The Diary of Lucy Everett Morrison

Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

Patrice Dutil discusses the women diarists of the late nineteenth century with Gail Campbell, Professor Emerita of History, University of New Brunswick and the author of "I Wish to Keep a Record”: Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick Women Diarists and their World (University of Toronto Press, 2017). The focus of the discussion is the work of Lucy Everett Morrison. This is the document being discussed: Wednesday, 13 April 1881: I had a very sore throat & chest almost preventing my speaking. [At] 5 a.m. got on a mustard poultice & pepper tea which helped me amazingly. Getting in orders for Easter, 6 so far, amount $8.50. I filled boxes of Pyretherum & stocks, Phlox Drummondii &c & put them in hot bed. Sowed 5 saucers of Tomato seed in place of those that did not come up. George dug all the parsnip barrel, opened carnation pit. 4 hot beds filled with boxes, raked over & cleaned up rose bed. [EASTER WAS ON THE 17TH OF APRIL THAT YEAR.] Saturday, 16 April: I must have picked 100 roses today. Was rushed til 1:30 p.m. getting flowers off to St John, then cleaned up… & was surprised to have left such a good show of bloom. I scarcely miss the 6 boxes sent away. Rained off & on all day, warmer. George put Dahlias & Gladiolas in boxes. Father [MEANING HER HUSBAND] came home. [THE NEXT DAY WAS EASTER SUNDAY.] Monday, 25 April: High wind from the North. George [ONE OF HER FIVE MALE EMPLOYEES] took all the verbenas out of hot bed & put them in small cold frame. I was in the house all the afternoon, no callers. Bovardias full of green fly, scaly bug & red spider. George has not been syringing it as he ought to have done. The ones I potted have never recovered. A number of fuchsias in bloom & lots of climbing roses. Got kitchen pump fixed. [Tuesday,] 26 April: Sunny morning, rainy afternoon. George planted Potato Onions, moved & set out some raspberry bushes, got ground ready for parsnips. Transplanting celery plants from saucer into boxes, have 16 boxes not in hotbed, 84 in a box. Smoked verbenas in hot bed. Got order for $7 worth of cut flowers for Miss Burpee’s wedding & order… for flowers for Government House Ball on Thursday. Wednesday, 27 April: All the morning getting flowers ready to send to St. John for Miss Burpee’s wedding…. Producers/directors : Sabrina Bertsch, Cindy Long, Vincent Piette

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