Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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.

I told Don I feel like a hermit who had to go through an encounter with other human beings (even a nice one, such as with our tree guys) and must now retreat from society. The day with all the tree cutting activity and the necessary interactions with the guys left me feeling exhausted and longing to retreat back into my little compound here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. That really hit home with me when we drove to a neighboring town yesterday to pick up a book order. We had been working on cleaning up the property right before we left, and the drive was lovely, but I was tired. We got out of the car walked through the town, picked up the books, and when we had circled back, Don said “Let’s go home.” Even the little trip and the chance to walk on sidewalks didn’t do it for us. All we wanted to do was go home and stay home.

Is this the new normal? Am I becoming a hermit of sorts? I don’t know. But as we watched some of Rachel Maddow last night, a segment in which she spoke of Orange Man’s new Coronavirus advisor – a guy with no background in epidemiology, by the way – who thinks ‘herd immunity’ is the way to go, really hit home. She mentioned that the elderly are impacted by younger family members and by trips to the supermarket where they interact with all ages and I turned to Don and said, “Let’s order our groceries online. Now.”

We had been planning on taking a trip to our local supermarket. But somehow, this whole week, which has been an intense one for us, including Don’s visit to the doctor, has been too much and we cannot contemplate any sort of interaction with another human being.

So Don is going to retrieve the groceries around noon.

Does this make any sense to you? It’s where I am this morning.

Our books. Love the sticker, which says: Small Town Heroes Shop Local.

I have a Jane Gardam in there, Old Filth. Don has another Maggie O’Farrell.

This little town is proudly displaying Black Lives Matter signs. And signs like this one:

It does my heart good to see this. To remember there is good in the world, though it can be hard to find during these times.

Okay. I hope you are having a restful holiday weekend. We plan to do the same.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.