Spotting A Spotted Salamander!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

"Private Property - No Parking"

Photo by MarashGirl©2021 One shed left from the old days!!! "Private Property - No Parking" . . . that is, if the owner of a vehicle could even get that vehicle over the rough terrain in order to approach the ages old "private property"!

Goin' For An Afternoon Walk With The Chicks!

She knows it's safe . . . Thanksgiving is months away!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Dancing in the Park

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

DON'T FENCE ME IN!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

For Sale: Lemonade in the Shade on a Hot Summer's Day!!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

SeeSaw Among The Greens!

"SeeSaw, Margery Daw, "Johnnie shall have a new master . . . "He shall earn but a penny a day, "Because he can't work any faster. . . " Photo by MarashGirl©2021

"I wonder what's going on out there . . . "

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

And look! . . . More flowers!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Looking For A Flower To Photograph For Today's Blog . . .

And there it was . . . right on the front lawn!

Above Photo by MarashGirl©2021

RELIGION IN WATERTOWN SQUARE

"JESUS IS THE WAY AND THE TRUTH . . ." JOHN 14:6 "REPENT - JESUS IS COMING" "REPENT THEN AND TURN TO GOD. . . " ACTS 3:19 Above Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Sign Along The Charles River

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Swan On The Charles

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Remember The "Apple Tree" Purchased in Monson Many Years Ago?

Above photos by MarashGirl©2021

"Down By The Riverside . . . "

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Bridge Along The River Charles On A Late Spring Day

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Repent!

Sunday in Watertown Square . . .

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

ծաղիկներ, ծաղիկներ

Above Photo by MarashGirl©2021 Below are lyrics to the popular Armenian song, Tsaghikner = FLOWERS!!! Tsaghikner Tspoum e Sevane, Kanchoum e Sevane, Tsov alikneri mej Zhptoum e Sevane. Tsaghikner, tsaghikner, Antaram tsaghikner, Duk siro karoti Anmorats vkaner. Tsaghikner, tsaghikner, Antaram tsaghikner, Yerazogh tsaghikner, Im siro tsaghikner. Mer sere yeraz er, Artnatsa el chkar, Yes shat artasvetsi, Bayts avagh char chkar. Tsaghikner, tsaghikner..... Yes lourr pntroum em kez, Pntroum, tenchoum em kez, Nerir indz sirelis, Vor der siroum em kez... Tsaghikner, tsaghikner..... Thanks! ❤ Facebook

And This Morning . . .

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

And This Morning . . .

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

And Look What Greeted The World Yesterday Morning. . . .

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

"Yes, We're Open. We Knead The Dough!"

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

On Talking With A Stranger At The Watertown Starbucks

A stranger? Marash Girl recognized the cross as being an Armenian cross! It turns out that the "stranger", Haig, was an Armenian born in Azerbaijan, a man now in the United States of America, having lost his homeland . . . a silversmith with a shop on Union Street in Newton Centre. He had made the Armenian cross with his own hands. A blessed cross it is! Above Photos by MarashGirl©2021

Heading Home After A Long Hard Day Of Work

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Seeking The Light!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Drawer Missing?

Drawer missing? Guess why!!!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021 Marash Girl will share an old antique dealer's secret . . . if a dealer is prowling the streets for "finds" and, in fact, finds a "find" with drawers that s/he is unable to carry away, s/he will simply carry away the one drawer s/he can carry until s/he is able to return with a friend and a vehicle to carry that "find" away!

Graduation Day!

Aline's on her way to college!!!!

Tuesday Was The Anniversary Of The Tornado That Blew Away The Cottage On Top Of Wilbraham Mountain!

Tuesday, June 1, was the anniversary of the tornado that destroyed the cottage at the top of Wilbraham Mountain! But the tornado was kind enough to leave the family its source of water . . .

Photo by Karoun Charkoudian Copyright 2021

GROWING UP WITH THREE FAMILIES IN A TWO FAMILY HOUSE!

Growing up with three families in a two family house . . . that was the fun part!!! The problem was that we all had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time, though not necessarily all together . . . so when the time came that folks had to use the bathroom, we kids who lived on the first floor had to run to the second floor, and if that family's bathroom was busy, we had to run to the third floor where Grandma and Grandpa slept, and if that bathroom was busy, we had to run back to the first floor, hoping against all hope that that bathroom would be free by the time we reached it!

Purslane: Nutritious, Delicious, Salvation From Starvation

Photo taken in Newton, Massachusetts by MarashGirl©2021 Above is a contemporary photo of purslane (perper in Armenian, ermerouk in Turkish). According to Marash Girl's interviews with survivors of the Ottomans'attempted genocide of the Armenian people early in the 20th century, purslane was often the only source of nutrition, nutrition that if those Armenians were "lucky", they would gather along the roadside, their only source of nutrition as they were marched out of their homes by the gendarmes of the Ottoman Empire, marched into the desert during the "death march"(see internet explanation below) . . . Today purslane (ermerouk in Turkish) is often used by Marash Girl as a vegetable to be used in salads and soups . . . both the leaves and the stems of the the plant are highly nutritious and delicious. Gardeners will welcome your gathering the purslane from among their plants, as purslane will suddently appear unbidden, particularly among the tomato plants in vegetable gardens throughout the northeast! Just be sure to remove the roots and wash the purslane plants in cool water, rinsing numerous times in order to rid the plants of any soil before chopping the purslane for soups or salads. N.B. Below taken from the internet: "Perhaps the most "classical" example of the death march was the one that occurred as part of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey (part of the fading Ottoman Empire) in 1915. The events leading up to that death march were paradigmatic of the experience of genocide victims in other places." "The death march of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire took place against the backdrop of the hostilities of World War I. In the spring of 1915 Ottoman rulers ordered that all Armenians be expelled from their homes in areas outside of war zones. The Armenians—men, women, and children—were then lined up and made to walk in convoys of tens of thousands toward the Syrian desert. Although the expulsions resembled deportations, the treatment of the people making the march by Turkish "guards" made it clear that a more sinister agenda was driving the march: a planned elimination of the Armenian population through a process of starvation and exhaustion. The death march was a culmination of decades of Turkish discrimination against Armenians, which had long consisted of the barring of Armenians from serving in the Turkish army, repeated executions of small groups of Armenians, and mass killings by special forces known as Teshkilâti Mahsusa—gangs of violent ex-convicts ordered by the Ottoman/Turkish government to commit murders of Armenians." N.B. Lest we forget . . . From the Internet: "June 1, Wilbraham, Massachusetts Two tornadoes hit Wilbraham on June 1, 2011, Town Administrator Robert A. Weitz says. The first was the F-3 tornado which also devastated Springfield and Monson and cut a swath through Wilbraham from Tinkham Road, south of the center of town, to Monson." And to relate this note to the above blogpost, before the tornado, Marash Girl's garden in Wilbraham was replete with wild purslane growing unbidden among the carefully planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini.