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...because I need a break!
Not from blogging, I tried that two weeks ago and look what happened, you got a mini-saga of seven Saxons traipsing across a war-torn France trying to regain their own lines in the midst of chaos.
So yes, as you may know, I went down to Maryland two weeks ago (yesterday) to visit Tuttle, The Nuke, and the newest addition to the family, young Robert Ryan, who is yclept in the family as Robbie. Anyhoo...
I had planned on taking a break from blogging, one week away from the Sturm und Drang of trying to be creative every day, save Monday which belongs to Juvat (and the occasional one-off of a Tuna or Beans contribution, not to be planned on or anticipated but celebrated and enjoyed when they happen). I had also planned on actually working half-days at the paying job as I didn't need to be in the lab that week and had a task to keep me busy.
Monday in Maryland arrived, I did a solid five hours on the work laptop, managed to read Juvat's latest offering (on my own time, of course) and got to hang out with the new grandson. Who, quite frankly, was rather too fond of staying awake all night, pestering his mother for sustenance, and sleeping all day. I gather this is standard operating procedure for newborns. I remember having one of those around some 36 years ago, now she's got two of her own.
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| Blue next to the Maryland branch office |
At any rate, I was finished working, the rest of the clan was napping, even the dogs, and I found myself at loose ends. What to do, what to do?
Aha! I shall write a post, the continuing tale of our lads in World War II and...
Crap, all of my notes were on a computer 400 miles away. I had meant to email them to myself, just in case the blogging bug bit (which it always does) and lo' and behold, I forgot. I'm old(ish), it happens.
That's when inspiration struck. I had been telling mostly the tale of the clashes of Allies and Germans in the fields of Normandy. Once the great breakout occurred and the destruction of Falaise had been played out, what was there to write about until sometime in September?
The inspiration came when I was thinking about all those German lads cut off behind the lines as the rest of their mates headed north, at speed, to escape the Allied onslaught. Did they all just quit (or die, which many did) or did some try to make it home. Well, you know the answer to that, dontcha? I assumed some tried to make it home.
The title of the initial post came from this book...
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As these guys would be German, not French, they couldn't be from Gascony now could they? As Saxony rhymes with Gascony, that German state popped into my head. Used to be a Kingdom, was allied with Napoléon back in the day, and of course they helped populate the British Isles way back in the day. (Where did you think the term Anglo-Saxon came from?)
So Sieben Männer von Sachsen (Seven Men of Saxony) came to be, and, truth be told, I had a lot of fun writing that series, which extended to nine parts and which you can catch up on here. I had intended to make it ten parts, but Leutnant von Lüttwitz and his lads made it home faster than even I expected.
Yes, there were points along the way where I thought, "No way they'll make it out of this jam, it's just too far." But they did. Some really good characters in the series and not to worry, we shall meet them again.
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| Where I wrote the early episodes of Sieben Männer von Sachsen I sincerely miss that view, one morning I saw a deer down the road extending past that Jeep. |
When I wrapped up the latest chapter Friday night, I decided I needed to pause the historical endeavors for a day or so. Just to catch my breath so to speak.
I spent all of this past week working from home, while the view wasn't nearly as nice as Maryland, I did have the company of the feline staff who are dedicated to seeing me up and out of bed early. Mostly to feed them, I'm sure, but they know I like to get a jump on the day's activities early. (Of course, that also means I get to knock off earlier as well!)
This coming week I'll supposedly be in the lab more. Upgrades are being performed and I'm assured that all will work as advertised. As I haven't seen that occur more than two or three times in the past fifteen years, I'll reserve judgement on that.
Some photos of where I spent time the 15th through 23rd of August I shall now present to you in the hopes that you'll forgive me for not posting something historical today.
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| The deck betwixt house and guest house. |
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| Yes, there's an ent near the the end of the driveway. |
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| The front entrance to Chez Tuttle et Nuke |
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| The path behind the guest house, even in the heat of the day, it's refreshingly cool under those pines. |
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| The stone dog. He used to be in the vegetable garden, now guards the path to the guest house. |
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| A storm was moving in, short lived but the sky was magnificent. |
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| The pines. The whole area around Chez Tuttle et Nuke is heavily wooded. Hard to believe it's less than six miles as the crow flies to the Trade School on the Severn. |
It's a beautiful area and I love visiting down there. Maryland is a lovely state away from the big city and I do like the people down there. Amazing how we can all get along if we leave politics at the door and pay no attention to the Meejah.¹
Enjoy your Sunday, I'll be digging into the historical record to see what the fates hold in store for Brandt, Fitzhugh, Wallace, Kowalski, Lindner, von Lüttwitz et al. There may even be some new characters coming along, new in the sense that they haven't been involved with D-Day nor the events thereafter, but they were introduced in my Battle of the Bulge series some time ago. (That series began here, back in 2017. The whole series is accessible from here as well.)
As I shall be tying all this together (some day soon I trust), I need to get those chaps into the fight. An American tank crew if you must know. (Sherman named "Tennessee Whiskey" commanded by Staff Sergeant Mac Peterson.) Be forewarned, the series ends when we reach the Elbe River, so I have a lot of space to fill and much to research.
Stay tuned.
¹ Hateful bastards that they are, IMHO.
Wouldn't that put it in "T" company? Or was the first letter of a tank 's name be the same as the company it belonged to, more of a USMC thing during WWII?
ReplyDeleteNope, no such company, must be a Marine thing.
DeleteTake your well-deserved break Sarge! We'll try to wait patiently, please take our enthusiasm as one does the dogs awaiting chow time. There are parallels to be certain.
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
Hahaha!
DeleteI've seen my granddogs "patiently" awaiting chow time. Hint taken. 😁
Breaks are needed things Sarge. Lovely pictures, thank you very much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMaryland is a lovely state, I've always liked it.
DeleteGood luck at work with the upgrades.....best laid plans and all that. Don't need something historical every day, a break lets you appreciate the tale all the more. The Maryland BO haz the trees unlike juvat-land where you can see for miles and miles and....uh you get the idea. Had quite a few clumps of pines around the home I grew up in the northern part of the state, squirrel and grouse havens they were.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure all will be well with the upgrade. (Yup, military-grade sarcasm right there.)
DeleteTerrain which is too open unnerves me, then again, there is such a thing as too many trees (northern Louisiana springs to mind).
Pretty country. Our little ones were sleeping at night within a month or so. It's tough to let them cry, but if they are safe, warm, full and dry, they are just lying to get their way. I'd stand over the crib and put my hand on their back, and they'd settle in and fall asleep. God knows I miss their little sounds and that heavenly smell they have. I wanted lots of kids, but that didn't happen. One or two will bankrupt you, so why not have a gaggle?
ReplyDeletePsalms 58:3 in case you don't believe me. ;)
DeleteSTxAR - Baby smell is a real thing. Robbie is a very relaxed baby, he only cries when it's "for real," no false alarms, no looking for attention. He's a really good boy.
DeleteHeh.
DeleteThey say they are "for real", then sneak into the gin cabinet. Watch that kid, he's got your genes and you know how THAT turned out!!
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteLooks like the grapes are wrathfully taking over the back deck. Train them up and the Nuke et al will have a nice bunch of muscedines from Southern Vinland (amazing to think, that in the 900's to 1100's, it was so warm on the east coast that grapes flourished all the way up to Maine, like abundantly flourished. Man-made global warming, dontchaknow?)
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed the Anabasis du Saxony. One thing you've never really written was the stereotypical nedia Nazi. Even the hard-core ones you've penned have had deeper feelings and emotions than (Insert Nazi X Here.) People tend to forget our enemies tend to be human, too. (Even, yes, some of the weirdbeards, but...)
As to Saxons, they are what put paid to the Romano-Brits of Arthur's time. Funny that so many Anglos still whine about William and his Frenchified Norse taking over, and bleating about the great days of the Anglo-Saxons (blah, blah, blah) but forget the Saxons were a scourge to civilized Briton of the time (relatively civilized before the Romans came, definitely civilized after the Romans took over and grafted their civilization onto the existing one, s they (the Romans) were wont to do.
Weird how horrors have an expiration date on them, isn't it?
The Tuttle-Nuke abode looks peaceful and serene. I miss being butted up to forest. Lost that to construction before I shifted abodes. Nice to just have trees (well, nice except for the occasional trash-panda) and wildlife. Never saw deer there, but apparently there were as the local fast road would, once in a while, be decorated by evidence of one's demise.
Yes, the grapes are being given free reign. We once had them decorating our deck, abundant they were until management decided they were too untidy for her tastes. Now they are gone. Ah well...
DeleteI like a bit of rural, perhaps it's in my blood.
Hey AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteVery nice scenery down there at the tribe extension...Just saying and your Saxony story did turn out well, You have a gift for it and I ain't saying that to shine you on to use an "Urbanism"
Thank you kindly.
DeleteWOW! Quite the branch office to enjoy, especially with family. I am envious.
ReplyDeleteYou are master of your own destiny. We are merely freeloaders gratefully enjoying what you care to share.
Thanks. But, please continue, at your own desired pace, not some arbitrary schedule, or obligation to sate the expectations of your freeloading readers.
John Blackshoe
Ah, but I like to keep the faithful informed.
DeleteWhat a beautiful place they live in!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were house hunting here in NoCo, I insisted on buying in an older neighborhood because.....TREES! Really hurt when we had to have the 65' cottonwood in the backyard removed, but it was quite dead, dropping branches everywhere, and the roofing companies we had quote the new roof all refused to do the work until the tree came down.
Enjoy your stay, and the new little one will grow up all too soon.
I do love having trees about, though when the big storms come through, it's a bit nerve-racking!
DeleteIt’s a beautiful home in Maryland. Many years ago had a distant cousin who lived there. A professor at Johns Hopkins and fluent in six or seven languages
ReplyDeleteDidn’t catch that gene unfortunately
She was a bit eccentric
I remember having lunch and she let her cat walk on the table
Ours will do that from time to time, it's a cat thing.
Delete(Don McCollor) My cat is on the counters and table, and is slowly eviscerating a couple of 40 year old easy chairs. She gets such pleasure from the latter. It is her home too...
DeleteWe are of like minds Don.
DeleteBorn and raised in Maryland. Lived there for the first 49 years of my life. Finally had to get out. I tell people I love Maryland (and I do) but I hate Maryland government.
ReplyDeleteI get that.
DeleteI'd love to take you out my buddies place in Jefferson Md, just outside of Burkitesvile (Blair Witch Project) He has a minor skirmish civil war site on the ridge behind his house. As I recall, a delaying action prior the the fight at Antietam a few miles up the road, not far at all from Harpers Ferry. Just waling the ridge line gives a lot of depth to the period back in '63,
ReplyDeleteThat area, northern Virginia, and Pennsylvania has a lot of Civil War history.
Delete