bodhi tree swaying

The kids and I spent the day up at Lake Winnipesaukee today, celebrating a neighbor’s birthday. The birthday girl is standing on the left, and front. We had a great time. We took a boat trip to Meredith. Malkias saw a train and got very excited. Maia went swimming in the lake in her party dress. So it goes.

Above is my great grandfather, Lewis Stephen (1872-1962). He died when I was one year old, so I never knew him, but I’m told he was a lovely man.

This is my grandfather, Robert Drummond Stephen (1900-1942). He died in an accident when my dad was 9 years old.

This is my dad as a boy, with his sister, Roberta (Bertha).

This is me, with my kids, Maia and Malkias.

Yay for dads!

Today would have been the 98th birthday of my mother’s mother, Marjory Tragham, née Marjory Robertson Duncan. This picture is of her with my Grandad, Thomas Tragham (born Tragheim).

These are all photographs of my grandfather, Robert Drummond Stephen (born My 10, 1900), who was a professional soldier in the The King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was my dad’s father.

Unfortunately I never met him because he died in an accident on Aug 3, 1942, long before I was born.

The first two pictures were taken in Egypt in 1924 and 1925. I get the feeling that the young lady was not a strict adherent to Muslim morality.

There were many …

Today, in 1998 my grandmother, Marjory Tragham, née Duncan, passed away at the age of 87. She was born 1911, in Scoonie, Fife, Scotland. Died Sep 26, 1998, Dundee, Scotland. She was married twice, first to Alex Ritchie, who left her a widow with a young child, my Aunt Margaret. She then remarried my grandad, Thomas Tragham (né Tragheim). They were married for over 60 years, until she predeceased him.

My grandmother (always known as “Nana”) was an extraordinarily lovely woman. I never knew her to be anything but kind. She was canny with money as well. When she died, it transpired she salted away something in the order of $60,000 in a shoebox in a cupboard!

This photograph of my Nana and Grandad was taken in the 1930′s, I believe.

Today my grandfather would have been 99 years old.

This picture is marked as having been taken in 1928, when he was 18. He’s on the right, and we don’t know who the other young man is according to my parents the other young man is probably his friend, George Warden, who was also a painter and who had ran a shop on the Hilltown with his brother, Bert. His wife, Mae, is still alive. I also don’t know what the fancy occasion was or where the photograph was taken, although it was most likely in or around Dundee.

This is my grandfather, grandmother (my nana), and my uncle Alan. Alan was born in 1953, and he looks like he’s about four or five years old here, so I’m guessing this was taken about 1957 or 1958. (Claire, …

My great great great grandmother, Catherine Winton. Born 1837, died 1914. Married to John (Samuel) Tragheim. Had five children. Later remarried George Wright.

In the morning we went to the funky home of the ever-generous Danakamala, where we socialized and ate delicious food. There were a couple of other girls there, so Maia had a great time. So did I, for that matter. The smoky night club look is an artifact of the very snowy weather — there was light streaming in the windows.

In the afternoon I went to Aryaloka and led a guided meditation for about 20 people, towards the end of the Meditate for Peace Day. The morning apparently was busier, with 45 people in the shrine-room. This picture was actually taken in order to show someone how to use a scarf in order to take the weight off of the shoulders when meditating. I wasn’t really meditating at the time, hence the “pole up …

This is my grandfather, Thomas Waddell Tragheim (he started going by Tragham during the second world war). He died three years ago today. The girl is my mother, Eleanor, and since she was born in 1938 I’m guessing this was taken in 1940 (I’m assuming she’s about two years old here). My grandad was born in 1910 and worked as a house painter. He loved animals and used to breed and show cage birds. According to a note I have the picture was taken on the Law in Dundee, Scotland. The Law is a hill right in the middle of the city.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a free trial to Ancestry.com and have been intensively investigating the history of my mother’s family — the Tragheims (or Traghams — some of them changed their name during the second world war). I wanted to squeeze every last bit of data out of my trial period, before the $19.95 per month charge kicked in, and so I’ve not had much time for blogging. But I’m back! (And I’ll say more about the outcomes of my researches later).

Anyway, I was struck by an article in the NYT about how grandparents keep in touch with young children over long distances using webcams. The article had a lot of resonances for me because Maia has been keeping in touch with her grandparents that way since she was perhaps six months old. It was hard to get my …

The post on “A Ring and a Prayer” reminds me of a dream I had once.

In the dream, someone told me that my sister was dead. I just couldn’t believe this news.

“She can’t be dead, I just saw her the other day.” [This isn't logical. It's a dream.]

“Well, when you’re dead you’re allowed to make one phone call — but most people don’t bother.”

Okay, please feel free to analyze me!

Today my grandmother, Marjory Tragham, née Duncan, would have been 97 years old. Born 1911, Scoonie, Fife, Scotland. Died Sep 26, 1998, Dundee, Scotland.

I’m guessing she would have been about 6 years old in this picture, which would date it to around 1917.

One day recently Maia wanted to play in the car, where she likes to twiddle knobs and pull levels, but I decided it would be more enriching to go for a walk in the woods. It turned out to be a good call, and she had a great time even though she was still getting over a cold.

In an article in Atlantic magazine, author and Yale University professor of psychology Paul Bloom makes a provocative observation about parenthood and happiness:

Pretty much no matter how you test it, children make us less happy. The evidence isn’t just from diary studies; surveys of marital satisfaction show that couples tend to start off happy, get less happy when they have kids, and become happy again only once the kids leave the house. As the psychologist Daniel Gilbert puts it, “Despite what we read in the popular press, the only known symptom of ‘empty-nest syndrome’ is increased smiling.” So why do people believe that children give them so much pleasure? Gilbert sees it as an illusion, a failure of affective forecasting. Society’s needs are served when people believe that having children is a good thing, so we are deluged with

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On Monday, the processing of Maia’s citizenship papers came through. The nice people at Homeland Security gave her an American flag.

In case I haven’t mentioned this recently, my daughter shares a name with our president-elect. Her birth name, and current middle name, is Bereket, which is Amharic for “blessing.”

The name “Barack” also means “blessing” and is Swahili.

So both are essentially the same name, but in different languages.

I hope they get to meet.

The picture, by the way, is from a little after 4AM on the day of her birthday. She’s a morning person. Unlike her father.

Meet Snooky (aka “Snooky Bear”). He is a bear with the face of a pig. He was my toy when I was a little kid, which makes him about 50 years old. My mother recently ran him though the washing machine and mailed him to Maia for her second birthday. So Snooky is now Maia’s toy.

We have one toy in our family which is older. My sister has a teddy bear that used to belong to me, and before that to my Uncle Alan. That bear is now 55 years old and going strong.

Here’s a close-up of Snooky’s face. Isn’t he cute!

We have a lot of singing around the dinner table in our household. The trouble is that Maia is such a technology geek that she stops singing so that she can play with the video camera when it appears. However, with a little deft bribery I was able to get this rare footage, which includes stellar performances of “The Alphabet Song” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Both are a little surreal.

Enjoy!

The cuteness knows know no end.