My mom (Mommy)

Ruth Naumowicz Obituary

NAUMOWICZ, RUTH MARIE

On Monday, March 29, 2004, RUTH MARIE NAUMOWICZ of Ellicott City, MD; beloved wife of the late Chester Naumowicz; mother of Carol Hestvik, Nancy Sherwood and the late Dale Alan Thompsen; mother-in-law of Janet Thompsen; grandmother of Jim and Tom Knowlden, Molly Thompsen and Courtney, Morgan, Darcy, Austin and Chance Sherwood; great-grandmother of Sarah Knowlden; sister of John S. Rivers, Norman Rivers, Geraldine Pullum and the late George Rivers. Relatives and friends may call at COLLINS FUNERAL HOME, 500 University Blvd., W., Silver Spring, MD Tuesday, 7 to 9 p.m. and on Wednesday, March 31 from 12 noon to 1 p.m., where service will be held at 1 p.m. Interment Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to American Stroke Association Memorial Tribute and Processing Center, PO Box 5216, Glen Allen, VA 23058-5216.

Poland memory

Courtney 18 months old/ Poznan, Poland

 

 

 

 

A memory/ story by me, Nancy Sherwood.

 

I just read an article in the New York Times titled "where do you bury a Nazi?" It recounts a family moving into an old house in Poland and being told by previous owners and then an archeologist that there were likely human bones in their garden.

 

When we lived in Poznan, Poland from 1979-81, we lived in an old house. Many of the houses and buildings in Poznan at that time had bullet holes that came from machine guns- left from WWII. There was a lot of history there and it felt like there were still the ghosts of many people who had perished.

 

We had a large garden with about 12 apple trees (that had not been cared for) pear trees and walnut trees. In the spring we decided to dig up an area that looked like a good place to plant tomatoes and radishes. We found many bone fragments. We always felt that they were probably human- small like fingers or hands. 

 

It's been so long ago that I am, sure that the whole town has changed and the bullet holes have been patched. As if you can just erase their history.

 

I wonder whose bones they were and what stories they could have told.

Feeling blah!

 Last week, Carol and I went to church for the first time in ages.  I was really looking forward to go this morning.  But I was just too wasted.

The past few nights we have not been sleeping well because Buddy has a stomach problem and needs to go out several times at night.  Last night, Buddy slept fine.  

Last night it was my turn to have sleep issues.   I sleep on my left side, and my left shoulder hurts. A lot.  I put a Slonpas patch on my shoulder and it really helped a lot.   I still had trouble sleeping.  My right leg and foot are hurting.  And my right ankle is swelling up.  Uncomfortable!

I had totally forgotten that I could attend church online.  Oh well.

 

These two pictures are of Perth, Western Australia.   We are looking across the Swan River from the campus of Wesley College (where the boys went to school) toward where our house is.   We lived on top of a cliff so it was never very easy to get a good picture of our house from that side.   If you see where the little red dot is in the upper picture, that's where our house is.

I'm still in pajamas  from last night and it is almost 6:00 pm.  I think I will go take a shower and make myself feel better.

 

 

Birds?

I love birds.  I am fascinated by them.  I recently started to use the app on my phone called "Merlin Bird ID".    It records the sounds and tells me (or anyone using the app) what bird is singing.  I have started to write down what birds I have heard every morning.    They are usually the same crew, with more variety some mornings.

I also have a bunch of bird feeder and a bird bath.  This morning I got these pictures of a cardinal having a grand time splashing around in the water.

After sitting and listening for a while, I asked myself "what is the point of birds?".   No that doesn't mean I don't think there should be birds.   Just what do they do?  Why are there so many varieties?   

I vaguely remember learning something about Darwin's finches.    A simple explanation is this:  Darwin observed some finches on one side of an island and some on the opposite side of the island.  The birds were identical in all their featured but one.  Their   beaks were different.  Darwin was able to conclude that the birds had adapted to the food available on the part of the island where they lived.   So they had to be able to eat and crack different seeds etc and needed different tools - their beaks.

I am sure I am oversimplifying it, and I am sure it took a long long time to evolve the distinctive changes.   It makes you wonder.

And our birds here in Northern Virginia are no doubt different than birds in different regions of Virginia and the world.

We have finches here.  They are called "American Gold Finch".   But they are not gold all year round.  In the spring and summer they start to develop yellowish feathers and then they become bright yellow through the summer.  In the fall and winter their yellow fades and turns back into a duller brown.   How does this happen?  I guess like Darwin's finches, these finches have evolved into a color changing bird for both attractiveness for breeding in the warmer months, and   camouflage in the winter when they leaves fall.

If I was better at formatting this blog I would not have had those pictures of the cardinal strewn all over the page.  Maybe one day I will figure if out.

A bird that I find very regal and beautiful in the mocking bird.   

My Mocking Bird friend, on the bird bath

 

 
 

What should I write about?

 Every day I think about what I want to write about.  Then I don't.   I want to write about birds.  I want to write about dreams.  I want to write about my now grown kids and how hard I worked at mothering them.   

So, since I need to take a shower and go out soon, I am just dumping some photos here.  I hope to work on this later- labeling the pictures and writing about them