Beautiful day today. We need to mow, but we’re holding off one more day as my lower back is giving me a small amount of grief today. Should be fine by tomorrow. Sunny, in the low to mid-eighties for today and tomorrow and then we’re back in the seventies for the foreseeable future.

I can’t complain.

I did a fair amount of work around the house yesterday (see: back problems) and today I’ll start in on our tax deductions. One of my least favorite things to do, but it must be done. I’ve decided I’ll do a bit of work on that every day, so it’s not overwhelming and becomes – hopefully – relatively painless.

I needed to find a place to stash the pieces of china and this Roseville ‘basket’ works well. I have…ahem… strongly encouraged Don to take a day off from all outside work as his arthritis kicks up and he doesn’t know when to stop. I can be the same way, so I’m not judging him, just acknowledging a fellow overdoer. So he took a long walk this morning instead.

I’m in the middle of The Starless Sea. I’m enjoying it very much, though I’m not sure it’s as powerful as The Night Circus. However, there’s a lot more to read and Erin Morgenstern is so good at weaving a magical story and tying all the ends together that I’m withholding comparison until the very end.

We’re coming up on half a year in ‘lockdown.’ Since this is a leap year, I calculate 183 days equaling half a year. Though if you just count the months, it’s six months. Today is day 179, so four more days officially.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

More china uncovered yesterday. And some bottles, too.

A couple of the pieces had this ornate mark near the edge of the plate. I briefly wondered if it was a monogram, but I don’t think it is. But I am getting a bigger sense of the design. I see a fleur-de-lis as well. It looks like very formal china – maybe a wedding set? The stuff you would use on very special occasions?

Here’s the mark:

Is it V E & F?

V E G F?

V E & P?

V E G P?

I’m searching.

Does the P. mean plate?

It’s a mystery.

I was in the midst of soaking all the pieces and gently washing them when I found that one was not like all the others.

Of course, this is my favorite piece. I’d love to find more. Isn’t it lovely?

Don is really into all of this. He found two more bottles before I had finished my first cup of morning coffee.

Well, it’s Labor Day. Let’s hope that all of us who labor and need to earn a living will find work in the next several months. That’s my wish for today.

I’m feeling slightly better, but instead of mowing, which was my first instinct this morning, I’m going to hold off for a day or two and give this crap time to leave my system. I have other chores to complete today and deductions to calculate this coming week for our taxes. There’s plenty on the docket.

It’s a gorgeous day out there and we grabbed the opportunity to have our second cup of coffee out on the porch. These days on the porch will become increasingly precious, so we’re going to take advantage of them as much as possible.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

I’m a bit under the weather and have been for the past few days with sinus/allergies. So today, unlike the past few days, I’m going to take it easy. Don went to pick up our groceries yesterday and we still had not heard from the store about what was in stock, etc. He didn’t get the text until he was well on his way there – half the time, they text me instead – so we didn’t get some things we wanted and Don made some dubious substitutions. So he ended up going to our local supermarket anyway. The whole affair, getting groceries, disinfecting, etc., took far longer than we had planned.

So, it’s back to just going in person to the darned store. Yesterday was a day when I found everything hard. Just plain hard. And I tried to explain it to Don later in the day and ended up crying. I finally realized that, in addition to feeling unwell (I also pulled a muscle near my neck), I was experiencing a delayed reaction to the loss of our tree, the pruning of other trees (our big maple needed it, but it doesn’t look the same anymore) and all of the activity on our property this week. So I cried it out and felt a bit better.

This morning:

Two more Rose of Sharon blossoms opened.

Yesterday:

Don found this old bottle on the property. He also found two large liquor bottles, but I haven’t taken a picture of them yet.

In addition, remember the white pottery I found on the other side of the house when I was digging out the garden bed under the kitchen sink window? You may not, but this photo might refresh your memory. Don found another piece way over on the other side of the property:

That gold design is raised. I have several other smaller pieces, but none yet that have any indication of the makers mark.

I’ve found several pieces of pottery on the property over the past 15 years – one is a fragment of a yellow Harlequin plate by Homer Laughlin, several ironstone shards, a green handle from a teacup, and the most amazing find (I pray I find the rest of it someday) very old pieces of transferware from the 1830s that I glued together.

A reader named Michelle helped with this mystery – it was made by Enoch Wood & Sons, a company that was in business in the 1830s but not any later than that. Part of their Belzoni series, named after a famous Egyptologist. I would love, love, love to find more pieces.

We’re also obsessed with ‘mudlarking’ the process of scavenging for treasures in river mud. There are a lot of mudlarkers in Britain that we follow on Instagram – especially those who work along the Thames.

There’s a book out by one of them and we’re going to order it.

Maybe we’re Mockingbird Hill Cottage Mudlarkers…

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.