from The Daily What

videos. quite a few.

School Portrait (2011) from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.




Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.





















Thanks to TYWKIWDBI and Miss Cellania.

fracking-related earthquake in virginia

rest in peace, "pappy".

Friday evening, a very important figure in my life left us.  Harry Funk passed peacefully at 84 after having a pacemaker put in, breaking his hip, numerous small strokes, and eventually settling down in the nursing home. Harry had been a wonderful friend, neighbor, and was like a grandfather to me.  All of my grandparents are dead; and before they died, they lived so far away I rarely got to see them.  Harry and his wife Shirley were my next door neighbors for most of my life, and they were like family to me.  Harry, thank you for all the support, love and orange candies you gave me.  Your little tree climber wishes the best to you and your family.  Rest in peace, Harry.  What matters in the end isn't the years in your life, but the life in your years. <3

Harry E. Funk, 84, of 124 South 6^th Avenue, Clarion, died Friday, November 25, 2011, at the Clarview Nursing Home in Sligo following a brief illness.
Born January 23, 1927, in Heathville, Jefferson County; he was the son of Euphrastus Stewart and Lena LaRue Smith Funk.
A veteran, Harry served in the Army from 1945 to 1947.
He was married on June 30, 1949 to the former Shirley Minich, and she survives.
In 1989, Harry retired from the Glen-Gery Brick Company in Summerville after working 43 years.
He was a member of the Leisure Run Church Fairmount City and affiliant member of the First United Methodist Church in Clarion.
In addition to his wife, Shirley, he is survived by two sons, Eric Funk and his wife, Barbara, of Shippenville; and Shawn Funk and his wife, Anne, of Wexford; and five grandchildren, Casey McQuade, Jessica, Eric, Rebekah, and John Funk; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
Also surviving is a sister, Betty Funk Patchen and her husband, Donald, of Union City.
He was preceded in death by his parents, and a brother, John Franklin Funk.
At Harry’s request, there will be no public visitation.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, November 28, 2011, at the First United Methodist Church, Clarion, with Reverends Deryl Larsen and Terry Guiste presiding.
The arrangements are under the direction of the Robert V. Burns Funeral Home in Clarion.
Interment will be held in the Salem Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the “Living Stones Campaign” at the First United Methodist Church, 600 Wood Street, Clarion PA 16214, attn. David Houser.
Online condolences can be sent to the family by visiting www.rvburnsfuneralhome.com.

from exploreclarion

watch this in full screen! (double click vid)

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

maia flore: sleep elevations

Very cool photography.  More of her stuff here.

I know it's hugeee ;/

I

it's been a while!

It has indeed.  But--I'm back!

photo credit: dandingeroz04

 

the ukelele orchestra of great britain - flight of the condor

photoshoot and richard branson's house fire.

today i discovered the wonders of making diptychs.  click to enlarge

I guess I'm giving you a panoply of posts today... LOVE THAT WORD.  PANOPLY.

Anyway, today I took some pics.  Here's some.

my weird outfit.  it doesn't match.  live with it. :)

You might have heard about the tropical storm which struck the wealthy Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson's island home in the Carribean only a couple days ago.  The $70 million luxurious home was burned to the ground and Kate Winslet, who was staying with her family on the island, is credited with having rescued Branson's 90-year-old mother from the fateful flames.  (More on this here, here, and a bunch here.) Just another reason to admire that lady!

owl pictures!

Here's some pictures of the owls outside my aunt's window:

squinty's on the left :)

love the blank stares on owls #2 and 3 here.

renovated craft room!

While we were gone we had our "crap room" renovated.  Now it's the "craft room"... I LOVE IT!

on five-Ks, friends and fin(n)erans

CTHULHU SLIPPERS  ♥  BUY ME THESE

Hello!  I haven't been posting too much recently, other than the odd link or pic.  So here's what's been happening lately:

i ran a 5k... yup • had a music party • LEFT MONTANA :( • stayed a few days with my aunt amy, uncle erik and cuz emily in bismarck • ran out of gas in the middle of north dakota and had to be rescued by "Triple A-my" • got carded at a random irish pub  • made a midnight run to DQ with emily in the pouring rain... we couldn't see the road, and the radio kept telling us to seek shelter immediately.  plus, the drive-thru wasn't operating, so we walked to the window, and stood there in the pouring rain in our sundresses and raincoats, which, as it turned out, were not actually raincoats, but windbreakers that were not the slightest bit waterproof.  needless to say, we were SOAKED. • the cute baby owls in the tree outside the window at amy's... i love them • stayed with aunt jayne and uncle bill in moline • did some school shopping. :P.  • arrived in wisconsin! new state for me... never been here! i love it! • got to our friend sylvia's condo in west side madison 

     So the past couple days I've been lounging on the HUGE deck in a hammock, reading Ernest Thompson Seton.  I love Wisconsin!  And Madison!  Sylvia, who's my family's best friend, retired this year and moved to the condo in Madison.  Her condo is above a library (!), a coffee shop (!!) and an ice cream shop (!!!).  Her deck/terrace is huge, with two hammocks!  It's really cool.

     Today, we went off in the car, in search of the Finneran family farm.  I'd better give you some backstory here: my mom's family are the Finerans.  Some day, I'll type up all the old written histories, but for now, I'll just say this:

It was the farm of Michael & Ellen (Fineran) Finneran. The original house on the property burned in 1895.  I believe this home was built around 1920 primarily by their son John. It was farmed by their son William S. until his death in 1980 at the age of 96. It is no longer owned by the Finneran family. Michael & Ellen were both from County Galway. He came to America around 1854. (Michael and Ellen were my GG grandparents.) Their son James M. adopted the spelling of Fineran from the maternal side of the family, while his brothers kept the paternal spelling.

Thank you to my aunt Jayne Fineran for this information!

  

     My mom has lots of memories from when she was a kid at her Uncle Bill's dairy farm, and when we realized how close Madison was to the farm, we decided to go find it.  We drove out of the small town of Evansville.  We came across a cemetery along the country road— we'd been planning to go find where the Finnerans (2-N) were buried, so we got out and looked through the cemetery.  Unfortunately, no Finnerans were found, but we did find the grave of old Lida Cole, the housekeeper of the farm, whose sons later on inherited the estate, causing much outrage with the incensed Finnerans. (Not us - we sent flowers at her funeral!  With the farm Finnerans.)  Anyway, after visiting the cemetery we drove on until we came to Finneran Road (yeah, I have a road named after me! hahaha.).  We got to the farm and my mom told us all sorts of stories about it... like how this was the place where she had discovered how cows hate her— more on this later!  Anyway, no one was home, so we didn't get to meet the owners.  The farm's not in the family anymore, so we don't know who lives there now.   

    Then we went back to Evansville for lunch and headed back to Madison, where there was a gay pride congregation around the capital building.  We did some shopping (I acquired a "Women's Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society tee!) and came home.  For dinner I had some really good Indian— man, that stuff's good.  NAAN ❤

 Alright, I'm going to go lie on the hammock and cliche-ly think up something artsy to write about next.

     Sincerely,

Margaret Catherine (Fineran)

web jetsam

Hearst Castle pool... amazing

Hello Cthulhu - oh great another obsession

Minnie, the Little Fish Who Lived in a Shoe... Cute illustrations!

The Story of Bugs Bunny

Real Fairy Captured in Mexico - breaking news! Hahaha.

Hahahaha perfect.

Some nummy-sounding breakfast beverages... mmm (mostly.)

Shorpy: Tashmoo Trippers, 1900.  Interesting— so many personalities.

 

cephalopod camouflage

haha, cool.

decemberists concert and related ramblings.

  
I should've posted this a while ago!  Sorry!!  On July 21, my dad and I drove over to Missoula to see The Decemberists.  (If you don't know about them, look them up.  They're amazing.)
     So I'll start from the beginning.  We stayed at my dad's stepdad's neice Peggy's beautiful house.  The first day, upon arrival in Missoula, and after a successful lunch at the Pita Pit with dad, and a visit with our wonderful friend Ripley Hugo, we drove over to Peggy's at the outskirts of town.  Peggy's husband, Caddy, was at a convention that week, so she was very grateful for the company.  Her house is at the bottom of the hill in the trees.  There's a beautiful little brook right next to the house, and lots of lovely tall trees.  The house itself is huge!  Her bathroom is awesome.  It's the size of all of ours combined!  I love it!
     They recently remodeled Caddy's deck as well, and it's wonderful!  Because Caddy loves the ocean and sailing, the two of them set to work to make Caddy his own personal ship deck.  There are nets hanging down from the roof, which have seashells and other ocean/ship-related things attached.  Then, there are glass net-floats around on the floor of the deck and on the ground below.  There are ropes hanging and anchors in corners, and it's very rustic!

 

     My cousin Alexander (I call him 'Sander) came over for supper, and we all exchanged stories.  Peggy and Caddy are like honorary grandparents to he and his sister Emily, because they live in Missoula and their family is in ND.  After supper, Sander found a mandolin up in Caddy's den, and my dad pulled out a bouzouki and a guitar, and I found a ukelele on the living room table, and so we played music for a while. Finally, at about 11:30, Sander went home.  Peggy, being the artsier of the family, brought out some florist wire and buttons and showed us how to make these really cool flowers.  I got to bed at about 2:00.

     The next day, after nomming Peggy's delicious homemade breakfast, Dad left to go out for lunch at Tower Pizza with Sander.  I stayed at Peggy's and we decided to do some research and head to Joann Fabrics to look at patterns and material for making a dress.  Then, after a successful lunch at the Pita Pit with Peggy, we did the grocery shopping and headed back, and Peggy showed me how to hook wool.  After a while my dad got back, announcing that Tower Pizza was closed for lunch, and that he and Sander had decided we'd all go to a Thai place for dinner before the concert.  Also, Dad decided to go visit his college best friend's parents while we were here in Msla.  I went with—they were really nice!
     We got to the Thai place and I had the most revolting Thai iced tea.  The rest was good though.

Peggy and Caddy's beautiful cat, Trim (as in trim the sails)

     ...So, you really didn't have to read all that.  Here's the good (but brief) part.

     The concert was great!  The opening band, Typhoon, was pretty cool, too.  You should look them up as well.  I'd link you, but I'm lazy.  Anyway, the Decemberists were amazing!  We were in the back at first, but then we moved up to the front so I could get some pics.  It was an outdoor venue; right outside the Big Sky Brewery.  The fiddler from Nickel Creek (check them out too) was there, filling in for accordionist and keyboardist Jenny Conlee, who is undergoing treatment for her cancer.  My favorites of the songs they played were The Crane Wife 3, Rox in the Box, and Down by the Water... All of them were fantastic though!  Afterwards, dad was planning on going to the Union Club with Sander to meet some of his friends and talk about the concert, but last minute he decided just to go back to Peggy's and tell her all about it.. Bad decision: lead singer Colin Meloy appeared at the Union and played for everone! We stayed up pretty late, again, looking through pictures and videos from the concert with Peggy.  She loved The Crane Wife, so we listened to that one a few times.  Peggy retired late, saying happily, "Oh, I feel like I've gone to a Decemberists concert!" I got to bed around 2:00 again.   
     The next day, Peggy awoke saying just as happily, "Oh, kids, I woke up thinking about.... the crane wife."  I'm glad she liked the Decemberists! :D
     Sadly, we had to go.  So after a successful lunch at the Pita Pit, (yes, again.) (...can you tell I like that place?!), we headed out of Missoula.  Here's some pics from the concert:

Maggie out!