Seeing Red

 

My wife sae him first. She heard the call and went out on the deck to search for him. He is just spot at the top of the tree but he was calling for his mate. He left and when he returned the second time we both went out to photograph him. His calls are great and eventually when we were back inside we viewed a female for a brief second at the feeder.

 Fire stations to follow the theme of red with building showing red brick. I took this shot as I was out trying for more views of the cardinal. The sun was shining in the window just right to make it a good photo. We have the village up still as we are still enjoying it.

 The sun coming through the window gave the village a real natural daytime look. I had to take a shot. It is the only place where we have snow right now. The village will come down when we both feel like doing it. Right now it is great to see it both day and night. 

We have a warmer day again today. The neighbor boys are out playing basketball with short sleeved shirts. The neighbor dogs are all out having a great time running around in the warmer air. We will take this weather as we all know that winter is not over for us. 

Thanks for checking in today.  

 

History

 Grandma Driver's Quilt

 She was always called Grandma Driver. It was a puzzlement as to why she was even a part of my family on my mom's side. She didn't have any of our family names. Actually she married to a man named Charles Brown. She was Carrie Rosella Maxsom Brown. They lived in Illinois. Charley was my great grandfather. He was the father of two sons, Ira and Leroy. When Leroy, my grandfather, was three years old, Charley died. 

 My grandfather Leroy Martin Brown is shown in the photo with a niece. He grew up after loosing his father at the age of three. The mystery about Grandma Driver is that Grandma Carrie Rosella Maxsom Brown remarried. Her husband was called Thomas Jefferson Driver. 

The mystery of Grandma Driver was solved later in my adult life. To confuse things though, which my mom couldn't or wouldn't explain, is that she had five more children with her second husband. The two girls and three boys would be half relatives to us all in the Brown family.  That makes the family tree branch out immensely as the two girls married and had many children.The five kids would be half great uncles and great aunts to me. The one more unusual thing is the three males never married. My mom would call all those five  her uncle or aunts, because they were, but I only met one of them. She called her Aunt Ida and she lived near main street in Osceola, Iowa. 

 I inherited the two quilts that were made by Grandma Driver. They were kept by mom as precious items. Who knows if my sons will treat them as precious or not. 

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Middle of the Week

 It is surviving but looses a leaf once in a while. It made it to Valentine's season. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Take a Number

 Morning clouds line up in a row reacting to the winds up above. We warmed up a bit but not as much as yesterday.

 I have early photos of our living room when we had nothing on these walls. As we live in a place we gradually add more and more things. The drawing by my wife is of our grand daughter when she was less than a year old. My wife also loves the rows of birds at the feeder while I always have a barn painting around somewhere. The shelf of had carved items from Israel fits in the horizontal. 

 Also on the wall is this paper cutting from an Israel artists. I am sure the original was a hand cut item but this probably was machine cut. Grapes, pomegranates, olives, figs, wheat and rye branches are all depicted. I can't read Hebrew so who knows what it is saying. 

 The hand carved donkey fits in with the palm plant as it has such a nice red blanket. Olive tree scrap wood is used for the carving.

 

 My planter is in need of a new plant. I know better that it is never going to fill back in again. I have sections of the long vine placed in my aquariums growing and cleaning the water for the fish. 

I spent too much time on the phone today. I spent a long time on the line with my new insurance supplement  having them read and ask questions about its being. I spent time on the line with my new diabetic equipment company in California assuring to them that my doctor will send them needed info. I worked with my nurse again with a problem with my doctor and another prescription. I spent time figuring out a mistake that my doctor created by prescribing my equipment at two different companies.  Need I mention that two of the women I spoke with did not have a handle on the English language. Other than that I had a great morning. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Monday's Mentions

 The morning sunrise doesn't show what the future temps will be. We will though get up to 65 degree F. today. I won't be enjoying that so much as I will be in a dentist chair at the time it is to hit our high. 

 The figurines get to be photographed in front of the milk glass. The penguin isn't so old as I gifted it to my wife. The dogs are antiques. The came from my grand mother's house that was being closed down back in 1957. Sadly the little dogs are the remains of a larger set that my mom originally owned. At first there were two larger dogs, male and female, with black collars on them. The smaller pups were four or five in number. The were made from porcelain. I have never seen anything like them ever again or I would try to buy them.  A knick knack that they were all placed on failed and the pieces landed on the hard floor. These two were the only survivors. 

 

 

Sharing the blooms of kalanchoe that is in my downstairs window. They like the location and the  heater does encourage them that runs along the wall there. 

 This cupboard is ours that we moved to the new house. I hung it in a safe location and you can see the dogs in it. The mirror in the back of it makes it sparkle. The mirror also gives you a view of me taking the shot. There are a lot of small items that just work well in this box. It sat on a counter at the old place but this wall was narrow and it fit there very well.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

A Nook

 One of our previous owners had the basement finished with a big main room, a bedroom and a full bath. The space between the main room and bath has a nook. I am not sure if it were planned or an afterthought but I really like it.  We put my refinished oak chest of drawers into the nook making the space special. I restored and refinished it back when I was a couple of years in high school. When we closed down my parents house I retrieved the chest. Being that it is old I have to display old things on and around it. 

 The glass lantern was taken from my grandmothers house when they were closing it down in 1957. My dad wanted it and kept it in the machine shed. When I refinished the chest I went to the shed and got it. It had to be cleaned up a lot and I had to buy a glove for it.  The bicycle is a hand crafted one from locals in South Africa. Some missionaries gave it to us for helping with a display room that they had at our church. My mom's quail salt and pepper shakers  are only a few that I saved from her dozens of sets. 

The print is from a very old furniture store of my son's great grandfather and grandfather. The original old store bought prints and a worker cut frames for them. They were then put on sale in the store. The whole thing, frame and print, are antique. 

 

Framed photos on the wall include our wedding photo, my wife's grandma Mason on the left and my grandma Brown. The old mirror on the one left wall is from my wife's friend and also on the right one of her prints of a famous Impressionist painting. The wedding photo is almost 43 years old. 

When we moved to the new house we had lots of old furniture, antiques ,and they didn't really fit on the main floor.  A couple pieces were used upstairs but most all of the old pieces are downstairs. It all works good that way. Our old 112 year old home that we lived in did seem to meld well with all the antique stuff. 

We reached a high of 43 degree  F. today. It looks like an early spring day out there. Tomorrow we may hit 60 degrees F.  We will take all the good weather that we can get.

Thanks for stopping by today 

 

Saturday

 

 The sun shone true this morning when I looked for the sunrise. It was not so warm but we did warmup by the end of the day.

 I was fourteen years old and had received the assignment to make a lamp. I grabbed a board of cedar and starting to cut it into pieces. I  stacked them and it just happened. The instructor was impressed and share ways in which I could connect them all together drilling the hole in each square first so the rod could be inserted down into it to give it electricity. The cedar sanded down nicely and the finish made it shine. I did the math and it was 62 years ago. 

 

The Christmas tree is down now. I found a few items that didn't get taken off. I took off the different branches and a couple just fell to the floor. I really like this windmill ornament so I left it out to enjoy for a few days. 

While walking around outside I did see the different things that the wind brings me down the street. I sure ate a lot of these when I was young. Some kid must have tossed it somewhere and the wind caught it. 

 

I brought my bucket boy inside after taking this shot. He is safe in the garage until spring. 

Thanks for stopping by today.