simply janet

So in my last entry, I mentioned my renewed passion for reading — it’s still going strong. I’m on the sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) while I’m also reading The Blue Zones, a fascinating book about longevity. Although I purchased it to read on my Kindle, many of the other books I’ve been reading are from the bookstore or the library — places I’m going more now that I have a Kindle. Reading begets more reading (for me anyway) and leads to total absorption in subjects that interest me.

Although I acknowledge I have little control over how long I live, I’m interested in learning about what I can control in order to preserve the quality of life I would like to have, and I would like to do that in a balanced and holistic way. So far, I like what I’m reading.

After I posted my Snodgrass family blog entry at Twisted Knitter, a distant Snodgrass relative contacted me and provided some new photos of and information about Henry Snodgrass (1816-1895), including this photo of Henry as an older man:

Henry is my dead-end for this side of my family (my paternal grandmother’s ancestor). He fathered 22 children with his first wife, Elizabeth Phillips (1818-1869), so I know there are more distant cousins who possibly have knowledge of Henry’s origins. It’s thought that his mother was a Native American “Mingo” — which, if true, would be a nice surprise. (I had ruled out any possibility that I might have any Native American ancestry).

When I first started researching my ancestry, I had no idea that blogging about it would help me fill in missing information, but on more than one occasion, I’ve been fortunate to find distant relatives who take the time to leave a comment and express their willingness to help.

Twenty four years ago, I was ending a two-week visit to Tokyo where I’d gone with my mom for her first visit back in nearly 35 years (and my first visit ever). We stayed with family in and around Meguro-ku and Setagaya-ku in Tokyo (my mom grew up in Setagaya).

(Click the photo to go to Flickr and see more information)

In this annual stretch of time from Memorial Day to the week after my birthday, I’m reminded of my trip to Tokyo and the subsequent changes and choices I made after I returned. And every year about this time, I dare myself to try something new. This year it’s a new blog. I’ve been experimenting with blogging elsewhere over the past several months to see if I wanted to break out of writing about knitting and other fiber-related pursuits. Blogging about knitting has been a lovely way to express myself, but then life started happening and loved ones began going through some serious life changes. My parents’ move to Washington led to my desire to explore both my American and Japanese ancestry. Writing about those genealogical discoveries took the place of knitting content over there.

My plan is to keep both blogs — frequency of blogging to be determined. Thank you for reading me in both places.

Erica painted this the night before my birthday — I was surprised and delighted when she brought it to me in the morning. Apparently, she’s been doing some sketching and painting behind the scenes.

I planted these Stella de Oro Daylilies in our front yard. Several more additions are planned — the challenge will be keeping everything alive over a typical hot summer.