Greetings from South Africa

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by Faith 47, Sandton, Johannesburg.

I'm currently in Johannesburg, South Africa for meetings this week. The photos above and below are recent murals by Faith 47, an artist from South Africa whose murals I've spotted in London, Los Angeles and Miami.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by Faith 47, Sandton, Johannesburg. 25 Jun 2017.

Happy Fathers Day

Photo by Patrick Jones. My Dad, 21 April 2012.

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there. This day has me thinking about my Dad, Keith D. Jones, who was taken by cancer too soon last year. The photo above is from a happier time when my Dad taught a boat building class at the Indiana State Museum in 2012, and later launched the finished boat in the Canal. Here are a few more photos from that weekend that I have not posted previously.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dad was always teaching.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Dad going over the details for the boat launch.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Preparing to launch in the Canal.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Rowing the Meteor in the Canal. 21 Apr 2012.

Here's last year's Fathers Day post. I did not do one in 2014 or 2015, but here's a link to the one from 2013. Take the time you have with the ones you have while you can.

17 years between concerts

Photo by Patrick Jones. Red Hot Chili Peppers, 12 April 2017.

Back in April, Allison and I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. We last saw them live in an amazing concert at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana back in April 2000 with Muse and the Foo Fighters. The Chili Peppers put on a solid show, and had a pretty cool light show suspended from the ceiling of the arena.

We were on the 200 level with a good view of the stage. Closer photos from the show can be see via NBC4's post-concert article (not my photos).

The Foo Fighters are also returning to the DC area to open the new Southeast DC waterfront venue called The Anthem on 12 October 2017. We're hoping to get tickets to that show.

Ribera del Duero

Photo by Patrick Jones. Bud break at Finca Villacreces, 16 May 2017

While in Spain last month we had some time to drive north of Madrid to the wine country in Ribera del Duero. Here is another set of photos from our day at the wineries in this region. Most of the photos were taken at Finca Villacreces, a beautiful producer between the village of Quintanilla de Onésimo and the village of San Bernardo. They are next door to the large producer Bodegas Vega Sicilia.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Finca Villacreces, Spain.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Courtyard with 350 year old tree.

Bodegas Villacreces divides their land into small plots, focusing on organic farming and high quality production. The wines were very good, and we managed to bring back a bottle of their Pruno and Finca Villacreces.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Casas plot at Bodegas Villacreces.

Before visiting Villacreces we stopped in the neighboring village of Quintanilla de Arriba and walked around two of the old churches.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Church in Quintanilla de Arriba.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Small church in Ribera del Duero. 16 May 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Grape vines next to the church.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Wine tasting at Fuente Aceña.

Jacarandas in bloom

Photo by Patrick Jones. Jacaranda blooms in LA. 31 May 2017.

At the end of May I was in the Los Angeles office for meetings. My visit overlapped with the burst of purple from the Jacaranda trees in Playa Vista and Santa Monica. In my eleven years of visiting and living in Los Angeles I couldn't remember seeing so much purple. Maybe I did not pay enough attention while we were living there, or my visits back to the office never aligned with the blooms. In any case, I couldn't miss them on this trip. A beautiful sight.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Jacaranda blooms on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

View from 7A

Photo by Patrick Jones. AS5 to LAX, 30 May 2017.

This set of photos was taken while flying to Los Angeles on 30 May 2017. According to the location data on the photo, we were above the San Isabel National Forest in Colorado.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mountains in Colorado. 30 May 2017.

Expensive Barrels

Photo by Patrick Jones. Barrels of Finca Villacreces Nebro.

The barrels above are at Finca Villacreces in Ribera del Duero. These contain their low-yield Nebro made from old vines at their beautiful estate along the Duero River. The markings indicate the barrels were filled on 20 October 2015. One barrel holds about 60 gallons (25 cases or 300 bottles), therefore the three barrels pictured above will produce about 900 bottles of wine. Nebro retails for $150 per bottle or more, so those three barrels represent at least $135,000 in wine.

We were able to tour Finca Villacreces while staying in Ribera del Duero last month. While we were not able to taste the Nebro, we did try their wonderful Pruno, Finca Villacreces and family owned Flor de Vetus Verdejo from the neighboring Rueda region.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Barrels of Pruno. 16 May 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. In the wine archive.

Wine under the castle

Photo by Patrick Jones. Peñafiel Castle. 16 May 2017.

Last month while in Spain we had the opportunity to drive north of Madrid to the Ribera del Duero region. On our second day in the area we visited the town of Peñafiel, its impressive 10th century castle and the regional wine museum inside.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Inside Peñafiel Castle.

Photo by Patrick Jones. White grape varieties in Spain.

You can see for miles from the top of the castle. One can see why this spot was chosen to defend the surrounding village.

Photo by Patrick Jones. View from the top of the castle. 16 May 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. View from Peñafiel Castle.

Built underneath the castle more recently are a series of caves storing the barrels of Bodegas Protos. We took a tour and tasting of the winery. You start in the caves and end up in the new bottling facility across the street designed by architect Richard Rogers. He also designed Terminal 4 at Madrid's Barajas international airport. There is a similar feel to the terminal in the swooping lines of the ceiling at Protos, but is designed to resemble the inside of a wine barrel.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Wine cave at Bodegas Protos.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Historic wines in the cave at Protos.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Wine cave underneath Peñafiel Castle.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Wine barrels at Protos. 16 May 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. So many wine barrels!

Photo by Patrick Jones. Cases packed for shipping. Bodegas Protos.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Bodegas Protos tasting area.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Bodegas Protos. 16 May 2017.

We brought back three wines from Protos, a reserve crianza, a rosé and verdejo. Overall this was a really enjoyable visit to Peñafiel, the castle and winery. We spent a good 3 hours or more between the castle tour and museum and the winery tour and tasting. If you are in the region, definitely visit the castle and check out the winding roads of Peñafiel.

More old photos

Alfred Freyling Sr & Junior. 1930s.

Here is another old photo showing Allison's great-grandfather Alfred Freyling Sr. & her Papaw, Alfred Freyling Jr. I suspect the photo is from the 1930s. This is a continuation of the series I posted while in Indiana (see here and here). Next is a wonderful portrait showing Alfred Freyling Sr. and wife Norma Louise Kuester. The photo is probably dated from 1916, although I am not certain. They were married in Evansville on 6 February 1916.

Alfred Freyling & Norma Louise Kuester.

The last photo below is an earlier photo of Norma, dated from 1914. She would have been 18 or almost 19 in this photo.

Norma L. Kuester, 1914.

Warrick County Land

Warrick County Mortgage Book 1, Pg. 262.

Last week while in Southern Indiana I was able to visit the Warrick County Recorder's Office and pull copies of land records for Allison's Freyling family ancestors. Her 3rd-great-grandparents Stephen Freyling and Katharina Wagner Freyling were married in neighboring Vanderburgh County, Indiana on 31 October 1852. Six months later they entered a mortgage (copy above) in Warrick County for the Northeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 17 in Township 5 South of Range 9 West in Campbell Township. The mortgage was fully paid on 5 April 1859.

Marriage Record of Stephen and Katharina.

Stephen and Katharina next purchased land from John and Mary Woods for $20 on 27 March 1861.

Warrick County Deed Book 17, Pg. 169

Stephen and Katharina bought a connecting plot of land on 20 May 1863 from William and Sarah Corwin, and then a larger plot of land on 9 May 1884 along the New Harmony and Millersburg Road. Stephen and Katharina sold twenty acres for $850 on 19 September 1889. After Stephen died on 28 June 1893, his children sold the remaining land for $2700 on 5 August 1898.

Immigrant Heritage Month

Photo from C. Devine via Facebook. Vicente Campuzano & Maria Jesus Vasquez.

Another Immigrant Heritage Month began yesterday. This year I have donated to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, the Puente Human Rights Movement in Arizona, the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. It feels like small contributions, but hopefully these will add up to make a difference.

Last year, my IHC post was pretty small. My 2015 post titled the Journey was more detailed on the immigrants from my Granny's side of the tree. The painting above shows my 2nd-great-grandparents Vicente Plutarco Campuzano and Maria Jesus Vasquez, who lived in Arizona for several years before returning to Sonora. I have shared this previously, but above is a better quality photo from my cousin Catherine, which she shared earlier in the week on Facebook.

As I think about the immigrants in my family and their contributions in making this country a better place, I am encouraged to do more to help others who are after the same things my ancestors wanted.

Source: LA Times, photo by Patrick T. Fallon, 3 Feb 2017.

I have covered many of the stories of my family connections and related lines in previous posts, but it is worth revisiting them again as a reminder.