Too Early...

FALL COLORS Are Beginning


I know I promised a trip to the beach but changed my mind when I saw the tree across the road that was ALREADY changing color..... Too early I think......



















But some fall colors are really welcome..... Here are a couple of pictures of the Rudbekia (Black Eyed Susan) in my yard. They seem to thrive in the place they are located in my garden. They are just outside my kitchen window which is even better.


































I found this nifty "Rusty Rooster" to put amidst the Rudbekia. My daughter took a picture of this a few years ago and printed out a sign for the eating area of my kitchen since it over looks this scene. I always wanted a Name for that area.... sort of like a cafe.


WELL, hope you enjoyed the pictures. Will try to do the beach tomorrow.

Summer Travels

Traveling Down the Highway

As some of my loyal readers probably know we took our annual trip to Maine and New Brunswick this August.

We do it most every year so that it has become a ritual but this year we did add a couple of elements.

The beginning of our trip took us to Mass, to the town where my husband grew up. Out hotel was just a block away from his old teen hangout. Unfortunately it is gone and there is a Wendy's there now.

We took a couple of pictures of places that WERE......

but are now something else.

If you had driven by here 35 years ago you would have seen his house here instead of the parking garage. And actually the street to the right wasn't there, it was another house. The parking garage is for the hospital where his mom worked when they lived there.

His old elementary school was converted to condos a number of years ago. We couldn't get very close cause of all the trees but of course he recognized the grounds. An interesting aside to this story was that while we lived in Maine there was a fellow that worked at the tv station where I worked........ who was in construction in Mass. before he moved to Maine. He actually worked on this project!!! So this was probably done 35 years ago, or so.

Tomorrow we will head to the beach.............. I have already collected up a couple of pictures and will have it written up this afternoon some time. I will post tomorrow.

Some visitors in our Yard

I know, I have been missing lately. After we returned from our travels life just got in the way.

But.... perhaps things are going to get a bit less hectic so I can start blogging again.

I have not done any mini making since our return. Mostly working in the antique shop as we bought a lot of stuff and it needs to be tended too. AND customers have waked up from their non shopping time and have returned AND with money. So that has been good too.

For my first back to blogging I thought I would show you what showed up in our yard yesterday. Our cat Bentley has them under surveillance too.

If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the deer up by our apple trees. They love those apples and can be seen there often in late August and early September as the apples are ripening. Bentley is quite curious about them as you can see. I had to take this picture inside the back door so as to not disturb them. But it didn't turn out too bad.

Traveling, Traveling, Traveling

We are out and about visiting friends, buying antiques for the shop and eating a LOT of fried Clams. I should have lot of pictures and commentary in a week or so.

Butterflies are free

I love this time of the year in my gardens. Right now the Echinacea and the Rudbeckia are busy blooming and the butterflies love to visit.
Click on the pictures to see them larger.
Here are a few pictures of the monarch butterfly that came by for a visit.

This final picture was a different one that my husband found under his garden cart. Must be related though

Mourning Dress during the civil war

The lady pictured above is part of the civil war re-enactment group and plays the part of a woman in Mourning. At this time she is dressed in what she called "half mourning." The ladies would be in full mourning for a year, then 6 months in half mourning and the final six months they would wear a color like gray or lavender.
She told me that when you were in "half mourning" you would be able to add a bit of white... such as a hankerchief, white cuffs and collar. I have read other thoughts on this so don't know exactly if what she said was entirely accurate but you can decide for yourself.

Mourning dress was apparently very regimented but primarily for the upper classes. The lower classes usually had to work too hard and wouldn't have time for all this.

Queen Victoria really made a lot of the customs. They were not allowed to wear jewelry but could wear JET because it wasn't a "jewel". Another popular item was Gutta-Percha. It is made from Resin from various trees, much like rubber is made. I don't really know all the details of it but they were able to make jewelry, picture holders and other items from Gutta Percha which they were allowed to wear. Gutta Percha can be died different colors so they could die it black for mourning use.

These pictures show collections of mourning goods that the woman has put together in displays. I personally was fascinated by it. I would love to own a few pieces of it.

I have based my comments on things that the woman told me. I have seen variations of the information on the web so don't take what I say as absolute.

There are a number of places on the web where you can learn more about all of this. If interested I hope you check some out. Here are a few that I found.

http://cwciv.tripod.com/mourning.html

http://www.freewebs.com/thecivilwarlady/mourningcustomsandrituals.htm

http://www.morbidoutlook.com/fashion/historical/2001_03_victorianmourn.html

One REALLY interesting thing I learned was that Gutta Percha has a modern day use too. Dentists use it! They fill root canals with it. So if you have ever had a root canal you probably own some Gutta Percha and didn't even know it. My husband was talking to his dentist about his root canal and the dentist was surprised to learn about the OTHER uses. He didn't know that. He just thought it was for dentistry.

In the near future I hope to write about miniatures again. I must get back to some of my projects and finish them.


If you have anything to add I hope you will do so in the comment section.

A step back in history

We just got home from exercise and I just realized I hadn't posted this earlier like I planned. So here is part two of three parts of our weekend activities.

This past Saturday, as part of the festival, there were displays by a number of re-enactment groups. I only took a few pictures but you can get the idea I think. You can click on each picture to make it larger so you can perhaps see better detail.

The first two pictures are of Revolutionary war soldiers. The first is an enlisted man. He is showing and demonstrating some of the items he would have needed and used.

The second picture is of an officer. He didn't look very happy but actually he was deep into a conversation at the time.

This picture is from the Civil war reenactment group. This shows a "recuiting" stand to get NY folks to volunteer for the North. No one was there when I was but I took the picture anyway.

My final picture in this group is of a woman doing bobbin lace. I own some of the bobbins but have never learned how to use them. It is a slow, patience needed, kind of art.

Come by my blog again tomorrow to see some pictures that will tell a bit about Mourning during the civil war era.