One wild dove flew into my heart Woke me from my sleep Showed me this was always home And blessed my soul to keep "One Wild Dove" from the Mad Agnes CD Magic Hour |
Revised February 12, 2012 James was born May 4, 1963 Pam was born May 27, 1964 Pam and James were married May 9, 1987 Paloma was born August 19, 1997 What is your important date? Speaking of dates, this page includes sporadic updates, newest at the top.
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We have been in our house for nine years now, and
have it just about the way we like it! We have made it
carbon-neutral and have greatly increased biodiversity
on our 0.31 acre, which was certified as habitat by the
National Wildlife Federation in 2011.
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Another year, another update,
and this has been a big one! Pam and James continue to be
engaged in many interesting learning, teaching, and service
projects in and around the unversity -- which is finally
called a university. Perry the wonderdog continues to thrill and entertain us and keep us on our toes. She is a quick and mighty huntress of small critters! The big change, though, is that Paloma now attends the Cambridge School of Weston, where we she is thriving as an inquisitive and creative learner as well as a thoughtful world citizen. Since it is just beyond commuting distance (the drive can be between 30 minutes and two hours each way), she is boarding there. Pam and James are essentially "empty nesters" before our time! The photo at left, by the way, was taken in the summer of 2011 by our multi-talented friend Angela, who offers face-painting among the many other festive services of The Peppermint Pony in the Baltimore-Washington area. |
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Wow! It has been a long time
since this page was updated. The most important changes in
the household recently have had to do with our "livestock,"
as our trusty rabbit Nikki died shortly before Christmas,
followed by our fiercely loyal hound Clover in late
February. Neither of these will be "replaced" of course, but
we do have some new pets in our midst, and they have made
the losses a bit easier. Taking over the basement have been
Wubbles and Munchkin, two Guinea pigs who spend most of
their days snuggled together under a plastic "igloo" making
cute noises at each other. The whole family was anxious to
get a dog in the spring, but summer travel plans made that
seem unwise (even though we have the greatest dog-sitter
ever). When the travel plans fell through, we realized that
the upside was the chance to get a dog sooner. It took Pam
less than a minute to find the perfect dog online. The minpin we
later named Perry happened to be at the Brockton Blue Dog
Shelter, for which Paloma had done some fundraising
projects in the past. She is a wonderful and entertaining
dog who meets all of the breed characteristics -- especially
the ability to leap! For any of us to jump as high in
proportion to our height, we would have to jump over our
house -- again and again! Because Paloma was away at camp when we adopted Perry, we brought the dog out for an introduction and bonding. Perry was quite a hit at camp, and enjoyed a ride into the town of Lowville, where we found a great park to play. More Perry photos are on Flickr. |
Our summer vacation in 2008 was spent in the highlands of Guatemala, source of some of the world's finest coffees and poorest coffee farmers. We hope that our visit may eventually lead to improvements for some of the farming communities we visited. Meanwhile, it was a terrific experience for all three of us -- brushing up on our Spanish, enjoying spectacular scenery, and walking about in the charming city of Antigua. The photos here are both in Panajachel, on the northern shores of the volcanic Lake Atitlan (where the crater lake is 11 miles wide!) Paloma was delighted to watch monkeys in a nature preserve at the edge of town. A local friend also found this big but feather-light pumice stone for Paloma to hold. We learned, by the way, that the sand-and-gravel business is just as difficult for workers as is the coffee business! See more of the story and more photos than you can stand at my Coffee in Guatemala page. |
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Our dog is rather high-maintenance, to say the least. If men come to visit, we put her in a box. Music soothes the savage beast, though, and Clover is no exception. One of our favorite rooms is the music room, and one of the most restful things that happens there is that Pam practices her recorder -- she has gotten quite good -- and Clover just lays there and soaks it in. As if she were a good dog! |
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DOG-DOVE PERRO-PALOMA It is nice when you can get alliteration in two languages! Here is our mutt posing with a Paloma sculpture we have on our Paloma porch. |
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In summer 2007, the whole
family took an actual vacation in New
York! After picking up Paloma from UU camp, we became
UU tourists. The UU Niagara
Experience includes the chance to be a Niagara Falls
daredevil in a safe, church-basement environment. Plus we
got matching hats! The photo to the right shows Paloma on her "new" classic banana-seat Schwinn. She has logged many miles on it this summer, mostly up and down our block! |
Paloma continues to delight
and amaze us. She loves anything colorful, with pink a
pretty obvious favorite. Most days she does not worry too
much about her hair, but for a special occasion, a fancy do
is something she loves. |
Paloma in a book store -- October 2006. |
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Swan BoatsOn April 28, 2005 James gave his first-ever State House speech. It was a lot of fun, and it happened that Paloma was on a field trip nearby. He took the opportunity to take photos of Paloma taking a ride on the famous and historic Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden. You can see that Paloma's friends were more cooperative than she was! |
Kit Takes Manhattan!
For School Vacation Week (a Massachusetts oddity) in April
2005, the whole family accompanied Paloma's doll Kit on a
pilgrimage to the American Girl Place in New York City. One
highlight was an elegant luncheon at the American Girl Cafe.
This was an odd sort of indulgence for us, but we did enjoy
ourselves. |
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Paloma loved Times Square and Grand
Central Station. How exciting! |
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Paloma and James enjoyed the Central Park
Carousel, and the whole family enjoyed a quick carriage ride
through the park and a visit to the lobby of the Plaza
Hotel, made famous by that Eloise. Below, geographer Paloma
and Kit show us glacial striations in Central Park. |
This Christmas-day photo shows three of Paloma's favorites. We invited one of her favorite sitters, who introduced her to the Monkees this year, and Paloma has become quite attached to her new doll Kit. They frequently wear matching pajamas. The third thing is Paloma's new room, painted with a lot of pink in the summer of 2004. Taken in January, the photo on the right shows Paloma doing something she increasingly enjoys -- reading a book. We are amazed by how well she reads, and we enjoy her many observations about language. She continues to study Spanish at school, and the whole family is starting to learn some Hungarian, with Paloma's encouragement! |
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Image: Orban's Nursery Permission pending |
Impatiens: A Poem for Spring Your impatiens will grow; They will not stay low. They will come up high ... and touch the sky. But in the winter the go down at home. Don't be impatient -- about your impatiens! ~~ Paloma Bohanan, April 26, 2004 |
Paloma was nervous about the
Spring Concert, especially her solo speaking part, but she did very well! |
Paloma lost her first tooth October 27, 2003. She was worried that it would never happen!
During the summer of 2003, Paloma was not as thrilled as I was to visit Paloma, Texas (population: very few) on the outskirts of Harlingen and not *far* from our old home in Pharr. I had actually driven through it many times when I was teaching in Brownsville, and never realized it!
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Paloma loved her poodle skirt, which Pam made for Halloween. This is one of the major holidays in New England, so she has had plenty of chances to wear the dress. |
In 2003, Paloma had a smaller birthday
party, with three friends staying over. For the event,
Paloma invented a great
butterfly craft/game , which Pam has detailed on her
web site. She is shown here earlier in the year with one of her best friends. They met as newborns! |
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Gym Show
Paloma made this "signature" herself. Click on it to see the beautiful drawing, of which it is a part.
Kindergarten or High School? Paloma set off for big-girl school on August 28, equipped with a new backpack from Tia Diane, a new lunchbox, and those new Power Puff Girl shoes (four sizes larger than shoes worn in May). As you can see, she has been pretty thrilled with this milestone. A few days later I caught her doing a good teenager imitation while on the phone with our friend Susan. |
On June 1, 2002, we took part in the festivities celebrating the new Dr. Seuss National Memorial in Springfield. Pictured at right are the Grinch, Max, and Cindy Lou Hoo. |
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During the festivities our friend Susan
also got a nice shot of the whole family!
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Paloma's fourth birthday party featured Ruby Slippers
cake (with Yellow Brick Road M&Ms) and the party girl
herself dressed as Dorothy.
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Paloma celebrated National
Geography Awareness Week 2000 at the annual
international luncheon in the Department of Earth
Sciences and Geography . Here she is responding to the
question "How far is the town of Jiggalong from Lake
Disappointment in the Gibson Desert of Western
Australia?"
Her answer: 200 kilometers. |
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See Halloween 2000 photos on a separate page.
On August 28, 2000, we adopted
a new family dog at the Northeast Animal Shelter in
Salem, Mass.
On the way home, Paloma named her Clover. She
was a very sweet one-year-old bassett mix from Puerto
Rico. She was rescued as a street dog by a wonderful
group called Save
a Sato , which sent her to the shelter by
airplane! We eventually discovered that Clover -
though a wonderful dog for us - has a distinct dislike
for most men. |
Clover usually tolerates whatever Paloma wants to do. |
Paloma enjoyed her first trip to the Amazon in 2000, though it was HOT. Here she enjoys a cool pop in the shade with her friend Daniel. Read about the trip and see more photos at Pam's Rondonia 2000 page. | Paloma blowing bubbles with our good friend Susan Holton on May 12, 2000. |
On February 1, 2000, I happened to have a digital camera available when Paloma learned to say "carnation," and asked to put one in her hair. Point to the photos to see what she said! |
1999 was
Paloma's third Christmas season, but the first one that
she really understood and enjoyed. She loves Santa in
the abstract, but was a bit uncertain when he actually
arrived at our church.
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Halloween 1999
Paloma was quite excited about Halloween this year - her third Halloween, but the first time that she has really gotten the concept. She enjoyed several parties and trick-o-treating in Pope Hall, a dorm full of very nice Bridgewater State students. On Halloween day, we took the opportunity of great weather to visit Walden Pond in Concord, which I had been discussing with students all semester. Paloma found a nice trail-side rock on which to sit and think for a while. |
This is Paloma's famous "Dad" trick. She started doing it at six months, and can still do it at almost five years. It requires being strong and skinny! |
In Memory
Our loyal beagle Pablo Picasso was put to sleep on May 7, 1998 after a brief but difficult struggle with diabetes. He traveled throughout the United States with us, and will be remembered by many human and canine friends. Pablo was a trooper! Before succumbing to diabetes, he had survived the following:
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NOTE: I know that some of these Paloma links are broken. I am trying to find updates, rather than delete them.
If you think there is a Picasso fixation in this house, you are correct. Pablo Picasso's second daughter is Paloma , a fashion/jewelry designer. That is not the only reason we named our daughter Paloma, though: it is also Spanish meaning "dove." Paloma, California was the location of the first find that led to the 1849 California Gold Rush. Read a description of Paloma Ranch from a developer who is trading on that history. The USGS lists 114 place names containing Paloma , including quite a few near our previous homes in Arizona and Texas.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists soil series with the official names Pablo and Palomas as well as James , Kezar , Hayes , and Bohannon soils (no Pamela - I checked) in other parts of the country. Check the USDA Official Soil Series Descriptions to see if they have the dirt on your family!
Paloma World is a leading-edge virtual reality project based on ancient villages in Paloma, Peru. A lower-tech presentation of archeological findings (including a map and the various Paloma tools) is at Eric White's Paloma page.
In 1989, we enjoyed the Ballet Folklorico in Mexico City. In Veracruz, the local version is Ballet Folklorico La Paloma . Visit the group's web site to see a flying dove animation!
Paloma loves animals. It is fitting, therefore, that large donors to the SPCA in Los Angeles are members of the Paloma Society .
Search this site:
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About this site |
Pam has a home page , too!
And don't forget Paloma's Betty Boop
page!