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.
HI,
I hope you feel better soon.
I am a fan of The Tour de’ France and watch it not only for the race but the beautiful country side. This year it is late and basically confined to southern France, due to the pandemic. It came to me while watching this morning what a good decision you and Don made going on your second trip to France. What with all turmoil the virus has caused your timing was impeccable.
I am go glad you went for it and returned to beautiful France, who knows when you will be able to return.
Take Care,
Kaye,
Park City, UT
I’m so glad we did, too. We can’t afford it this year, anyway, but I miss France and hope we can one day return.
Thanks Kaye.
Stay safe!
As I always say, I learn something here; have never heard of mudlarking.
I’m sorry you’re having some bad days, Claudia, and I sure hope you feel better soon.
Thank you, Vicki.
Trying to lay low today.
Stay safe!
We had to lay really low. Have never seen such temperatures in all my days of being a Southern Californian, but get a load of these temperatures in my backyard yesterday (Sunday). To put it in perspective, I’m 15 minutes from the Pacific Ocean; about a half hour north of Los Angeles County. It’s not like I’m in the desert of Palm Springs or ‘way in the interior valleys of the state [which are more arid]; as a rule, we’re cooler on the coast, unlike now:
80 degrees at 3:00am
110 degrees at 12:30pm
116 degrees at 1:00pm
116 degrees at 2:30pm
113 degrees at 3:30pm
84 degrees at 9:30pm
With every minute worrying about losing power due to complications with Calif’s power grid. Our inadequate, constrained electrical network. But the heat was even taking out transformers today.
I decided to sleep earlier, so I could be up in these hours (3:00am-6:00am) and will now run the dishwasher because, later today, Monday-holiday, the temps won’t be much different than Sunday’s. My husband walked out yesterday about 4pm and announced, “The cement is melting.” (I almost believed him.) The blast of heat is like some huge industrial furnace.
Most of the old 1950s-era homes in my neighborhood do NOT have central air conditioning. And one of the reasons people haven’t gone to the expense for air conditioning over the years was because our summer/fall heat was tolerable enough; we’d maybe get some August days of like 101 degrees, something like that; but never THIS. I felt sick Sunday with the thermostat turned up to 80 degrees to conserve electricity as advised/requested by the power company, so I can’t imagine what other people are doing because I in fact DO have air conditioning that will kick in, but it’s not like the kind today that’s installed in a home when the home is built; the conversions on old furnaces like mine never work like the real thing, but I’m very glad to have it and it does its best; otherwise, I don’t know what we’d be doing, and no fun to figure that out in a pandemic, like finding a motel or hotel that isn’t already booked for the Labor Day weekend anyway because, apparently, people ARE traveling and there are no vacancies in my immediate area (from what I understand).
So, friends checking up on friends by phone and text today. Inside the house, moving around as little as possible to conserve oneself. Drinking a lot of water. Such a concern about wildfire, too. I didn’t realize til they announced it today that California’s wildfire acreage-burn already, for 2020, is the highest amount of burn in the state’s history, and we’ve barely begun fire season with four months to go.
Seriously, no person should ever be considering in these days to move/relocate to California. Home values and rents are too high; we get earthquakes; we’re overcrowded. The planet is warming and California in its entirety is burning up. These kinds of temperatures are fatal. In just under the past half-dozen years or so, we’ve had times when the thermometer has shown maybe 106 degrees, like for one flukey day, and that was a real eye opener; a first. But ask Don as he’ll remember these city names in the south part of the state; their temperatures on Saturday were 121 degrees in Woodland Hills; 118 degrees in Van Nuys. To quote one of the L.A. weather reporters, “A tsunami of heat.” And the air quality is BAD.
I would have been out of here ten years ago but it’s my husband (from the Midwest) who won’t leave California. I’m a native, and I would go in a heartbeat. It’s no longer the state I want to live in, although my larger family and ancestors have been here for 120 years. Things change. And the changes in California are not good. I don’t see how it has a future. It won’t happen in my lifetime, but clearly the oceans will keep warming, it alters the sea life, more water will etch away at the land mass, fires will keep burning the land mass and humans/animals won’t be able to suffer the extremely-high heat. It used to be that you could count on one hand the number of really-hot days but know the rest of the year was pretty darned nice. Now, you count on one hand the nice days, but know the rest of the year will always be too warm.
I see the diff in the trees and plants how they bloom or not bloom now, and at the wrong time of year. I can’t remember in what year we’ve ever even last gotten a hard frost in ‘winter’ (we don’t really have ‘winter’). Rain is hit & miss although in there in some of the years we’ll get a fairly-good wet ‘winter’ but the benefit of it doesn’t last long because then we go ‘way too long between rains, like now. And the heat and dry winds (the Santa Anas) further reduce that temporary benefit.
Sorry, I’m going on & on with this but nobody here can talk about anything except the heat! Something has finally trumped (unfortunate pun) Covid talk here.
It was 121 degrees in Woodland Hills yesterday. Only a few degrees less than in Death Valley.
Insane.
We left San Diego 19 years ago and it’s completely different now than when we were living there. San Diego, which rarely had any temps over 80, now routinely has high temps and high humidity. It’s well over 100 there this week.
Stay safe, Vicki.
Sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Hope it passes quickly.
Mudlarking….that’s a new one for me. I do look forward to your mudlarking adventures, however. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find more of that blue with raised gold pattern? Good luck…and stay safe! ;)
It’s not actually blue, it’s white. Just the light, I guess! We found a lot more of that pattern today, Donnamae. I’ll share it on tomorrow’s post.
Stay safe!
How exciting to find “archeological treasures” in your own yard! What was rubbish then is now
so interesting to us. As a youngster I visited my Aunt in Larchmont, NY and remember going to her pre-revolutionary home and exploring. The root cellar was spooky but I remember stacks of old medicine bottles and farm equipment and interesting things stuffed in little openings everywhere. I found clay pipes….old buttons and my one and only four leaf clover. Now I am curious about Mudlarking.
I wish you well and a speedy recovery.
It’s fascinating to find these pieces and try to determine who made them and where they came from, Maria.
Stay safe!
You know, when Don was doing all of the work out on your property, I thought about those old pieces of pottery, glassware you had found previously, and wondered if he had or would come across more. That bottle is gorgeous!!
I know that feeling of despair when we lose a tree. I cried for days after we lost one 3 years ago. We live in the house my hubs grew up in, and it was a tree his Dad had planted in the late 1930’s. I still mourn that tree. And, in most cases, a good cry is sometimess just exactly what we need. I know it does help me.
Speaking of despair ~ today into tomorrow makes it a full 6 months in your daily countdown, doesn’t it? That might be worth a cry today for me. Our granddaughter was born on March 21 as this was all starting. Just how unusual and limiting our 6 mos with her has happened has been so difficult. I know others have faced such bigger obstacles, but waiting til one is 70 before a grandchild is born, I just had pictured it all so differently. But, we will go on and hope and pray that things get better. It surely won’t be quickly though. If only………….. and we wait for Nov 3!!
I think Tuesday will mark 6 months – Day 180. Unbelievable, Chris. I’ll be shedding a tear then, I think. Having to limit your time with your granddaughter must be so hard on you. So much separation among families, due to COVID. I’d like to see my sister and her family, but there’s no way we can. Especially since they live in Florida, of all places, with an idiot Governor.
Stay safe, Chris.
I’ve read about mudlarking in Britain but it stands to reason you can do it anywhere! Sounds like fun. I never find anything in my little yard except occasional pieces of broken glass. Maybe if I dig a little deeper.
Today we went to pick up our grocery order and when we got it home I discovered there was a badly crushed can of beans, a yellow squash with something slimy and green on it, and the saddest most battle scarred eggplant I’ve ever seen. I would really like to pick out my own groceries (and go to the farmer’s market!) but COVID cases have skyrocketed here since the university opened. The courses are almost entirely online but students reportedly don’t want to miss the “college experience,” which of course does not include sitting alone in your apartment.
And the skies are still smoky and it’s going to be 110 degrees today, so don’t use your air conditioning or we might run out of electricity.
I didn’t contribute to the What are you reading? post the other day, due to extreme grumpiness, but I feel I must confess that I am only reading comics collections right now: Mutts, Calvin and Hobbes, and Tintin. They do cheer me up.
Thanks for being here.
The town right next to us is a college town. We won’t go there right now. New York is doing very well at the moment, but I haven’t read the figures for college towns. I imagine that will make a difference in our success rate.
Comics? Sounds like a great idea.
Stay safe, Christy.
Today was a fabulous blog. I love the sharing, and sincerity, of your feelings. They resonate because they reflect how we are all feeling now. When I was in grief counseling I learned about “small griefs” which encompasses all things which make you feel sad, and a little helpless at the time. The times we are experiencing now have me feeling that way -things which you take in, process, and move on from, now can feel larger and more discouraging. Knowing it’s being experienced by others as well brings me comfort about my own feelings.
I also love your mudlarking treasures. The bottle Don found is so interesting. I’m hoping one of your readers has some insight about it. I love it that those pieces of someones history are treasures to you. It’s so interesting to me that you found really lovely fragments.
Keep taking good care of each other, it’s wonderful you are such good companions.
We found some more bottles and china today, Jan. I’ll share some of them as we get them cleaned up.
Thank you for your kind words about today’s post and for your insights into the grieving process.
Stay safe!
I am a fan of Nicola White who also mudlarks the Thames in England. I watch her on the infamous utoob. I never did much utoob before this whole pandemic / lockdown ordeal. Just would watch an occasional link to one from a blogger or FB. I have to admit the bloody thing has pulled me in. In all fairness, I had no idea how many talented people there are all over the world. I have watched various channels and I know there are thousands and thousands more, but without utoob, I would never had learned about mudlarking. I know your struggle with the news. I just don’t watch it anymore. I scroll past the crap news in my online newspaper, I ignore it on the internet, I hide or block it on FB (not a huge FB fan) and the TV is rarely on as there is not much to watch anyway. I have no FOMO when it comes to the newscast. I may be naive, but I am not going to allow it all to get to me. A good old comedy or sitcom that will make me laugh helps a lot. As do our 4 little furry felines. Hang in there, Claudia (and Don) and I share the allergy/sinus problems also. I have good days and bad because of it, as well. Hope you feel much better soon.
I wonder if I follow Nicola White? I’ll have to check. There’s so much on YouTube, Ranee. Don is always telling me that!
Stay safe.
Nicola White’s channel is nicola white mudlark – Tideline Art. She is wonderful.
Thanks, Theresa!
xo
Did you buy one of Lara Maiklem’s books, Claudia? I read her book that ties mudlarking to the history of London along the Thames. Fascinating. I particularly enjoyed it, as London is one of my favorite big cities and i could picture many of the places she described.
Feel better.
We just purchased that book and another one by a gentleman who is a mudlarker, Wendy. I find all of it fascinating!
Stay safe!
hope you feel better soon (if not already) in every way. glad you have don, tears, new blooms and new books to help. and new mudlarking treasures! hope you find the rest of that old pottery. it sure is pretty.
had a really nice start to my day today … slept in, did a little puttering, then went for a walk with some family members (they are on one side of the street and i’m on the other and down-wind of them). it was dark and stormy (too bad we only got a few tiny sprinkles), nice and cool, a breeze ruffling my hair. that felt so good that i gathered a handful of branches (maybe two feet long or less) to put in a vase as a souvenir of the day and gave them the heart-shaped rock i found. and talked to a dog on the other side of a fence. :)
hope you are having a good, easy, safe day!
hugs …
kathy in iowa
Sounds like you had a good day, Kathy! And seeing and talking to a dog is always a good thing!
Stay safe.
I found the Thames mudlarkers on instagram about a year ago. I love seeing their treasures.
It is fun that you find your own treasures at MHC!
They find such interesting things, Cindy!
Stay safe.
Treasures! I seem to remember a bottle like that first one with the nipped-in “waist”. Probably late fifties/early sixties, holding a vegetable oil—maybe Mazola? Have fun and feel better. We’re just playing Realtor, showing masked strangers around the property. Reading Death and Judgement by Donna Leon to try and stay sane.
Could be mazola. Not sure! Found a couple of green bottles that look like vinegar or oil bottles. I quite like them.
Looked it up – might be Crisco or Puritan cooking oil.
Love Donna Leon!
Stay safe, Shanna.
You may want to check your library for the mudlarking book. I found Lara Maiklem’s book that way and I’m glad that I did not order it. There were no pictures of her finds in the original version but I’ve heard a later version has pictures. She’s not my favorite Thames mudlark. I relate to finding treasures on your property. My family loves to go and rummage in the dump area on our farm, we’ve found a motorcycle (no one has ever ridden in my family), old barn lights, rusty typewriters and a china doll head. Poison Ivy has found the treasure hunters as well. I get so excited over junk. Side note…we started self-quarantining the day before you did and I stopped counting at day 100. We are out in the world more than you two but we are being careful. My retired husband who still teaches two classes has started teaching from home and is facing being sent back into the classroom. Fear is a daily factor of my life and it is taking a toll. I enjoy your blog. Stay safe and well.
Our library is small, and I’m wary of ordering anything from the library right now. Besides, we did happen to order the newer edition, so it should be okay.
Fortunately, we know where the poison ivy is around here, and we won’t be digging there!
I feel for you and I understand the daily toll of fear, Theresa. Sending you a big hug.
Thanks so much,
Stay safe.
So, today I learned there is a name for it! Mudlarking and actually books about it and by mudlarkers. I am tickled as my husband and I have done similar digging around our property and the farms we grew up on and now have several shelves in the shed filled with our found trinkets, lots of bottles, a small ironstone bowl, several little white glass jars, buttons and arrow heads and a tomahawk head. I thought we were just junkers but now I am going to read about others like us!
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend and hope you feel better soon!
Take care…
Kelly
I know that Don would love nothing more than finding an arrowhead. I hope he does!
Stay safe, Kelly.
God love the Brits. Has there ever been a better name for anything? What are we doing? Larkin’ about in the mud.
Nothing beats found treasure, that moment when you realize that the little thing that caught your eye may not be such a ‘little’ thing after all. Have you ever opened an old book and had a love note fall out with a few petals of a rose?(me) Won a box lot of ‘junk’ at an auction and found McCoy?(my mom) Reached for the nickel on the sidewalk and then found it’s a quarter? (my brother in 1967 when a nickel was treasure itself) And don’t we all tell those stories still?
For me though, it’s the beach, and the stuff that gets deposited on the sand by each wave. Yes the shells, mostly fragments, weird fossil rocks, bleached wood and bones, yes.
But my favorite is always the glass and pottery. The garbage of our ancestors.
I frequently stand staring at the thing in my hand, charmed, hypnotized, transported.
Then I refocus and see the water bottle next to my foot. Sigh……..The garbage of us.
And – blink- I’m the maitre ‘d in Ferris Bueller “ I weep for the future”.
Wondering what the alien archeologists millennia from now will make of whatever’s left of us
That always struck me as such a deeep philosophical question when I was a kid, combing a beach.
Now I figure they’ll just think “Well, duh. No wonder they flamed out.”
But wait, I just remembered!!! Legos Lost at Sea! Maybe they’ll get lucky and land on one of those beaches in Cornwall and find an octopus, a sea monster or teeny tiny swim fins. (Speaking of England and the garbage of us)
Ok so maybe not all plastic is bad. We are after all leaving a legacy that is truly forever. Maybe the aliens will be, for just one little minute, charmed, hypnotized, transported?
“Well, damn. It’s a shame they flamed out”
That Cornwall beach combing dream has been at the top of my bucket list since somebody forced me to make a bucket list after they’d just seen the movie.
I guess”treasure” is, as it’s always been, in the eye of the larker.
I love looking for sea glass and bits of china at the beach. Unfortunately, we can’t get there this year, so that will have to wait. But I could spend hours walking the beach and have!
Stay safe, Kathleen.
I had that same day on Saturday. Nothing seemed quite right; I felt cross for no reason, really. Not really crabby but not my happy girl self. I think those are going to happen. When I was working at a center for grieving children, we did an exercise with them (I had middle school kids) where we asked them to put a “rating” to everything bugging them or that they were sad about. it could be something as small as a chore they hated or as big as the loss of their parent. A bad grade, fight with a friend. Big, Medium, Little. Then we had them put on a backpack and for less significant things, we might put in a can of tuna or a box of crackers. For a big one, like the loss of the parent, a five pound bag of potatoes. The idea was we carry these things and they pile up and sometimes adding just one more thing “breaks the back” (or the bag).
I think about the losses in Covid times. Some are little, yet get bigger as time goes by. Some are big, like losing people we care about. The wedding of my cousin’s daughter was this weekend. Not only was it changed from a large occasion to a small intimate one (size of events, plus people were regretting like crazy), in the month before, the bride’s grandma died, her dog died, the maid of honor dropped out, even closest family regretted the reception which turned into an intimate dinner for parents and a few others. Too many potatoes.
I think we’re all dealing with that. Sometimes it is the smallest thing that kicks us over into crabby day. We shoulder the big things because we must. But the little ones — those get tough.
On mudlarking — I know I mentioned the book and reading what I do here, you will LOVE that book, love her approach. And learn a lot, too, which you may already know from following. A must for your reading list. I truly love your finds.
We already ordered the book, as well as another one written by another mudlarker.
Thanks so much, Jeanie.
Stay safe and enjoy the lake!