Tuesday Trivia

70°f/2+°C, showers in the morning, storms and showers most of the say. Yes! 

Supper: grapes, raspberry-banana bread, and iced tea. Add my book, and a favorite photo of my Dad: perfect.

A rainy day is a good day for errands, isn't it? Can't work in the gardens, don't want to do housework, so Option 3: run errands.

First stop today was to buy these lamps from a friend.

Aren't they gorgeous? If you like Victorian decor, that is. My friend is liquidating her late mother-in-law's estate. We had bought some things from her mother-in-law a few years ago, when she was downsizing so she could move to a more suitable house. She passed away last year, and since she had only one son, he and my friend are the only heirs. Their children took what they wanted, and I am buying what's left. There isn't a lot, mainly glassware and a few lamps and framed art.

As you can see, we took them directly to our booth. No sense dragging them home first over our bumpy road! We must go back in a couple weeks for the rest, but it will all be nice additions to our stock. We took the cabinet we bought over the weekend to the booth too, so the van is, amazingly, empty for the moment. Rarely happens.

We had lunch with friends, then it was grocery store and feed store, and home, where I had ebay to pack...and my book to read. It is still showering a bit, and showers and storms may continue into tomorrow morning. We are so relieved; it looks like a rainy pattern for the next several days, and I will do my best not to complain, as we really need it. We are running our air conditioners, because humidity is through the roof, 99% right now.

And that is about all the news from here. I had nice long phone conversations the past few days with my sons, my sister Theresa who had her birthday Sunday, and with my friend Leah who is recovering rapidly from her brain surgery to remove an aneurism.  Oh, and with my friend Nancy in Arizona, and Melanie in Pittsburgh.  It's always good to catch up with everyone. Remember when long distance calls cost a fortune? One huge benefit of cell phones. I well remember $300+ phone bills when my sons were stationed overseas or on the other side of the country. At one time, we had one in Seattle, one in Germany, and one in Korea.

I'll close with this photo I took on our way out today, of our neighbor's hardworking dog.

Isn't he funny? He sure was proud of his stick!

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

Over in Ohio, and Other Things

72°f/22°C, again. We seem to be stuck in a rut! No rain, humid, in the 80s again.

I am resting and trying to rehydrate after pressure washing the patio. You would think with all that water...but when I sat down my blood pressure was low and my pulse high, so I am drinking my third bottle of water! And feeling better.

Anyway, here's a few photosvfrom our jaunt over to Ohio on Saturday.

Not the most desirable route number! But unfortunately we had to go that way. Fortunately there were nothing untoward happened. Whew.

I wonder if this town, like Gay, West Virginia,  decided to keep its original name despite the changed meaning of the word gay? My bet is that it was named after a local family surname. We traveled on Ohio Route 60 on the way home,from Zanesville to Marietta,  and the road follows the Muskingum River the whole way. Back in the day, this was a major steamboat route.

An abandoned bus stop won't last long now that the roof is starting to go. What a pity.

In McConnelsville, the town center is a circle, and in the center is a sculpture of a Union soldier from the Civil War.

Such a pretty town. We wandered around a bit, just to see what was there.

The Bluebird Cafe is a coffee shop. It was too late in the day for coffee, so we didn't go in. Maybe next time, because it looked very inviting.

That long red brick building is a hardware store! It goes right around the block.

Outside, painted rocks made an eye-catching display.

And on the window of the hardware, the entire family genealogy, tracing back to the first owners of the store. Amazing. It stretched over several display windows. 

Inside the hardware store. I think they have everything you could possibly need, from paint to kitchenware, garden supplies, power tools... you name it.

Larry checked out more of the store's history. 

On the street, large hearts invite "locks of love'.

Then it was on to the Chatterbox Tavern for dinner. This was pretty much a dive bar, as it turned out. The town does have a brewery but the name of this place caught our attention.

Look at all those beer taps! Just for display, of course, but they stretched a lot further than I could capture in a photo.

Nice people, but the food was meh, and a little pricey. 

Larry being good dinner company 🙄

Back on the road, we passed this amazing place. So many barns, silos, buildings, all seemingly connected to each other!

Further on, yet another barn complex.

An old feed store in Beverly, Ohio. There was a bad steamboat disaster here, which I wrote a little about about in this blog post. I need to post the whole story sometime.

And finally, here is the cabinet we went after! 

Not bad for $40. Doesn't need a thing done to it.

Sunday we stayed home.  I rested and cooked--- spinach and bacon quiche, pasta salad, and raspberry banana bread. Larry cut grass and grilled chicken, so we are stocked up with easy meals for a few days!  Only remembered to take pictures of the quiche! 

I do like my colorful pie plates!

Today, besides working on the patio, we finished mulching the garden. And that was enough for this hot day.

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

Books

72°f/22°C, again. Humid, light overcast. North of us had heavy storms yesterday, but nothing here, sadly.

When you think you're going to stay home and recover from a few days of hard work, then someone advertises a Hoosier-style cabinet for $40, what do you do? You get in the van and drive to Zanesville, Ohio. That was yesterday. Today? Getting that rest, I promise! 

I finished my book, Circle of Grace, by Penelope J. Stokes, when we got home last night, and today I've started When We Believed in Mermaids, another by Barbara O'Neal. 

Last week I read The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman, an eerie tale, as most of hers are, about three sisters who invent an imaginary land and their own language as well. Reality in the form of an abuser and a tragic attempt to save a horse push the oldest and leader of the sisters deeper into her imaginary world, which becomes a dark and painful place, and creates divisions between the girls. Their single mother tries and often fails to control her daughters as the girls go through their teen years. Drugs, promiscuity and self-hurt dominate the older sister's life as her two siblings each try to cope in their own way, watching helplessly as the oldest spirals deeper and deeper into chaos. I like Alice Hoffman's books usually, so I plowed on with this one even though the story was for the most part not a happy one. There were enough flashes of light and hope to keep me going. In the end, I was glad I had stuck with it. It is not a story I will soon forget. 

Circle of Grace also explored relationships between women who met as college roommates and tried to continue their bond with a journal that passed from one to another. The four friends go separate ways and record their lives in the journal, but each keeps the truth of their lives out of the journal, and instead give a rose-colorded and often fictional accounting. When Grace discovers she has terminal cancer, she invites the group for a weekend at a luxury spa, where she plans to tell the sad truth of her life, and ask forgiveness for her lies. But each of the three others also has secrets, and each comes to the retreat intending to come clean. This was a good read, often touching, often reverberating with the truths of the lives of so many women. 

I have noticed that I seldom read any book by a man. Why is that? It's not a conscious choice, but I guess I find the female perspective more relatable. I think the last book I read that was written by a make author was A Gentleman in Moscow, which i enjoyed very much. Maybe I should try to find others by me that I would enjoy. 

Meanwhile, I am enjoying When We Believed in Mermaids so far--another tale of sisters' relationships with an intriguing plot: the unexpected sighting on TV news of the sister who was supposed to be dead. 

I think I will spend most of today just reading. Sounds like a fine idea!

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