Braefield Farm: May 2005

Mama Cille's Peony

I am delighted with my camera. I decided to try one of the special settings today and this picture of Mama Cille's peony is the result of the close-up feature. It is worth seeing this picture in the original, it's a long download but amazing detail. The link is here.

This peony, probably 'Festiva maxima', originated with John's Great Grandmother, Mama Cille. John's parents moved several peonies from Mama Cille's garden to their garden in Cold Spring Harbor. When Jack and Noreen were moving to Maine they brought 2 peonies to Bevery Farms, one each for John and his sister Anne.

I divided our peony into three plants. When John's sister Liz started her garden I gave her one of the peonies. I brought one peony to Topsfield when we moved and left one in my garden in Beverly Farms. I divided that peony into two plants. When we moved from Topsfield to Braefield Farm I brought one of the peonies and left one in my garden in Topsfield.

We now have two peonies ( I divided this one as well ) from the original rootstock here at Braefield Farm. The original peony was planted by Mama Cille at least 65 years ago.

Click picture to enlarge

Coach's Award

I've been meaning to to write a post about Polly receiving the Coach's Award this year for the Holderness Eastern Alpine Ski Team. The Coach's Award is a given to the athlete who shows a strong commitment and work ethic combined with a positive attitude. This is the third Coach's Award for Polly, she received the Coach's Award at Montgomery School for Basketball and Lacrosse.

There are 32 members of the Holderness Eastern Alpine Ski Team and 4 of the 32 kids received the award. This award is a great tribute to an athlete and we are very proud of Polly for her acheivement.

This picture is from the 1999 New Hampshire State Championship, it was Polly's first year racing, she was nine years old.

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I want to credit Carrie here as well. Carrie received three Coach's Awards while she was at Holderness. She received the award for soccer in her Sophomore year, Eastern Freestyle Skiing in her Junior year, and Tennis as a Senior. Carrie was also awarded the Most Improved Player as a Freshman for Tennis.

New Mexico

Carrie is finishing the school year as she started with a class in Archaeology. Carrie's class spent five days doing field work at an Archaeology site in New Mexico.

Small world story... One of the guys in Carrie's class is from New Hampshire and his sister is a freshman at Holderness School. She plays on Polly's Lacrosse Team.

Carrie is the kid with her head turned to the left in the center of the picture. Amazing how blue the sky is out west.
Click to enlarge the picture.

Since this is Carrie's last Archaeology Class, I wanted to post this letter one last time, some may have missed it the first time around because I only linked to it. I think it's hysterical....Australopithecus spiff-arino!

Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078

Dear Mr. Williams:

Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled 93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post...Hominid skull."

We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Rhode Island two million years ago.

Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be "Malibu Barbie."

It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-homonids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.

This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:

A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.

B. Clams don't have teeth.

It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.

Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.

However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.

We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.

Yours in Science,

Harvey Rowe
Chief Curator- Antiquities

Carrie

Carrie sent me these pictures. The kids went out for an end of the school year dinner. Carrie said it was a great party, a good time was had by all.

Carrie is third from the left.
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I think Carrie took this picture.
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Old Friends

Last weekend an old friend I hadn't seen in about 12 years, Connie Johnson, was in Philadelphia. Connie and I went to school together and she introduced me to John. Connie's husband Henry Johnson and John have been friends since they were kids.

The picture was taken at another friend's(John Hossfeld) wedding in 1980. John Hill was an usher at our wedding and Cass Smith was John's best man.

Henry Johnson, John, John Hill, Cass Smith
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Connie was in Philadelphia with her friend Renee and her son Phillip. Renee's son Glen is a student at Penn and they came to watch his last Lacrosse game of the season. John and I went in to see the game last Saturday. Connie and Renee came out to Braefield Farm on Sunday. It was great to see Connie and Phil after all these years and a pleasure to meet Renee. We didn't have a chance to meet Glen, but we did get to see him play Lacrosse.

Connie & Renee