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.

Enjoying fine art

I remember in art school doing a painting in the style of El Greco's school.  (this is in a museum, so you can bet that it isn't mine!)

Rembrandt Self Portrait

And then a portrait copy...

Yep, the museum has a copy (one of 15 it says) since the original is lost.  Mmmm, can I copy the Rembrandt then?

 

Tiffany manufactured lamp

I still have more, including some most enjoyable O'Keefe's.  But there's only so much you would want to see at a time!

Close but no cigar

When I saw an interstate exit saying Shellbyville Historic District, I thought, I remember having an ancestor in Shelby County, KY.  Wonder who it was? 

http://boardwalkbarb.blogspot.com/2013/08/isaac-normans-birthday.html

Ah ha, the blog had the information, Isaac Norman, born Aug. 26, 1765, but he died in Shelby County, KY, and his daughter Polly was born in the same county.  Even Polly's daughter, Hanna Conn Booth, was born there before she went to Texas.  Isaac and his wife are both buried in Elk Creek, (Shelby County) Baptist Church Cemetery.

So I kind of looked up where it was, and thought, maybe I'll have some time to go see it, or do I really want to?  At the gas stop before getting to Shelbyville's exit on I-64, I actually considered tossing a coin to decide whether or not to go looking for ancestors.  I knew this was early in the day of at least 8 hours of driving.

Then there was a very strange construction area on I-64 in which I was herded into a chute of one center lane, with a concrete barricade keeping me away from the outside lane, as well as the exit to Shelbyville.  That must have been what decided things for me.  If I could get off, I would, if I couldn't because of this darn detour, then I wouldn't.  But I really wanted to now that it looked impossible.  (Do you think like that? I do all the time.)

Well, the rest of the story is just as convoluted.  The detour was over, and suddenly there was an exit which said Shelbyville, so I took it, and then drove down the road thinking it might be the one on Google map that went to the road going to the church.  I could see the church on one screen of the map program on my phone, but couldn't connect that point to where I was situated.  The silly maps can't show details when they are zoomed out.  Or if you're zoomed in, you can't see a destination that connects where you are.

So I drove down about 15 miles, didn't find the turnoff, and turned around and came back to my own trip.

However, I did see a church which was Baptist, which had been established in 1811, and had a cemetery next to it.  And I saw some lovely antebellum homes.  So here are a few of the pictures from another main road about 20 miles from where my ancestors lived.

It was a lovely day for driving.

 And if I lived in comfort in Kentucky here, it would have been hard to get me to move to Missouri (where my ancestors moved before going to Texas.)  So I wonder what motivated them to leave.

Selfies etc

Edited June 2014 removing Barbara's face.
-while visiting my son, Tai, and his partner, Kendra, in Bloomington, IN.  A week of COLD.

Granddaughter Shiva is gorgeous and sweet as any cat can be.

Tai enjoyed staying in bathrobe throughout Christmas Day.  We still ate like kings and queens, vegetarian style.

I drove just about a thousand miles this week, leaving home Mon. morning, and returning last night in the early evening.  No accidents, but 2 very slow traffic situations east of Knoxville which added a lot of boring time...and mostly polite travelers on the road.

Gratitude to the family that hosted my staying in their home while they were off for the holidays, thus affording me a way to not intrude on my son's tiny living situation.  Also lots of gratitude to Tai and Kendra for hosting my visit, which included great foods, an art museum tour, an Indian dinner, picture taking of the courthouse and lights, and seeing the clay department of IU where Tai is working on his MFA.

No-flush but pretty impressive

Making tinkle in the potty...

Scratching instinct is intact

If they'd just figure out the flush handle to be somehow part of that scratching place. 

Capt. Ebenezer Pulsifer, 1773

Born  on Dec 26, 1773 in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts.
His sons, Joseph and Ebenezer surveyed Beaumont, TX land
His daughter Lucy Pulsifer Granger was my grandmother's great-grandmother.

Captain Ebenezer Pulsifer's birthplace, Ipswich, is located in central Essex County and is 11 miles south of Newburyport, 12 miles northwest of Gloucester, 13 miles north of Salem, and 28 miles northeast of Boston

I give all these geographical notes because he married in Boston, and died in Newburyport.

Ipswich riverbank, 1906

And he was known by the title Captain.  So it's likely that he was a seafaring man. The great Clipper ships were not built in Ipswich, but in the deeper ports of Salem, Boston and Newburyport.

John  Whipple house, Ipswich

The Pulsifer family consisted of  his wife, Elizabeth Dwelle, whom he married either on May  11 or Feb 13, 1794.  I can't get the original copies of records to come up on Ancestry, so will just be glad to know that it was definitely in that year. 

They had 5 or 6 children.  There are records for one son having lived to less than 7 years, and then  another son being named the same name.  (Horrible to keep track of for us genealogists, but I'm sure the family was happy about it, if indeed they named a second son after one who had died.) Young Joseph (born between 1798-1805) was replaced in 1805 by Joseph Perkins Pulsifer (1805-1861) who went on to fame (see below).  Elizabeth was born in 1800, and that's all we know about her.  Then Lucy Elizabeth Parsons Pulsifer (1807-?) and then Ebenezer Pulsifer (1808-?)  There was also an Ebenezer Pulsifer listed for a birth in 1801.  Is this duplicate listing of the same person, or another time when a family re-named a child after one who had died early?

At any rate, there's a great story I've finally found about two of Capt. Ebenezer Pulsifer's sons, Ebenezer Jr. and Joseph Jr. an excerpt from which I'm including here.

PULSIFER, JOSEPH PERKINS (1805–1861). Joseph P. Pulsifer, early Texas apothecary and a founder of Beaumont, the son of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Dwelbee) Pulsifer, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on July 8, 1805. Little is known about Pulsifer's education, except that his letters show him to have been an extremely literate man. Probably through apprenticeship, he became an apothecary, and sometime after 1827 he opened a drugstore in partnership with his brother Eben in nearby Charlestown, now a suburb of Boston.

ON July 8 of next year, I'll publish the rest of this story about Joseph P. Pulsifer.  BIBLIOGRAPHY: Judith Walker Linsley and Ellen Walker Rienstra, Beaumont: A Chronicle of Promise (Woodland Hills, California: Windsor, 1982).

Captain Ebenezer Pulsifer died 7 Nov 1827 in Newburyport, MA.  Old Hill Burying Ground is perhaps where he was buried.

 

Ebenezer Pulsifer's great grandfather, Johathan had been born in Essex County, MA in 1687, and died in Ipswich. So the Pulsifers were probably among early families of the area, with the first Europeans having arrived in 1630.

Shiva

May I introduce Shiva, a sleek, well loved feline who loves to play with paper bags, string, yarn, and everything that looks like fun to cats.  You know how they are.

Kendra show just how patient Shiva is being, sitting in her arms when she would really like to steal that new purple scarf which I just knitted for her...for Kendra, not Shiva.

With the cold meds I'm taking, I dreamed up a cat last night. (Missing my 2 at home probably)  This spirit cat was a long haired un-kepmt guy with Siamese coloring.  He woke me up (in the dream) asking for some food, which I proceeded to come up with.  But he wasn't interested in being petted much, and disappeared before morning when I awoke to a grey cold Christmas.

Hope you have a good Christmas.

Party time

You'd think I would post lots of photos of parties.  But I find people enjoy themselves just fine without a photo.

And last night I again begged off from a party that I really wanted to attend, because of the continuing cough.  This is my second bout with it.  I was actually totally healthy for a week, then bang, it started again.

So now I'm being extra careful to not keep using germy things...is that a word?  I'm sterilizing things I eat with.  Of course the toothbrush was replaced, and I'm sterilizing it with hydrogen peroxide.
I don't feel as bad this time around thanks to Musinex (what a wonder to actually relieve the cough).
So I'm continuing with plans to celebrate the Christmas holiday.
I hope I have enough energy to get where I want to be...we shall see.

Celtic Symbols

Do any of the roots on your family tree reach back to Ireland and the land of the Celts?  The day of Winter Solstice is upon us.

In the dawn of civilization, way before Christianity came to the Emerald Isle, Newgrange Mound was built, which on Winter Solstice, has an avenue for the sun to shine, and only on that date will it happen.  Another site with this alignment might be better known, namely Stonehenge, which was built much later than Newgrange.

But Newgrange has more than the light streaming down a passageway to a particular wall only on Solstice.  Remember well the skills of a culture before the working of metals, and the dedication of man-hours to erect this structure.

Wikipedia tells us: "The complex of Newgrange was originally built between c. 3200 and 3100 BC,^[15] meaning that it is approximately 5,000 years old. According to carbon-14 dates,^[16] it is about five hundred years older than the current form of Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, as well as predating the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece."

Newgrange has triple spirals.  Inside...(as above)

And most famously outside.

Patricia Monaghan wrote in her book Red Haired Girl from the Blog, and other books like The Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, about women's spirituality in early Celtic Ireland.

And another woman, Marija Gimbutus, wrote of The Language of the Goddess, giving an archeologist's view on symbols like the spirals at Newgrange.

Just thought I'd mention how women and goddesses were probably part of early cultures that remembered the Solstices.