Saturday, October 18, 2008
let's hum a little
I kind of love this picture....Because Hummingbirds move so quickly, you cannot always get them in pure focus....and here, in this picture above, you can see the city (in pretty pure focus) right behind this sweet little guy.....And I love that you can see how close the city is to where these flowers were....
Here is another shot of this little guy....Better focus, I think....again, behind him now, is The Famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.....Isn't that just amazing? These beautiful sweet creatures are thriving so close to the center of Hollywood....!
I love that we can just see a little bit of the iridescent green on his throat....And the light streaming through his little wings......
And look at that little bit of red there on his neck....And look at his eyes....I've never seen a Hummingbirds eyes quite like this before.....Oh, do click on these pictures to make them bigger....It is kind of thrilling to me to see this dear little bird close-up and in such detail......!
He zipped around quite a bit...or should I say, he flitted about quite a bit....And just when I thought he was done......He would be back!
And above, my favorite picture of this group....You can really see him drinking from that little tiny flower....Gee, he is such a pretty little sweetheart. These birds are so very endearing.....Sometimes I wish that one of them would just land on my shoulder and whisper sweet nothings in my ear as he takes a little rest-respite from all that zipping about. Now that, would really be something, wouldn't it?
And then.....he finally went on his way.....Off to find some further sustenance on some other pretty little flowers wherever he finds them. And be assured, he does find them....Think about how he found these rather obscure flowers Waaaaay up here on my deck in a kind of isolated position....Hummingbirds sure know where all the good yummy stuff lives, don't they.....!More To Come.........
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:04:00 AM
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
more florida
I may have posted this picture before----a long time ago...But, I think it is such a "period" setter because of the clothes....That is my brother Gordon, my sister Robin, my sister Gene, and then me, and that little puppy is "Snowball", our dog. He was a Samoyed, (Actually pronounced kind of like 'Samoyette', at least that is what we were told)....He was a very important member of our family who lived with us in Florida and Great Neck and on The Farm in Pennsylvania....Below is a little closer look at all of us in this picture......
This was about 1937.....which would make me 5 years old, going on 6 in June.....Gordon would be 7, going on 8, in September.....Robin, 14 going on 15---Also September, and Gene would have been 11 going on 12, in October---In fact, her Birthday is on Thursday......I love that both Robin and I have on these Neckerchiefs, though worn slightly differently....And Gene's dress is so very pretty.....Gordon was such a BEAUTIFUL little boy....sensitive and yet tough, too....And still is...lol! On second look, I don't think I do have a scarf around my neck..I think it is the collar of the sweater with some little tassels or something....!
This picture above, was taken on the same day as that first photo...And I think this is a fascinating photograph......My mother and father are standing behind the two Grandmothers---Rose Bermen, who we called Maamaw, and Amelia Hirshhorn, Daddy's mother....This was taken just to the right side of the front door of the North Bay Road house.....I am looking off into 'dreamland'....wishing I were someplace else, maybe?
Robin is looking somewhere else, too...But not the same place that I am....Oh, and see? Those little tassels hanging down? The little sweater did tie in the front......Then, this next picture giving us a closer look is interesting too.....
"Jen The Hen", (Ma), is sort of looking down at the top of Gene's head...OR, maybe taking a quick glance at her mother and her MIL, who was a rather fierce looking woman...."Daddy Joe" (Daddy) is kind of just looking straight out, but he certainly doesn't seem comfortable to me....Gene looks rather pensive but relaxed, and the two Grandma's and Gordon......
Well....Maamaw's eyes have been diverted by something...And Gordon is looking straight into the camera...his mouth kind of set in this line...And Grandma Hirshhorn looks kind of scary and remote....which was how she always appeared to me. We actually hardly knew her, in a way. We spent very little time with her and she had never learned English, coming to this country when my father was quite young....like maybe two years old. She did speak Yiddish so my parents and Maamaw could talk to her quite fluently, but to the four of us, she just seemed a rather strange remote person who was not like a Grandma, the way Maamaw was....It is sad, too...Because my cousins who lived near her or with her in Jamaica, had a completely different relationship with her. They absolutely adored her and found her very warm....It is too bad we never really knew her or felt close to her. And in a way, it was partly my fathers fault.....We just never saw that much of her, except at Passover when we would spend the 2nd night at her house...Everything was in Hebrew--The Whole Ceremony--and frankly, it was very long and very very boring. Our Passovers in our house were wonderful! They were fun and serious too, and almost everything was in English so all of us participated and read from the Hagadoh.....Sometimes, it felt as if maybe we really weren't from the same family as Grandma Hirshhorn, at all. Yet, I know my father always took very good care of his mother, at least, financially.
The picture above is of Maamaw and a gentleman friend who I do not recognize. They are posing outside the North Bay Road house....I love her outfit! The Hat, particularly....As Stephen Sondheim said in his song "Here's To The Ladies Who Lunch"...Does Anybody Still Wear A Hat?.....And dress up of an afternoon, unless it was a special occasion, which this certainly may have been.....
And you can see the Wall behind with the door obscured by Maamaw and her gentleman friend. This was the wall that surrounded the front of the house, and gave us a lovely interior front lawn with lots of privacy, and the "real" front door to the house was deep behind that wall.....
And, you can see that actual front door in this picture above. I love these little outfits that Gene and I are wearing---I remember mine as feeling very soft....I think we must have been dressed up for something special on this particular day, though what the occasion might have been I have no idea. I love Gordon's little short pants suit, too.....I think we all were pretty cute in this picture. Oh, and check out the shoes on each of us....It amazes me how blond I was the first 7 or so years of my life. Well, at least my hair looks blond in many of the pictures of that time. Blond and Straight.....
Just a few doors down from our house on North Bay Road was this very posh Hotel....it was called The Nautilus Hotel. It was a very very big Hotel that had a huge following of people who would come down on their Yachts and dock them right there in Biscayne Bay and then stay in the Hotel. There was a wonderful Arcade on the ground floor with many beautiful shops....And one in particular, which we frequented often. Why, you ask? Well, to buy Chewing Gum and Candy and Magazines, which we did, all the time on a regular basis. I think my father would buy his daily New York Times and Herald Tribune there, too....It was wonderful to have a little shop like this so close that we could walk to it and get our Juicy Fruit fix, any time we wanted or needed....Oh, Bliss.......(lol)
Our house was to the left there, where the postcard ends.....That little Island had the Pool and some Bungalow's on it, too.....And you can see just a few Yachts tied up in this Picture Postcard.....During the years we were there almost all of the slips would be filled with these enormous fancy Yacht's.....I had never seen anything quite like this place before or since, I might add....This was a Hotel that catered to the very rich Newport, R.I. set.....the Very White Anglo-Saxon set, and of course, it was Very Very "Restricted" at that time. 
After the War started....WW2, that is, The Nautilus Hotel became a much needed Hospital for wounded Veteran's coming back from the European Theatre of War. It never returned to it's former splendor as a Hotel. In fact, it never returned to being a Hotel at all. And as far as I know, it is still a Hospital, though not just for returning Veteran's.......A lot of water under the bridge since those years......More To Come.......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:58:00 AM
Sunday, October 12, 2008
days gone by
Judy, from IMAGINE, has inspired me, along with Dianne from FORKS OFF THE MOMENT to post some old "vintage" pictures, once again.....This is the summer of either 1941 or 1942....Camp Swatona in Pennsylvania.....I don't remember our bunk having that many girls but we did, because in actuality, it was divided into two sections....Those of us standing were the section to the left in the bunk! And, that is me, standing right next to our Counselor, Buddy.....way over there on the right.....The expression "Not A Happy Camper" is kind of perfect if you take a closer look at me....OY!
I wonder whatever became of all those other 10 and 11 year olds? I actually used to know all their names 'back in the day'....but, I don't remember any of them now......I really hated Camp and I really was incredibly unhappy there. That was the year my parents had separated and we all were sent to camp that summer. It was only the second time I was ever in Summer Camp. The first time, I was Four Years Old! How stupid was that? Sleep away Camp for the entire Summer, at Four Years Old?? Talk about unhappy! I wet the bed! I don't know what my parents were thinking....All I know is, that that first summer camp experience pretty much traumatized me in certain ways that affected my whole life.....And it affected how I felt the second time I went to camp at Camp Swatona.....
Here, above, is a picture from that first camp experience. This young man was a counselor, but I honestly couldn't tell you his name if my life depended on it....! And below, another picture from that first camp, Camp Merriwood.
That is my dear brother Gordon next to me and another unknown counselor....I don't have a lot of memories of this camp, except that I had trouble sleeping and sometimes had bad dreams....I was scared of something and unhappy about being there. No wonder I wet the bed.
And here above, Gordon and me and that same nice looking young man counselor from that first picture.....I never realized Gordon had such skinny legs....! I mean, look at the difference in our legs....Mine are kind of fleshy and chunky and his are as thin has sticks! (lol)......
This picture above was probably a year later, like 1936....And this was the backyard of the North Bay Road House in Miami Beach. I love seeing the wash hanging out on the line. Yup. That's the way we used to do it in the old days.....! Back then, my sister Gene and my brother Gordon and I, shared a bedroom in that Florida house. My oldest sister Robin, shared a room with MaaMaw, our dear Grandmother.......
That is the back of the house on North Bay Road.....again, it's 1936, I believe. Here is a closer look at Maamaw and Robin.......
One of the most wonderful things about Robin and Maamaw is that they both loved people unconditionally.....At least, that was my experience of each of them.....Maamaw died in 1970 when she was 99 and 1/3---outliving, her daughter---my mother---'Jen The Hen', by four years....(she was only 67 years old when she died.....) Maamaw's life was an amazingly long one. My dear sister Robin died in February of 2005. She would have turned 82 in September of that year. I miss them both, still, very very much. It's not that I think of them all the time...it's just that when I do, I so wish I could hug each of them, just one more time.....
I have no idea what that funny face was all about, but there is dear dear Robin, accepting me no matter what I did....! Now that is the unconditional love showing from an older sister who hasn't forgotten what it is to be silly when you are eight years younger than her.......!More To Come.......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:34:00 AM
Thursday, October 09, 2008
a visitor
All good things come to those who wait, and wait, and wait......v-e-r-y patiently. But, Oh, seeing this Hummer close up was worth every minute of 'the waiting'.......
The light was going the wrong way, so I had to do some 'lightening' up so this dear little sweetheart could be seen as I actually saw him.....
He was really busy.....And I loved watching him do his thing. This is one of the Succulent Flowers Stalks that are now pretty much over.....
And I just kept snapping away, as fast as I could.....You have to really stay alert cause as you know these beauty's move very very quickly....
I love this picture above because of where he is and what you can see of his body from this angle.....
And I love seeing the light coming through his wings, in this picture above.....Hummingbirds are such amazing little birds and I never tire of seeing them and watching them.....In fact, it always feels like I have been given a great gift when I see one.....And capturing it with my camera....Well, that is the icing on the cake....!
I have some more pictures of another dear Hummingbird from another day, supping from some of the same flowers. Next time, my dears........
More To Come.......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:05:00 AM
Monday, October 06, 2008
hanna
Yesterday would have been my dear friend Hanna Hertelendy's 89th Birthday. 89! That is a lot of years. She died on May 15th, 2008, when she was just a little over 88 1/2 years old. I still find it hard to believe that she is gone. She was such a bright spirit. Such a talented and alive person. Such a loving and supportive friend, and so very much fun. Yes, she was a child in many ways and I mean childlike as well as childish, but that was a very endearing part of her to all that knew her and loved her.
I first met Hanna in 1962. I had joined Theatre West in early October...there were maybe 30 members at that time. The only person I knew personally when I joined, was a wonderful actor/writer named John McLiam. In fact he is the one who invited me to join. One night about 6 weeks after I joined, 4 actors did about 40 minutes of something called "Spoon River Anthology". It was a stunning 40 minutes. The next thing I knew, I was asked to sing a song at the beginning of the show, and to help with a 'mailing' because "Spoon River" was going to be done as a project in our little Theatre for an invited audience. I was thrilled to be a part of this fabulous incredibly theatrical and professional group, and especially thrilled to be a part of that stunning 40 minutes, which became two hours and went to Broadway, with me in it and having written some original music for it, too!
That first mailing get-together was held at Maxine Stuart's apartment in Westwood....(A fabulous actress, and a true 'original', Maxine turned 90 years old on June 28th this year.....) Maxine and Hanna were already great friends back then....So, Hanna was there, and of course, Maxine. That was the first time I actually met both of them....and it was just us three! And we had a wonderful time! We laughed a lot and got the mailing done and strong friendships with both these women began that day that continue to this day..... 
Hanna was a very active member of the group back then, doing scenes all the time. Later, Carroll O'Connor wrote a one act play, just for her....But in the beginning, she also kept the books. (Members paid $20 a month dues, just to keep the lights on and the rent going in our little theatre on Robertson Blvd.) Hanna had actually found that little Theatre on Robertson. Being such a small group we didn't need much space back then.....
Hanna had just turned 46 years old when I first met her.....She had recently separated from her then husband, Stephen Bekassey....an actor and a fellow Hungarian. Hanna had moved from their home in North Hollywood to an apartment on Sierra Bonita in Hollywood. That was the apartment she lived in all the years I knew her and in fact, that is where she was still living when she died!
Birthdays were very very important to Hanna. Every one's Birthday, but, particularly her own Birthday. Over the years I spent many a Birthday Celebration with her---mine, hers, and other people's, too....Part of the fun of giving Hanna a present was her pure delight in anything and everything other people would do for her....This was part of the little child in her that took such joy in getting gifts and being taken to dinner, or being a part of any Celebration---whatever it was for.
She worked, all through the years I knew her---in theatre and films and TV----up until the last four or five years of her life....She had been a huge Theatre star in Hungary....and though she never achieved that kind of stardom here in America...she was not bitter in any way and always lived 'in the present', looking forward to tomorrow. It was only in her last years that some of that changed, and understandably so....But, she still was never bitter, even to the end. Mostly, she became very fearful as her health declined----this woman who had lived through the Nazi's and then The Communists and who never seemed afraid of anything, became terribly fearful of just about everything. It was painful to see. And yet, she still never completely lost her sense of hope. Not until almost the very end.
I know she enriched my life in ways that I cannot even measure, and I think anyone who knew her and loved her would say the very same thing....She brought much 'light' everywhere she went...whether in her work or her personal relationships. She was never at a loss for male companionship----she really kind of held every man in the palm of her hand, but never took advantage of that position in any way. Another reason men adored her!
So, though she is no longer here, I could not let this day go by without acknowledging my dear departed friend! How I wish we could go out for dinner to a lovely beautiful restaurant---have a scrumptious meal and eat some chocolate truffles and laugh until our sides hurt. Happy Birthday, my dear dear Hanna, I know you are lighting up Heaven right now, as I write this, and, sad to say, the 'light' here on earth is just a little bit dimmer now that you are no longer with us. You are deeply deeply missed, my dear friend.
More To Come........
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:08:00 AM
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