Jane Austen Festival

Last weekend, the girls and I took off around 8:15 am and drove down to Louisville for our first ever Jane Austen Festival! A friend told us about it just 3 weeks prior. The weather was perfect; we finally had a slight break in the scorching summer – low 80s for temperatures and a cool breeze. Others we talked to at the festival said it was the coolest festival since they started having them 5 years ago.

The setting was Locus Grove, a historic home in Louisville that was built in 1790.

We did a self-guided tour of the house, although there were docents throughout who answered questions.  While in the house, we met a lady who was demonstrating how to make bobbin lace.  It was fascinating to watch her work and learn about how lace is made. 

After touring the house, we stopped in the Visitors’ Center to see a friend who is a milliner and makes Regency-era hats to sell at historical festivals like this.  Her hats were amazing – each one is unique - and she had sold all 15 of them by noon on the first day of the festival!  Aren’t they beautiful? 

I had planned to stop somewhere for lunch in Louisville, but we didn’t pass any restaurants from the exit ramp to the festival, and by then we were so excited to get there that we didn’t want to stop.  I remembered there was a sandwich shop at the festival (the “Earl of Sandwich Shoppe” ;-) so we went there and got a scone, some gingerbread and a couple of chicken salad sandwiches to share while we watched a workshop called “Dressing Mr. Darcy”, which demonstrated all the layers of clothing a gentleman would wear. 

After that was the much-anticipated Regency style show, which did not disappoint. 

 

After this was a side-saddle demonstration.  The speaker discussed the origins of side-saddle riding and the development of the saddle itself.  We just loved watching her on the horse in her beautiful riding outfit!

 

After that, we watched another favorite, the Pistol Duel re-enactment.  These men were informative and very funny.  We learned that a man could demand a duel if he was called a “cheat”, a “coward” or a “blackguard”, which meant rascal.  So, the main speaker explained that the night before, while they were playing cards, he accused another man of being a cheat.  When that man didn’t hit him, he called him a coward, so he was challenged to the duel.  :-D 

 

One of things that was interesting to me was how many men were at the festival.  I figured the women would outnumber the men, which they did, but there were lots more men there than I thought.  And of those men, many of them – the majority – were in costume, too.  Very surprising!  Of course, this costume didn’t count:

Seeing all the visitors and festival hosts in their Regency costumes was so interesting. We saw a wide variety of costumes, from simple to very elaborate. 

 

On the way out, we passed these young men, who were the same men who had performed the pistol duel re-enactment.  When we asked a lady if she could take our picture with them, her response was “Capital!”  :-)

We couldn’t leave without grabbing a couple of souvenirs: a lovely sugar bowl

…. a-a-a-n-n-n-d-d-d …

A bit much?  Nah – I didn’t think so either.  :-)

Summer 2012 – Part 1

I don’t know how many parts this is going to be … maybe only 1 … but I do know that we’ve had an action-packed summer so far and I haven’t blogged hardly any of it!  We’ve managed to take lots of pictures, though, so I’m relying on those to help me document what we’ve been up to.  So, here is a recap of our summer so far, in no particular order.

Kittens!

On May 11th, our kitty Violet had a litter of kittens.  The girls were sure she  was pregnant. I wasn’t so sure, but what do I know about pregnant cats?  Not much, apparently.  In my defense, she was very small – understandably, since she only had 2 kittens.  Here is a picture of her taken 2 days before she had them. 

She is on the left – I think Bentley (aka “Dad”) looks fatter than she does!  The kittens are healthy – one girl “Lily” and a boy “Basil”.  Here is Basil, sleeping next to his mama:

and here is Lily:

Yes, they are cute and have been lavished with love and attention since their arrival.  Anyone want a kitten?  :-)

Family!

Back in June, Jennifer & Steve and their crew came to stay with us for 5 days.  They have bought a new house, but couldn’t take possession before they needed to move out of their house, which sold very quickly (2 weeks!). So they have been between homes for a couple of weeks now (almost a month!) and won’t be able to move into their new home until the end of July.  They stayed with us, the Orrs, Steve’s parents, friends from church, and now they are at Mom and Dad’s, probably until they move into their new house. 

We did a little bit of musical beds/sleeping bags to get everyone situated, but I think everyone settled in quite comfortably.  The kids were thrilled with the adventure, Jennifer and I were a formidable team in the kitchen, and Trent & Alyssa entertained each other, as toddlers tend to do.

Drought

Unfortunately, this has also been one of the driest summers on record.  There has been record heat – several days over 100 degrees – and record lack of rain.  June was the driest June on record.  I recently read that more than half of the US is in some stage of drought.  I’ve never seen the corn as low as it is this summer. Our grass is crackly and brown – like most lawns. Any rain we’ve gotten has been very welcome, but brief, which is why I’ve grabbed the camera the few times it has managed to rain.  Here is Trent playing in a rare puddle after a recent rain. Notice all the brown grass.

He was really fascinated by the water dripping down the window.  :-)

Water coming out of the down spout – AMAZING!

OK – that’s all for now.  More later!

“Happy Hollisters and the Merry-Go-Round Mystery”

The Happy Hollisters is a wonderful series of books by Jerry West about a mystery-solving family.  The books were published in the 1950s and a dear friend gave us his entire collection, which he had collected when he was a boy.  We have since been able to add to the collection as we have found a few more at used bookstores.  These books have been enjoyed by all of our readers, and have also been shared with the kids’ cousins.  Sarah has been enjoying them for the past few months and I predict Brooke won’t be far behind her.

“Blue Hat, Green Hat”

The Mozingo family is staying with us for a few days as they’re recently sold their home and are waiting to close on their new house.  Erica is reading “Blue Hat, Green Hat” by Sandra Boynton to Trent and his cousin, Alyssa.

“Young Pioneers”

This is “Young Pioneers” by Rose Wilder Lane. This book was a 10th birthday gift from a friend for Sarah.

The Worley Family Library

A friend recently introduced me to this interesting website, The New York Underground Library.  The premise is simple; the results are so fascinating.  Of the thousands who use the New York subway system every day, a fair number of them pass the time by reading.  A photographer decided to create a sort of “library” of the books being read by the passengers and display them on a blog. One of the interesting things in so many of the pictures is the seeming contrast between the readers and the books they’re reading. Teenagers reading heavy classics; older folks reading Harry Potter; rough types reading love stories, and so on. 

Which brings me to today’s post. For months now, I have wanted to start a new series of short posts on this blog that chronicles the day-to-day stuff.  Blogging about the big life events is a must, but what is often more interesting over time is the mundane daily routine of life, which does change, but gradually, as family dynamics change and family members grow up. 

My parents bought their first (and only) camcorder in 1986, the summer before my senior year in high school.  It was the size of a small rocket launcher and cost $1,000.  (Contrast that to the last camcorder Mick and I bought a year or so ago for $300 which fits into the palm of your hand.)  They wanted it so much they actually financed the thing.  My parents, who I believe have never had more than one credit card, which has been used probably a half dozen times, took out a loan to buy a camcorder, which was pretty new technology in 1986.  Uncharacteristically cutting edge!

They now have hundreds of VHS tapes they’ve recorded, chronicling many of the important events in our family from 1986 on.  One of the most interesting tapes we kids like to watch was recorded not long after they got the camcorder.  It was a lazy summer day and all of us happened to be at home.  Several of us kids took turns recording random bits of this and that, some silliness and laughing, and just, well, family life as it was then. Chuck practicing his guitar in his room, Heather practicing her trombone in the basement, Mom making vegetable soup, a few of us making No Bake cookies and goofing off in the kitchen, Kelly making our waterbed (a neatnik even as a a teenager ), an impromptu game of Trivial Pursuit (dating myself here).  I don’t know why it’s so interesting to watch that, except that it reminds us how life was like most of the time in our family.  The big, important events of our childhood stand out the most in our memories, but it’s nice to be reminded that even a regular day could be satisfying, interesting, and fun.

So, back to this blog.  I’ve thought about tagging these new posts something like “Slice of Life”.  What I picture for this series is to be a sort of virtual snapshot on any given day of any different Worley.  I might post the latest piano piece Rachel is working on, what funny thing Grant said, that new milestone Trent just passed, what new recipe I’m trying out for dinner, new ballet moves the girls are working on, etc. The way I picture it has been with several different “Slice of Life” items for each entry, including links to whatever might be helpful or additional information e.g., recipes, web sites, books. Because the idea is becoming more complex, it’s becoming more daunting, which partially explains why I haven’t taken this idea farther than my thoughts. :-) Looking at this New York Underground Library website made me realize I could take this “Slice of Life” idea, simplify it a little and pair it with the premise behind the Underground Library project.  The result is what I hope will become a sort of Worley Family Library: taking pictures of the kids and the variety of books they read as a way to chronicle who they are and what they like, and to see how that changes over time as they grow.  Now I use the term “variety” somewhat loosely here.  Obviously there is going to be a lot more variety in the New York Underground Library than the Worley Family Library.  The riders of the New York subway come from incredibly diverse backgrounds, whereas our kids obviously have a lot in common by virtue of their having the same parents and living under the same roof.  :-)  But there is still quite a bit of variety here. Sometimes the books are meaty classics, sometimes they’re fluffy, sometimes they’re being read for school, mostly they’re read for pleasure.  Some of the kids read more than others (maybe this will even encourage those who don’t read as much to pick up a book more often ;-) But in general, there is a lot of reading that goes on around here: books, magazines (Highlights, God’s World News), reference books, even cookbooks sometimes. So I’m going to start grabbing the camera periodically and taking a picture when I can.

In the end, these posts may only be interesting to our family (for that matter, this whole blog may only be interesting to our family :-) but the main reason I’ve created this blog is to document our life together, and I hope these pictures will enrich that.

This was the first picture I took with this idea in mind.  Grant sitting by himself looking at “Hercules the Harbor Tug” by Michael O’Hearn. (I know he looks naked in this picture, but he does have something on down there.) What I love about this is that he was reading – well, “reading” – all by himself.  He just saw a book that looked interesting and sat down to look at it.  I love to see very young ones doing that – it’s a good omen that they’ll be future readers!

Turkey Run, June 2012

Quiet Sunday afternoon.  Spur-of-the-moment late afternoon trip to Turkey Run. Cool, clear day.  Dwindling crowds. Energetic kids. Ballet poses. Dirty shoes. Happy memories.