Tuesday..........

This small iron was one that belonged to my Grandmother.  I really always thought it was a toy and then I saw where they were created to iron small areas on clothes.  I actually keep it in my toy cupboard even though it isn't a toy.  It is small and I can keep track of it that way with the other antiques in there.

As you can see it is made by the Dover Company and it really is called a sad iron.  Why a sad iron, I don't know but I have heard them called that for a long time.  The idea for the one who had to iron the clothes was to own as many bottom pieces of the iron so one could keep switch to a hot base as the one you were using had cooled down.  The carrier with handle slips in and out of the base easily and you could have a few heating up on the cast iron wood stove while the one being used eventually cools down.  The larger irons were the ones most used but I am sure the small ones made it easier to do lace and collars of shirts.

The holder of the iron is a metal that I am sure wore out while the base did not. I guess that is why you don't see many of them at antique store as the metal rusts out and wood handle may have fallen away from the base.  Some irons didn't have the luxury of the handle being wood.  They had solid iron handles that needed a hotpad to hold them while ironing. The handle was sometimes wrapped in a wire coil which keep it less hot but that handle still had to be hot.

While I was out and about yesterday I appreciated seeing how this hosta has come back. It looks squeezed in where it is planted but it is fine for me as it just spreads front and back that way.

Having the day off I was out picking things.  I needed the stepladder to pick apples.  I could wait for them to fall but it immediately puts a bruise on them and you have to use them right away.  While picking I saw large apples further up in the tree that I will have to use a ladder to access them.  I will wait a few more days but they are larger at the top of the tree and I want to get them down from there.

I also picked pears yesterday. I really have never had such a good corp of them before this.  They too are larger up at the top and I will need to use the ladder to pick them.  This is the biggest pear crop I have ever harvested and yet there are so many on the ground that can't be used.  I see some of them have been hit with insects bites which deformed the and others are the perfect pear.
I picked up apples and pears both for my friend to feed to her horses.  It is good that they can be used and the horses eat them like candy.

Fall is definitely upon us and yet we are having warm weather today. We will have a stronger wind today and that is normal for this time of the year. The sun is at a different location in the sky so we see a different landscape out there with the bright light and clear sky. The trees are turning slowly and the birds are migrating. The poplar tree is getting very tall.  I noticed it yesterday and wondered how soon the top of it will break off being a softer wood, a fast growing tree.

I am subbing for a special education teacher today.  I will get to travel from classroom to classroom to be with the special needs students and help with the taking of notes. Thanks for stopping in today.