I wish I could comment and ask questions about all of the photos posted. They are all wonderful! They make me want to travel, go birding, and visit the eye doctor. (I think I stared at those Tricyrtis dots a bit too long. lol) Mountain Chickadee

My maternal Grandparents supported their family of 11 working the deep coal mine that was on the land they owned and where their home was built. Of course all the kids as they got old enough worked in the mine. It was wholly owned and operated by the family. That would have been in the early 1900's to about 1940. My Dad died suddenly at age 49, just 3 days before the letter came accepting his application for State Mine Inspector in PA. Heart Disease complicated by black lung took him. He had spent all his working life in the mines mostly as a general foreman and actually teaching night classes in mining in our town for Penn State University.

At a recent family reunion at a state park in Ohio, one of the activities we did was painting. My sister-in-law brought along several cardboard "canvases" and an assortment of inexpensive paints. The initial suggestion was to paint a tree such that others could then decorate it with multi-colored "leaves", but in the end most people opted to not have others put the "leaves" on their trees. These are the painting that the group created: The one in the bottom row, center is mine. I was definitely channeling Bob Ross from PBS. I think nearly every time I saw Bob Ross' show he did a painting similar to this.

A wedding in Scotland. I don't know these relatives of my stepmother, but they look delightful.