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

Monday Mania

Hi Dear Folk,

I started at 6:30 am and haven't stopped since, well maybe a very short break mid day after taking a shower and laying on the bed in the AC.

If one could have two hundred percent humidity then it would be that.  It's only 84F but the humidity is terrible it's like living in the Amazon Jungle.  Today almost every half hour the weather has alternated between, sun, wind and squally showers.

Mr. B. and I have been working our little touches off in the garage, you would think we would be done, but no there is much more to do.  Mice may be cute, but not up in the rafters with their nests.

I started off my day in the basement, let me preface that 1920's basement.  Cleaned up under the old double sink, scrubbed the floor in that area and washed the rugs, dried them and put them back down.

I emptied the dehumidifier and cranked that up to the highest setting hoping to get a little coolness down there.  The catch basin fills up in about eight hours.

Out to the garage with Mr. B. power washed two trash cans and cleaned them out, after I emptied out all the wood and leaves The Boy put in them from a bough he cut off the apple tree.  I added these to the ever growing kindling pile which now is as tall as me.  We have decided to cut the apple tree down altogether, the squirrels eat every apple off the tree before they ever ripen.  In over ten years I have yet to eat an apple off the tree.  It's in a corner by the garage car door and we need the area really to put the trash cans on, so we do not have to leave them in the garage.  We may pave this over, and leave a strip near the fence to plant sunflowers, one they are tall, and two it is a very sunny area there and I think they would do well.  Rob says he will cut the rest of the tree down.  Apple wood is good to burn, although it's not a huge tree.

Our next yard sale will be a clear out of the basement and I'm hoping to do that in October, we will see.

Ran to the shop to buy a couple of things I need for my trip.  I have two suitcases laying open in my sitting room, with things in them, just staging everything ready to pack.  When The Boy was at college I used his room but can't now.

Yesterday I got the ironing board out, got a dress and a top washed and ironed ready to go.  Of course everything is everywhere in that room and it's driving me crazy.  I guess my previous trips were for two weeks and not two months, so it was a little easier.

I have one suitcase with four wheels on, but went back to my older suitcases for the second one, with only the two wheels on.  I decided to use the medium one, I didn't fancy hefting around the larger one, along with the one I already have.  The two I'm taking are of a similar size.  I am able to take two suitcases because I upgraded my seating, I think it's one inch wider and a little more legroom, but the second suitcase will come in handy.

I just hope I don't meet the same bus driver I ran into a couple of years ago, who was I will just say from central Europe and a nasty bully.  I catch the bus from Heathrow to Cambridge and then the local bus to my sister's town.  Most of the bus drivers have been very nice.

After going to the shops, back to the garage to sort out old records, all Mr. B's dads.  Now that we do have a record player and I have more time, I do really want to keep some.  A couple got sold off in the yard sale and one was an old 45rpm I really wanted to keep, Troglodyte Cave Man, it was a fun record, such is life.

Here is the handbag I bought, Italian leather. The smell is heavenly, love the smell of good leather and I like the bright, summer flowers.  Trying to take a bag that goes with everything would be hopeless, so taking a bag that is bright and fun and goes with nothing is fine.

As you can see I love Italian leather, and had a few other items already.

Cosmetic case with hummingbirds on, such a flighty design.  Also two cases in more autumnal colours, which I have packed away here with my journals, pens, pencils and paints.

I bought the canvas bag at Harbor Freight, $10.00 great for holding all these items.

It was cooler over the weekend, well kind of up and down with torrential rain, showers and the humidity.  I did get those two jackets and a coat that I bought at the thrift on sale, all put away and the repairs all done.  The navy blue cashmere jacket needed a military style gold button, I found an odd one in my button tin and it suits quite well.

I also hand stitched all the lining around the sleeve ends on the swing jacket.  This is homemade, in a hounds tooth black and white check, really well made, but the hand stitching was terrible, so undid that and hand stitched it all over again, nice neat job now.

Another hand made item, a sixties black swing cape, in a faux black lamb, cannot remember the name, astrakhan, just came to me, also needed a repair around the attached scarf and that is done.  It's that true sixties style with the slit openings for your arms, three buttons and an attached scarf.  Bought that at a thrift for $6.00 but did need sending to the cleaners to get rid of the cigarette smell, but is great now.

Time to catch up on my journal, it is at least a week behind, but my blog may help me a bit.

Christine

Happy Decisions

Hi Dear Folk,

It's been a week of gathering.  All of a sudden it loomed that my trip to the UK is not far off, and many things needed to be gathered together.  When I go on a trip I like to find a place where I can put all the items I will need to take.  I also make lists, it seems to calm my brain.

But first just a few things this week.  This was a dress that I thrifted last year and it was too big in the top, first I was going to put darts in, then thought to take the skirt off and make a skirt.  But after looking at it my first ideas was the best.  I put two darts in the front, two darts under each arm, and four darts in the back, two either side of the zip.  These were very small hand stitched darts and they pulled it in just the right amount.  I like it now.

The marble topped outside bar counter.

Drying out my lovely bouquet to make it live a little longer.  I love it outside.  I sit on the Pond Patio and there it sits, and brings me joy.

I worked on these IKEA cushions.  They were quite cheap and I use them on my outside sofa.  They needed a nice wash after having sat in the garage all those years.  One opened up in the washing machine, so had to gather all the stuffing and sew it up.  In fact they almost all needed some sewing and the buttons added to pull them in again as all the stitching had come undone.  That's when your glad you keep all your old buttons.

I don't think I mentioned this a few weeks ago a form was left in my front door, did I want to enter in for the Borough garden contest, and I thought I might as well, since I'm gardening in any case.  Last Wednesday was the judging, there are several categories and I won third place in the back garden category, not bad.  They will have a slide show presentation of all the gardens at their Garden Club Meeting in September, but I will be in Europe.

My Miss Tupp.

Using my new walnut spatula, we got at the Kutztown Folk Festival.

I am so excited about my trip to England and Norway, but also feeling over whelmed and when that happens I know I must not procrastinate, but just get stuck in and get things done.

First we had to make a few decisions about our cruise to Norway, did we want to buy any additional packages and did we want to take any side trips at the ports of call.  These can be quite expensive, we opted for one onboard package, which included remuneration and since we would tip in any case, it seemed to make sense to do this, some other perks come with the package.  A port of call side trip we decided to take is the Flam Railroad, all the other ports of call we will use local transport and do our own thing.

For the cruise I had to get travel insurance, it was one of the requirements.  I can't say I've ever bothered with this, I guess all these years I've being flying by the seat of my pants, so this was a new experience for me and not cheap.  I called around four different places and found what I hope is good, if I have to use it.  It seems to be much cheaper in the UK for travel insurance.  So glad that is done.

I went to my local library to pick up some travel books on Norway, there were not many for some reason, even the librarian acknowledged this.  He said he thought he had some older editions in the discard area and I said would I be able to keep them.  Next day he phoned me and said he had one on Norway and one on Scandinavia for me to keep.  That is great because I can just take out the pages I need.

Rob has bought me online two batteries and a charger for my camera.  The other thing I need to do is to order cash, sterling euros and kroner, then besides the packing, I'll have it together.  Got to work the handbag thing out.

I have a journal I bought in Bury St Edmunds at Paperchase several years ago, it has all sorts of pockets and artwork of London on the front, so I think I'm going to use this and maybe a separate one for my trip to Norway, decisions, decisions, but all fun.

Well must go lots to do.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Christine

Yard Sale

Hi Dear Folk,

What a week, I'm not sure I remember it all, so let me work backwards.  Yesterday Saturday we had a Yard Sale to clear out the garage.  It has needed doing for years, but to be quite honest with working full time and the energy I know it takes to do a yard sale I didn't want to tackle it.

The garage is almost a double in size and let us say, it was packed like a UPS truck, my husband used to work for UPS.  Quite neat but to get to the back the front items had to come out first and some items were totally buried and had never seen the light of day.

Mr. B. took off Saturday, The Boy was on board, as he wants to use the garage for his second car, also any repairs he does have been done out on the street and now he will have the garage to work in.  Friday night, we knew it was not expected to rain, so we got everything out and piled on the lawn.  I made up posters and ran around stapling them on poles in the neighborhood.

Saturday morning we were up early, putting everything out front, arranging it so that people could see.  Our first visitor was a local policeman, he said I can see everything here is from the eighties, yes I guess he hit that spot on.

We had a lot of furniture and camping items, some bigger ticket items such as the leather chair and old Empire style rocker, and I wondered if they would go, but I was presently surprised by the end of the day that we had sold most items that I really wanted cleared out and the balance Rob took over as a donation at the local thrift.  Now for the organizing of what will remain in the garage.

This was what we put out along the curb for people to see and there was more inside on the lawn.

It was a hot day, but I think it could have been worse.  We had a pretty solid flow of customers from 8:00 AM onwards, in between I would take a break on the Oak Tree patio, so up and down, up and down.  Today Sunday I'm ready for a rest.

Unfortunately I pulled a muscle over my right hip on Tuesday. I reached over at the wrong angle to get a trash can out of the garage and zing. Friday I went for some therapy, Mr. B. made the appointment for me, and I'm glad he did.  We have friends who do Deep Muscle Therapy and I was able to get an appointment on Friday.  It is the weirdest thing how your hip muscle controls the lifting of your leg.  I cannot lift my right leg to get into the car, and have to lift it with my hand, not to mention the pain in doing so.

We have a high bed and Mr. B. took off the extra foam pad, so that I could get up into bed. Harder than you think when your back hurts, and turning is like being a beached whale. I'm hoping that once the muscle settles down it all goes back to normal, but it is most disturbing, not to mention the pain.  I'm amazed I made it through yesterday.

I have taken some time though to sit and read.  Earlier in the week was quite cool, so I finished the hand stitching I needed to do on my crochet hat.  It felt good to have that completed.

My orchid bloomed and is doing well sitting outside.  I love the purple contrasted with the orange day lily.

Miss Tupp sitting on the Pond Patio, keeping me company as I read.

Sharpening of claws, rather outside than in the house.  The old ash tree roots are just right for this.  I have several friends who never let their cats out.  It seemed a most peculiar thing to me because in the UK most people let their cats outside and they love it, their two worlds, in the house and out.

Fungi is always sprouting up around the dead tree roots, it's a major contributing factor to decomposition.

A local thrift is either going out of business or being bought out by Goodwill, will wait and see.  In any case I stopped over Friday afternoon as they were having a clearance and found three winter coats.  One of those things such a good price I couldn't let them pass.  One was an all wool duffle coat from Talbots, in a sand color.  The other a black, double breasted type of pea coat with gold military buttons in wool and cashmere blend.  The last was a hounds tooth check cape.  All look nice on me.  Total $16.00.

I think the cape might have been hand made and needs a little neatening on the arm lining at the ends, but nothing I can't do.  The lining on the duffle coat needs a stitch on the back seam, but both minor repairs.  The black coat has one button missing, but I have a tin full of buttons and I don't honestly think anyone will notice if it is slightly different.  I can always put the odd button at the top under the collar and move that one down to replace the one that is missing center front.

I think when an item of clothing needs a minor repair, people get rid of them.

Well that's a wrap.  Have a wonderful weekend.

Christine

PS:  Will show you what was unearthed and now have sitting on the Oak Tree Patio.

PPS:  I have a funny little story.  An old lady from across the street who lives in the senior apartments must have a birds eye view of what goes on and knew everything about Rob having two cars and working on the Blue Miata and then getting the Red Mini and working on that, in fact she had a whole conversation with Rob about it.  You never know who is watching you.

Good Friends, Good Food

Hi Dear Folk,

Sunday we had friends over for an outside dinner/barbeque.  Graham who I've known since I was two and his wife Janine along with Jean visiting from England.  We had a fun time.  Mr. B. helped me get it together.

I prepared the lasagna and potato salad the day before, while listening to Dispatch to a Friend podcasts, it was a cool evening and seemed just right.  The scones and Italian Pie I made on Sunday morning.

Love this set of serving bowls I found at the thrift a while ago, Limoge.

I love this set of pottery old world cabin American scenes.  I bought the flowers at Produce Junction.  I made a special trip because I needed another garden umbrella and that was $25.00 there.  So while there I couldn't resist two hanging pots of red begonias at $3.50 each which is very cheap and this pot of pink mums, I love the shade of pink $3.99.  Plus I picked up a huge pineapple and some portobello mushrooms.

Set up for a nice cup of tea, also iced tea.

I needed a second table but until we sort the garage out it's almost impossible to get one out, so I decided to use my gateleg from out of the house.  I think it looks very Victorian afternoon tea sitting on the lawn.  In fact I know I've seen them used in old Victorian photos, they never had special garden furniture, except maybe for the wicker or bamboo.  I like a gateleg table and they close down so neatly, I might look out for another one to use in the garden.

These trousers/pants are part of a set I bought at the thrift, the jacket top has gold on it, but when I bought it I thought I'd be able to dress them down with a different top.  I found this top at Clothes Mentor and I liked the flower design.

Here I am showing Mr. B. my new thrifted shoes.

I made lasagna, potato salad and the Italian cold cut vege pie along with a regular salad.  Mr. B. cooked chicken on the grill.  Plain and raisin scones for desert along with strawberries, blackberries and cream.  Of course I did not take any photos of the first course set out, one forgets.  Also Janine brought lemon bars.

We were just finishing up and putting things away, when an early evening thunderstorm came through.  A nice watering for the garden.

Christine

A Day Out

Hi Dear Folk,

I woke up this morning with such a headache, not quite a migraine, but pretty bad.  We had a busy weekend, but fun, will post about that later.  So a few aspirin and cups of tea later and it is just going away by midday.

Last week I got to visit with some friends.  I'm going to stop putting old friends.  Jean on the far right is a friend visiting from England and staying with some other friends in PA here.  Celestine in the center is in her nineties.

Her daughter insisted we borrow her GPS, but Celestine knew exactly where to take us.  The restaurant we wanted to try was closed, bit of a disappointment, how dare they go on vacation.  We went to another one which was OK, the food was good, ambience not so much.  Stopped off at a little Farmers Market and scored on the one day old section for baked goods, as everything was half price.  So bought a tasty apple and strawberry crumble along with a loaf of Rosemary and Olive Oil bread.  After lunch we stopped off at a dairy and bought ice creams.  I had salted caramel pretzel and the second scoop was rum raisin.

I remember when I first came to the States I couldn't get over the variety of ice creams.  I think in England I only ever had, vanilla, chocolate or strawberry and a great treat was Cornish ice cream.  I know all that has changed now.  A block of Neapolitan ice cream (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry in a block) and a pack of wafers, was our Sunday treat.  We would cut it up and put it between two wafers.

Onto thrifting, and stopped off at an Antique Emporium, I saw a little Victorian painted washstand, but where to put it?  So resisted, still on my mind though, as was a good price.  Jean found three pairs of brown leather shoes $2.00 each.  She said it's hard to find brown shoes at the charity shops in England, and I found a pair of black Clarks sandals also $2.00.  It seems their shoes are cheaper than at the thrifts in our area.

We had a lovely chatty, fun day out together.

Look at that deluxe chicken coop and only two chickens, who are not earning their keep.

Christine

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Hi Dear Folk,

Snowed in, guilt free day.  I caught the 4:30PM train out of the city, yippee and it was on time, I only just caught it as my boss at the last minute said you can catch the 4:30PM train if you like and I still had to do the FEDEX package.  I got down there by the skin of my teeth, then we had to sit for five minutes, one of the crew hadn't arrived.  I was happy, home by 5:30PM.

Today The Boy went to work, he said for a few hours and Mr. B. decided to go out shopping, I think it's just an excuse to drive in the snow, you know men.

Before going out, Mr. B. repaired the switch on my gas stove in the sun porch, I couldn't use it, so now I'm happily sitting out here with the fire going, doing a little crochet.

Look at my lovely thrift find.  Mr. B. on Sunday said do you want to pop over to the thrift, a holiday sale on and we did.  I found this lovely knee length J. Jill skirt, I fell in love with the fabric which I think is very sixties both in pattern texture and colour.  Would have been an expensive skirt.

Here is my little crochet, wool from the Isle of Skye I am going to call it my Waternish scarf, Waternish being an area on the Isle of Skye and the colours remind me of water.  It was crocheting up a little too tight, so undid it and started again with a larger crochet hook.

As you can see the snow is really coming down.

This plaque was Mr. B's mum's, I think from the thirties or forties, it reminds me of Wales, when I was cleaning this room last week, I thought it would look nice sitting in front of the stove.  Such a cozy scene.

Did anyone watch "A Stitch In Time" on You Tube?  Such an interesting series of programs.  I wish there were more.

I pulled out the old bill file that I am going to use for my journal, for my trip to Europe.  Have to think of what I want to do with that.

Have a nice cup of coffee in my Heffers of Cambridge mug, Heffers is a book store in Cambridge, quite famous, old and well used in a University town.  I remember years ago getting a biology book there, to help me with my classes at school.  I went to a school heavily in the sciences.  Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Agricultural Science, plus you could have split those off into Zoology and Botany.

It says the following on the mug, I won't write it all -

     argue in archaeology, buzz in biology, chat over coffee, dream in divinity, explore economics,

and so it goes on right down to Z.

Well Mr. B. is back and I have to put the shopping away.

Bye for now,
Christine

Ran Into An Old Freind

Hi Dear Folk,

Yesterday while visiting the optician for a check up and to order a new pair of glasses, I thought I'd get it all in before I do not have health coverage anymore.  I ran into an old friend who I had not seen in at least fifteen years, because they had moved to Alabama and we did not keep in touch with them.

Regina had brought her mum in for a checkup and recognized me, or maybe recognized my voice and when she said her name of course I remembered her.  Her son Timothy and my son used to play together.  They have decided to move back to Pennsylvania as both Brad and Regina's mothers are getting older and they want to be around to help them.

So I asked how was Timothy, he was about three years older then Rob, and she said that he died three years ago.  I asked if it was an illness or a tragedy and she said a tragedy and didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.  It's just been weighing on my mind.  Just so sad.  Plus the tragic shootings last week and all those young faces.

On a happier note we said we would get together and we had a lovely long chat.

My son urged me on to get a new camera, truth be I didn't need too much pushing so I settled on an a6000 Sony with the new lens that just came out for it 18-135 mm.  I already had a Sony so some features are similar but there is a lot to learn.

I treated myself to this camera then Mr. B. came to me with a surprise of, half towards the camera, his gift to me.  I will put it towards my trip to the UK.

Here are some of the photos I took with my new camera.  We will keep my old camera in the family as I always liked it.  At eight years old you would not get too much for it.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny so we headed over to our local park.

This tree, so gnarled and a wonderful shape as if it came right out of a fairy story.

After this Mr. B. and I went over to Jem's for lunch, a fifties retro diner in a small strip mall shopping area, it's been a family business there for a very long time.  The usual comfort diner food.  I had a cheese steak Zep with salami, American and provolone cheese, onions and tomatoes, a little different from the usual and Mr. B. had French toast and a side of bacon, he always gets a side of bacon.

On to a little thrifting, small silver and amber necklace $7.99, very dainty and pretty, lovely eighties style mohair jumper and a French bowl which I knew was old and turned out to be late 1800's.

Later in the evening it snowed.  I was a bit concerned about the snow as Rob went to Cape Ann for the weekend, but the next day it all melted away.  He said he had trouble getting out onto the main roads, because Tierney lives down many side roads, but once on the main highways they were all dry.

The Boy said they went for a beautiful walk on Sunday morning.  It was a very heavy wet snow while it lasted, so a dense coating on everything, and of course it's always colder up there in MA than PA where we are.

Rob bought us back a cannoli each from the famous Mike's Pastry in Boston.  I must say I think it was the best cannoli I've ever had.

The French bowl.  Before I even picked it up and turned it over I knew it was French by the shape.  When I was sixteen I visited France with a friend of my mother's, Renee, visiting from the USA, but her parents and all her family were from France.  Originally they moved to Montreal, Canada then moved down to Pennsylvania, which is how I landed up in Pennsylvania, but that's another story.

Renee wanted to visit her uncle who lived in Paris, while over in England and I had a current passport and was able to go over with her.  I remember that every morning we would pop down to the local bakers and buy fresh croissants and her old uncle Gab would brew up a fresh pot of strong coffee, which he would serve in a bowl the same shape as the one above, with heavy cream and we would dunk our croissants in.  Not sure if this is a French tradition but that's what he did and we did.  It was delicious.

Christine