Still Lives

Wet weather this morning.

The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:

From Robert Browning's Porphyria's Lover a super Halloweenish poem in which a loon decides that even the weather has it in for him........



Windowsill, basil, rosemary, pumpkin, seashells.
Plate from Zagora. Embroidery from the East.



Fiesta squash, winesap apples, bowl from Marrakesh, English ironstone plate.
I have borrowed a camera which can do close-ups.
Now I'm really looking forward to Christmas.

The Season Continues

How much fruit and veggies can one possibly look at?
As far as I'm concerned, quite a lot.
If I were patient, I'd make paintings.



So many apples.
The best are Winesaps - not pictured here. They are almost like Coxes Orange Pippins which we used to eat in England.
You can also bob for apples if you want to get very wet and frustrated.



There is something covetable about mini pumpkins.
Like kittens or puppies, one is driven by a wild desire to take them all home.
They are just so cute.
On principal, I'm against cute, however........
So I asked R. to choose just one.
It wasn't the one I wanted.



So we bought lots of apples anyway.
Apples to eat as is.
Apples for apple crumble
Apples for apple sauce
etc etc.



The mini-pumpkin sits on the dining table.
When Isabel comes to tea, we set out the "Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards".
We read the complicated instructions and are slightly bewildered.
Though printed in China,(surprise), we decide the designs are originally German.

Treasure Box Wednesday: The Great Outdoors

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, and the corn is as high as an elephant's eye... No, we're not in "Oklahoma." We're right here in Western Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. I went to a picnic out a the farm of a friend's uncle. And I thought as a minor change of pace, today we'd take a look at some of the treasures of late summer/early autumn.

Like these stripey monarch butterfly caterpillars...

They're just hanging around, munch, munch, munching away, storing up the food they need to transform into a bright orange butterflies, and flutterby south for the season...


This fellow is already well on his way to his brand new look for fall...


The gourds are out slightly early this year, and it looks like it's been a bounty...


These spaceship shaped squash are a good six to eight inches in diameter...


The tomatoes are getting big, beautiful and oh-so-ripe. I had one of them, in fact, in a BLT on Tuesday night. Mmmm, can't beat those garden tomatoes!


The pumpkins here are HUGE... Several of them are about hundred-pounders. I'm really not sure how they're going to move them. I know my friend's brother has his sights set on a really ginormous jack o'lantern!...


They'd planted several different kinds this last year, and they seem to be doing really well.


Across the street from our picnic, some four-legged friends paused for a nibble...


...And a photo op!


Just a couple of other things I wanted to remember to tell you before I go. For those who check out this site through the main www.thriftshopromantic.com homepage, I won't be updating that section until Tuesday, as it's fairly involved. I will have a new Sunday post, though, set to publish automatically, here at http://thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com -- so I hope you'll pop by on Sunday anyway!

Why all this automation and pre-planning? Well, I'm off to meet some of my blogging friends in Philadelphia this weekend. So here's hoping I'll come back to you with some great pictures, some fun new information, and a lot of good stories!

• Did you miss last Sunday's post of inspiration photos of period kitchens? Well, just click here.

And otherwise, I hope I'll see you this Sunday. I will be checking my email, so know if you email, I'll try to respond as soon as I can.

Have a lovely one, my friends!

Treasure Box Wednesday: The Great Outdoors

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, and the corn is as high as an elephant's eye... No, we're not in "Oklahoma." We're right here in Western Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend. I went to a picnic out a the farm of a friend's uncle. And I thought as a minor change of pace, today we'd take a look at some of the treasures of late summer/early autumn.

Like these stripey monarch butterfly caterpillars...

They're just hanging around, munch, munch, munching away, storing up the food they need to transform into a bright orange butterflies, and flutterby south for the season...


This fellow is already well on his way to his brand new look for fall...


The gourds are out slightly early this year, and it looks like it's been a bounty...


These spaceship shaped squash are a good six to eight inches in diameter...


The tomatoes are getting big, beautiful and oh-so-ripe. I had one of them, in fact, in a BLT on Tuesday night. Mmmm, can't beat those garden tomatoes!


The pumpkins here are HUGE... Several of them are about hundred-pounders. I'm really not sure how they're going to move them. I know my friend's brother has his sights set on a really ginormous jack o'lantern!...


They'd planted several different kinds this last year, and they seem to be doing really well.


Across the street from our picnic, some four-legged friends paused for a nibble...


...And a photo op!


Just a couple of other things I wanted to remember to tell you before I go. For those who check out this site through the main www.thriftshopromantic.com homepage, I won't be updating that section until Tuesday, as it's fairly involved. I will have a new Sunday post, though, set to publish automatically, here at http://thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com -- so I hope you'll pop by on Sunday anyway!

Why all this automation and pre-planning? Well, I'm off to meet some of my blogging friends in Philadelphia this weekend. So here's hoping I'll come back to you with some great pictures, some fun new information, and a lot of good stories!

• Did you miss last Sunday's post of inspiration photos of period kitchens? Well, just click here.

And otherwise, I hope I'll see you this Sunday. I will be checking my email, so know if you email, I'll try to respond as soon as I can.

Have a lovely one, my friends!