The Legendary Tom Donovan
Tom Donovan, the man of many talents: biologist, builder, and friend.
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Shared Memories
Stories that are shared.
Bread!
Memories from Colorado Last night I woke up to the wonderful smell of baking bread in our house. Earlier this week, because of the Texas 2021 Winter Arctic Outbreak, all the stores and businesses in our area had closed down, and we had run out of bread. So I started a loaf in our bread
“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…” — W.B. Yeats
I will update this blog as more happens. First came the pandemic. Second came the insurrection at the United States Capitol. Third came letting the power die over a large part of Texas…. Yesterday, February 15, 2021, at the beginning of this adventure, we did have power for a few more hours than some of
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Let me introduce someone we met in Paris — La Dame du Brésil
A wild ride through the streets of Paris When Marilyn and I arrived in Paris two weeks before our 25th wedding anniversary in July 1997, we took a wild taxi ride from the Gare du Nord to the Left Bank and checked in to the Comfort Inn. (It was part of an American chain, so
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Memories of Sleeping in the Cold
Sleeping in the cold, upstairs at the old farmhouse in Colorado
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Snow in Austin, Texas ! ! !
Our reaction to the first day of snow in Austin. This was followed by a week of extremely cold weather that brought cripple Texas .
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Marilyn and Gary’s Courtship
By Marilyn and Gary Pickens Arriving in the Bay Area Marilyn’s version: As a background to this story, I was living in San Francisco almost by accident. The Vietnam War had been going on for several years when I had applied for the job of U.S.O. Mobile Units secretary in San Francisco. It was May
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Once upon a time…
Once upon a time, long, long ago there lived, far away on the prairies west of the mountains, a strong, tall dark-haired young man who was intelligent and brave. As he grew up, he learned the ways of farming in his land. He drove tractors and trucks from a very young age. He learned how
A Planned Trip in 2019: Big Bend National Park
At the end of summer in 2019, Bruce called and said that he and Sharon would like to come to visit us at the end of October. They were going to visit Sharon’s sister, and then would be going to Santa Fe, and they wanted to make a detour into Texas before heading home to
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Marilyn’s 50th College Reunion in San Diego
Marilyn had graduated with a B.A. from the University of San Diego, College for Women in 1968. We decided to attend her 50th reunion, just to see San Diego again, and all the old haunts that we used to explore when we were first married, during my Navy days. Of course Marilyn had grown up
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Stadtpark in Hannover Germany
When we were in Hannover visiting our daughter and her family in May 2018, the Stadtpark near their home was our favorite place to play. The grandkids and I would go there at least once a day, to run over the grass, play with a ball, and annoy the ducks and the large goldfish in
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Helena Reciting a Poem
Helena, almost 7 years old, has learned a poem by heart as a school assignment. She is proudly reciting it for her grandparents in Texas, giving them some good advice in German.
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Helena Learning to Swim
Helena and Grandpa bought swimming tickets for the pool in the Congress Hotel Am Stadtpark, which was near the Freiermuth apartment in Hannover. They went over every day for a practice session, and by the time the tickets ran out, Helena could go all the way around the pool. She stayed close to the edge,
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Marienburg Castle in Lower Saxony, Germany
A little fairy welcomes us to the beautiful castle Marienburg. A happy memory of our visit on August 2, 2016, by Marilyn and Gary Pickens This castle in Marienburg, near the city of Hannover in northern Germany, was built between 1858 – 1867 as a birthday present from King George V of Hannover (reigned 1851–1866)
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Bird watching with Elizabeth and Tom
At Commons Fork Park
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McDonald Observatory
On my return trip from Denver, after I had been up to visit my mother in Colorado in 2011, I diverted my route home in order to visit the McDonald Observatory and Big Bend National Park, in the far reaches of West Texas. It made my trip three days long, rather than the usual two
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Big Bend National Park
After I left the McDonald Observatory, I proceed to Big Bend National Park which was 130 miles to the south. This fact was not known to me when I left, on the map of Texas, it appears to be a short distance. But I had a worrying problem, I was running low on gas, and
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Otero Junior College, Revisited after 40 Years
On my drive to Denver, I took a quick side trip to see Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado. It had been about 40 years since I had graduated in June 1968, and I was curious to see if it had changed. The college had been founded in 1941, and many of the old
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Helena’s Birth Story
This is Larissa’s story about her first childbirth experience. It is presented here, in a slightly edited form, by Marilyn. Sept 21, 2010 Around noon, I was putting away the dishes in the dishwasher, debating whether to have fish sticks or a Kaho-smuggled box of Annie’s Mac and Cheese or (more likely) both of them,
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Bike Ride with Julian
On Friday, July 31st, I joined my daughter’s English friend Julian on a great bike ride through the countryside south and west of Stuttgart, Germany. It truly was a beautiful ride; within minutes of leaving his house in the village of Vaihingen we were riding through lush green farmlands and forests, quite beautiful to my
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2009 Trip To Europe
This was a visit to newly discovered family we had never met, combined with a trip to see our daughter and her husband. Meeting the Margutti cousins in Essex, England for the very first time! 2. Hanging out with Larissa and Hans Georg in Stuttgart and vicinity. 3. Speyer Cathedral, consecrated in 1061, has been
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Kaho’s beautiful wedding dress creation stars in Larissa and Hans Georg’s 2008 Summer Celebration in Ludwigsburg.
After a simple civil marriage ceremony in Switzerland in the autumn of 2007, Hans Georg and Larissa moved to southern Germany. It is the custom in Europe to have both a civil ceremony and a church ceremony. The civil ceremony is always first, because the church ceremony has no legal standing. The church ceremony is
How did St. Nicholas become Santa Claus?
St. Nicholas (ascetic Bishop of the early church in Asia Minor, feast day Dec. 6th, known as the patron saint and protector of children) became Santa Claus (jolly old elf with red suit, a big round tummy and a chuckling laugh, flying the world on Dec. 25th with 8 tiny reindeer)
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Trip To Switzerland for Larissa’s Civil Wedding
Getting To Switzerland Our beloved daughter Larissa is getting married to Mr. Hans-Georg Freiermuth in Zürich, Switzerland on November 24, 2007! After receiving that news, of course we begin making plans to travel to Switzerland. By the end of September, we have airplane tickets and a hotel reservation. (At this point, $.60 = 1.00 CHF)
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Luckenbach, TX
In October 7, 2007, Marilyn and I were out for the Luckenbach run with the Volkssportverein Friedrichsburg. Here are some of the pictures that we took. I had heard about Luckenbach, which is just a few miles from Friedrichsburg, for a long time. Both places started as mid-19th century German settlements in the Texas Hill
Nevada Trip for A Margutti Family Reunion
Marilyn and I traveled to the very small settlement of Mountain Spring, Nevada.
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Visit with Valerie and Malcolm Light near Chingford, a London suburb
In June 2020 Larissa was on a 6 month visa allowing her to work in the UK in the BUNAC program. She had been rewriting and editing materials for the Inland Revenue Service and she was renting a room from Valerie and Malcolm Light, whom she had known since her junior high days. Leeds Castle
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Edinburgh, Scotland in June, 2000
Edinburgh Castle Cramond Kirk tour with Willa Stewart Edinburgh was a special treat because we visited it with a native! Marilyn’s college friend, Moira Lees, often called Willa Stewart her “oldest friend” because Willa, at age 12, had braved the wartime blackout (without telling her parents) and had ridden her bicycle across town to see
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Visiting the Lake District, June 2000
Hawkshead in the Lake District Hilltop Farm in the Lake District England’s Lake District, nestled in Cumbria, in the northwestern area of the country, is well-known as a holiday spot. Lake Windermere, shown in the first photo above, is one of the most famous lakes in the area. The uncultivated mountains in the area, known
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Gary’s Romantic Afternoon with his Sweetheart along the Seine
To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we visited Paris together. A collection of wonderful memories…
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Larissa and Gary’s trip from Austin TX to Claremont, CA
In May of 1996, Larissa was graduating from Scripps College. She had done a good job with her studies, and her parents decided to give Larissa a car as a graduation present. We purchased a used 1 year old Nissan Sentra at Roger Beasley Mazda in Austin. She came home the week before graduation, just
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Marilyn Visits Larissa: Bristol, 1995
Larissa’s Study Abroad: University of Bristol Marilyn’s Version: In 1995, Larissa chose to attend the University of Bristol for her year of study abroad from Scripps College. Bristol was an English-speaking university, and she could easily transfer the credits to Scripps. Another student, whose name I don’t recall, was also going to Bristol. Larissa’s friend
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Claire’s Visit to America
Back in the late spring or early summer of 1990, Rodney called our house in Austin and asked if Larissa would like to accompany their family on a camping vacation, driving west from Texas to Arizona and then Nevada. We told him that Claire, an exchange student from France, was going to be visiting us
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Climb Mount Baldy
In the summer of 1973, Marilyn, Tom Benton, and I drove out East of LA to climb mount Baldy. We drove as far as we could go, then hiked the rest of the way. It was slow going but the scenery was pretty. I found this very detailed web page about climbing Mount Baldy today.