I wish I knew more about Mattie’s childhood in the late 1800s.  While she was born in Miami County, Ohio, according to information gathered in the 1880 decennial United States census, her parents and two of her surviving older sisters were all born and lived in Pennsylvania (York County), apparently making the move to Ohio sometime around 1870.   ( Read more... )

In the far corner of my backyard there is a small manmade pond. The water, stained brown by the tannic acid from  pine needles that fall to the surface, laps against the black rubber liner pinned to the ground by sand-colored flagstones . The pond is filled with water hyacinths, their tall, spiky purple blooms towering above rounded lily pads ( Read more... )