Almost Wordless Wednesday: Roses, Cookies, and Other Random Stuff

56°f/13.3°C, overcast. A warm start to the day.

Roses from Larry, which he gave me yesterday. He gave me beautiful red carnations and Pacski

doughnuts on Saturday. If you know those doughnuts, you'd know how delicious they are, and only available for a brief time each year. When he went to the store yesterday he found the roses marked down from $22 to $5. Aren't they lovely?

Irish Shortbread cookies. Oddly, I can't find the online Dr recipe I used! Basically, it was 1 cup softened butter, 1/4 tp salt,  1 1/2 cups sugar, 4 cups of flour, and 2 tsp vanilla. I preheated the oven to 350°. I creamed the butter and sugar, added the vanilla, then the flour and salt. Idid not use cornstarch as most recipes call for, and did not refrigerate the dough, but they came out great. I rolled out the dough on a floured surface, cut them out, pricked with a fork to keep them from puffing up. Baked for 8 minutes, took them out and sprinkled them with sugar, then returned them to the oven for 5 more minutes. I allowed them to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. It yielded about 48 cookies.

An aerial photo of our place, apparently taken recently as Sarah's is in the photo, upper right. Our house is sort of center, and not easy to see.

⁴

Found in my stash as I continue clearing out my ebay room. Centennial plate for WV's 100th year.

Also found this very old paper packet of tobacco. I bet it's dry as dust 

Time to break out the Belleek Irish tea set! 

I spent part of Saturday morning cleaning silver. Such rewarding results, after much elbow grease.

A new for us medicine cabinet. Our old one (it really was old, probably from the 30's) was replaced by this even older cabinet. This was likely from a hospital or industrial setting, as it is stamped Uwanta Linen Service inside. It doesn't match the other cupboards, but I am not painting it.

Found this stored away; we bought it prob10 years ago and planned to sell it, but I am glad we still had it.

Found on my bookshelf. Want to know what it says about your birthday? Shoot me a message! 

Last week on Joe's Run:

We stocked our Ravenswood booths yesterday.  This little table and chairs sold last week so we came in to find an empty space. Usually they call to tell us, but didn't do so this time for some reason.

And last but not least, I framed this anniversary card, sent to my mother from my father, probably very early in their marriage,  as he signed it "Billy". No one ever called him that in my memory, so this was likely late 40s to early 50s. 

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

In Charleston

31°f/0°C, clear. Light dusting of snow overnight tgat only stuck here and there, and is fast melting.

Our State Capitol building in the fog looked spooky. There are a few ghosts stories connected with it.

Across the Great Kanawha (pronounced KenAW) River, the University of Charleston also looks ghostly.

Closer up, not so much fog

The coal miner tribute sculpture on the Capitol grounds.

and the war memorial.

Behind the restaurant where we had dinner, someone was getting in trouble with the law.

Across the street from the restaurant this window caught my eye.

Dinner was not at the Irish pub, as we had planned; they were closed for a private event. We struck out at other places too. Who knew so many restaurants are closed on Sunday evening? We finally ended up at a place called Kel's Tavern. My smothered chicken was delicious and plentiful, enough for another meal. Larry could not eat all of his club sandwich and homemade fries either. We went into an Italian place across the street first, only to discover it was Muslim-run and so served no beer or wine. This was our Valentine's day celebration so we opted for Kel's, where Larry could have his Guinness and I had my favorite, Chardonnay. But we may try the Italian place again one day.

Murals around town: this one is the work of the late Jupiter Hamilton,  I believe.

I liked this one with the story of West Virginia legend John Henry.

Cute use of the awning!

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

At Mountain Stage

31°f/0°C, very foggy this morning after yesterday's rain and continued thaw. Partly cloudy the rest of the day. 

What a show! It has been a long while since we attended a Mountain Stage show, and we picked a good one. How well I remember the first Mountain Stage---I was working as a security guard in the building that housed WV Public Radio, and I remember the excitement of the creators the night before and then the next night after the show (I worked 5pm to 1am then, 6 days a week). In later months and years, I was able to attend occasionally,  but then the ticket prices became unaffordable for us. This time we splurged and it was well worth the cost! 

We were excited to see local girl Makenna Hope on the show! You might remember that she performed at our local open mic a month or so ago, and we thought she was terrific. Well, apparently we're not the only ones! Since Julie Adam's retired, I wonder if they ard looking for a replacement? Makenna would be a good one, in my book.

Here are a few clips from the show. They have to be less than a minute because of copyright,  but at least you can get a sense of it. This show will air in a few weeks, if your local station carries Mountain Stage.

The start of the show always features this song.

The Amanda Cross Bluegrass Band was high energy.

Tim O'Brien and his wife Jan Fabricious. I think i spelled that right. Excellent vocalist and mandolin player. This song, Back to Eden, was really beautiful. 

There were other excellent groups performing, but I didn't video them all. Here is a short clip from the final song, which included everyone who was on the show. I clipped the part with Makenna singing so you could hear what a fine voice she has. She follows Amanda Cross in the clip.

And last, but the best part of yhe show and our main reason for going, this little taste of Solas. Tim O'Brien came onstage to harmonize with Nuala Kennedy. 

It was a late night for us old folks, but we'll worth the drive home in the foggy dark. 

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