The Smith Family quilt

 So,  a hundred and fifty years ago, at a place known as The Hollow (later renamed Ararat), a group of women got together and created a quilt for Rev. Newton Smith (born 1853), who was my great-grandfather. Family legend has it that this was a joint project, and that each segment was made by one of the women who dated him, who gave it to him as a wedding present.  If true (and there's some evidence it is), he must have been a remarkable man. 

 I count sixteen squares, each with the same pattern using a different color scheme, which must have taken a lot of organization. Be that as it may,  it's amazing to me that this artifact of the past has passed down intact, if a little worn. Now I have to put some thought into whom it shd go to after my time.

--John R

Geysers that aren't geysers

So, as part of our occasional efforts to get off the West Valley Highway, last Wednesday Janice and I went to Flaming Geyser --which isn't  a geyser and doesn't flame and went walking along the White River (which downstream turns into the Green River). Which, as Janice pointed out, at one point downstream flows by the West Valley Highway. 

In other news, we're grateful the feared tsunami didn't strike --not least than because we're at extremely low sea level (thirty-two feet I think).

--current reading: a book on Suffolk fairy-lore. Well written and very well researched; I learned a lot I didn't know from reading this.

C. S. Lewis at the Taproot

Well, here's something I thought I'd never see: a staging of C. S. Lewis's last novel, TILL WE HAVE FACES. Adapted by Koren Lund, it's scheduled for the month of January 21st through February 21st. While I usually make an effort to see plays by or inspired by Inklings,* I might wind up giving this one a pass.  More on this one as the time approaches and more information about the production becomes known.

https://www.taproottheatre.org/shows/2026/till-we-have-faces/

In other news: Today it rained. Not a lot, but enough to break the dry stretch of weeks past.

  --John R.

*including one-man-shows and similar dramatizations featuring Inklings as characters, which are generally the best of such works