Sunsets – The Parnassus Pen

Sunsets and Sunrises

*Mount Saint Peter Roman Catholic Church. New Kensington, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. May 7, 2021. (Photo: Jenny Gaffron Woytek)*

So, a little bit over a week ago, my maternal grandmother died. Grandma Margaret.

Grandma celebrated her 90th birthday this past summer. In fact, she celebrated her birthday during the week between my birthday and my sister’s birthday, and several other family birthdays occurred during this same week. Grandma left behind a lot of people who loved her. However, I understand that all or almost all people who live to the age of 90 lose much. My grandfather died several years ago. And, as Grandma reminded me, she herself had only one sister, named Shirley. Shirley died of cancer in her 20’s. About two years after the first Shirley died, my grandmother had my mom and she named my mom Shirley. My mom, the second Shirley, died of cancer three years ago. Grandma wondered about this to me. She wondered about the odds of losing both of her Shirleys to the same disease, decades apart.

But, I remember something completely different now. After my mom died, I sat and looked through Grandma’s photo albums with her. We looked through an album consisting mostly of photos that Grandma herself took. Grandma took A LOT of photos of sunrises and sunsets. She took some of these photos when she visited my uncle in Florida. She took other sunset photos over the winter countryside after my grandparents retired and moved out to farmland in Beaver County and raised goats. She took them with her point-and-shoot camera. She paid to develop them, then put them into her photo albums along with her photos of her family.

I learned that day that when I enjoy a sunrise or a sunset, I owe this at least in part to Grandma Margaret.

Sunrises are beautiful. Sunsets are sad but also beautiful. Neither exists without the other.

Adventuring With Katie at Shenandoah National Park at Skyland and Old Rag Mountain

My sister, Katie, blogs about her adventures. Here is Katie’s new post Adventuring With Katie at Shenandoah National Park at Skyland and Old Rag Mountain

Presque Isle Lighthouse

Sunset at Mount Saint Peter

Eight days ago (so, on April 29), Jonathan and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary. We were married at Mount Saint Peter in New Kensington. Jonathan’s late mother, Fran, worked at the parish at that time. So, I have a special place in my heart for Mount Saint Peter.

I look for opportunities to develop my skill at sunset photography. So, I took my camera to Mount Saint Peter for this evening’s sunset. This almost didn’t happen because clouds frequently covered the sun this afternoon! In fact, clouds covered the sun WHILE I waited at Mount Saint Peter for the sun to set.

The clouds moved just in time for me to witness the sunset.

Now, you will see a bridge in the background of the first photo that I posted. This bridge crosses the Allegheny River in downtown New Kensington. The bridge sits in the river valley. Much of New Kensington sits in this same valley. However, Mount Saint Peter sits on a hill overlooking downtown New Ken.

I mention all of this because I like to think of the Allegheny River as “my river.” The Allegheny River is obviously NOT merely “my river.” I was actually born directly across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg. I grew up near the Susquehanna and in the Allegheny Mountains. However, ever since I was a child and I visited my grandparents in Pittsburgh, I felt as if I belonged with the Allegheny River. Perhaps I lived along the Allegheny in another life? Perhaps I was always destined to return to the Allegheny?

Erie, Pennsylvania

My husband, Jonathan, and I recently purchased a sailboat, S/V Pinniped. We dock Pinniped in Erie, PA. Here are Jonathan’s most recent updates on sailing:

Life with S/V Pinniped: Two Months in, Part 1

Life with S/V Pinniped: Two Months in, Part 2

A few years ago, Jonathan blogged about an Erie lighthouse:

Erie Land Light

Then, I wrote Don’t Give Up the Lighthouse; Erie Land Light Part II.

I also previously blogged about the time that we saw the U.S. Brig Niagara sail past us under full sail at Presque Isle State Park.

Jonathan and I actually left the bay and sailed on Lake Erie (the open lake!) for the first time together yesterday. Check back for future updates!

Tintern Abbey, Iron Maiden, and Jane Austen

Once upon a time, I followed my husband Jonathan on his business travel to London. We rented a car. We drove to Tintern Abbey, in Wales, on the River Wye.

Well, Jonathan drove our British rental car on the left side of the road. Jonathan maneuvered the traffic circles (roundabouts). I navigated.

Here’s the first road sign that we saw after we crossed the line into Wales. Note that the first three lines of this sign are in Welsh and the final three lines are in English:

PAN FYDD

GOLAU COCH

ARHOSWCH YM

WHEN RED LIGHT

SHOWS WAIT

HERE

We almost didn’t tour Tintern Abbey.

The government runs this landmark as a day-use attraction, so it closes before the sun sets. The staff ends ticket sales 30 minutes before the attraction closes for the day. We got lost and then we arrived at Tintern Abbey about an hour before it closed.

But we made it!

Cistercian monks established and maintained Tintern Abbey between 1131- 1536. Tintern Abbey closed in 1536 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Here are some of the things that happened:

1.) The monarchs in England used to be Roman Catholic.

2.) The Protestant Reformation began in Saxony (Germany) in 1517.

3.) Henry VIII of England wanted to end his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1533 so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

4.) Henry VIII rejected papal supremacy. Parliament passed a law establishing Henry as the head of the Church of England.

5.) In the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry closed all of the monasteries, including Tintern Abbey.

6.) Henry’s agents stripped the monastic property of anything and everything valuable, including the lead roof.

(In Anya Seton’s novel Green Darkness, one of the main characters lived as an English monk in a different Catholic monastery. Henry VIII also closed this monastery during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The novel detailed how Henry VIII’s officials plundered that monastery of its valuables and banished the monks. At least one of these monks fled to France. Many of them remained in England but hid from the Protestants during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. The King’s officials grew their own wealth by closing the monasteries. See my prior blog post about Anya Seton.)

The band Iron Maiden filmed their music video for “Can I Play with Madness” partly at Tintern Abbey.

Jane Austen shouts-out to Tintern Abbey in her novel Mansfield Park.

Wikipedia taught me that Allen Ginsburg tripped on acid here in 1967 and then wrote his poem Wales Visitation.

William Wordsworth also wrote a poem about Tintern Abbey.

The Wye Valley Railway established a station near the Abbey in 1876. Though prior tourists visited Tintern by boat, fashionable Victorians could now access it by train.

We left the Abbey and grabbed dinner at a local pub. Other patrons spoke Welsh to each other.

We drove through the rural darkness back to London.

Watch for my upcoming blog posts about my adventures in travel.

Coming Soon: Secrets of Michigan

The Mackinac Bridge in Michigan crosses the Straits of Mackinac and joins Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to its Lower Peninsula. The water west of the bridge belongs to Lake Michigan and the water east of the bridge belongs to Lake Huron.

St. Ignace sits at the southern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the UP), next to the northern end of the Mackinac Bridge.

My father-in-law Dennis Woytek worked at a radio station in St. Ignace, Michigan for the first three years after he married my mother-in-law Fran in the early 70’s.

One time, Dennis and Fran explored rural Northern Michigan in their car. They ended up lost on a dirt road in the woods. They discovered a marker dedicated to “two lovers” who got lost out in that same wilderness and perished. Dennis and Fran drove some more and sighted a lighthouse in the distance. They followed the dirt road to the lighthouse. They found a paved road at the lighthouse, and were able to find their way back to a highway.

Dennis eventually took a radio job back home in Western Pennsylvania. Dennis and Fran brought their kids to vacation on the UP about a decade later.

After Fran and Dennis’ son, Jonathan, and I got engaged, Fran invited me to vacation in the UP with them. I too fell in love with the UP. I vacationed with the Woytek family on the UP almost every year for over a decade.

So, please enjoy this upcoming series on my blog about the people, places, and folklore of Michigan.

I will post stories and photos of Mackinac Island, of course. However, I will also bring to you my experiences with rural cemeteries, Native American grounds, tall ships, remote beaches, freighters, and more.