From my pottery collection

The History of Yellow ware: Yellow ware is pottery made from a yellow clay from river beds; the final step in its production is application of a clear alkaline-base glaze. It was produced between 1840 and 1930. Most American yellow ware was produced in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia and Ohio. Colored glazes and banding decoration could be added, depending on the designer or a requested order. (History from an internet pottery website.)

The picture shows several yellow ware bowls in my collection, among newer pieces of pottery. Also, my Grandma Ramey's wooden butter mold is inside one of the bowls on the bottom shelf. The small saucer holding the candle, and the small yellow flower pot, are also yellow ware. The dark brown bowl on the second shelf is McCoy, and inside it is a spatter-decorated yellow ware bowl. The small pink-and-blue-banded bowl beside it is a yellow ware bowl made by McCoy. The two-handled plate on the top shelf is a delightful "new" piece, made in Portugal of red clay with an orange glaze and cream decoration.

The yellow plate on the wall is a later marked piece of Ohio pottery; it's undetermined whether it is true yellow ware, or just a yellow plate.

From My Doll Collection

On the left is Margaret; she was given to me by Miriam, Christy and Brittany Cobern, about 1995. The little doll is Charlotte Anne Tommicarr (Little Anne); when she came from Tommy Carr's shop (in the early 1980s), she was dirty and ragged, and her hair looked like a stump full of granddaddies. All my dolls' clothes were made by me, unless otherwise stated. In the picture they look like redheads, especially the little one, but they're both very blonde. Margaret has green eyes, and Anne is blue-eyed. I have a red-headed doll, though. She's wearing the bride's dress that I crocheted. That's Amanda on the right. (Amanda cost a dollar, at the dollar store that used to be in Irondale by Food World.)

~~~~~~~~~~

It's thundering in the thicket, so I guess we're having another rainy afternoon. I don't think I've ever before seen a July that I purely loved because of the weather. But we've had enough rain this month to satisfy even me. Almost. But there are still two days left. 31 - 29 = 2, right?

There's Little To Relate...

On Tuesday Steve cut the grass. On Wednesday I sold a book. On Thursday I decided I love the Wilder cat and invited him to stick around. He just looked at me, then dived through the pet door. During the few days that I kept him shut out, I was very unhappy about it. I want him to get fat and happy. Well, not necessarily fat, but fat enough not to have to kill birds and squirrels to stay alive.

This morning I read the last chapter of Fire on the Waters, a novel set at the beginning of the American civil war. It took a long time to get through it, mainly because reading about the War sort of tears me up. But the subplots were so interesting, I couldn't quit reading it. The consumptive boy who volunteered in the Union navy and wound up commanding and saving a ship; the independent-minded girl who found she couldn't escape an abusive uncle and one day "stepped off the ferry." The Union sea captain who got his and another warship safely through the first terrible encounter of the War, and then slipped over the side and rowed to his native Norfolk shore to join the Confederacy. And the gigantic runaway slave with his own secret agenda. It's a great story, the first of a trilogy. I'm not sure I want to read the next two, however. Though I probably will.

What am I doing here?

Haven't sold a book in a week! Buy my books! No cholesterol! No saturated or unsaturated fat! Ab-so-lutely no calories!

I was "tagged" on Blackberry Creek:Summer (Susan's blog) to answer a bunch of questions:

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Sara after my grandmother Sarah Satterfield, Joanne because my mother read it in a novel. Dr. Bobo wrote on my birth certificate: SARAH JOE ANN, and Mama marked it out and wrote Sara Joanne before it was registered.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes, except when I’m trying to be very neat and careful. Then I mess it up.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? 2 sons living, one daughter deceased.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Nope.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Corn Chex with skim milk. No sugar.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? I untie them BEFORE I take them off, if they're tied.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I guess I’m strong in my arms, because I rearrange the living room furniture every month or so. As for inner strength, I’m still here and relatively sane as opposed to insane.
15. RED OR PINK? I love to wear red, it makes me feel good. But I like to look at pink.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My loved ones who have gone on to the next place.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Orange. But if I were oil paint, I'd be alizarin crimson.
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Roses, tobacco, coffee, Chanel No. 5, lemons, new houses, new books, pine trees, rain.
27. HAIR COLOR? Can I say I don’t know? Nobody has ever been able to tell me. The parts that used to be a sort of gray-brown are now gray. The parts that used to be dark blond are now kind of yellow. The parts that used to be light blond are now white.
28. EYE COLOUR? Blue.
30. FAVORITE FOOD? Potatoes (my own potato salad).
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Scary movies.
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Iceman (video).
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter.
35. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs. When I try to kiss cheeks with somebody, my glasses always poke them in the eye.
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Fire on the Waters by David Poyer.
42. FAVORITE SOUND? Rain.
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles.
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Approx. 6,500 miles as the crow flies. (I had to get the atlas.)
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? My grandmother used to “read the cards,” and I picked up some of it from her. I thought it was just a lot of baloney, until one night at a party I told a couple I met that they would soon be crossing a large body of water. They laughed and said sure, they’d cross the Tennessee River going home that night. And then I asked them if they had a handicapped child and how was she doing, and they both nearly fainted. I haven’t done it since. I do occasionally have flashes of what seems like E.P. Like one year in the early ‘90s, when Alabama had won every football game they’d played and was going to play Miami for the national championship. I said, “Why, Alabama will cream Miami!” They laughed at me, until Alabama creamed Miami.
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Birmingham, Alabama, in a former mining community called Hammond’s Camp.
47. WHAT SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU LIKE? I’ve dreamed of flying, but I don’t think that would be very useful. I certainly don’t want to read anybody’s mind or see through solid objects. I’d like to have my normal power of hearing back.

I'd also like to have a grandchild. Susan and Ramey both have a gorgeous, smart grandson. I have given Reed's Ma notice that the next child born in the family is going to be MY grandbaby, or my honorary grandbaby if it's not Jack's or Jed's offspring. Till then, I'll have to be content with being Jesse and Reed's Aun-tee, which is very much OK.

Poem for Sunday

Astrometaphysical, by Robert Frost

Lord, I have loved Your sky,
Be it said against or for me,
Have loved it clear and high,
Or low and stormy;

Till I have reeled and stumbled
From looking up too much,
And fallen and been humbled
To wear a crutch.

My love for every Heaven
O'er which You, Lord, have lorded,
From number One to Seven,
Should be rewarded.

It may not give me hope
That when I am translated
My scalp will in the cope
Be constellated.

But if that seems to tend
To my undue renown,
At least it ought to send
Me up, not down.

Blue Day

Not so good today. I went to the pharmacy this morning for refills on 2 prescriptions, and had to pay the full amount of the drug costs. The pharmacist said I'm in my "gap," and that I have to pay more than 3 thousand dollars, plus my deductible (which I've already paid) before Viva/Medicare kicks in again. These 2 Rx's cost more than I had left after paying my bills, so I only got a partial refill on the most expensive one. I called Viva/Medicare to verify this, and after putting me on hold for 20 minutes or so, the Viva lady reiterated what the pharmacist said, so there's no mistake. I asked when this went into effect, and she said ummmm in 2006, which couldn't be right. Well, I guess it could, since one of the meds I'm taking was added in September of 2006, so probably I was covered under the new deal for the remaining months of 2006. It's OK for now, because I can taper down on the meds I'm taking now (I'm calling the dr.'s office about this). But what if I took the epizeutics or something and had to go on really serious treatments?

My dad always said, "It's always something, my little Rose Ann Rose Anna Danna."

I hear Mr. Cheney is our president now. Maybe he'll fix everything, God bless his little fat head.

This is no fit subject for my beautiful blog. Let's have a pretty picture to liven things up.

Reading The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow

I'm at page 137, where Gertie and the children are fixing up the Tipton Place house so they can move into it in a few days. Enoch has found an armload of ancient schoolbooks in the loft, and the children all think they're in heaven. Gertie has given Old John all her money, and he's supposed to go to town soon and register the deed for her. Clovis is safe away in Detroit, working in a factory, and presumably can't get to them to mess things up any time soon, but I almost can't stand to read on. I just know it's time for everything to come crashing down. Old John'll die and someone will steal the money and Gertie will lose the Tipton Place and have to follow Clovis to Detroit--

I've got books to pack and mail tomorrow, and checks to write and mail tomorrow, and refund checks from the IRS and the telephone company to cash tomorrow for spending-money.

The Bookmarkers' July meeting

Boy, did we have a good meeting today! Present were Pat (Ramey), Barbara Estes, Mary Undeutsch, Peggy Uptain, Nell Richardson, and Betty White. I had made a big bowl of fruit salad and some little sandwiches, with pecan sandies and a bowl of mixed nuts, plus some wine and some cokes. Pat won my beautiful door prize, a hanging tea light holder, gold-tone, with lots of clear and colored crystals, and she liked it a lot. Barbara was just one day out of her sickbed from having food poisoning. Mable didn't come because she was "feeling puny," she said.

Everyone liked the book a lot. From now on, I think the club needs to lay off of big long books like that, though. Poor little Peggy started reading the book (Ahab's Wife by Sena Naslund) in January and was only half-way through. Betty White said she started it in January but managed to finish it in the past few days. Nell and Mary, Barbara and I did most of the talking or introducing points. It's amazing, I didn't re-read it, and thought I didn't remember a lot of details. But once we started talking about it, I remembered just about everything, even some of the quotations Barbara and Nell had written down.

I think everyone had a good time. I did, but I'm afraid I talked too much.

We had a little bit of rain today during and after the meeting.

Things happened so fast, I couldn't keep up. Steve and his crew are out there doing the yards in a rainstorm. I was supposed to be leaving to mail four books, but heard them start up, then went outside and saw the sky, spoke to Steve. Then got my camera and made this pic, and it immediately started raining very hard. Didn't last long, though.

I must be on a good Amazon server, as I've sold three books in the past 24 hours. And I need to get them out today. So as soon as I rake my hair, etc., I'm off to the P.O.

Uh, I think it has rained just about enough...

Afraid to tell it to stop, though, because it might not rain again for the rest of the summer. It has washed most of the pine straw out of the former ditch and left it in piles in the back yard. Do wish it would stop long enough to get the grass cut, which has shot up to about knee height. Don't worry, be happy, it'll all work out.

I've been fairly busy today with revising/repricing my book listings, which is a never-ending process, for various reasons. Also doing laundry and making a start on housecleaning. This evening I ordered a few things from Coldwater Creek that I've been wanting, and that were in their online sale catalog. In addition, I had a card that got me 50% off on everything, so the cost didn't amount to much.

Susan and Vann are going to the beach this weekend, so Suze won't be at the book club meeting. That's OK, she won't get a chance at my wonderful door prize, if I don't forget to hold the drawing for it. I bought it last month, I think at CVS, because it's so gorgeous, but when I got home with it, I decided that would be this month's door prize.

About my art work pictured here: The drawings are dim and fuzzy because my scanner went bad on me. It used to make pictures at least as good as the camera. I'll try to replace them with better images sometime soon.

1980, charcoal on colored paper

Poem for Sunday

The Starlight Night, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!
Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!
Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare!
Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!
Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.
...
Buy then! bid then! - What! - Prayer, patience, alms, vows.
Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!
Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow sallows!
These are indeed the barn; withindoors house
The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse
Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows.

Another Rainy Day...

The steady small rain today lulled me into a nap about 3 p.m., but I woke up bright-eyed and b.t.'d.

For breakfast I had cereal and 2% milk and an apple. For lunch I had the remains of the beef stew, and a few bites of the barbecue that Pat sent home with me on the Fourth. For dinner I'm having a cup of coffee and 5 gumdrops. Later on I may eat some cheese and crackers and drink a little wine.

All morning I wore the pedometer clipped to my shirt, and around noon I checked it. It said 3.

Mo started to scratch the underside of my couch, and I shot him with the spray bottle of water. Such funny, happy days, and how quickly they fly!

...And the rains came

At long last! This afternoon it rained and rained and rained! The back yard was flooded, but it drained off pretty fast, thanks to the drains and the pump. Around 5 p.m. the electricity went off but came back in an hour or so. Pat called me a few minutes ago and said that a huge tree fell up at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Rowan. Pat's power went off, sounds like about the same time mine did, but hers was still off when she called. There wasn't any wind, just rain, so I don't understand why the tree fell.

Jed left here right before the rain started. Maybe he ran out of it between here and Atlanta. On this trip he brought me a book to sell. It's really a fascinating book, about the manufacture of PVC plastics. I read a chapter or two, till it got too technical to follow, and glanced through most of the remainder of it, which I had to do anyway to see if there were any marks in it. No marks or dirt, just perfect. He also brought me a pedometer, which I would probably never have remembered to buy for myself.

For our lunch today, I made a big pot of beef stew. It turned out pretty good, but I forgot the Louisiana hot sauce.

Oh--yesterday Buffy and Jason came by. I had asked Jason Wednesday if he would come and help get the couch out of my bedroom and into the living room. He and Jed toted the overstuffed, clawed-up sofa out of the living room to the basement, and then all of us together figured out how to get the big one out of my bedroom and into the living room (using Jason's and Jed's muscles, of course). I am SO grateful to have that done. The book club meets here next Friday, and I would just be mortified if somebody had to sit on that dirty, ragged sofa. I covered the brown one up with the biggest bedspread in the house.

Happy GMR's birthday!

Jed arrived from Atlanta this afternoon, and Pat invited us up for 4th of July barbecue. She and India had made a real feast, really good barbecued pork, superfine potato salad, good crunchy slaw and celery stalks, great little Italian loaves (I think they were Italian), beans, and the deliciousest strawberry/banana pudding I've ever put in my whole mouth! Plus iced tea, and wine for those who were so inclined.

Buffy, Jason and Reedy were there, and Jed and I arrived just as the table got set to eat. Hmmm. Good timing. India seemed in jolly spirits, and the Agans appeared their usual happy selves. At least, they make me happy to look at and listen to them. During the meal, Cousin Donnie Nock made a welcome appearance. I swear, that boy looks exactly like Tom and Bernice both, and how that can be, I don't know. "That boy" is only about 58 years old. He was worried about one of his daughters, the 17-year-old, said she has an ear infection.

India played some of her songs for us on her guitar, and sang some, and Pat strummed a bit herself. It was just the best, most cheerful day I've had in a long time, after a rude start for me; I slept too long, from 7:00 yesterday evening until nearly 6:00 this morning, and it took a comparably long time for me to get awake and into a civilized mood. But the afternoon made up for it. I love my kinfolks, and I hope y'all love y'alls's.

I guess Donnie really looks more like Bernice and Uncle Andrew, but you can tell he's Tom Nock's son, too. Gretchen and all the Hawk Hill cats were doing well. Reed demonstrated his southpaw tendencies by hurling first the ice cube he was playing with and then his empty glass, with resulting sweeping up (by Jason) of the broken glass. Really fun, altogether.