Wilmington NC

After dropping in on a judge friend's courtroom last week and hearing a dozen or so of the 300 felony cases on her docket that morning, we went out to Airlie Gardens. Very few of the hundreds of azaleas were in bloom, but the tulips and daffodils were glorious and I visited the Airlie Oak, which probably sprouted from an acorn in 1545. It's an amazing tree. In this picture, to give you an idea of its massiveness, I'm a good 150 feet away

This was our view from our hotel room of the battleship North Carolina, which can be seen moored in the Cape Fear River. It was in every major battle in the Pacific during WWII, yet lost only 10 of her crew.

Finally, this is a detail of the Bottle Chapel at Airlie Gardens. When the sun shines through these wine bottles, it's better than a stained glass window. (For more views, Google "Airlie Gardens Bottle

Chapel.")

Minerva, Athena, Amazonite

In the pantheon of gods and goddesses, I have usually preferred the Greek names to the Roman and prefer "grey-eyed Athena" as sounding wiser than the common-sensical Minerva. Nevertheless, according to a UNC-Greensboro website, "Charles Duncan McIver, founder of the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG), decided Minerva, goddess of Wisdom and Women's Arts, would be a good symbol for the school. Beginning with the first diploma in 1893, the head of Minerva has appeared on every diploma awarded by this institution."

And now she appears on a necklace that a UNC-G professor and fellow mystery writer, Denise Tuker, made for me, using pale green amazonite stones and a picture of the campus statue of Minerva. Now if anyone knows where I can get an amazonite carving of a tiny owl . . .!

In Bootlegger's Daughter, after she loses the primary, Deborah Knott goes for a walk to get over her disappointment and eventually is lulled into looking for stone artifacts that turn up after each spring plowing. Over the years, we have found hundreds of arrow heads (more technically called "projectile points") and other interesting pieces here on the farm. If you look closely, you'll see an indentation in the large smooth stone on the left that was made by grinding corn with another rock. To the right is a hand axe. The potato-shaped stone is a potstone that was used before the native Americans learned how to make pottery that could be place directly over a fire. These river rocks were heated in the fire till red hot, then dropped into the stew pot. By removing them when they began to cool and replacing them with more hot rocks, the stew would eventually cook. To the right of the potstone are two shards of pottery, one incised with a corn cob, the other with straw or pine needles. The impulse for decorations seems to be universal!

Photos

Margaret will share photos here.