Embarking upon research vacation.

Greetings upon the arrival of Summer!

For about the next five or six weeks, I'll be on a cross-country road trip for the following purposes:

(1) To attend The Thoreau Society annual gathering and a seminar with The Walden Woods project, both in Massachusetts, with a research focus upon Thoreau's philosophy regarding the natural economy and its applications to a person's awareness/sense of place, both in the world and in the moment.

(2) To attend The Freedoms Foundation's Medal of Honor seminar at Valley Forge, as part of an ongoing study of the personalities and contributions of U.S. presidents, particularly in their roles as commanders.

(3) To visit as many presidential libraries as I can, also as part of a survey of presidential character.

(4) To conduct field research for the book I am writing about our family history and genealogy, including visits to local historical societies, burial sites, and other sites of importance to our ancestors, focusing upon the gathering of stories and photographic images for the book.

Marty and I will meet in Philadelphia to visit friends and explore sites together, particularly places related to his father's family in Tennessee.  

Upon return home, I'll resume these posts, including reports about discoveries made while in Europe last Summer with my sister Cynthia and the trip upon which I embark today.  Some book reviews are also in the works.

Annie

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined." -- Henry David Thoreau

Welcome To My New Web Log!

CHRIST IS RISEN!!!  (We Orthodox Christians are still in the Paschal season.  Our Lord rose from the dead--Hallelujah!--on May 1st, and His Glorious Ascension is June 9th.)

Fair Readers, it has been a while!  The last posting on my previous blog, classicswithmrsb.blogspot.com, was in March 2015!  Gives you an idea how busy things have been.  I'll leave that blog live and may refer back to it now and then.  Gotta fix some of the photos links, though!

Given some projects looming upon the horizon, it is time for a web log with a broader scope.  

One project that will be discussed frequently in these postings is a book I am writing (with help from my aunt Beverly, cousin Lynn, and anyone else I can recruit!) about our family.  

Last summer, my sister Cynthia and I went to Europe for her 50th birthday.   Cynthia has been amazingly generous toward the family over the years--particularly with our mother during her long illness--so it gave me great joy to plan this trip for her as a "thank-you."  As part of the journey, we endeavored to visit places related to our ancestry, particularly Manchester, England and Trier, Germany, from which regions our paternal grandmother and great-grandfather, respectively, had emigrated to the U.S.  Our family also has strong ties with Scotland and France, so we visited those countries, too.  Of course, I had to take her to Rome for a few days, as well!  (Someday Ireland, Latvia, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.)  Postings that give reports about our European genealogical sojourn will soon begin, so stay tuned!

On about June 21st, I'll embark upon an extended U.S. road-trip, in part to attend three educational institutes (with The Thoreau Society and Walden Woods Project in Massachusetts, and The Freedoms Project at Valley Forge, PA).  Along the way, I'll stop in areas important for my mother's family background in America, which goes back to the 17th Century (we are descended from at least 7 Revolutionary War Patriots through our maternal grandfather!).  I'll also flash my presidential-library-membership card to visit museums dedicated to the presidencies of Bush 41&43, LBJ, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Truman, Hoover, and maybe Ford--we'll see how it goes!  Marty and I will link up in Pennsylvania and travel together for a while, too.  He will be working on webcasts for the Democrat political convention this summer.  Should be interesting...!

Let us be hopeful this summer!
Annie

The Lord is King; He is robed in majesty. -- Psalm 93:1 (LXX 92.1)