Recently a friend wrote on her facebook page that we need people of good character in our government. It occurred to me that I hadn’t heard that phrase for a while. It doesn’t seem to be as important as it once was.
I was very close to my grandparents. They lived in the next town and I spent a lot of time with them. I may have felt especially close to my grandmother because my father spent the last three months of his life in the hospital and my grandmother took care of us while my mother was there each day. I was four months old when he died.
Me with my grandparents and 25 years later my son with them. One of the things I am happiest about in life is that they were able to see my children.
I was raised that the most important thing about you is your character. It meant that you had integrity, were always honest and responsible, and you showed respect to everyone, even those you didn’t like. You didn’t say mean things about people behind their backs or gossip about them. Of course there were slip ups. There still are! I would be painting too unrealistic a picture if I said there weren’t. But they were occasional slip ups, not the way one deliberately chose to live one’s life. (See, I still have to be honest.) 🙂 I never thought much of it. It just was. The friends I chose and still choose were also raised that way.
My grandfather during WWII. He was also in WWI training to be a pilot but fortunately the war ended before he completed his training.
I only saw my grandmother mad once. She was telling me about the time a man came to the house during the war and said he was re-possessing their car. She angrily told him that her husband was away from his family in Europe serving his country and that he always paid his bills on time. I realized that all those decades later she was still angry that someone had assailed his character. She finished the story by saying that they didn’t even have a car then. I laughed but she didn’t. How I wished I could have been there and matter-of-factly told him that he could take it.
My grandfather wrote the chorus of a country song from his grave. Which is curious also because I am quite sure he never listened to a word of country music. I listen to it all the time but prefer the classics since so much now is just pop. A few years ago I heard a song called “Something to be Proud Of” by Montgomery Gentry. I listen to it on youtube occasionally and always get teary. Every single thing that is said in the chorus were things my grandfather said or demonstrated in my presence. He used to have me count the flags that were out around holidays when we took my grandmother on errands. When each of our children was born he told my husband that when his children were born his father told him that on that day he was the richest man in New London and that on this day my husband was the richest man in Glastonbury.
We were supposed to live “a life you can hang your hat on” as is sung in the song. Not my family’s words exactly but the meaning was the same.
Shouldn’t we have leaders that have similar good character?? Maybe I should send them the youtube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXg8E0kzF1c
College friends in Norway in 2015 at Laura’s condo. This summer we will celebrate the big 60 at a house in Maine. We are wiser now and won’t leave our food for a minute in case a sea gull wants it…
I feel a little sad when we drop them off and wonder about them afterwards but our mindset is that we are doing this because we like being around dogs but don’t want one full time. We know that their higher purpose is to be a loving companion and helper for someone with a disability. As an OT and a person who would very much want a dog if I were disabled I feel purpose in having one each month. After all the training is complete including training with their soon to be owner they have graduations for the people and their dogs. At orientation they told us that the prisoners are allowed to go and most end up crying. I feel tearful right now thinking about seeing these puppies we watch all grown up and leaving with their person with whom they will share such a special bond.
First in September are three classes I am teaching at the Fiber College of Maine. fibercollege.org Again the 5 class Sheep to Shawl workshop at Assabet Valley Vocational High School’s adult ed program called Assabet After Dark, an overview of the Sheep to Shawl process at Weir River Farm in Hingham MA, then we are bus trip leaders to Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool festival. In November I will share a booth with my friend Dorothy at the New England Fiber Festival Nov. 5-6. 2 more workshops are pending. More on all of those as the time gets closer. Lots of excuses to dye. As if I need any. 
– let it snow! It did and we have 12″ of beautiful fluffy snow.
We have a house built in the 1830s and the previous owners left us things found here. I have found more through gardening and the chickens sometimes dig them up for me. I suspect that the area by our very old coop might have also been a place they dumped things before the trash pick up that we have now. A tiny archeology site.
It is at a place called Sheep Pasture which is on the grounds of an old estate where I can go when I need a sheep fix. Wool spinners are nodding as they read this because we all have to have an easy source. Sheep Pasture is owned by the National Resources Trust of Easton and a wonderful spot with trails, woods, farm animals and many events and workshops.
woolgatheringwithbetsy 