Sunday Road Trip

71°f/about 21°C, overcast. Rainshowers off and on all day, bit of thunder here and there. Finally the humidity has lessened this evening.

Part of a mural by the late Charles "Jupiter" Hamilton, in Charleston,  WV. 

Sunday promised to be another hot day. We were discussing what to do inside while scrolling through our phones, and I saw these two items for sale on Facebook Marketplace. 

   

The lovely sideboard was only $40!

Then there was this:

I have never seen a porcelain-top table ymthat had a red top! I thought it had ben psinted, but the seller said no, it was the original porcelain (or what some call enamel) top. For $50? Yes. 

So just like that our plans were made and we were off to Charleston.  

The sideboard was a bit of a job to load, as there was no one to help, so we had to carry it up a little bank ourselves. Fortunately it is mahogany so not terribly heavy.

When we got to the home of the second seller, I found my canning twin! This lady, whose name was Connie, took us to her garage where the table was located, and which was also her canning kitchen. Shelves full of her canned foods lined the shelves. She had a huge apple butter kettle as well as a smaller one, and just as many extra canners as I have (because you never know...).

Connie called her son to help load, and I was glad to see that strong young man because these tables are not light. We noticed this cool antique wagon in front of her house. She is trying to sell it so if you know someone who might be interested, I can get them in touch with her. I think it's a steal at $300.

By this time we were both hungry, so started looking for a place for late lunch/early dinner. We ended up at an Italian restaurant in had heard good things about, Sergio's in west side Charleston,  an area now being called by its old name, Elk City, named for the Elk River which flows into the Kanawha River at that point. The area used to be pretty rundown but there are good efforts underway to revive its once bustling shopping area.

The restaurant: I was disappointed in the ambience---lots of noise from the open kitchen, big cooling equipment and exhaust fans running, and it was overly warm. But we were tired so we went ahead and ordered.  The server was great, but my white wine 

was warm, another disappointment.  The food, however was delicious.  

I doubt we will ever go back, since it really wasn't that pleasant to be there. Ah well. There is a meadery across the street, so maybe we will check that out one day.

More of the mural.

Jupiter Hamilton was an imaginative, creative artist, and it was a sad loss to Charleston's art community when he passed away.

So that was our Sunday. Today I planted some lilies i bought marked down, did more weeding in my big flowerbed,  helped Larry put up the last panel of picket fence which the falling tree destroyed last December, then came inside to paint a small table and sand and paint a cute little five-drawer chest. 

Derek came over and helped Larry get the tractor out of the building so the repair guy can load it easily, sometime this week. It will be good to finally get it repaired. They took our truck to a friend to see if he can fix the problem with getting gas into the gas tank (as in, gas won't go in!). That's been an ongoing issue for months as Larry tried one thing after another to fix it m. Fingers crossed that our friend can figure it out!

This evening I wandered out to the veggie garden, pulled a few weeds, and picked (way too many) squash. 

Such is our exciting life these days.

Linking up to Sami's Colourful World today.