Update about blog

Dawn 7:01 Mountain Time Aug 15, 2026. Marking the sun coming over the mountains behind my apartment on the smoke stack of the Powerhouse.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Ah sweet memories

For Sepia Saturday this week, I'm checking old photos for a shy girl, maybe standing by a wall. Come over HERE to see what other Sepia Saturday-ians have come up with. (I'll add mine as soon as the list is started for this week!)

I've got some old photos I found of myself...back in the dark ages! I don't remember being shy at these times. Maybe earlier I was.
The girl cousins Rogers.  From L to R, Sandra, Patricia, Barbara, Mary Beth, and Claudette. Taken where? Maybe Houston TX at my grandparents?  But Patricia lived in Wisconsin. My sis, Mary Beth and cousin, Patricia were both born in 1946, so they look to be around 3, thus it could have been in 1949.  And I do remember driving with my parents and grandparents and an uncle and my 2 Houston cousins to visit my Wisconsin Aunt Dotty and Uncle Jimmy in 48 or 49.  So since I don't recognize the lawn art or cars, I'm voting on this being in Wisconsin until someone tells me otherwise.


And a few more ancient photos (that happened to be saved in the same folder!)

In 1961 or 62 I was a bridesmaid for my best friend Rosemary.  This house is where my parents lived from 1960 to 1965. Since I was in college at the time, I only lived there during holidays and summers. It never felt like home to me.

While I was in college, I had a part in "The Boyfriend." I had only minor stage fright and forgot my lines once.  I did like wearing that rose velvet flapper dress!

My boyfriend's MG-TD, which drove us from Virginia to New London, CT in the summer of 1962.  He was in the Coast Guard. A year after we broke up, I married another man who was in the Coast Guard (who I'd known before.) Those Coasties had something special, I guess.

My profile probably cut for me in the late 60s or early 70s.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Adjusting to changes

I could post this under my geographical blog, Living in Black Mountain.

But many of the changes I'm adjusting to these days aren't exactly geographical.  Physical yes, even medical.  And if you count a new neighborhood of condos as geography, then they count.

I live on North Blue Ridge Road...and many people live on/off of South Blue Ridge Road...which runs from the south side of the tracks and US 70 all the way around to State Highway 9 South.  It actually ends up parallel to the I-40 and US 70 highways for most of its length.

And there are a few horse pastures along it as well as single family homes and a few mobile homes. But one horse pasture was sold and rezoned a few years ago. And it's now got a fancy name and some buildings have been erected which will be the models. Good jobs for construction crews, and perhaps we'll have some new wealthy neighbors (compared to the horses at least.)



Sweet Birch is just a cul de sac at this point...I wonder how many homes will be built there.

Other communities along S. Blue Ridge include a "trailer park" area in the flood zone of the Swannanoa River and still a bit of former farm land. At least 2 more horse pastures can be seen, with horses often.  There's a fire department near the indoor soccer building. There's also a community garden with some great produce. And Veterans Park has baseball fields for young people and walking trails for us older folks.

In the next  5 10 years there will be a new exit built off of I-40 leading into Blue Ridge Rd and US 70 in this area of Black Mountain.  It has a strange traffic pattern with a roundabout.  It will take up a lot of our geography, I think.
------------------
And then there's happy news, that I just re-read an old comment on a post about ancestors all named George Granger, and Gail said:
It does seem a little strange there would be two fellows with not only the first and last names the same born around the same time in the same area - but also with the same middle initials. But families do funny things with names, sometimes. Back in my own family history - prior and up to Edward I of England, my family history shows the de Clair family going from generation to generation as Richard de Clair to Gilbert de Clair to Richard, to Gilbert, to Richard and so on down the line till Edward I's daughter, Joan of Acre, married a Gilbert de Clair. There our knowledge of how many more Gilberts and Richards there were ends. I can see the confusion now, however. Uncle and Grandfather Gilberts, and Uncle and Grandfather Richards - not to mention great Uncle and great grandfather Gilberts and Richards. Whew!"

I didn't know until about six months later that I'm also descended from the de Clairs and Joan of Acre! So now we're cousins, about 10 times removed!

Quote for today:

Call out to the whole divine night for what you love. What you stand for. Earn your name. Be kind, and wild, and disciplined, and absolutely generous.
DR. MARTIN SHAW

Friday, August 9, 2019

Visitors at arboretum

 This was at the end of our morning...which I enjoyed immensely.  I came home and had a couple of new succulents to add to my new planters.


 My buddy, Helen.

Helen has a membership at the Arboretum in Asheville, so she invited me to share a morning with the flowers.  Many of them are changed by volunteers every month.  I remember the last time I visited the pots were full of tulips.  Next season I plan to go back!

These women mean business!

Three women, one of whom I recognize by name. Emmeline Pankhurst!


Three British Suffragettes for Sepia Saturday


All the following information is from Wikipedia, with various sources cited.  I'm afraid I don't know how accurate they are!

Emmeline Pankhurst (born Emiline Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist and organizer of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. In 1999 Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating "she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back".[1] She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.[2][3]

Born in Sloan Street Moss Side, Manchester in 1858,[4] to politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 14 to the women's suffrage movement. She founded and became involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women. When that organisation broke apart, she tried to join the left-leaning Independent Labour Party through her friendship with socialist Keir Hardie but was initially refused membership by the local branch on account of her sex. While working as a Poor Law Guardian, she was shocked at the harsh conditions she encountered in Manchester's workhouses.

In 1903, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation dedicated to "deeds, not words".[5] The group identified as independent from – and often in opposition to – political parties. It became known for physical confrontations: its members smashed windows and assaulted police officers. Pankhurst, her daughters, and other WSPU activists received repeated prison sentences, where they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions, and were often force-fed. As Pankhurst's eldest daughter Christabel took leadership of the WSPU, antagonism between the group and the government grew. Eventually the group adopted arson as a tactic, and more moderate organisations spoke out against the Pankhurst family.

With the advent of the First World War, Emmeline and Christabel called an immediate halt to militant suffrage terrorism in support of the British government's stand against the "German Peril".[7] They urged women to aid industrial production and encouraged young men to fight, becoming prominent figures in the white feather movement.[8] In 1918, the Representation of the People Act granted votes to all men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30. This discrepancy was intended to ensure that men did not become minority voters as a consequence of the huge number of deaths suffered during the First World War.[9]

She transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women's Party, which was dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life. In her later years, she became concerned with what she perceived as the menace posed by Bolshevism and joined the Conservative Party. She was selected as the Conservative candidate for Whitechapel and St Georges in 1927.[10][11] She died on 14 June 1928, only weeks before the Conservative government's Representation of the People Act (1928) extended the vote to all women over 21 years of age on 2 July 1928. She was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

 Emmaline Pankhust 1908


The Wikipedia article goes on for many more pages under her name!

---------------------
Mary Gawthorpe - a new name to me.  I've got many of the American Suffragists in my history, especially as a 1970's feminist.  But the British women who were working with similar efforts, nope, I haven't studied them, nor seen the film (it's still on my wish list) "Suffragettes."

 Mary Gawthorpe 1908

After qualifying as a teacher in her native Leeds, Mary Gawthorpe became a socialist and was active in the local branch of the National Union of Teachers. She joined the Independent Labour Party and in 1906, became secretary of the newly formed Women's Labour League. She became involved in the women's suffrage movement and, in 1905, joined the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1906, she left teaching to become a full-time, paid organiser for the WSPU in Leeds. Sylvia Pankhurst came to Leicester in 1907 and joined Alice Hawkins who made introductions. They were joined by Gawthorpe and they established a WSPU presence in Leicester.[5]
She later joined Christabel Pankhurst in Wales, where she drew upon her working-class background and involvement in the labour movement. At the meeting in Wales, organised by Samuel Evans, who was standing for reelection to Parliament, Gawthorpe, in perfect Welsh, worried Evans by putting questions to him in his own language at his own meetings.
Gawthorpe emigrated to New York City in 1916.[15] She was active in the American suffrage movement and later in the trade union movement, becoming an official of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America union. She chronicled her early efforts in her autobiography, Up Hill to Holloway (1962)
--------------------------------- 


Ada Susan Flatman 1917

Ada Susan Flatman was born in Suffolk in 1876. She was on independent means and she became interested in women's rights.
Flatman was sent to Holloway Prison[1] after she took part in the "raid" on the Houses of Parliament in 1908. The following year she was employed by the WSPU to organise their activities in Liverpool[2] taking over from Mary Phillips.[3]
 
Flatman worked with Dr Alice Stewart Ker, but it was Ada who was trusted by Emmeline Pethick when Liverpool requested that they be allowed to open a WSPU shop. The shop was a success and it raised substantial funds for the cause.

The first world war started in 1914 and the leading suffrage organizations agreed to suspend their protest until the war was over. Many activists disagreed and Ada Flatman was one. She decided to carry on her work in the US and she emigrated to the US to work (at) Alice Paul's The Suffragist newspaper in 1915.[4] She became their Business and Advertising manager.[5] After the war was completed she was keen to carry on the work but organizations in America and South Africa did not accept her offer of assistance.[4] Flatman supported the work of Edith How-Martyn in later documenting the movement in the Suffragette Fellowship. [6]
 
Flatman died in Eastbourne in 1952.[4]

-----------------------------
OK, I should know about these women, especially the ones who came to the US to help the women's cause, the suffragists. 
 

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Wore me out it did!

My friend who is 3 years and a few weeks older than I am, proved she is in better shape than I am...but she would gladly sit and let me rest when I had almost completely worn myself out.  We walked around the Arboretum in Asheville Wed. 



 These lovely blooms which bumble bees were enjoying are a variety of Dhalia.


 These white trumpet shaped flowers all fell from their stems toward the ground. But I did catch a bumble bee crawling into one. Sorry I don't remember their name.


 These look like hibiscus, and they were huge!

 Some metal and glass garden art was for sale at the store.





A lot of walking, and the last leg was after the sun had made it rather warm...but actually it probably didn't even get up to 80.  My last leg was even inside viewing some displays in airconditioning, but I was ready for a nap.  I came home and snoozed for 2 hours.

Yes, more beauties over on Living in Black Mountain soon too!



Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Inanna's Daughters water ritual


A water ritual was part of Inanna's Daughters Lammas celebration this year.   My cauldron with tree roots going to center held various shells and waters which we shared. The women danced, made jewelry, sang chants to each other, scried with mirrors, and had a good time! Of course a bit of holiness was also present, so I refrained from taking photos of most of the event!

Monday, August 5, 2019

A bit of danger with pottery

A bit delayed to add a Sepia Saturday post...but it's the first time I had a few minutes to sit and ponder, and post! The beginnings of a week are a bit freer for me to sit and look for photos and talk about them here.

Hope some other SS'ums will be still come to see it.

Man relaxing, with arm on a saw blade...while holding a hammer.

Here's a firing outside of pottery with these photos taken in 2009 here in Black Mountain.  Not quite sepia, but it does involve a lot of risk, both of the pots cracking or getting burned if the safety precautions aren't followed.
Geoff (teacher) uses long tongs to remove a pot from the gas heated kiln at 1500 degrees F, and then it will be placed into a little trash bin with a lid.  I have done this when firing my own pieces.

 The fire in the trash bins comes from a combustible material, we used shredded newspaper, leaves and pine needles.  By placing the lid on while the hot pot just started the fire in the bin, there will be a reduction of oxygen for the fire to feed upon.  That's called reduction firing.  So the fire will draw oxygen out of the glazes and the actual clay.  Clay turns black, and glazes get some great metallic shines.
 There's also a thermal shock that the pot goes through, from that hot kiln down to the temperature of the day. After the fire goes out, the pot can be further cooled in a tub of water, which also helps remove some of the ashes.  When it's completely dry, a sealing coat may be applied which will keep the colors bright. 


We haven't had anyone get burned (yet.) But there haven't been any raku workshops for a while.  It's kind of hard to do next to a parking lot, so sometimes it can be offered in more secluded places.  If you make pottery, it's a great experience to do a raku firing. 

The local Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway schedules a pottery day about once a year, and if the weather is good, they will offer raku firings.  Last year it was canceled.

Here are 2 of my raku pieces (which I still own.)
Hummingbird mask with beading and feathers.

 A take off from the masks worn during the times of the plague...


A non-vase sculptural piece.


 I've done several other raku workshops in the 10 years since this one.  And each time I come home with a couple of beautifully glazed pieces.  As always when firing clay, the coming together of chemicals and fire make for surprises.  And I have yet to have a piece explode or crack. 




Sunday, August 4, 2019

Wrong timing to bloom

The sun wakes up the Four O'Clocks, and they bloom.  When I try to see them in the afternoon, they have their little petals closed up.  What's going on? Or maybe they are just happiest in the morning!




I think they also have a scent, but I have little olfactory abilities these days.

Friday, August 2, 2019

My home life this week

 Fortunately the laundry room for the apartments is right across the driveway, so I can do a couple of loads, sit in a rocker on the porch while they tumble, and out they come onto hangars! Doing 2 loads at once is nice compared to having my own machines where I'd only be able to do one load at a time. This is life in my apartment complex, which I dearly love!

 I've never been successful (nor tried often) growing succulents.  I just made some more little succulent pots, which are waiting to glaze.  These 3 came from Marty and Barb's wedding 3 months ago!
 Looking down my porch steps, there's marigold on one side, and a rosemary on the other.

These are Four O'Clocks, and they are really doing lots of leaves, and tiny little flowers, orange and red and pink so far.  The plant on the left is a Kalancho that got too much fertilizer, and also is putting out major leaves!  I'm pleased the Four O'Clocks were from the 5 seeds that I saved last year...and they all came up!  So I'll be saving some and returning some to the Seed Library this year.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Yesterday's birthday

 Maybe the balloons somehow represent 20 years...but the sign at least says it. Dripolator Coffee Shop in Black Mountain was 20 years old yesterday.


From where I was standing (outside the History Museum) looking the other way, there's the entrance to the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.

I had to join the celebration and drink a decaf Americano! It was SO good!