Happy New Year

 

Here's hoping 2021 turns out a lot better than it's looking so far.

Vintage Images - Cat Music

 

If anyone ever figures out how to sing this, let me know.

Quote Of The Day

 

 

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan;

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone; 

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago. ~ Christina Rossetti

Grrrsday

 

Sewing: The "Twenty Minutes'" Blouse from 1923

 

From The Girl's Own Paper, January 1923.  The editors want you to send them ninepence for a pattern, but I don't think it's really needed.

Interestingly enough, like many of the other designs featured in the GOP, this appears to have been swiped, without attribution, from a French fashion supplement, Les Modes De La Femmes De France. I pinned this a few months ago and of course now can't find it. EDITED TO ADD: Found it! 

https://pin.it/lZGL7GO 

Vintage Images - Edwardian Christmas Card

 

Copyright-free, from the Graphics Fairy. 

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

image from Pinterest

Therefore, all seasons shall be sweet to thee,

Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch

Of mossy apple-tree, while the night-thatch

Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall

Heard only in the trances of the blast

Or if the secret ministry of frost

Shall hang them up in silent icicles

Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Grrrsday

 

In Some States, That's a Hanging Offense

 

We had to put it back up on the bookshelf.  Someone kept stealing a sheep.

WHAT A GUY

Brian is giving me a water buffalo for Christmas. 

Caturday!

 

Brian is putting up the lights today.

The Annual Binge

 

As someone on one of my online forums put it yesterday, be thankful for a Zoom holiday get-together  - it means you can mute that obnoxious uncle.

What Were His Parents Thinking Dep't

 I have requested an investigation into an incident involving one of our rental cars - and it has been assigned to a young man named Alaska Otterbacher.  

Quote Of The Day

 

A childhood without books - that would be no childhood.  That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy. ~ Astrid Lindgren

 

And she's off!  Virtually, again, this time to Baton Rouge, where I will be supporting Hurricane Laura-Marco-Delta-Zeta.  There hasn't been enough time between hurricanes to shut down the response for one and start up the response for the next.

Blogging will continue if I have time.

Quote Of The Day

 

It does not improve the character to be bullied.  Children are microcosms of peoples.  Treat them badly for long enough and then give them a little power and they will punctually repeat with greater emphasis the behaviour to which they have been subjected. - Ngaio Marsh

 Brian got to ring the bell at the Methodist church from 1045 to 1100 this morning. 

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

image from Forbes magazine

May you live in interesting times. ~ Sir Joseph Chamberlain

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

 

If Only It Were This Easy

 

I will be working one of the early voting sites for the county for the next two days.

Toy Crafting in Wartime - An Anti-Aircraft Gun from 1940

 

From Popular Science, December 1940 - a toy that launches and then shoots down a glider. Left-click to enlarge or go to Google Books. 

A Brief Hiatus

 Off to climb Sleeping Bear Dunes with my sisters and sister-in-law (masked and at six foot intervals).  Blogging will resume next Tuesday.

UPDATE:  As a result of Sister#1's habit of referring to us as "Sister Two," "Sister Three," and "Sister (in-law) Four," the owner of our Air BnB came to the pardonable conclusion that she had rented her house to a bunch of nuns.

Paper Crafts - A Sleepy Pumpkin

 I spot the hills

 With yellow balls in autumn

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins. ~ Carl Sandburg

Vintage Images - Juniper Branch

 

image from The Graphics Fairy

Happy International Gin & Tonic Day - as Election Day gets closer, the more I need one of these.

 

Quote Of The Day

 Photo from Wikipedia

According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hanged, not shot.  Please respect our traditions. ~ Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, after the SS threatened him with a firing squad.

Vintage Images - Pumpkin Seed Packet

 

from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

Image from Zedge

A touch of cold in the Autumn night 

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge

Like a red-faced farmer.

I did not stop to speak, but nodded,

And round about were the wistful stars

With white faces like town children. ~ T. E. Hulme

Grrrsday

 

Aunt Martha's Workbasket, January 1938

 

Time for another Workbasket magazine - this one has two quilt patterns, a crocheted collar that is straight out of Flash Gordon, knitted gloves, and some interesting household hints ("When boiling custards or sauces, place a clean marble in the bottom of the vessel.  This will avoid the necessity of stirring, and save much time.  The marble will roll around in the custard and prevent burning.")

The entire issue may be downloaded at the Antique Patterns Library site.

Vintage Images - Apples

 

image from The Graphics Fairy

Happy World Teacher's Day!

 

(I have no idea what has happened to the last three days, but they got away from me and I'm not even deployed anymore. Sorry).

Knitting: Soakers from 1951

 

A pair of soakers from Smart Knitting and Needlework, Winter 1951.  Knit a pair to delight (or horrify) a mother-to-be and tell her this was what families used before rubber/plastic pants were invented. The pattern is on my Flickr account.

These lingered on for a few years after the Second World War ended but faded away by the mid-1950's.  

Vintage Images - Autumn Berries

 

Vintage blackberry print from the Graphics Fairy.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

Epidemic  n. A disease having a sociable turn and few prejudices. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Grrrsday

 

Virtual (Support) Never Goes Unpunished

 

The advantage of actual, as opposed to virtual, motor transport is that nobody gets away with checking out of the DR until they see me. They can't just skip merrily off to the airport without turning in their car keys.

I spent most of yesterday looking for MT assets.

Offbeat Holidays - Happy AKC/Responsible Dog Owner Day

 

From Dover Publications.

Quote Of The Day

 

photograph from WaPo

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. ~ the Dalai Lama

RIP Ruth Bader Ginsburg - she was small, but by God, she made a difference!

The Online Bookshelf - Seasoning Suggestions

 

An advertising cook-booklet from 1922, extolling the virtues of Lea & Perrins' Worcestershire sauce. They don't make covers like this no more.

 Free download from Project Gutenberg.

What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen

 

We had a lovely moment on Microsoft Teams today - an older volunteer who is not familiar with the extent of this technology (both audio AND video) was absent-mindedly changing out of his pyjamas during the morning stand-up.

Caturday!

 

The Road More Traveled

 

Having virtually returned from Chicago, I am as of this morning virtually deployed to Dallas.

Quote Of The Day

 

Prize-winning photo by Nick Dale

Summertime; and the living is easy.  Fish are jumping... ~ George Gershwin

Grrrsday

 

Caturday!

Quote Of The Day

 

photo from NBC News

Whensoever, therefore, the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people - by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty and, by the establishment of a new legislative (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.

What I have said here concerning the legislative in general holds true also concerning the supreme executor, who having a double trust put in him - both to have a part in the legislative and the supreme execution of the law - acts against both when he goes about to set up his own arbitrary will as the law of the society. ~ John Locke