~:: Yes . . . er . . . ::~

This photo session served three purposes: it was a family landmark, it could serve as a Christmas greeting, and it was a Camera War.  Cam and Gin shoot Canon.  This is because I could buy sweet used Rebels for them when they become of a responsible age (ahem) more easily than I could find a Nikon. So they grew up on the dark side. So this pits Cam’s fancy-dancey-I’m-a-professiona Canon against my new Nikon 7000. We’ll see who wins. Above, Cam luxuriates in his assumption of superiority.

The first several shots we took before everybody was ready, which means you get a little more insight to our family character.

Just as I said.

Yep. Everybody looks swell. Except the old lady, who should have worn shoes and lost a few pounds and not been so cheesy.

Here, we mock as Cam rushes back after setting the timer. Now Sandy has his finger up his nose.  They take turns, see.

Finally, a serious shot.

Then spring came.  I love these pussy willow blossom things that come free with the Aspens.

These children are not communing with either ancestors or heaven. This is just the way you have to start a Saturday Spring Egg hunt when you are little and about half of the eggs are just lying on the grass of the front yard.

The family drove up, I ran out to the car to greet them, and Scooter said, “I see a purple egg in your yard.” Considering that he was sitting in a kid’s car seat and that the front yard is guarded by a jungle of aspens and junipers and lilac bushes, albeit mostly without leaves, this is why the closed eyes were necessary.

We like fine, natural hiding places.

The charm of Andy is that she’s not tall enough to see the eggs inside the big planter things there. Tucked in, just beside the front rim.

L is sort of a walking hidden easter egg.

And now.  I promised you that I’d show you  the thing I had been making over the last month that has sucked my brains out. Basically, I’ve been making a mess. But it’s all about dead people. I hunt them down and gather up families and put them back together and explain where they were and how the got to where they went after that. And it’s really, really hard when you’re messing with the early to mid 1800s.  A grand puzzle.  Which I find easier to deal with visually.

So this is what I did, trying to unravel the mystery of the Arringtons of Greene County, Alabama. Many of whom came out of Nash, North Carolina. And those people are beautifully documented by Mr. Boddie.  So I went through his book, and to the census and read a bunch of probates and wills and I wrote every clue with its date and detail on a piece of paper, then cut the piece(s actually) of paper into clue bits and made a timeline.  It really helped me get things straight so I could see exactly what was going on.

And this is what was going on: Nicholas and John D were NOT the Nicholas and John D I thought they were.  If they had been, they’d have been nicely documented by Mr. Boddie. As it turns out, my Nicholas and John D are the only two Arringtons in Greene County, Alabama who are not documented by anybody – arcane, elusive dang people.  They’re from North Carolina, alright. And they seem to know all those Nash folks.  But who are they? Still don’t know. If I hadn’t made that dang timeline, I could have just made a mistake and never known it. And lived a satisfied and rich life for having done it.

In other words, still hunting. It’s fascinating detective work.

Last of all, I thought you’d enjoy seeing the April Fool’s joke Chaz and I did together. She started it by Facebooking this provocative little line about how freeing it was to shave her head. Which brought on a chorus of rude nay-sayers. So we had to produce an actual photograph of her new look. Good thing she knows me, because this is the slickest, most professional job YOU will Ever see:

Okay, well. It did the trick.

And that’s the end.