Daffodils, Thoughts, Booths

60°f/15.5°C this morning, high winds and heavy showers early. Temperature dropped all day as winds continued. Currently 50, and expected low of 28 tonight. Welcome, Spring!

Daffodils are out in force today to welcome the end of Winter and the beginning of Spring.

I haven't worked on this bed yet, but the flowers don't seem to mind. 

I wanted to follow up a bit on yesterday's post about our neighborhood. First, it probably seems odd to some to refer to 11 miles of road as our neighborhood,  and in truth, I would actually include a larger area, but I was sticking to Joe's Run in this instance. I would bet that Westerners

would understand, though, as they have even greater distances between "neighbors".

I hadn't considered that the amount of detail I know about this area was unusual. I suppose part of my interest is my storytelling background, my minor in history, and a neighborhood full of people who love to tell stories and know their family's background. I also think, as I responded to some of you, that having a lot of space between houses is a factor. If people were more crowded up on each other, I it would be more imperative to maintain privacy by not getting too chummy with the next door neighbors---similar to how people in cities avoid eye contact, justbtrying to maintain some personal space and quiet. 

I remember my first apartment; there were 4 units, and it took about six months before I got to know the neighbors in two of them, and I never got to know the 4th couple. When we moved to our first little house, the neighborhood was spread out, a cluster of 5 homes, each on at least an acre of land, so we all did get to know each other. 

Then we moved to West Virginia, and to a townhouse, or maybe you call them row houses---our unit shared walls on both sides with the next unit. But being West Virginia, we got to know everyone not only in our building but all the other buildings on our cul-de-sac, because West Virginians are just like that. Nosy, I guess? But visitors to our state often comment on this friendliness. And this may stem from the fact that, in those days at least, most West Virginians were raised in the country,  in places like Joe's Run.

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Well, on to today's topic: booth updates! We have been pretty busy at both locations, adding new things, packing away others, rearranging to give a bit of a fresh look.

At Ripley:

At Ravenswood:

I finished painting this table this week:

I had decided to paint this dresser, but I liked its original finish, imperfect though it is.

Today we took it easy, a day of needed rest. Tomorrow? Off to pick this up:

The legs are beautiful too 😍 

Til next time, friends!

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

Ice, Baby

18°f this morning, -8°C, light snow, but clearing to partly sunny and a high of 32°f (0°C)

We were out and about today, because we needed to pick up milk from Maddie the milk girl (she has the loveliest milk from her Jersey cows, a bargain, I think, at $6 a gallon.  All that beautiful cream!). And since we had to go out, we took a few totes and stocked the booths. Not that they really needed it; with the cold and snow this past week, no one is doing much unnecessary shopping. While I love what we do, I am well aware that vintage and antique stuff is not required to live, so weather has a huge impact on sales.

It was worth going out just to see the icicles on a cliff along our road that never disappoints in wintry weather. 

This first photo though! Look at that face! The Ice Man cometh?

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the icicles extend back into the cavity under the rock shelf.

These others I liked pretty well too.

Same face one, just more distance away.

I like the way these kind of cascaded down the hill.

And the long range view. Larry knows I love these, so he obligingly stopped to let me take photos. We stopped in the middle of the road, because there isn't that much traffic on our road, as you can see by the tracks, and everyone knows I'm the weird old lady who takes pictures of everything.

Icicles excited me even as a child. I could not wait to get outside and break one off to lock, like a popsicle. Lord only knows what dirt and other stuff might have been in the ice, but I'm still kicking so I guess it didn't hurt me. One thing I miss these days is Jack Frost on the windows. Doublehung windows keep that from happening now, I suppose, but oh how I loved those icy ferns and fancy swirls that disappeared at the puff of a breath. 

A warming trend starts tomorrow, so our little bit of snow will soon be gone, and we will be back to the inglorious mud. Muddy boots, muddy dogs, muddy porch, ugh. Still, it will be nice to see the sun again. It has been quite a while--in fact I can't remember our last sunny day.

Til next time, friends!

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

Joe's Run Wildflowers

67 this morning, a bit cloudy but nice. Very heavy dew. Thunderstorms expected tonight. The vegetable gardens and herb garden are still too wet to work in. I cut back the iris and loaded clippings into a wheelbarrow and was covered in sweat, and this was before 10am. Very humid!

I rarely take photos of wildflowers in summer, for some reason. So when I was out on Sunday, by myself for a change, I took the opportunity to take a few along our road. Many of these I have not identified.

I think this is a type of primrose, but wasn't able to ID it for sure. It grows quite tall, with clusters of yellow flowers at the top.

Black-eyed Susans seem to be having a great year this year. The State Roads people mowed our roadsides earlier than usual, so some plants, like the Canada lily, probably got cut down, while others benefited.

I think this is a type of sunflower, possibly Endelmann's?

Hard to see, but crown vetch grows pretty much everywhere along the road. It is a useful plant, with its nitrogen- setting property, and roots that can go up to 40 feet deep, which is great for holding soil in place.

Great Mullein is another common plant here, so stately! It is getting a lot of attention from herbalists these days, for its medicinal properties. 

Beautiful blue chicory grows in abundance along roadsides, most often with Queen Anne's lace. Makes for a gorgeous combination.

A tiny bit of orange butterfly weed pokes its head under the rail along a small bridge. There is usually a lot of this flower on our road, but perhaps the mowing hurt it this year.

Milkweed dances in the sun. We have quite a bit of it, fortunately since butterflies like it so well.

Queen Anne's lace and chicory, a happy coupling.

More Mullein.

Elderberries are beginning to ripen. Usually they are ready by the first week of August. We have not been able to gather any for several years, as the birds get to them first.

At the end of the road, a squash or pumpkin plant has made itself at home under the damaged guardrail.

Coming home I took a few shots on the right fork of our road. The road splits at the bridge, where the left and right forks of Joe's Run come together. Both forks lead up to our ridge; we live on the section if ridge road between them 

This is Black Cohosh, another plant prized by herbalists. I would love to have some of this in my gardens.

The roadbank along a shady stretch is covered in maidenhair and Lady ferns, just beautiful. 

Bee balm, or bergamot, in a lovely shade of lavender.

And wild sweetpea,  which looks like the plant my cousin John in England calls restharrow. 

Queen Anne's lace again, just too pretty against the tree not to photograph, mixed with a few remaining daisies.

And here we are, home again!

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

Joe's Run Wildflowers

59 this morning, and rain showers.

Our little road is bursting with flowers these days. It's tempting to just meander along slowly every time we go out.

Here, wild geranium and larkspur happily share the same roadbank. Just last week this bank was covered with wild phlox.

A recent ditching project probably took out some of the flowers, an unfortunate but necessary loss.

I can never remember the name of these pretty, low-growing yellow flowers. They dot the grass like little stars. Five-petaled, and not cinquefoil, buttercups or sorrel.

Golden Ragwort in full glory.

A smaller patch straggles down to the tiny run that is Joe's Run here near its head.

Larry waited patiently while I ambled along, camera in hand. fortunately there is not too much traffic on our road.

This is toadwort, not easy to see. I look in this spot for it each year; it doesn't grow in many places around here. 

I missed getting photos of the trillium this year, and I hope I can still get some of the wild iris on the other fork of Joe's Run where there are several large patches. Hawthorns are also in full bloom now, filling the woods with their white blooms and replacing the fading dogwoods. I have to rely on Larry's willingness to slow down and stop when I take photos as we are almost always traveling together anymore, and he thinks I'm a little nuts about wanting to take so many photos. But as I told him yesterday, someday we won't be able to get out and about like we do now, and we will have this blog to look back on and see all the things we might be missing. He kind of understood that.

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