Enjoying nature, and need some help on identifications

 Looking back up to the entrance to Walnut Island River Park from Hwy 251 north of Asheville NC

Looking toward the French Broad River through the picnic area, I wondered that those leaning trees are still there, but one has fallen into the water if you look closer.

Tree in foreground has lots of seed pod thingies hanging in the wind, while new leaves have started to open.

If you know what this tree is I'd love to know.

A rocky area made last summer probably for small swimmers.

Helen and I were disappointed to not see any ducks or geese this visit.  But I did see some egg shells under one tree, courtesy of someone who had eggs for breakfast.  They didn't look big enough for a goose and being under a tree, could have come out of a tree nest rather than a goose nest which would be on the ground.

The little entrance from the highway comes down at a slope, and we almost passed it this time.

The Greening of the Mountains

This lovely view
 has not been retouched.

This is what sometimes happens

when you're waiting in a drive-thru 

for coffee on a partly cloudy

Saturday morning and

look up at Big Windy mountain

from the Swannanoa Valley

and there are colors again!

I'm really thrilled!

Potters of Madison County

Last Saturday we took a little trip up to Marshall, NC.  It's a little old river town, and there are studios in the old island high school.  I guess kids are bussed to another newer school these days.

Before I left I looked over at Big Windy, one of the mountains across the Swannanoa Valley.  There's the artistic beginning of green moving up the mountains, known locally as "the greening of the mountains."

 There were some wonderful wood fired and salt fired wares on display.

Friend Cathy connected with her old friend Becka Lloyd, both having been at Haywood Community College several years ago...and that's Becka's beautiful scragfitto ware on display.

 Charlie Teff (looking down in background) paints lovely animals on his wares, then sprays an ash glaze in a nice denim blue around them. 

 There was quite a crowd when we first arrived, and many people were making purchases.

My Zuma lunch was one of the best salads I've ever had, mmm!

These were our favorite pots, all raku ware, with a lovely little copper wire twisted around them for a nice accent.  One of the few out-of-state potters that were there this year.

Link (added later) to my other blog where I show the Allen House in Marshall, and mention Vicki Lane's upcoming book (I hope).

Meow, some new cat mugs...

Who wants one?

These are for sale on Face Book (or here on the blog if you prefer) first come first sold, directions at the end of the post.

Number 1

Downward facing cat, white stoneware, safe in dishwasher, microwave and food of course. $45

Number 2

Cutie cat mug, $45 inside glaze is satin white, outside is matt clear, with hand painted cat.

Number 3

 Cat-wrapped-around-the-mug

For a cat lover who knows you never can get away from me! $45

And a sleeping curled up kitty who might prefer not to drink a beverage to wake up! $45

Sales are to first to comment here or on FB, whichever is dated first with the choice of which mug you want.  Pay through credit card with my Square account.   If we do it through my email it's more secure.  So email requests will also be in the running.  I've not tried this before, so I'm hoping this will work.  Shipping costs will be included to US addresses. To be shipped within 3 days.

blackmtnbarb@gmail.com is the address for email sales.

A new bowl...where can I put all this pottery?

Get out the bubble wrap and tupperware tubs!

My Easter/spring celebration

Opps, here's another one...

 I enjoy these looser forms, especially the creativity they pull out of me.

Today's quote:

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.

John Muir

Early American Immigrant, Benedictus Pulsifer

Remembering ancestors:

Benedictus Pulsifer, 1635–1710

Birth 1635 • Whitehall, England

Death 1710 • Ipswich, Essex, Mass (Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.)

Ship to designate an immigrant to America

(Note by BR, editor) I quote a published source below (with slightly different dates of birth and death, and some other facts are a bit 'flexible' perhaps. 

HISTORY OF BENEDICT PULSIPHER

abt. 1630 – 1695

"Benedict Pulsipher had settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, according to his own statement, by 1659. He was probably married a year or two before coming to this country. He very likely brought his wife and infant son, Benedict II or Junior. We have no record of the birth of the son or of another son, John, but Elizabeth’s birth in 1669 is recorded in the town records of Ipswich. His first wife, of whose maiden name we are ignorant, died at Ipswich 16 July 1673. His son, Mr. William Henry Pulsipher says, "We’re of little help or comfort to his family." Evidently John moved to Gloucester, where he became a respected member of the family. There he probably supplemented his income as a farmer by occasionally building or helping to build houses for his neighbors. He is styled in one document "Yeoman" and in another "mason". In the History of Gloucester", J. J. Babson – 1860, page 130, appears the following:

"John Pulsipher, settled about 1680, according to tradition near a spot still occupied by one if his descendants on the old road leading to Coffin’s Beach (Gloucester). In 1688 he had a piece of land "given to the house where he then lived." Benedict Jr., proved to be a "roving blade", according to Mr. William Henry Pulsipher. "We hear," says Mr. Pulsipher, "of a Benedict Pulsipher engaged in an Indian fight in Maine in 1688. This was probably Benedict Jr. Cotton Mather refers to the incident in his ‘Magnalia Christi Americana’ London 1702. VII, page 63. Benedict, Jr., probably never married. In 1690 he engaged in Sir William Philip’s expedition to Quebec as a member of Captain Abraham Titton’s Company, and it is quite possible that he was killed or taken prisoner in the unfortunate attempt to capture the Canadian stronghold.

"A Compendious History of New England" by Morse and Parrish, page 146, makes a confirmatory reference to this episode. 

After the death of his first wife on 16 July 1673, Benedict, Sr. married in the succeeding February, Susan A. Waters of Salem, Massachusetts, who was the fifth daughter of Richard and Joyce Waters. She was born at Salem, Massachusetts 01 Feb 1649. "Benedict Pulsipher, Sr. brought his young wife to Ipswich immediately after his marriage and entered upon what might be termed the second period of his career." The records show that his young wife was rather vain. She liked to adorn herself. "She,  among others, braved the laws in 1675 by appearing in the meeting house with a silk hood and scarf. She and the others were arrested, tried, and fined ten shillings each for yielding to their vanity."

Benedict Pulsipher was a man of some means. He was also "a man of considerable education" in a period when educated Englishmen were rare.

Late in 1663 or early 1664 he bought a dwelling house with outhouse, orchard, gardens, etc. of Moses Pingry of Ipswich, Massachusetts, which property Pingry had acquired in 1652 of Richard Scofield who came to New England in 1635. This estate was situated on the north of the "Tom River". Its site is now occupied by a factory. The original deed to this property was either lost or "casually" burned, and on 7 Feb 1667, Pingry made a supplementary deed of the property which he gave Benedict Pulsipher. Benedict was then styled a "planter."

He added to his estate in 1664. In the same year, 1664, the town of Ipswich granted him a share (No. 55) in the town lands on Plumb Island, Castle Neck, and Hogg Island. He continued to reside at Ipswich, pursuing his occupation as planter or farmer for many years.

 ----------------------

Ipswich MA area

I'm including this as a Sepia Saturday post this week...go over to this site to see more interesting posts. 

(editors note) I think it's interesting to find that this ancestor is also an ancestor of Joseph Smith of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons.) We're all related, aren't we?

He's my 8th great grandfather on my grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers' tree.

Ipswich river front 1909

Thanks for the entry quoted above from Ancestry by Carol Easterbrook Wolf, but still without knowing if she was the author...

This post is a repost from Nov 2017 Three Family Trees...here.

More tame flowers (not wild)

 A large bush with rhododendrons behind it, but it had no leaves itself.

After talking with 2 master gardeners yesterday, we decided that this bush is probably a Serviceberry, which does occur in the wild.

Near the lake, probably planted - a great perennial

  Periwinkle (Vinca minor) Source: Wildflower Identification

At first I thought these were lily of the valley, but they remind me also of Oconoee Bells, but they aren't like the wild one, see below.

Wild Oconee Bell

The mystery flower is planted along Lake Tomahawk, so I'll ask some more master gardener folks what they think.

You know this pretty white daffodil.

Her lovely yellow neighbor.

And one, or maybe two...

amazing tulips...do two tulips make four-lips?  Groan.

Today's quote:

I have millions of bodies to live in.

I will dress myself in the moonbeams,

in the gauze made of fine silvery threads,

and pass my time in tranquil rest.

I will sing my songs in the form of hill streams and brooks,

in the form of the rolling waves; I will move on.

I am the soft-footed wind which walks on in ecstasy.

I am the ever-gliding form which goes on as time.

I descended as waterfalls on the mountain slopes,

reviving the faded plants.

I made the roses burst into laughter.

I made the nightingale sing her mournful ditties;

I knocked at the doors and woke up the sleeping ones,

wiping the tears of the one,

blowing the veil from the face of the other.

I teased those near and also far.

I teased you too.

Lo I go, I go, with nothing in my possession .

Swami Rama Tirtha ( written an hour before he left his body)