A little here and there and questions answered

Miss Victoria would love to "help" in the garden

That's how I'm getting the house and garden ready for the winter.  I spent awhile this morning pulling the 2011 garden out of the raised beds, thinking already of the 2012 garden and hoping to better conquer the weeds.  I have heard via people who should know... weather type experts... that we may be in this weather pattern for awhile which would make for other hot and wet summers.  Rather than shutting my eyes and hoping it all works out... I can see some garden books stacked in the winter reading!

The weeds were already out of control when we left for ten days.  I now know why farmers do not take vacations until after the harvest is in.  Anyway, the first two-thirds of the garden season went well... kind of... what did not yielded its' own crop in lessons learned and wisdom gained, which will be written in my Scrapbook Journal soon.

I need to answer a few questions now for if I don't, they tend to get buried and then I forget all about them... only to have one or two pop up in my mind many months later when I have only the haziest of recollection what they were.

The name of the dish pattern that I'm giving to the future Mrs. Christopher is Royal Albert's Lavender Rose... one of the best thrifting deals I ever found by far.  Her favorite colors are lavenders-purples and these are very feminine. She has one of the cup-saucer sets sitting in her room at home already.  :)

The pattern on Great Grandmother's china is Raddison by W. S. George, an American company.   Probably around the 1920s.

The silverware was purchased at a garage sale along with a felt lined box that keeps it pretty much tarnish free.  I have heard that silver does not tarnish if used regularly but I've never put that to the test.

I wash my good china and silverware by themselves (I have also read one should not wash silver or silver plated (as mine is) silverware with stainless steel or it causes a bad chemical reaction on the silver). I only polished the silverware shown with the place settings when I first brought them home and so far they have not tarnished.

I do have a few silver serving pieces that are not kept in flannel (like a silver plated ladle) which I do need to polish now and then but not often.  My candlesticks and tea-coffee servers have to be polished often but I figure that is the cost in time to enjoy them.  I think of them more as pieces of beautiful sculpture than any burden.  Air and light contributes to tarnish so my few silver plated serving trays I have left are protected enough that they rarely need polishing. 

I put a towel in the bottom of the sink (after filling it with sudsy water that is just a little hot) to cushion the china and it is the one time that I do not ask for help in the kitchen!  I wash and dry everything and stack it on the dining table to be put away as soon as reasonably possible.  It is worth all the extra "trouble", at least for me.

Yes, it is true!  Once you start "seeing" a certain pattern then it just seems to jump out at you while thrifting.  I can "see" an English teacup on the shelves from an aisle away and now I can "see" brown transferware.  Although both are somewhat rare in my area.

However, even with the rising prices at Goodwill and the local thrift stores, I still have seen excellent prices on dishes... probably because they get so many of them... so it is quite possible to find what you need to set a pretty table for less than the price of one DISH at a department store.

Photo from Hummingbirdworld.com

When I mentioned the hummingbirds we have in our area, a blog friend from another country asked what kind of bird that is...  They are teeny tiny little birds which (to me) sound so much like a wasp that I have given the the little guys quite a scare swatting at them before I know it is not a wasp.

The most common color in my yard is a greenish-yellow combination but I have seen a hummingbird with reddish highlights in my garden.  They are truly one of God's tiny but magnificent creations.

I've also had comments and e-mails about my friend Manuela's blog... she is taking a blog break for awhile!  I have already told her that I hope she is back for the Holidays so I can steal her ideas... enjoy her lovely decorating and creative ideas.

However, most of us write our blogs as a labor of love so I never want to put a burden on another to blog when the time is not right.  As a writer of a blog, you really put yourself out there emotionally and one does tend to judge themselves on comments (and lack of them but I have found the entire Blogdom is... for the most part... getting a lot fewer comments).

Just recently I had a number of people drop off my rss feed and for awhile I was second guessing myself about what I possibly could have said or done... but then the realization came all over again (as I have been told so often), I just have to be myself ... for better or worse... as people come and go and many remain.  This especially happens because I write about so many different subjects.

Sometimes one has to step away for awhile and this is such a time for Manuela.  I do hope temporarily.