This and That: A Blog

 North American Cities are the theme this week for Thursday Postcard Hunt. United States is represented by this postcard of Lake Merritt , Oakland, CA.   This is a place from my childhood!  It includes Children's Fairyland .  When I was little there was a small zoo, and silhouette cutters.  You don't see them around anymore, the small zoos or the silhouette cutters.  I wrote a post about Fairyland postcards in August .   Mexico City, Mexico  The Caballito Roundabout, Reforma Ave.  Rather an oblong roundabout.  Do you have roundabouts?  We have a handful around here.  I don't like them.  That could be because they are not a thing we are used to, so no one really knows how to drive in them properly.  That includes me.   Montreal, Quebec, Canada from atop Mount Royal. March is a new theme, Animals!  Next week is Animals in the Wild.  I am looking forward to March postcards. I love animals!

While I'm not getting the snow some of you are (my son back east and has an "historic amount of snow"), it's been very rainy.   The far back of the yard has it's usual puddles.  No, puddles is not the correct word.  Flooded areas.  They're nothing that doesn't happen with every heavy rain. I put these down for stepping stones.   Yesterday Mickey considered going outside... changed his mind... and took up a drier location to watch the rain. This morning I attempted to catch a falling water droplet.  My back started aching from bending over so long I had to quit.   That's a flowering plum I got years ago from a former co-worker.  He son had planted a pit in a container.  I had it growing in a big ceramic one on the deck until last April when I planted it into the herb garden.  I thought it was pot bound, but it wasn't.  Still, it's been happy.  It's growth was stunted, so it's now a miniature flowering plum! ...

 I went into the Goodwill Outlet (bins) store, looked around a bit, decided to leave, and took one peek in the back section where they keep big stuff like furniture and vacuums.  There wasn't much, but a small old wooden table caught my eye. It was a sewing machine table/cabinet.  I lifted one side of the top and saw it had the machine, and that machine was black with fancy golden decorations.  No price.  I walked away, came back, looked for a price again.  Walked away.  Came back.  Gave in to impulsiveness and asked the cashier how much it was.  $5!  With no machine it would have been $3, and I'd have gotten it, it makes a pretty little table. The drawer on the left holds the original attachments, in their original green cardboard Singer box, and the original booklet!   1925 Singer 66, made in Elizabethport, New Jersey There's a ruffler, tucker, bias binder, hemmers (wide, narrow and adjustable), edge stitcher, quilting guide ...

 We got a little snow last week.  Nothing to last long, and not quite enough to cover everything.  Still pretty, just not as pretty as a bit more would have been. Unfortunately, the gnome pair above didn't survive even the slight amount of snow! Mickey enjoyed himself.  (Yes, the deck needs some repair, that's a spring job!) Sunday was a lovely day, some clouds, but mostly sunshine and fairly warm. 62° Since a week ago the crocus have fully opened. So have some of the Tet-a-Tet daffodils.  Hope your week goes well. 

 This week's Sunday Stamps are stamps relating to D .  Mine are D name animals. D hole Bhutan 1970 D ik- D ik Republic of Burundi 1975 D ragonfly, Baltic Hawker Sweden 2014 Next week will be E stamps.

 

 This week for Thu rsday Postcard Hunt  we travel to Northern European Cities.  Copenhagen, Demark as seen from Our Saviour's Church, postmark 1970. London, England Oslo, Norway Karl Johans Gate, a famous street running from Oslo Central Station to the Royal Palace. The postcard image is pre-WWI, but it wasn't printed until after 1925, when the city's name Kristiania was changed to Oslo. Next week's Hunt, the last in February, will be Cities in North America.