A Tale of Two (Or More) Dishes

When I was young, my family ate off of Blue Willow dishes. My grandmother gave my parents the set not long after they were married in 1948.

They weren't fine china, but they were good, sturdy dishes made to serve folks their daily bread.

Over the years, some pieces were cracked, 

some chips appeared,

and a few plates and cups were broken, but for the most part, they survived very well.

Somewhere along the line, we switched to these wheat dishes. I think they came in laundry detergent, but I'm not sure about that.

Finally, Mom went with Correlle, white with a gold border design.

But what I remember most are the Blue Willow. Maybe I liked them so much because I can remember seeing them used on TV, in westerns like Bonanza and my favorite show, Daniel Boone. A history buff from the beginning, I played pioneer and dreamed of living in a log cabin and wearing long dresses. The log cabin and long dresses were hard to come by in the 1960s, but the Blue Willow dishes greeted me at every meal. When I got my first apartment after graduating from college and landing a job, Mom helped me round up second-hand furniture, bedding, and kitchen wares. And she gave me the Blue Willow dishes, much to my delight. When Robin and I got married three years later, I added some newer pieces, made by Churchill, to complete a service for six. We've been using them for thirty years now.

In 2010 we remodeled our kitchen. We went from natural oak cabinets and a beige counter top...

 to plantation white cabinets and a dark green counter top.

 The new kitchen is lovely and I like it a lot, but it does not go with the Blue Willow dishes! The colors simply aren't a good fit.

Consequently, I've spent the last five years looking for new dishes. All the patterns I considered were either way too modern for my taste, way too fancy for everyday use, or way too expensive for my wallet. I like Fiesta Ware, and even borrowed a few plates and bowls from my sister to try it out. Although I liked the small bowls, the dinner plates were awfully heavy, meaning the serving bowls and platters would be heavier still, especially when full of food. So, I purchased a few little bowls, and I do enjoy these bright, happy colors in my kitchen. But Fiesta Ware was not the right fit.

Next, I tried dishes by Pioneer Woman, of Food Network fame. Ree Drummond is her real name, and she launched her own line of kitchen everything last fall. I thought her dishes were the answer to my dilemma, but alas, they didn't work either. The color was OK, but not great.

The plates and bowls are deep, which is good for eating, but not so good for stacking.

I wasn't particularly pleased with the quality, either. One plate has already chipped, and another is scratched (and we don't even have a dishwasher!). In the end, the price was great, but the dishes weren't.

I was beginning to think I'd never find the right dishes. As sometimes happens though, when I least expected to, I found them! Well, three pieces, anyway. The local SPCA chapter runs a second-hand store to raise funds and I like to stop in from time to time to see what treasures might be had. Last week when I walked in, there they were: the dishes I'd been looking for. There was a dinner plate, a square salad plate, and a fruit bowl, displayed on a wooden dish drainer and just waiting for me to arrive.

 The pattern is Strawberry Fair, by Johnson Brothers.

The white is not bright white; I'd call it plantation white because it matches my cabinets. The red is that antique shade that looks both ordinary enough for every day and elegant enough to be special.

I thought it would be easy enough to find and purchase a new set of these lovely dishes. Wrong. The website LoveToKnow says this:

Johnson Brothers also manufactured a pattern called Strawberry Fair. It is a red transferware pattern with the bulk of the motif arranged in a wide band around the edge. The rim on the plates is scalloped.Many of the bowls and cups have a small, matching motif inside. The bowl rims are decorated with a rope design, strawberries and daisies. This is one of the more unique of the strawberry china patterns. It was manufactured from 1959 to 1973.

Leave it to me to fall in love with a discontinued and apparently very collectible pattern! A little poking around on eBay and Etsy revealed that these dishes aren't plentiful, nor are they cheap. But now that I've used the three pieces for a few days, I don't think anything else will do.

I found eight dinner plates in this Etsy shop and decided to go for it and order them. They arrived in two boxes and oh my, the packing!! This photo was taken after I got the plates unpacked, which was quite a job and took me well over half an hour.

After I got the bundles out of the Styrofoam packing peanuts, there was cardboard and bubble wrap to deal with.

Each plate was wrapped in not one,

not two,

but three layers of bubble wrap!

There was lots of tape involved as well.

When I finally finished, I had this beautiful stack of dinner plates,

and this big stack of bubble wrap! (I added the pill box to give you a point of reference.)

Because one of the dinner plates had a tiny chip, the Etsy shop owner threw in a bread and butter plate as a bonus. How nice!

So, I'm good for dinner plates, and I have one each of the bread and butter, square salad, and fruit bowl. I guess I'll be haunting antique shops and searching eBay, and Etsy for good deals on the many other pieces I need.  It will take a while, but I'll appreciate them all the more for the wait. It's just like that old saying: "Good things come to those who wait."  And how sweet it is when the good things finally show up.

A Special Place

Everyone has a special place. For some, it's the house or farm or town where they grew up. For others, it's a vacation spot where fond memories were/are made. And for still others, it's the place where they lay their heads each night, the place they call home in the present.

Many people think of Highland County, Virginia as a special place. The ones who were lucky enough to be born and raised here will always refer to it as home, no matter where they live. The ones like me, who moved here from somewhere else decades ago also think of it as home, even though we still have that "home place" where we grew up that will always be special, too. There are some who, for one reason or another, can't make the move to live in Highland County full-time, but spend weekends and every other chance they get nestled in among our mountains and friendly folks. And then there are those who pass through, maybe only once, for a few hours or days, and never return, but wish they could.

If one of these groups describes you or anyone you know, there's a new blog/website just for you! It's called See Highland County and the format is very simple: every Tuesday a new photo taken somewhere in Highland County will be posted. Just to enjoy. Just because Highland County is a beautiful place. Just because those of us who live here don't always have or take the time to relish it. Just because everyone who loves it can't always be here as much as they would like. There won't be much to read; just a sentence or two to give the location of the photo, so it won't be a blog that will take up much of our precious time. Instead, it's a very-mini vacation to Highland, right there on your computer, iPad, or phone every Tuesday. Give it a try by clicking HERE. (If, for some reason, the link doesn't work, the address is: www.seehighlandcounty.blogspot.com)

See Highland County

For anyone who lives in or longs for Highland County, Virginia

Please visit the blog a time or two. If you like it, become a follower and share it with anyone and everyone. Don't forget to check back every Tuesday for a new photo. If you have a website or blog, you can "grab our button" and put it on your site so even more people can enjoy our Highland County home with just one click of the mouse.

See Highland County

 This little corner of the state has been called "Virginia's Best-Kept Secret." The time has come, though, to share this one. It's just too sweet to keep to ourselves any longer.

What Would You Do?

As it usually happens around here, one thing led to another and now I"m stumped. It began when I took some geraniums in pots to the Guest House to put on the front porch,

and some Calibrachoa for the well top in the back yard.

 Later, I added a washtub filled with marigolds to the tree stump in the front yard.

Of course, the flowers need to be watered regularly and since the outdoor faucet is at the edge of the yard, I need something to carry water in.

I mentioned this little need to my hubby, saying that a small bucket would work. I was already thinking of one of several plastic cups in the basement for dipping and pouring, so as not to douse the plants with a tidal wave straight from the bucket. My hubby, though, has vast resources behind the weathered walls of this unassuming shed.

 (If you ever see inside, you'll marvel at the irony of this sign he has posted on the door!)

Although I haven't yet  seen the small bucket I requested, he did produce these two items for dipping:

Now, neither one is what I had in mind, and I'll probably just use a plastic cup. But the little yellow watering can might come in handy if I put houseplants inside someday. I think I'll wash it up and store it under the Guest House kitchen sink for now.This other thing is actually a copper tea kettle.

It's not old, as the bottom is marked "Revere Ware." It's obviously been around a while, though, as evidenced by the mineral deposits on the inside. But Revere Ware is pretty good stuff, so when I saw that it was copper, my mind immediately saw a beautiful gleaming tea kettle perched on the gas stove of the Guest House (instead of this ugly saucepan), making the dining/bedroom even cozier.

I took the kettle inside and washed it with soap and water, rinsing away several layers of dust and dirt. I got out my trusty Barkeeper's Friend cleanser (it's good stuff!)

and was poised with the scrubby to begin my quest for that gleaming kettle in my mind's eye. Something stopped me, though. Voices floated through my brain from Antiques Road Show, American Pickers, and Pawn Stars about rich patinas gained over years and years of existence and how one shouldn't remove them. Uh-oh.

So here's my dilemma: to scrub or not to scrub? I love rich, gleaming copper, but this old green tint is pretty cool. I did scrub a little on the bottom (where it won't show, should I decide not to scrub) so I could see what it would look like if I did scrub.

And now here I am, with a decision to make! I guess, if I scrub the entire kettle back to its copper self and don't like it, it will eventually turn green again. But that might take a long time. And, because if I do decide to scrub, it's going to take a lot of scrubbing, I don't want to use up my precious elbow grease and then wish I hadn't. So what do you think?? Should I scrub it,

 or leave it alone?

Scrub...

or not?

Thankfully, it's a sweet little dilemma that doesn't matter in the great scheme of things...and either way, it will be OK. But I really don't know which I like better!  Leave a comment below and tell me, "If you were me, what would you do?"

Porches

At long last, I'm cleaning my screened porch for the summer season. You might be thinking I'm a bit behind in this springtime chore, but things got in the way. First, I always have to wait for the trees that surround our house (acres of them) to finish or at least nearly finish putting out pollen. If I clean the porch too soon, it just gets covered in the yellow fuzzy dust all over again and my work is in vain. The trees were late this year.

Dirty

Clean

 Then, I was waiting on my husband to "Jomax" the house. If you've never tried Jomax on your vinyl siding, you must. Mix it with bleach and water according to the directions and spray it on with a garden sprayer. Then wash off with a pressure washer or garden hose with good pressure. The first year we used it, our siding hadn't been cleaned since we put it on the house. Robin had to scrub some spots, especially in the back, above the screened porch. That side of the house faces the north and doesn't get much sun. Consequently it was almost black with mold. Thank goodness no one ever sees it! Jomax came to the rescue and wah-la! Our siding looked like new and the house almost glowed. Now we use Jomax every spring, and no more scrubbing is needed. Anyway, Robin didn't want to Jomax until his brother got our roof painted. So, we had to wait on brother John to get around to us, which he finally did late last week. He finished up Monday, and Robin tackled the Jomax job that same evening.

Monday was a rare sunny day here, so bright and kind of early, I started cleaning the porch in anticipation of the painting and Jomaxing being completed by evening. This year, the porch floor needs a fresh coat of water-resistant stain and my plan was to push all the furniture to one end and have the other two thirds ready for stain early Tuesday morning. I did my part and got all the cleaning done, but yesterday dawned dark and cloudy and it rained almost all day. Not a good day for applying the stain, according to the instructions on the can. So, I went to plan B for yesterday, hoping for better weather today.

This part is NOT clean yet.

I did get the stain on this morning: the temperature was perfect and a mix of clouds and sun kept the porch from getting too hot. We did have a couple of showers, but no rain blew in on my newly treated floor, thank goodness. Now I have to let it dry for 24-48 hours before I can move the furniture and clean and stain the other end, which I hope to finish up on Saturday, at the latest.

Alas, it will be Sunday at best before my lovely porch is clean and ready for summer living. I can't wait to plop down out there with a good book! We enjoy eating our meals there, too, from the time I get it clean in the spring until well into September. In fact, we usually can't wait until the porch is clean. As soon as the weather is warm enough, I clean the pollen off the table and two chairs, and sweep a path from the door to the table. We've discovered our food tastes just as good amid all the dirt! Here are some pictures the clean and furnished porch from last year. I had a "porch" post all written in my head back then, but it became another one of the many posts that never make it from my brain to the computer.

We have a nice front porch, too, but it isn't screened and it gets the hot afternoon and evening sun. It's great for flowers, but not so good for sitting unless it's really early in the morning on a day when the bugs sleep in. (Whatever it is about humans that biting insects love, I have a lot of it!) How about your house? Do you have porches? Do you sit on them? Or have you closed them in to create needed and/or more useful space?

It seems that our 21st century society has lost the art of porch-sitting, by and large. Folks, myself included, have a hard time making time to relax on the porch. There are some chores that can be done there, such as shelling peas or stinging beans. But taking time to just sit and rest is hard to do in this day and time. It seems that when I was a kid, the grownups sat on the porch most summer evenings after supper, at least for a little while. They didn't park in front of the TV, but instead took a favorite seat on the porch to rest, or maybe visit with a neighbor who dropped by. I remember being one of a gang of kids playing hide-and-go-seek until it was too dark to see while the grownups worked through the cares of the day with laughter and good conversation.

I enjoy looking at houses when I'm out and about. I find I always prefer those with porches over those without them. Porches make a house cozier, acting as a buffer between the whims and chaos of the world and the familiar stability of home. Porches are places where I can have some indoor comforts while I relish in the great outdoors. Porches say, "You are welcome here! Come sit a while!" Porches are great places to share a glass of iced tea and a have a good talk. When folks leave our porch, I hope they go with a sweet memory or two that will bring a bit of comfort someday. I'm always looking for a reason to spend time on my screened porch. Now that I have a laptop and a new wireless router, maybe I can write my next blog post...on the porch!