic inghead and would therefore mean "maiden," a meaning often assigned to Imogen. If there is no Innogen-Imogen connection, then the etymology of Imogen is Shakespearean.

The name is currently rising in popularity in England and Wales, where it was the 34th most popular name for baby girls in 2007, and in New South Wales, Australia, where the name was the 35th most popular name for baby girls in 2007. It was ranked 86th in popularity for baby girls in Scotland in 2007. -Wikipedia

Imogen is not in the top 1000 names in the United States. -The Baby Name Wizard--have you tried it?

Pronounced IM-ә-jen

Famous Imogens:

Imogen Cunningham, photographer

Imogen Heap, musician

All Aboard!

Imogen with Niles and Giacomo, Tuesday

Happy Birthday Tess

July 21: It's the birthday of Tess Gallagher, born in Port Angeles, Washington (1943). She's the author of many collections of poetry, including My Black Horse: New and Selected Poems (1995).

The Writer's Almanac

Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher

Fresh Eggs by the Roadside

Dry Creek Farm Egg Stand, Port Angeles

Monday

A First: A Fort

Imogen's first fort, Monday

The Sports & Arts Section

Simon found Immy yesterday writing on the newspaper. We were a little, uh, surprised at what she had done. At first glance, it looked like she obliterated the faces (and gave Ian Kinsler a cigarette?). I'm sure she was simply attracted to the faces amidst the sea of gray print, and that's a good thing, right?

Kite Flying

Simon and Imogen
Sunday

Happy Birthday You You

Helping Uncle Al blow out his birthday candle, Friday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE AL!

It Seems Like Yesterday

Imogen May, 3 weeks, June 2006

Sweetie Pie

As we left YaYa's house today, Immy said "See ya' in d'mornin' sweetie pie" to her 8-year old cousin. And then something like yep, I love YaYa so much.

Alice Olivia

Welcome to the world Alice Olivia!

Ten thousand things bright
Ten thousand miles, no dust
Water and sky one color
Houses shining along your road

Congratulations John and Sally

Immy Longstocking

It's short for Imolotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Simonsdaughter Longstocking.

Sun Cream

The cousins put on "sun cream," Sunday

Liberal Art

Imogen, watercolor & oil crayon

Bunnies Flowers Shadows

Immy feeding dandelions to Giacomo

To Carry Within us an Orchard

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

- Li-Young Lee

This poem brought me great comfort a few years ago when I really needed it.

A Play of Colors on Clouds

When I bring to you colored toys, my child,
I understand why there is such a play of colors on clouds, on water,
and why flowers are painted in tints
–when I give colored toys to you, my child.

Rabindranath Tagore

Immy Quotes: A Small Serving

-Immy (25 mos.) has a magnetic dress-up doll that has ballet shoes. She put them on once and I said, "Oh, she's a ballerina." That was a few weeks ago. A few days ago, Immy put the shoes back on the doll and said "dancerina clothes. Night-night dancerina."

-On Tuesday, Imogen came to me with three hair rubber bands. She said "bracelets," then put them on and showed me. I said, "Oh, that's creative." And very matter of fact, she turned on her heel and said "yeah, amazin'."

Salty, Impermanent Kingdoms

We are perishable, friends.
We are salty, impermanent kingdoms.

Robert Bly

Put Your Whole Self In

Use it all up.

-Raymond Carver

Such Beauty

1. A blacktail deer comes in close to check out Simon and Imogen
2. Immy and Dad making their way up the trail
3. Avalanche lilies
4. Lupine meadow

Hurricane Hill Trail, Hurricane Ridge
Olympic National Park
Sunday

Locally Grown

Second Place
Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July
Kiddies' Parade

Good Place to Land

Kalaloch (derived from the Quinault language meaning "good place to land")
Olympic National Park

You Lika' ze Pizza?

I scrambled all day Tuesday to get enough markers, paper, Play-Doh or toys into Imogen's hands before chaos broke out.

Pimp my Couch

Check out our new sectional.

Three-buck Truck

It was cheaper than a gallon of fuel!

All You Have to Do

All you have to do is wear a hat and carry a Greek newspaper.
Nobody will look twice at you.

David Bowie

Hippie Midwife Shakes up Obstetricians

Ina May Gaskin - the woman widely described as the "most famous" and "most authentic" midwife in the world - never even took a formal midwifery course. Nevertheless, obstetricians, who in most of the developed world prefer to deliver all babies themselves, have given her the ultimate honor - naming an obstetric procedure that literally saves life and limb after this unusual woman.

Link to Full Article
The Jerusalem Post