What Shall We Bake Today?

Today continues the pumpkin theme with Pumpkin Dessert Cake!

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups finely crushed gingersnaps (about 40 cookies)

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons milk

TOPPING:

3 cups cold milk

2 packages (3.4 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin

2-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 cups whipped topping

Additional whipped topping, optional

Directions

In a large bowl, combine gingersnap crumbs and butter; press into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Cool.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth. Spread over the crust. In another large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 1 minute. Add pumpkin and pie spice; whisk until well blended.

Fold in whipped topping. Spread over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Cut into squares; garnish with whipped topping if desired.

ENJOY!

Animals That Changed History

I found this article on Reader’s Digest and wanted to share!

From Reader’s Digest:

Dolly the sheep proved cloning was possible

On July 5, 1996, this fuzzy little bundle of joy emerged from the belly of one of her three mothers, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Dolly’s birth proved that a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a technique in which the cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilized egg, blasted with electricity, then implanted into a surrogate, could work. Dolly died of a lung disease at age six, but the cloning technique used to produce her was later employed on other larger mammals, including pigs, deer, horses, and bulls.

Cher Ami the pigeon saved hundreds of American troops

During World War I, this homing pigeon lived up to her name and was a “dear friend” to the American troops. Cher Ami delivered 12 messages during her service to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France, but none was more important than the missive she delivered in early October 1918. On that day, Major Charles White Whittlesey and more than 500 men were trapped behind enemy lines without food or ammunition. Afraid that his battalion would be killed by friendly fire, Whittlesey attempted to send messages to his compatriots via pigeon. The first two birds were shot down, but Cher Ami successfully navigated a barrage of fire to deliver this message: “We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven’s sake, stop it.” The shelling stopped and the troops were saved. Cher Ami received the Croix de Guerre medal for bravery. Upon her death in 1919, her body was preserved and placed on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

David Greybeard revealed chimpanzees’ true intelligence

Until 1960, scientists believed that humans alone possessed the ability to make and use tools. But on November 4 of that year, Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee she had named David Greybeard using a grass stalk to extract termites from a termite hill. Later, Goodall observed David Greybeard and another chimp constructing fishing tools by stripping the leaves off twigs. “[David] was the first chimpanzee who let me come close, who lost his fear,” Goodall told Bill Moyers in 2011. “He helped introduce me to this magic world out in the forest.”

Elsa the lioness inspired wildlife conservation

In 1956, George Adamson, a game warden in Kenya, and his wife Joy adopted a small lion cub they named Elsa. For years, the Adamsons raised and cared for Elsa at their home in Africa, teaching her to hunt on her own and develop the abilities to survive in the wild. Eventually, the couple released Elsa and, surprisingly, she survived. In 1960, Joy wrote a non-fiction book, Born Free, about the experience of raising Elsa. Six years later, a movie based on the book was released to wide acclaim and is credited with promoting wildlife conservation to the general public.

Balto the dog delivered life-saving serum

In 1925, doctors in Alaska faced a deadly dilemma. A diphtheria epidemic was poised to sweep through Nome, Alaska, a city on the state’s far west coast, and the only serum that could save them was in Seattle. Unable to deliver the medicine by plane, officials devised a long-shot alternative: They would use multiple dog sled teams to transport the antitoxin to the village. The team assigned the final leg was led by Balto, a black and white Siberian husky, who ran through a blizzard in the dead of night to deliver the serum. Upon reaching the town in the early morning of February 2, 1925, Balto’s owner Gunter Kaasen uttered a mere three words: “Damn fine dog.”

Jim the horse impressed a president

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the variety show performed by Beautiful Jim Key and his trainer/owner Dr. William Key, was seen by an estimated ten million Americans and written about in every major newspaper. Not bad for a sickly quarter horse and a former slave. Through Bill’s humane training techniques, Beautiful Jim Key “learned” to read, write, spell, add, tell time, sort mail, and use a cash register and telephone—skills he performed in front of delighted audiences across the country. At a time when African-Americans and whites rarely interacted, Beautiful Jim Key’s shows brought them together. When President William McKinley saw one of the Keys’ performances at an exposition in Tennessee, he declared, “This is the most astonishing and entertaining exhibition I have ever witnessed.”

Smoky the dog became a war hero

There’s no shortage of stories of dogs performing heroic acts during wartime. But Smoky wasn’t a husky, or a Newfoundland, or a big, bulky dog saving the day. She was a Yorkie! During World War II, American soldiers were under attack on an airfield in the Philippines. The only way they could communicate from the airfield was by running telephone lines through an underground pipe. Getting humans to place the lines would’ve been challenging and dangerous, so it was Smoky to the rescue! She belonged to a corporal, who called her and helped her find the way through the pipe with the wires attached to her collar. In addition to saving as many as 250 people’s lives by allowing the construction of the communication line, Smoky was also just a morale booster and a calming, happy presence to have around for the soldiers and for hospital patients. She is remembered as one of the earliest-ever therapy dogs.

Pickles the collie thwarted a robbery

And a high-profile robbery, no less. In 1966, the Jules Rimet trophy (the precursor to the FIFA World Cup trophy) was stolen from its supposedly-secure location in London’s Central Hall shortly before the start of the World Cup. The British detectives on the case all came up empty. High-profile companies offered rewards to anyone who found the trophy. And then, a week after the cup disappeared, a man named David Corbett was walking his dog in a South London neighborhood when the pup, Pickles, started sniffing around underneath a bush. Corbett came over to investigate, and, sure enough, the Jules Rimet trophy was tucked underneath, wrapped in newspaper. For his find, Pickles received a silver medal from the National Canine Defense League and even appeared in a spy film called The Spy with a Cold Nose. It’s especially incredible considering that Pickles wasn’t a police dog, or specially trained in any way—he was a regular pet!

Snowball the cat helped solve a murder

In 1994, a murder case rocked the small Prince Edward Island, located off the coast of Canada. A 32-year-old woman named Shirley Duaguay went missing, and her body was found months later. Most people believed that her estranged husband, who was known to be abusive, was to blame. However, there was no evidence to convict him. That is until someone found a bag in the woods containing a blood-stained jacket, sneakers, and some white cat hairs. The victim’s husband, Douglas Beamish, owned a white cat named Snowball. A geneticist at the United Cancer Institute ran a DNA test and matched the cat hairs from the bag with Snowball’s DNA. Paired with some evidence from the victim’s body, Snowball’s “testimony” was enough to convict Beamish. It was the first time non-human DNA was used in a murder case. Since then, pet DNA has helped solve many violent crimes.

Montauciel the sheep was one of the world’s first aeronauts

Long before Sputnik, Laika the Soviet space dog, and even the Wright brothers, there was Montauciel the sheep and his fowl companions. In the 1700s, people wanted to test to see if humans could withstand time spent at high altitudes. There had already been several unmanned hot air balloon flights, and in 1783, the first flight containing a land animal took off. Montauciel the sheep went up in the balloon, accompanied by a duck (a bird already used to high altitudes) and a rooster (a flightless bird). The scientists believed that if a sheep could survive the trip, so could a human. The animals all returned unharmed…mostly. Montauciel apparently kicked the rooster before the balloon took off, the big bully. (Fun fact: his name means “ascend into the sky” in French.)

SOURCE: RD.COM; BETH DREHER and MEGHAN JONES

Creepy Insect: Giant Camel Spider

It’s October again…time for all things creepy. This giant camel spider fits the bill!

From All That’s Interesting:

The camel spider is everything that arachnophobes fear. It’s ugly, huge, and the subject of many a tall tale. The myths surrounding this creature were popularized in 2003, at the height of the Iraq war, when American soldiers began spotting its spindly body in the unforgiving Middle Eastern desert.

Prior to terrorizing the troops, though, the critter was the subject of many a fable told by the Persians who first laid eyes on it. But despite its fearsome appearance, the camel spider (which actually isn’t really a spider) is harmless to humans. What’s more, it only lives for one year in the wild — and spends most of its time in hiding from the blistering sun.

The Camel Spider Isn’t Really a Spider

The camel spider actually belongs to the class Arachnida and is correctly known as the solifugae. And despite its catch-all name, the solifugae is actually comprised of more than 1,000 species in more than 150 described genera. Though frequently confused for both scorpions and spiders, they’re technically not either one. They’re cousins with pseudoscorpions and mites.

According to National Geographic, the Persians would often tell tales of this fearsome-looking creature standing impossibly tall, running through the desert like a whirlwind, and feasting on the corpses of humans and camels that dared to cross its path. While invariably cool-sounding, it’s actually not true. Camel spiders don’t feast on humans, camels, or any other large mammal. Instead, the solifugae — which is sometimes also known as the wind scorpion or the sun spider — only stands about six inches in length at full maturity. And despite further tales of its “fast and furious” speed, its top speed is 10 miles per hour — just slightly faster than the average human.

The Camel Spider Has a Voracious Appetite

While the camel spider is harmless to humans, bugs don’t stand a chance against it. A review of the solifugae diet by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science reveals that it loves to feast on wasps, termites, beetles, and silverfish.

And it’s not just critters that solifugae love to feast on: it also loves other insects, small birds, and even small snakes. If given a chance, it will gorge itself — often becoming so big that it will be unable to move, especially if it eats too fast. As a general rule, though, the wind scorpion won’t eat prey that’s bigger than itself.

That said, though, it’s far from a timid creature. Despite claims that it will scream while it’s running toward its prey, it actually moves in relative silence. And it’s actually quite aggressive — especially if it feels cornered or otherwise threatened. Though it has no venom glands, the camel spider does have sharp pincers called chelicerae that will hurt if it makes contact with human skin.

And while the bite won’t require medical attention, it’s always a good idea to clean the bite with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to avoid infection, in the rare instance that it does bite you. But, as a general rule: if you leave it alone, it will leave you alone.

Urban Legends About the Camel Spider Are Greatly Exaggerated

It seems the origins of the “larger-than-life” camel spider first started getting legs in 2004, when a mass e-mail purporting to show gigantic solifugae threatening the lives of the American soldiers in Iraq began making the rounds. Long before Facebook became a hub of misinformation, spam e-mails featuring the photo above began circulating through gullible people’s inboxes.

“From someone stationed in Baghdad … It’ll give you a better idea of what our troops are dealing with,” read the e-mail that accompanied the photo above. But, according to the sergeant who took the photo, the actual size of the camel spider in the photo above was no more than 4 centimeters (about 1.6 inches), and the creature’s oversized appearance is due to forced perspective.

“Photos that purport to show creatures six times that size have misleading perspective—the spider is invariably placed in the foreground where the lens makes it appear much bigger than its actual size,” reports National Geographic.

The misinformation was so widespread, in fact, that when Rod Crawford, of the Burke Museum, attempted to clear up the camel spider’s bad name, he was met with abusive e-mails accusing him of disrespecting the troops.

“One person offered to have his brother in Iraq send me a 30-cm specimen, but backed down when the brother claimed he couldn’t get an export permit,” he wrote. “No one has ever explained how they measured speed or jumping height, and of course no one has ever produced a specimen found eating human or camel flesh.”

In reality, though, the camel spider is so afraid of humans that if you see one running toward you, it’s not because it wants to devour you alive. It’s because you offer something that they’re desperate for in the extreme heat of the Iraqi desert: a huge shadow.

SOURCE: allthatsinteresting.com

Maryland State Flower: Black-Eyed Susan

Dependable and easy-care black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) have become a garden staple. Daisy-like rays of bright yellow petals and dark center disks rise over broad ovate green leaves with a rough texture. This wildflower is native to the central United States and can be seen growing in natural areas and along roadsides in the Midwest.

Black-eyed Susan produces an abundance of nectar and pollen and draws the attention of bumblebees, butterflies, and moths. The plant’s ability to self-seed makes it a great choice for abundant wildflower gardens. Most black-eyed Susans are perennials and can be planted after the last frost in spring. It will flower in its first summer although it can take two to three years to reach full height.

Black-eyed Susan Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing black-eyed Susan:

Plant in full sun in a well-draining soil.

Water well during the first season. After they are established, black-eyed Susan will become drought-resistant.

Prefers warmer temperatures.

Does not require a lot of fertilizer.

Light

You will get the best flowering from your black-eyed Susans in full sun, but they can handle partial shade.

Soil

Black-eyed Susans are not particular about soil. They do best in soil that is not too rich and is well-drained, with a pH around 6.8.

Water

Keep the plants well-watered during their first season to get them established—an inch per week through rainfall or irrigation is sufficient. Once established, they will be drought-resistant.

Temperature and Humidity

As a tough summer performer, this plant likes warmer temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit and more. It handles both drought and humidity well, but it does need good air circulation to avoid powdery mildew.

Fertilizer

Go easy on the fertilizer. Black-eyed Susans grow even in poor, infertile soil. A side dressing of compost should be all they will need.

Pruning

Black-eyed Susans are easy to establish, they naturalize well and require little maintenance other than deadheading. Regular deadheading of the faded flowers keeps the plants in bloom longer. You can let the last flowers of the season remain on the plants to form seed heads that will feed the birds through the winter. You will also get a good deal of self-seeding, which might not be a bad thing.

Black-eyed Susans make great cut flowers. The seed heads hold up well, too, and look attractive in arrangements. Fast-growing black-eyed Susan is easily the most commonly known Rudbeckia, with its daisy-like flowers with large seed heads. It also has scratchy, hairy leaves that are characteristic of its genus (this may not be one of its best features, but it does help keep pests away).

SOURCE: THESPRUCE.COM

Real Haunted Houses in America: Part 2

From All That’s Interesting:

3 The Amityville House

Like the house from The Conjuring, the house from the film The Amityville Horror is based on a real place. And this one has an even more violent backstory. In the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 1974, a young man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. padded quietly along the halls of his family home. Armed with a rifle, he went methodically from room to room and murdered everyone inside.

Later, DeFeo gave conflicting reasons for killing his parents and four siblings. At one point, he claimed he’d heard voices. Later on, he shifted the blame, saying that his sister and mother had actually been involved in the murders. Regardless of why DeFeo killed his family, his murderous act left a stain on the house itself. The next owners, the Lutz family, said that they felt strange, cold drafts, smelled disgusting odors and heard odd noises.

They even called in a priest to bless the home. But as he started his ritual, an invisible hand slapped him and ordered him to “get out.” Though George Lutz, the family patriarch, was later accused of embellishing the story, he has stuck stubbornly by it.

“I’m tired of being called a liar,” he said.

In 2013, Lutz’s son, Danny, came out with a documentary of his own to back up his family’s claim that the Amityville Horror house is haunted. “It’s not easy to tell someone how you got thrown up a staircase,” Danny said. “It’s not easy telling somebody that your bed was bouncing off the ceiling.”

He added, “There was an element [there] of whatever you want to put on it. Evil demonic spirits or whatever the f— you want to call it. It exists, and that’s the hardest thing for me to deal with. Because I know it’s true.” If George and Danny Lutz are to be believed, then the Amityville Horror house is undoubtedly one of the most haunted houses in America.

4 The Myrtles Plantation

Some American haunted houses are scary because of stories and rumors. But the Myrtles Plantation, some claim, has physical evidence that ghosts haunt it.

This St. Francisville, Louisiana, plantation, which dates back to the 18th-century, has a gory history of slavery, murder, and more. Two people, in particular, are alleged to have died bloody deaths here. The first is an enslaved girl named Chloe. As the legend goes, she was forced into a sexual relationship with the plantation owner, Clarke Woodruff. Worried that his wife would find out and punish her, Chloe began eavesdropping on the family’s conversation. When they caught her, the Woodruffs cut off her ear.

Chloe started wearing a turban to cover her mutilated ear — and began to plot her revenge. According to the story, she killed Woodruff’s wife and children with poison. Other enslaved people on the plantation panicked because they thought Woodruff would punish everyone — so they killed Chloe themselves. But although they threw Chloe’s body in the river, her spirit stayed at Myrtles Plantation. And in 1992, a photo taken for insurance reasons purportedly caught her on film.

This story does have a few holes, however. For starters, there is no documentation that the Woodruffs held someone in slavery named Chloe. And Clarke Woodruff’s family died of yellow fever, not poison. That is if you believe their version of history. The second person who died at Myrtles Plantation has a better-recorded death. William Winter, who inherited the plantation in 1871 after marrying one of the family’s daughters, died on its grounds. A mysterious man shot him in the chest, giving Winter just enough time to stumble up the stairs before he died in his wife’s arms. Today, some claim to have seen William run indoors, only to collapse on the 17th step of the house — where he died in real life.

SOURCE: ALLTHATSINTERESTING.COM

Maine State Flower: White Pine Cone

Maine designated the white pine cone and tassel, (Pinus strobus, linnaeus,) as its state flower. For the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, States were asked to choose floral emblems. Three candidates were chosen. Two, the goldenrod and apple blossom, were genuine flowers. The third was the pine cone and tassel. The pine cone won 10,000 of 17,000 votes. The white pine cone and tassel was adopted as Maine’s state flower on February 1, 1895.

Botanically, these are not considered flowers since gymnosperms do not have true flowers. The reproductive structures of pines are known as strobili. You could accurately state the Maine is the only state to have an official state strobilae.

The White pine is considered to be the largest conifer in the northeastern United States. Leaves (needles) are soft, flexible and bluish-green to silver green in color and are regularly arranged in bundles of five. Needles are 2 1/2-5 inches long and are usually shed at the end of the second growing season. Flowers (strobili) occur on the tree. Cones are 4-8 inches in length, usually slightly curved. They take 2 years to mature and open to discharge the seed shortly after ripening in late August through September of the second season. Cone scales are thin and never have prickles. Each scale usually bears two winged seeds as do all native pines. Cones also have a fragrant gummy resin.

Native American Significance

The Native American significance of Maine’s state flower, the White Pine Cone and Tassel, is deeply rooted in the region’s history. Native American tribes, including the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, revered this tree for its multiple uses. It was a symbol of strength and endurance, much like the white pine itself, which can withstand harsh weather conditions.

Native Americans used various parts of the White Pine in their daily lives. The long needles served as bedding, while the inner bark had medicinal properties. Additionally, the White Pine held cultural significance in ceremonies and rituals, making it an integral part of Native American traditions in Maine for generations.

European Settlement Influence

The European settlement had a profound impact on the choice of Maine’s state flower. When European settlers arrived in the region, they were struck by the natural beauty of the White Pine Cone and Tassel. Its graceful appearance and cultural significance quickly made it a symbol of the area’s allure.

Over time, as Maine became more integrated with European traditions, the White Pine Cone and Tassel gained further recognition. This European influence played a pivotal role in solidifying the flower’s status as the state emblem. Today, it stands not only as a representation of Maine’s natural heritage but also as a testament to the enduring legacy of European settlement in the region.

The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro

On October 10, 1985, the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro reaches a dramatic climax when U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercept an Egyptian airliner attempting to fly the Palestinian hijackers to freedom and force the jet to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. American and Italian troops surrounded the plane, and the terrorists were taken into Italian custody.

On October 7, four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Some 320 crewmembers and 80 passengers were taken hostage. Hundreds of other passengers had disembarked the cruise ship earlier that day to visit Cairo and tour the Egyptian pyramids. Identifying themselves as members of the Palestine Liberation Front—a Palestinian splinter group—the gunmen demanded the release of 50 Palestinian militants imprisoned in Israel. If their demands were not met, they threatened to blow up the ship and kill the 11 Americans on board. The next morning, they also threatened to kill the British passengers.

How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Began

The Achille Lauro traveled to the Syrian port of Tartus, where the terrorists demanded negotiations on October 8. Syria refused to permit the ship to anchor in its waters, which prompted more threats from the hijackers. That afternoon, they shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish-American who was confined to a wheelchair as the result of a stroke. His body was then pushed overboard in the wheelchair.

Yasir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the hijacking, and PLO officials joined with Egyptian authorities in attempting to resolve the crisis. On the recommendation of the negotiators, the cruise ship traveled to Port Said. On October 9, the hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and freed the hostages in exchange for a pledge of safe passage to an undisclosed destination.

The next day–October 10–the four hijackers boarded an EgyptAir Boeing 737 airliner, along with Mohammed Abbas, a member of the Palestine Liberation Front who had participated in the negotiations; a PLO official; and several Egyptians. The 737 took off from Cairo at 4:15 p.m. EST and headed for Tunisia. President Ronald Reagan gave his final order approving the plan to intercept the aircraft, and at 5:30 p.m. EST, F-14 Tomcat fighters located the airliner 80 miles south of Crete. Without announcing themselves, the F-14s trailed the airliner as it sought and was denied permission to land at Tunis. After a request to land at the Athens airport was likewise refused, the F-14s turned on their lights and flew wing-to-wing with the airliner. The aircraft was ordered to land at a NATO air base in Sicily, and the pilot complied, touching down at 6:45 p.m. The hijackers were arrested soon after. Abbas and the other Palestinian were released, prompting criticism from the United States, which wanted to investigate their possible involvement in the hijacking.

On July 10, 1986, an Italian court later convicted three of the terrorists and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 30 years. Three others, including Mohammed Abbas, were convicted in absentia for masterminding the hijacking and sentenced to life in prison. They received harsher penalties because, unlike the hijackers, who the court found were acting for “patriotic motives,” Abbas and the others conceived the hijacking as a “selfish political act” designed “to weaken the leadership of Yasir Arafat.” The fourth hijacker was a minor who was tried and convicted separately.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

What Shall We Bake Today?

October is PUMPKIN month! Let’s start off with my favorite Pumpkin Bread!

Ingredients

2/3 cup shortening

2 2/3 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 can (1 pound) pumpkin

2/3 cup water

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

2/3 cup raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the eggs and pumpkin and water. Blend in flour, soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir in the nuts and plumped * raisins.

Pour into 2 greased 9×5-in. loaf pans or 3 8×4 loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 65-70 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To plump raisins to make them soft measure raisins in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Squeeze excess water from them before adding to mixture.

ENJOY!

DIY: Glass Bottle Pumpkins

I found this wonderful article about DIY Halloween makeover ideas for decorating or a party. The article has pictures and links to the sites you can find the directions and tips for the projects themselves. The idea above I fell in love with! It’s from sadieseasongoods.com and I think it’s a creative way to repurpose old liquor bottles or just unusually shaped bottled into pumpkins!

She started with liquor bottles (her county no longer recycles glass bottles.)

She sprayed them with white primer paints. (She recommends using acrylics for the pumpkins and they can be difficult to work with unless the glass in primed.)

She used several different shades of paints (in the directions, she says she also used a green that isn’t pictured).

“I had this idea that I could slightly swirl two or three colors in order to get striations of color, like on real gourds.

Note that I said swirl, not mix, the various paint colors. It’s an important distinction to make here!

First, I squeezed out dollops of paint in various colors so that the edges touched. Then, I used toothpicks to pull the paint into each other, like a spiderweb effect. Finally, I carefully dipped my paint brush into the swirl and brushed it on the glass bottles in long, even strokes.”

In case the jute doesn’t completely cover the stems, she painted those a dark green/brown.

“To finish up my fall pumpkin decor, I wound the jute twine around the dark green neck using my hot glue gunto hold the twine in place.

Next, I scavenged some leaves from a floral stem that had “veiny” leaves, like those found on pumpkin and gourd vines. I hot glued them in place and continued to wrap the necks with twine.”

The finished jar is AWESOME!

I have to try some of these!!

SOURCE: upcyclethisdiythat.com and sadieseasongoods.com

The Limping Lady

A short while ago, Filly (THANK YOU!!) mentioned this story about a courageous, but quite unknown spy who helped the Allies win WWII. The spy was a woman, Virginia Hall, but not just a woman, but a woman with a prosthetic leg—a woman of great courage and determination!

I found this article about the “Limping Lady” in the Smithsonian Magazine. It was written by Brigit Katz and I knew I had to share it.

From Smithsonian Magazine:

How a Spy Known as the ‘Limping Lady’ Helped the Allies Win WW

In early September 1941, a young American woman arrived in Vichy France on a clandestine and perilous mission. She had been tasked with organizing local resistance networks against France’s German occupiers and communicating intelligence to the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the fledgling British secret service that had recruited her. In reality, however, Virginia Hall’s supervisors were not particularly hopeful about her prospects; they didn’t expect her to survive more than a few days in a region teeming with Gestapo agents.

At the time, Hall admittedly made for an unlikely spy. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s war cabinet had forbidden women from the frontlines, and some within the SOE questioned whether Hall was fit to be operating in the midst of a resistance operation. It wasn’t just her gender that was an issue: Hall was also an amputee, having lost her left leg several years earlier following a hunting accident. She relied on a prosthetic, which she dubbed “Cuthbert,” and walked with a limp, making her dangerously conspicuous. Indeed, Hall quickly became known as the “Limping Lady” of Lyon, the French city where she set up base.

Hall, however, had no intention of letting Cuthbert stop her from playing her part in the Allied war effort, as journalist and author Sonia Purnell reveals in an electrifying new biography, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II. Born to a wealthy Maryland family, Hall was clever, charismatic and ambitious—traits that were not always appreciated by her contemporaries. Before the outbreak of the war, she had travelled to Europe with dreams of becoming a diplomat, but was consistently assigned to desk jobs that failed to satisfy her. Following the amputation of her leg in 1933, when she was just 27 years old, Hall’s application to a diplomatic position with the U.S. State Department was explicitly rejected due to her disability. Spying for the SOE offered a way out of what Hall considered a “dead-end life,” Purnell writes. She was not going to squander the opportunity.

Hall didn’t just survive the wartime years under constant threat of capture, torture and death; she also played a crucial role in recruiting large networks of resistance fighters and directing their assistance to the Allied invasion. Among the secret operatives who adored her and the Nazis who hounded her, Hall was legendary for her gutsy, cinematic feats. She broke 12 of her fellow agents out of an internment camp, evaded the treachery of a double-crossing priest and, once her pursuers began to close in, made an arduous trek over the Pyrenees into Spain—only to return to France to resume the fight for its freedom.

And yet, in spite of these accomplishments, Hall is not widely remembered as a hero of the Second World War. Smithsonian.com spoke to Purnell about Hall’s remarkable but little-known legacy, and the author’s own efforts to shine a light on the woman once known to her enemies as the Allies’ “most dangerous spy.”

In the prologue to A Woman of No Importance, you write that you often felt as though you and Hall were playing a game of “cat and mouse.” Can you describe some of the obstacles you encountered while trying to research her life?

First of all, I had to start with about 20 different code names. A lot of the times that she is written about, whether it’s in contemporary accounts or official documents, it will be using one of those code names. The other thing was that a lot of files [pertaining to Hall] were destroyed—some in France in a fire in the 1970s with a lot of other wartime records. That made things pretty difficult. Then the SOE files, some 85 percent of those had been lost, or are still not opened, or are classified or just can’t be found.

Virginia was posted to Tallinn in the late 1930s and loved hunting in the huge forests of Estonia, but otherwise her life was a series of cruel rejections. Her lifelong ambition to become a diplomat was repeatedly thwarted, and she was frustrated by the limits of her role as a State Department clerk.

There were a lot of dead-end alleys. But there was enough to pull this all together, and I was particularly fortunate to find this archive in Lyon, put together by one of the guys that Hall fought with in the Haute-Loire [region of France]. He was able to look at a lot of these files before they disappeared, and he had contemporary accounts of a lot of the people that she fought alongside. So, I was extremely lucky to find that, because it was an absolute treasure trove.

You quote Hall as saying that everything she did during the war, she did for the love of France. Why did the country hold such a special place in her heart?

She came [to Paris] at such a young age, she was only 20. Her home life had been quite restrictive … and there she was in Paris, the great literary, artistic and cultural flowering during that time. The jazz clubs, the society, the intellectuals, the freedoms, the emancipation of women—this is quite heady, quite intoxicating. It really opened her eyes, made her feel thrilled, and stretched and inspired. That sort of thing in your 20s, when you’re very impressionable, I don’t think you ever forget it.

Virginia proved her exceptional courage under fire in 1940 by volunteering to drive ambulances on the front line for the French army’s SAA, or Service de Santé des Armées.

Operating in a war zone with a mid-20th century prosthetic could not have been easy for Virginia. What was life like with “Cuthbert” on a daily basis?

I managed to find a prosthetics historian at one of the museums here in London who was incredibly helpful. He explained to me exactly how her leg would have worked, what the problems were, what it could do and what it couldn’t do. One of the problems was the way it was attached to her, with these leather straps. Well, that might be OK if you’re just walking a short distance in mild weather, but when it’s really hot and you’re climbing up or down steps, the leather would chafe your skin until it was raw and the stump would blister and bleed.

It would have been very difficult in particular going down steps because the ankle doesn’t work in the way that our ankles do, and it would be quite difficult to lock. So she would always feel very vulnerable to falling forward. That would have been a very big danger for her at all times, but then magnify that for crossing the Pyrenees: the grinding, relentless climb and then the grinding, relentless descent. She herself said to her niece that this was the worst part of the war, and I can believe that. It was just phenomenal that she made that crossing.

Hall pulled off so many incredible feats during the war. What, in your opinion, was her most important accomplishment?

That’s a difficult one, it’s a competitive field. I suppose the one that you can grab as being standalone, understandable and also spectacular was how she managed to break those 12 men out of a prison camp: the Mauzac escape. The cunning, and the organization and the courage—just the sheer chutzpah that she had in springing them out … It is quite an extraordinary tale of daring-do. And it was successful! Those guys made it back to Britain. We hear about a lot of other wartime escapes that ultimately ended in a failure. Hers succeeded.

Virginia was the only civilian woman in the Second World War to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, for extraordinary heroism against the enemy. She received the medal in Washington, D.C., from “Wild Bill” Donovan in a low-key ceremony on September 27, 1945.

Another of Hall’s feats was pioneering a new style of espionage and guerilla warfare. Does her influence continue to be felt in that realm today?

I spent a day at [CIA headquarters at] Langley, which was really fascinating. Talking to people there, they pointed to Operation Jawbreaker in Afghanistan, and how they drew on the processes that really she pioneered: How do you set up networks in a foreign country, bringing in locals and perhaps preparing them for some big military event later on? They took Hall’s example. I’ve heard from other people involved in the CIA who said she still is mentioned in lectures and training there today. Not that long ago they named one of their training buildings after her. Clearly, she has an influence to this day. I’d love to think she knows that somehow, because that’s pretty cool.

Today, Hall is not particularly well known as a war hero, in spite of her influence. Why do you think that is?

Partly because she didn’t like blowing her own trumpet. She didn’t like the whole obsession with medals and decorations; it was about doing your duty, and being good at your job and earning the respect of your colleagues. She didn’t go out of her way to tell people.

But also, a lot of other SOE female agents who came in after her died, and they became these quite well-known tragic heroines. Films were made about them. But they achieved nothing like what Hall did … It was difficult to pigeonhole her. She didn’t fit into that conventional norm of female behavior. In a way she wasn’t a story that anyone really wanted to tell, and the fact that she was disabled as well made it even more complicated.

When I was thinking of doing this book, I took my sons to see Mad Max: Fury Road with Charlize Theron, and I noticed that her [character’s] forearm was missing, and yet she still was the great hero of the film. And I thought, “Actually, maybe now that Hollywood is doing a film with a hero like that, finally we’re grown up enough to understand and cherish Virginia’s story and celebrate it.” It was that night really that [made me think], “I’m going to write this book. I really want to tell the world about her, because everyone should know.”

SOURCE: SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE; BRIGIT KATZ