Once upon a time. . .a Favorite Things Thursday fantasy

Thursday's Favorite Things comes with a little tale.
Read on....

Once upon a time on a fair autumn day, a princess of a certain age, turned yet a year older. On that very festive occasion warm wishes and legal tender came by post to cheer her and distract her from looming old age. She meticulously hid the bills and with a flourish snapped the coin purse shut. With a dreamy look she purposed to spend this money wisely instead of trying to hide her wealth by purchasing small and later forgotten memorabilia and chocolate snacks. This would be the year she threw aside the need to save for a rainy day, deciding that, of course that rainy day would eventually come before her next birthday, but what would she have to show that had made her blissfully happy during that year? Without further ado she summoned her carriage and traveled to her favorite antique store--where she usually let herself take a quick,longing glance then off to the nearest thrift store with her.

Well, not today! She knew where to find the little blue teapot that had sat on the shelf, lonely and dusty, a bit like herself. And there it sat! Without a second thought she swooped it up, negotiated a ridiculously lowered price for ownership of this darling and left the store with very little left in her purse but a look of true satisfaction on her surprisingly younger-looking countenance.

I'm in the middle of what looks like, sigh, another collection--tea pots this time. Below is one my mother gave me on the last visit I made home before she slipped into dementia and she still remembered how much I liked the artist, Marjolean Bastin. It is large enough to serve several cups of tea and is what I pull out when the weather turns nippy.

This little orphan I purchased at a yard sale last week for $.25. At first I thought it was a sweet pitcher then the little o-shape on its handle proved it had indeed lost its lid and I could relate!
Thanks to my friend Blue who hosts Favorite Things Thursday, her brainchild that has offered so much fun and inspiration, You can visit here.
Happy Thursday!

[quote/art by Donald Urquhart]

Fave Things for Thursday

Thursday arrives and with it comes Favorite Things Thursday, my friend Blue's meme. (Time seems to fly for me in the autumn). I know I'm in good company when I saw that I am an \in-ˈve-t(ə-)rət\ yard sale shopper. Around here they are referred to as garage sales or just simply 'sale.' Either way, my car seems to detect their signs several yards ahead and all I have to do is make the turn. Usually I don't have much cash with me but what there is ready to burn a hole in my pocket by week's end. Also indigenous to Minnesota are sales sometimes on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the weekend. So the fun begins, and today was no exception. Sometimes I only come away with a $.50 paperback I've wanted to read, a bag of apples or tomatoes. These are a few of my finds recently. The blue sugar & creamer set was being sold by a lady in her sixties who was cleaning out her cupboards and I was happy to give them a good home. They are blue, after all! On a walk to the post office I bought the green watering can for a song because of its lovely shape and a frog and dragonflies embossed on its front. The plate was a find on one of our motorcycle jaunts at a thrift store. These state plates are ubiquitous, I know, but I've never found one from my home state of Idaho. It has Mountain Bluebird and Syringa patterns. If you can enlarge this photo you will better see the cat in this framed print I bought today for $1. It is a rather haphazardly mounted page from a railroad calendar and the lady who sold it said she remembered these calendar prints from her youth many years before. It is marked Peake - Chessie for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Here's what I learned about 'Peake':

In 1934, the first "Chessie" calendar was produced, with 40,000 copies distributed. Advertisements featuring Chessie appeared in most national magazines as well. Her popularity grew, as did her family. She got two look-alike kittens in 1935, and a mate, "Peake" (from the railroad name as well - Chesapeake = "Chessie-Peake"), in 1937. Soon Chessie, "America's Sleepheart," was the talk of the railroad world, and propelled C&O to the top ranks of rail advertising. You can read more about Chessie here.

I feel very fortunate to have seen this in a box of frames. Maybe Chessie was waiting for me?
Visit the amazing Blue for more bloggers' favorite things. She might inspire you to play along too!

Fave Things Thursday with a purple passion!

Never one to just say I like something without having to trace the whole progression through the passion, history (histrionics?) complete with recipes and quotes [the other side of the Libra scales of indecision]. . .sigh. . .but my passion, next to blue, is purple and that it would be food should be no surprise either.
Today's Favorite Things Thursday highlights my love of all things eggplant.
My affair began in adulthood when I finally put things in order about eggplant--its real meaning to me. I spent my first five years living away from my family of origin only to find myself back with them when I started kindergarten. I probably wasn't very happy about this and eventually was bestowed with the nickname mellanzane by my 'new' Italian relatives. What I realized later was they were commenting on my 'long face.' So be it. When I fell in love with cooking--my dad always said 'women are fickle'--I acquired a taste for the delicious variety of this veg. First and foremost was the appealing smooth, shiny shape and gorgeous color. Who could resist?


Eggplant shows up in the cuisine of many cultures. I've made:
ratatouille
caponata
baba ganouch
moussaka &
parmigiana
but my all time favorite way to eat it is to cut in 1 in. slices across, layer the slices on a baking sheet, slather with olive oil, and bake in a hot oven until the skin is crispy and the insides are soft. Set to cool a bit and eat, all in one sitting. This'll turn that frown upside down!

'How can people say they don't eat eggplant when God loves the color and the French love the name? I don't understand.'

Jeff Smith

If an eggplant went to a plant psychologist for some veggio-therapy, it’s unlikely that the managed care company would authorize enough sessions to cure the addled little bugger. It suffers from an identity crisis that is quite, ahem, deep-rooted. Eggplants don’t know what they are, what their name is, or what they do. To begin, eggplants are not vegetables but fruits and to take it one step further, a berry to be exact. . .[read more here!]

I can relate.

Visit Blue and her Favorite Things Thursday for more bloggers' favorite things.

a poem lovely as a tree

If you've visited my blog before, no doubt you know I'm smitten with trees. They inspire me, protect me and sometimes are so full of beauty that I turn to mush. So, if you're thinking, here I go again with more photos, you're right. They're my choice for Favorite Things Thursday.

Trimmed, pruned and shaped, they are still able to bloom even under the most strenuous conditions.

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.
Willa Cather

I walk past this oak tree almost daily year round and wonder what has brought it to such a twisted--yet healthy--state. A true survivor on the bank of the lake. In the fall it drops acorns all over the sidewalk which I step on to make the work easier for the squirrels.

Minnesota is rich in birch trees which shimmer and shine year round.

Utilitarian for the rest of the forest population and a source of wild imaginings for humans. Who lives here, after all?

I've read on more than one occasion that trees 'communicate' to each other from their underground root system, sensing if one is in trouble, ill or if they hear the sound of a chain saw. I don't know. . .

I think I am most in awe of trees as they weather the harsh winter season, especially up north. Their bark is cold to the touch then, but they stand dormant and always make me think of horses asleep standing up.

Message on the Winter Air

Long shadows on blue snow
Warm sun stepping around trees
Life’s mysterious light and dark.

Trees standing tall
Uncovered faces in the wind
Snow collecting in the cleft of boughs
Sap deeply stored.

Feetless birds, round as tennis balls
Perched facing the warming sun
Random song--

Reassuring their own kind
Reaching limb to limb,
Barren bark remembers melting snow
Turns to buds in spring.

Stand tall, reserve sap,

Accept visitors,

Wrap the bird song like a scarf .

Visit Blue to see what other bloggers fancy. . .you'll be inspired. Happy Thursday!

Favorite Things Thursday -- a peek into the past

For Blue's MeMe Favorite Things Thursday, I am posting a few of one of my favorite things.

I subscribe regularly to the old proverb: The eyes are the window of the soul. And if that is true then that might explain my captivation with old photographs of people in various settings. The hunt begins in antique stores for black and white photos of people I'll never know but whose faces speak to me on some level. Besides, because they are usually an inexpensive investment I have a small, ongoing collection now. . .



starting with me and my mother and my new sled, which is still one of my prized possessions.

My father's parents, Filomena and Vito on their wedding day at the turn of the 20th Century. I always was fond of the fact that they both wore a sprig of lily-of-the-valley.

National Laundry & Cleaners in my hometown in the 1940's, in the era when people had all manner of garments, diapers, curtains washed and delivered.

This lovely girl could have just as easily been my sister.

One of my favorites, the marriage of youth, fashion and unmanageable hair.

Bought at a garage sale for $1 from the great-granddaughter of the seated woman, her grandmother standing. They lived in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

Taken by an itinerant photographer one day while my mom and her brothers were playing. I love how they must have rushed to change into their Sunday best. It goes, Willis, left--Henrietta, middle--Calvin, right.

purchased at different times and places, but I've wondered at the likeness.

There's a reason why this little girl loves blue velvet to this day.

I have many more--on snowy days I love to pick and choose from the tin I keep them in, wondering and sometimes writing about them as if we were in the same family or had been friends on the prairie.

Note to self: there are only so many faces to go around.

Remembering my favorite things makes me blue.

Ever since I was little and was dressed in blue more often than not I thought that the color blue belonged to me. Then came pre-adolescence when I wanted to paint my bedroom blue that my dad informed me blue was for boys and I endured a pink room for a long time. Today I can say with assurance that blue, with its many variations, is one of my favorite things.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

Vincent Van Gogh

Mrs. Beauregarde: [after Violet has turned into a blueberry] I can't have a blueberry for a daughter. How is she supposed to compete?
Veruca Salt: You could put her in a county fair. [from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory]

Thanks to Blue at Behind Kyanite's Door for her Favorite Things Thursday. To join in or see more favorite things, go here.

Two lumps of sugar and pass the cream if you will

Another Thursday dawns and that means playing Blue's Favourite Things Thursday--when I search through the cobwebs of my mind for those illusive dreams and things that make me happy. This week its a collection of small pitchers/creamers like these:



which I pick up randomly at thrift stores, yard sales and occasionally a real antique shop if the price is within my 'pitcher' budget. I've collected these in the 1-1/2 years I've lived in the Twin Cities. However, safely packed away in storage is a box full of over 30 years of collecting. Someday they'll be rescued from bubble wrap and properly displayed.

After many years of no contact with my mother and father -- long story -- after we were reacquainted, when I showed my mom my burgeoning collection she, being who she was, ran out and bought me not only a pitcher but the accompanying sugar bowl, coffee pot, demitasse cups and saucers in a gold rimmed, porcelain flower pattern, made in Bavaria! Being of Bavarian extraction, she had a remarkable eye for beautiful porcelain combined with a champagne appetite on a beer salary. She was thoroughly convinced her love of beautiful things was her German-ness.

I have pewter, Irish pottery, English glass and cranberry glass pitchers from Massachusetts plus recycled gems from yard sales in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Chicago--just about everywhere I've lived. Gifted pitchers are the best because it means I'm well known by the giver. I've noticed too that I usually wind up selecting my favorite colors without fully intending to.

Most recently the porcelain pitcher with pink roses on the far right below was purchased at a garage sale from an older lady who was liquidating. She said it was her favorite and she'd given it many uses. I got it for a song.



Yup, when I turned it over, the bottom was marked. . . Bavaria.

Visit Blue to see more favourite things of hers and her friends or you might even want to play along.

I *usually* know what I like!

Anonymous (Flemish School), Boy Looking through a Casement, ca. 1550-60.

On into the third week of Favorite Things Thursday, I add my love of art--art history to be exact. Looking at art makes me happy, even if I don't particularly care for what I'm seeing, because I have a general idea of what it takes to make art. I enjoy the challenge of trying to decipher what the artist was recording about the time he or she was living, the pop culture and philosophy embedded in a particular decade or century. Also, it is intriguing to me to study and think about what made that artist tick, what her story was or what he could pass on to me about life. And I have the luxury of making many choices of what appeals to me, since I have a problem making up my mind most any other time.

Georgia O'Keefe, Radiator Building at Night, New York, 1927

Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in Circle, 1923

The study of art history is vast and fascinating at every turn from the yellow ochre cave paintings of prehistory to the incredible but inevitable discovery of linear perspective in Italy in the 13th century. I especially like the 19th and 20th century for its departure from tradition, an expression of inner feelings and the bold use of color. Stables (Stallungen), Franz Marc 1913

Birthday Party, Marc Chagall

Self Portrait Pablo Picasso, charcoal on paper

and so many more.

Thanks to Blue for hosting her meme, Favorite Things Thursday so I get the chance to think on what makes my life uniquely mine. Stop by her site and see more favorite things from her friends.

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul,

and paints his own nature into his pictures.

Henry Ward Beecher