Speaking of Spring Sports...

...and Holderness. Polly found this archived picture of the Holderness 2003 Tennis Team. I think 2003 was the first year Holderness started posting pictures of the kids on their website.

Carrie received the Coaches Award that year and her coach, Mrs Weymouth, added this to the season recap.

The Coach's Award was given to Carrie Evans, a player who had been in the program for three years. Initially, she was timid on the court, but by this year she had not only developed strong racket skills, she was confident and court smart.

Carrie, 3rd from the left in the back row. Click to enlarge. 

Lacrosse

Polly's spring sport is lacrosse. She went to with Holderness to Florida for spring training and had a great time. Unfortunately she had a bad case of shin splints and had to stop all running for about 10 days.

Polly played in the first game of the season and Holderness had a nice write-up, mentioning Polly. I'm not sure but I think they have this wrong, a veteran player is someone who has played on the team before. Polly would be a rookie player.

The JV Girls' Lax team saw excellent action in their first official game of the season with Derryfield, a solid and competitive Varsity team. Veteran players Polly Evans, Jesse Saba, Eliza Cooley and Lauren Wright dominated the offense lineup with their energy, hustle and teamwork which earned Polly a goal, Jesse two goals, and Eliza one goal for the total team score...

Polly has played in the last two games. Holderness beat White Mountain School 6-4, Polly scored 3 goals. Polly scored 5 goals today against Kimbal Union Academy, Holderness won 9-?. John went up to New Hampshire this weekend to see Polly and was able to see her game.


I don't have a picture of Polly playing lacrosse, but John found this picture on the Holderness website of Polly working out.

Polly. Click to enlarge. 


And here is a picture of Polly, number 11, with the Holderness Lacrosse Team. Click to enlarge. 

A Familiar Scene at Braefield Farm

I happened to have my camera and spotted Jim mowing the back field on his lunch hour today.


Jim Mowing. Click to enlarge. 

Dorothy Helen Bush c 1940

This is a picture of my grandmother, my mother's mother. I always thought she was beautiful, especially her eyes. My mother takes after her mother and my Aunt Nancy looks more like the Meade side of the family except she has her mother's eyes.

I plan to "photoshop" this picture and post the revised version as well. If anyone can make out the words in the upper right side of the photo, please let me know.

When you look at the enlarged photograph there are horizontal lines running through the picture. These lines do not appear on the original. I have noticed this on a couple of other pictures I've scanned... I haven't the faintest idea why ..

Click to enlarge. 


Photoshop version.Click to enlarge. 

Barbara and James Meade c 1947

Most of my pictures are somewhere in the attic, but for some reason this photograph of my mother and her brother Jim was with my more recent photos. I thought my mother and Aunt Nancy would like to see it again.

Click to enlarge. 

Watercolors - Sheldon Ward Meade

These two watercolors were painted by my great-grandfather, Sheldon Ward Meade. He was my mother's paternal grandfather. He was an interesting guy. Sheldon Meade was born in Canada and moved to Nebraska to claim land there. He returned to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Army to fight in the first World War. He traveled through-out The Soviet Union in the 1930's and was married three times. I think my great-grandmother, Dorcus Anne Wilson, was wife number two.

Sheldon Meade wrote an autobiography and an extensive travelog of his trip to the Soviet Union. My mother has his hand painted diary. I will add more details of his life in a later post.

Sheldon Meade included the name and location of the church shown in the painting, Tumacacori Az. The Tumacacori Mission is an ancient Spanish mission ruin built by Jesuit priests, dating from the latter part of the seventeenth century. If you click on the highlighted text you can read about and see a photogragh of the mission. I don't know when or why he traveled to Arizonia.

Tumacacori Mission. Click to enlarge. 




I'm guessing this still life was painted at his farm in Butler Pennslyvania.

Still Life. Click to enlarge. 

Twins

Alexander and Brandon were born August 2, 2004 in San Antonio Texas to Shayne and Marina Elliff.

They are my Aunt Nancy's great-grandsons, my mother's great-great-nephews, and my first cousins twice removed.

Adorable

Here is a new picture of the boys with their Dad shown with the original picture I posted last summer.

Click to enlarge. 




Note: If you click on the names Shayne and Marina you link to their pictures.

Vanity

John built the cabinet and the counter top for the vanity in the powder room. The counter top is maple. This just fits between two windows, the sink is one of the smallest on the market. The only faucet type that would fit was a one hole faucet, this is Kolher "Antique"in brass. We have a mahogany corner cubboard to mount above the vanity and will use a light that is typically used over paintings over the corner cubboard.

Click to enlarge. 

Polly in the Holdeness School Photo of the Day

Picture and text from the Holderness Website

Head of School's Photo of the Day: 4/20/2005.


The process for selecting student leaders for the academic year 2005 - 2006 began this past Saturday after the senior project presentations. As we speak, the results of the voting are being tallied off-site, with the results expected in time for the early May leadership chapel.

Holderness is unique in the way that it selects its student leaders. Instead of long campaigns and posters, the process is quietly and thoughtfully done, with every student in the school rating every other student from 1 to 5 in the following categories: leadership, dependability, initiative, and fairness. The points are tallied and the top two vote-getters become President and Vice-President of the school respectively. Other top-rated students fill in the remaining leadership jobs, from Weld Supervisor to house and floor leaders.

The method for electing leaders was initiated in 1949 by the School Government Council made up of students and faculty. A copy of the notes from the meeting, including its description of the election process, is posted in the Webster Rom.

Courtyard

You may remember, I posted a landscape plan last fall. We had to move and retain the driveway to create some breathing room around the new addition. The stone walls were completed in early January and the landscaping was on hold through the winter. John has done some rough grading with his front-end loader and the general layout is shown below with the original landscape plan.

Still to do ... finish grading, install flagstone terrace and walkway, plant grass, establish gardens, install exterior lighting, and build and install the fence that goes on top of the stone walls.

The new stone walls with the re-built exsisting stone wall in shadow. The garage can be seen behind the house.Click on the picture to enlarge. 



This view is looking down the hill. The picture was taken from where the new walkway and stair will come off of the driveway.The pond can be seen in the background. 


This picture shows the area that has been backfilled at the driveway elevation and the regrading underway for the walkway. The terrace will be in front of the triple window. 


The courtyard is shown here from the front terrace. There will be gardens along the stone walls and grass in the rest of the courtyard.Click to enlarge the picture. 


Plan View.Click to enlarge. 


Elevation.Click to enlarge. 

Spring Break

Carrie's friend Jason came to visit while Carrie was home for spring break. I think they had a nice time together and it was great to see Jason again. This picture of Carrie and Jason is from last summer.
 



Polly spent part of her Spring Break in Florida at lacrosse camp, then flew into Philadelphia and home, she hadn't been home since early September and was amazed at the progress on the house. It was great that my sister Sue was able to come up from Virgina to see the girls, she hadn't seen Polly since last August. I think the kids were glad to be home together after such a long time away.

Polly met up with some old friends from Montgomery School and had a chance to rest after a hectic winter term.

Jim and Margaret came for pizza on Saturday night with Andrew and Rachael, a good time was had by all.

John, Margaret, Jim, and Sue. If you enlarge this picture, you can see what the group finds so amusing.Click to Enlarge  


Polly and Rachael. 


Carrie. 

Hornell

Carrie came home for part of her spring break. She flew into Philadelphia late on Thursday March 17th and John drove her to Carlisle to meet my sister on Friday. Sue and Carrie drove to Hornell and I met them there very late Friday night.

The mass for my Aunt Jean was lovely. My cousin Lynn sang several Irish ballads and Buzz accompanied her on the organ, she has a lovely voice. Aunt Jean's grandchildren paid tribute by reading some of her favorite poems and stories that they had shared.

Family members came from California, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvannia, Massachusetts, and New York for the service.

Aunt Marguerite with my cousin Tom. 


Sue and Carrie with my cousin Greg.