April in Indiana

April is here!  More from the pages from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

I thought I would just share some recent photos of place settings, Easter table flowers, a small luncheon tea party, the kitty in the sun, a quilt in the making, and various little things around the house.  

There is just no place I would rather be than here in my pretty little home and yard. Baking, cooking, arranging flowers, keeping the house clean and shopping for groceries, planning menus, working in the yard, having friends in to share a dinner.  I just enjoy it all.  An old throw-back to the previous generation, I suppose.  I am so thankful to have the resources to be retired and enjoy all the fruits of years of work and saving and planning.

Lately, I have been playing all our old favorite Cd's.  Tony Bennett's greatest hits, Robert Goulet, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, some of the musical shows like South Pacific, Sound of Music and Oklahoma ..... good romantic poetry put to music.  Makes me happy - grateful for all the married years we shared and being young and in love. Such good memories.  So many people these days don't have lasting marriages, and this makes me very sad indeed. I have been blessed.  It wasn't easy, but nothing worthwhile is easy, is it?  I am grateful and determined to make this chapter of my life a happy one too.  It's hard and lonely being by myself, but there are very good things too.  

Anyway, below are some pictures of various things around the house.  I hope you enjoy them.

First of all, the quilting group has been saving all our scraps.  Wonderfully Kind has been laboriously and lovingly cutting them into six-inch long pieces of various widths.  Little Miss Witty helped scale a design and graph it out so we could begin constructing the 'scrappy' quilt.  We plan to donate the finished product to charity.  After a Sunday afternoon of sewing and sewing and sewing some more strips together, Constantly Joyous, Wonderfully Kind and I began to construct and lay out the design to see if it would work.

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Blessings,

Janet

March - coming in like a lion or a lamb?

March 1, 2016  - will it be a lion or a lamb?  March is such an inconsistent, unreliable month.  Will it be cold, blustery, stormy, billowing snow flakes?  Or will it be whispering winds tainted with warmth and hope and promise, bringing the sight of little crocus bulbs peeping above the earth?  Will it be frigid one day and balmy the next?  When we wake up, we wonder, what will the day's weather hold for us?

Well, today is March first.  There is that old saying about coming in like a lion and gamboling out like a lamb.  Today is in the 40's and pelting spits and spurts of rain.  Gray, cloudy, damp.  We fear it will be warm in a few days and bring out buds and blossoms, only to be encapsulated in frozen ice later in the month, dashing dreams of a pink and flowering spring.  Only time will tell.

I am going to share some photos of pages from a lovely book that I found on the garden shelf at Half Price Books.  It is written and illustrated by Edith Holden, who made the first entry in her journal on January 1, 1906.  The book is written in her own hand and includes poems, personal thoughts and observations on the wildlife around her home in Olton, Warwickshire, England.  She has included beautiful paintings on each page which reflect her love of nature.  In short, it's a treasure of a book.  If you wish to find one somewhere, it is called The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, and was published by Holt, Winehart and Winston.

Edith was born in 1871, one of seven children.  She attended art school and worked as an illustrator.  Later she moved to London, married Ernest Smith, a sculptor; they never had children.  Sadly, Edith drowned in the Thames River on March 16, 1920, while she was gathering buds from chestnut trees.  This fact saddens me greatly.  Below are some of the pages from her March entries.

This is the view that greeted Wally and me just before lunch.  

We stared out at the droplets sliding down the window!

Well, this is the month for several family members' birthdays and a wedding anniversary for one of my sisters and her husband.  And of course, Good Friday and Easter this month too!  Last night, the sewing/crafting/quilting ladies celebrated the birthday of our Little Miss Witty, the youngest member of our group, our special youngster!  Here is a photo of the table being set and prepared for our dinner.  Casserole was in the oven, salad awaiting its last toss, tea was brewing.  We had a good time.

I will close now for today with this wish, "May the blue bird of happiness build a nest in your garden."

Blessings.

Janet

Musings from the homefront!

Cold and Gray February - just some musings from the home front here at Holton House in Indiana

Recently have been undergoing a chemo treatment on my face in an effort to manage some of the defective pre-cancer cells that sporadically appear on my nose,cheeks, forehead, chin.  It involved 28 applications (one each morning and each night for fourteen days) of a cream that brings out the cells and 'burns' them.  Ouchy.  I looked like someone had thrown grease at my face or that I had been bobbing for french fries in hot oil.  My face hurt, burned, throbbed in heat, was puffed up and red, and my lips swelled and cracked. One night I awoke dreaming that someone was rubbing sand paper all over my lips.  Blood on the pillow.  Lips too sore to smile and made eating a challenge.  BUT it is now over and I am in application of the heavy healing cream for five to seven days .... and already I am seeing much improvement.  I keep telling myself it is better, much better, than having cancer and undergoing surgery on my nose or something.

Needless to say, because of the appearance (I thought I should wear a sign saying I was not contagious or leprous), I kept myself inside the house as much as possible.  Pretty much a self-imposed quarantine within the four walls.  The plan was to undergo this treatment when it was cold and awful outside, which it usually is in February.  We had some snow and some frigid days, but we also experienced some unusually mild ones during these past two weeks.  Today since the burns are receding, I went out with neighbors and took a long walk in the sun.  First of all I lathered on the sun screen.  It was a little chilly but oh so beautiful and fresh!

Anyway, during my two week 'imprisonment' I took some photos of Wally.  The sewing/quilting/crafting ladies also met with me, and am sharing some photos of the latest quilt by Constantly Joyous.  

Here is Wally eyeing the plate of cookies ready for the quilting ladies to arrive.  He decided to hop up on the stool to get a closer look.

Does he think he is going to take a bite????


Well, the ladies arrived and we ate dinner.  Then Constantly Joyous brought out the quilt she began and then has been ignoring for the past year (she says maybe as long as two years).  Have you ever started something and then just lost interest in it?  You did lots of other projects and creations and kept just ignoring one you started long ago?  Well, this is what has happened with this particular quilt.  It has been unfinished.  So, we laid it all out on the floor and talked about what should go where.  Should there be a border between the flying geese and the main body of the quilt?  What color?  What should go on each corner?  Is there enough fabric to make flying geese all around?  We discuss things, move pieces around, in general have a great committee meeting to make decisions.  It's a beauty, though, I think!

Wally likes it!!!!!

Too much socializing with those ladies; Wally has to take a nap to rest up!

Here's a photo of the Amaryllis that finally bloomed in February.  Actually, this is LAST YEAR'S plant.  It bloomed like crazy last Christmas and I decided to try to save it.  I kept it in dirt in the basement ALL YEAR and then brought it back upstairs at Christmas to see if it would flower.  It grew and grew and grew - got all green and tall - but no buds or any sign of flowers.  THEN all of a sudden, when I was just about to shuck it all in the garbage, it blossomed.  Wallah.  Had to take a photo to show you.  Just one puny little blossom.  It's going in the compost after this.

One of those what are usually cold February days, it got up to the low 60's.  Goodness.  I opened up the kitchen door and let Wally out on the screened porch.  Let's get some fresh air.  This is like a GIANT BIG SCREEN TV for Wally.  He leapt up onto the ledge and had a great old time viewing the birds and critters out there.  Got pretty intense at times!

I will close with photos of gorgeous miniature deep coral roses that Wonderfully Kind sent to me during my self imposed imprisonment with the fat burned-up face!

Aren't they lovely?  I am so very blessed with friends that truly care .... and do the kindest, nicest things for me.  This cheered me so much.  And they are so beautiful.

Blessing,

Janet

Hanging Plates on the Wall

Ever since moving into Holton House slightly over a year ago, one of the items on the 'to do' list was to hang plates on the dining room walls.  Unfortunately, my fear of pounding nails into the new walls kept me in a frozen prison of my own making.  I kept putting it off, putting it off, and putting it off some more!!!

I scoured antique shops, my own stash of plates, and Goodwill stores for suitable blue plates of all kinds and shapes.  Carefully washing and keeping my finds in the pantry, I gently covered them in soft napkins or linens so they wouldn't become scratched or nick each other as I stacked them on the shelves. They were on my mind often.  The pictures in my mind of shiny blue plates brightening up the room were enchanting me.

After dreaming through Pinterest ideas and photos, reading everything I could find on hanging plates, and because it is cold, icy and gray outside, I decided now is the time to tackle this little decorating item.

I drew a deep breath, said a prayer for inspiration and courage and began.

First of all, a photo of the bare walls.  I am sure you agree, something is needed there, right?

Okay, after much planning and probably over-thinking the project, I began.  Thought it might be fun to share this whole process with you.

First I began by purchasing stickable backing with little metal "D" rings at the top.  Following the directions, I wet the back of these little sticky things, waited the prescribed three to seven minutes for the glue to soften, and placed them on the back of the plates, ensuring the tab ring was at the point on the back that would make the plate hang with the top of the plate at the top once it was placed on the wall.

They had to dry overnight to guarantee they would hold.  

My next step was to take spare paper (from print outs or the back of papers no longer pertinent) and trace around the shape of each plate onto the paper.  Then I cut each one out carefully, reminding me of the childhood days of playing paper dolls.  A number was written on each paper and the same number of the corresponding cut-out onto the back of the plate.  Also I wanted to be sure to make a pencil mark along the metal tab, so I would know EXACTLY where to pound in the nail!

Then, I got out my frog tape (that green tape for use when blocking areas to prevent paint from getting on it).  I knew it would not take the finish off the wall.  I then used it to tape each cut out piece of paper on the wall where I wanted that corresponding plate to be hung, putting seven plates on each side of the dining room breakfront.

Then I left it up a day or so just to keep staring at it.  I wanted to be sure (or at least reasonably sure) the plates would look okay there.  I moved the pieces a little up or down or over.  Made sure the ring mark was at the top of the plate. Thought about it.  Ruminated.  Imagined.

Next step.  Take a deep breath, get the little nails out, begin pounding nails into each paper where the ring is marked!!!!

I was sweating bullets at this point - nervous, very nervous.  Then I carefully tore the paper off the nail, removing the green frog tape one at a time.  Before the paper was torn off, I picked up the plate with the corresponding number on the sheet of paper.  That plate was carefully hooked over the nail on that spot.

Here is the result.

Please let me know what you think about this.

Here is a view from the kitchen into the dining room. (below)

Wally says 'hi'!  too.

Blessings!

Janet