Sunday, August 24, 2014

My current desktop is a spider web in the early morning dew. Now, if you are thinking you already saw this photo posted on my Facebook page, you would be wrong. I posted other photos of webs I took on the same day but deliberately left this image out intending to show it to you today.

I have a confession to make. When I take a lot of photos, I may change my desktop several times in a week.

Having said that, this crazy kitty napping on the cross bars of a screen door was also up on my desktop for a while this past week.

 

And finally, Martha and George were up there for a while too!

Mike and I had stopped in the little town of Meshoppen, at an old grain mill that has been converted into an antique mall. We walked in and started looking around and realized it was mostly all furniture.

“Hi folks!” a man came from a different part of the mill and greeted us.

“Hi,” we politely responded.

“Anything special I can help you find?” he asked.

“No, mostly we were just looking for antiques,” Mike told him.

“Oh. Well the gas well workers pretty much cleaned us out of all of those,” the man said. “You might find a few things downstairs though.”

Over against a wall I see a railing, something I might not have seen otherwise. We had looked out over the expanse of the room, decided it was all furniture and lamps and we weren’t interested, and we were headed back out when this gentleman directed us to the almost hidden stairwell. Not wanting to seem ungrateful, we headed for the lower level of the mill.

Holy cow! Only in Pennsylvania, I’m tellin’ ya!

The stairwell was only about as wide as me and the steps, although sturdy, were well worn. I could almost feel the decades of work boots and the men wearing them pass me by as I descended.

There were lots of cool things down there, old tables, chairs, cupboards, beds and dressers, as well as countless sets of dishes and silverware. In a narrow side room, I stepped through the doorway behind Mike, glanced left and right and turned to leave when Mike says, “What’s that down there?”

“I don’t know,” I answered automatically, but followed him deeper into the room. There, propped against the wall, atop an old cabinet, sat Martha and George.

“Cool,” I said.

“Want them?” Mike asked.

I reached up and flipped the tag over to see the price. Five dollars! What’s five dollars? “I do,” I answered.

“Okay,” Mike said and reached for George.

And that, my dears, is how Martha and George came to live with us.

Aren’t they cool! I am just sure that on the Antiques Road Show they would call this Folk Art and declare its worth at $350!

“They’re probably worth five dollars,” Mike said. (LOL!) Not wanting my illusions shattered, I’m sure I’ll never take them to have them appraised. I just love them and they are hanging in my dust adorned, spider web festooned, breezeway. And I expect that there they will stay until I am dead and gone, then my children can fight over Martha and George.

You know something?

“What’s that?” you answer.

When writing, my stories often take me in a direction that I had not anticipated. They seem to develop a life of their own and I truly hope they come to life for you too. My Martha and George story is one such story. I had no idea I was going to tell you how we found them until I actually wrote it. Meanwhile, I have tons of notes on things that I was going to tell you about.

C’est la vie. It is life.

On the top of my list, and something you may have gleaned from the last story, is that Mike and I are at our mountain home. We are in Pennsylvania.

Diane, my cute little red haired sister, will be here in early September and I am looking forward to that, but before she gets here is the Wyoming County Fair. I’m telling’ you what! Those ladies (from one of the church organizations), make the best pierogies! Mmmmm mmmmm! That and peanut butter ice cream are the only reason I’m going! There is one stand-and I hope I can find it again-that sells the best and only peanut butter ice cream that I have ever liked! It is awesome!

Mike and I have been busy since we arrived at our mountain home. One of the first things we had to do was to stock the fridge and pantry. We are so spoiled traveling in an RV. Normally we bring supplies with us, but this time, because we traveled from Missouri in the Jeep, we had to buy everything! I bet you we went out every day this past week! And next week looks to be almost as busy. I am looking forward to some down time when I can get in my glass shop and simply create.



Our cat population has been greatly decimated by Mama Fox hunting for her young en’s. I’ve seen four adults and one half grown kitten, that’s it. Once again, c’est la vie.

It has been so dry here that our pond is reduced to one little puddle.

The spatterdock, a pond flower, is resting his head on the mud, as you can plainly see from my photo.

We lost some of our trees. A few years ago we planted apples, cherries, Bradford pears, weeping willows and a host of other trees. Almost all of them were gone after the first year.

The Bradford pears are doing well as evidenced by the photo of Mike standing by one of them. And when we were here earlier this year, we had three apple and two weeping willows still growing. This time we are down to one apple and one willow.

C’est la vie.

Let’s do September birthdays: Patricia Ann Bowers Dycus, 3^rd; Kourtney Dean Kraft, 4^th; Stephen Soden, 10^th; Father Jude Smith, O.F.M., 13^th; Mary Smith Sisock, 14^th; Dessirae April Herold, 16^th; Eulaia (Lally) Layne Bowers, 18^th; Sue Marinello Opal, 18^th; Jaiyden Bowers, 19^th; Kathleen Bohensky Soden, 20^th; Autumn Franklin, 24^th; Steve Davidson, 26^th; Justin Daniel Soden, 29^th.

Lots of love,
Peg and Mike