Author name: Sayling@@Away

Something different for my blog post today! Lately, events of the last two pandemic years have been shuffling around my little gray cells. I do believe my brain is wired strangely because what’s emerged is not the usual pandemic ponderings. The first thought is of gratitude that no one I know died of Covid. I know that’s not true for many. Second, I now have two grandchildren, whose presence blesses me with smiles and laughter every day. Eli is almost two and a happy kid with interests in all sorts of things: birds, cars and trucks, drawing, music. I love playing with him – something I recall having little time to do with his mother and uncle when they were growing up. Too busy attending to their needs – so that’s what grandparents are for! Alexandra is too young, not yet two months, but her little round baby face makes me want to protect her from all the bumps in life.  I do wonder what will come of them, especially since I am an older grandmother and won’t be around for most of their lifetime. I feel like singing Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely? Third, I have a husband who puts up with my craziness after more than 50 years of marriage. My latest finagling has to do with getting another cat and also an e (electric)-bike.* I’ll let you know how that works out. Fourth, although I cried every day for a month after moving from our home of 35 years, I am coming to realize that living on one floor and having good neighbors is a real compensation, not to mention a new house that doesn’t require us to drain our savings on a regular basis. Fifth, I have an idiot cat who sleeps with me at night so I can fall asleep petting him. That makes up for the fact that I vacuum up enough hair to make another cat each week. Sixth, we are lucky to have longtime friends who seem to be there when we need anything – watching the house, driving us to the airport – and willingly sample any of my more dubious off-the-cuff cooking/baking creations. Sixth, I wonder why it is so hard to take off the weight that was so easy to put on. Gets harder every year, despite long walks with creaky joints. Seven, how wonderful it is to get into a pool and just swim. Laps and laps that clear the mind and help focus on life’s tangles. And how to untangle them. Eight, although my body is now made up of a lot of artificial parts, it’s still functioning well. Aging isn’t for the weak of heart, but it can still be enjoyable. I have two of each of these and a plate in my neck, but being bionic, I’m still going. ******** All in all, I do believe I am pretty lucky person, content with my life. What have you been pondering lately? Are you content? Would love some add-ons to my list! * FYI, a bill that would offer Americans a refundable tax credit on the purchase of a new electric bicycle was just introduced in the Senate by Ed Markey (D-MA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), as a way to cut down on car emissions. The bill is called the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment, or E-BIKE Act. E-bikes are pretty expensive, ranging from $1000 t0 $5000 or more. Schatz and Markey’s legislation would offer Americans a refundable tax credit worth 30 percent of a new e-bike’s purchase price, capped at $1,500. I think HUBS just might go for this. Look for some pictures of mine pretty soon! 0 0

In response to the challenge by D. Wallace Peach to write a poem or story about your e-book TBR list, or in my case pile, (see: https://mythsofthemirror.com/2022/01/09/writing-challenge-the-teetering-tbr-pile/?c=104189#comment-104189). Here is my contribution, over which I labored for at least five minutes. My TBR pile, it seems, Is taking over my dreams. Last night I dreamed of a hat. You know the one that sat Looking sage on a table at Hogwart’s And divided the kids into all sorts Of magical schools. This one, all floppy and chatty, Sat atop my pile, looking tatty. It dithered and vexed About the book to choose next. It was no help at all As pile did fall Smothering me. Needless to say, I woke up screaming! Thanks, Diana, for this vision! 0 0

I have reviewed a total of twenty-eight books on my blog this year, most of them for Rosie’s Book Review Team, and I hereby reveal my five favorites. These you won’t find on the New York Times or Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, but given my general dissatisfaction with what I did read off those lists this year, we clearly need a way to get the news out there about options. Rosie’s Reviews is the way to do it! At the top of the list is Fae or Foe by CA Deegan, a delightful surprise for someone who ordinarily doesn’t like books about fantastical/magical things (the exception being the Harry Potter series.) This book and its sequel was an eye-opener, a YA book of adventure at its highest in a world previously unimagined. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5928&action=edit Second on the list is Megacity by Terry Tyler. Terry is the queen of dystopian fiction, in my eyes, and a consummate world builder. This is a story of future and frightening governmental control that we might yet see. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5576&action=edit Third is The Ferryman and the Sea Witch by  D. Wallace Peach. She is another master of world creation. In The Ferryman and the Sea Witch, she blends a romping nautical adventure with a population of beautiful and deadly Merrows (think mer-people on steroids) and various greedy, powerful rulers and just plain nasty characters. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5568&action=edit Fourth is The Drowning Land by David M. Danachie, prehistorical fiction, set in northern Europe a little over eight thousand years ago. It combines adventure, a romance, and disaster against the setting of a land that literally is sinking beneath the sea and is based on a huge underwater slide that created a sudden and catastrophic tsunami that engulfed Doggerland, which connected Great Britain to the European continent and was a rich habitat for the Mesolithic populations. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5438&action And fifth is Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders by William Savage. In the eighth book in this series, Ashmole Foxe, a bookseller in Norwich, England, during the Georgian era who has acquired a solid reputation for solving murders, must solve the murder of the Honourable Henry Pryce-Perkins, the youngest son of a peer of the realm and a brilliant scholar at Oxford. A layered puzzle for the reader in a detailed historical setting. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5966&action=edit These are by far not the only books I read this past year. I only wish I had had time to review all of them! 0 0

I have read and reviewed all the books in this series, and it was so enjoyable to sit down and meet up with all the characters I’ve come to love and see the developments in their lives. That being said, anyone can pick up this book and enjoy the tale without having read the previous books. I will say for me this is the best in the series. The author seems to up his game with each new mystery. Ashmole Foxe is a bookseller in Norwich, England, during the Georgian era. He is well-to-do from the sales of his bookstore and also his ability to find and sell rare books for significant profit. All of this he finds mundane, and over the years he has acquired a solid reputation for solving murders, which has become his raison d’etre. This time he is called to visit the Bishop of St. Stephen’s Church, where the body of a young clergyman was discovered outside his home. The victim, the Honourable Henry Pryce-Perkins, was the warden of St. Stephen’s Hospital, a sort of retirement home for male servants and other people who worked for members of the cathedral clergy. He was also both the youngest son of a peer of the realm and a brilliant scholar at Oxford. How did he end up with a dead-end (pardon the pun) position as warden of the hospital, when he should have been moving on to a large and prestigious parish? Street children are favorites of Foxe, and he treats them with respect and gives them money to survive. So it is not surprising that soon after the Bishop’s call, street children lead him to the richly dressed body of a young woman in a house that its neighbors swear is haunted.  The house also sits strangely empty at the entrance to one of the notorious ‘yards’ of Norwich, wretched tenements housing the poorest of the poor in the city. The children also play a central role in helping Foxe solve this murder. For the first time, and complicating Foxe’s investigative work, the women in his life are creating problems. He has enjoyed the occasional company of various women, usually actresses or denizens of high-priced brothels, but he has now tied himself to a socially acceptable lady. How can he manage her increasing demands, especially when two former ‘close friends’ are returning to Norwich? In the process of Foxe’s investigation, we are introduced to more of the colorful characters that abound in this series: the occupants of St. Stephen’s hospital, the Bishop himself, and Oliver Lakenhurst, secretary to the Bishop and quite enamored with his perceived importance. In addition, we learn a great deal about the church, specifically its considerable library and the odd beliefs of the murdered warden.  The means and the opportunity for the murder were clear but Ashmole has difficulty figuring out the why. As usual, the author creates the world of Georgian Norwich with wonderful detail and an eye to the political and social lives of its inhabitants. I was particularly charmed by the street children, whose lives are a bleak reflection of the time. The atmosphere of this mystery is inspired, the city itself a character. The twists and turns in Foxe’s investigation of the two murders kept me guessing, and since I tend to figure things out before the denouement of a mystery, Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders was frustratingly good. The author is a superb writer, and I mean it as a compliment that his mysteries develop at a leisurely pace, as life was in those times. If the reader is wanting something speedy, they wouldn’t have enjoyed living then. I highly recommend Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders and all the other mysteries by this writer. About the author: William Savage grew up in Hereford, on the border with Wales and took his degree at Cambridge. After a working life largely spent teaching and coaching managers and leaders in Britain, Europe and the USA, he retired to Norfolk, where he volunteers at a National Trust property and started to write fiction as a way of keeping his mind active in retirement. He had read and enjoyed hundreds of detective stories and mystery novels and another of his loves was history, so it seemed natural to put the two together and try his hand at producing a historical mystery. To date, he has focused on two series of murder-mystery books, both set in Norfolk between 1760 and around 1800; a period of turmoil in Britain, with constant wars, the revolutions in America and France and finally the titanic, 22-year struggle with France and Napoleon. Norfolk is not only an inherently interesting county, it happens to be where the author lives, which makes the necessary research far easier. The Georgian period seemed natural choice for him as well, since he lives in a small Georgian town, close by several other towns that still bear the imprint of the eighteenth century on many of their streets and grander buildings. It also had the attraction of being a period he had never studied intensively, and so far he has not regretted his choice. The period has far exceeded his expectations in richness of incidents, rapidity of change and plentiful opportunities for anyone with a macabre interest in writing about crimes of every kind. He cannot see himself running out of plot material any time soon! You can also find William Savage On Twitter: @penandpension And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009908836774 Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HLZ2CBV/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5 0 0

I will be off my blog for the next two weeks – Christmas vacation! We are in Utah, where it’s been snowing off and on, something we hardly ever see in North Carolina. We came to Utah to visit my son, his wife, and the newest addition to our family, a granddaughter. Welcome to the world, Alexandra Rhea! There are outrageous Christmas light displays and we’ve enjoyed touring the neighborhoods at night. From our family to yours, Happy Christmas. May all your wishes for the season come true! 0 0

Although the Pilgrims didn’t celebrate Christmas, since they eschewed all holidays except for those decreed by God (Sunday), I thought I would continue with some of my research on how they lived. The Pilgrims’ (Separatists’) clothing was made of two types of cloth – wool and linen, which they wore year-round. They did not wear black or gray clothing, but clothes of many colors, according to probate records where the color of various clothing items was mentioned. These colors included violet, blue, and green. The color red was also listed; however, the reds that were used in the early 17th century were more of a brick red or a madder red. What was considered black in the early 17th century was very dark greys, greens, and blues and natural black sheep’s wool was also available. A deep, rich black was considered the opposite of demonstrating piety in the early 17th century. Thus, a true black would not have been worn by Separatists. ****** If you were a male colonist or a boy old enough to be ‘breeched’, what would you wear? Male children old enough to be ‘breeched’ would wear the same clothing as their fathers: Felt hat Linen shirt under A wool jacket or doublet Woolen breeches Wool stockings Latchet shoes If you were a Separatist woman or a girl older than five, what would you wear? The same as an adult woman: Coif on the head Smock or shift under everything – you would wear this to bed at night so no need to change Stays – called bodies, designed to give the woman a svelte figure but very uncomfortable Petticoats Pockets stitched to a band and knotted around the waist under the skirt Skirt, also called a petticoat Apron Waistcoat Neckerchief Knitted woolen stockings Felt or straw hat Latchet shoes I have an authentic costume made by the wardrobe mistress of the Raleigh Little Theater. Even without the stays and petticoats, I sweat profusely in the wool and linen. ****** The latchet shoe is made of sturdy leather.  Closed latchet shoes were more practical in bad weather. It is thought the open latchet shoes were made to show off rich stockings. These shoes were worn by both men and women. There were holes in the latchet (fastening strap) and in the tongue for laces of leather, cord or ribbon. Latchet shoes were not fitted for left or right feet but were made ‘straights’ or lasts. Wearers would rotate their shoes from left foot to right to even out the wear. Work shoes tended to have the “flesh” side of the leather turned out since they didn’t need to be waxed or polished. I have a pair of latchet shoes. They are very sturdy but hard on the feet, at least until I break them in! 1 0

Starvation continued beyond the first winter.  After the first year, the late spring through early fall was a time of plenty. Winters remained times of starvation, however, because ships containing new colonists continued to arrive, sent by the Merchant Adventurers in London – the Fortune (1621), and the Anne and the Little James (1623). These people arrived without any food supplies, clothes, or wherewithal for their life in the colony. They were distributed to live in the existing homes and during the winters, food had to be rationed so everyone could eat. A conjectural image of Bradford, produced as a postcard in 1904 by A.S. Burbank of Plymouth Bradford wrote of these newcomers there were “good members to the body”, some being the wives and children of men there already, some since the Fortune came over in 1621. But Bradford also related about those unfit for such a hardship settlement: “And some were so bad, as they were faine to be at charge to send them home again next year.” So the names of some of the people arriving on these ships disappeared from the colony’s rolls after 1623. Members of the Plymouth Colony began trading with fishermen and Native tribes in Maine within a few years of their arrival in 1620. In 1622 they dispatched a small expedition by boat to Damariscove Island, where they obtained supplies and food which carried them through a difficult summer until their crops could be harvested. They also had to bargain at various Native American villages for corn. ****** When starvation was not a problem, the colonists’ diet was a healthy one, helped by knowledge from the Pokanokets (Wampanaugs) who lived around them. Beans, squash, pumpkin Sunchokes – a tubular-shaped, thin-skinned root vegetable of the sunflower plant family that’s in season from late fall through early spring. Also called a Jerusalem artichokes. Corn bread and corn porridge Wild greens (watercress) Fowl (duck, swan, goose, turkey) Mishoons and hunting. Credit: Plimoth-Patuxet (a mishhoon the Wampanoag word for boat, using fire as a tool to hollow out a tree.) Venison Fish – The Separatists were not big fish eaters. Being farmers, they were meat and bread eaters. Lobsters, clams and eels. The Separatists loved eels but soon came to regard lobster as food for the poor because of their abundance and the fact they ate a lot of them early on. Nuts (walnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts) – some of the first food they harvest when they came ashore in Cape Cod Bay. Wild berries: Cranberries and currants – wild currants are closely related to gooseberries. Currants come in red, black, and gold colors when ripe. North America is host to more than 80 varieties Once gardens were established: many different kinds of herbs, onions, garlic, and vegetables like parsley, lettuce, spinach, carrots and turnips.  Also after a few years, they grew cowcumbers (cucumbers). Water and also beer made from corn ****** Cooking was done in the fireplace alcove our outside. Baking was done outside in communal ovens. Eventually, they built real fireplaces with ovens in the back and later to the side. How did they know the temperature to cook at? How did they know when their baking was done? The Separatists initially tried but failed to grow rye, barley and wheat. In the beginning, barley crops often failed, and the cost of importation was prohibitive. Hops were first introduced into this country from Europe by the Massachusetts Company in 1629. Food plays an important part in my book, The Last Pilgrim. 0 0

Leaves cling to trees Some, wind-ripped, leave imprints Of their short, sweet life 0 0