60th Anniversary Dinner Day

Hi Dear Folk,

Last Thursday I went out flower shopping.  It was a beautiful day and I landed up driving through Valley Forge Park which was beautiful, with a sprinkling of snow and driving through the covered bridge.  I was happy to find the colours I wanted for the three orchids to reflect the colours of the bride's dress, lilac and her accessories in lemon.

I landed up shopping for a container to hold them in and came up with this galvanized metal piggy container.  I think it was a hit.

Picked up a few flowers for myself.

This was the bouquet I ordered from a florist where Rob's friend works and I've always liked their work and this was no exception.

Our other tables looked like this.

Gift table, with a video of greetings from friends in South Africa.

Everyone got a personal cupcake, with their name on at their seat.

It all went well, everyone enjoyed it and especially Wilf and Rose, as it was their night.

Christine

Peterboro Picnic Basket

Hi Dear Folk,

I split the bouquet into two to make it last a little longer, cut the stems off and replaced the water.

This is a rose coloured vase my sister bought me at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.  I have always treasured it.

Some roses tend to droop their heads after a few days and these peach colored ones had, so I cut them quite short and put them in my Swedish Viking rose vase, which will prolong their life.  It's a shame the glass insert does not have a hole in the center, I don't know why they didn't put one there.  At least you'd have the option.

Peterboro Basket Co, NH a thrifted find quintessentially American, to be found at every old home town America park picnic.  I love the fact that it has the pie shelf too.  Now Mr. B. and I must take it out for a picnic, and maybe borrow the boy's Miata, take a drive out to Valley Forge Park. I think that would be a pleasant summer afternoon out.

Three vintage thrifted tablecloths.  We were there at the time of their 50% off sale.  I love the designs on these old cloths.

I've seen these old face jugs on the Antiques Roadshow and they go for quite a bit.

I found this set of nine glasses that match the ones I have; which were a wedding present.  I have broken a number of them over the years, so this set will fill that hole.  This is the larger glass that can be used as a water glass or a large wine glass.  I also have the smaller glasses that can be used for wine and the champagne flutes.

You can date things by style, even wine glasses.  New wine glasses now are larger and sleeker.  These definitely have an eighties look.  Not to stay they are still aren't lovely.

Hope you coming weekend is good.  Yesterday was lovely and sunny, today is overcast again.  Meant to be going up to the sixties by Sunday.

Christine

What's On The Stove

Hi Dear Folk,

Winter days call for some hearty cooking.  Soups and the such like.

This is my Florentine soup a basic go to recipe, actually originally a Weight Watchers recipe from long ago, which I remember by heart.

Since I wanted to cook up chicken breasts for chicken salad I decided to boil them up in the Florentine soup and that worked out well, and possibly I think gave them a bit more taste.

I've been using my Brownies and Bars cookbook to come up with some bar recipes.  This is cranberry and orange marmalade bars.  With cranberry and walnut topping, very good.

This was a chicken casserole in which I used up my left over pasta.  I always like to use up odd left overs.

So that is what has been on my stove this winter week.

Thank you for stopping by,

Christine

PS:  My new saying is "You need to be retired, just to be retired."  I have now been waiting on the phone with Social Security for well over one hour.  And would I like to take a brief survey at the end.    Really!

The Week That Was and Other Mundane Matters

Hi Dear folk,

Snow storm is in full swing and the way it's coming down I think it will be a big one.  All these pictures are from the past week not today.  Still spring is sitting dormant these buds on the rhododendron have been waiting for a while.

Our neighborhood is from the 1920's and I think when they built these houses they did certain plantings of shrubbery with them, and I do think the purple rhododendrons were part of that.  A neighbor has an absolutely huge one, although mine would be that big if we did not cut it back.

What have I been up to?  Well life isn't all glitz and glamor it's the every day small stitches of life that hold it together, all those mundane things that keep the boat afloat.

Mr. B. bought me this lovely bouquet and after trying several vases I eventually put them in a vase I inherited from his mum.  His mum died when he was four, really hard for him.  In any case his dad and step mom had kept a number items from their marriage stored in a barrel under the stairs, and this was one.

It was a wedding present in 1945, but I think dates back further than that, I would say what they call depression rose glass.  I appreciated having it.

Mr. B's parents were married in August 1945 between being sent back from England, where he was a flight engineer in B26 Bombers, and before he was meant to be deployed in the Pacific.  He was on his way across the country when the war ended.

Before being sent out to England he worked in Baltimore at the Martin Marietta plant and one of the planes they made was the B26 Marauder, where he worked on the engines, so not at all surprising that he was assigned as flight engineer on B26, The Widowmaker.

I finished the one patchwork curtain, trimmed in crochet and I am working on the second one for the other window.  It's hard to take a good photo when they are up at the window.  I used a new kebab skewer to hold them up, it works well and just slips in the hooks I already had up.  Threaded through the crochet at the top.

I found a nice edging crochet pattern for the bottom.  Mr. B.  said the hallway is darker with them.  Before I had wax paper up with pressed flowers in between, but they were old.  I had made them out of dried pressed flowers I collected in PEI and that's BFR (before Rob) so old.

Have you ever tried that for a window?  Taking pressed dried flowers and ironing them between wax paper, it is I think a lovely window treatment for a smaller window.

Enjoying the meter of my day.  Coffee and croissant by the fire, reading Expiation by Elizabeth Von Arnim; which is due to be released by Persephone Books next October.  As always I have the original first American edition from my local library.  They all know me, I'm the one who pulls old books out of unused shelving which exists on the top floor of the library, and someone has to be sent in to find it.  Love that they have them there, so special.

My little mug bought in Amsterdam, it reminds me of my paternal grandad working around his market garden and chicken farm.  He always looked like that with his trousers and braces and the other side has chickens on which you can just see in the picture above this one.

My boys have given me a pile of mending which I have procrastinated on, must get to that.

I have one project on the burner, but I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched.  I filled out all the paperwork to apply to the local borough to build a garden shed.  I have a rough quote on it and will have it built from scratch, as it has to fit into a certain area and be in compliance with local ordinance.  I wished we lived somewhere where that didn't matter, are there places like that?  I assume so.

I went to the offices to submit them and pay the fee but they are closed until Friday for training, oh well!  I hope I don't get turned down because the fee to re submit is $550.00, and I don't think I'd contest it.

I'm not going to talk about my plans and ideas until I know that it is a done deal.  Well maybe a little.  I have old windows I want to use in the project that I've collected over the years.  Three circular columns that came off the house porch when we enclosed it and two sets of French door wood screen doors that came off also.  They are the original 1920's wood doors with windows that can be taken out and screens put in of which I have everything stored in the rafters of the garage.  Hope my vision comes to fruition.

Well that's the week that was and a little of what is.

Have a wonderful week.

Christine

60th Wedding Anniversary

Hi Dear Folk,

A friend and I are planning a 60th Wedding Anniversary for this dear couple.  Married in Rhodesia as was, in 1959.  Do you know where they had their honeymoon?  I can't think of a more romantic place, Victoria Falls.

Rose's mum made her dress which was a pale lilac and her accessories were lemon yellow, hat shoes and bouquet.  What a lovely couple.

Wilf used to work on the railroad, he's done many jobs in his life time, one working down the gold mines of South Africa.

I love this photo of them both.  They are such an interesting and fun couple to be with.  I am looking forward to the dinner.

Christine

I Am A Bono Fide American Citizen

Hi Dear Folk,

Today started off cloudy and raining, but now late afternoon we have blue skies and sun.  I spent a good part of my day at Social Security.  The government can work quite quickly when it wants to.  So yesterday I filed on line Medicare just the initial process, there are many more steps to go through.

Remember I mentioned about having to find the date that I became a naturalized citizen.  Well first thing this morning I received a phone call from my local Social Security office, would I please come in and prove proof of citizenship, either my naturalization papers or passport.  Since I haven't found the papers yet, I took in my passport.  Of course the place is packed, I sat for half an hour and figured out I had at least another hour to go, so decided to leave go and pick my shoes up from the shoe mender, go home get a coffee and come back, which I did, and I still had two in front of me.  While there I asked some other questions because why not, since it's taken me all this time to get to see someone.

Now I have been married to an American for thirty-seven years and living in the States for more than forty, first on a Green Card and then became a citizen. For over forty years I've paid my taxes and SS, when I was sending money to the government, not once did they ask for proof of citizenship, now I'm trying to collect on that, and only medicare, not SS, they want to know if I'm a citizen.

I do understand because where money is concerned people do take advantage, but still, all par the course.  One has to laugh.

Have a lovely weekend.

Christine

Appeared First On. Read it First Here and Other Daily Thoughts

Hi Dear Folk,

Can someone explain to me the phrase that I am seeing more and more on Blogs, "Appeared first on." "Read it first here."  Is this some kind of laying hold of a right?  Is it connected with marketing a product?  I would really like to know.  Have you seen that?

I've spent three days in the garden.  I have tiny little sections that look cleaned up, but the overall effect is still a mess.  It rained so much last year and then the snow, if you step on a paver it squelches mud out of the side.  All my patios feel like they're floating on a sub strata.  The trees will have an extra wide band growth for this past year.

I did get a lot of paperwork done, but applications led to more action being needed.  Still a lot was accomplished.

I mentioned that I bought an old Coventry ceramic alarm clock from Shop Goodwill, I posted this on Instagram.  It works well and keeps perfect time, but had a slight continuous buzzing noise.  After the first night of setting it up and having it on my bedside table, I woke up the next morning with the most horrendous headache.  I don't know if it was the clock or just coincidence, but to me it's like Chinese water torture, so unfortunately it had to go.  I really liked it.  I replaced it with a neon pink cube from Walmart, which is small, silent, has big digital numbers and a snooze button.  The modern alternative but I quite like it, lights up in neon pink and that's great on a grey day.

Mr. B. told me that he read 40% of the members of Congress are millionaires.  The USA falls at a poverty level of 17.8% of the population, in an OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) county.  Denmark has the least at 5.5% of population and 98% of households with children 15 and under received financial assistance, so that people do not drop into poverty in the first place and to help the middle class out too, at 98% pretty much everyone must be getting a helping hand.

I have read that Denmark is the happiest nation of people, lots of Hygge there and no wonder when they receive such things as free college tuition and health care, job training, subsidized child care and more I could go on.

Believe it or not Mexico falls at 16.7% of their population lives in poverty less than the USA, now go figure that one.  Now where are the hordes coming from?  Maybe Brazil at 20%.

All this is in the January 2019 Fortune magazine "The Shrinking Middle Class"  Most interesting reading.

So I got online to set up for Medicare and a big stumper of a question was "What date did you become a naturalized citizen?" Looked in my paperwork file, could not find it there, although do remember receiving a letter from President Clinton.   Fortunately I had recently organized all my old diaries, it does come in handy sometimes, all that draw tidying.  I remembered that Rob was four, because I took him with me.  I thought he should attend that ceremony. So looked through my diary for 1998, and found my initial meeting with immigration but had to go through a second time to find my actual swearing in.  Thank goodness it was there and I found it.  It is now hi lighted in pink.  I should probably write it down somewhere else.  In all these years it has not come up before, maybe when I first applied for a USA passport, but that was probably right after, so fresh in my mind.

Now I'm going to see if my local library has any of the Persephone books that are on my must read list.  Need my mind transported.

Have a great day.

Christine

Direct Flight Path

Hi Dear Folk,

We are sitting under a direct flight path, fortunately it's the flight path of the geese.  They are a noisy bunch but I do love to hear them fly over.  As you know they fly in the V formation and variations of that.  There always seems to be a lead goose who regularly honks out and then there's a rear end goose, like being on the caboose and he answers back in a softer call.  I think they fly from the town dam area which was built for overflow water, because before my time the town flooded out.  Usually it's just grass there but can take excess water.

In 1999 the worst flooding I remember was hurricane Floyd.  Rob was five then and the water dropped by that hurricane filled that entire area up and since his school backed onto it, water lapped well up the playground but did not rise high enough to inundate the school.

Back to the geese.  They feed in that area and then fly over to the Farm Park, so we are under their flight path.  Yesterday was so beautiful that I spent a lot of the day out in the yard.  Another three boxes of kindling ready for the fire, the clean up from our oak tree is never ending, and two trash cans of leaves, which has made no dent at all in the ongoing clean up.  I have to do one little area at a time,  and can see that that looks good, or the overall clean up seems overwhelming.

Mr. B. had to make a run for the Boy, he bought a $900 brand new Klipsh subwoofer for $100 the corner had been damaged in shipping but worked as it should.  Mr. B. went to pick it up for him, in my car.  We used to have a SUV and a hatchback, now both our cars are sedans and I think we made a mistake there.  Not good for picking up larger objects and spontaneous side of the road trash pickups.

On the way back he bought pastries, so we sat out in the sun, drinking coffee and eating pastries in February, the garden's a fright but it felt good.  Tuppy even sunbathed on the wrought iron table.

This is my must not procrastinate day, four or it could be five projects weighing on my mind.  Must make new file folders for 2019.  Must sort all paperwork for tax filing.  Must get some documents together needed for Health Care and phone about submitting for Medicare.  Must make a plot plan and submit to borough.

If I write them here maybe it will give me that push to get them done.  Or at least some of it done.  It's meant to be even hotter today and yesterday was 60 Fahrenheit; which means I will really just want to be out in the garden.

Christine

Craft, Comfort, Colour and Crises

Hi Dear Folk,

I've been taking a little break from being online.  It's nice to step back and hibernate and go with the rhythm of the season.  Just posting a few things on Instagram.  If so you'll know the story of my roses just found outside my house last Saturday on the grass verge.  Someone wasn't happy with the apology.

Cooking hearty soups with dumplings.  Enjoying Trader Joes spiced coffee, which reminds me of the film Chocolat.  Gradually working on those cleaning jobs that need to be done, ticking jobs off the list.

Gifts from friends in the UK.  A tea infuser I named Oscar, I think he already looks a little inebriated  he probably needs a little tea to bring him round.  A lovely wall hanging from Gujarat.

Colours to cheer the soul in the middle of winter, bright oranges and reds along with deep burgundies.

Today was sunny, cold and still.  No wind just a beautiful quiet day.  It was good to get out, walk and breath in the cold fresh air.

To see sunlight and shadows on the dappled snow.

Hedgerows with hidden critters, waiting for spring.

Working on a little patchwork project, curtains for my front door side panel windows.  I am going to edge them in crochet, at least that's the plan in my mind.  I had some pieces a friend gave to me that were already cut out, so thought might as well use those.  The comfort of crafting is therapeutic and calming in a world of crises.

I've been listening to classical music more and more, I just don't want to listen to the news, and like the calming effect, not that all classical music is calming. So I've been keeping the Internet and Media at bay.

Although I have been viewing a few documentaries.  Such as DuPont Teflon poisoning in Parkersburg WV.  Did you know that 90% of the people in this world tested for Teflon come up positive.  They had to go all the way back to the Korean War and compare blood samples taken and kept from the soldiers back then, to get clean samples.  We are all unknowing guinea pigs.

Another fact is that Teflon is even used on some dental floss, the one I like the best.  Ease of use is not always the best for you.

Maybe I should just listen to the classical music.

Hope your weekend is good.

Christine