Picture

Gallery


The four pictures below show my visit at my cousin's family in Neibsheim, Germany, a few day after my arrival February 28, 2024.

February 8, 2024, finds me celebrating my birthday  with my California son Andy Cook and his family: Claudia, his spouse, Anthony, his son, and Grace, his daughter.

In a few days I'll be flying to Germany to visit my cousin who is named after me and her husband. I hope to visit also their two adult children and tei families.

A French classicalguitarist came to Cheyenne, Wyoming, thanks to aa collaboration between Laramie County library and the Cheyenne Guitar Society. Since I live in Saratoga now, I stayed with a Cheyenne friend, and we went to the concert together, which was held in the library auditorium on April 27, 2023.

See my write-up in April of that year in my "Columns Cheyenne Post" page.  

Poppies and lilac announce spring 2023 in my home in Saratoga, WY

In late August 2023, I participated in a hike in the Snowies organized by the Cheyenne Audubon Society, a group I occasionally joined when I lived nearby. I spread the word among the gardeners of the town’s community garden where I'm active, and three more people signed up, a husband-wife team who volunteered to drive everyone, and a participant from France recently relocated to Saratoga with husband and child, who was grateful for her first outing into the vastness of the Snowy Range. The pictures below detail the hike. 

Our destination, Miner's Cabin (above), shows the ravages of age and weather. From there it was another one-third of a mile on steep terrain to the parking lot.

Above: I believe this peak is called Diamond Head. We are at an elevation of 10,500 feet. Luckily the weather was as good as we could ask for.

Here I am with the Saratoga couple in whose car we arrived to join the Cheyenne group at Lake Marie to set out on Tipple Trail.

Above: my friend AngĂ©lique & moi on a hike in the Snowies with Audubon members from Cheyenne.

Above: The group comprised of some acquaintences from my  Cheyenne days.


In early May, 2023, I traveled to California with my canine companion to be with grandkids while their parents were away. AJ is in high school; his sister, Grace, will be in middle school come fall.

January and February 2023.

The pic to the left shows my eldest and family with me at a restaurant in College Station, Texas; the other pics are of my youngest and family with me at a restaurant in Livermore, California. Also a couple of pics of my Calif. grandson and his girl. Finally, aldo a pic of my youngest granddaugther and me, preparing dough for bking cookies.

 

To the right: Yours truly and Abby with visiting dogs Scout and Cota, whose owners, my son Frank and his spouse Beth, visited also. This was early June 2022, still cool enough to wear long sleeves. I moved away from there IN October of that year.

Below are pics of festivities in Boise, Idaho, for my grandson Colton. He graduated from Boise State on May 9, 2022, and was commissioned in the army the following day, with his Uncle Walter (my eldest son) officiating at Colton's swearing-in.


Thousands of students from the various schools of Boise State University graduated that day, taking hours longer than announced. At one point a light rain fell but did nothing to diminish the crowd's enthusiasm, much less the students'.

Colton was commissioned in the army the following day, May 10, 2022, with his Uncle Walter (my eldest son) officiating at Colton's Oath of Office. Below are Colton with his parents, Colton with all family members, including his uncle from California (to the extreme right), who flew in. His uncle from Texas flew into Boise also, whereas I opted to drive. In the "All of Us" pic, I'm flanked by the two sons who visited for the occasion, Walter (in uniform) to my left, Andy to my right. Frank, the proud papa, (to the extreme left) is my middle son.  


Above I am with my grandsons Brett and Colton. The two brothers and I are smiling at the festivities.

To the right is Colton with his Uncle Walter from Texas, where serves in the Reserves and holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Colton is now a Second Lieutenant in the Army.

On October 9,2021, Grandson AJ and his date Lilly went on their first Homecoming Dance. They are both first-year students at Livermore High School in Livermore, CA.  To the right is AJ with some friends/classmates at the event.

To the left: In early June 2021, the Livermore Cooks and I celebrated Son / Grandson AJ's graduation from Jr. High. He'll be a high-schooler come fall! Later that month the Texas Cooks joined us, and Frank flew in from Idaho for a family reunion at the Livermore Cooks. Among other things, we belatedly celebrated my 80th birthday. We did the same for my 70th, when we gathered in Frank and Beth's home, who still resided in California then.

Now it is July and California suffers through yet another horrible fire season.

,After obtaining both Covid vaccines, I ventured to Walter, my eldest and family, in Texas, while my youngest, Andy and children, were visiting also, end of March to early April, 2021. Here are some pictures: Andy on Walt's tractor, Grace and Walt riding; AJ and Grace near the horses' pasture; Grace and AJ riding.

Below: with my California son and family, November 2020. A photo of Andy, his two children, and yours truly. The other photo is of the children et moi.

To the right:My new set of wheels, a Toyota Prius Hybrid with four-wheel drive that switches to two-wheel at a certain speed. I owned a Prius once before and loved it, so this is like returning to an old friend. It drives like a dream, fits me like a glove, and has an astounding number of safety features. 

My oldest grandchild, Colton Cook, graduated as infantry from Ft. Benning, GA, earlier this month (July 17, 2020). Below he is awarded Soldier of the Cycle.  Colton is now in flight training. I posted a similar notice on My News Log page.

With my California grandchildren in February 2020. Above is Grace holding a champagne flute (plastic) filled with orange Juice. Behind her, their dog's hindlegs are just visible.To the left is her brother AJ who, at almost fourteen, is taller than his grandma. While visiting the children and their parents California enacted stringent  COVID-19 regulations. The children are now getting long-distance schooling and their parents work from home, mostly via teleconferencing. It makes for a noisy household. While there I helped with meal preparations and taking the children to the library on the last day it was open.

AJ misses his baseball practices and tournaments-- to some degree, his piano lessons also. Grace missis swim practice and -competitions and dance classes. The piano and dance is now offered long distance but it's not the same.

Above: Amanda and her friends getting ready for Senior Prom, late February 2020. Amanda's dress is hardly fit for dancing, but that's what she wanted. The girls are dressed up as if for a wedding.

Below are photos of the home I built in 2015 on acreage near Wheatland, WY. Though leading a solitary existence, I love it here. Directly below: Playing guitar in living room; my dog Abby is by the railing.

Below: It's Cherry Blossom time in Tokyo, and I celebrate the memory of visiting friends there by playing "Sakura" on my guitar. Above: My house when it was built end of 2015.

My California grandchildren during one of my visits in Livermore.

 Above:Grandchildren and a friend visiting at my place near Wheatland, Wyoming.

Below is the high tunnel constructed on my property in November 2018, to be used for growing veggies, herbs, etc., that won't thrive outdoors in Wyoming's harsh winds. I look forward to producing veggies next spring.

Above, right: the hunters who stayed at my home on the Wyoming prairie in October 2018. Two are my sons; one is my grandson. Two others are men my sons and I have known since our days in California, when they were boys in second grade. to the left is my new high tunnel aka greenhouse. Above is a beginning stage is its construction.

Please click on each photo below to enlarge and view the text that goes with it

Grandson AJ snoozing with puppy Lola, now a grown yellow lab. To the right: In the backyard of  my former Cheyenne  home, June 2015. Abby has come to live with me.

The entry to my newly-built home on my defunct wheat farm. I moved in at the end of October 2015. Below: Protesting the Keystone pipeline.

 

 

Granddaughter Amanda in my garage when she was about seven years old. She and her parents now reside in Texas.

With Grandsons Colton and Brett in California in 2012. All three of my adult children grew up in California. The oldest left for Wyoming but the middle and youngest still reside in the state of their birth. Addendum: My middle son, Frank, and his family moved to Idaho a the end of 2019.

Above: Visiting Lake Tahoe and Yellowstone Park with my friend Qi Deng, who has since returned to live in China.    I visited Qi in Beijing in April 2013.

Above: My brotherHelmut at his high school graduation in Santa Clara, California, circa 1969. Next to him: Our youngest brother, Reiner, four years old when our mother died. Here he is starting school at not quite six years old.

The only time Vati, our dad, visited in California. Thanksgiving with Vati, Helmut and Karl in 1968--Darold took the picture. Barely visible under the table: my clenched fist. To the right: We are seeing Vati off at the train station. He is on his way to Cleveland, OH, to visit his much younger stepsister Hilda in January 1969. Vati is hugging Franklin good-bye. Walter is in front, wearing a coat I sewed.

Below left: Helmut's sons Jason and Kris in Germany with Karl's spouse, Shirley Jean. To the right: Helmut next to his truck at his home in California a few months before his death in 1981. Helmut, like our youngest brother Reiner, took his own life.

Above: My brother Karl with spouse Shirley Jean and son Paul. To the right: Karl as bachelor in our kitchen; he had given Walter the horse toy that Walter is enjoying, ca 1966. 

Below: The three beauties: Nancy, Isolde, & moi, extreme right.

Above: With Nancy and Isolde on a hike to the Lorelei. We took a river boat to get there. On the way back, Darold and I met on that river boat. To the left: On a beach in California when we were young. Annfried, then an airline hostess for Lufthansa, visits from Germany with her husband, circa 1971.

Above: Darold and I after Walter's birth. To the right, I am a new mother trying to feed Walter. Next to it: Darold at Morro Bay Harbor. He loved boats, and eventually bought a 16 ft Glastron for us.

 


The picture to the left shows Helmut's son Jason playing with our son Andy in our backyard in the Lopez Drive home in Arroyo Grande; both about two years old, January 1972. A few months before Helmut had taken his small family to Germany. He was trying to help our brother Reiner, with whom he was close.

 

Above: My parents a few months before Mother's death. To the right: My dad with Reiner when the boy was about eighteen, shortly before his death.

Below: My family in front of our business. This was a few months before our mother's death in 1959. An automatic cigarette vendor ismounted on the wall behind Helmut. In this picture Reiner is four, Helmut eight, Karl fifteen. I am seventeen. How tense I look! 

Above left: With braids when I was fourteen, about 1955. Soon after this pic wastaken,I ran away from home and had my braids cut off. In the picture to the left I have short hair. 

Above right: my cousin Edith with her mother, my Tante Anna. This was in Neibsheim, where Edith still lives. Her mother's death in 2000 hit her hard.