We have a nice (Linni ) patio just outside our front door. It is a nice area but too hot in the summer to use and much too hot in the afternoon as the sun pours right in there. We have talked about what to do with it for years and have looked at other peoples in the community but had not found any that we really like. We have decided to put up an awning to block out the afternoon sun and put large pots around the sides. The big argument has come from what to put in the pots or to go a long planter. We finally settled on the big Mexican pots and to plant blueberry bushes in the pot. Today we went to Lowes and got the first pot. We also had to get the potting soil since here I can’t just go out and dig some dirt for the pot. I remember when we moved to Blairsville, GA we wanted to put one of my plants into a large pot by the door and we went to the store and asked where we could get some dirt for the pot. The little sales girl looked at us as if we had two heads. She paused a minute and then said ” Take a shovel and go out and dig some, you can’t buy it!!” We died laughing but here in the city we know we can’t just go out a dig it up so we got a large bag of potting soil and a bag of mulch. In Blairsville the town delivered a truck load of mulch to us when we asked about mulch. They got it from chipping up the trees they cut down beside the road. Things sure are different in the country, but then that was 20 years ago and I am sure it is not that way even there any longer. So now I have one plant all potted and set. 
This area will hold four or five such pots and we will add the one or two each month. That way it is something we can just work into the weekly budget. When we get them all in we can think about decorating around them but that will wait and see if the bushes like where we have planted them. As you know plants will only grow if they like where you put them. I am glad to be back planting again and hope they like it here too. We have put in a blueberry patch every place we have lived for more than 30 years and always moved just as they got producing well. Maybe this time we will stay long enough to enjoy the fruit. I do need to get another breed so they can cross pollinate. 
This is the corner we put it in. The sun will be there by afternoon as they need 6+ hours of direct sun and this plant will get it. 
This is the view from our front door. I am standing just inside of the house so I could get out of the sun. You can see the table and chairs that we have breakfast each day and soon it will be cool enough to have lunch there also.
Must run and finish getting dinner ready. Have a great day.
Oumapetts's Blog 
Dear Carol,
May I introduce myself please? My name is Marjorie E Howes PERRY and I am your 3rd cousin through Rebecah A BAKER daughter of Joseph BAKER & Mary Ellen GILLMORE, “ The Good Marm.”
I recently found your blog and have so enjoyed reading all of it. I was especially delighted with knowing that Mary Ellen made a sampler when she was 12 years old and I immediately wondered if a photograph of that sampler was ever taken. It would be a wonderful addition for the family genealogy, and I would be most appreciative if I could obtain a copy of such a photo if it exists.
Sadly I know very little about my grandmother HOWES’ side of the family. By the time I acquired a passion for the family genealogy all my older relatives had passed away. Slowly I have been able to find the BAKERS of Baker Settlement in Nova Scotia and through some records learn a little about them. In that time I met Rosemary RAFUSE, another cousin, via the internet who so generously shared her information with me.
The family of Hiram CARVER and his wife Mary Catherine Maud BAKER became very special to me. I had been searching for a number of years for my grandmother’s brother, Chester Allen GRAVES who seemed to have disappeared shortly after the death of his mother Rebecah A Baker GRAVES, Mary Catherine’s sister. While searching for something entirely different I found him in the 1901 census Baker Settlement in the home of Hiram CARVER and a record that stated Chester entered Canada in 1896, his mother died in 1895..
Since that find I have avidly pursued the BAKERS & CARVERS of Nova Scotia and I took great delight when I realized that my grandmother Josephine, “ Josie” Baker graves was named for her aunt Josephine BAKER. Your mention of her and of Rececah “Becca” in your blog was like finding a treasure and I thank you. It is memories like yours & Rosemary’s that bring these people to life for me.
I hope this find you and your family well, and so look forward to reading any further blog posts
With best regards,
Marge Howes Perry
Dear Marge, It was so nice to hear from you. I began working on the family tree back in the early 1960’s with my mother, who was the daughter of Grace Carver. That was when I was about 30 years old. Now I am 84 and have moved several times so had to lug all my research with me. When we made each move I got rid of more and more of the family things by giving them to my children that wanted them. I was going to give the sampler to my grand daughter but her mother objected. She was not going to let me skip a generation so she took the sampler. Since then she has moved to CA, then back to FL, and now back to CA. I think I heard she did finally give it to her daughter, Celina but I don’t know for sure. I am writing to her to see where the sampler is and if they will get a picture of it for me. I thought I had a picture but I can’t find it and so much of my research material is in boxes in the attic I can’t tell for sure. But the sampler was made in 1843 I believe and when they were learning to do their needle work, colored thread was so dear they took threads from the cloth itself to do the needle work with so it is very hard to see and I think I remember when I tried to take a picture of it I could not make out the letters but that was many years ago and the cameras are much better today so maybe she can get me a good picture of it. If so I’ll get it to you. I stopped working on the family tree about 3 years ago as I got so much material when I joined Ancestry.com that I got over whelmed by it. There was no one around that was interested in any of it so I ended up talking to my self. At first we went back only ten generation and my mother and I could handle that and just going back to parents of parents and never looking at siblings you get over 600 ancestors. When I tried to take any one line back more, some I could not find any more on and others just kept going. Any that got into the royal families of Europe went one and on and some even back to the bible. The Brown line went back 32 generations to 880 in France. The Carver line only went back 4 generations to Johann Carver (Kerber) in Parchim, Germany 1751-1824 and that was thanks to a woman in Germany who was researching the same line. The Baker line goes bak 9 generations to Melchoin Becker 1590-1653 in Hessen, Germany and that was again thanks to a woman in Germany who tied her family to ours through Johann Georg Becker who fought in the American Revolution and then stayed here in Canada after the war. Helen Brown, daughter of Grace Carver married Guy Thayer, my father and mother and I traced my father’s line back to Adam and Eve, thanks to the many people who have paid people to trace a family line. Once you get into any royal family in Europe they can connect the line back as far as you want to go. The royal family is the only one that kept records of families and all of them were related in one way or another. The blood line got pretty watered down!! \
Do keep in touch and if I can help you in any way, just ask. What other lines are you tracing?
Good luck Carol Petts
Hi Marge, I emailed my grand daughter about the sampler and she said she has it. She is a professor at Davis University in Marine Science and has just moved there so is not all unpacked. She said she would go through the boxes and find the sampler and get a picture of it for me. She also said she had Mary Gilmore’s christening bowl so would get a picture of that for me too. I had forgotten about that. Mary’s mother brought it with her from England and all the children were baptized with that bowl, even Celina (my grand daughter) and her brother were baptized with that bowl. My brother in Law was the priest that baptized them both. He just died this Aug. When I get the pictures and make some copies I’ll send you a copy of both. Carol
Dear Marge: I just got a copy of the letter that was found in Mary Gillmore”s house years after she died and knew you would be interested in it.
View Transcript
I Agree to the Ethical Use Policy
Document ID 9706249
Date 22-04-1839
Document Type Letters (Emigrants)
Archive Ulster-American Folk Park.
Citation James Holoday, Garryduff, to Mary Holoday, Gilmour, Nova Scotia;Donated by Mrs. Gwen J. Sinclair; CMSIED 9706249
Link 22232
Garryduff April the 22nd 1839
Dear Sister
We again avail ourselves in writing to inform you that
our natural relations in your native land are yet in
existance [existence?]: for all the mercies of our God;
let us be thankful to him who givith [giveth?] liberally
and with-holdeth not, at the same time resting with this
hope that you and your concerns may [receive?] blesings
[blessings?] of a Simila [similar?] kind. Dear Mary you
will [it?] strange at hearing that my son Robert & his
partner are the bearers of this epistle. they embark
alongst with a few others from this neighbourhood on
the morning of tomorrow.
Our principal aim in writing at present is merely with
the view that you write to us if it is ordered so, that
you receive these few lines.
Let us know the rates of wages for tradesmen & other
informers with respect to any other person or subject
that might be gratifying to us, we do not intend
writing at large until we receive a letter from you.
Your mother is yet alive. She calls to you by the
strongest voice of maternal affection to write of so
be she might hear from you ere she be mingled with
the clods of the valley.
I have nothing to write but such as is common to the
sinkings & risings of mankind in General we have of
children two of which is married and is all well.
Uncle Andrew is well he has 6 children two of which
is married and is well. Uncle Roberts widow & family
is well 6 children belong to her they are all married
but two. Uncle Wm. has 5 motherless children they are
all well this is anything that will enlarge on till we
receive a letter from you. Nancy Gilmore and family is
well. We add but hopes you will write agreeable to our
request Whilst we Subscribe your affectionate Bro
[Brother?] & Sister till death.
James and Mary Holoday
Dear Aunt
I arriv’d [arrived?] here on 2nd June and wishes you
to write to me as soon as you receive this – My wife and
child are well and scends [sends?] her love to all you
can and then I will write more fully.
Your affectionate
Robert Holody
Direct to the care of Philip Allen
Providence
Rhode Island
Postmarked St. Andrews
Waterman Esq.
Halifax
Molly Gollmore Holloday
Nova Scotia
Carol
Hello, Carol,
I see that Marge has gotten in touch with you! That is good. I enjoy hearing from her. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. I hope so. If you would rather answer my email address, it is rjrafuse@hotmail.com
Joseph Carver’s wife was Lillian Blanche Starkey. Would you know where she was born February 18, 1888? She died 1975. That is all I have. Would you have the full date and where?
Warren Castella Brown died March 21, 1965. Do you know where he died?
I have been finishing my Carver work and you should soon get it. If there weren’t so many leaves to rake I would be done!
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary, Joseph Carver’s wife I don’t know but I will see if I can find her later this morning. Warren Castella Brown was my grandfather and he died in Troy, NH. He had been having stomach pain for a while and they could not get to the bottom of it so they took him to the hospital to open him up and see what was going on. He was 91 I believe. Anyways when they got in there they found it was a ruptured appendix and he died of peritonitis. They said a person that old should not have had an appendix, they had never heard of such a thing. I’ll get back to you on the other. Carol
Thank you so much, Carol. Don’t go to a great lot of bother; I have missing things on others here.
Some people don’t even know their grandchildren’s dates! I will be back with more questions later.
We visited Monanadock Mountain View Cemetery one time in a thunder storm but we found all the Carver tombstones. I was so glad to visit everyone!
Hi Rosemary, I looked every place I could think of and this is all I found: Lillian Blanche Starkey married Joseph Carver 9/23/1912 in Nova Scotia. I next found her in Troy, NH on the 1920 census and again on the 1930 census. They had no children and Joseph Carver died in 1939 and is buried in sec 5 lot 54E. After that I could not find Lillian and she was not on the 1940 US census. There were many Carvers that died in Troy but Lillian was not one of them, unless she remarried and had a different last name. Not much help but all I could find.