Packing Candy

The Day after Halloween...., Four year old logic. This is what The Bean did so his little brother wouldn't accidental get any of his candy.

Speaking of "packing"...., I'm leaving for a few days. My friend, "C" (who lives in Sacramento) and I are going to the coast for a few days. I will be back on Saturday.

Have a good Veterans Day. Rest up and say a pray for all the folks who have defended this country.

Beautiful Chocolate Pot Set for PDT.

It's Past Due Tuesday and I have something to show you that is so beautiful. This was my Grandmother's Chocolate Set. I have researched this all morning and I found a lot of information that was mixed into a confusion of Japanese/Nippon/Chinese multi designed and shaped sets from many different decades of porcelain china that was imported here and sold. The only consistency was the shape of the teapot. I found 3 or 4 sets that were totally different in the design of the hand painting, but the shape of the pot was identical in all of them. The biggest mystery of this set is the mark. I found all kinds of information on marks and went through pages of different kinds of marks that identify these varied pieces of porcelain. I never found the mark that is on the bottom of all the pieces in this set.

This is a Japanese porcelain, hand painted set with a water, sailboat and nature design. This is a complete set (minus one cup) and all the pieces have a matching pattern along the saucer and cup edges and also on the chocolate pot and lid. The border is hand decorated with a gold leaf scrolling design. The lid has a cutout with a small piece that is missing. All the descriptions say that the cutout is for stirring the cocoa and that this distinguishing feature differentiates it from a coffee or tea pot. Without the cutout it's not a cocoa pot. The lid has a "cartouche" handle and the pot has a fancy applied handle. The cups have applied elongated loop handles. The saucers are scallop edged, 4 3/4" diameter and the delicate cups are ribbed with tapered cylindrical, scalloped edges at top and bottom, 3" tall. The set consists of the tall chocolate pot, 5 cups and 6 saucers.

I wonder if my grandma used this set when she had company or, like myself, kept it in a glass case somewhere and didn't use it because she was afraid it would be broken. I would love to know how she got it and if it's worth a lot of money. Until I find out more information about the set I will just dust it once in a while and admire it's beauty. Maybe I will set it out on my new/old buffet when I move the buffet into the living room. What do you think?

Don't forget to visit Roomies With A Past for other vintage or antique things that have found a venue for showing their beauty and uniqueness. Join us....

Ninja Mantis of the Rose Garden

I was out watering the garden, yesterday, and I'm usually very careful about where I aim the hose, but I didn't see any little creatures on my white bush rose. No honeybees, bumblebees or spiders were anywhere in sight. The sun was shinning warmly across the front porch and I was thinking that I needed to prune some of the spent roses because they were looking rather sad. As I watered, my mind was planning things like where the Narcissus and Daffodil bulbs should be planted sometime this month, what plants I should just pull out because they struggle so much every summer and when I would have time to sand and refinish the porch that desperately needs some stain on it. So many things need to be done before winter sets in. November is a good month here, for projects. The rains will, hopefully, come but before they do, I have many gardening things that have to be done.

So , as I'm filling my head with all of these ideas and thoughts, I didn't pay attention to the hose and where I was watering. All of a sudden this huge Mantis comes charging up out of the white rose in attack mode. She plants herself on one of the white roses that needed to be deadheaded and then , with her beadie eyes on me, she lifts her front legs up and takes on the stance of a monster in one of those Japanese horror movies.
I don't think I got her wet. I was only watering the ground around the rose..., but she came up out of that Rose plant like I had called her to battle. She positioned herself in front of me like she planned to do me great bodily harm and if she hadn't been all of two or three inches tall ..., if she had been huge like in the movies, I would have grabbed the dogs and run to the house, locking the door and calling the sheriff. This is the Corgi dog of the insect world....,a tiny Ninja disguised in pale green, looking like a dried leaf. This little Ninja was not praying for guidance, she was ready to take me on.
I had to laugh, but at the same time, have respect for this creature as I watched her defend her place in this world she lives in. Brave, rather scary (even with her small stature) and showing the world that she is the biggest, baddest insect in the garden. I laughed, but I removed the hose, said I was sorry and went for my camera. She allowed me a few snapshots and , being the little alien that she is, she moved her head and front feet around menacingly just to let me know that she was being patience with me and at some point I needed to leave her to do her work in the rose garden. I did.

How fascinating.
This creature will always be welcome in my garden, as all the insects are. Maybe she has a nest down inside the rose. I will be much more careful from now on.

Stagmomantis Californica - California Praying Mantis
Family - Mantidae
Order - Dictyoptera
Length - 4.5 to 5 cm.
Recognition - Typically green or light brown or yellow
Habitat - Common on bushes and low vegetation
Behavior - Predator
Residency - Southern United States
Note - The California Mantis is cannibalistic. During courtship, the female may decapitate the male for unknown reasons. This, however, does not prevent the male from continuing the mating process. (That's a guy for ya!)

This information on the California Praying Mantis was found at:
The Free Information Society. site

Who Said This?

"Something whispered something that was not even a word.
It was more like a silence that was understandable.

I was standing at the edge of the pond.

Nothing living, what we call living, was in sight.
And yet, the voice entered me,
my body, with so much happiness.

And there was nothing there
but the water, the sky, the grass."


(A poem from Mary Oliver's new book ~Red Bird~)

Spiders,Spiders Everywhere

This is my sister's house. Halloween is her favorite holiday for decorations. She hosted a party for friends during the week before All Hallows Eve, so the house was "dressed to the nines" and looked wonderful. I thought all of you would enjoy looking at her beautiful house with all the decorations before she has to disassemble all of her creative , spooky decor and start all over again for the Christmas holidays. She told me , this morning, that the huge pumpkin on the front porch is slowly sagging and she's not sure how to remove a rotting, squishy squash of that size without the whole thing collapsing into a pile of unstrained pumpkin pie pulp. This probably doesn't help her with this problem but....., "Sis, that was a killer pumpkin. Everyone was amazed at it's size and your creative "Boo" on the front of it was beautiful."
There were huge spiders everywhere...., on the walls , climbing the clock, hanging on the lamps...., little ones, big ones, all black and scary. The fireplace had these lights in it that flickered so it looked like there was a small fire in between the leaves and the happy pumpkin. Every corner, every window and every shelf was a spooky delight. Please click on the pictures for a close up of it all. Enjoy!

After the grandboys made the rounds of my old, and their new, neighborhood we drove over to my sister's house. The boys went around to a few courts nearby with Mom and Dad, and then came back to the porch where my sister was sitting and giving out candy. The bean wanted to help. The candy was in a Harry Potter magic book. When you opened it a voice said things to you. The Bean thought this was very cool and that's a "thumbs up" while trying to hold the book on his little lap and open it...., and close it...., and open it...., and close it.
He was getting a little glassy eyed by then, but he gave out some candy and he didn't tell the kids how to do it like last year, when he told a little girl, "you spose to say twick or tweet first" and would not give her any candy until she said it. He's grown up so much since then. He's 4 and 1/2 years old now. He's a BIG boy. He loves his new house and his Aunt Lisa..., and a book that talks when you open it up...., or could it just be all that candy in it.
The Bean and his brother were almost asleep as soon as they got into their car seats but before they fell soundly asleep they wanted their bags of candy to hold and a promise that I would come over the next day. I said "You betcha. See you tomorrow Bambinos." and off they drove.
What a weird wonderful feeling it is to remember being the same age. To remember the excitement of Halloween night and the magic of it all. Rachel Carson called it "A sense of wonder". I have found it,again, with my grandchildren. I didn't really lose it. It was just tucked away in the grown-up part of my life. It was there all the time.

Halloween Beans

Halloween is about an evening of fun and excitement. It makes a new neighborhood friendlier and makes children less likely to be afraid of the Boogie Man. You put your pajamas on underneath your costume so you are ready for "crashing" after all the activities...., then Dad tells you it's not time yet and you have to wait for everyone to go together, so you let your Noni take some pictures of you.
(please click on photos for close-ups)

You pose for your Grandma..., and you pose.., and you POSE. Then you sing a song, that you just made up, about saving people from a burning buildings and how Fireman are the greatest. Then you start giggling about something with your brother and the photo shoot is, basically, over with. And finally.....

Here we go....
"See you later Noni."

....,and so, as I wait for some children to come to the door, I waved goodbye to my two beans and watched them leave the house on Halloween with the excitement that I remember having when I was a little girl. The street is the same..., the trees are much bigger, you can't see Mt. Diablo from the porch anymore because of them. It has been 50 some years since I ventured out into the Autumn evening with my friend Dawn and the other neighborhood kids on this street. The first few years I held my mother's hand, too. Then, when I got older , one parent would take all of us. We would run around like little Flash Gordon's, going from house to house, with our pillowcases dragging behind us..., seeing who could get to the next house first.

"Trick or treat"..., hold your bag out, feel it become a little heavier..., "Thank you." and run like the wind to the next house. It was a rite of passage each year. Learning to be braver, faster, maybe going a little further.
Then..., getting home and counting how many pieces you have..., and sorting all the candy by size, or color. Trading some of it. Having them check the candy for strange unwrapped ones. Sharing some with Mom and Dad. Sometimes sharing with a sick brother or sister who couldn't go with you. Learning when too much candy in your stomach is really too much. Oh, the fun of it all.....

Disclaimer:
For all of you that don't let your children participate in this holiday, I can only say.., this is your choice. I don't believe that it's about worshiping evil or giving the devil strength. It's about giving and sharing happiness and treating your neighbor with goodwill and kindness. It's about happy little faces that learn to understand that receiving something from others can be a "windfall", but not without some effort and a "Thank you" at the end. It's a happy tradition that gives a child many wonderful memories. It's about family, goodwill and two little boys who are on a safe journey with their parents. It's a legacy of love that continues on this lovely street in Pleasant Hill, California.

A Day Past Due Tuesday: Finding Things in an Old Box

This is a silk dress; wrinkled, fragile, thread bare in places with smocking and a scalloped hem.Sis and I found it in the very bottom of a box filled with letters and diaries. Inside this box were my grandmother's letters from her husband who was a traveling pianist in movie theaters..., letters that gave us some insight (and some questions) about our family. Interesting letters about a time when our grandmother was very young and life was written down in long letters and personal thoughts were put into small books and dated, written with pens that had to be continuously dipped into a container of ink, sometimes dripping onto the page when hands were shaking with emotion. Life spilled out..., hand written, onto pages of small books and journals. Letters and saved things that were important to someone, that meant so much to my grandmother, so long ago. Old photos, report cards, class pictures, advertisements, announcements and obituaries. Life and death, happiness and sadness...,

...,and then, in the very bottom of this old box, folded together.., a young girls dress. A lovely blue silk dress with hand painted flowers and a pink hat, a small hand made purse and a blue handkerchief. It was the only clothing in the old box. It must have been very special. I picture the late 20's. The "flapper" style dress; short, sleeveless..., the "cloche" hat. This was not a grown up dress. It's seems more for a young girl or pre-teenager. A dance dress perhaps. A very special dance. My Mother's? Her sisters? We will never know, for a certainty, who this lovely dress belonged to, but I suspect it was either my Mom's or my Aunt Marcia's because this was my grandmother's box of things.

We found a lot of my Aunt Marcia's letters and journals, school things, pictures she drew and wonderful childhood items that my grandmother had saved.
You see, my mom's sister was always getting sick as she grew up (they think, now, that she might have had Leukemia) and she died at Merritt Hospital in Oakland, CA. in 1937, when she was only 18 years old. My grandma never got over her death. I only remember one picture of my aunt, a large one in a beautiful frame, on her living room wall. She never talked about Marcia unless I asked her and then she didn't say very much.
Mom told me that her little sister was very beautiful, popular and talented. Mom said she had a sweet personality and liked everyone. She was 2 years younger than my mother.
I think that this little box was a place where Grandma put all the memories of her daughter and laid them to rest. I think the dress was Marcia's. Maybe it was made for a "first" dance.
I wish we had known her. I know how important my sister was and is to my boys. There can be such a wonderful connection to an aunt. It's like having a "back up" Mom when you're tired of the one you live with. Another opinion, another point of view and another place to lay your head.
It would have been nice to know my Aunt Marcia, in life, but now I know her a little better ...,because we found this old box of memories.

Please go to Roomies for more Past Due Tuesday posts about old things and stories that need to be told again.

Destinations

"One's destination is never a place...,

But rather,







a new way of seeing things."







~Henry Miller~

I'm going down to the Bay Area, to see my family this weekend. I will be gone until Monday or Tuesday. Gotta give out candy and take pictures of The Bean and his brother in their Halloween costumes. They will be trick or treating on the same street that I did when I was a child. How amazing is that?

Wordless Wednesday: Stormy Autumn Sky seen through Truck Windows

Past Due Tuesday: Candlesticks and Re-purposed plate.

These candlesticks are probably from Italy. My great-grandmother was born in Milan and came here to marry my great-grandfather. I was told she brought a Dowry (which is the property that a woman brought to her husband at the time of the marriage) with her. These lovely candlesticks were far too fancy for life on the ranch. At the time, in the Napa Valley, there were only small farms and a beautiful little town. It was not the fancy, tourist mecca it is today. So, coming from a great northern Italian city and a wealthy family, I suspect that she brought some very nice things with her.
These candle holders are black glass, appear to be hand blown ( there are no "seams" anywhere.) and the design is etched into the glass. They're rimmed with gold which is very worn. There are no markings of any kind that would give us an idea where they came from. Mom never used them that we can remember and these were found in a cabinet above the refrigerator where other assorted candlesticks were stored..., most of them never having been used.

They are really beautiful; very "old world". I will do some research on the Internet and see if I can find some information on them.


This plate of my grandmothers is very interesting. Again, there are no markings. It's carve, beautifully, with rose buds and leaves and looks like it might have had a cup or vase attached to it. Also, there is a broken part that might have been a handle. The pottery is beautiful and almost transparent but I don't think it's porcelain. It's heavy for a small plate. The carved flowers and leaves are very well done.
I use it to burn my large candles on because of it's flat center. I love the way it looks. Does anyone have any ideas what it might be and what it's made of?


Please check out the other antique and vintage things that are "past due" for the attention they deserve at Roomies and add your own wonderful things.