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I am republishing this post from 2018, which is based on some research I did for The Last Pilgrim. One of the days of my research in and around Plymouth led me to the Aptuxcet trading post in Bourne, on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal. I always love driving down that way to admire the Canal and its bridge. I went by boat to the Canal one night when I was in high school to collect plankton.  The Canal is integrally related to the Separatists*! In 1627, colonists from Plymouth established a trading post at Aptuxcet, about 20 miles south on the Manamet River. They had visited the site earlier to trade for corn and beans and to search for the missing son of John Billington. Aptuxcet is the Wampanoag word for “little trap in the river,” a reference of Indian fishing weirs.                 The site was accessed by sailing south from Plymouth and up the Scusset River, then portaging over land to the Manamet River. Construction of a canal linking the trading post to the ocean was first considered by Myles Standish, the Separatists’ military advisor. Trade at the site was prosperous between the Indians of Narragansett Bay and the Dutch of New Netherland, who traveled north to acquaint themselves. The first attempts sat building a canal did not take place until the late 1800s. Aptucxet was the first trading post established by the Plymouth colonists, and it was followed in 1633 by the Metteneque Trading Post in Windsor Locks, Connecticut and the Cushnoc Trading Post in Augusta, Maine. Because these posts were located at a distance from the colony, they were manned year-round by colonists. The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 tore the roof off the post and it was finally abandoned in the 1650s. It has been estimated this storm was at least a strong category 3 when it made landfall on Long Island and swept northward. Much of the area between Providence, Rhode Island and the Piscataqua River in Maine was damaged by the storm. Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony wrote that the storm drowned seventeen Wampanoags and toppled or destroyed thousands of trees; many houses were also flattened. The structure existing today is a replica erected on the original foundation which was archaeologically excavated in the 1920’s, and it sits on the southern shore of the Cape Cod Canal. The museum also features a replica saltworks, similar to ones that were used in the area to manufacture sea salt in the 1800s. The saltworks consist of square wooden vats where seawater was left to evaporate. Each vat is equipped with a sliding hipped roof that can be used to protect it from dew and rain. Here are some pictures from my tour. I was introduced to wampum during the tour and I wil tell you about wampum in another post! In this first picture, there is a circular structure made out of bricks on the left of the hearth. It is an oven with a large metal kettle on top and was used for making beer. These are Beaver pelt on the left and a I believe a marten pelt on the left. This is the way the Dutch shipped sugar to the Separatist, in a cone wrapped in blue paper. The goodwives uses the blue paper for bluing in their wash. If children were told to scrape some sugar off the cone, they were told to sing or whistle while they did it, so their mother would know they weren’t eating it!   *The Pilgrims did not acquire their name until the mid 19th century. Until then they were referred to as Saints or Separatists. In 1840, someone resurrected William Bradford’s (Plymouth Colony’s first governor) original phrase describing the Saints who had left Leiden to sail on the Mayflower to the New World. They left Leiden, he said, “that goodly & pleasante citie which had been their resting place for near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits.” 0 0

I just came back from selling books in Maine and spent a week in Plymouth, MA, my home town. Amazingly, I never visited many of the historic sites when I was growing up, although I did work as a tour guide at Plimoth Plantation. I had a long list of places to see, people to contact and questions, questions, questions – a product of my attempt to write a historical novel about Mary Allerton Cushman. I decided to do the most strenuous visit on the first day: Plimoth Plantation. My feet aren’t what they used to be so I knew I would be torturing my tootsies.  After purchasing a ticket, I walked up the long hill to the Crafts Center, where I met a potter who was more than happy to tell me about New England potters and their wares. The Pilgrims did not pot. They purchased what they needed from England or through trading with the Dutch. The first potter to come to New England was Phillip Drinker who settled in Charleston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. His son Edward Drinker carried on his work, but HIS apprentice John Goldsmith left to become a chocolate grinder. This is early , typical blue and white Delftware from the 17th century that the Pilgrims could have. I asked about pipes because I’d never seen any reference to the Pilgrim men smoking pipes. It turns out they did have pipes made of clay with a very small bowl. Being fragile, the stems would frequently break, so they used shorter and shorter stems. The pipes had a tiny bowl because tobacco was in small supply. Some Pilgrims planted tobacco for their own use, but it didn’t grow well because of the thin, rocky soil.  The bowl size of their pipes increased as tobacco became more common and available. You can date dig sites by the size of the pipe bowls. Then I walked further up the hill to the village and meandered up and down what would be First Street or as is now called, Leiden Street. Along the way I talked to the interpreters and made other discoveries. Spinning wheels were not common until after 1640s. The first sheep to come to Pimoth were fat but had poor wool – they were bought for meat. The sheep good for wool – merino sheep – were scrawny and not good eating.  Merino sheep would not have been common after the middle of the century. Small spinning wheels were used for spinning flax fibers into linen. The wool spun at home would be homespun and likely thick, spun on a huge walking wheel, but not until the late 1630s because there were no merino sheep. Sometimes a woman would wear a path in the wood floor planks walking back and forth as she spun. Most of what was spun at home would have been used to weave blankets. The Pilgrims got their clothing ready made from London for a long time and would alter the clothes to fit. The Pilgrims had candles but they were imported and expensive. They would have burned oiled paper for light until wax for candles was available.  There were no honey bees in North American until the European honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, was first introduced to the American colonies around the year 1638, and was not firmly established in New England until 1654.  Thus the Pilgrims did not use honey to sweeten their food in the beginning and had no source of wax. The Pilgrims made lye soap for washing clothes but relied on soap from England for washing themselves. There were no horses in Plimoth because there were no roads. Travel was done by boat. When larger land grants were made in1627, the parcels all had five acres that were either ocean front or river front. That way, when the owners built houses there, they could travel back to the main Plymouth settlement by boat for Sunday services. When the rivers froze over, the Pilgrim families would move back into their houses in the settlement for the winter. 0 0

After a week of visiting various historic sites, talking to many people to find answers to the questions I had accumulated about the Pilgrims, and visiting with some high school classmates, I am home.  Looking forward to sharing some of my research with y’all, but we have been without power since last Thursday, courtsy of Hurricane Michael. My ability to get online is intermittent. So stay tuned… 0 0

We spent last weekend in Maine, so I could sell books at Sherman’s book store during the Pumpkin Festival. Ten thousand people there the first day, and I sold two cartons of books, maybe 50 or 60 in all. A great selling day! Not to mention the carved pumpkins. Here are a few of my favorites! And of course, we ate lobster: lobster rolls, twin whole lobsters, lobster nachos, lobster ravioli, you name it. The last night I had fish! And lastly, great leaf color! 0 0

D.E. Haggerty is a true cozy mystery writer. I can say this having previously reviewed a book from the Gray Haired Ladies Detective series. She is also a prolific author of sixteen books on Amazon, so she has a good thing going! Great cover, yes? The story: Terri, a divorced school librarian, is cleaning her ex-husband’s belongings out the attic of her home when she discovers an exquisite and obviously very expensive diamond pendant necklace. She wants to return it to its owner, but the previous inhabitant of the house was brutally murdered, and the murder is unsolved. The victim’s parents want nothing to do with the necklace and want her greedy brothers kept in the dark about it. Terri resolves to find a charity to which she could donate the necklace and inadvertently puts herself in danger when she volunteers at the local women’s domestic abuse shelter, where the victim also volunteered. Enough strange things happen for Terri to want to solve the murder. Helping her in her investigation is her brash, loud and impulsive best friend Melanie and a way-too-handsome next door neighbor, Ryan, who happens to be a PI and who has been interested in Terri from afar for some time. The book had enough twists and turns, plus some low down and nasty characters, to keep me entertained and turning the pages. There are some humorous moments, many involving Melanie, who is the yin to Terri’s yang. Readers who enjoy romance will like the relationship which quickly develops between Terri and Ryan, who is determined to protect her. I particularly like the fact that Terri is a school librarian and has to handle frisky teenagers as well as the investigation. A couple of things puzzled/annoyed me. Upon learning of the necklace’s value, why didn’t Terri immediately rent a safe deposit box, instead of keeping it in her sock drawer? She’s smart, so this would have been a natural action for her. Ryan is an overbearing, alpha male – I wanted to slap him from time to time. The romance heated up way to quickly to my mind (but then, I’m old) and his often calling Terri ‘baby’ seemed a bit anachronistic. Nevertheless, this is a good addition to the author’s collection of cozies, and there will be lots of followers out there who will find it a fun read that keeps you guessing! About the author (from Amazon): Dena (aka D.E.) grew up reading everything she could get her grubby hands on from her mom’s Harlequin romances to Nancy Drew to Little Women. When she wasn’t flipping pages in a library book, she was penning horrendous poems, writing songs no one should ever sing, or drafting stories, which she is very thankful have been destroyed. College and a stint in the U.S. Army came along and robbed her of any free time to write or read. After surviving the army experience, she went back to school and got her law degree. She jumped ship and joined the hubby in the Netherlands before the graduation ceremony could even begin. A few years into her legal career, she was exhausted, fed up, and just plain done. She quit her job and sat down to write a manuscript, which she promptly hid in the attic after returning to the law. But being a lawyer really wasn’t her thing, so she quit (again!) and went off to Germany to start a B&B. Turns out being a B&B owner wasn’t her thing either. She polished off that manuscript languishing in the attic before following the husband to Istanbul where she decided to give the whole writer-thing a go. But ten years was too many to stay away from her adopted home. She packed up again and moved back to the Netherlands (The Hague to be exact) where she’s currently working on her next book. She hopes she’ll always be writing books. You can find D.E. Haggerty On twitter: @dehaggerty And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dehaggerty And her books, including Finders not Keepers, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_bl_sr?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=D.E.+Haggerty 0 0

I received a free copy of this book for review. Christmas, lots of snow, a grandfather clock in an old mansion, a powerful curse, and a witch in two time periods. What’s not to like? This book is intended for middle grade children, but it is so well-written and so darned compelling, at least from this adult’s point of view, I can recommend it to everyone. The story:  It’s December 2018. Twelve- year-old Kes Bunting and his younger sister Star, both orphans, are living in a cold, dilapidated foster home overseen by the devious Mrs. Auk. She receives an official letter from Hoop, Hoop, Hoop, Hoop and Sons, announcing the children’s legal guardian has been found, and shortly they are off by train to meet their grandmother, Lady Bunting. She resides in a large country mansion called St. Flurries, which is supposed to be haunted. They are followed there by an elderly man in a dark gray suit. What a great beginning! St. Flurries is a wondrous old house, populated by a seven foot tall major domo named Goldie, who has a black eye patch; their white-haired grandmother whom they call Granny Bird; the rotund cook named Mrs. Chiffchaff; a tiny, bird-like old woman named Genevieve, who talks in riddles and acts most strangely; and Chat the cat. One of the first things the children notice is a grandfather clock which keeps time running backward. It is snowing heavily, the countdown to Christmas has begun, and Star falls ill. Kes is told of the haunting of St. Flurries by a Snow Witch, and outside, exploring, he thinks he sees her. December 1918: Twelve-year-old Kitty Wigeon can’t wait for Christmas at St Flurries, a grand old manor house in the countryside. When she goes to the local Christmas Fair, through no fault of her own she earns a curse from the old matriarch of a powerful gypsy clan. Then, on the chilly night after the funeral for her oldest brother, who died in the war, she vanishes without a trace. The only thing found is her locket, which now resides around Star’s neck. What happened to Kitty? Is she really the Snow Witch? What was the curse? Is there an evil force behind Star’s illness? What can Kes do to solve the mystery, in a house brimming with secrets? Who is the man who followed them to St. Flurries? Hopefully, I’ve revealed enough, without giving a lot away, to make you want to read this book. The inventiveness and creativity of the author have made this one of my favorite children’s book, with whimsical and wonderful characters and setting. She has woven an intricate mystery against a colorful and compelling background that spans time and place. Her descriptions of Christmas at St. Flurries are spun like dreams, with food and outlandish decorations, and her characters are so lovingly imagined, you want to meet them in person. Have you ever met a snow white hedgehog called Bob the Snodge? She has also rendered the children in an amazingly down to earth fashion, so even in the face of unimaginable, they are real. Five stars for this book! About the author (from Amazon): Rosie Boyes is a children’s author from the UK. She has been passionate about middle-grade books ever since she can remember. Her love of reading came at an early age when she escaped into classic stories, living out the lives of the characters she met. During her spare time, she dreams about dipping her toes in the sea, splashing through puddles, kicking up leaves in the autumn… She is also the author of another book for children, Clemmie’s War, also involving time travel. You can find her On twitter: @RosieTheAuthor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RosieBoyesAuthor And her books on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosie-Boyes/e/B078GWP881/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1538331507&sr=1-2-ent 0 0

Florence is still at it, dropping feet of rain overnight. Here are some photos taken at the bottom of our driveway this moring – we have a creek down there but it’s now a river. Luckily we are high and dry – our house sits about 60 or more feet above the water! 0 0

Thanks to everyone for their wishes and prayers. I am certain they helped. Florence came ashore at Wilmington, NC, early Friday morning. During the day Friday, rain and wind picked up and by Friday night we had lost power. But we were prepared – generator out with lots of gas, food in the fridge, and lots of wine. 😉 Heading outside to inspect the house and surroundings, we found a ton of leaves down, some limbs and branches, but no damage. Compared to what we expected, this was mild, and the power came back on in about 15 hours, and internet this morning. I drained my husband’s phone hot spot answering messages from family yesterday. The southeastern quadrant of the state took a direct hit. There are many thousands without power (including my son) still and flooding is extreme with dams and bridges out. The cost will be in the billions and it will take years to rebuild. Pray for the people living there and if you are of a mind, contribute to the American Red Cross or Samaritan’s purse to help them. Again, thank you all so much! Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-florence-donations.html/?cid=fy19hurflorence&cid=disaster&med=cpc&med=cpc&source=bing&source=google&scode=rsg00000e017&scode=RSG00000E017&msclkid=14fc96e94ec6187794aacd77352f8575&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Hurricane%20Florence%7CBrand&utm_term=hurricane%20florence%20relief%20red%20cross&utm_content=Hurricane%20Florence&gclid=CLjJlrLwv90CFVfVswodg00Oig&gclsrc=ds&dclid=CL23o7Lwv90CFVAIDAodxPQBBg Samaritan’s Purse: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/disaster/hurricane-florence/?utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=m_YYHF-B18V_HHSP-LP-article&msclkid=01d844086e491602beca1f9612501756&utm_term=samaritan%27s%20purse&utm_content=SP%20brand 0 0

Nothing stops Garfield. It’s now Garfield 4 – Noelle zip. I tried drugging him today and it made him higher than a kite. He had fun being chased around the house. Sounds like ADHD to me – anything used to calm my son made him even more active! Not sure where we go from here… Just thought you’d like to know the latest score! 🙂 0 0