Artist at work en plein air

Hugh writes: On Saturday, Sept. 22, the Barn Quilt Association of Garrett County, Md., sponsored a festival day that included a special tour of the 16 Garrett County barns with quilt elements mounted on them, plus exhibits at the Fair Grounds.

Dolores was one of three artists asked to demonstrate at one of the barns. She produced a plein air painting using the pastel medium.

The quilt element on the barn she is painting is known as “Crazy Quilt.” For more information, check out the Barn Quilt Association’s web site, GarrettBarnQuilts.org.

Spruced up on Birch Street

The grounds of Birch Street Headquarters have had a makeover.

Dan and Julie are enjoying the new look of their front yard.

Over the summer, workers trimmed trees, dug out surface roots and removed scraggly bushes; re-graded, added topsoil and seeded the yard; planted new bushes, perennials and a kousa dogwood tree; and repaved the driveway and entry.


Finally, the work is done and the grass is coming up.

Here's a "before" picture.

Gerrit's in charge of the fun in Cape Cod town

Gerrit has been named to the newly created post of recreation coordinator for the Town of Dennis, Mass.

Gerrit grew up in the town, and over the past five years has assisted with many Dennis Recreation Department programs. He also has served as a recreation programs specialist in nearby Harwich for the past two years.

Click here to read a full article on a local news web site about Gerrit's new position.

Here's a rundown of Dennis Recreation programs for the fall.

Join the Walk to End Alzheimer's

The start of the 2011 Walk

The annual New York Walk to End Alzheimer's is just four weeks away, and Shanna is once again organizing a team to take part.

This will be the fifth year our family team has contributed to this event in support of the fight against a disease that has touched us in numerous ways. Each year, our team has surpassed its fundraising goal. This year Shanna has set a goal of $1,000.

"I take great pride in the money we have raised over the years and the awareness that has spread," Shanna said. "I can not thank those who have supported my family and I enough. ... It's really awesome how involved everyone has been and I hope it continues this year."

Please visit our Team Page to find out more, and to contribute if you can. And if possible, join our family team for a pleasant walk in Riverside Park on Sunday, Oct. 21.

Our motto: We walk to win!

Kathy points the way to victory

Lobster, a la Tish, on the menu

A reproduction of Tish's painting "Claws Crossed" is going to be one of several works by local artists featured on the menus at the Dan'l Webster Inn and Spa in Sandwich, Mass.

This summer, Tish has been among the artists showing their works at the weekly Monday Painters Exhibit and Sale on the Dennis Village Green. 
 

See more at Tish's web site

Marching band season well under way

Chris playing stand cheers at a recent Darby Panthers away game.

Andy in New Jersey and Chris in Ohio are busy with their high school marching bands again this season.

Andy and his fellow drummers make drummer faces.

Andy, a junior at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, plays tenor drums in the Raider Marching Band drumline.

Chris, a sophomore at Hilliard-Darby High School, plays saxophone in the Panthers Marching Band. Here are some photos of him and his bandmates cheering the football team to victory at a recent away game.

Incidentally, both schools' football games are having good seasons. The Raiders are 2-0, while the Panthers, who started their season earlier, are 4-0.

Below is a bit of video of the SPF band debuting its 2012 show at halftime of the football team's opening game, at its home field Sept. 7.

This part of the show features the drumline. Andy is second-from-left among the tenor drummers.

UPDATE: Click here to watch a Hilliard-Darby parent's video of the Panther band's show, titled "Metroplex: Scenes from the City," as performed at a recent competition.

Rising: One World Trade Center

Views of One World Trade Center rising over Lower Manhattan. As seen from Hoboken in October 2011, April 2012 and September 2012, and from Sandy Hook on Sept. 9, 2012.

McLean Avenue neighborhood remembers 9/11

Workers prepare the 9/11 memorial on Saturday.
Photo from McLean Ave. Merchants Association.

Pieces of steel from the Twin Towers have been erected at Conor Park on McLean Avenue in Yonkers and will be dedicated Sept. 11 as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Brien writes: "I just got off the bus after work and saw they were putting up plaques for every Yonkers victim behind the WTC beams. It's an honor to live in this neighborhood and I've lived in it my whole life."

Brien at the memorial on Monday.

The dedication ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 Tuesday evening.

Our annual Roster of Scholars for 2012-13

Here's our annual back-to-school rundown of teachers and students in our extended family. Please let us know of any errors or additions.

Kathy - Teaching science at School of the Holy Child in Rye.

Mary - Director and head teacher at Stillwater Head Start in Stillwater, N.Y.

Shanna - Teaching at the Ann and Andy Child Care preschool in Elmsford.

Rebecca - In her senior year at Rochester Institute of Technology, studying polymer chemistry in the College of Science.

Christine - Sophomore at Rochester Institute of Technology in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.

Patrick - Sophomore at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Lizzie - In her senior year at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

Andy - Junior at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.

Christopher - Sophomore at Hilliard Darby High School.

Shannon - In her freshman year at Saratoga Springs High School.

Stephanie - In 7th grade at Hilliard Heritage Middle School.

Xander - In kindergarten at Hugh Mercer Elementary School.

Who are we missing? Let us know!

Another school year is under way

Xander joined our family's roster of scholars on Sept. 4, his first day at Hugh Mercer Elementary School in Fredericksburg, Va.

"Kindergarten is awesome," Xander told his parents at the end of the day.

Elsewhere in our extended family, at least two teachers, three college students and five high-school and middle-school students have started or are about to start their 2012-2013 academic years.

We're putting together an updated list and will post it soon.

George Washington slept here - first!

During his late-summer break from work, Dan paid a quick visit this week to Marie, Brian and Xander in Virginia. On Tuesday, father, daughter and grandson checked out the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, the site where the first president was born in 1732.

Marie and Junior Ranger Xander at Washington's Birthplace

The site is operated by the National Park Service and participates in the NPS Junior Ranger program, which offers kids the opportunity to earn badges by learning about National Parks. Xander promptly enlisted.

George was born on the Washington family plantation, on Pope's Creek just off the Potomac River in what is now Westmoreland County. He was three when he moved with his parents to Ferry Farm near Fredricksburg. The house where he was born was destroyed by fire in 1779.

In the 1920s, a private association was formed to rebuild the house and turn the property into an educational historic site, which was then turned over to the National Park Service. The house and various outbuildings are not really replicas of the originals, since no drawings or plans could be found, but are appropriate to the mid-18th Century and filled with period furnishings and artifacts.

One building is set up as the farm's workshop, including a blacksmith's forge.

At the blacksmith's workshop

It's a busy time for Xander: He and his mom just got back from a visit to Marie's mother in California; next week, he'll start kindergarten; and on Monday, he had his first baby tooth fall out and his first visit from the tooth fairy.

Coast-to-coast move for Genevieve & John

Embarking on new adventures, John and Genevieve are changing jobs and relocating from California to New York.

The couple have lived in Mountain View, Calif., since their marriage in November 2009. John, who has been working for Facebook since January 2008, is jumping to a software start-up called Addepar. He will establish and be the "tech lead" for the California-based company's new Manhattan office.

Genevieve is becoming assistant manager of foundation and government grants for the New York Public Library system. She'll be part of a seven-person staff that secures funding for the library's programs from private foundations and public agencies.

Genevieve's new job starts Monday (Aug. 27), so she'll be staying at her parents' home for the time being. While in California, Genevieve worked for educational publisher Cengage and as a grant writer for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

John will join Addepar on Sept. 10. He'll work at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., for the first couple of months, becoming familiar with the firm's products and procedures, before opening its New York engineering office and hiring a staff.

Addepar builds software for financial managers - firms that oversee investments for institutions or individuals - to help them track and analyze investments over multiple accounts. Its web site says its "new generation of technology" is designed to "help wealth managers minimize risk, fight fraud, and drive performance."

Renowned artist exhibits in Rehoboth

The Wiberg Gallery in Rehoboth Beach is currently featuring works by Dolores. Above, she stands with gallery owner Jack Wiberg at the show's opening earlier this month.

"I have been a member of the gallery for just over a year," Dolores writes. Her works will be featured for about two months, and then move back to one of the other spaces in the gallery.

Also this month, Dolores exhibited at the Rehoboth Art League's annual Outdoor Show. She's a long-time participant in the show and its former chairperson.

Visit Dolores' web site to see more of her work.

Kevin's Choice: He moves to a new job

Kevin has joined Choice Logistics, a global supply-chain management firm headquartered in New York.

"After four years at Smartsource LLC, it was time to move to a new position," Kevin writes. "On Aug. 6, I began working as Billing Administration Manager for Choice Logistics in their corporate office in Downtown Manhattan." The office is about a block from Battery Park.

"Choice Logistics provides time-critical delivery of high-end technical parts from its network of over 400 warehouse locations worldwide, servicing major companies such as Dell, Hitachi, and Pitney Bowes. In my new position, I will be managing five billing analysts responsible for over 100,000 transactions per month.

"The first two weeks have been an in-depth orientation, meeting with the senior VP's of the company and learning the department's policies and procedures. I am looking forward to finishing the training process and getting involved in the day-to-day operations."

Dolores writes about Austen-inspired fiction

Dolores recently wrote an article about the proliferation of books that invent new stories using the characters of Jane Austen's novels.

"There now are countless books by contemporary authors who happily use Jane's characters, locations and situations, over and over. They expand on the plots, develop minor characters and continue stories beyond Jane's endings."

The article ran in the August issue of "Our Village Voice," the resident-produced newspaper of Oak Crest Village. Click here to see a scan of the article. (It's broken in pieces to fit the scanner, but just scroll down from one piece to the next.)

The birds and the beaches on Long Island

Here, chickadees!

On a weekend visit to Noyac, Dan, Julie, Andy, Christine and her boyfriend Matt took to the nature trails on Jessup's Neck. As in past years, they brought along sunflower seeds to feed the chickadees -- and so did quite a few other visitors on this summer Sunday. At one point four groups converged at one spot, making for the amusing photo above.

Dan says: Feeding the chickadees has become one of our favorite activities when we get out to Noyac. Over the years it seems some of the other critters also have been getting bolder about taking snacks from humans. A couple of years ago, Patrick had a cardinal land on his hand for some seeds.

Chipmunks, too, will sometimes come for a handout. This one didn't just grab and run. It filled its cheeks with seeds, as chipmunks do, before scampering away.

We also got in some relaxing time at the "back beach" on Pine Neck...


...and a late-day visit to the ocean at Bridgehampton. It was a too-brief but enjoyable visit.

Getting ready for marching band season

Chris and the other members of the Hilliard Darby High School Band spent the week of Aug. 5-10 at band camp. It was held at a conference center in Marengo, Ohio, about 40 miles from Hilliard.

Upon their return, they put on a performance for family and friends at the high school gym. Chris' mom, Cathy, has added several videos to our Birch Street collection. In the clip below, the band plays the school's fight song.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

Also check out the band's impressive entrance and the rest of the videos.

"It won't be long before they're marching on the field every Friday night," Cathy writes. In fact, the school's first football game of the season is at its home field on Friday, Aug. 24.

More summer studies for Andy

In a 1912 Elizabethan-style building used as a Yale University dormitory, Andy spent two weeks this summer learning the basics of writing computer programs in C++ and Java.

The iD Programming Academy course was offered by the same outfit that runs the iD Tech Camp and iD Gaming Academy programs that Andy enjoyed in past summers. This was a more advanced course, and Andy said he learned a lot from it.

Dan, Julie and Christine all made the trip to New Haven to drop Andy off, and then visited Christine's freshman-year RIT roommate and her parents at their home in nearby Bethany, Conn.

When Julie drove up to bring Andy home, she took the opportunity to stop by New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery and visit the grave of a distant relative -- lexicographer and author Noah Webster.