mementoes

“Idun & The Apples” by James Doyle Penrose

Still enjoying our apples, sometimes two a day. Maybe I’ll make some more apple crisp today. I found an apple poem and still another picture of Iduna. I love the little deer next to Iduna. I was looking for deer paintings when this one turned up in the search, reminding me that apple season is not yet over.

Saturday was Leif Erikson Day and Tuesday will be Columbus Day, but Monday will be the official holiday. Traditionally we used to go leaf peeping in Vermont or New Hampshire for the three-day weekend. But Tim has to work tomorrow so we’re not going anywhere and will have to content ourselves with a little leaf peeping next weekend here in Connecticut, when the color show will hopefully be peaking! Peeking and peeping at the peaking fall colors…

Looked up the definition of the title of the following Edna St. Vincent Millay poem, Recuerdo. It means memory, souvenir, or memento. Tim’s out getting coffee, breakfast, and the Sunday morning paper. My head is spinning with plans and ideas. Very tired after our trip to a museum yesterday, yet very merry. Domestic autumn bliss…

Recuerdo

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable —
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry —
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

This American stamp commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first organized emigration from Norway to the United States. Fifty-two Norwegians crowded onto the ship Restauration which sailed from Stavanger, Norway on July 5, 1825, and arrived in New York on October 9, 1825, where the captain was arrested and fined for having too many passengers on board for the size of his ship. What a welcome! My ancestor, Ingebrigt Martinus Hansen, who became Martin Thompson, arrived in Philadelphia almost twelve years later, on June 10, 1837.

Although no one knows the exact day Leif Erikson (Leivur Eiriksson) set foot on North American soil, it was about 500 years before Christopher Columbus did. The Faroe Islands, part of Denmark, lie between the Norwegian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and between Norway and Iceland. They also issued a stamp recognizing Leif Erikson’s explorations.

8 thoughts on “mementoes”

  1. One of my sisters was recently at the site of a Viking settlement in Newfoundland. She felt it put the pilgrim fathers into perspective. Apparently they called in to Canada first on their way to what became the USA.

    Meanwhile, Leif Erikson was quite late to the party. St Brendan the Navigator was there long before. He sailed from Ireland. In a stone boat. Leaving no evidence of arrival. (Did you hear my voice getting quieter and less confident as I went on?)

    Good commemorative stamps by the way.

    1. Ah, yes, I’ve heard of L’Anse aux Meadows. If we ever get the chance to take our research trip to Nova Scotia to investigate Tim’s Loyalist ancestors, we hope to get up to Newfoundland to see that, too.

      Your comment sent me off exploring the web to see what I could find about St. Brendan the Navigator, because I can’t remember ever hearing of him. Fascinating man, and so many possible stories to choose from! I have an Irish ancestress and Tim has two, that I know of so far… So, a stone boat it was? Well, I have much curiosity about and admiration for those brave souls who have gone out to sea, no matter what time or place in history. Thanks for broadening my horizon!

  2. Sweet blog story, I love the poem ! I love how captures the question for Peeping at the Leaves, and buying apples and pears, for the season is upon us.

    As for the discovery of America, who really knows?

    1. Technically, I suppose it is safe to say, that from modern studies of DNA, it looks like the first people to “discover” America actually came from the other direction, across the land bridge from southern Siberia, perhaps as much as 30,000 years ago.

      I’m glad you like the poem, Jeff. She’s one of my favorite poets. I love the picture she paints with her words, I can see the moon giving way to the dawn, and hear the ferry whistles in the distance, and taste the apples and pears. The simple pleasures that make life worth living…

    1. I’m glad you like the poem, Kathy. Ah, the basement, fine location of our modern day root cellars and wine cellars… Next thing I know we’ll be stopping by Clyde’s Cider Mill to pick up some apple wine and hard cider for Thanksgiving… I hope you made your apple crisp and enjoyed it! I might go for baking a third one this weekend! 🙂

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