Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sunday evening and I'm on a different schedule today because of Daylight Savings Time. I can always remember that "spring ahead, fall behind" reminder but I can never acclimate to the change for at least 3-4 days. I've been laying low for a couple weeks now after carpal tunnel release and trigger finger surgeries. These are minor things that instantly make you feel better. For me the problem is I like to be an active gardener and one handed activity is not a great deal.
Our son Alex is into H.P. Lovecraft reading and now he is showing interest in writing. That's a different story but when you have been waiting for him to write anything as long as we have, this is monumental. Last night we lit the candles and the gas lamps and sat by the stove listening to him read two stories to us. He picked the choices and they were great! When he finished he said he was putting together a story and needed some old fashioned names. Gail said a trip to one of the local cemeteries could provide plenty of names including some none of us had ever heard of so we planned a trip for today.
The wind was howling but the sun was shinning and even Karl wanted to get involved. I was reluctant to bring a dog into a cemetery but I'm old fashioned I guess and show different respect than some do. I was outvoted. The Lower Cabot Cemetery is old and new and there are ranges of monuments from slate markers you can hardly read, to encrusted granite letters, to marble markers that have lost all lettering and split markers that have respectfully been cemented back together.
Older names were plentiful and some even made us chuckle. Men's first names included Ransom, Lemuel, Erastus, Theron, Alanson, Azro, Smiley, True, Orlando, Orson, Elihu, Asa, Levih, Quinton, Welcome, Phineus, Elvin, Luther, Ebina, Azariah, Matthias, Shadrack and Asahel. We were looking for men's names but some of the women's names were different too. How about Adaline, Lovina, Thankful, Eliza, Prudence, Philena, Irenus, Tamer, Augusta, Chastina or Adeline? But the monument that interested Gail, Alex and I the most is pictured up top. It was dedicated to Dr. John Q. A. Parker and said so nicely: "He Went About Doing Good".
Right now a member of the American Hemerocallis Society is gathering information for a historical inside to daylilies. So far he has solicited information on older hybridizers including, Childs, Lenington, Marsh, and Spaulding. In my thinking, these hybridizers went about doing good too as they produced some beautiful flowers to bring smiles after bad times for years to come. If you're interested in daylilies, join the society. It's a flower that was here when Welcome and Thankful were living and probably farming in Lower Cabot. If you come to Vermont some time soon, stop by the place an enjoy some history. You can't beat Vermont!
Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the roast has another hour to go and the butercup squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips, Irish Cobbler potatoes, onions, and cauliflower, now diced and roasting along side, are producing aromas that are making me real hungry!
George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Our son Alex is into H.P. Lovecraft reading and now he is showing interest in writing. That's a different story but when you have been waiting for him to write anything as long as we have, this is monumental. Last night we lit the candles and the gas lamps and sat by the stove listening to him read two stories to us. He picked the choices and they were great! When he finished he said he was putting together a story and needed some old fashioned names. Gail said a trip to one of the local cemeteries could provide plenty of names including some none of us had ever heard of so we planned a trip for today.
The wind was howling but the sun was shinning and even Karl wanted to get involved. I was reluctant to bring a dog into a cemetery but I'm old fashioned I guess and show different respect than some do. I was outvoted. The Lower Cabot Cemetery is old and new and there are ranges of monuments from slate markers you can hardly read, to encrusted granite letters, to marble markers that have lost all lettering and split markers that have respectfully been cemented back together.
Older names were plentiful and some even made us chuckle. Men's first names included Ransom, Lemuel, Erastus, Theron, Alanson, Azro, Smiley, True, Orlando, Orson, Elihu, Asa, Levih, Quinton, Welcome, Phineus, Elvin, Luther, Ebina, Azariah, Matthias, Shadrack and Asahel. We were looking for men's names but some of the women's names were different too. How about Adaline, Lovina, Thankful, Eliza, Prudence, Philena, Irenus, Tamer, Augusta, Chastina or Adeline? But the monument that interested Gail, Alex and I the most is pictured up top. It was dedicated to Dr. John Q. A. Parker and said so nicely: "He Went About Doing Good".
Right now a member of the American Hemerocallis Society is gathering information for a historical inside to daylilies. So far he has solicited information on older hybridizers including, Childs, Lenington, Marsh, and Spaulding. In my thinking, these hybridizers went about doing good too as they produced some beautiful flowers to bring smiles after bad times for years to come. If you're interested in daylilies, join the society. It's a flower that was here when Welcome and Thankful were living and probably farming in Lower Cabot. If you come to Vermont some time soon, stop by the place an enjoy some history. You can't beat Vermont!
Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the roast has another hour to go and the butercup squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips, Irish Cobbler potatoes, onions, and cauliflower, now diced and roasting along side, are producing aromas that are making me real hungry!
George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
3 comments:
I would like to be named Prudence and go about doing good.
I love strolling through cemeteries--they are so informative. Glad your son is starting to try his hand at writing.
Some of those names reminded me of my grandmother and people she would talk about - Ransom, Azro, Phineus and Prudence.
I'm glad the surgery worked well for you. The one handed thing always seems to last much longer than it really does.
Syble
Hi Susan;
My younger son, Alex is from a historical place far removed. It may be past or future. Autism facilitates interesting, sometimes difficult to understand behaviors but he is a historian and always has been. He thinks the old names are great and wishes to meet a woman named Gertrude. His writing continues daily but until this story is finished, we aren't allowed so much as a hint about it. We have a customer named Prudence who loves daylilies.
George
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