Happy New Year, Readers!
A big thank you to neighbor Amy
for Norman Rockwell-ing our Barber Ball groupie.
It makes for a nostalgic beginning for the year-ending blog.
In this annual edition of
the Lamp Post Year in Review,
we say goodbye to 2025
and greet 2026 with glad tidings.
Looking back through a year's worth of photos
over the course of several days each December's end,
is the time of year I look forward to the most.
The days-long project
mulling over memories
always has me searching for the common thread.
What jumps out as a theme,
when sharing the
faces and the places I love
every single Friday night?
It's the stories that my photos tell.
The photos themselves aren't professional grade.
They are often blurry and off center,
moments captured with my lens not meant for fast speed.
Organized group shots
have never been my forte.
You'll find very few of them on this blog.
When you scroll through them,
consider the stories they tell,
rather than the quality of the photo itself.
Stories are the love of my life.
I come from a long line of storytellers
of Germanic heritage, of course.
This is the house I grew up in,
that I most often see from the side view now
as I'm all grown up and live next door.
I spent Christmas Day in this home,
looking at the arrangements of decorations
and the stories they told.
from our Camp Kamp set that is over 50 years old.
Long disappeared is the Camp itself
with its bunkbeds and canoes.
But the memory of receiving it on Christmas morning
in the 1970's will never be forgotten.
Woodstock is sitting nearby in the red truck.
He was the delivery driver for the gifts!
A few paces to the south in the kitchen,
and you'll find the drop leaf table
that reveals the story of Snoopy driving another red truck.
He is yelling out the window,
Moose on the loose!
And my favorite of the Christmas stories
told through figurines are the snow babies.
Here are Erik, Natalie, Jack, and Ellen
all in a row,
just as they were spaced,
all a year apart from the next.
I remember the year my sister and I invested in this piece,
thinking an even four grandchildren
were what we gifted our parents
to continue our family line.
Then along came Sam,
the thumb that completed
the four fingered mittened hands.
Here he is nuzzling his blankey--
which he still has, by the way.
We all have stories
and we each tell them in our own ways.
It is important to review them from time to time,
and the New Year is always a good time for reflection.
Thank you for joining me tonight
in review of the happenings at the Lamp Post in 2025.
I'll share the things I love most--
the stories of the
Flora and Fauna,
Faces and Places.
and issues most dear to my heart.
We will start our meander through the year
with Neighbor Laura's horses,
from the nearby Sunny Acres farm.
Watch as they graze in the field
throughout the seasons of the year in 2025.
Winter
Hints of Spring
Spring
Summer
Fall
and back to Winter once again.
Follow through the photos
and guided headings.
This blog is long on photos
and short on words.
Enjoy the look back,
and Happy New Year!
Flora and Fauna
In January the spotlight was on the Greenhouse,
aka the Gingerbread House.
Gingerbread Man was missing!
My students had weeks worth of deductive reasoning lessons,
arriving at many possible leads to investigate.
When the snow melted six weeks later,
we discovered him face down near the outfield.
Gingy is not talking
and we never concluded if it as a wind gust,
or he was actually fleeing.
The greenhouse provides hours of worthwhile activity
for Natalie.
Her green thumb was revealed!
We make strawberry jam every June.
And at the beginning of each thaw
The return of color in Spring.
Summer blooms
We named this giant orange zinnia, Sam,
as it towered over all the others.
Within a few days,
a tall pink one stood beside it--
so we named her Anna.
Zinnias make the most beautiful bouquets.
Summer blooms.
Summer fades gracefully into Fall.
Winter returns once again,
like it or not.
Real deer
And deer that are made real at the stroke of midnight
on Christmas Eve.
A killdeer playing injured
to lead me away from her chick.
Here I am in squirrel form:
This Duhring Road squirrel
likes burnt Texas Toast so much
he took it all the way up the tree!
And our resident "squirrel", aka Penny
moved this ham bone
to four locations in our yard
before she found a suitable place for its burial.
Hazel and Penny bring us continuous joy!
The matriarch of our feral cat clan,
Stealth,
is alive and well.
She has survived 8 winters outside
with daily feedings,
a heated chicken coop,
and a straw winter barricade.
We mourn the passing our feral friend Franklin.
Born from Stealth within the first year,
on the Fourth of July.
Mr. Lamp Post found this poor creature
wobbling in the tiger lilies
beneath the flagpole at Whitford Park.
A park bystander called to him,
Mister, mister! There's a kitten and it needs help!
With lots and lots of TLC
and some guidance from big brother Gus
Whitford joined the family.
Gus and Whitford are the third and fourth rescues,
right behind Charlie
and Lucy
who live in the lap of luxury
next door with my parents
This blog about Stories
leads me to books of the year,
but first
my Go To Book-woman,
always known to recommend a great read--
we pause to honor the unexpected passing of dear Aunt Joby.
Her last recommendations were these three books,
which are on my bedside table
waiting to be savored this year.
I'm building my personal library
of 5 Star Reads.
Only my favorites will be for keeps,
but also for loan,
complete with library cards
and due date stamps.
I'm looking for a card catalogue
if any reader happens across one sometime.
Please give Eloise the tip as to where to find it.
Adding to the five star read shelves will be
This one was a solid 4 for me--
but I'll keep it around for loan.
It's a great one to listen to if you prefer that format.
You can follow along with the words
with my copy.
80's kids--
do you remember when we put on the headphones
and followed along with the book on cassette tape?
These are my re-reads-
the ones I return again and again to
when the world feels heavy.
It is very, very rare that I don't finish a book.
In 2025, there were two that I did not like
well enough by the 54th page.
Discontinued:
Faces & Places
are the Stories most fun!
Every day is the start of a new story.
Natalie's story is still one of success.
Natalie continues to be a champion
with the Gliding Stars of Erie.
and is a force to be reckoned with on the lanes.
Natalie and friends are successful because
Inclusion works.
Sam was added to Team Erik
as a weekend helper.
When did what makes us
distinctly admirable Americans,
become reduced to three letters
and turned into a dirty word?
For your reminder,
please review:
Joe and Eva on Survivor touched the hearts of many.
This series is fantastic, particularly Season 2!
We love HC's Bocce Team!
The Barber National Institute's
Beast on the Bay obstacle course race
around Erie's Presque Isle,
hurdled the final obstacle.
Don't Let it Die!
Beast on the Bay brings out the best in all of us.
or at least most of us.
I frequent most Farm Stands--
this particular one the most.
If you are a petty thief,
I'd think twice
before rolling that 25 cent gourd up your sleeve.
You will be TikTok famous.
I love County Fairs and will go to any that fit into my schedule.
We went to the Erie County Fair in Buffalo
and it was amazing.
We got to see a calf being born.
It was there I first laid eyes on the bean teepee
and I fell in love.
The sunflowers at Battles Farm in Girard, PA
were a sight to see.
I did some down dogs in the middle of a flower field
at Port Farms.
You'll find us at all the local festivals.
And I love me a good coffee shop!
I took my high school friends to camp!
This was the only bigfoot we found.
We rode the Tour de Forest this year!
And went to the Gingerbread Festival in Cook Forest.
Our Creekside cabin is just so perfect for all of us.
It got some new windows
from CJ Kelly Construction.
and Louie and Truby got to meet the Leeper Wizard!
The Speech Girls invaded the valley in October
and the big woods was forever changed
for the better.
After much deliberation
(translated to hours of stubborn argument)
we decided on a paint color for the living room,
then determined that we were all too chicken
to paint the high spots.
We had to call in Dan
and Megan from Naturally Inspired Painting!
The Pocono Mountains were the destination
of our summer vacation!
We did the usual--
found the best local places to eat,
hit up the parks for nature walks,
and played cards at the Vrbo rental
for the long weekend.
We drove through Scranton on our way home
and stopped to see The Office mural.
The Lamp Posters love to support the arts.
Erie Clay Space
And Lamp Post canvas paintings!
Ellen is clearly the shining star
of creativity in the house.
One person's trash is another's treasure!
She's mean with a crochet hook, too!
She's traded her college tees
and Grad cap
For a Speech Language Pathology position
in our home school district.
What lucky students!
Nephew Jack got a new job within the
Washington DC public school system
and is working with young children with special needs
in their Physical Education program.
Grandpa turned 81 this week
and we had a snowy morning with doughnuts.
and shortly after,
an aunt.
If I had to narrow down questions
and commentary to the top three of the year,
I would select the following as the top inquiries:
3. Did you find the Gingerbread man?
2. How is Whitford the cat doing?
#1. How are you doing without Sam in high school sports?
Sam, our youngest child
graduated from high school in June.
He loved sports
and played something every season
since he was five.
The sports teams,
coaches,
and their parents
have become like family.
He now is studying mathematics
and living in the Ohio dorm on Behrend's campus.
Sam bowls on a league with Mr. Lamp Post
and is putting his big size 13 toe into some local tournaments.
He plays pick-up basketball at Erie Hall most evenings
and has become one with the stair stepper and free weights.
Although I will miss the excitement of all of this:
I have learned this year that are just as many things to photograph
because stories continue to be told.
Natalie understands this knowledge first hand.
She won NINE 50-50 drawings
and a huge raffle basket--
all at sporting events and halftime drawings.
You would think her luck was all used up.
Nope!
This fall her winning streak continued.
She won a huge raffle basket from the YMCA,
and answered the Roll-Call for anyone
named NATALIE
to come and get some free Pop Luck!
Stories never cease.
They never run out.
They will be told
and retold
for all of time.
When one book closes,
there is always another one to crack open.
Come visit Eloise at the Lamp Post.
I have a stack of 5 Star Reads
waiting for you.
See you next week under the light of the Lamp Post
for a new lesson on life, learning, and love.
Eloise
