This and That: A Blog

 The weather has been up and down, and that will continue this week.  Nights can be in the 40s, and the days are 70s and 80s, upper 80s by next week.  Still, there are signs of autumn.  Besides flowers and vegetables dying back and the front yard starting to look unkept, the trees are starting to turn at the park. Fungus at the park. Puffballs - one still puffed, one already un-puffed.  I do keep my eyes to the ground while Mickey is sniffing around!  I've torn out three of my four tomatoes.  Sungold (a huge disappointment since it's usually an over-producer),  Pantano Romanesco (did nearly nothing and what it did do got blossom end rot), and Golden King of Siberia , seen below.  Bonny Best is still doing great, big red tomatoes with a good taste! This is Golden King of Siberia .  I don't know exactly what happened.  Maybe a combination of things.  Rain checking, bacterial spot... however, while the other varieties had their...

 Famous or Accomplished People is the theme this week for Sunday Stamps .  USA 1961 Honoring Mahatma Gandhi , part of Champions of Liberty series USA 1954 Susan B. Anthony   Poland 1982 Maria Sklodowska-Curie We will be Celebrating Historical Events with stamps next week.

Link for Shadow Shot Sunday Linking to The Weekend in Black and White  

With today being September 11th, I wanted to take a brief moment to reflect before jumping into today's regular post. "Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America."   Then  President George W. Bush   “ Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11 .”   Former President Barack Obama We need to bring back that unity. Skywatch Friday Heading south with a view of the Siskiyou Mountains.  The sharp one in the center is Wagner Butte.  It's not the tallest in the range, that's Mount Ashland, but from this angle it looks like it.  Wagner Butte is geographically at the intersection where the Western Cascades meet the Siskiyous.  It forms a "wall" on the southwest side of the Rogue Valley floor.  On the right is a Boise Cascade EWP (engineered wood products) mill.  The light...

Some Bridges Over Water for Thursday Postcard Hunt . Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge  (Black Suspension Bridge), Grand Canyon National Park, AZ spans the Colorado River. 1960s Friedrich Bridge, then East Berlin, Germany, crossing the River Spree, with the National Gallery in the background. c. 1907-1915 Four of six bridges near Louisville, KY crossing the Ohio River. Zanesville, Ohio's Y bridge spanning the junction   of the Muskingum and Licking Rivers.  The postcard shows the covered timber bridge, the third generation (first was 1814, second 1819), which was built in 1832 and demolished in 1901.   The Y-Bridge in the 1960s was the fourth generation built.  It was demolished in 1979. The current bridge, which opened in 1984, is the fifth generation, is steel and concrete.  While it helps traffic, some complain it has a tunnel-like feeling, solid rails and no scenery views.   Next week our Bridges will be Railway.

Ready-Set-Hodgepodge  1. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?  On a scale of 1-10 how much of a fan are you? (10 is never miss a game and 1 is I'm just here for the snacks). Who's your team? If you're playing along today, but live outside the US feel free to sub your feelings about futbol for the more American sport of football. On a scale of 1-10?  Sorry, my football scale starts at 0 and that’s where I stand as a fan. 0.  Not even for the snacks.   2. What's something you currently have a game plan for managing?  My rotting back deck.  Showed my son my plans just a few days ago.  Not physically drawn plans, pointing out what I want to do. 3. Do you like chicken wings? Hot, mild, or some other flavor? What's a must have food for you on a tailgate menu? I know tailgating isn't as big of a thing outside the US of A as it is inside the US of A, but you can also answer the question this way-what's a must have food for you at a sporting event viewin...

I had some success at the Goodwill Bins last month.  Tucked into a plastic "Vera® Print Table Top Coordinates" bag were these two Chinese silk embroidery panels. They could be used as table top decor, but definitely not Vera. These are from the 1960s-1980s.  The blue is my favorite. Jiffy Bobbin - I'm not sure what sort of yarn craft these would be used for, the illustrations aren't like skeins of yarn as I know them, and what kind of knitting is going on?  Laws of Gravity , can you clear this up? I would have thought this was Mexican or Chile, where the three-legged pottery pigs that bring good luck are from.  No, this is Moroccan.  The clay figures were originally made as children's toys, and are now tourist items.  I would have still thought Mexico or Chile but I did see the same type of animal on Etsy, sold in a group of a dozen or so different animals collected in Morocco in the 1970s. They were said to be made in the 1960s.  They are painted in n...