Thursday, December 31, 2020

Happy New Year

 


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

Monday, December 28, 2020

Vintage Images - Cat Music

 

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

Friday, December 25, 2020

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

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Grrrsday

 


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

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 

Monday, December 21, 2020

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Caturday!

 


Friday, December 18, 2020

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

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Grrrsday

 


Sunday, December 13, 2020

In Some States, That's a Hanging Offense

 


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

Sunday, December 6, 2020

WHAT A GUY


Brian is giving me a water buffalo for Christmas. 

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Caturday!

 


Brian is putting up the lights today.

Thursday, November 26, 2020

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.

Sunday, November 22, 2020

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.  

Friday, November 20, 2020

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

Monday, November 16, 2020

 


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.

Friday, November 13, 2020

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

Wednesday, November 11, 2020


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

Saturday, November 7, 2020

Caturday!

 


Friday, November 6, 2020

Quote Of The Day

 

image from Forbes magazine

May you live in interesting times. ~ Sir Joseph Chamberlain

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

If Only It Were This Easy

 


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

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

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. 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

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.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

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

Monday, October 19, 2020

Vintage Images - Juniper Branch

 


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

Saturday, October 17, 2020


 

Friday, October 16, 2020

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.

Monday, October 12, 2020

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Caturday!

 


Friday, October 9, 2020

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

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Grrrsday

 


Tuesday, October 6, 2020

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.

Monday, October 5, 2020

Vintage Images - Apples

 

Happy World Teacher's Day!

Sunday, October 4, 2020


 

(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).

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

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.  


Monday, September 28, 2020

Vintage Images - Autumn Berries

 


Vintage blackberry print from the Graphics Fairy.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Caturday!

 


Friday, September 25, 2020

Quote Of The Day

 


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

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Grrrsday

 


Tuesday, September 22, 2020

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.

Friday, September 18, 2020

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!

Thursday, September 17, 2020

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.

Monday, September 14, 2020

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.

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Caturday!

 


Friday, September 11, 2020

The Road More Traveled

 


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

Quote Of The Day

 


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

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Grrrsday

 


Saturday, September 5, 2020

Caturday!


Friday, September 4, 2020

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