2013 review

Edited June 2014, removing faces of myself.

OK, this is the chance for me to go back through this year's blogs, and see what is worth repeating at the end of the year.  Before doing so, I think of 2 trips, and very little else.  But we shall see in a minute (or 60)

Well, I did some good things, come to find out.  I formed "Team Grandmama" to consider the future of my life as my finances dwindle away.  It doesn't have any answers (financial, or decisions of a team made up of my friends and my sons...which haven't really discussed this for a while.) 

On Jan 1, I started a new blog with pictures of the town I live in, and areas of North Carolina.

And I posted in Feb....

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.
We sang together in a lovely public concert at White Horse Black Moutain.

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I noticed early in the year, I posted several times with quotes that were in different colors, and since I changed the color of the blog background, these quotes have disappeared.  I'm learning more about blogging every day!

I also remember that Feb. was when I started looking at my ancestor's birthdays and posting about them.  Unfortunately as I look back, I see things that just weren't true.  But it was the information that I surmised, before learning to look for original documents to obtain the dates of a person's events in their lives.

I then got bronchitis for the first time that year in March, went to ER, where they said, yes you have bronchitis, and a tiny spot on your lung (maybe the Xray machine was dirty?) which needs to be checked later.  I did, an MRI I think.  It was miniscule.  And when I again had bronchitis in Nov. and the same ER looked, there was no spot showing at all.  I did feel worse in Nov, and went to ER earlier, but it lasted 3-4 weeks and I missed going to Thanksgiving with family in FL...and had one week of feeling pretty good and got the same thing again.  That time (by Christmas) I decided not to stay home in bed, but went to Indiana anyway.  Found I could sleep through the night if I took a pill of Musinex, so I wasn't completely exhausted by the cough.

I blogged an honorary post for my mother's birthday in March (HERE)  I can see much of her life in photos, as well as much of my own.

I stole an ad from REI on April Fools Day.


I took some lovely photos of spring in Black Mountain, which is always absolutely gorgeous.

I got someone else to dig the holes, and I planted 2 rose bushes which had buds.

And in April I thought I could probably garden a bit this year. 

I purchased many more seedlings than I could care for!

 I spent many Saturday mornings with my MudBuddies at the Tailgate Market...sometimes selling pots.



 I began seriously looking on Ancestry DOT com to see actual records from birth death and census data of my ancestors.

I accepted a nomination to serve on the Board of Trustees for my church.

Micajah Rogers and Cyntha Rogers' graves in Texas

 And Micajah's father's grave is marked as well...back in Sevierville, TN.



Two years after the earthquake and tidal wave destruction in Japan, this came to my attention...
"A June 18 New York Times article by Hiroko Tabuchi — “High Levels of Radioactive Strontium Found in Groundwater Near Fukushima Plant” — alerted us that Tepco has found strontium-90 and tritium well above their legal limits in the groundwater at the Fukushima Daiichi site."

This is going to affect us in the US eventually.  We need to have awareness of our globe.

So I look forward, and I look backward, and try to preserve some sanity in the now.

June also meant the beginning of my hands cramping as I worked holding tools.  So I ended up going to a specialist, who had me stop doing pottery for a month.
 I wrote:
"While my fingers continue to heal and I do my exercises instead of pottery, (and I've got more pottery than I know what to do with anyway,) the computer has become my pal."

June was also when Raleigh NC began holding Moral Mondays...

citizens demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the legislators

And in July I went to a talk about an ammendment to the constitution


I posted about the 4 elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth.   Here's part of my post on July 10.
"The universe of everything might be considered earth.  The wonders of the way stars travel through space and interact in galaxies.  That all atoms are reused over and over in different things...I always love hearing that we are made of star stuff.  The miracles of natural laws.

Earth the planet we live upon is in trouble. 

So what are you doing about it?

I won't go any further, just remind you who is in charge of your life.  mmm, not me.

OK, the other thing about earth to mention of course is that non-renewable resources are going to be gone someday soon.  These are minerals, fossil fuels, and the things that our culture is standing upon.  No doomsday naysayer me...no way.  I just say, start living in a renewable way.

This week, in my life, I'm cutting down my paper products use, which aren't non-renewable, but they do cost non-renewable resources to process.  I just went through the clothes about to be recycled to GoodWill, and took all the old 100% cotton tee shirts out and cut them up to have washable rags. When I was growing up, my depression-survival parents had a rag bag.  Now paper towels will be used even less around the house.  ( I cut up the tee-shirts so I'd know which things were rags when I washed them with my tee-shirts I still am wearing)

I admit I've failed with my compost heap.  Gardening for me hasn't worked too well this year.  But I started growing things, and I keep looking at those green tomatoes and smiling.  Maybe they will turn red next week?  The earth has blessed me with her bounty with a zillion green tomatoes.

Do you know of at least three activist movements against earth destruction?  Why not?

Here's the link to Wendell Berry's Manifesto: The Wild Farmer Liberation Front.

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My dear friend Martha visited me twice this year!




And I even posted about some of my blog friends:
"I really enjoy the friends I read/visit on their blogs almost every day.  These are real people talking about their very real lives.  Vicki Lane had her car side-swiped on the way home from teaching a writer's workshop the other day.  Gary Rith amuses me with his creative pottery and dog and cat pictures, and strange vegie gluten free recipes.

Ronni Bennett is one that never fails to give me insights and/or amusement...at Time Goes By

Hecate Demeter lets everyone know all kinds of things about our old religion, the one before patriarchy became so popular, the one that has goddesses including Columbia who stands atop our Capitol building in DC, which is named after Columbia after all...anyway, I like most of her blogs. 

So now I'm going off to Sepia Saturday to catch up on a lot of interesting trivia.  When you say you never stop learning, this is definitely a great way to prove it.  (Plus there's no test.)

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I took part in a Mountain Moral Monday in Asheville in the summer with friends.


In August I posted about more ancestors...including lots of photos from old albums, as well as some from Find a Grave DOT com.  It's been a great source of information.

His grave is in Elk Creek Baptist Cemetery in Spencer County, KY

Spencer County was formed out of Shelby County, when my ancestor lived there.  And I drove around Shelby County in December when returning home from Indiana.

But I get ahead of myself.

On Aug 17 I posted about my Native American connection.  One that I can find anyway.

"I'm 11 generations removed from a full blooded Native American ancestor.  That doesn't give me a very big percentage.  And I'm not forgetting that most of my ancestors were Western Europeans mainly from England.  I just have learned about great grandmother, Bettie Bass' grandmother however many times removed, Elizabeth Tucker Basse, and am thrilled."

My birthday included coughing to the extent that I postponed a planned hike to Linville Falls with a friend.  But it wasn't enough to go to ER, so I didn't think of this as full blown bronchitis.

Sept had lots of my activities continuing as usual.
Oct. I chose to have one of my posts published by Sepia Saturday to celebrate 200 postings. I chose the following:

Eugenia Booth Miller, 69 years before me

But all the comments, and my note from Oct 26, were not published, and thus it's rather short and dry.  The book is now in the hands of my sons.

I finally made it to Linnville Falls.

I was worried about my elder cat's health from Sept till Oct.


She had her teeth cleaned, and didn't need any pulled after all.  She no longer was leaving little piles on the bed, so the anal gland treatment must have solved that.

I spent Halloween in CT with one of my sons and his family, and enjoyed their busy life completely.



 



I had a successful (surprisingly) first studio tour.

I finally posted about my great-grandmother who I thought had died when my grandfather was a baby...not true it turned out. Bettie Basss Rogers.

My drive to Bloomington, IN was uneventful but long...and I had a nice visit with my youngest son and his girl friend for Christmas.  They don't celebrate it, but I always have, at least to decorate a bit, and share good food, and give loved ones presents.