Eight years after purchasing our retirement home, and five years after moving in full time, I finally am doing some very belated “landscaping” work.
Lest you consider us slothful, we had done some outside work in previous years—two years ago my husband, Monte, and son, Nolan, removed big rocks in our woods, then made a path between (more…)
After the American Revolution (and probably before the war, too) the new world, from Virginia to Maine, was replete with wild animals. Tales of one, the beaver, are recorded in journals of French men exploring the country either after the American Revolution or while waiting out the French Revolution, between the 1780s and the 1790s. Surprisingly, this creature is credited with playing a role in American history.
The journal of Clermont-Crevecoeur, a French military officer assisting with the American Revolution, relates, about beavers in Virginia, that they were among the animals he located “but since they live in colonies and are very shy when hunted or when the virgin land where they live is cleared, they are rarely seen except in wild and uninhabited country.”
Park Holland, a surveyor of Maine lands, concurs. While he was explored Maine near an outlet of a large lake (possibly the Aroostook River headwaters), he wrote “We crossed a large beaver stream, and halted to examine the works of theses curious little animals. They had a large quantity of timber cut for completing a dam upon which they were evidently at work before (more…)
Thomas Jefferson returned to the United States in March, 1790. The French Ambassador was welcomed at Wise’s Tavern (201 North Fairfax Street), Alexandria. In Mayor William Hunter’s welcoming remarks he stated: “As a commercial town, we feel ourselves particularly indebted to you for the indulgences which your enlightened representations to the Court of France have secured to our trade. You have freed commerce from its shackles…”
Jefferson replied: “Accept my sincere thanks for yourself and the worthy citizens of Alexandria, for their (more…)
The cheers rising from inside Washington Prison Yard walls were soon followed by yells of pleasure from the multitudes of people gathered beyond the prison walls. The overflow crowd covered the city’s vacant lots and housetops, as well as on the hills for miles around. Half the city’s population was present.
It was mid-morning, January 9, 1793. The shops were closed, no trades were made and no business was being undertaken. Starting at sunrise, cannons discharged incessantly. An atmosphere of celebration and anticipation surrounded the city of Philadelphia.
Shortly after ten the crowd’s excitement peaked, (more…)
Click on the following to read posts in the Beanery Online Literary Magazine, Vol. 2: I BELONG TO MY FAMILY & PROTECTING PRIVACY OF PERSONAL DATA ON YOUR COMPUTER & DOES EXAGGERATING THE TRUTH CREATE GOOD STORIES?
Oct. 8, 2006. Like Hansel and Gretel, Monte and I headed towards THE OVENS on our trip to New England. Only we weren’t being chased there by the wicked witch—we were visiting a place where my ancestors—and very likely, the main character in the first part of my historic romance novel—picnicked and frolicked during low tide on Frenchman’s Bay (more…)
If I read my notation correctly, the item about global warming caught my attention on November 12, 2001. It read: Sea level has risen 12-20 inches along Maine’s coast…during the past 250 years, a researcher said. It’s the biggest rise in the past millennium and global warming is to blame, Roland Gehrels of the University of Plymouth in England said. This little ditty was published in the Across the USA column in the USA Today.
Although I normally try to evaluate the different arguments surrounding the issue of “global warming,” that wasn’t what caught my attention as I read this item.
I’m writing a historic romance novel set on Frenchman Bay, Maine. Through my readings on global warming I was aware of, but had no concrete data on, increasing sea levels. Even so, I’d wondered what effect the increase would have on my novel, which has numerous scenes on Lamoine Beach, (to read the rest of this story, click on
NOVEL WRITING AFFECTED BY GLOBAL WARMING , a post in the Beanery Online Literary Magazine, Vol. 1.
To read more on global warming, click on AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH , another post in the Beanery Online Literary Magazine, Vol. 1.
by Carolyn C. Holland
It’s “a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and ‘high-brow’ than is ever possible in a newspaper or most kinds of periodicals. At the same time, since (it’s) always short and unbound, it can be produced much more quickly than a book, and in principle, at any rate, can reach a bigger public. Above all, (it) does not have to follow any prescribed pattern. It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of ‘reportage.’ All that is required of it is that it shall be topical, polemical, and short.”
This quote aptly describes a communication know as a blog, but it was written in The British Pamphleteer by George Orwell, and refers to pamphleteering in the 1700s. (more…)
I am writing a historic romance novel in which one scene will be about an independent French land speculator, Madame Rosalie de la Val, seeking to purchase land in Lamoine, Maine. In order to see the land, she climbs Schoodic Mountain. Thus, the last time my husband Monte and I visited Maine, we too climbed Schoodic Mountain. Below is a journal of our trek up the big hill. —Carolyn C. Holland
On Saturday, October 7, 2006. Monte and I climbed Maine’s coastline Schoodic Mountain with my niece Erin, her husband Greg and their two children, Paige (seven) and Morgan (five), who live in a coastal Maine town. It was my suggestion. I wanted to see and experience what the main character in the first part of my novel, Madame Rosalie de la Val, saw and experienced when she climbed the mountain in 1791 to survey lands she was speculating on. (to read the rest of this article, click on
Oh, to Climb Schoodic Mtn.) (more…)
Winter and the holiday season are around the very close corner. Below is information on bayberry candles, used for Christmas and for light.
In the process of writing a historic romance novel, I keep finding material that is unfamiliar, such as the “plant that yields ready-made candles.” Hopefully you will enjoy the fruit of my research as much as I did, and perhaps you will even want to make some of your own candles this year.
A plant that yields ready-made candles? To me it sounds too good to be true. (more…)
