Two Days in May

Spanning four generations: Adam Harrington, Grace Harrington, Calvin Murphy.

We had an all-too-rare happy circumstance at Ft. Harrington this weekend: a visit from part of the Atlanta branch of the family tree.

My late mother's youngest brother, Calvin, and my cousin Edith's husband, Joe, came by for an afternoon and evening as part of a two-week swing through California. They arrived here after a four-day culinary tour of San Francisco -- but we fed them anyway -- organized by the Road Scholar (formerly Elderhostel) organization. The next day, they were on their way to Southern California for more action.

Their visit to Boulder Creek was on a Friday, but Grace's teacher let her skip school for the day to come meet her great-great-uncle Calvin, and her Uncle Adam (being his own boss) provided her ride from the East Bay.

The memories and the laughter flowed abundantly, and Grace had the grace (young lady that she's becoming) to listen attentively and smile a lot. She also impressed me with some astronomy that she's been learning, not just of the memorizing factoids kind, but that's a topic for a different time -- the point here is that she's fast becoming perceptive as well as smart, and that served her well on Friday.

In a neat small-world coincidence, a very longtime close friend of Joe's -- childhood and college -- lives in Boulder Creek, so he was invited to the gathering, too. He and Joe spun some pretty good reminiscences about their college days in Southern California (including one from Joe's job as a meat delivery boy involving Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman). Their longtime connections to film and tv production had us all fascinated, but Adam especially so given his profession as a voice actor.

Clockwise from left: Joe, Diane, Calvin, and Dick enjoy the spaniels. If you click on this and view at a larger size, you'll see Kelsey's butt in the background as he watches Adam's posterior go up the walkway toward the gate to the road. Kelsey loves company, and is distressed when any seems to be leaving.

At some point in the late afternoon, one of our three guests -- I don't remember if it was Calvin, Joe, or Joe's friend Dick -- remarked on how rapidly the light changes here in the fort because of the surrounding tall sequoias. I woke early the next morning, just before sunrise, and that remark came back to me. That day, Saturday, was to be clear after the morning fog dissipated, so I decided to set up the camera to try my hand at a time-lapse through the day to see exactly how the light's patterns marched across at least part of the yard.

View of the time-lapser from the front (and the boy spaniel from the rear.)

I set up the tripod and camera to capture a view generally northward from one corner of the house toward the little rose garden with some of our redwoods providing backdrop. I set the camera's computer to take one exposure every two minutes and set the process in motion at 6:15am. I stopped the series when the fog started to come back in at 7:11, 390 photos later.

The result surprised and tickled me for the most part. The one disappointment was that I had selected too shaded an area for the exposure meter to monitor, so some of the foreground during midday is badly overexposed. One thing that I thought would be disappointing turned out to be an advantage: the wind picked up during the day, and I thought that would make leaves and branches move around too much from frame to frame. Turns out, on viewing, that was a big plus -- the trees and bushes appear to be dancing through the day.

View of the time-lapser from the rear.

The surprise was the four chickens. I knew they moved around during the day, but had never paid much attention to just how active they are. Lucky for us, they spent a lot of this particular day in the camera's field of view, rather than in any number of other places in the fort where they wouldn't have been seen.

View through the time-lapser.

You can view the result in the little box below here, of course, but it's really better viewed at higher resolution -- 720 or 1080p if your connection and patience will allow such a large download -- and in full-screen mode. If you don't, there's a lot of little detail trying to flash at you that you might miss, like this, for example:

Small detail, cropped from one of the time-lapse frames.

How ever you view it, watch it all the way to the end (it's only about three and a half minutes long.) The background still photo behind the music credit is worth the wait.

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Little Girls, They Steal Your Heart

They are the emerging power trio in the extended clan: Grace, Kiana, and Gisella. They live close enough to each other that they share a lot of time, and by the time they're in their teens they will own everything we have. They started with our hearts, after all, and any pickings after that are much easier.

Trying to keep track of who is related to whom and how in this family is hard without a scorecard, so here's a quick refresher: Grace is my granddaughter, my late son Doug's daughter, and she turns 9 this August. Kiana, age four, is Reva's daughter; Reva is my son Adam's half-sister. The youngest of the three, Gisella, is Adam's step-granddaughter. For simplicity, we think of them as cousins -- hell, most of the time we all think of each other as cousins.

The power trio gathered in Grace's back yard today, Easter, to hunt down treats.

Kiana and Grace debate the merits of different kinds of bubble solution.

Grace (yes, she changed her outfit -- she does that kind of thing, being a girly girl and all.)

Grace, Kiana, and Gisella on the hunt. (The gray fuzzy thing at left is an actual bunny -- Grace's soon-to-be-stepdad, Ryan, brought a pair of rabbits to the family.)

Gisella, admired by Adam.

Kiana a-hunting.

Gisella with loot.

While all girl, Grace defies stereotype and has been a nimble tree-climber since shortly after she could walk. Hiding Easter eggs for her is a three-dimensional process.

Gisella and Kiana in awe of their cousin's aerial prowess.

A milestone: Grace's first picture with Granddad's big, clunky camera. After just a little bit of initial hesitancy, she banged off this shot: Reva's dad Parris, Reva, Kiana, me, and Adam. Not bad, eh?

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Late November Clan Subset Gathering

(Note: this post was composed using Microsoft's "Live Writer," which I don't think I'm going to use again.)

A subset of the extended clan gathered at Ft. Harrington on Thanksgiving (US variety) weekend to indulge in non-turkey feasting – and to gather up presents from Ireland that somehow had not yet been distributed.

Dessert Time. Clockwise from left: Grace, Andrew, Lynda, Adam, Gisella, Ryan (behind his mom), Mrs. Fort. Grace’s mom, Adrianne, had to leave before chow time.

Lasagna, salad, garlic bread (yummily not turkey, which all of us had over-ingested in other places the previous Thursday) followed by two kinds of pie: apple and pumpkin (pies accompanied by an ice cream option, of course) – Diane put on her usual fare with country flair.

Adam and Gisella, closer-up.

Gisella is Lynda’s daughter Jamie’s little girl, which makes her Adam’s step-granddaughter.

Which makes her my step-great-granddaughter!

Ryan and his hat from Donegal.

Ryan took an afternoon off from his waiter’s gig – and from studying for his EMT course. (If all goes well, he should be licensed for the latter by early next year.) He couldn’t bring the lovely Casey with him this time, but we all were thinking of her.

Adam and Grace with their Irish souvenirs. Note old Kelsey-the-Dog in the lower-right.

“My dad went to Ireland and all I got was this rugby shirt.”

Adam’s shirt – identifiably Irish by three discreet shamrocks about where Grace’s wrist is – came from Kenmare as did Grace’s cap. Her necklace is from Mullingar, as is a belt-watch for Andrew (which can’t be seen in the picture below.)

Andrew with Emma

Grace and her mom compare knit goods. The champagne flute is also from Mullingar.

In the above picture, Adrianne is not wearing a significant new piece of jewelry that she recently acquired: an engagement ring! She and her Ryan (“her” to distinguish from Diane’s Ryan) will marry in May or June.

Grace models her new bling. Notice Emma-the-Spaniel in the lower-left: she still absolutely adores Grace, and is never more than a few feet from the girl whenever she visits.

Now eight years old, Grace has developed a wide variety of facial expressions and uses them to great effect.

Grace and old Fonzie.

After the ruckus

Once the leftover containers had been filled and taken, after the last hug and kiss good-bye of the evening was done, the various animals in the Ft. Harrington menagerie had a variety of different reactions. Extremes of that spectrum are shown here. Jax, bred as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are to be sociable and intoxicated by children, was exhausted, collapsed on his pile of pillows on the couch, and was dead to the world for hours. Finn McCool, on the other hand, still not comfortable with people he doesn’t know, hid under the bed all day, so when everyone left he was wound up, energized, and ready to rock and roll! If this were a video, you’d see his tail whipping back and forth.

I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving weekend, too – and, from all of us at Ft. Harrington of any number of feet, we wish you a warm and happy holiday season ahead!

Some Glimpses of Christmastime, 2009

(Note: If you're not family, then this is probably too many snapshots to be of much interest. If you are family, it's probably not enough.)

Guinness observes the tree. Mrs. Fort did her annual wonderful job decorating the living room and kitchen with all manner of warmth for the season. (Speaking of Mrs. Fort, she doesn't much like the way I doctored this image in Photoshop, and you might agree with her if you look at this comparison of the pre- and post-alteration versions.)

Like last year, this year's big gathering was on Christmas Eve at Adrianne and Grace's (and now Adrianne's new fella Ryan's) home. Many more photos from that fete will show up in the album, but I particularly like this one (taken by Adam) because it shows her dad Pat and her brother Corey in the background. Wish you could taste the hors d'oeuvres on the tray.

Grace (left) and her friend Danielle serenaded us with Christmas carols...

... and Grace unintentionally channeled her father, who was also known to do the hair thing while performing:

Doug, performing with Defiance about a quarter of a century ago, complete with flying V and flying hair. (Photos of Grace and Danielle by Adam; photos of Doug courtesy of Jim Adams and Defiance.)

Adams: Jim A. at left, A. Harrington at right. Jim, Mike Kaufmann, and a renewed Defiance recently released their first new album in a while, The Prophecy, which includes a number of tracks written by Doug in his last months.

Diane and I had a leisurely Christmas morning to ourselves -- or as "to ourselves" as anyone ever is in a house with five cats and three dogs. Old Kelsey, a veteran now of a dozen Christmases, waited patiently by the tree for us to use our opposable thumbs to liberate the colorful paper and bows from whatever boring things they were wrapped around.

Fonzie and Cooper spy a brand-new cat-teaser being opened.

Sometimes you play with the toy...

...and sometimes the toy plays with you. Cooper's big, but not especially quick.

Emma asks us to please notice that the floor next to her has no toys or snacks on it because...

... her bratty brother stole them all. Notice that he has also filched a catnip mouse, even. There's a reason he's called "The Prince of All-Mine" around here. (It's actually not such a wonderful personality trait, resource hoarding, and one we have to continually discourage.)

Cooper, in the process of recovering his dignity.

Hope you had a marvelous few days, too! See you in 2010.

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Kelsey's Excellent Encounter

Usually when we have a weekend BBQ for family here at Ft. Harrington, there are many, many people involved. On Saturday, June 27th, 2009, though, we had an unusually small gathering: just Grace-the-Granddaughter, her mom (Adrianne), and her uncle Adam.

Old yellow Kelsey generally has an absolute gas at family gatherings, tripping happily from one person to another until he's so worn out that he collapses. With fewer targets this time, though, for some reason he zeroed in on Adrianne as the object of his attention.

In this little set, we see him wooing her, greeting her, and, ultimately, settling in happily at her side.

What a suck-up my dog is.

Adrianne, Kelsey, and Grace. Kelsey starts by placing himself where he can't be ignored.

Kelsey sandwich! Excellent!

"Please, let me introduce myself!"

"... I am a dog whose refinement belies my breeding, my lady."

(It's interesting to note how he holds his ears in this set compared to how he does when he's at work.)

Kissing the back of the hand is customary, but Kelsey's doing pretty well for a dog, don't you think?

She's let me sit here! Oh, the ecstasy! Oh, the joy!
Oh, the damn' little suckup spaniel, horning in from the left. He always does that.

Settled in.

Little does Adrianne know it, but, at this instant, Kelsey would have followed her through the very gates of Hell. He's also actively guarding her now; note the position of his ears.

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Three Thousand Words

Last Saturday (May 16th, 2009), Adam and Lynda took Adam's nieces, Grace and Kiana, to a little beach on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Adam captured some arresting images on that outing, including these three:

To Grace's left is the skyline of San Francisco. Directly beyond her is the Golden Gate Bridge. Slightly to her right are the hills of Marin County. She is looking directly toward the place on the Bay where her father's ashes were scattered two years ago.

Kiana tries to give her passenger ladybug the benefit of the doubt.

We can all fly, you know? We just have to try. And we just have to believe.

(All photos by Adam Harrington, who, I hope, will post them to his Flickr account without too much nagging by his father, who really wants to reference them from his own Flickr account. But I'm not pressuring him, no, of course not.)