Happy Friday Morning! "Baby it's cold outside!" Our early morning temperature was 34, but the "feels like" temperature was 23 F at 6 a.m. Our high today will only be 55. That's pretty doggone chilly for us here in north central Florida in the latter part of February! Not unheard of, but still a bit unusual, especially after we were lulled into a false sense of Spring a week ago! But spring is definitely still in the air, just a bit on the cold side!
Mrs. Sand Hill Crane is all hunkered down on her nest on Still Waters Pond! I walked around to where I could see her yesterday afternoon, hoping she would stand up long enough for me to see how many eggs she has...
Here's hubby and his brother Billy...it took a couple of pictures to get both of them to look at me... LOL.
Here's my sister in law Peggy and yours truly, with our friend the bear:
It was interesting to see this bit of history from an era long gone now.
These are photos below of how it used to look many years ago, when it was a prosperous little general store and the Post Office. More recently it was a rental home until the fire.
1943-44
This is how it looked in 1885. Our church is right down the street, on the right side, but this picture may have been taken even before our church was built in 1887.
I don't know if the people doing the current renovation are going to restore it back to the original, or make it into a house again. Originally the owners of the store lived upstairs. I would LOVE to see this restored back to the "original", with a store downstairs, but that probably wouldn't be cost effective for them, so we shall see what develops. I'm just glad they aren't tearing it down as it has so much history.
I guess you could call that progress? Maybe...maybe not. LOL.
One of my blogging friends, Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden, shares lovely photos of her tea parties and garden and beautiful table settings in her home "tea room". In her latest post (linked above), she stated that "February Means Time for Violets". Since I was wanting to put away my red Valentines decor and replace it with something else, her suggestion led me to look for the violet and other spring time tea sets that I have. So here's what I came up with:
First of all, I just realized that this sweet little basket of flowers on the Susan Branch calendar for February this year is actually a basket of violets, although they are pink and not the traditional "violet" purple color:
This is a miniature tea set that was given to me by a dear friend from our church who was moving away and downsizing. Isn't it beautiful?
The other tea sets are gifts from family in the past...all special treasures to me!
So they are especially special to me!
This little violet small tea set was a gift from my Mother and Father years ago, so it is also a treasure. The larger tea cup and saucer, I am not sure where it came from,
and the cannister behind it was a gift from a friend also.
Oh, and that "The Tea Party Book" was also a gift from one of my dear blogging friends! It has all kinds of fun ideas for tea parties for children and others as well. And the sweet tea pot on the left was a gift from my sister Doris many years ago.
Since violets seem to be such a special flower, I looked it up to find out if there is any other information that was meaningful about the violet. Here is a link to a post about Violet Flower Meaning & Symbolism, that certainly had a lot more information than I ever realized about the sweet little violet flower. I thought this was interesting:
"Victorian EraSpeaking of everlasting love...
In the Victorian era, the “language of flowers” became popular, and violets were a significant part of this tradition. They symbolized modesty, faithfulness, and everlasting love. Violets were often included in bouquets and gifts to convey these sentiments.
The sweet fragrance of violets made them popular in the perfume industry. Violets were used to create perfumes and scented products, contributing to their popularity in Victorian society."
1 John 4:12 NKJV
"12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another,
God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us."
And also speaking of Lily Grace, her little wardrobe has expanded over the past few years, and the original box I had to hold all of her special things has become too small. (the one on the bottom).
I love these boxes that they sell at the Dollar General. They come in so many different colors, styles and sizes, and this one with the bluebirds on it seemed to be the perfect one to hold the extra shoes, hair ribbons, and other little things that little girls accumulate:
Now hopefully we can keep her things more organized and easier to find! Whew! I never knew little girls could accumulate so much stuff! LOL.
The pond and the blue birds are so lovely!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're a wimp about the cold. It all depends on what you're used to! And I'm a wimp up here about our cold. :)
Glad you had that nice outing with family.
I love seeing those old pictures. You'll have to keep us up to date on the renovations.
so now even dolls have storage problems. those boxes are perfect. I have 3 boxes from Dollar Tree, they are octagan shaped not rectangles. I love seeing the photos in the restaurant and my maiden name is McCall, from Georgia, Sparky found we are distant cousins.. the town just south of us, here is all McCall, streets and stores and avenues. and now there was a sheriff McCall. the house you love is gorgeous and so happy they saved it. there is one in Ormond Beach exactly like it. just north of 40 that comes from Ocala and ends at ormond beach. I have a photo but its in albums and not easy to find.
ReplyDeleteI do hope the cold doesn't harm the new eggs she is sitting on. the water in the photos of the crane is just spectacular.
Lovely photos. It's nice to see little towns gain some businesses but, I do wish they would use more authentic architecture when they build rather than the modern box stuff. I hope you will show us the development of the old post office building as they renovate it. How exciting that will be. I have never ever seen a blue bird. Everyone tells me they see them all the time but I just never have! Or a gold finch which is NJ's state bird. I think it's a conspiracy. I see eagles, hawks, seagulls and sea birds galore. cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, crows, ravens, owls , wrens you name it but never any of those. Do they just not like me?? Well, who knows.
ReplyDeleteLily Grace looks nice in purpple and the quilt she is sitting on is one I have as well, though I may have given it away at one point. Hope you are doing well and that hubby is healing well too. Hugs.
My goodness what an interesting post. I loved the old photos and the history to go with them. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of those boxes but I bought mine at Hobby Lobby. One has my mom’s paperdolls and the other holds vintage letters, post cards, old documents from my family from the late 19th century. I enjoy being whisked away to another time while looking through it all.
ReplyDeleteYou sure have a lot of tea pots. I inherited my sisters tea pots which I gave to my daughter-in-law and kept one for me. I never use it.
I’ve never had a Dunkin donut. We don’t have any around here. But I’m sure they’re good because I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like. I hear their coffee is good.
So Mrs C has laid an egg? Awesome. All eyes and video cams are on our lady Liberty. Nothing yet.
Always an enjoyable read
Debby
Aww, Pamela... I definitely have teapot set envy. They are scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteMy Mothers name is Violet and she fits the description to a T. or is it tea?
Eagerly awaiting the egg count for your Mrs. Crane.
To answer your question on my blog. The geese make their home several blocks away from us. They like the pond around the apartment complex over there. When we take a walk we often go that way to see how the geese are doing.. pretty messy and very territorial. I will try to take some photos when the next batch of goslings shows up.
When the crane baby arrives will you name him Ichabod?
ReplyDelete😂