Ancestor Birthdays in February

some ancestors' February Birthdays:
William Sanford Rogers
Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers
Eugenia Almetta Whitty Booth

 

 *********************
William Sanford Rogers (Known as W. Sam by his son, my grandfather, George Elmore Rogers, Sr.)  
born on 2.9.1850 Huntsville, TX
m. Bette Bass on 12.14.1876,  Willis Tx 
d. 1879 Huntsville TX.  

You might notice how young he was when he died.  His wife died within a year of him, so my grandfather was raised (with his little sister) by W. Sam's sister, Alice Luella Rogers Ross and her husband, John Elmore Ross, who just happened to have also been born on February 22.1850, died-1.14.1918. 
(NOTE: Further research shows it is not true that Bette Bass Rogers died then)

*********************** 

A woman who was a strong leader in our family.  My father's mom: Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers was born Feb 23, 1886 San Marcos, TX,
m. 6.6.1905 George Elmore Rogers,  Galveston, TX
d. Dec. 1964,  Houston, TX

Ada Rogers as one of two Christian Science Readers for Sunday services in a Houston Texas church. (In the background is Mary Beth Rogers who is honored below)

My grandmother was a Christian Science Practioner for as long as I knew her, which meant she helped sick people without use of medical attention, only with prayer.  It wasn't quite the same as laying on of hands, as there was little drama involved, but the purpose was to use the same powers that Jesus did to have healings.

She raised my father in the religion and he remained a devout Christian Scientist all his life, though he seldom attended Sunday services (at least when I lived with him).

Ada and husband George Rogers

Christmas dinner 1938.  Front row, l to r, Mataley (my mother) Donna V, Ada; back row, brothers: George (Junie, my father), Alex, Chauncey, James and Pop (George Sr) taken at the Rogers home, 400 E. Myrtle, San Antonio, TX

 sisters Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers and Stella Zuleka Swasey Winslow (b. 1887)

The Swasey sisters were the only children of Zuleka Phillips Swasey, whose sister was also named Ada.  

See an older post on my blog about Ada and George Rogers, and a very old photo here.

*********************
Eugenia Almetta Whitty Booth b. 2.24.1852 Marshall TX.  She married 7.20.1869 (his second m.) Richard R. Booth. They were the maternal grandparents of my grandmother, Mozelle Booth Miller Webb Munhall.  I love that I can trace a maternal lineage this far, and actually a bit further.

This is the home 17 year old Mrs. Booth moved into when she married a widower.  Richard had one son who was 3 at the time of the marriage.  They had 3 more children, including Eugenia Almeta Booth Miller, my great grandmother.  I've already talked about her on this blog earlier here.
  

Booth family home, 1855 Hillsboro, Texas

Macro leaves problem

I'm asking (searching) for an answer to the fuzz that has decided to appear right as new leaves pop open on my old gardenia bush.

Gardenia leaves

I brought it inside in October when the first freezes started happening at night.  It sat in an indoor covered porch/studio over most of the winter.  Ha!  She says, because it is still winter, isn't it?

But I moved it into the southern exposure living area where it gets full sun and warmth again about a month ago.  I also fertlized it then.

Flaky things on new growth

Then yesterday I noticed that all the new leaves had little white/transparent flaky things.  When rubbed, they come off easily and look like little shards of glass, but are softer.

If the flaky things are on older leaves (dark green) I sure don't see them.


I have had aphids on this bush last spring, and treated them effectively with regular spraying.  Is this another kind of insect?  Or is it a disease?

None of the gardenia diseases in the various sites on line talk about anything like this.

The rest of the leaves haven't fallen off all winter.  Last year this bush shed all it's leaves and grew a new batch.

This year I did prune it before bringing it back to warmth and sunshine.

Anyone know what this might be and how to treat it?

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to check other Monday Macro postings.

More of the gardenia bush, showing stems

In honor of Keptain the cat

A pair of adult cats that seldom stretched out together like this.  Muffin on left, Keptain on right. 

Keptain's full name was "Keptain Panther of the UUS Kitty Pride," as named by my 11 year old son (a Trekie). 

Keptain was born on the day we moved into a new apartment in Knoxville, TN, from Atlanta.  His poor mother had been crammed into a normal size cat carrier in a U-Haul for a whole day.  When we arrived in Knoxville, the key to the apartment wasn't available, so we had to stay overnight in a Holiday Inn.  

The mom-to-be stayed in the bathroom, waited till we got to the apartment and moved a dresser upstairs, where she scooted under the 2 inch space (barely) and started giving birth to those 4 kittens.  We fortunately took the drawer out so we could see her, and help as needed.

Keptain lived with me for many years, and finally had to go to the other side of the rainbow bridge with help of his vet when he was 14 years old (I think, my memory isn't that great).  My son was an adult by then, and came to say goodbye before the sad day.  He had loved and cared for that sweet cat for many years.  I still miss his funny squeeky meow.

I'll tell you Muffin's story another time.

I'm submitting this to Camera Critters Meme this week.

Dripolator Reflections

This colorful old building is centrally located in downtown Black Mountain.  Great meeting place for friends to talk and drink a cup of something, or for Wi-Fi folks to open those lap-tops.

The windows reflect a church across State Street and some traffic.

This post is being shared on Weekend Reflections (the first photo has lots of reflections). 

I usually show photos from my other blog Living in Black Mountain for Weekend Reflections, but these photos all go together, and I try to only post one photo a day on LiBM.  Hope it's not too confusing.  Thanks for stopping by!

How fragile it is, looking down at the sky

A really neat video...
in case you haven't noticed, I love science, and astronomy especially.

http://www.upworthy.com/some-strange-things-are-happening-to-astronauts-returning-to-earth?g=3

This is a bit long to watch, but has some great views of earth, not to mention letting us know what the astronauts thought when returning to earth.

The thin veil of our atmosphere is part of how fragile this planet earth is.  Another part is how it must look to those who have been honored to venture off it's surface into space, to see it hanging in that immensity of black.

We who walk around on the surface...or dive into Gaia's waters...only have a mental image of how this great planet is actual twirling around on its axis while driving through an orbit around a star.

It's not emotional.  Though certainly it triggers awe for those who write poetry and music, who are artists and worship trees and nature.  I continue to be moved by nature. But I can only imagine what the astronauts experienced.

I added this post to Skywatch Friday, you can't get much more sky!  Every time I look for my listing, it isn't included there.  But people keep telling me (see comments) that they came from there.  Must conclude that I can't see my own blog listing there.

Smile!

My son Russ when he was around 5.  Taken with a Kodak Instamatic camera with really poor resolution.

It was a fun afternoon, enjoying watermellon with my kids and friends, and maybe family.  I well remember my sister visiting with her young daughter one time.  We lived in Tampa, and my sister lived in Tennessee, and her husband's business took him back and forth to Coral Gables (Miami area) frequently.  So they would usually stop for the night at my home whenever they were driving back and forth.  I was glad to have the company, though I was working a full time job at the time and didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked.

I'll have to dig out some pictures of my sister's log cabin on a mountain in Tennessee sometime.  We did visit her several summer vacations, especially after I bought a camper van.

Oh here's Russ today...in Connecticut.  Couldn't resist adding this "update".

Still smiling!

What happened to MY earnings in SS?

Well the "sequestration silliness" may just impact me, as so many "budget cuts" seem to land on the shoulders of those who can so valiantly not hold them up.

As Ronnie Bennett says on her blog this morning...and as is true all mornings...

"Again, for the zillionth time, Social Security is a closed system. It does not contribute a penny to the deficit. Beneficiaries paid into this program all their working lives and to cut benefits is stealing money from old people who have no means to make up the difference."

 The above quote was her comment in answer to ...

"While Obama turned up pressure on Congress yesterday to act before the 1 March deadline, he repeated what has become his let-elders-pay-for-the-deficit mantra, saying that he has

”...laid out specific reforms to our entitlement programs”

By which we have come to understand that he means enacting the chained CPI for calculating cost-of-living increases to Social Security."

 Oh just read her blog here!

I just want to shout.  I do get so anxious about all this.

Here's a picture of your Mom.
(Imagine a skillet with a fried egg in it)

Here's your Mom with her life savings and her contributions to Social Security being sucked away by a national deficit (to which she contributed HOW?)
(Imagine dumping the egg into a huge dumpster)

Now here's your Mom having used up her life savings and no longer getting enough back from her own Social Security to live on.
(Imagine your own Mom in 10-year-old clothes, homeless, outside a mansion begging, while the owners of the mansion are behind a locked gate (of course) with lots of the latest toys...but not having to pay taxes on their earnings, which of course multiply by the thousandfold because having money is the way to earn money.)

And here's the congress of the United States smiling at having cut a deficit on the backs of their mothers.
(Imagine a lot of mothers picking up those skillets and wielding them at their sons)

Get the picture?  It's really going to be ugly.

I believe our congress is ruled by the Marie Antoinette mentality.  "Let them eat cake." is the best they can understand as the way to care for others.

Sahara Peace Choir to sing 2.24.13

The Sahara Peace Choir, with Annelinde Metzner / Linda is our leader, and for our next concert has written all the songs we will be singing.

In Black Mountain on Sunday, February 24 at 7:30 pm this women's choir will present

 "Lady of Ten Thousand Names" 

at The White Horse, a concert venue with refreshments.  

Poetry, two lovely dancers, and a solo performance by Stephanie Heidemann will round out the program.  

Sahara is a name chosen to blend the names of two matriarchs of ancient religious, Sarah and Hagar, who gave birth to Abraham's two sons.  This choir sings several times a year to raise funds for women's non-profits.

I'm sharing this with Sepia Saturday (here) because it's 1) a posed photograph and 2) a company of strangers who have come together (here for singing).  Check out other photographs (mostly vintage) and great stories at that meme.

Please come hear the concert if you're in town!

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” ~Mark Twain

 

Asteriod

People are looking up today.
Asteroid coming by sometime, over Asia, between moon and earth.  No harm expected.

But earlier (9 am Russian time, whatever it is, way before I wake up) a meteorite exploded before hitting the ground, 900 miles east of Moscow, causing lots of windows to break, and lots of people to be injured.  CNN says it's not connected to the larger one that's going to miss us.  Maybe.

So here I bring a peaceful clip, of the Hubble Deep Field scenes.

http://www.flixxy.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-3d.htm#.UR5lQPKeizk

Please enjoy, and feel connected to all this great presence of space.

What are we ...doing?

Remembering to be a human BEING, I realized all the things I'm always doing that take up my days and nights.

In no particular order I list them...

I am a:

reader

sleeper

eater

potter

talker

walker

singer

cat tender-er

blogger

writer

hugger

photographer

painter

laugher

sketcher

connector

lover

driver

cook

recorder

cuddler

cleaner

thinker

celebrator

listener

meditator

yoga-er

inspirer

researcher

dreamer

supporter

quoter

sun worshiper

searcher

joker

appreciator

designer

evaluator

 gardener 

teacher

sculptor 

How about you?  What do you see as the things you do with your life? 

It was pretty hard to avoid terms that are not verbs...like nature lover, or artist.  I'm pretty sure I made some of these words up.

 
 

Cycle of green life

Recently I pruned all the house plants.  It felt very hard to cut back little guys who had struggled through the winter in low light and cool rooms, and sometimes only being watered once a week.

Here the gardenia has proved that it was just waiting for its chance to have warmth and good sun, as well as a nice dose of fertilizer, and now regular watering.   I'm hoping I can force it to give me blooms in the next month.  It won't be ready early as February this year, because I held it from full sunlight till just at the end of January.

Do you know what this lovely bud will turn into?

Geranium.  Again, this trick of cutting back, then bringing artificial spring into being is so fun!

 

I'm having a lot of fun with macros these days.  The Kalancho buds are so fascinating.

Macro Monday #1

My first try at posting something to a new meme (new to me).

Hope this qualifies as macro, to be added to Macro Monday

My first crocus (croci?) for this spring, beside the library steps.

Fences, snow and trains

A popular attraction in downtown Black Mountain, right next to the working tracks.  I would imagine the kids playing in the caboose sometimes get a thrill when a train blows it's whistle and passes right next to them.

Notice the fence?  I'm sending this post to Jan & Jer's Friday Fences. Come on over and see what other fences include!

And on another subject, here's a snow picture from my childhood.  I know the folks in New England have some snow coming tonight (Thurs, Feb 7).  This was in St. Louis in the 50s.

AND, here's another photo from my family pictures of a train at a museum in Missouri which I visited with my family and especially my father who loved those big engines.  This is my mom looking flirtatious.  I'm going to contribute it to Sepia Saturday.   Come over there to see what fun snow scenes (and other things) are being shared!

 How about that?  Two Memes in one blog.  Seems kind of over the top!

Seven Sisters meaning

I've always wished I'd studied Greek Mythology.

On my other blog tomorrow, I'm showing a picture of one of our local mountains, known as the Seven Sisters (the whole chain, not just one).

Who were they?

Well, I keep hearing how they are stars (The Pleiades) being chased by Orion.  And at least I know what they look like now, though apparently only 6 are visible with the naked eye.

There's also a store here in town of gorgeous art including my favorite potters, known as the Seven Sisters.

But I did a search and found some minimal information (yes on the internet).

The Pleiad(e)s were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and half-sisters of the Hyades...

The indivial names are:

Alcyone or Halcyone - `queen who wards off evil [storms]

Asterope or Sterope - `lightning', `twinkling', `sun-face', `stubborn-face' (Indo-European ster-, `star', `stellar', `asterisk', etc.) 

Celæno - `swarthy' - Had sons Lycus (``wolf'') and Chimærus (``he-goat'') by Prometheus.

Electra or Eleckra - `amber', `shining', `bright' (Indo-European wleik-, `to flow, run', as a liquid); electrum is an alloy of silver and gold, and means amber in Latin, as does the Greek elektron; Thales of Miletus noted in 600 BC that a rubbed piece of amber will attract bits of straw, a manifestation of the effects of static electricity (outer charge stripping via friction), and perhaps the origin of the modern term

Maia - `grandmother', `mother', `nurse'; `the great one' (Latin) - Eldest and most beautiful of the sisters; a mountain nymph in Arcadia. Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Hermes. 

Merope - `eloquent', `bee-eater', `mortal' - Married Sisyphus (se-sophos, `very wise')

Taygete or Taygeta - ? tanygennetos, `long-necked' - Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Lacedæmon, founder of Sparta

Astromorphosis

One day the great hunter Orion saw the Pleiads (perhaps with their mother, or perhaps just one of them as they walked through the Boeotian countryside, and fancied them. He pursued them for seven years, until Zeus answered their prayers for delivery and transformed them into birds (doves or pidgeons), placing them among the stars. Later on, when Orion was killed (many conflicting stories as to how), he was placed in the heavens behind the Pleiades, immortalizing the chase. 

I bet you didn't know what astromorphosis was before this, did you?

I do like that each goddess/woman had a "meaning" or attributes to go with her name.

Remembering another influential woman

I read with a gasp this morning that Diane Wolkstein died recently.

Catherine Kerr shared about her in her blog, Beyond the Fields We Know.

Ms. Wolkstein helped put together a book that brings Innana to life for me, the translation of Innana's own ancient poetry and hymns. I wish I'd had a chance to see Ms. Wolkstein tell her stories.  Master Storytellers are a rare and wonderfully talented group.