tuesday: time to open some cans. today’s lunch black bean soup. sautéed some shallot and garlic, added two cups of water, a small can of tomato sauce, a can of drained and rinsed black beans, one bay leaf, a cup of frozen chopped spinach, brought it up to a boil and then simmered for 10 minutes. added a 1/4 cup of orzo, simmer another 10 minutes, turn off the heat and added a can of corn. when serving added red pepper flakes, black pepper and some salt. yummy.
i spent most of the rest of the day manually charting the family tree of my velvet photo album.
ok, story: i bought this album in south carolina, when visiting with my friend, mary. we went to an antique shop owned by the son of “dr. henry peidmont” (character who was the superintendent of beaufort county school district when pat conroy, the author, was teaching at daufuskie island, south carolina, from the novel the water is wide). the shop owner was very southern, and did not take very kindly to two northern ladies poking around his shop. but he did show us what we asked for and i fell in love with this velvet photo album, i had to buy it.
i became interested in all the photographs in it, mostly taken in the late 1800s in a studio in wheeling, west virginia. what was even more fascinating was the fact that whomever owned it, wrote all the names of the individuals on each page.
it became a project for me to find out how each of these seemingly unconnected names connected, so using ancestry i charted the families, one by one, and started to make connections.
it’s an ongoing task, but i am making progress. i plan to make some kind of project from it all…