Sunday Night Chit Chat: One Extreme To The Other

Good Evening Humble Readers...

I'm hoping you've all had a lovely weekend.  Ours was busy but good.  Errands, housework, an impromptu date night, church, and a fun/interesting afternoon today (more on that later) made for a lot of running around, but it was good. 

First and foremost, we have had the most astounding change in our weather.  Tuesday we had a daytime high of 1C.  Today we got up to 28C... from winter to summer in the span of six days.  While I'm going for my walks I've noticed that the trees are finally sporting green buds!  Hooray!  It's supposed to get back to seasonal by midweek, but tomorrow is supposed to be another hot one. 

My Beloved and I decided, rather on the spur of the moment to go out this weekend.  MIL came to spend time with the wee-lings, and we did a little antiquing (just window shopping, trying to find some interesting/affordable pieces), went for dinner, and to a movie.  It was fun, and I did splurge a little bit on dinner (felt it later) but I did enjoy it.  We went to see "42" as well... fabulous movie.  I loved it! 

The highlight of my weekend was this afternoon.  One of the local malls was hosting a sort of antiques roadshow.  I heard about it on the radio a few weeks ago, and made an appointment to have my family heirloom violin appraised (you can read about the violin here).  The gentleman who was looking over my family treasure was intrigued by the history of the violin, even more so when he spent some time looking for my grandfather's great uncle in multiple lists of British violin makers and through auction records and not finding anything about him.  It fits with the story that I've been told that he was a cabinet maker by trade.  The appraiser speculated that the violin may be something that Frederick Barnes may have made it as an apprentice or perhaps as a hobby.  Because there were no auction records and nothing about Barnes in the lists of UK violin makers, it's hard to establish a value.  However, he said that it was beautifully constructed and even with the damage and repairs that happened when I was a child, he felt that it could easily be worth up to $3500.  It's nice to know how much it's worth, but it will never be sold.  It belongs to the wee-lings now.  I simply hold it in trust.  I just hope to hear one of them play it.  I long to hear it make music. 

On to this week's chit chat.  Here's what I'm...

Reading - I just finished "In This Mountain" by Jan Karon early this morning.  Now I'm onto "Plan D" by Sherri Shepherd.  It's about her journey with type 2 diabetes and how she has managed to go from medication to controlling the disease with diet and exercise alone.  I'm hoping to get some insights and ideas, and hopefully laugh a bit too.

Watching - Call the Midwife (tonight's episode was particularly heart-wrenching.  Poor Sister Bernadette), Mr. Selfridge, and Bletchley Circle.  I love Sunday nights on PBS!

Listening to - the neighbours thumping up and down the stairwell.  There was a break-in in the building (a basement unit on the back side of the building) on Friday, and I'm finding I'm a bit hyper-aware of the outdoor sounds now. 

Cooking/Baking - Typical Sunday night fare... lemon dill roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, gravy.  I did a bit of baking this weekend too... I was on the volunteer list for church this weekend, to make the communion bread.  I tried a recipe I haven't used in a while, to make a brioche loaf.  It tasted great, very eggy and yummy, but the shape of the loaf was a bit off.  Looked a little funny when our pastor was holding it up at the front of the church.  That's what I get for trying to be fancy, I guess. 

Happy I accomplished this week - I hit my 10000 steps!  Yesterday and today.  I don't know how I'll manage it during the week, but with errands and grocery shopping it was easy to get there the last couple of days. 

Looking forward to next week - I'm half excited/half dreading Pippin's birthday on Friday.  How is it that my baby boy is a year old???  I'm hoping that the party comes off okay. 

Thankful for today - The fact that the Big D is coming into line.  That I have this chance to change my future and my health. 

****Bonus Question**** What are the top 3 things on your to do list for next week?  Wash all the windows.  Clean the blankety-blank fridge.  Bake a cake!

*****

This has been posted as a part of Carla's Sunday Night Chit Chat.  Click over to see what the others are chatting about tonight, or even better yet, join in!

The Brick Wall of Irony

Hey Humble Readers...

I mentions quite some time ago that I have been working on my geneology.  I know, given my relationship with my bio family, it's odd that I want to do this, but I have my reasons.

First and foremost, I want Ginny to know where she comes from.  When she's old enough, I will tell her about my bio-fam, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it, after all. 

Secondly, and probably the most driving force for me at the moment, is the violin.  An heirloom violin that has been passed down on my bio-mom's side of the family since 1893.  It was made by one of my ancestors, and I would love to know more about him and how the violin made it's way to me. 

I know that the violin was made by Frederick Barnes of Accrington, England.  My great-grandfather, also named Frederick, is either Frederick Barnes' grandson or grand-nephew.  I have been using a very well known geneology website, but I am good and thoroughly stumped. 

I can find Frederick Barnes in Accrington, in the right time frame, but I can't find anything about his siblings, or about his children past 1891.  When did they emmigrate to North America?  Did they come straight to Canada or did they come in through the US?  And I can't find anything about my great-grandfather at all.  Part of the problem is that he used a nickname for most of his life, and that makes finding any records of him challenging.  I keep coming up against brick wall after brick wall.

And the ultimate kicker is, I know that my bio-mom knows some stuff that might point me in the right direction. 

Irony.

Show & Tell: The Violin

Good evening Humble Readers... It looks like I need a tardy slip, because I'm late for Show & Tell. For those of you who haven't heard, show & tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Every week we can step to the front of the class and share something... be it silly or sublime. Check out Mel's place to see what the rest of the class is showing this week.

I've been rather sentimental this week. Thinking a lot about family in all its forms and how it shapes us. As I mentioned in my last post, my biological family isn't a big part of my life. But I cannot deny that they had a huge impact on my life.

One of the few things I have that ties me to them is a violin. A very old, very beautiful violin.

(the ugly black case)

For all my life, the violin has been carefully hidden away. As a child, I was never allowed to touch it. It resided under my Mom's bed, in an ugly black case usually covered in dust.

(look close and you can see Fredrick's handwriting... 1893)

I grew up hearing the stories of how my Grandfather's (not Grandpa from the previous post) great uncle Frederick made the violin in 1893. How Frederick played it in the Accrington (England) orchestra before the turn of the twentieth century. How my Mom was the first person in three generations to play it. There was a special family gathering when it was presented to her, and she played Rock of Ages. How my Grandfather was disappointed because to his tone-deaf ears, it sounded off key. How after one high school orchestra practice, my Mom's conductor asked her not to play it, except when she was given a solo because it sounded so much better than the school's instruments.

I remember when the violin was damaged. A babysitter looking after my sister and I (then 4 years old) got into my Dad's booze, and then started going through my parents' room. After rifling through my Mom's jewelry box, she pulled the violin out from under the bed, and proceded to crack the bridge and knocked out the sound post. It took eleven years for my Mom to find someone she trusted enough to repair it. The man who repaired it offered my Mom a large amount of money for it, but of course he was turned down.

Every time we moved, it would be either in the first load or the last. It traveled on my Mom's lap or on the front seat where she could keep it safe. This is a tradition that I have kept. Even on the long road from Lethbridge to Orlando and back again, it resided on the front seat beside me, and came into every motel room each night of the journey.

(with the original bow)

I am sorry to say, that the violin still resides under a bed... mine. I have long wanted to get it set up in a display box of some sort, where it would be safe from dust and humidity. I don't think it would ever get me a fortune on Antiques R.oads.how, but it's special nonetheless.

I have one more confession. I have never heard it played. Never. When I was born, the fall after my Mom graduated from high school, she put the violin away forever. The man who repaired it played a few notes on it, but I wasn't there to hear it. I hope that there is a point in the future, when someone (a child of mine, perhaps) will tune the strings and draw a bow across them.

I hope I'm there to hear it.