A few of my Favourite things . . .

 

These are a few of my favourite things . . .

 

I love Cumbria and the Lake District.  Beatrix Potter country, the land of Wordsworth and inspiration for many of our poets and artists.  We have holidayed there three times, twice from down South and once from here.  I can still remember how it took my breath away the first time I saw the Lakes.  I had never seen anything like it before in my life.   We were in the car and went around a bend and then all of a sudden there was this most beautiful  panorama before us and I fell in love.  Not unlike millions of others who have done the same.  If Todd were to say to me today, lets go up to the lakes.  I would drop everything and just go  . . .  even if I do hate driving in the car and the motor way.  It would be worth it. It is a place I will never tire of visiting.



Potato Chips.  They are my largest weakness.   I cannot resist potato chips.  I dare not keep them in the house because if they are here I am stuffing them into my face.  It's not something we had very often when I was growing up.  I can remember going with my friend to the corner store on allowance day and buying a packet of them when I was about 11 years old.  They only had plain potato chips back then.  We would go into the cafe which was attached and order cokes and then sprinkle vinegar into our chip bags and sit and drink the cokes and eat exotic vinegar flavoured potato chips.  Not so exotic now when you can buy flavours such as Sweet Chili and Sour Cream, or Sticky Gammon . . .  pork sausage and mustard . . . yes, those are some of the flavours we can find here in the UK.  I do quite like the Sweet Chili ones.  Dangit.




Doing Family History.  I love looking back at my roots and finding out things about my ancestors.  Seeing where I came from, imagining the lives they might have lived.  I think I had some very brave ancestors.   I think of them getting onto ships in an age when that was the only mode of travel to get across to North America, probably with only what they could carry . . .  and then travelling across the Atlantic to arrive in a hostile new world, filled with nothing but wilderness and wild natives.  Sailing virtually into the unknown.  This was a special breed of people and I am proud to have descended from them.   And then when they got there, having to clear land, build homes and build lives and livings from scratch.  These thoughts amaze me.  They truly do.  That's why I love doing family history.    I also love watching the television shows about it.  Who Do You Think You Are.  One of my favourite shows.  I think that inside each of us is a yearning to know who we really are and to discover our roots.

 

 The artwork of Holly Hobby.   Oh to be that good.    She was very popular when I was a teenager.  I remember saving my money up to buy my mother a wooden wall plaque of Holly Hobby.   It was of a young girl baking.  She has a table in front of her with an old stoneware bowl on it and she is using an egg beater and there is a clock in the background on the wall.  It hung in my mother's kitchen for years.  I have it now. She gave it back to me once when I was visiting.  I treasure it even though it is now faded and a bit yellowed with age.  I remember making Holly Hobby dolls for my ex husband's neices (first husband) shortly after we got married.  I wonder what ever happened to them . . .

I guess I have always loved making dolls.  Even then.



Bluebirds and apple blossoms.  I have always loved bluebird art and bluebird pottery, and apple blossoms . . .  well, they just remind me of home.  May in Nova Scotia.   Apple Blossoms.  A little bit of heaven on earth.



This is an old bluebird cream and sugar dish I picked up at a yard sale many moons ago.  Sadly the creamer got broken when we lived in Kent, which made me sad, but  . . . I got over it.  I still have the sugar dish part which lives in my craft room where she is safe.  Bluebirds and apple blossoms . . .



I love setting a pretty table.   This was for Thanksgiving one year down in Kent.  My table always pretty much looks the same . . . I don't have the variety to change it up with the holidays . . .



Although I do attempt to do so  . . . .




This was one of the aspects of my job at the big house I enjoyed  . . . setting the tables for the luncheons and dinner parties.  There were so many beautiful dinner sets, goblets, chargers, etc. to choose from, even cutlery.  I have never seen such abundance of beautiful things . . .

 

Beautiful table clothes, napkins etc. . . .



That part I enjoyed a great deal . . .  along with the cooking  . . .

 

Not so much the other stuff that went along with it . . .



But I did learn a lot and for that I am grateful.



Baking days  . . .  and puttering in the kitchen.   As soon as we can afford it we are going to repaint the downstairs, including the kitchen.  It badly needs it.  Of course we will have to wait until after the Mission is finished as we won't have time until then to really do it.

 And of course each of you and your sweet comments.  They are also one of my favourite things.  ☺  You truly make my days and bless my life.  Thank you for that!

A thought to carry with you through today . . .

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
"The flower that smells the sweetest 
is shy and lowly." ~William Shakespeare 
  Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷღೋღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Spiritual Enlightenment 




In The English Kitchen today a fairly healthy Broccoli Pasta Salad!

I wish for you a beautiful Thursday . . . wherever you go and whatever you get up to, may it be filled with a multitude of blessings and your favourite things. Don't forget!

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 And I do too!