Uncle Carl gave me this old book, published in 1857.
It is laying, for now, on an old crocheted doily (made by my grandmother sometime before 1966) on an old table (probably a wash-table from back in the day) next to my grandmother's old leaden candlesticks and an old oil lamp.
Carl remarked that if you look at the drawings of all the women mentioned in this book, you notice that they all look strangely the same:
Look at those dirty little gardeners' fingers!
In other news, we've had rain and grey here again, but yesterday after school Everett mixed the last of the peat moss with some black soil and filled the last of my pots and voila I got the last of my flowers planted. So it can rain all it wants, as far as my garden is concerned, although yesterday at noon I scooped up, with a dustpan, one-and-a-half five-gallon pailsful of water from the basement floor. If it rains more ... oh it hardly bears thinking about.
And in yet more news, I've had a letter stating that one of the local group homes has a bedroom for Emil on September 1st. Thus I begin the slide into Empty Nesthood. Everett writes his final exams next week and then we are through with public school once and for all. He has no plans beyond going to Gord's (his dad's) for the month of July, so I'm not sure when or if my nest ever will actually be empty.
And speaking of nests, yesterday as I stood on the deck and looked out over the slough (that's pronounced SLOO, for those who don't know) I saw a mother duck on the water, followed by a train of about six fluffy little ducklings. The simplest and most common things give me the greatest pleasure.
Who are the women of note? Anyone we still note?
ReplyDeleteAnd I so would've pronounced that sluff, so thanks for the save :)
B
Heh! I KNEW there would be someone who didn't know how to pronounce that word! I just thought it would be someone from the States or Europe, where they call sloughs "ponds." I think.
ReplyDeleteWorld-Noted Women; or TYPES of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages, by Mary Cowden Clarke, author of The Iron Cousin, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines, The Complete Concordance to Shakespeare, Etc., Etc.
ReplyDeleteIllustrated with Seventeen Engravings on Steel, from Original Designs by Charles Staal.
"The world's large tongue proclaims you." - Shakespeare
Oh-- the women:
Sappho, Lucretia, Aspasia, Cleopatra, St. Cecilia, Heloise, Laura, Valentine de Milan, Joan D'Arc, Margaret of Anjou, Isabella of Castile, Lady Jane Grey, Pocahontas, La Vallière, Maria Theresa, Catherine II, Florence Nightingale
Kate,
ReplyDeleteYour enjoyment of these simple common things makes you a noteworthy woman because you have such easy access to heartfelt joy. I could call you an enlightened being, but I'm just glad I can call you a friend.
Oh wow! I love old books. That one looks extremely interesting.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know it was pronounced "sloo" so I thank you for that. Also! When I was a kid, my mom and I used to get in heated arguments because I thought it was "dolly," not "doily." Ha!
HAH!
ReplyDeleteSough.
They had those in the Little House on the Prairie books that I used to read to Rachel and I NEVER knew how to say it.
Thanks!
So what exactly is a slough, anyway?
ReplyDeleteAlso, that book looks very cool. Was it written by a woman?
Never mind my questions...I just read all the comments and got my answers.
ReplyDelete