Cleaning Out The Root Cellar

There's no more room on the shelves in the cellar, he said. Nowhere to put these jars of pickles. 
Let's go through the stuff in there and empty some jars, I said. There's bound to be some that need to be emptied. 
It will only take us 20 minutes or so. 
I said that. Three hours or so later, I am dusty, filthy and worn out. 
The wheelbarrow is full of empty,dirty jars. 
But there is room for a lot more good stuff in there now. 
I realized that we have w-a-a-a-y too much jam and jelly, so in the spring a lot of that will be tossed too. But not today. 
Definitely not today. 
What I did find was a big tote full of blue canning jars, many of them half-gallons. We found them in one of the old log cabins we moved. I thought that we'd used or given away almost all of them, but surprise! All these years later a tote full of them was sitting quietly in a corner of the cellar. When I get some energy back in me, those will come in and be washed up. 
As for the other dirty jars, after I clean them up I will keep just enough to fill my cellar shelves, no more. The others will be sold because really, how much food can two people eat? There's 50 quarts of green beans, 50 of tomatoes and pasta sauce, pints of salsa, enough applesauce to make a kettle of apple butter, 50 quarts or so of pickles of various kinds, cabbage relish and pickled beets and mincemeat and gallons of cider. There's apple butter, jars and jars of it, about 30 quarts or more of vegetable soup, 8 quarts of sauerkraut. There's grape juice and pumpkin and even spiced crabapples. That's not even talking about what's in the freezer. 
We have plenty. We don't need the extra jars, so out they go. I'll keep all the pints and half-pints because those sizes are more what we need these days. 
Now I am getting in the shower. I feel dirty from my head to my toes, but I am so glad we tackled the cellar and got it straightened out for another year. 
Even if it did take a little longer that 20 minutes.

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

Quiet but Busy: Painting and Canning

Besides planning for our trip, I've been canning and painting, not necessarily in that order.

 Pickles and vegetable soup have been the order of the day this week, along with some frozen squash medley. I have discovered that if I saute' squash, onions, celery and peppers together the squash is delicious and not squeaky like frozen squash usually is. We have had an overload of yellow squash this year, after having none last year, and a person can only eat so much squash! This mix is delicious with a little garlic and red pepper tossed in and put over rice, or mixed into pasta sauce and put over spaghetti noodles or macaroni. I expect I'll find other uses for it too.

Larry planted late green beans and they've provided enough for seven pints canned, and for adding to vegetable soup. I've got about 30 pints of veggie soup put up now, and will probably get a few more before we're done.The late corn is just about ready, a small patch of turnips and other greens is getting going, and the late onions are also coming on now. Despite the terrible heat this summer the gardens have done well.

As for painting, I've been rolling out some small projects and Larry got another dinette set ready to go. Here's a look at some of what we've been doing:

 This little desk was just ugly--it had been badly painted in the 70's, I guess, with one of those antiquing kits. I planned to paint it all-over red, but the top was rough so I gave it a good sanding. As I sanded, this finish emerged, and I loved it.

 We have a stockpile of chairs, so it wasn't hard to choose one I thought would look best with the desk.

We've been putting this set together for a while. We started, actually, in February or March of 2015, when we found the table. It was in a small, non-electric log cabin that had belonged to a 95-year-old man. We bought several items from his estate. The table had no chairs to match so we began looking for some we could have re-upholstered. We had the two cream ones already done, and then found two others that were not really matches but we went ahead and had them covered in turquoise to make this set. Some elbow grease to clean up the table and here she is:

I have had this table in my booths for 3 years with no takers, so it came home and got a coat of paint. Maybe now it will sell? Fingers crossed!

The little decorative sled just needed a coat of paint and some white glaze; the table was another one of those "let's sand this and see what happens" moments.

This is a work in progress. I can see I need to take it apart--again--and paint the inside of that bottom piece.  It will also get some prisms hanging from each light holder and a crystal bead chain to hang it. I put timed candles inside the light holders.

I call him Don Carlos--he's made to hold a bottle of wine. He had some chips and scrapes so I did some repainting and touch-up to spiff him up. I think he's pretty cool.

Little lamp got a coat of teal to brighten it up.

Larry has been working on old fans lately. Somehow we ended up with a half dozen of them, all needed some TLC. He's done some rewiring, cleaning and even fixed one so it rotates properly.

An upcoming project. We've had this in the workroom for a while and finally pulled it out and put it together. Sadly it's missing two of the glass doors that swing up and under. It's a Wernicke lawyer's bookcase and in perfect condition they bring good money. This one, with the missing doors and the damage to the top, won't bring anything like the usual price. We will repair the base and remove the veneer from the top, which will then have to be repainted. The rest will get a good wipe-down and then we'll see if it needs more work to make it look good again.

It looks like the top got water damage at some point. What a shame.

I had so much fun re-doing this bed lamp. It was a plain brown metal, and needed to be re-wired. We teamed up to find a good cord for it and got it re-done, then I painted and stenciled it. Kinda wishing I could keep it but I really have no need for it.

Little magazine rack is ready to go. I am so bad about taking before photos, but try to imagine it dark brown stain, scratched and scuffed and dirty. There is such pleasure in transforming a piece from junk to keeper.

That's a few of the things I've been working on. In progress are a coat rack, two little tables that will be painted with a Coca-Cola theme, a wood box with a floral transfer on top, a mirror frame, some candleholders, two lamps...what else? Stay tuned to see the finished results.

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

Just Routine

Good morning! 

A little garden work done, morning walk, laundry going, breakfast and the kitchen tidied back up. 

Next? Catch up with my online stuff, then housecleaning, put up more food--could be pickles, squash, salsa, pepper mustard or soup--multiple choice as the garden continues to thrive. Maybe do some more painting; yesterday was really productive on that score. 

Hot weather and humidity are back, but that little break was certainly welcome.

Just ordinary life going on here, nothing really exciting, but isn't it nice when it's just routine for a little while?



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

Maps and Routes and B&B's: Planning Our Trip to the UK

I've been deep into the final details of our upcoming trip across the pond to England and points beyond. What fun it is to read, look up, dream, and figure where to go, what to do, and where to stay! This is not a tour, we'll be on our own and the itinerary is ours to plan.

Originally I thought we would travel in England and maybe go up into Scotland a bit. But as I worked on a route, my eyes kept being drawn to Wales, and to Cornwall. And even though we'll have almost two weeks for this trip, I could not make it work out in some reasonable fashion to go to all of them. So after many draft plans, I regretfully left Scotland off the list (this time) and focused on a more southerly route.

It will be an ambitious route even so. We will land in Bristol and stay overnight with a friend who has offered to show us around his city. The following day will find us exploring the stone circle and antiquities at Avebury, and possibly making a trip down to Glastonbury if we have time. And at Avebury, the circle is more accessible than Stonehenge--and it's free!--and that will suit me better. Some of you may know the legends of the Glastonbury Thorn, and of Joseph or Arimathea's supposed trip to the area. Storyteller me wants to see this place.

Then we will have two days visiting family around the Cambridge area. I am really looking forward to this part of our trip. I still have two aunts living in England, my mother's sister and her sister-in-law, along with several cousins. We saw them in 2013 when we visited, and I am excited to be able to see them again.

Our next day should prove really exciting as we travel west across England and hopefully meet up with my blog friend Gretel! If all goes well we'll be able to have lunch and a good chat, then we will travel on to the coast of Wales and the town of Aberystwyth. There are several things I want to do there--take the steam train into the heart of Wales, maybe go out on a boat trip. Who knows? I do know I want to explore that gorgeous coastline.

Then we drive south and a bit east to the town of Merther Tydfil, and a stay in an old miner's cottage. The lady who owns this b&b has told me she is also a storyteller and has promised some interesting times. We'll leave there and head for Ilfracombe (I can't wait to hear how these places are actually pronounced) and another b&b. This town has spectacular scenery and so much to see but it's the coastline that we really want to just drive along and look at the beauty all around.

I used Air BnB to book rooms and have my fingers crossed that it all goes well. It is certainly a less expensive and far more interesting way to travel. We could have chosen to stay on a fishing trawler, or in a yurt, a gypsy caravan, a camper, an old rail car, or we could have gone "glamping." None of these worked out for us this time (at our age, easy access to a bathroom at night is kinda important!), but the cost is incredibly cheap for most of these intriguing places if you're game.

After Ilfracombe we will go to Minions (that's its name, really), to stay in an odd little stone hut with a fantastic view of the Bodmin moors. Don't worry, we won't "go Bodmin" I promise! (For those who haven't heard that term, it's from the BBC TV series Doc Martin. Basically it means to go mad and wander the moors, I think.) We'll be in Cornwall by this time, of course, and lots of local lore and legends abound. I know we'll find plenty of stories to bring home. We are excited about seeing Port Isaac, the home of the Doc Martin series, and hope to be able to take a boat trip here if time permits, to explore the coast.

Next stop will be Newquay and a hotel overlooking the ocean. It's the most expensive of our places to stay, but that water view will, I hope, be worth it. We may be taking a boat trip here as well, out to an island for some seal and porpoise watching. We'll see how that pans out. There is so much we want to see and do, and so little time.

Finally we will drive back for one last night in a B&B near Bath, so we will be close to the airport for our flight home. I imagine we will be worn out by then, but filled with new sights, new friends and plenty of pictures and stories to bring home with us.

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

How One Thing Leads to Another: Ball Pitchers

When I was a child we had a cream-colored ball-shaped pitcher that we used for making Kool-aid. It had an ice lip to prevent the ice cubes from plopping into your cup, and the drink was also so icy cold in that pitcher on hot summer days.

Mom kept the pitcher on a high shelf in her kitchen, and after she passed away all of us wanted it. I can't remember who ended up with it after she passed away, but by that time I'd found one just like it and kept it on a high shelf in my kitchen, where it made me smile every time I saw it.

That one pitcher led to the purchase of a small red creamer because I like the homey shape. I used it daily for a while; then it too went up on the high shelf. Many years later I got into the antiques and vintage resale business, and in scouting auctions, flea markets, etc for stock I found a larger red ball pitcher. It too went up on the shelf. I soon found more in yellow, green and blue. There was even a pink one that apparently flew out of the back of my husband's truck in a tote that wasn't tied down properly. That one just plain disappeared.

The collection continued to grow: I found a small green one when we were on vacation in Oregon last summer, and two stained pale yellow ones from a friend's resale group. Another green one was an eBay find, and made an adventurous journey from the wilds of northern Montana through blizzard conditions to the seller's mailbox, and eventually to me. We shared many messages back and forth during the saga.

The latest addition came from a Facebook friend. He saw a photo of my collection in a vintage kitchen group I belong to, and thought I needed a cobalt blue cream pitcher, so he sent me one as a gift. It has found its place on the shelf of ball pitchers, a shelf that contains many stories now, and always makes me smile.

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

Fleeting

The other day as I was carrying in groceries, I noticed that one of my little succulent plants had bloomed. I've never tried growing succulents before beyond aloe or hen & chicks, but I've been enjoying this planter of unusual-looking plants. The one that bloomed had bright, hot-pink flowers at the end of each stem. I showed it to Larry and thought I'd go back out to take a photo of it. But I got busy putting away groceries and forgot about it. By the next day, the flowers were gone.

This morning as I drank my tea on the porch, the sun shone through a drop of rainwater dangling from a branch of our redbud tree. It prismed beautifully, from red to blue and green and brilliant silver. It made me smile watching the play of light and color. Within minutes it was gone, just a memory of fleeting beauty.

Today I have read posts from friends who lost a parent overnight; who salute the memory of a lost relative on their birthday; a poem by a friend's daughter who lost her baby when nine months pregnant; a friend's story of a miscarriage many years ago and how healing came recently with a trip to a lake;  an account, terrible and touching of the history of Warsaw Poland by a young friend traveling there; distant cousins' adventures traveling in France; another cousin's rafting trip on the Colorado River and a musician's trip across country on the Cailfornia Zephyr; tens of pictures of children and young adults first day of school.

Stories, memories, joy, sorrow, excitement and more pour from my computer as I follow the lives of friends and family scattered around the world. I do my best to keep up, to send prayers, congratulations and condolences. And through it all I am struck by the speed of life on this whirling, tilting globe. Like that tiny drop of rain on the redbud tree, it shines...and then the moment is gone, the world moves on.

But I cling to the pictures in my mind, the touches on my heart, doing my best to see the connectedness of it all. I feel blessed to be included in so many lives, even at the minor level of a Facebook or blog post. I am humbled by those tiny bright flowers on my cactus that shared their beauty, if only for a moment, with my eyes.

It's all fleeting, every moment passing is one less we have to savor. Thank you all for coming here to read, and for being sharing your life with me.

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

So Hot That...

It started with Tony. He put up a post on Facebook about this heat wave. Tony had some pretty descriptive ideas for the heat, which prompted more from his friends. I picked up the idea and started a post on my own Facebook page, inviting people to share their "It's so hot that..." yarns. There were some great submissions, and that made me think I should share them with you. (And that is how some blog posts come about, isn't it? One idea leading to another.)

So here they are, starting with my original post. The names have been removed to protect the innocent:

My friend Tony Toledo posted that it was so hot in his neck of New England that the birds were using potholders to pull the worms out of the ground. I responded with "in WV it's so hot the chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs and the potatoes are already baked when we dig them up. So hot the compost heap is turning into coal before our very eyes. So hot the shine makers have changed over to making ice wine."

It's so hot in New Mexico that the green chilis are becoming Chili Rellenos on the vine!

Sad to say it's so dry up here in New Hampshire I used a thimble to empty a pond and I still had room in it for the surviving fish. The frog wouldn't fit, but I took him down to the river. 

It's so hot, I'm sweatin' like a whore in church. 

It is so hot in Ohio that the corn is sweating. (No joke. Corn sweat is a real thing!)

It's so windy here, a chicken laid the same egg four times...

So hot in MA my brain is too fried to think of anything better to quip with...and we are breathing pea soup from the humidity.

It was so hot yesterday, I baked a 2 layer carrot cake in my car.

So hot here in SE Ohio that the maters are already stewed as I pick them from the vine and the oregano is already dried and ready to be stored away for adding to those maters during the winter when I get a hankering for spaghetti!!

So hot here in NC, the watermelons are exploding like bombs in the fields...and this is true! Really messy. No it is true. my neighbor grows a big field of them. if you don't get them out of the field quick when they are ripe, they fester and explode. he gave us three. Two were delicious, but one blew up on the table outside on the porch. OMG the mess to clean up. Seeds on the ceiling. Red melon meat everywhere. And it did not smell too pleasant either. Yes it looked like a slaughterhouse.

It's so hot here in Illinois that our corn on the cob comes pre-popped. (And if you think it can't happen, check out this video.)

So hot that the devil is interviewing our engineers.

So hot that everything upright is now considered a wick.

So hot that in constantly kicking the bedsheets off, I've now trained harder than Michael Phelps.

And it's so hot that Trump comes here to inhale.

"It's so hot the lead melted off my homework."

It's so hot in NE Texas this morning that I almost got mugged by a gecko when I went out with the water hose to spray off the patio.

It's so hot here in NH that lobsters are jumping in pots of boiling water just to cool off. 

The sunflowers have died in SC. True story....mostly due to drought ..

So hot you don't have to iron your clothes. Just lay them out on the porch for ten minutes.

So hot the popcorn popped in the field. The plow mule thought it was snow and froze to death. This is an old south Georgia joke from my childhood. I live in VA now where we have real snow just not right now.

So hot the hot air coming out of the U.S. Capitol feels like air conditioning.

It's so hot, Trump had to take off his wig.

It's so hot here in Ohio, the vegetables out there in my garden have aleady turned into
succotash.

So hot that I just cooked eggs on the top of the car.

In the cool Colorado mountains, it's warm (by your standards). Sometime we call it hot if we're in the sun for too long.

It helps to laugh about it--knowing so many of us are in the same hot boat makes it better somehow.

So, how how is it where you are?


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

Sorting Out My Life

I sorted out my top dresser yesterday, and realized that it's almost a time capsule of my life. It looked pretty good when I was finished.

I did not take a before picture because I didn't realize it was going to provide fodder for a post. But here is just some of what was in there (and yes, it's actually a pretty big drawer):

• my jewelry, which is what is supposed to be in there. Mostly costume of course, but there is a watch on a chain that belonged to my great aunt, and an ivory scarab bracelet that was my grandmother's, I believe.
• a silk hankie that belong to my mother
• a jar of buttons
• a bag of small stones from Ireland along with pamphlets, tickets and other memorabilia from my Ireland trip last year
• a stack of paint chip cards
• a stack of bumper stickers I love but have never yet put on a bumper
• large wood pegs used to hold logs together on that last pre-Civil War log cabin we disassembled
• folding scissors
• jewelry pliers and wire
• a packet of needles
• pictures of grandchildren
• a box of dirt from my son's grave
• a container of cool beads and bits and pieces that I just like
• a little envelope of chips of glass, rocks, a feather and other items I collected on my walks at Davis & Elkins during my week teaching storytelling there in 2012 for the Augusta Heritage series
• a string for string games
• Irene McKinney's book of poetry, Six O'Clock Mine Report
• one of my journals
• a silverplated brush and comb set
• a box of oddments mt granddaughter Hannah put there years ago, with a Do Not Touch note.
• a tiny plastic baby from the cake the workers in the computer division at the State Capitol brought for the surprise baby shower they gave me for my youngest son (I was the security guard in the hall outside their office)
• silverplate hooks made from spoons by my nephew
• three little bottles of essential oil--rose, lavender and cinnamon
• a little glass box with a bird on top
• my name badge from when I worked at the Antiques Road Show a few years ago
• a pair of wool gloves that need to be mended
• my mother's wedding and ruby engagement ring and wedding ring, put together on a chain for me by my Dad, and my English Granny's first wedding ring (which I wore for years)

It's all tidy now, but I don't think I can--or would ever want--to say that about my life. I expect it will eventually be cluttered again as more memories are made and more tokens are collected. And you know, that's all right with me.

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

At Green Bottom Again: Summer in the Wildlife Management Area

A trip to the VA Hospital for Larry's appointment last week meant another opportunity to stop by Green Bottom wildlife management area. You might remember this post about GreenBottom when we stopped by there in April.  Now it is high summer in the bog, and the place is carpeted with wild hibiscus and American Lotus blossoms. (Edited--I thought they were water lilies but my friend Jenny corrected that. Actual name is N. lutea. Learning something new every day!)

 

I don't know the name of this little yellow flower--it's new to me. Can anyone identify it?

Deep shade, the sounds of thousands of insects and hundreds of birds filled the hot, humid air (temperatures were near 90 when we stopped).

One of dozens of dragonflies we saw as we followed the boardwalk through the swamp.

Another unknown flower. I'll have to find my flower identification books and take them with me next time we go to Greenbottom.

Another dragonfly. Their wings are so delicate, and their color is iridescent in the sun.

A hibiscus offers tempting pollination opportunities to the many bees that buzzed from flower to flower.

The water is murky, but we could see to the bottom, where tiny fish--or minnows, perhaps? darted quickly out of sight.

 In this area the water was covered with green algae, looking uncannily like a field of grass.

Shy jewelweed hides in a shady spot beneath taller growth. This plant places itself near poison ivy often, which is very handy since jewelweed is a great antidote for the ivy. Simply break the stems and smear the jelly-like substance inside over the affected area.

A bee works on the blossom of a plant I call bindweed--I detest it in my gardens but here it has a singular beauty.

Visitors! Raccoons must find this place a paradise.

A little of the sights and sounds--a patch of busy water, and the songs of insects and birds.

Have a lovely day, my friends, and stay cool if you can. It will once again be near 90 degrees here.

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

A Quiet Day

There is much to be said for a quiet day at home.

In summer, we have too much to do: yard and garden work, canning and preserving, traveling to storytelling events, family get-togethers all crowd our days. These are all good things. The gardens provide flowers and food, the lawns provide restful spaces, the storytelling brings joy and connections with people I only see once or twice a year, and family gatherings are filled with love, memories and laughter.

All of these are good, but rest and reflection are in short supply in the summer months. So a day of no travel, no calls, no visitors and no commitments is a gift. That does not mean there is no work; it just means that I get to choose what tasks to tackle, and to do them in my own time and at my own pace.

Yesterday was one of those at-home days. It was a day for tea on the porch, a simple breakfast, reading, sorting papers and catching up paperwork; a day of re-arranging some favorite glass pieces, dusting, writing thank-you notes and cleaning the fridge. There was time for pricing items for one of our booths and time for a glass of wine and a video in the evening. There was even time to pet the dogs, pick a few flowers for the house and some apples for a future pie.

Such days restore the soul, don't they? They're nothing special in themselves, and yet they bring a peace that is special and treasured, the knowledge that the world is going on just fine without me as an active participant. I can think and muse and simply enjoy each moment as it comes.

Sometimes I wish I had more days like this, but then I wonder, would they not then become the norm and as such not nearly as appreciated? I thought when I retired that all days would be quiet and restful but I forgot to take myself into consideration. I am not one to sit; things attract me and I get involved and next thing I know I'm neck-deep in busyness. Every hobby becomes work unless I actively resist the urge. So I appreciate these rare quiet days in summer. Winter brings more opportunities but in summer, they're rare and treasured.

Today, I suppose I will be back into the fray. I'll listen to the news, work on my eBay, re-stock a booth, run errands. But yesterday was a gift to savor.

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

Dog Days: Sleeping on Bones, Rabies in the Water, and More

I wrote a bit about Dog Days a couple weeks ago, but here's more on this odd topic: my Two Lane Livin' article last month.

It’s hot. Steamy hot, and even the dogs prefer the coolness under the deck to their usual place under the porch ceiling fan. 

We call this time of year Dog Days, generally accepted as those days between July 3 and August 11. But why dog days? 

At our house every day seems like dog days to me-they get treats, they sleep when they like and have their food delivered to them, they get petted and fussed over whenever they want, and they do little if any actual work. Seems like a pretty good life to me!

Originating in the Mediterranean area, the term came into use because the hottest weather of the year usually occurred at the same time of year that the dog star Sirius rose just after sunset as part of the Canis Major constellation.  

Homer, the early Greek poet, wrote that, “Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky On summer nights, star of stars, Orion's Dog they call it, brightest Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat , And fevers to suffering humanity.”

The ancients associated dog days with evil. Dogs went mad, they claimed, the seas were turbulent, storms were fierce and damaging, and disease spread quickly. Some believed that snakes went blind, wounds would not heal properly and people were generally on edge and cranky.

In England dog days began on Saint Swithin’s Day, July 15^th, and people looked to that date for weather predictions for the next six weeks, which was harvest season. Rain on Saint Swithin’s meant at least 40 more days of rain and bad luck for the crops. “Dog days bright and clear indicate a happy year – but when accompanied by rain, for better times our hopes are in vain.”

A few other strange beliefs connected with dog days: when putting on socks, you should know that you should always put on the left one first, because it prevents getting a toothache (maybe this explains the verse in the song Old Dan Tucker, who dies of a toothache in his heel?). But people believed that the right sock should be put on first on the first of the dog days or else they risked falling and breaking their leg.

You should never let a child sleep on a bone during dog days--very unlucky at this particular time of year. Children should also not be allowed to sleep on a grave and in Texas they were kept out of the sun during dog days for fear that the heat caused strange illnesses. They were warned not to go barefoot either because of potential diseases in the soil.

It is dangerous to go swimming in dog days, people in the Ozarks believed, because the green scum on the water might convey rabies. (Untrue of course, but how did this idea start in the first place?) People did not cut their hair and would put off having surgery during dog days.

Snakes are more likely to strike during dog days, some say, but others contend that snakes are less likely to bite because the heat makes them languid. Dog days were blamed for Cows catching diseases, hogs getting cholera, henhouses becoming lice-infest, tickbites more numerous and all sorts of other unpleasant events.

To sum up: put your socks on correctly, don’t swim in slime-infested water or let your children sleep on bones or graves, get rabies shots for your pets, be mindful of snakes.  You are now forewarned, so go out and enjoy the rest of your summer!

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

Ugly Tomatoes

Apparently ugly tomatoes are a thing this year. Who knew?

What are ugly tomatoes? Chances are you've grown some, if you grow the oldtime, heritage varieties. There are several things that the term ugly tomato includes:

All sizes and shapes!

1. Color weirdness: If you grow the black or purple varieties, you know all about this--the tops will stay green or greenish while the rest is dead ripe. It's common in tomatoes like Black Crim, Black Prince, and Cherokee Purple. We grew Black Crim and Cherokee Purple this year, and have had prime examples of the odd coloring.

Black cherry tomatoes. Surprisingly, most of these are ripe.

2. Cracking: The large-fruit varieties of tomatoes are especially susceptible to this condition, and this year's weather has been prime for it. Lots of rain and warm temperatures make the tomatoes grow so fast they literally crack their skins. Better pick and eat as soon as possible, or they'll spoil!

A few of these tomatoes are showing "cat-facing"

3. Cat-Facing: This term is new to me, but I know just what it describes--those tough, dark, brownish bits that occur in oddly shaped tomatoes. These don't hurt anything except that we have to cut them out because they're not tasty at all, and that means losing some of the good tomato meat in the process. This is caused when the plants are exposed to low temperatures, like below 50 degrees. We had a lot of our plants out early, and then in mid-May we had some late frosts, so our plants, at least some of them, were affected. But honestly? It seems to me that big, big tomatoes almost always have these places on them.

Lots of ugly tomatoes!

4. Crazy shapes: the heirloom varieties are especially likely to grow odd ridges, deep valleys, weird protuberances that look like noses, etc. I love these bumpy, strange tomatoes because they taste so good! The round red tomato so favored for years has seen its heyday, I think. Now people are discovering the rich variety of flavors available to them and exploring all kinds of other tomatoes--and most of these delicious oldtime types are not readily available in the supermarket so people are seeking them from local growers. All of which is good news in my book.

This tomato shows some cat-facing, the odd shape, a little color variation, and it cracked in the stem area when it was picked. Four for four!

Are you growing any ugly tomatoes this year?

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

Two Mysteries Solved: Blenko and Sandwich

The hobby of glass identification can have some interesting twists and turns. The other day I mentioned the two kinds of glass I love and collect, Blenko and Early American Pattern Glass. Now I've run into yet another type of early, early American glass: Sandwich. Take this bottle:

 I found it at a thrift shop, for $1.00. I started to just put it back because it really didn't look like anything special, and it was rough inside the top rim.

But the pontil on the bottom intrigued me.

That rough circle on the bottom of glass means handblown, but the pattern and shape confused me. It was really dirty too. Well, I spent the dollar, and the bottle has been around here for a few months with me looking at it and trying to figure it out.

Finally I posted some photos to a Ball jar collectors group on Facebook; even though these weren't bottle people, there are some very knowledgeable people in the group and I hoped one of them could steer me in the right direction, to a bottle group, but first gave me some starting information to work with. Ah, the intricacies of Facebook! In the bottle group, I learned that what I have is an American Three-Mold Blown Decanter, most likely blown at Boston & Sandwich Glass around 1850. For more about this glass, the museum's website is a great resource. Apparently each mold used for glass production at the Sandwich factory had a number assigned, so now I am hunting for the number of the mold for me piece.

That roughness inside the rim? Sometimes a piece was damaged by its owner so the top was cut down and ground, as happened with my bottle. Pretty clever, I'm thinking. So, one mystery solved. A group member just happened to have a lot of stoppers for these old decanters so maybe I'll be able to show a photo of it all together soon.

Will I become a collector of this glass too? Probably not, but I have learned about something else to look for, and I do believe I might have a couple other pieces of Sandwich in my collection that I have not yet tried to identify. More fun ahead!

The second mystery involved this ash tray:

I thought when I bought it that it was Blenko glass, made in Milton, WV. I've visited their factory a couple times, and have built a pretty nice collection, mostly of pieces found while thrifting. But the Blenko Facebook group said no,this ashtray was not Blenko because they didn't make that coloration. Then yesterday a member found an ashtray very like mine...with the Blenko sticker still attached! It was identified as made from the glass used to make the rare "Rialto" items at Blenko. I was excited but kinda bummed because I had just recently sold the one I had on eBay for a fairly low price. I posted my photo again to the group, and once again...sigh...was told it was not Blenko because the shape is wrong. So I was no longer bummed, and I am still excited because I am hoping one day I'll come upon one of the real Blenko Rialto glass ashtrays. I probably won't buy it to keep, since I don't collect the ashtrays, but it would be fun to just see one in the wild, as we say when we find good glass in some out-of-the-way thrift shop.

The learning continues. The one basic truth I have discovered about glass collecting is that I will never learn all there is to know about the wide, deep and fascinating subject.


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