Christmas Past

Last night I watched my first Christmas movie of the year. It was The Bishop’s Wife. Watching it made me think of all the Christmases of years gone by.

 

When citrus fruit and nuts where special gifts, and when people really did deck their halls with boughs of holly.

a satsuma by any other name..

I am ill.  This is what my husband brought to tempt me:

Isn't it perfect? 

As we approach the holiday season, it reminds me of the apples and oranges we children always found at the bottom of our Christmas stockings, and which still appear in our stockings year after year.  What a thrill it must have been to see such a jewel in your stocking centuries ago.  As we head into the American Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow, today I give thanks for the California farmers and the many others along the way, right up to and including my husband, who played a part in delivering this beautiful get-well satsuma to me.

New, Old, Always Beautiful

When I photograph supplies for Bumbershoot Supplies, I like to include photos of how these vintage treasures look when they arrive, so you can see what I see, perhaps feel a bit of the excitement I feel.  The new old stock, new since it has never been used, old since it was made many decades ago, is stored in many ways.

Sometimes wired....

Or bundled...

Or in cotton or tissue wrapping....

Sometimes the wrapping itself is a wonderful surprise....

New and old, both at the same time, always beautiful.

Any Scientist…

I have a lot of glass cabochons. I store some of them in these wonderful vintage jars.

Not only are these jars beautiful and practical, they can be seen in the Sherlock Holmes movie, The Spider Woman! “You called these glass cases ‘cages’. Any Scientist would call them terrariums.” Those are ours!(Okay, technically they aren’t the same ones that were used in the film but they look identical!) Next time you watch the film look for our “terrariums”.

Crystal Clear

I love crystals.

I love how they reflect light on even the grayest Seattle days.

The Cornucopia of Autumn

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;"

~John Keats

Yellow Leaves

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

~William Shakespeare

I love fall.