Funny little story for you...not ha ha funny necessarily, but you will be able to call me Dorothy after this.

I was visiting *Brenda at Coffee Tea Books and Me* one day recently where she was discussing Susan Branch's new book A Fine Romance. Brenda wrote about the book in such glowing terms that I promptly ordered it using my daughter's card. Ahem. That doesn't sound good, but my daughter knew all about it and has already been paid.

My daughter had also ordered books and I ordered other books and they came as they were ready and not all in one delivery. A Fine Romance was in the delayed category and so, as my mind is wont to do, it forgot. Not I forgot; my mind forgot. Right. That makes me feel better.

Anyway, one day I heard a rap at the door and it wasn't the sheriff this time and so I collected a package addressed to my daughter. Said package sat on my kitchen table for the remainder of the week with me wondering when daughter would arrive to pick it up. Then my mind clanked into gear and I began to wonder if that book looked like the right size to be... Hmmm... Could it? Should I open the package to find out? I could just lift that bit there.  I'd hate to be caught snooping. (Not that that has ever happened before!)

Sure enough. My book was sitting there all that time. I could have been reading it for days!



A book review? I don't usually give them, but I will say that this book is a delightful, easy read. You will appreciate the details of the journey that Susan shared bits of on her blog over a year ago now. You'll find yourself grinning as you imagine trying to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road while a passenger wishes to test your powers of concentration. Cracked me up! Then I would read and be grateful that I have recently watched so much television from the BBC because I understood whatever was being discussed a little better.



Take for instance hedgerows. Because I've watched Tales from the Green Valley and Edwardian Farm (Episode 3, minute 47) where the process of making hedgerows was shown, I could appreciate the discussion and the photos. I had so enjoyed watching the pulling brush over and piling it high with bracken and pinning it in and the creating of this incredible organism where wild flowers, berries, and small animals live.

I asked John, "Why don't we make hedgerows in this country?" He said, "Because we use barbed wire." Isn't that charming? Not. Yet, I discovered that we do have some hedgerows in the U.S. *here,* just in case you're interested in making one. And here's *another great UK site*  about creating hedgerows where I learned that not all hedgerows are created in the same ways. It depends on its location.

But back to the book where there's everything one could possibly hope to enjoy about time spent in England — tea, recipes, friends, flowers, Beatrix Potter, poetry, shops, ships... and all written in that lovely print that is Susan's signature style. You'll leap merrily through going from hedgerows on one page to magnetic soap on the next. Go ahead, order one, if you haven't already. Put it on your daughter's card.

☺


P.S. Just popping in two Susan Branch book signing sightings:
1. Karen at A Scrapbook of Inspiration
2. Relevant Tea Leaf

Such fun to see!

In the chapter Wayfarers All from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Rat and some swallows are having a discussion about what makes them wish to fly south in winter and what makes them wish to return to England again.

'And do you think,' said the first swallow, 'that the other call is not for us, too, in its due season? The call of lush meadowgrass, wet orchards, warm insect haunted ponds, of browsing cattle, of haymaking, and all the farm buildings clustering round the House of the Perfect Eaves?'

John and I have been answering the call every evening for 11 so far to watch Edwardian Farm, a BBC program that features three historians running a farm in Morwellham Quay as it might have been done in Edwardian times. You may also be familiar with Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm, Wartime Farm, and others. Full episodes are available in various places. I use my iPad to link up to the tv set and we're off.

John enjoys the programs because they show the former ways of doing things, which fascinates him. I have cherries to cook off today and I'll be trying a method shown in episode 11 for its good sense approach to the addition of sugar.

The scenery is rich and lush and I feel as if I've stepped into a painting with each episode.

1. steep roof lines ✓
2. asymmetrical ✓
3. one-story porch ✓
4. differing outer wall surfaces ✓
5. ornamental brackets and/or spindles ✓
6. turrets or towers
7. bay windows

Joining Mary at Little Red House for Thursday Inspiration: architecture.



In other news, my niece gave me the cord needed to hitch my iPad to the tv. Yay! I tried it out by visiting blogs. You all look so beautiful on the big screen. There's my own blog above with the fort photos (architecture of a brief sort) and the fort builders in their Christmas photo.

To the right, see Kim's beautiful spring blog entry here at Happy at Home. If you're starved for spring colors...

The rest of the afternoon was given to watching episodes of Victorian Farm, which you can find at You Tube in their entirety. Lovely!

Still using "snow setting"

~Bottles of index fluid~

We got quite a kick out of reading what you had to say yesterday. You're such a fun bunch of folks!

Tip: I keep lots of fingernail polish on hand for John's use. He is forever asking for some so that he can index things as you see above and below. The eyes aren't what they once were for either of us and so marking cords for electronics is handy.


He gave me a little lesson on dialing in motors that you might also find helpful except that my eyes glazed over at about the thirty-second mark. ☺ He also told me that in machinery the index mark is referred to as a "witness" mark and I really liked that term so have remembered it.

A happy day to you...

This is how the weekend will go...

I'm giving myself over to the watching of  Wives and Daughters or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Pollyanna (PBS) It was delightful!

Right after I finish the laundry, wash up the dishes, do my Saturday chores. Better get a move on.

One good thing: no more leftovers! Now we can get back to proper eating again. Phew. Valentine's Day can be dangerous!

Comments are closed so that you can scoot. Have a blessed weekend.

Sorry, Mister. I thought it was called Vintage Wash. It isn't. It's called *Vintage Textile Soak.*

What's this all about? It's about my guilty conscience and sending some poor guy who was going to buy this linen (if only he thought he could get the stain out)


to the internet looking for Vintage Wash. Does any of this make any sense? No? Fine. Well, welcome to my world where I am guilty of everything including driving people nuts by sending them on long goose chases. Just to make me feel better, I'm tossing in a helpful article on washing vintage linens *here.*

Can we talk about Downton Abbey? Just a titch? We can't. Sigh. I did have to laugh when I read a forum's threads in England discussing the program at some point last fall. One of the topics of discussion concerned the prison scenes with Mr. Bates. One commenter said that she used those scenes to check on her kidney souffle. This amused me greatly (because it doesn't take much to amuse me greatly) and I have used the line whenever I leave off tv viewing. "I must go check the kidney souffle," I say. So you're quite certain that we shouldn't discuss last week? Oh my. I was glad that I could discuss it with my daughter-in-law. John doesn't watch and I have no one to discuss it with and it seems as if I
will explode if I can't chat with someone. Email me.

A lovely day to you...


Edited to Add: And thanks to Karen, I learn the connection to Kidney Souffle.

As you recall last week there were terrible kitchen tragedies which rattled both experienced and novice cooks alike.  I am still a bit shaken, quite frankly.  But this week we see the healing process begin.  Human nature is such that we while we need time to grieve for the burnt kidney souffle, we have to pick ourselves up and carry on.  We can blame whomever we wish, but in the end when we seek solace, comfort and instruction from those around us, we can re-build our lives.

What a fun site called Downton Abbey Cooks.

My choice for names? Jerusha. I know it's not on the list. I can break the rules, too! Did you ever see Julie Andrews play the part of Jerusha in the movie Hawaii? That's where I first heard the name. I thought the first part of that movie was so romantic.

Okay, just to be fair, I rather think I'll go with Lovicy Marantha. At first, I thought Marantha was Maranatha and I liked that a lot, too. Course this is from the gal who named her own daughter Mountain so you can see that I have no right to be choosing names.

Of the choices from the old list, Emeline is winning by a mile. Oh, and thank you to those who shared that you knew someone by one of these names. That was very interesting.

I was reading at Barbara's Two Birdies and a B when I learned that Google is getting rid of Google Connect on March 1, 2012. It is being replaced with Google+ or some such thing. You can read more about it *here.* Apparently, we'll all be affected by it as we are going to lose all those nice friends and followers we have been gathering. That is unless we can take them along to Google+. I have looked at Google+ and I don't much care for it for a lot of reasons. Why does Google have to know so much about us? It makes me twitchy. So, my dear, I, for one, am adding a lot of blogs to my Friends and Favorites blog just because I hate losing people and it's ding-dong unlikely that I'm going to join on with Google+! Just thought you'd like to know. Disclaimer: Be sure to do your own research and read Heather's comment below. It's #3!

Yes, I am very aware that commenting has become more and more of a challenge. This is especially true of those who use the new interface. I do not. See my apology at the top of my sidebar to the right.

So between Google and Blogger, there's a whole lot of shaking going on. It makes me wonder what the ultimate goal is. As I tend toward paranoia, I can't help but wonder if they wish to winnow those who enjoy blogging. It may be time to make some plans.



This was the story of our day yesterday. Note the time at the end of the video. It went on for another three hours and John is still not finished. So, no movie yesterday and no movie today, perhaps tomorrow.

I paid careful attention to your suggestions. I listened when you said that you didn't like wires showing as they do when hanging a flat screen on the wall. We had intended to hang it on the wall.  (And, if we hung it on the wall, where would we put the dvd?) I listened when you said that the tv had to sit higher than it did on the trunk. So those two things were addressed.


This is rather a mess in reflections and light washing in from the windows. Still, it shows where John's chair is in relation to the tv...that had been one of the questions...and where my chair is (which you can not see) behind the hassock there. The tv is as high on the wall as we were going to hang it. When I don't have to worry about tools all over the floor and carpets pulled back, I'll show one final photo.

That's it from our cold corner. How are things with you?

Oh my! That holiday was exhausting. It really was. I was running around like a house on fire getting the deck set up and pulling together the plants and the cushions for the chairs. So it was a nice reprieve.

John will never be able to live it down, but he tells me that if he had known that it was not a holiday, he would not have stayed up to keep the antenna working in order to pull in the finalé of LOST. Nor would we have slept in by two extra hours, which was very pleasant indeed.

So... LOST is now about 30 hours in the can and I've had time to think about the six years of my life that I've devoted to it. I may be the only person in the world to be disappointed with LOST's ending. That's because I had such high expectations and for a long time considered it to be a Christian allegory. It was not. Though highly allegorical, its roots were not based in any one faith over another.

If I can set my expectations aside, I can enjoy it for what it was...a little bit of something for everybody. Very few of my questions were answered. For starters... Exactly when did each character die? If it weren't for the change in Jack's clothing, I'd think that it may have happened at the moment of impact away back on that first show. Then again, Christian (if we can believe him) said that some died before Jack and some died after. Where've they all been while they were waiting to meet again in that church? I need to see a photo of that last scene for sure! Who was there and who was not... Was Richard reunited with his wife? Was he in that room? Some things just don't get answered now do they?

Perhaps now I'll be appreciating LOST most for all the tricks that the writers employed to advance their story: time travel, flash forwards, flash sideways, extra unexplained characters, and on and on. Very well done on that level. How else do you tell a one-hour story that lasts for six years?!

I loved the comments from the viewers, which was a clever idea on someone's part to include. I like the one that said that he was looking for answers but didn't realize that when they came it would be the end. I particularly appreciated the one that said, "I never understood Trekkies until I became a Lostie." As for me, I was a Lostie and am no more. That is unless they announce a follow-up show!

(Just popping in *this link* for myself if no one else. This gal really did a lot of thinking and I very much enjoyed reading the article.)

I am beginning this entry on Tuesday evening at 6:16. Having just listened to tomorrow's weather report, I now know that there'll be up to three inches of snow on the ground by morning. On April 28? Good heavens! It has made me go back in bloggy time to that terrible winter and spring when the snow hung on forever. That was the year that I held a contest on when the last vestiges of snow would be gone. Barbara won that giveaway. She said that she just had a feeling that she would. Isn't that fun? In case you're interested in that date, it was April 22, 2008. This year, even with a mild winter and an early spring, it'll be a later snowfall. Nuts!

So there's been snow on the forsythia and now there'll be snow on the azaleas. (This will be something I've never before seen so if it does happen, I'll be documenting with another photo.) Good thing that I took lots of photos of happy azaleas yesterday.



Tonight I will watch LOST. I'll visit Chris and see if she has anything to say about it. I need to start a forum or something for fans of LOST. No, no, I don't. Such things already exist, but if anyone would like to chat about it, do feel free. Nope, it was a rerun. Ugh. But it did force me to find the final schedule right *here,* which explains what will be showing through May 23 the finalé. Only LOST fans need check. :D Just don't anyone be looking for me on May 23. No one. Anywhere. I'll be in a LOST coma.

Let's see, what else, Dear Ones. Oh! I do want to thank those who said that they'd read a book I wrote. That's just so sweet. I don't imagine that you'd be too terribly impressed however. If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know the gist of it for, like most first novels, it is autobiographical in nature. Oh, yes, and I'll ponder whether to share a bit from what John read. I did share some *here* from another story I was working on back in 2007. A few of my current readers commented at that time. Would you believe that I have since lost those chapters? You would? Go figure! You'll laugh to see how I ended that post. The word becalmed comes to mind. < insert wry grin >

I'm having a waiting kind of Wednesday, waiting for word, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting... (My mother is having more surgery today.)

L.O.S.T. Yes, I watch it and have since the first season. I am one of those nutty fans of one bizarre tv show. Sigh. I've given up trying to explain it, though I tried valiantly for the first few seasons. Namely, I was trying to explain it to my sister and now I'm trying to explain it to John who reads through the program just to keep me company. Reads? Yes! And how can one hope to understand a television program while reading through it?

All along I have described this program as a Christian allegory. This was a story along the lines of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan in my thinking. The character Jacob was a type of Christ (a literary term) and the Man in Black was not Johnny Cash. Everyone else was along for the ride.

So last night the story behind Richard (the man who never ages) was revealed. At one point, the island is explained to him by Jacob. Jacob says that the island is like a cork on a wine bottle. The liquid within the bottle is hell and all its evils. The island is keeping hell contained. Hmmm... At the end of the show, the Man in Black smashes that very bottle, which I take to be a metaphor that all hell is going to break loose. We shall see. In the meantime, the show has veered off my pre-conceived path for it. Again, we shall see.

Now why can't I be enjoying the nice PBS series that Barbara shared with her readers yesterday? I know that I'd like it. I know that I'd probably not have disturbing dreams about it. The series? Lark Rise to Candleford based on three books by Flora Thompson: Lark Rise, Over to Candleford, and Candleford Green all published before 1945.

I watched the most delicious nine minutes of a Christmas special on You Tube, which I include here just so you can have a taste, too.



***

In other news: A fellow blogger and I have been sharing a discussion about comments and commenting. Her take is that comments can become like "having a daily pen-pal." She does not think that that is a good thing. I shared that I had read somewhere that daily comments were like being a stalker. I also shared that I didn't find that to be true. Nevertheless, I am going to try this experiment. I will most likely visit all of my blogging friends' blogs often, but I will be commenting less often. I am thinking that this will become a tit for tat experience. If I don't comment, you won't comment. On with the experiment, if I can keep my mouth shut!

Edited to add: Oh-oh! I can already see that I may need to clarify. Clarity not being my strong suit, I'll give it a shot anyway. What I am trying to say is that I comment, "I" being the operative word here, nearly a hundred times a day. I doubt that that is wise. In this cold, harsh light it seems pretty stupid, in fact. Hence the experiment. (I love comments, but to give out a hundred comments to receive a quarter of that is not worth the investment of my time. Am I being more clear or do I need to do better?)