Bits and Pieces

1°f/-17.2°C, but supposed to warm up to 31! If that happens it will be the warmest day in at least 2 weeks. Started put clear, but overcast now at 11am.

In the little side flowerbed.

Larry has gone to town to get windshield wipers for his truck. Not a really necessary trip, but he wanted to get out for a while. He aimed straight for Tudor's and their biscuits and gravy! He'll be eating veggies the rsst of the day to balance all those carbs. I had oatmeal, blueberry yogurt, and strawberries. Yum.

Pip, our newest dog, loves dried apples! Buddy turns up his nose at them, and Daisy looks offended if I offer them to her. So Pip will have his own special treat. I still have 3 boxes of those apple slices; I will freeze a few more, but the rest will be fed to the rabbits and chickens before they go bad. Unless Larry wants to help me make applesauce from them.

I guess the groundhog, or the badger depending on where you live, saw his shadow this morning. So we can expect continued cold weather and maybe a late Spring. Which is okay with me, because that delays the fruit trees blooming and the risk of those blooms getting frosted. Old Farmer's would say that "Candlemas be fair and bright, Come winter, have another flight; If Candlemas bring clouds and rain, Go winter, and come not again." And also "Half your wood and half your hay, you should have on Candlemas Day".

Today is Candlemas, which was the traditional day for the blessing of candles, which were used at church, and in homes for devotional purposes. According to Catholic lore, the candle's wax represented the flesh of Jesus,the wick represented his soul, and the flame his divinity.  

And don't forget, today is Brown Dog Day! So if you have a brown dog, special treats are in order, right? The late humorist and West Virginia news columnist Jim Dent insisted there was a "West Virginia Brown Dog" breed---and anyone from here can tell you exactly what that dog looks like, a mishmash of about 20 breeds with no one breed predominant. We have had a couple of those nondescript fellas; they were very smart and prone to roam far and wide and eventually never return. Back then there was no Facebook, airtags, etc, so a lost dog was very hard to find.

Speaking of Facebook, I recently posted this picture of my Tappan range with the two canners on it in a group for vintage kitchen enthusiasts, and was scolded by a couple young folks because my Revereware pans' copper bottoms were not polished. I posted this picture here last week, I think, and not one of you made a peep about my unpolished pots!

I had to laugh at those earnest souls, because I have had some of those for 50 years or more, and they work just as well whether I polish them or not! I do shine them up occasionally,  but they're not hanging there for display only. Good grief. I only cook in these or cast iron, and bake mostly in glass. Old-fashioned, I know, but i won't be a bit surprised when we find that silicone, the current fad in cookware,  is found to be bad for us, just as they discovered that aluminum and Teflon were no-no's. I'll stick with my tried and true.

Today I will continue making the huge mess i started yesterday, sorting out my stockroom. Two totes left for Goodwill with Larry, so that's a good start. When I see the hoards of other resellers, I really feel pretty good about mine. Some have buildings, storage lockers, basements, garages, and rooms stuffed with stock! That would be a nightmare. I have one room for ebay and booth stock, where i also have my computer workstation and all my shipping materials, plus the other workroom which serves as storage for our own stuff, the freezers, dry storage for potatoes, etc, and furniture to be worked on, and we do at least a yearly purge back there too, and two or three smaller cleanouts.  Our house has 4 closets total, two of them quite small, and no basement or attic, so what you see is pretty much what we have. I would hate to think I had buildings full to deal with. Horrors.

Enough! Time to get to work.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.