This and That: A Blog

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  The clay figures were originally made as children's toys, and are now tourist items.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...

 Not a lot going on here.  It rained quite a bit for a few days, now it's warming up again. During the rainy period it was quite cold, and I pulled out Mickey's blankie.  Actually, it's "our" blankie, as when it's really cold we share! I scheduled my 'flu and COVID vaccines for Wednesday morning.  If you disagree with vaccines, go away.  Earlier this year I sprinkled a packet of Dollar Tree Wildflower Blend seeds in the "new" daylily bed in the front yard.  I got annuals,  alyssum, Chinese forget-me-not, globe gilia, calendula, and a lot of perennials that don't bloom the first year.  I see blue flax, anise hyssop, coreopsis, coneflower plants, and what looks like penstemon, which isn't one of the listed seeds.    I've sown these before, but this is the first time I got the China asters, an annual kind.  Lots of variety!  The Dollar Tree actually carries nice flower seeds.  I've not tried the vegetables. A few of the ...

 Places of Learning is this week's Sunday Stamps theme.  Bermuda 1967-1971 Government High School and Queen Elizabeth II Hungary 1967   Celebrating 600 years of higher education, referencing the 1367 founding of the Medieval University in Pécs (it had no specific name at the time, that's how it's referred to now) by Pope Urban V at the request of King Louis I the Great of Hungary. It was the first university in Hungary .  There is a modern successor, the University of  Pécs . Ireland 1995 Bicentenary of Maynooth College  (St. Patrick's Pontifical University) Germany 1949  Technical University of Berlin Anyone else have problems figuring out how to catalog old German stamps?  After WWII Germany was divided into four occupation zones, and Berlin into four sectors, and areas east of the Oder-Neisse river were under Polish and Soviet authority.  So, this is some sort of German stamp , issued in 1949 by one of the Berlin sectors... I think....

  

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 669 My first time joining in the Wednesday Hodgepodge.  Thanks to the host leaving a comment on my Blog Hop  post on the A to Z challenge site, I learned about it!  A day late, but here it is. 1. What's something you wanted to do this summer that you never got around to doing?  Oh, so much!  Repair items that need to be done before the weather gets cold and wet.   2. Were you the student who sat in the front row or hid in the back of the class? If you could go back and take one high school class again just for fun, which would it be?  I didn’t hide, but didn’t specifically pick the front either.  I liked school.  I would probably take Creative Writing again.  The teacher went on to publish some very good novels. I would want her to know I think of her often, and her haiku "rules," are still relevant!   3. What characteristics do you think are essential in a good teacher (this can be applied to a...

 It wasn't so easy to find postcards of Bridges Over Land (Bridges is the theme for September) for this week's Thursday Postcard Hunt !   A short bridge over the entrance (it looks more like the exit, and the sign reminds drivers to turn their headlights out)  of the Norfolk-Portsmouth, VA tunnel - postmark 1953 An ivy covered bridge in Delaware Park, Buffalo, N.Y.  c. 1907-1915 A Pennsylvania Turnpike overpass near the Philadelphia interchange.  1960s    Next week our Bridges will be Over Water. 

Last week I shared the dogs I got at a yard sale, this week it will be some of the ephemera.  There were quite a few postcards, some real photos.  A lot of WWI and II papers and such, including this Allied propaganda postcard c.1941. $1 I'd not heard of airgraphs, or V-mail (Victory Mail), before this.  The sender's letter would be photographed, transported as thumb-sized negative microfilm, and printed once it reached its destination.  Then it was delivered to the intended recipient.  This reduced the weight and therefore the cost.  This sender was aboard a British Royal Navy ship, H.M.S. Thackery, and was an E.R.A, Engine Room Artificer . $1 One of those souvenir photo folders I collect.  This one is   Souvenir Folder of Camp Funston , Kans. and the workmen who built it.  This was published in 1917.  Camp Funston was named for  Brigadier General Frederick Funston, as was Fort Funston in San Francisco, which is now part of th...