Sunday, April 30, 2017

1996 Miata Installing New Adjustable Struts and Wheels

Hi Dear Folk,

Why does everything for the car land up in my dining room?  The Boy is happy new tires fitted on new to him rims.



New Wheels.



New adjustable struts installed.



Wooden shift knob crafted by a friend from Kenya.  This was the one item he retrieved off his old Miata which he totaled.







Now for a new steering wheel.  Maybe mum and dad can take it out joy riding and a picnic this summer too.

Christy

Saturday, April 29, 2017

NFL Draft in Philadelphia - The Future Is Now

Hi Dear Folk,

The NFL Draft is in town.  When I say I am totally clueless on that I am.  My compatriots at work took a walk over during lunch time, so their photos.  It's all set up on the Parkway in front of the Art Museum.  This is a very big deal to some people, and means their future prospects.  Football teams are picking their rookie players.

The train has been a little busier with fans coming into Philly.  It means a lot of money for the City.  Since most of the venue is outside, the weather has coeperated.








Christy

Light Show, Philadelphia Flower Show 2017 - Part 17

Hi Dear Folk,

Just snuck these in to finish out my flower show posts.  The light show was really good.







Christy

Friday, April 28, 2017

Frankfurt Kitchen 1920's

Hi Dear Folk,

This is from the V & A collection, and is a 1920's Frankfurt fitted kitchen, many of these designs can be seen again the the 1950's fitted kitchens and would not be out of place today.






Between 1925 and 1930, Frankfurt was a centre of advanced social and architectural thought and was the only German city where all municipal construction was controlled by modernist architects. This is one of perhaps 10,000 kitchens made to the designs of the Austrian architect Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky, installed in flats in Frankfurt during the 1920s. Schütte-Lihotzky worked in the Municipal Building Department, which controlled all aspects of building in the city, including housing. The so-called Frankfurt Kitchen should be regarded as part of a modernist effort to make all aspects of daily life more rational, efficient and hygienic, and less time-consuming. It was the first fitted kitchen and the prototype for all subsequent built-in kitchens. In its day it was widely publicized in Germany and abroad, and a film was even made about it in 1928.

The design of the kitchen was based on the principles of F.W. Taylor's 'Scientific Management', a system that analysed the most efficient ways of undertaking tasks in the home and workplace. The kitchen was only big enough for the housewife to work alone (few men in the 1920s would have spent time there). All the surfaces are easy to clean and without mouldings that trap dirt. A noticeable feature is the bank of metal storage containers for commodities like flour, rice and sugar. The housewife could easily reach them without even opening a cupboard door. There were no electric refrigerators at the time, but a low-level cupboard was vented from the outside to keep food cool. The ironing board was hinged to the wall and could be lowered to use. Even the disposal of rubbish was considered: the waste-bin was in its own cupboard that could be emptied from outside the kitchen in the hall.
Three different sizes of kitchen were made for various sizes of flats. This kitchen was recently rescued from a Frankfurt apartment after almost eighty years of use. It had only been repainted once in that time, and is seen here restored to its original paint scheme. The electric and solid fuel stoves probably date from the late 1930s.
Christy

Dutch Miniature Railway Scene, Philadelphia Flower Show 2017 - Part 16

Hi Dear Folk,

This was a dear display at the flow show, little vignettes of Dutch towns and railway.









Christy

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Dutch Front Door, Philadelphia Flower Show 2017 - Part 15

Hi Dear Folk,

We are coming along in the garden.  Mr. B. cleaned out the pond, second raking on the lawn and another cut.  Sewed some seed where we left the oak leaves on all winter and it killed the grass, ugh!  Cleaned up wood pile, where some wood had toppled over and off the top.  I have a water tub on my Simla Patio and after many years I think the inner hard plastic is leaking.  It did have a good innings, maybe I can seal it up somehow.

Temps are warming up and is meant to be in the eighties on the weekend, so maybe can get to the fun stuff, planting seeds and flowers, I am very late on seed planting, but there you are.

A friend always starts of lots of veges and shares, so I'm good there.  Where to plant the tomatoes, I think they shouldn't be planted in the same soil too often, I do rotate, but probably not enough.



Just want to potter and chill this weekend.

Also The Boy has a visitor.

Take care,
Christy

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

My American Dream

Hi Dear Folk,

I know at one time I did have more tulips, but I think the squirrels ate them.  I've heard they don't like daffodils, but do like tulips, so I picked the odd ones that have sprung up on their own throughout my garden, and put them right here on the desk where I sit and can enjoy them.


Even in their demise I think they're lovely, such shape and inner beauty.




My American Dream, this is it.  A Teardrop Camper with a Clam Shell back and I'll take the Caddi Convertible that I drove for one whole summer when I first came here, and lets set off down Route 66.

When I saw this stamp I had to go back for it, I had a coupon for 50% off from a competitor which I used at Michael's to buy this.

Back in the fifties, sixties and I think even early seventies, American families would load the kids up in the estate wagon, towing the pop up camper and take off out West on a month long camping trip. To view all the kitsch stops on the way. Long gone are those days.  I doubt if many people take much more than one week off at a time, if not just a long weekend.  Times change.

Route 66 is that iconic road to travel, to step back in time. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. Route 66 was the first highway of it's kind, built in 1926 to connect rural and urban America, 2,400 miles. It was the road the Dust Bowl migrants used to head out to California, their dream.  Only about 85% survives today.

Depending on which way you are going, out East here I'd start in Chicago, Illinois, then through St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Amarillo, Texas, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, ending in Los Angeles, California.  The USA is huge, you can drive a whole day or more and the scenery hardly changes at all, not like tiny Britain, where the scenery changes quite quickly.  So would it truly be my dream.  I would not want to see the ghost towns, where dreams have faded, but still somewhere deep down inside me I want to drive it.  I want to try the old style motels and eat at ma and pa diners, see the attractions, we all still dream.



Bad news at the thrift shop, I succumbed to this hand knitted brand new bag.  It had obviously been someones Xmas present, as the gift receipt was still inside dated 9th December.  I love it.




Six Poppytrail plates, made in California, the design is Dahlia.  My absolute favourite design by Poppytrail is the design named Homestead, I think that goes along with Route 66.  I have a friend who is in her nineties and many years ago she saw it in a department store and bought the whole Homestead dinner service, she has always loved it.

A little European black Austrian crystal necklace, they always sparkle.



My beautiful deep purple lilac, which only last about a week and we've had a lot of rain, so will they have flowers next weekend, I do so hope.



Christy
01 09 10