Rose Cottage

  Our theme for tomorrow's Red Thread Circle is Wonder Woman,  connecting with our own power.  One of my Sheros is Abigail Scott Duniway - our own 'Oregon Pioneer Suffregette!'  Born in 1834, Abigail's family traveled by wagon train from Illinois to Oregon in 1852, and seventeen-year-old Abigail Scott was assigned the task of keeping a daily journal. She married Ben Duniway the next year, and they settled in the Willamette valley. Her husband was injured in 1962, and Abigail became the breadwinner, taking boarders, teaching school and running a millinery shop.  The family moved to Portland in 1871, and Abigail began a weekly human-rights newspaper, The New Northwest, which she edited and published in Portland for sixteen years (1871-1887) Editor and Publisher Abigail first headed to the polls (closed at the time to women ) at 38, in 1872; after campaigning for Ulysses S  Grant/ Henry Wilson.  On election day, Abigail led Mary Laurinda Jane Smith Beat...

  This morning I'm beginning the process for turning rose petals into precious beads, which will retain their fragrance and last for decades! Dried rose petals rose petals (I'll strip all the petals off the stems rose geranium and lavendar tea electric coffee mill  small crock pot cinnamon, 5 spice powder or garam Masala, lavender and nutmeg Rose petals and supplies The activity for March in the Seasons of Wonder Devotional, which our church is using this year, is to craft simple rosaries. Did you know that rose petals have been used for prayer beads for hundreds of years? Rosary - from the Latin Rosarium- rose garden. 'In the east, rose-beads are Atul made.  Dried roses are crushed to powder, moistened with rose water and formed into pellets, which are strung, dried and polished, ready for use.' (The rose by Ann Mayhew, illustrated by Michael Pollard - p75) My grandmother Mary used the fragrant petals of our heritage rose to craft rose beads, and I began making the...