i said hey, what's going on?
We went to Sully Plantation with the daycare group today, for this week's unit about colonial life. I'd been on this exact same field trip with the exact same daycare as a kid, so it was a strangely deja vu experience. I saw the names from the 17-1800s carved into the window glass in the girls' room and it gave me the same thrill of interest. I'm fascinated in things that give history that sort of personal touch. It's interesting to me to think that over a hundred years ago, a woman sat at that window and carved into it her name. She might have wanted to leave her own mark on the room, she might have been doing it out of mischief, but whatever the reason, that was her name she carved in there, looking out on the same land we look out to today. (Looking very different, most likely.) I have in my mind the very clear image of a woman wearing period clothing, leaning on a window pane, scratching in precise handwriting the name 'Cornelia'. She was twenty-three when she wrote that, only two years younger than me.
They have black walnut trees there, which I identified immediately from many years spent gathering the things with my grandmother. I was explaining to the children what they were and what they tasted like, when the tour guide mentioned that they used the walnuts to make ink and dye with. I gathered a large bag of them with the children, and am now tasked with making black walnut ink. It looks like I simmer these for eight hours, and then let them soak for a about a day. Then, strain the husks and bits of rubbish out and I'm left with ink/dye. I could probably dye clothing with the children using this.
They have black walnut trees there, which I identified immediately from many years spent gathering the things with my grandmother. I was explaining to the children what they were and what they tasted like, when the tour guide mentioned that they used the walnuts to make ink and dye with. I gathered a large bag of them with the children, and am now tasked with making black walnut ink. It looks like I simmer these for eight hours, and then let them soak for a about a day. Then, strain the husks and bits of rubbish out and I'm left with ink/dye. I could probably dye clothing with the children using this.