Garden cleanup, daisies, and SNOW?!

Hello dear friends! This is a little late in coming, but here is the March image from "The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady" once more showcasing the beautiful work of Edith Holden.

Her work was so lovely,

but spring must have come much earlier

where she lived...

Last week here it got to the

high 70s and even 80 one day,

so I mulched a large section of my newest garden.

I set out the rest of the bags of mulch and the

wheel barrow by the deck so I could continue working,

but the reality of March here is that the warm weather

didn't last.

It didn't seem fair that on the first official day

of Daylight Savings Time,

we woke up to this...

It has been cold and nasty ever since,

so I made my own garden fun by purchasing this lovely

bouquet in the grocery store.

White daisies...

...with greenish centers...

...for St. Patrick's Day...

On Sunday there wasn't much else to do but cook a nice

dinner, so Miss German Descent Girl here

made an early Corned Beef and Cabbage and invited my

sister-and-brother-in-law over for dinner.

I cook it in Guinness Stout and one of the leftover bottles

sure tasted good.

And I am not even a beer-drinker, per say!!

February Greetings

"All Nature seems at work,

Slugs leave their lair.

The bees are stirring-

Birds are on the wing,

And Winter slumbering

In the open air

Wears on his face

A dream of Spring."

--S. T. Coleridge

***********************************

Happy February my friends.

I can't believe that we already a few days into this month.

Where did January go?

In this part of the country,

February usually marks the beginning of the end of winter,

and I must confess that though our winter was relatively mild,

I am looking forward to spending time outdoors

and working in the garden soon.

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The beautiful image above is once again taken from:

Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady,

the compilation of works painted by Edith Holden,

which she entitled "Nature Notes 1905",

and which I previously wrote about here.

I hope that your February has gotten off to a wonderful start!

Happy New Year 2017!!

Happy New Year friends! I can't believe that 2016 is behind us. Where did the time go? I hope that you had a great holiday season.

I thought that I would share the above print for this first day of January. I scanned it from a vintage book that I purchased some time before the holidays. The name of the book is Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady and it is a compilation of works painted by a gal named Edith Holden, which she entitled "Nature Notes 1905". The book is filled with her beautiful watercolor paintings of flowers, plants, birds and butterflies. Also included are landscape scenes featuring other animals, along with Edith's personal observations of the nature and wildlife in her native area during Edwardian times in England. Apparently this book was compiled from her original works, where her hand-writing was done only in rough draft.

Throughout this year I hope to share with you some other beautiful pieces of her art. I also purchased a book about her later works, and a third one about Edith herself. Needless to say, I have not had time to read them yet!

I hope that this year brings you great joy, good health, and time to do the things that you would really like to do. Thank you for visiting my blog this year and leaving lovely comments. I treasure your friendship!

To Dorothy from Lillian: A Story (Part Two)

Did Dorothy live in Louisville, KY, 

or is this only where the church was?

Did she spend the summer of 1927 at the

Crab Orchard Springs Hotel

in Crab Orchard, KY,

where she received this letter?

Dorothy was a model in a style show at the Elks Auxiliary

February 9th.

Was this the following year?...

How did the little boy in the toy plane relate to these gals?

It is surely an adorable photo...

The fold-out caption in the photo below on the left

states: "And those button pictures --why,

Martha Gunterman and everyone else 

were wearing them".

Have you ever seen those photo buttons in antique stores?

Did photographers come around and take the photos

for them?...

Some more local goings-on,

and at last,

another letter mailed to Miss Dorothy Reck 

in Louisville, KY.

Her name has appeared 

quite often in this scrapbook...

And on the next-to-last page,

far right on top,

there is a newspaper photo of pretty Miss Reck!...

So what was the relationship of Lillian to Dorothy,

and why did Lillian give the book to her?

Here is a glimpse of the letter that was sent from Lillian to Dot

at the hotel in Crab Orchard Kentucky...

They were cousins!

And who was the "mixed media artist"?

**************************************************

As promised, this was the favorite of my antique finds

from Florida.

I started looking at this book in the shop,

and couldn't bear leaving it there and never finding out

 more about Lillian and Dorothy.

After reading all of the pages,

(a lot more than I could show in these posts)

along with the few letters,

I still don't know much about them,

and didn't see any photos of Lillian.

I didn't want to show you all of the letters,

as it seemed that they should remain private.

I hope that you enjoyed looking at some of this sweet book, though.

**************************************************

Dear Lillian and Dorothy:

My name is Sue.

It was nice getting to know you.

How did your lives end up? 

Did you remain close to each other throughout your lives?

I'd like to think that you did.

To Dorothy from Lillian: A Story (Part One)

Once upon a time,

in the 1920's,

a young gal kept track of the local

happenings that related to her life.

Her name was Lillian.

Upon the graduation of Dorothy,

Lillian gave the scrapbook to her...

Lillian kept track of sorority members,

theater parties,

bunco parties,

and birthdays...

...requests for submissions

to their school newspaper...

...not to mention Freshman stunts to

advertise school plays...

...and what appear to be other local happenings...

Who was Lillian, 

and who was Dorothy?

They weren't much different than the young

gals of today,

admiring the good looking athletes...

Photos of friends were lovingly clipped

from newspapers and pasted into the

scrapbook...

...along with well wishes,

class schedules,

and letters to Dorothy...

Who was Lillian?

Who was Dorothy,

and what did she look like?

*************************

To be continued!

Sentiments from The Pansy Album

Hello!

Last year I posted about an antiques shop that I like to visit in Concord, Massachusetts when we are up there each year, and last week was no different. It is Thoreauly Antiques, and you can read my post here. I didn't plan on spending a lot of time in there this time, as we were getting hungry and headed to lunch, but imagine my surprise when I walked in the door and immediately spotted something that I have been hoping to find for quite some time now. And that was a vintage autograph album that isn't selling for a fortune.

I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.

It is in perfect condition. 

And I love pansies...

The edges of the pages are the prettiest gold...

Not only is its frontispiece beautiful,

but it still has the album blotter contained within.

It's a miracle that it wasn't lost somewhere along the line.

I wonder how many people gently placed this blotter

behind the page that they were writing on to protect

the next page from the ink of the fountain pen 

bleeding through...

The penmanship is so beautiful.

Why can't we write like that anymore?...

Some of the pages had a beautiful pansy in the corner.

This sentiment was written five years after the previoius ones...

...and this one came earlier, but was written on a later page.

I imagine that they just opened the book to any page,

and spoke what was in their heart.

This one was from Douglas...

The Victorians were so demure,

yet they were so free with their sweet words...

If you click on the photo below,

you will see that her son signed on the left.

Was it his wife that signed on the right?

And they signed in 1910.

There is no indication of who this album belonged to,

but she must have kept and treasured it for many years...

The entries below were made towards the end of the book,

but were dated 1893...

There are still many blank pages in the book.

More blank pages than not.

What was the rest of the story? 

What became of the owner,

and how did this treasure end up in an antiques store?

Were there no ancestors that would have wanted to keep it?

I wish I could travel back in time to watch this ladies and

gentlemen signing this book.

Wouldn't that be something?

Nesting: A great store to visit in Concord, MA...

Good morning! I'm still trying to play the "after vacation and back to reality" game, but thought I'd share a little bit of my visit to Nesting while we were up in Massachusetts last week. Last year I posted about this great little shop, and you can see that here.

This year I only took a couple of pictures, and those were of an item to die for. Unfortunately, it was way out of my price range. Of course I thought it was worth every penny, but Hubby, who was waiting outside on a bench, would not have shared my enthusiasm.

This is the stuff that old signs are made of!

It was an old "tourists" sign,

very large, and with the letters on both sides...

You can see it better in the photo below.

It had been rescued from a fire.

Imagine the stories that this sign could tell...

Instead, I came home with this beautiful vintage

christening dress...

...with this gorgeous inset lace...

...to pair with the one below,

which I purchased a few weeks ago 

on eBay...

I loved this one because of the lace yoke.

But then again, I love any kind of old

christening dress...

I also bought this book.

I have seen it mentioned on other blogs,

and had been on the hunt for it.

A gorgeous and inspiring read...

The pictures will do the talking...

I love how the writers placed scripted vellum

pages over beautiful photos...

I hope that you're finding some treasures, too!