Tag Archives: Juni Fisher

Ancestry

Jim’s great aunt died suddenly early yesterday morning.  After the morning phone calls and family arrangements for flowers etc. I started thinking of what a wonderful and vivacious woman this was. Aunt Velma Jean and her husband took a trip up to see Nanny last Christmas to take Nanny to lunch.  They really lured her next door for the surprise Juni Fisher concert!  That was the last time we saw her.

Yesterday I was thinking of our family so did a trial with an ancestry site for two weeks.  I did some of the basics and found out something my father never had in his years of research: his mother’s passage from Hamburg, Germany to NYC in 1923.  I was able to send him a copy of the passage documentation of her adopting a new country.  I spent a couple of hours on it yesterday, no time today.  I didn’t know the program at all so made many mistakes and it took me ten times the amount of time for an entry to say “whoops” and try to fix it.

Food and family go together naturally.  Otherwise why would Thanksgiving dinner be important?  It’s only a turkey.  I hope results of my search lead to more family recipes and regional foods from the far-flung areas that marked even my parents and grandparents.

The next step is to interview our remaining relatives to glean more information from their searches.  So I’m on a hunt for the best rouladen, Rosti potatoes, plus English, Irish, French-Canadian recipes out there.  Here’s to a great weekend!  Dee

News

Three great things happened today. First you’ll all be happy to know that Pippi Longstocking is alive and well and living on my head.

Pippi's hat

Pippi's hat

This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t met pdxknitterati, who also led us to cowgirl poet Juni Fisher who played a surprise party for Jim’s grandmother’s birthday last fall. She heard I liked it so sent it off in the mail, God bless her. Pippi will come in handy later this week when the snow flies again. It is beautifully knitted and will be cherished forever.

Today, in the rain and dampness I kept the heat at 68 and turned on the fire for 15-20 minutes to take off the chill. I also got a chance to wear my Arran fishermans’ cardigan from Oban, Scotland and sent them a poem as well.

For years Jim’s been saying “anything you want to do, anything that makes you happy.” I called him today for reiteration of same. I bought a guitar, case, pitch pipe, and book and may take lessons. What I learned in high school I all but forgot. Other than a G chord I’m useless. My fingers don’t work as they used to when I was seventeen! I lent my 8th grade Christmas gift to a boyfriend after college and he kept it, perhaps as service rendered after two dates and I wouldn’t… you know.

Third is that we finally got Jim’s W-2 so I can finalize our taxes and not punt or send an unnecessary check. So, there’s more work to do.

All in all, with rain, it’s been a good day. Cook well tonight. Cheers, Dee.

To Juni Fisher, Songwriter

I went into a country store today and was very conservative in my selections. Lucinda helped me, and what a help she was.

Inspired

Inspired

But I got this and there is a vest that I really want that I need to think about.

First of all, Juni Fisher is not just a song writer, she’s a story teller from way back when, a woman who names inanimate objects and tells stories about them. She’s also a singer, with a voice as clear as a bell, and a guitar picker. And a right nice gal.

I walked into this store wanting to look for Jim but ended up looking for me. My thought is that I’ll end up with something we could renew our vows in, someday after Nanny’s surprise has worn off. Then we can hit her again.

Boots will have to be specially made for me, perhaps for Jim as well. Hat for me would work but brother John has to weigh in on hats for both, as Jim’s head is too big – must be that darned big brain of his.

Yesterday, Nanny took us for a ride in our car, as she’s looking to buy a car and we just got ours a few weeks ago. Jim spent a lot of time adjusting her seat et al, but when we got on the road she was enjoying herself and we always love her company.

Let’s hope Juni got home safe and has some time with family and friends before her next tour. We enjoyed meeting her, spending some down time with her and listening to her tales both spoken and sung.

She brought me home. Three taps of the horn – thanks Mom! Keep on cooking, folks, Dee

Home Again

We had an uneventful trip home today, my favorite kind of car trip without nasty traffic. We stopped en route to purchase more memory for my computer (Jim) and pick up the dog from the kennel (aka dog spa) with $30 penalty for Sunday pickup. Jim also picked up homemade jams and beef jerky at exit ??? I don’t recall, but we got gasoline there.

Our home isn’t home unless all of us are in it. It’s too quiet without Zoe trying to trip me with an armful of laundry, so we had to pick her up right away after picking up more memory…. Perhaps as we get older we can pick up more human memory, but I don’t think the pharmaceutical companies have that in mind.

Many things went through my mind, especially the last song Juni Fisher sang and dedicated to Nanny, The Whipporwhill Song, in which a mother calls for her children and brings them home. When we moved from our small village out to what I now recognize to be a “Gentleman’s Farm” out in the country when I was eight years old, my sister and I toughened up right away and went toe-to-toe with our two neighbor boys near our age.

We learned within a week to climb a ragged rope 150′ down to the creek. The people who sold us their unfinished house, that we spent three years finishing, also sold us an old station wagon. When there was fifteen minutes to dinner on the table, Mom would go out to our parking lot and hit the car horn three long blasts. That meant come up the cliff, get cleaned up, wash your hands and be at the table. We did so right away.

When Juni sang her Whipporwhill Song I was in tears remembering my mother who died just weeks ago. My song was three car blasts to get us up from the creek. I guess we never learned how to whistle or sing a bird’s song. The old station wagon used to be my bird song. But I now have my home. Dee

Nanny’s Surprise…

dscf00181

The family has kept this secret for months! This afternoon over twenty of us joined in a belated birthday concert by Juni Fisher, The Western Music Association’s 2008 Songwriter of the Year. Ms. Fisher regaled us with songs and stories, then we ate supper and went our separate ways.

Nanny was surprised and very pleased, and it’s an pleasure to organize something to honor all she is to this family that I’m proud to have married into.

This project began months ago with the Chuck Wagon Throwdown on this site. Thanks to pdxknitterati for bringing “Red Velvet Slippers” and Juni Fisher to my attention. To have a private concert in our cousin’s brand new home with just a handful of guests was incredibly special.

Juni has four CD’s out and Jim and I bought them all and will listen en route home tomorrow morning. Just check out www.junifisher.net for information on her tours and history et al.

Thanks for hosting, Sharon and Ken. Jim’s Mom Margie made terrific sandwiches (ham, roast beef or chicken salad) on her infamous potato rolls, plus her equally renowned Italian cream cake. I added store-bought panforte to expose these Southern palates to more worldly tastes. I also made a large lemon and berry trifle that practically disappeared. A British pudding dessert, who would imagine its success!

All in all, it was a lovely weekend. Hope yours is as much fun. Dee