Green, Green Grass at Home

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Yes, it's true. Tired of waiting for spring to arrive, we've had to grow our own bit of green turf.




There is still time for you to plant your own Easter basket grass too, and if you do, here is a hint: rye grass is a super fast germinator and speedy grower. One week after seeding, the rye is triple the height of the Kentucky blue grass that you see in the background just takin' its own sweet time.

Calling Sargent Preston

We need a, well, a Mountie - to solve the case of the phantom plate gifter.

Found in the mailbox a few days ago.








Mystery gifts are great. Gifts that fit the week's theme and combine several of our favorite things are fantastic.

Will the generous, stealth gifter please speak up?

If not, we may have to call in the R.C.M.P. and as you know - They always get their man.

No Menu Substitutions

Would it be a faux pas to serve Hot Chicken Salad, Cottage Cheese, and Peach Melba on a plate designated for Chicken Timbales, Asparagus, and Orange Chiffon Pie? Somehow it just seems wrong.












A quick google finds that there is a similar, alternate, multicolor set of Nelson Lebo menu plates for every day of the week. The menus shown here are the same as the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday plates from that set. The other days feature: Wednesday, Clam Bisque and Aspic Salad; Thursday, Shirred Eggs and Cloverleaf Rolls; Friday,? ; and Saturday, Cheese Souffle and Grapefruit Salad.

Very fancy.

Cottage Style

These could only be nicer if they held a few oatmeal raisin cookies and had a glass of milk on the side.












They just seem to say, "screen porch, summer day, life is good."

Oh, Great

My parents went on vacation and all I got was this lousy plate.

Nuts for Antiques

We don't know the provenance of most of the curious things we come across. We often have to imagine our own story.




Perhaps Miss Lillian spent hours painting these gorgeous goobers as a gift for her son, James Earl Carter, Jr. upon his inauguration as a remembrance of his humble peanut farming past.

The popularity of and curiosity about the peanut grew significantly during the successful 1976 presidential campaign that put Jimmy Carter in the White House. The image of the peanut in caricature was seen around the world as a symbol of not only a president, but also the towns of Plains. Born in 1924, James Earl Carter, Jr. grew up on his parents’ 360-acre farm. In Carter’s early years, his father began growing peanuts, a crop that made a great impact on his life. His family first raised the small Spanish peanuts, which were used as salted nuts, in candy bars, and some varieties for hog feed. At the age of five, Carter sold boiled peanuts on the streets of Plains. - Jimmy Carter NHS Program


Perhaps it was a Southern belle's prize-winning entry into the Georgia State Fair domestic arts competition that then came North with her when she ran away with her no account Yankee beau.




And the chip? Well now, that's an entirely different story for a future Antiques Roadshow.

Where do You Live?

Every now and then an estate sale or thrift shop find is just too good to be true. On first look this wonderful plate seemed like it must be Pottery Barn imitation vintage decor. But, no, it's real antique wallart for thought.










Research using the plate's backmark has turned up few clues about the history of this design, but we'll keep at it and let you know when we know the rest of the story.

Remember the Time...?

There comes a time in every relationship be it between husband and wife, brother and brother, friend and friend, crazy old uncle and the Thanksgiving day crowd - when all the stories have been told, the jokes delivered, and issues debated and dissected down to the minutest parts.

We all try to keep listening anyway knowing that we will likely be shown the same courtesy when we tell for the umpteenth time about the time we ...


Members of a certain family in our acquaintence, when a certain nonstop talker comes to call, take turns indicating by silently holding up fingers behind his back how many times they have heard the current story in his running monologue. We understand that the next time he visits teamwork will be needed to supply enough hands and digits to continue this smartypants tradition for some of the golden oldies on his playlist.


Stop us if you've heard this one...One of the only jokes we remember and can usually tell correctly is about a joke-telling club whose members had told the same jokes for so long that they all knew all of them by heart. They had decided to save time by assigning a number to each joke.

The teller would simply stand up and say for example, "Number 9."

Laughter from the group would follow as jokes were told all evening long with different numbers receiving a variety of responses from giggles to knee-slapping guffaws.

A visitor to the club observed for quite awhile and then asked to give this brilliant system a try. "How hard could it be?" he thought.

"Number 18," he called out with a big grin and an eager look of anticipation.

Only silence followed.

"Why is no one laughing?" he asked.

"Well," said an old member, "some people just don't know how to tell a joke."



So, everyone around you has heard all you have to say, over and over and over again. Now what?

Time to find a new audience. To save our marriage from becoming a daily conversation that goes something like this...

"Did I ever tell you about...?"

"Yes."

"Remember when...?"

"Uh huh."

"It is just like the time I..."

"Saw Ed McMahon in the giant redwoods scolding his children. Yeah, I know."

We started blogging and now have encouraged the spouse to also start a blog of tales old, and new.

Allow us to introduce Detritus of Empire - Unearthing odds and ends from the past and the present.




It's your turn to listen and politely nod (without nodding off) for awhile.

Thanks. Really. Thanks.

Don't Tell the Kids

And please don't nominate us for Hoarders. Yet.




Kitsch collector C. Dianne Zweig has some good advice for dealing with the parental home/trash pit sooner rather than later. It is a big job (which we fully intend to leave for our kids to do just as we have had to do it for our parents), but Ms. Zweig has some helpful tips for handling the situation before it becomes an overwhelming gigantic nightmare that you will probably have to travel across the country to deal with on a single weekend in a community that you never were, or are no longer, familiar with.

If you are in the situation of having to liquidate the family homestead now or in the future here are several helpful posts on the topic:


Cleaning Out Your Parents House: Letting Go Gently

How to Sell Your Parents' Stuff

How To Clean Out Your Parents House: Organizing The Basement

Getting Rid of Parents' Stuff: Start Early

You'll know when it is appropriate to pass this on to our younguns. Or perhaps you've known for awhile now.

Or Just Cross Your Fingers

A little collection of tokens meant to bring good fortune to the wearer/bearer.




It is interesting to find the littlest bits and pieces of peoples' lives at estate sales. Little things that may have ridden around in pockets of everyday clothes or that filled the "junk drawer". More interesting to think about who valued these good luck charms and their expectations of them. Did they win at the race track, get that promotion, get the girl to say yes, or maybe find a fiver on the sidewalk?

Let us know if you need a loan from our collection next time the powerball hits a million. It just might help.

Vintage Garden

We found only the first page of "Gardening as a Cure for Mental Breakdowns" amongst some other garden ephemera in a box. We dearly wish we had the entire article by Bolton Hall, an early advocate of "vacant lot gardening", from The Worlds Work… A History of Our Time.




Here is the opening paragraph: When the official returns of the Philadelphia hospital for the insane at Byberry showed that the inmates of the institution had raised about $10,000 worth of garden truck in one year, gardening began to attract attention as a cure for mild cases of lunacy. Since that time the experiment has been made in many hospitals for the insane and always with gratifying results. Not only have good crops been secured (interesting choice of primary project benefit), but the improvement of the condition of the patient has always been notable.





Chemical gardening in this case is just as advertised, growing plants without soil. The colorful, nicely designed cover is quite a mismatch with the black and white and rather dull content inside.





This album of a complete set of Will's cigarette cards on the topic of Gardening Hints dates to 1923 and was purchased at the Portobello Road market in London. Cigarette cards were enclosed in every pack of cigarettes originally only as a stiffener to protect your cancer sticks from damage. Someone, an American wouldn't you know, had the brilliant idea of using the formerly blank cards as advertising space with collectible images.

From about 1901 Cigarette Cards really caught on and thousands of different sets were issued by over 300 tobacco companies, Wills issued over 175 different sets alone. It is believed there were over 11,000 cards issued depicting the subject of cricket.

Many sets are still regarded as minature reference books with illustrations and texts absolutely correct. Children of the time used to stand outside tobacconists asking smokers for their 'fag' cards, they were then kept to make up sets and sometimes try and win more by playing games with the cards and hopefully winning them. Unfortunately most cards were damaged when played with, making them now worthless as condition to collectors of today is quite important. - from history section of cigarettecards.co.uk




The themes of the cigarette cards of old are too numerous to name here, but we find the inclusion of gardening topics quite interesting knowing what we do about the dangers of smoking and gardening as companion pastimes. Tobacco on hands is the prime method of spreading tobacco mosaic virus. Not smoking, or washing your hands if you do is the best prevention.

So, don't smoke, examine your nursery seedlings carefully, and just as you do at your favorite restaurant, pray that the workers at the greenhouse are paying attention to the "All Employees Must Wash Hands" sign when their smoke break is over.

The King's Bad Word

Since hearing that an F-word-sanitized version of The King's Speech is coming to theatres this Friday we have been unable to keep from giggling every time we think of Colin Firth shouting, "Fudge. Fudge. Fudge. Fudge."




Sadly, newly acquired details of the story from The Hollywood Reporter reveal that that is not to be the case. PG-13 still allows minor oaths to be substituted for vulgar ones so it seems we will have to wait until the G version comes out before we get to hear the line done our way.

The redo is being released on April fool's Day. Could it be an elaborate joke?

Get 'Em While They're Hot

Community garden plots are going fast. Sign up here.




Get growing!

Week-long Beans

These beautiful Garden of Eden beans became Rancho Gordo's Pasta Fazool.




Soaked on Saturday, cooked on Sunday, eaten on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...

A Look Inside LIFE

1958 LIFE Picture Cookbook inner cover design.

Never Really Been, But We'd Sure Like to Go

Mexico.

Another young adventurer has sent beautiful, colorful photos home from their travels.












More images of Southern climes from another lucky vacationer here, here, here, here, and here at Thimble.

Now This We Love

Truly.

Buttons.











Who doesn't?