War--With Nature

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 17 (April 22-April 28) is War. 

     We moved into our current house in the summer of 1988.  It is a pie shaped lot with the majority of the yard behind the house.  The backyard was covered with a very deep tree canopy causing little to grow and dirt showing more than grass.  

     I didn't pay much attention to gardening then.  I had two growing sons and part time employment which kept me busy.  However as the boys grew up and I became tired of looking at the horrible backyard, I became a gardener.  

 

     Some trees were removed, a two story deck added and I began to get my hands dirty planting various varieties of Hosta's and numerous perennials.  Garden areas were dug out around the deck and the back of the house.  I added two different paths.  

  

     By 2000 the gardening had become an obsession.  Annual photos and notes were saved and early spring garden and perennial planning began.  Every spring a new garden area was added.  

     My city had been trying to put a road through an area nearby.  The ecological fight was that it would cross a portion of a nature reserve and a wetland area.  In 2014 the road was built and sound barrier walls erected on either side of it.  Deer were trapped in our residential area.  Lacking their usual food resources they began to eat what they found.  As Dr. Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, "Life expands to new territories.  Painfully, perhaps even dangerously.  But life finds a way."

     And find a way they did.  My entire backyard became a feeding area for deer.  Sometimes a small herd of them would be outside eating the Hosta's and every other tasty perennial and annual to the ground.  What was once a lush and beautiful yard was complete devastation.  I was sick!

     I fiddled around with it for a year or two.  Trying different types of deer repellants that frankly, did not work.  In 2017 I began my war against the deer.  I do research for my genealogy.  Why not do research finding plants that are deer resistant?  And research I did.

  

     All Hosta's were potted and moved up on the deck.  Grasses and fescue became my friends and they come in so many different varieties and colors.  Metal fencing enclosed all outside gardens where perennials grew that the deer would eat or trample.  A beautiful patio area complete with water features and a fire pit was added.    

     Today I don't mind visitors.  In fact, I welcome them.

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Step--Mom Stepping Out of Her Comfort Zone

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 16 (April 15-April 21) is Step. 

     Several decades ago, before she passed, I had my Mom stay overnight for a genealogy sleepover.  I wanted to interview her about her memories of family.  Two items she brought up, that thoroughly shocked me, was that she had always been an introvert and when she was in elementary school she had a speech impairment--she stuttered. 

     My mother was a very outgoing woman and one area in which she excelled was theater.  I knew about her life "on the boards".  She was active in community theater when I was in elementary school.  Following her death I was able to go through many photographs and school yearbooks that were part of her estate.  If her statement regarding her shyness and lack of confidence speaking in front of a group due to her stutter is true, in many areas of her life, my Mom stepped out of her comfort zone.

  

     Early in her elementary school years, it was decided that my Mom should take elocution lessons to improve her speech.  She had an aunt, Emily Stark Miller, who was a well regarded elocution teacher and performer.  Aunt Emily lived nearby in the Borough of Avalon, outside Pittsburgh.  She became my Mom's teacher.  

The Pittsburgh Press,
December 20, 1931,
page 33

     At age 10, my mother, Martha Jean Stark, began presenting oral readings at the local Parent Teacher Association meetings. 

     Mom was active in junior high school and high school.  Her 1939 Yearbook featured some of her interests and accomplishments among them the Editor-in-chief of the school yearbook, acting in two plays, producing a Christmas play, feature writer on the school newspaper and class vice president.  She and Dad, George VanGilder Hughes, were both Commencement speakers.  Frankly, she does not appear to be either an introvert or have any residual speech problems by her senior year in high school.  

Mom modeling college fashions
Kaufmann's Department Store
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Mom with her pearls
College of Wooster
Senior Year 1943

     Off to the College of Wooster.  By her junior year, she had pledged, was performing in the school's theater and member of the honorary, was on the debate seminar and a department head of the school newspaper.  In her senior year she was elected to the Big Four Cabinet, Debate and member of the honorary and member of the Student Senate. 

     Following graduation, Mom and Dad married and in 1947 I was born.  After my brother Ken's birth in 1952, Dad spent a year and a half in Korea.  Mom was now in charge.  Two young children, maintenance of the house and finances plus she had to learn how to drive!  

Sight Unseen Program
1957

The Allegheny Journal
Thursday, May, 25, 1957

Royal Family Program
1958

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
May 13, 1959
page 12

     In the mid 1950's into 1962, Mom joined church and local organizations, entertained and became very active in the church's theater group, The Hiland Players.  

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Thursday, March 24, 1966
page 35

     The move to a new home in a new neighborhood ended Mom's theater days for a decade.  Instead she now turned to leadership in the Boy Scouts, church circles and hospital organizations.  

     Back to the boards in the 1970's for some community theater.  Mom and her son, Jeff, were cast in Kismet and she did makeup for Carousel.

     In the 1980's and until her death in 1999, Mom was active in the Cleveland, Ohio area where she moved.  Church circles and activities, volunteer at the local hospital, College Club West, The Women's Board of a local hospital and Women's Committee of Great Lakes Theater Festival.  

     Introvert?  If she was, she stepped out of her comfort zone for decades.  I am an introvert and strive to push myself out of my comfort zone daily.....just like Mom.     

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Favorite Recipe--Tea cakes, Pies and Bread, Oh My!

     Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 14 (April 1-April 7) is Favorite Recipe. 

     Not even a question here, West Hartlepool/Hartlepool, England baking.  In 2003 when my brothers and I crossed the pond we had no idea all of the Hughes family lore, pictures and home baked goodies we would bring home.  

     Wonderful tea cakes were served during an afternoon tea at Mary and John Marsh's home at 23 Borrowdale Street in Hartlepool.  John George Marsh is my paternal first cousin twice removed.  His wife, Mary Pounder Marsh treated us to several of her cakes.  Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the delicious array sweet treats.  

     Mary and I corresponded by snail mail for at least a year following the trip and she shared a couple of the recipes she served that afternoon.  

Mary Ann Storey Hughes
standing in front of the Hughes Green Grocer shop
cover, Reflections beneath the Wagga Moon

     John Marsh grew up with his parents, Eli Marsh and Mary Alice Hughes Marsh, at 70 Florence Street, West Hartlepool, England in the home of his maternal grandparents, George Henry Hughes and Mary Ann Storey Hughes.  The Marshes are listed in the electoral rolls of 1930 as residents in the Hughes household.  

     John's maternal grandmother and my paternal great great grandmother, Mary Ann Storey Hughes, Annie Hughes, was quite a baker.  She is mentioned in the booklet, Reflections beneath the Wagga Moon.  I like to think that the recipes Mary Pounder Marsh shared had been passed down to her from Mary Ann Storey Hughes to her daughter, Mary Alice Hughes Marsh to her daughter-in-law, and are the recipes my paternal great great grandmother used to sell in the shop.

     In 2021, I decided to try baking a few of the recipes.  

Basic Cake Recipe

     One variation was adding 2 ounces of coconut to the batter 

and whipped cream and toasted coconut to the top.

Another variation was to add 1 tablespoon of cocoa

and 1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda to the batter.

      I only attempted the two variations of the basic cake recipe.  Mary also sent me recipes for gingerbread, Bakewell tart, almond cake and a split cake with cream and jam.   

P.S.  Thankfully I have a wonderful friend who has lived in England her entire life and she was able to help me with some of the ingredients and oven conversions. 💖

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser



Worship--Saint Aidan's Church, Hartlepool, England

    Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to join.  I am hoping it may help me to pinpoint someone or something that I have researched and not blogged about on Flipside.  AND push me to blog about family each week in 2024.  Sometimes I get lazy. 😁  Let's see how well I keep up.

     Week # 14 (March 25-March 31) is Worship. 

The Hughes Kids
Hartlepool Wall
The Headland
August 3, 2003

     Back in 2003, when my two brothers and I crossed the pond we had Hartlepool, County Durham, England in our sights.  Our Hughes/Storey lineage traces back to West Hartlepool and Hartlepool in the 1800's and beyond.  The Hughes actually removed from the Wordsley, Birmingham, England area, and further back from Wales.  

     The municipal brough of West Hartlepool was created in 1887 and in 1967 the Brough of Hartlepool was created by combining West Hartlepool and Old Hartlepool.  

St. Aidan's Church
Hartlepool, England
August 3, 2003

     We had a laundry list of family and places to visit during our three day visit. One important building was Saint Aidan's Church, now known as Saint Aidan and Saint Columba Church.  The church opened in 1890

The Alter
St Aidan's Church 

My brother Jeff
St Aidan's Church
Hartlepool, England
August 3, 2003

     

     Our first day in Hartlepool was a Sunday and we had planned to attend church services at St Aidan's.  I was surprised at the small attendance.  As I walked into the sanctuary, I had goosebumps thinking how generations of our Hartlepool Hughes family had been baptized/baptised, married and buried from this very church.  

     

George Henry Hughes (Pop Pop)
Baptized at St Aidan's Church
West Hartlepool, England
Easter Sunday, April 10, 1898

Ken and I in front of the baptismal font

     The baptismal font in St Aidan's Church where my paternal grandfather, George Henry Hughes was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1898.  

George Henry Hughes
May 9, 1930
Obituary

Mary Ann Storey Hughes
March 16, 1935
Obituary

     My Paternal great grandparents obituaries, both services were held at St Aidan's Church.

     Even into the 2000's Hughes family members continue to have their services in St Aidan's Church.  One cousin we met in 2003, Alan Hughes, died in 2009 and his funeral service was held at St Aidan's.

     My morning attending a service at St Aidan's Church has become a cherished memory.  The thought that I was surrounded by sights and sounds of my Hughes ancestors gave me comfort and peace.

St Aidan's Church

Hartlepool Then and Now

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2024, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser