Tree Leaves, Art-Glass Leaves, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Fray

The fray (n.) came while I was gone last week, a stormy struggle between wind and trees that left my yard and driveway littered with sticks, branches, and leaves.  Meanwhile I was out looking at leaves of another kind–

Carnival glass with a pattern of blue leaves.

Now that I’m home I’m spending my time cleaning the yard, so this is a lazy post, with me reaching back to last week to find something fit for the topic. (And by the way, thank you trees, for remaining vertical, and thank you neighbors, for calling to warn me there’d been a storm and everything was ok, just messy.)

My antique dealer cousins — aka ‘The Pickers’ — took me along on an afternoon trip to Rockport MO, where we stopped at 3 Korners Antiques, home of the motherload of carnival glass. I hadn’t paid much attention to carnival glass before, but seeing it en masse, I finally realized how gorgeous it can be. This shop was like a mini-museum.

(I’m beginning to see the light)

Carnival glass: lovely! But it’s all peacocks — where are the chickens?

But wait — I just found this carnival glass chicken pinboard!

All these peacocks and leafy Art Nouveau and arts-and-crafts motifs reminded me that I recently found my old term paper on Art Nouveau from an Independent Study section in art history, way back. And yes, it had been living undiscovered in one basement after another for the last few decades. A glance through showed me that I didn’t mention carnival glass at all.

I don’t know anything about the difference between old and new glass, I just took pictures of what was accessible. And shiny.

Could I, in my snooty days, have seen the iridescence and the luster and considered it budget Tiffany?

Something besides carnival glass: these little cuties were purportedly Lalique.

I left the store empty-handed, being in the mode of look-don’t-buy (plus, did you see the $-signs?). Still, I’m glad I thought to take these photos. Meanwhile, I’m hoping for another afternoon out with The Pickers next time I’m in town. As for now, I’m back to the job of cleaning up after the fray.

What do you think — peacocks or chickens?

Related posts:

Now for a 21st century moment: Rockport MO was the first town in the US to be powered solely by wind turbines

More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Fray

 

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Flea-Market Finds, an extra post for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

I made a flea-market stop the day before I found real silhouettes at the wildlife refuge. I thought it would be a good spot for a photo scavenger-hunt, so I’m making an extra post this week with my results.

Pony Express Clock, complete with silhouette, from the Jesse James Antique Mall

 I still love to look, but even though it’s tempting, photos are my only acquisitions these days. Flea Markets and Antique Malls are also good stops for price-checking and research for what to do with my own stuff. Here’s my photo gallery of ready-made silhouettes from bygone days —  a hundred-year survey courtesy of the Jesse James Antique Mall in St. Joe MO, and W.D. Pickers, just up the road a piece in Platte City.

(If you click through to the website, you can hover over each image, or click on any one to enlarge it)

Tribute to ‘Whistler’s Mother’ silhouette.

Book-end silhouettes.

Red Goose shoes – why is it a can?

Bisonoil can silhouette (ok, where does Bisonoil come from?).

Silhouette picture – this one has a bonus blue silhouette above it.

Silhouette picture/thermometer.

Tinfoil and ducks!

Sometimes silhouettes are white — a teapot tribute to Wedgewood.

Not the Belvedere torso, but it works as a silhouette.

It’s a calendar – 100 years old next year.

Trivets make silhouettes.

Crackerjack toys make silhouettes too.

Book cover silhouette.

Silhouette picture pair.

Silhouette picture pair.

I’m beginning to think this may be the start of a new pinboard.

Do you have any antique silhouettes?

Related post:

The Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

Lewis and Clark, Squaw Creek, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

When I took this silhouette photo I didn’t notice the heron had a companion.  Now I see there’s a turtle too, or is that an artfully contrived bump on a log?

Heron in silhouette, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

I nearly always stop by Squaw Creek when I’m visiting in the midwest. By the time I go back in the fall, there’ll be millions of migrating geese and other water fowl. When I went looking for more silhouettes this trip, these two plucky ducks offered themselves.

Ducks in silhouette, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

As for Lewis and Clark, I grew up watching for these signs. Our explorers are pointing north and west, but when it came time for my own private Corps of Discovery, my route lay east, and I never got to follow them. This sign is just down the road a piece from Squaw Creek.

Lewis and Clark Trail sign — we were looking for Big Lake. It’s just over yonder.

Meanwhile, I haven’t given up on downsizing, I just took a few vacation days. And I did take along some homework…

Care for some light airplane reading?

Stuff – Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

 

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The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

Nearby wind farming as a threat to wildlife

Working Toward a More Sustainable Yard, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

Here’s my back yard, all texture no mowing — notice I stayed back far enough so you can’t see the weeds (there are several, but weeds are green too so what’s wrong with that).

Back yard ground cover and perennials — the wide angle shot makes it look bigger than it is.

A better view of the ajuga, aka bugleweed. I like the way the black-eyed susans, phlox, and hellebores plant themselves.

There are some beautiful lawns in my neighborhood, and I know a smooth sward of grass is a lovely contrast with the texture of pine a islands’ flowers, shrubs, and trees, but grass is more than I can manage.

Bob tried to teach me to care for the grass, and after his death I soldiered on for a while in his honor. My heart wasn’t in it though. Fertilizing and watering seemed pointless when I knew I had to reseed twice a year because of the shade, plus it’s scary to read the warnings on the packages of lawn treatment chemicals and see what I’m releasing into the environment for the sake of a lawn that I don’t want to mow anyway. A few years of drought taught me that ground covers live when grass doesn’t, and I decided to just let the ajuga have at it. Here’s the back yard in the spring of 2013, with the ajuga blooming, and here’s my first post about it.

Ajuga blooming, April 2013

It’s spread quite a bit since then, though there’s still a patch toward the back where it hasn’t filled in yet. As the growth gets tighter there’s a lot less weeding.

I’m trying to attract more insects and pollinators, so was happy to see these guys wander into my viewfinder when I wanted a close up of the black-eyed susan’s seeds for texture.

An ant and a bee meet on a black-eyed susan seed head.

As for the front yard, that’s been a less successful transition to a grass-less state, but I’m not giving up. I’ll keep the tale of the galloping ivy (I didn’t plant that) and the lackluster liriope for another post.

 The only downside to eliminating the grass is that my yard-work doesn’t fit well into what lawn maintenance companies do, so if I wanted to hire help, it’d be hard to find. Not to mention we’d probably have conflicting opinions on what’s a weed and what’s a wildflower.

So what’ll it be? Grass or ground cover?

Here’s more on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

Bob’s High School Yearbooks, a Blue Stairway, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag

Too bad the Fay Gold Gallery was closed when we stopped by on Saturday, but it did offer this zigzag staircase. Since the zigzag post is meant to be anything but straightforward, read on for a cameo by teenage Bob and guest star Reddy Kilowatt…

Blue zigzag stairs at the Fay Gold Gallery — are they bright enough?

I’ve been looking for an opportunity to blog about Bob’s high school yearbooks. I found two while unpacking boxes from the basement this summer.  Though tempted to save them, I must practice “letting go”. Following my own advice on how to keep things without actually keeping them, I took photographs of the pages that had pictures of Bob, then started thinking about what to do with the books. First thought: contact the school. That didn’t work out, so I looked for a historical society in Salina KS, the town where he lived. I didn’t find one online, but did notice there’s a State Historical Society in Topeka.

If you’re wondering how this relates to zigzag, check this out —

Bob’s just to the right of the zigzag. I’m not sure if this is the Radio Club or the Up n’ Atom Science Club.

I emailed the Historical Society to ask if they kept an archive of yearbooks and guess what — here’s their reply:

We have a small collection of these and would be pleased to add these of yours to it.  We have a gap from 1949 to 1966, so you can see how they will fit in.

 I mailed the books, along with a High School newspaper that I found tucked into the binder of one. I didn’t know if they could use the newspaper, but thought I’d take a chance and include it. Here’s the reply:

The yearbooks arrived in fine shape on Wednesday.  As soon as we get them accessioned, they will be ready to go on the shelf.

Thanks also for the single issue of the Salina High News, May 29, 1959.  We do not have many high school newspapers, so initially I was a bit dubious about a single issue.  I checked, though, and found that we have a long, incomplete, run from 1939 to 1967. Sure enough, we were missing the May 29, 1959 issue!

I’m so glad this all worked out. Thanks again for thinking of us. I hope you have great holiday.

I think it’s fitting that the holiday mentioned was Memorial Day here in the U.S. And that little newspaper? There’s zigzag synchronicity in this photo I took before I sent it — here’s  Mr Zigzag himself.

Zoom in on this zigzag character…

Reddy Kilowatt was still around in advertisements when I was in grade school. I’d forgotten all about him until I saw this. I wouldn’t mind having one of those pink and iceberg-white transistor radios.

The yearbooks yielded no more zigzags, but here’s another photo of Bob, followed by a few more from the era.

Top scholars. Bob (on the lower right) won a prestigious scholarship to the University of Kansas.

Fab cars on the streets of Salina. At the cinema it’s “The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw” — my heart beat faster for star Kenneth More as Young Jolyon in “The Forsyth Saga” series, still years away when this photo was taken.

Mr Spudnut may still exist… I think he’s a potato doughnut.

I’m so glad the books have a good home now. Big thanks to the Kansas Historical Society.

Related links:  more on the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag

… and Mr Spudnut

Now, what to do with my own yearbooks… Do you still have yours?