This and That: A Blog

 Letters is the first of the Shapes theme in June for Thursday Postcard Hunt . I have a book of replica postcards featuring the letters of the alphabet, c.1982 (the originals were published in the early 1900s). 26 are too many to share, so here are the letters for JUNE. Next week the Shape is Curves. 

 St. Vincent de Paul put out a lot of new donations!   As you can see, there were a lot of postcards, and some old photos. The red bag held the non-paper items.  Seven of which were dogs. The Rio Hondo (El Monte, CA 1939-1950s) hound, top, was a bargain at just $1.75. The middle pup is from Ceramic Arts Studio, one they made between 1951-1954.  The company was based in Wisconsin and closed in 1956.   The bottom dog is unmarked, probably a midcentury Japanese import. While reminiscent of Rio Hondo, these are Hagen-Renaker , another southern California pottery.  These are three of their "miniature early" figures, made between 1949 and 1952, when they were still in Monrovia. The company was started by John and Maxine Renaker in their garage in 1945, where John set up a kiln by running a garden house from the kitchen's gas stove. Their daughter now runs the company.  I'd heard of Hagen-Renaker before (their little figures are sold glued to paper ...

  Sunday Stamps brings us the letter R this week.  Nothing unusual about these first two R animals.  I just think they are particularly pretty stamps.    R ooster designed and engraved by Albert Decaris.  The Gallic r ooster is a long-standing symbol of France, representing pride, vigilance, national identity, and the dawn of a new day.  From the mid-1960s onwards the stamps were printed with phosphorescent bars for automatic sorting, and these show up under UV light.    France 1962  R hinoceros, Black R hino French Equatorial Africa 1947 R ufous Crowned R oller  Ghana c. 1967 R accoon Dog, of which there were seven species, but only two now exist, including this, the Japanese R accoon Dog.   Japan 2016 S  stamps are up next week.

  Skywatch Friday A new Goodwill opened earlier this month in town.  Not near me, and I find it's in an inconvenient place, but was buying the weed-eater nearby, so went. The only thing worth parking for was the view (and a shadow for Shadow Shot Sunday!). There are the Table Rocks, and the airport control tower.  The merchandise was a big disappointment.  I thought the other stores had been holding back the "good stuff" for this one, but it was just more of the same.  Modern and plastic.  Vinyl "paintings" someone paid $100 for at some overpriced home goods store. Basically the same household items I see at yard sales all the time.  They buy it, keep it a season, toss it out and buy the latest trend stuff. My closest Goodwill is moving this summer.  It will be in the same city, but not the area I shop in, so no dropping in every time I stop for groceries.  It's been cool and raining a lot here.  Have a nice weekend. 

Thursday Postcard Hunt has us hunting for Forests this week.  California Redwood Highway in Autumn. The Congress Group , The Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park, California View of Feldsee Lake in the Black Forest region of Germany, c1915. Quinault Rain Forest , Olympic National Park, Washington State, is a temperate rain forest. This is where you'll find banana slugs, typically 8" long!  They are not only banana shaped and yellow, they often have brown spots. Next week is June, and the theme is Shapes.  First up will be Letters.  

  The weather's been strange.  A few days ago it was nearly 90°, then yesterday only had a high of 60° with rain.  The evening before was so windy it blew down my peas (there weren't doing well anyway), and two panels of a sort of half fence separating the back yard from the far back yard.  The section on the left was down too, but I propped it back up to get it off the plants.    The tomatoes were loving the heat. They have grown SO much since May 18th's post !   The iris are gone and daylilies are starting to take their places.  Good, I like them better than iris, and they have a much longer bloom time.  On the left is Black-Eyed Stella, and I forget what the one on the right is.   This bee was getting some last minute nectar from the wild blackberries before the rain started in earnest.  I tried to get rid of the blackberries, and was successful for quite a few years, then they snuck in among the roses and I didn't noti...