Sylvan Scouting

 Today, five people went out to scout a possible route to get a piece of the North Country Trail off road. This is near where we scouted last year (link at end), but not connected to that.

That piece is currently in a holding pattern while landowners are being contacted - at least that is being attempted. So far, there hasn't been much success.

This piece has a much better chance of happening. The man in the gray jacket and hat is going to grant an easement for us to get onto Forest Service property. This will eliminate about 3/4 mile of roadwalk.

Yes, the NCTA people have their noses buried in electronics. We were trying to take good tracks and mark waypoints of interest in terms of finding the best route through the area.

Here, Kurt and Kenny are checking out the property corner post. Kurt is a chapter member who lives in the neighborhood and he's been making a lot of the contacts including the one that has led to this easement. Kenny is the NCTA staff member (Michigan Regional Trail Coordinator) who will help orchestrate all the administrative pieces of the puzzle.

And why is it "Sylvan Scouting?" Sylvan means "woods," and we were in the woods (Penn- sylvania = Penn's woods). But the real reason is that the biggest issue with this route is that the trail will need to cross Sylvan Creek. It's a little bigger than we expected, and in the spring, the accompanying wetlands will be much wider.

Here's where the deer cross it.

Don't hold your breath. The Forest Service will have to do a NEPA study. They are probably the ones who will choose where the bridge will be, and it will need to be large enough that it must be engineered. Depending on what a scouting hike in the spring shows, there are wetlands that will have to at least have puncheon if not raised boardwalk. Lots of hummocky areas make that clear.

But once across the creek the land rises and should be high and dry to get back out to the next road.

We collected valuable information, and this is the first step.

In other news: I went to the store yet again, and did some other planning stuff for the trail.

Miles walked in 2026: 665.8
Bushwhacking for possible NCT route: 3 miles

See Scouting

Glascow Rose Tea Set

 This is the early 1900s tea set I mentioned. I really like this, but I definitely don't want to keep it.

This is made by Peacock Pottery in England, and (hooray, hooray!) the pattern is one of the rare ones, Glascow Rose. This is considered from the Arts and Crafts movement.

One of the cups is missing- leaving five, the teapot has been repaired and is probably not useable for hot tea, and the sugar bowl has two tight cracks. The creamer, the lids, all six saucers, and all six plates are here.

Even with the missing and damaged pieces, this is supposedly worth a fair amount of money, the pattern being in the top tier of value. I would let the entire set go for $350- either you pick up or I deliver if not TOO far away, or if I might see you in the next little while. I'm not willing to pack and ship it due to risk of damage. Apparently one cup and saucer set can sell for $70-$200.

The maker's mark is the official backstamp for Foley Art China - Peacock Pottery, produced by E. Brain & Co. at the Foley Works in Fenton, England. This specific stamp dates the production of this set precisely between 1905 and 1913

In other news: I edited, I got the Limoges china out of the way and cleaned up this set. I dealt with the other half of the basketball cabbage. I also spent some time working on genealogy. One of the collections from these boxes that I want to show you will be much more interesting if I can tie it specifically to the people to whom they belonged. I know the names, but now I can explain exactly how these people relate to me. Stay tuned. Probably not tomorrow, but soon.

See Granny's China

Granny's China

 The good news is that I have taken on getting a couple of things accomplished toward the goal of moving some things out of the house. Om is going to be gone for a few days, and doing this project is temporarily making a huge mess until I get it sorted, so I thought this would be a good time to tackle it.

The bad news is that after years of trying to get all the boxes of this collected in one place, Geez, Louise! I am still missing some of this. There has to be at least one more box somewhere because most of the cups and all the saucers are missing.

This is Theodore Haviland Limoges China in the Green Floral Schleiger design. The line was begun in 1903. Granny was married in 1906, and I'm guessing it was purchased soon thereafter, or as part of the wedding gifts.

After hearing all my friends' horror stories about getting rid of family china, I wasn't expecting to find much good news on the value front. However. These are genuine, pre WWI.

Not only that, but they are still open stock, so broken pieces can be replaced. And I'm finding good prices on even single antique place settings.

I have 12 dinner plates, 12 soup plates, a soup toureen with lid, 3 platters, sugar and creamer, gravy boat, 2 serving dishes with lids, at least 8 small soup cups, and the missing cups and saucers.

Only one cup and the creamer have any damage with slight cracks.

Here's a closeup of one of the soup plates. These are the older style soup dishes that are flatter and spread the soup out more. I've always liked that style. But these dishes are WAY too fussy for me. I already have two sets of my own tableware (none as fancy or delicate as this), and enough of my mother's china to set a table for 4, and two other settings of 4. I DO NOT WANT or need this china.

I have all of these washed and sorted. I wanted a cloth surface to put them on, so I got out one of the cutwork linen tablecloths that the same grandmother made. As I've mentioned many times, she was very talented. Also, she liked nice things.

It's one of the mysteries to me that she came from a farm background, and leapt into a lifestyle that was several steps above her roots. She married a lawyer, so I guess they could afford it. That said, many things that I'd always been told were worth money have turned out to be reproductions or not very high quality examples of whatever it was. So, I'm pretty happy if this china might actually be worth something.

But now I have a new dilemma. I need to find the rest of this to be able to do anything further with it. Since I thought I had it all collected, this could be problematic. I can't leave it all on the table indefinitely, and I really don't want to pack it away AGAIN, even though it's sorted.

And what's it sorted from? Ha! Another whole set of china, a lovely art deco tea set that I actually like, some very fancy glassware, miscellaneous family dishes that I had been wondering where they were. I'll wash the rest of that another day. But I've now emptied 7 big cartons of china and glassware into the dining room.

There actually is other news as well. I edited. I hand-washed something else. I dealt with half a basketball-size cabbage until I got sick of chopping. I'll try to finish that tomorrow.

See Emily Marguerite Fisher Rowe

Great Memories with Betty

 One of my very best friends, Betty, will soon be taking her final trip to heaven. She was one of the very first people I met when we moved here 57 years ago, and we quickly became friends. Here we are three years ago.



We have so much in common - gardening, sewing, handicrafts, faith. There were a few times in our lives when we didn't see each other very much, but in the past few years, we've been trying to fix that. Quite a few years we spent one evening a week together working on projects.

Here are a few memories of fun things. Of course there are a lot more where pictures were not taken. In 1983, we each had so many crafty projects we'd started that we decided it was The Year To Finish Things- TYTFT. We even made t-shirts, and believe it or not, we both worked at finishing things and didn't start a single new project all year. We did finish quite a few.

In 2001, we did two big projects together. She helped me clean out and sort my "potting shed," which had been a chicken coop.

We did get it all put away again. Betty said, "Joan, that was a LOT of stuff!"

Also that summer (maybe we agreed to each choose one big project to do together), she said, "I want to make a pocket quilt [technically a comforter]. Bring your sewing machine in. We'll work together and it won't take more than a couple of days."

Ha! We've joked about those "couple of days" ever since.

We cut up donzens of pairs of old jeans. I used pockets from each of our boys and some of the foster kids, and Omer, and me. The corners have flannel in them. We each traded a few pieces of fabric. She has 4 girls and I had 3 boys, so it's easy to remember who donated which pieces. Here's my first square, done.

Here is my quilt, almost done (with V-8 Kitty on it). I think I still had to put some of the edging on.

The finished quilt still lives in my car. It's very heavy- almost too heavy to sleep under, but it is great for extra padding. I just used it on the Sheltowee hike under my mat. And it is great for memories of all the boys.

Did we ever finish all the projects? Heck no. But sometimes just working on things is great fun, a learning experience, a social experience, or therepy. She did gorgeous hand embroidery.

In other news- Well, I went to say goodbye to Betty- she has gone downhill quickly and was not conscious. She has a large family with the 4 "girlsies," grands and great-grands. She's been with her husband Roger for 12 years, after Sam died in 2010. Both relationships have been wonderful. If you believe in prayer... say one for Roger and the family if you would.

I shopped, I voted, I went to bell practice.

See An Evening with Betty

Other 2026 Garden Endings

 There was a hard freeze at least once while I was in Kentucky. The gardening season is really over unless I manage to do a little weeding in the rock garden.

However, here are a few final bright spots. This is the 'Forbidden Fruit' hosta. I love how yellow it got.

I was really shocked to discover there is a 'Firefly' Heuchera still blooming!

And, not in any flower bed... one self-seeded marigold insisted on blooming. But in general, the marigolds just aren't working for me.

I'll close with a sort of report on the Moon Garden. I had hoped to bring in some of the annuals to propogate them. Well... the deer pulled the frosted Gazania right out of the ground and ate them. I put the new hosta and the dogwood in prison before I went hiking. They kicked off the fencing and chewed the dogwood, but I think it will be OK.

I didn't manage to get any of the white petunias in the house to root and propogate for next year. Not in the moon garden this year, but I was hopeful they might be next year.

However, the dusty miller were not dead. So I have split them, and we'll see how they do in the house over the winter.

Today was busy. I managed to edit a bit. Then I spent the afternoon doing errands, one of which was to choose a new Medicare plan. What a hassle! But I think I've done it. Then I had a Zoom meeting and a flurry of communication after that.

See It's All I've Got