Embarrassingly brown thumb and a goat bedtime story and cartoon montage...

I have to say that you're the most gracious, kind people on the planet!  

With much kindness and deep appreciation of your sincerity, I laughed so hard when I saw that some of you thought I actually grow produce right now!  Actually my husband was laughing harder, and I (acting like he had hurt my feelings), was nearly peeing my pants from laughing on the inside. 

I can grow blueberries, tons of them.  Too many years invested in their establishment.  We even have some pears and the occasional persimmon, if the deer don't get them...or hobo goats.

If you are near, COME PICK SOME in about 3 weeks!

I go and buy three or four cases of greenish bananas on Wednesday mornings to donate to the Food bank.  That's what we are spending that government check until/if Steve is laid off and we need it.

My father had established a practically deer-proof garden plot years ago.  It was for vegetables, constructed using tall dog kennel panels.  He was a busy doctor, but still took time to grow squash, okra, and string beans.  He had a green thumb, but no time.  Those veg choices are hardy here, even with random care.

My grandparents had amazing gardens and orchards...they completely lived on the land (they also had a small herd of beef cows for some of their meat).  Granddaddy taught Vocational Agriculture at the local county high school.  

Their gardening magic didn't wear off on me, though I spent hours and hours helping them when visiting.  I helped weed, pick, peel, pare, snap, pickle, blanch, and freeze/can.  

I also learned how to sun dry apple slices on a scrap piece of corrugated barn roofing sheet metal on the bed of an old pick-up truck out back.  How about that.  (My Grandmother made the BEST hand pies from these, year round.)

Anyway, I wish I had a "before" picture of the enclosure.  I was really embarrassed of it's state of being...how many of us take pictures to intentionally share honest pictures of things that shame us?  Having a garden is not at the top of the to-do list.  And the wild stuff slowly continued to grow.

No matter how hard I work, it always seems like I am chasing something beyond my ability.  The enclosure is completely grown over with volunteer trees, large bushes, wild blackberry vines, huge thorn vines, honeysuckle, wild grapevine, etc.  Vines are even weaving in and out of the chain link panels.

Lovely.

On a side note, stop reading right now if you don't like a good hobo goat bedtime story from last June-July...

Hobo goats are one of the uninvited scourges of rural living.  There is a U-shaped end of our valley (with a sheer, rocky, 30-ft drop between our property and some goats).  That means, there are two 30-ft drops between us and neighbors "across the holler."

A big, bad Billy from "over thar" escaped with four nannies in tow. They actually went down the far side and up on this side.  I don't know how.

I saw the goats here off and on for almost two weeks before I decided they weren't leaving.  Of course Steve was up north with his dad for several weeks.  I put some poster signs out at the main road with my phone number.  Since I wasn't trying to shoot them, they obviously took that as a welcome mat and felt at home despite my metal pot and spoon.

A neighbor (of a girlfriend, of a sister, of a guy's sister-in-law) saw the poster and called the "owner," Mike.  After a week of the goats missing, he had figured a wolf or a bob cat had gotten to them and he had stopped looking.

Even though we are close "as the crow flies," by pick-up truck it is a little of a drive.  I don't think it occurred to him that Billy would lead his harem over to our side of the mountain.

Meanwhile, those darn walking garbage disposals ate pears, little apples, persimmons, and iris blades.  They broke off both of the little apple trees, AT THE TRUNK.  They also broke most of the limbs on the larger apple, broke the trunk of a crepe myrtle I had been nursing, and did damage to the pear and persimmon trees, breaking bottom limbs getting the upper fruit.  

Billy was a big, tall, old fool.  He knocked fruit off the trees for his four girlfriends.

We had a few, poorly-producing blueberry bushes that my parents had planted twenty years ago.  They were planted too near the house before a surrounding tree canopy grew.  Those idiot hobos ate those struggling berry bushes to the ground.

"QUEEN MARY'S GARDEN" © 2019 - Blocks 12, 13, and 14

It's an ugly span right now in our present day history.  So today I am sticking my head into pretty sand and sharing some more of my plans of a flower garden I am planting for Queen Mary.  

The late 16th century and life were constantly filled with threats of violence, war, uncertainty of extended family relations, politics, scheming, intrigue...

If you are a lover and/or a reader of history, you've probably found that stupid humans don't learn from the past and are doomed to make the same dumb mistakes over and over.  If history is scrubbed from school curricula and textbooks, we are screwed as a species.

I am finding this is definitely true as I read about Mary Queen of Scots.  Discord is caused by differences of opinion/belief and the fear of being forced to live by those "other" beliefs.

Then there is the additional problem of fear of the "other" leading to the need to vanquish that "other."

This scenario is a basic human flaw ad nauseum throughout our history.  Even if 99% of a population decides to live and govern with tolerance, acceptance, and trust, it just takes one dumb jerk to speak out against the "other" to raise the fear factor and screw things up royally (you know who you are, English men that lived in the late 1550's).

OK, enter the royals.  At the time of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots, there was a great Protestant movement (John Knox and Calvinism) in England.  England had been Catholic until the current king, Henry the VIII, was looking for a way to ditch wives without having them beheaded.  This move to Protestantism was in discord with the Catholic neighbors, France and Scotland.  

Scotland, trying to live independently, was very unhappy by England's interference and attempts to control the Scots.  Scotland, England, and France had always lived in a precarious accord for a long time...meanwhile, important marriages were being arranged among the ruling families of all three countries to maintain peace, and in most cases, float a false sense of security and safety.

Mary as a toddler, already in the French royal nursery.

The similarity of the names and the tangled web of advantageous marriages among the royal and noble families between the three countries makes understanding what was going on at the time nearly impossible.

There were too many little royal/noble children predominantly named Catherine, Anne, James, Henry, Mary, Edward, Elizabeth, Frances, and Charles.  Very confusing, even when actually studying the charts of lines of succession.

England and Scotland even had a "King James" of some "Roman numeral" on the throne in both countries, at the same time.

It was advantageous, in their planning at the time, to have these woven, international, marital unions for state stability.  BUT, once a conflict got sparked by one little insult or false move, it became a regional problem, not just a situation between two countries.

While squabbling, distracted regions become vulnerable to outside interest/attack...and thus the cycle continues.  Yawn.  Here we go again.  Dumb humans.

Mary was born as her father, King James V of Scotland, died suddenly (some say mysteriously) at age thirty.  She essentially became "Queen" of Scotland when only six days old.  

Shortly after, she was crowned Queen of Scotland at nine months of age.  After much ado, her mother, Marie de Guise, became Regent of Scotland and ruled Scotland in Mary's place until the day Mary was old enough to take the throne.

Mary's mother of French descent, Marie de Guise.

Mary was sent to the court of France to live in the Royal Nursery.  It was hard for Mary and her mother to be apart.  Marie de Guise needed to stay in Scotland, as there was religious/political turmoil encouraged by the Protestant, John Knox and followers.  Letters have been found between the two women that are sweet and painful.  It was a hardship, especially for Marie, Mary's mother, to live through the separation.  

As a result of the conflict, Mary was banned from traveling through England to get to Scotland for visits.  It was dangerous for Mary to take a longer route to visit Scotland, even though she was essentially queen.

Also, Mary was to be groomed as the betrothed bride of the son of the King of France...she was to be fluent in French, finished, and encouraged not to speak her course-sounding Scottish brogue.  

This is when the "four Maries" came to her in France...these close young ladies/friends came from  Scotland and were sent to a convent for a period of time...to tame them, somewhat.

They learned to speak French and had the rough Scottish brogue smoothed.  Then, they joined Mary at the French court.  There they  learned fine embroidery from a certain Abbey where the sisters were the most proficient in the craft fine stitches.  They also learned proper lady-like horse riding, behavior of ladies in the French court, and shared palace secrets.  They became Mary's life-long friends and inner circle until she died..

Previously, England and Scotland had entered a period of peace, proposed by Henry the VIII of England.  This agreement was never really finalized though (religious tensions were building).  Some fighting continued between England and Scotland in a small part of Mary's homeland.  England had wanted Mary betrothed to King Henry's son and raised in London, as a Protestant.  Of course, this was worrisome to Scotland...and France.  An alignment with France, also Catholic, had been considered by Scotland as their only way to hold England off and protect Scotland's sovereignty.  

Marie de Guise's French family was very close to the royal family of France.  With a marital union, certainly the French would come to Scotland's aid.  After all, Mary would be queen in both Scotland and France.

She also had a third claim to a throne, in England, but we will get into that at another time.

Scotland's ties to France were strong; both nations were Catholic and Mary's mother and family were a bridge to French King and Queen. It was decided that Mary would indeed grow up in France, first in the Royal Nursery, then at court.  Her mother would stay in Scotland as the Regent, a place keeper of the throne for Mary.

This was a very happy time for little Mary.  The French court was brilliant and gay, she had lots of royal cousins, and learned languages, riding, embroidery, games, etc.  She was a favorite among her cousins as well as her French uncles, Marie's brothers, and the court.  This 'Royal Nursery' would travel around with the court to various homes of the crown.  Due to her intelligence and disposition (and young age), Mary's uncles would encourage her to speak out and have opinions.

She was betrothed and groomed to marry the Daulphin, Francis (son of the French King, also a Henry).

Dauphin Frances, heir to the French throne.

Francis was two years younger than Mary and had been frail all of his young life.  When Mary was sixteen, she was married to Frances.  That would have made him fourteen.  Wow!

The first portrait at the top of the post depicts very well how young they were when they married.

Pictures of Mary and Frances, as they appeared in Manuscripts.

Usually a Dauphin would marry out of his country, in the homeland of his betrothed.  As Mary had been raised in the French court, it was a huge celebration for the country to host the wedding.  The pomp and importance was increased due to the fact that she was already Queen of Scotland at this time (with her mother as Regent).  

It is noted that she "floated in white satin and lots of diamonds" on her wedding day, April 24, 1558 at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  She was sixteen years old.

Had enough history for this post?  Let's talk about applique.

My inspiration from the embroidered sampler for the next three blocks...

Dianthus Carnation

Chasselas Grape

Ruby Tulip

I am still stewing over the proper setting and border(s) for this project!  I have narrowed down the options, but still pondering.  

Hmm...

I'm leaning toward no sashing, like the original tapestry, but maybe a little more distance between the blocks.  I always do my applique blocks with an over-sized background piece, so I do have a little wiggle room for my final decision.

Keep up the social distancing out there and stay safe!  Living out in the middle of nowhere, we unfortunately always do this.  It is nice to now have a name for our way of life, ha ha.

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

On another thread...

Well, I've made 91 masks to date for my family!  Now it is applique time.  I can really tell that I have not been on my sewing machine in a while.

Sew rusty!

But I did get some sewing time with my Featherweight while suffering through the mask making, which was loads of fun.  Those Singer work horses are so great at sewing through all the multi-layered fabric pleats on these Covid-19 masks.

I feel so helpless in this national/worldwide crisis.  Making the masks and donating cases of produce to our county food bank seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the sacrifices being made by so many health care workers and other essential employees.

My three parents were doctors and a nurse.  I am glad that they did not have to work through this Covid crisis.  SO scary for medical first responders and their families!

I am grateful to all the people who are working in unsafe circumstances to provide grocery shopping, car gas, mail pick-up and delivery, prescription services, electricity/water flow, management of public safety and fire, internet teaching of children, checking on neighbors, and rolling, packing, shipping, and delivering toilet paper.  THANK YOU!!  

I just realized there is a huge Scott paper plant five miles to our west in Barton, Alabama.  I think they make toilet paper at that facility.  We still have a hard time finding fanny ribbon around here and may have to resort to "stormin' the castle" down there if we get desperate, LOL!

I go out about once every 7 days for supplies...usually Wednesdays when I deliver produce to the food bank.  I try to do all errands in that one trip to town.

I missed mentioning lots of other helpful folks in my community.  It is remarkable how many people we rely on for our everyday level of comfort and support...it embarrasses me that at my age I'm just now figuring this out.