Snow on Snow on (Little Bits) of Snow

March has been a cold, cold month so far, with just a couple breaks. I am happy in one way because it will hold back Spring.

Last year Spring arrived far too early, with daffodils blooming in February, and then of course we had freezing weather later that destroyed our fruit crop. So cold is good, at least in this sense.

The weather hasn't stopped us from moving right along with the things we need to do, though. Larry is still cutting up the fallen trees, and yesterday he pruned the grapes and blackberry vines. We bought garden seed this week for some of the early garden -- lettuce, radishes, onion sets, carrots, kale. The store did not have peas and beets and spinach yet, so we'll get those later.

My storytelling partner and I completed the first of our Celtic programs for this year, and it went very well. We had a great audience that listened and stayed to talk after our presentation. I am looking forward to our next performance this coming week. It felt good to get back into storytelling mode after a two-month hiatus.

We've been to our booths to restock, and bought a whole lot of new items from our favorite picker, so that meant days of research, cleaning, pricing and packing. I'm all caught up now!

Finds, waiting to be researched.

I loved these old rulers with their short phone numbers--indicates pre 1960 at least.

And old mercury Christmas ornaments! Some will have to be keepers.

A couple pics from our Ravenswood booth:

A miner's shower basket would be a cool utensil rack in the kitchen:

Ebay has kept me busy too, lots of sales and I've been trying to list five items a day. It sounds easily doable, but that's not the case. Even if I know what something is, I have to research sold prices. That can often mean having to look on Worthpoint and other sites to even find a like item. Then there are the photos to be taken and edited for the listing, a good description to be written, all the item details to be put in, and weight and size of the package to be calculated. It all takes time.

Larry was released from care by his home health providers, so we said goodbye to our two regular visitors who came several times a week over the last two months. We sure enjoyed them. They provided the best care a person could ask for, and were interesting to talk with too.

And visitors! Besides the home health people, our granddaughter Hannah came over with her little baby. He is so funny, very alert and interested in everything, and so strong. He's already puching himself to his feet on your lap, and wants to crawl so badly. I bet he'll be walking in no time. Our friend and awesome banjo player Kim came up from Charleston to visit--I had some old photo frames she wanted, so I cooked us a good Fat Tuesday dinner of venison meatloaf, potatoes au gratin, green beans and the most luscious chocolate torte. I do love to cook when I can take my time with it.

We're finally watching the series Poldark, set in Cornwall England. Larry and I visited Cornwall a couple years ago and loved it. This year two of my sisters and I are going to England and one sister is a big Poldark fan and wants to see the places she saw in the series. So Cornwall is on our agenda, and I am watching Poldark to see what it is that Judy wants to see. Larry and I actually drove right through most of the filming area, and it is breathtakingly lovely. Now I am trying to identify what I remember of what we saw with what I am seeing in the show.

Some of my photos from Cornwall--this first reminds me of the farm buildings in Poldark.

And this reminds me of some of the scenese where they are looking out to sea.

And, oh, the roads!

So that's been what life has been like on this hill. Lots of little things, but the little things are often what makes life its richest.


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