This and That: A Blog

 My son and I took a trip to one of the Goodwill stores that hasn't been remodeled, or moved to a brand new store.  For all their newness, they aren't very good.  I found this oil painting. " Jerusalem ," by Barbara Dirlam (a Rhode Island art history professor who died in 2001) for $7.19.  Besides her work in academia, she is known for local history and civic preservation.  I find no mention of her own artwork.   It fits really well into the color scheme on my bedroom wall.  An accidental color scheme, I didn't plan it, it just seemed to be where I hung similarly colored paintings!  It was framed and it's pretty big. She tried out a different subject on the reverse, but abandoned it.      I wrote that the new stores aren't very good, but I gave one a third try a few days after visiting the one with the art above.  I found one item of a sort I'd never heard of before.   This is a saccharin holder/server from ...

Another Monday, so more random things around here. Wild Grapes (California Wild Grape, Vitis Californica ) A reblooming daylily, Longfield's Pink .  May May is the other one blooming again. Morning Glories with rain drops.   A hummingbird visiting the morning glories.   China aster in the evening.  Delosperma  I have almost all the deck boards up. See how the deck went way past the edge of the house on the right?  It didn't need to do that, there is a concrete patio to the left of the house. I don't need the area to be out so far from the door either.   Mickey's a big help!  He seems unphased.  The only time he notices is when I use the lawn rake to get the smaller pieces of wood together, then he gets the zoomies.  Mickey had a disappointing park walk on Saturday.  Too many dogs off leash (it's not an off-leash park, and there is a fenced dog park there).  One, a yellow lab, was chasing a ball over and over, taking up th...

 Let's Celebrate Historical Events this week with Sunday Stamps .  First some Historical Events in the United States.  USA 1939 While the cachet reads this FDC is for the 150th Anniversary of the United States Constitution, it isn't, the cachet maker mislabeled the event!  The Constitution was signed two years earlier. It's for the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration as the first US President, as shown on the stamps.  Ecuador 1938 150th anniversary of the "adoption and promulgation" of the US Constitution (signed in 1787, but not officially implemented until 1789) I think this stamp is particularly pretty. Monaco 1776 Commemorating the United States Bicentennial  Spain 1976 Bicentennial of the United States Independence and Constitution  The image is the siege of Pensacola , honoring Spanish military involvement under Bernardo de   Gálvez, during the Revolutionary War. Great Britain 1989  800th anniversary of the Lord M...

  The Weekend in Black and White

  Skywatch Friday   On Wednesday evening we had a storm. First was the wind, then thunder and lightening, and lastly, rain.  We'd gotten a video from the southern end of town, which got it first. They had hail, but it must have hailed out by the time it got to the north end about 10 minutes later.  I took some videos on my phone.   You might be able to hear Mickey barking from inside.  He isn't allowed out when there is thunder, he runs around barking at the sky. This is the sky to the north.  Thunder and lightening are in this video.  Looking south. More to the north, a bit further to the east.  The wind was really picking up, in fact the last part where the view lowers is when I got hit in the head by a branch (small)!   After the branch hit I went back in, and that's when the rain hit.  A lot of rain.  In fact, the area was under a flood advisory soon after.   Things looked pretty good Thursday morning....

 Railway Bridges are the theme for Thursday Postcard Hunt this week.  New York Central Railroad Bridge, Watkins Glen State Park , N.Y.  The bridge crosses Glen Creek, and the stone steps on the gorge trail are called Jacob's Ladder.   P. B. & W. Railroad and vehicular bridges crossing the  Susquehanna River , Havre de Grace, Maryland, pre-1920s when the vehicular bridge was rebuilt to support expanding highway traffic.  It was scrapped in WWII and yielded enough material to build 60 tanks. By then a modern four-lane highway with a bridge had been built upstream. The Hawkebury River near Sydney, Australia railway bridge was replaced in 1946.  c. 1910-1935  Railway and highway US Route 54 bridges over the Canadian River, near Tucumcari, New Mexico.  The train was the diesel-powered Golden State  passenger train headed for Chicago.  It ran between Los Angeles and Chicago from 1902-1968.  postmark 1951 Next week ends the ...