June

Now is full summer time, lush green and vibrant. How blessed is the rain. Our area of West Central Texas is still much behind which means the deep pools of water below us have not recovered, but with the need to irrigate abating some,  we will be drawing less from those precious aquifers for a little while at least. Between here and the new Mexico border there have been good rains scattered over a wide area. 

In the 1950's and 60's I subscribed to "Mother Earth News" and learned to make my vegetable garden under a deep permanent mulch.  This morning with everything freshly washed I felt a kinship with the younger self of those times as I played in the garden, my hair in a braid again and my gardening gloves on.  I have a nice layer of Coastal Bermuda hay on the ground around the vegetables and added the trimmings from a culinary sage which was growing over a walkway, and then cut up last years' parsley plants to add to the mulch.  I add bits of plant matter on top continuously and it makes an herby sweet smelling cushion under foot.  It is time to cut back the basil and add it's fragrance to this.  Fruit and vegetable trimmings from the kitchen are buried here and there under a bit of top soil and then the mulch rolled back in place over them.   Composted manure will help too at the end of this growing season.  Next spring I will set in purchased blue bonnets in between the vegetable plants to add nitrogen to the soil which is needing that.  There are a few of the blue flowers this year, but they cannot self seed in the deep mulch. 

This is peach season for Fredericksburg, and I celebrate with large pies, not as big as in the past when I used a 19 inch long turkey pan for my peach pies, but still large enough to share with friends.  When I was in my 20's I thought it a great sin to buy piecrust and always made my own.  Now I let Pillsbury do them and I add cinnamon and nutmeg and sugar and bits of real butter on top of the crust and for a crowning touch a nice sprinkling of pecans.  No one complains.   This weekend I will make my third one for this summer.  I hope each of my friends is enjoying this beautiful season as much as I am.  e

 

In the ornamental part of the garden "Indigo Spires" has reached a height of 4 feet and a spread of about 7.

My own Green Eden

We have hot muggy weather here, blessed rain for us again last Monday.  I can’t tell you how good it is to have rain when we are so dry and dusty.  Most of my yard is looking very pretty, unfortunately the soil I paid to have brought in for the big vegetable bed is no good and the plants struggle and some die along. I am extremely disappointed in it, but will hang on for this growing season and try to pay to have it taken out and replaced in the fall.   Just in case, for plan "B" I am continuing to try to improve what I have.  

 

This neighborhood had a great block party a few houses down from me last Sunday night, 32 people came and brought food and chairs and cooked hamburgers and drank wine and visited for a bit over 3 hours!    This included Cheryl’s 93 year old neighbor whom she helped and another precious  neighbor on a walker, and no one was left out.  We are a tiny one block long strip of garden homes, with lots just 50 feet wide, zero clearance on one side and a small side yard  on the other. The side and back yards are completely closed in and private with no windows on the neighbor’s side.  I love my little courtyard!   Many of these tiny yards are beautifully done.

 

 

 

Every part of life is richer for friendships remembered.  There are plants in my garden brought by loving hands to share. The Little Gem Magnolia brought to us by Jan and Bill has already bloomed this summer.  Jan left us in the same 24 hours as my Jackie.  Beside my front door is a little cast iron pot on the right from Elizabeth Cates, a friend for more than 50 years of my life.  To the left is a cast iron rabbit given to me by Virginia.  e

 

A few special china dolls

The so called Greiner style china with her desirable lower eye lashes is a lovely addition to my doll family. The dress on her may be original, the bodice is lined, the fit exact, and the stiches are tiny ones made by hand. It is in shreds.  I have been to the thrift store to find a skirt made of black gauze, and found deep navy instead. From it I will cut patches to lay under the old fabric and help it hang together a little longer.  Wish me luck on this delicate venture!  I often shop the thrift store to find a needed piece of fabric by cutting up a used garment.

 

The tiny one is exquisite in her complete originality.  This little treasure is a small example of the china head used to mold my largest linen head doll over.   I would like to find a larger one I can buy, but may never be so fortunate.  Click on any picture to really see it well.

The blond boy is a common type of 1880 child made by A B G. I own a large perfect example kept at my daughter Beth's house. What is special about this one is his complete originality in a beautiful sailor suit. The little faded blue leather boots were his from his making. How nicely they harmonize with his blue trimmed suit and bright eyes. 

Most unusual and rarely found is this version of the Sophia Smith head.  I own two of them now, the other a more usual Kestner.  There is still another Sophia I am watching for, always the quest goes on..

I see from the counter that this blog has had more than 100,000 hits. I am humbled by this, thank you all. It left me feeling writer's block for a while after I noticed that, wondering what on earth I could write worth so many  visits.   So I continue to write about living with a garden and crafts and antiques and know that many people share this journey together.   Grateful for each day God gives me in these, my unexpected "bonus" years,  Edyth

A Motschmann doll in an unusual size

Why do I like this Motschmann doll head? How does one explain what piques a collector's interest?  Her bright expression and life like glass eyes are part of it.  She is a fairly rare find. Many of the papier mache dolls with snoods  were wax over papier mache, and often blond.  This one shows no residue of wax and instead the residue of an early finish. Her painted hair shows desirable brush marks at the sides of her face.  See how these early dolls glow against the fabrics in this grand old log cabin quilt. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Although  she is a very worn example I am enjoying this head from a doll of about civil war age.  She has lost what was obviously a Motschmann style body. To display her I will want a body for her and a dress of old calico if possible.  While watching for the right body or parts of one, I will make a cloth body of the right height, using the blond waxed Motschmann example pictured  to aid in getting the right proportions for this one. The three dolls in the front of this picture are not as early as the three Voit dolls standing behind them. I do not know her maker, perhaps Muller, only a guess.  I date her right at 1860, 65.  e

Petting the house the day before Pictures are made

This is the fun day, I have stopped now for cheese and crackers and a glass of tea. Linda just called from Kerrville that she has found the hanging baskets of white flowers I need.  I have taken off all the arm covers from upholstered pieces and hidden the telephones and waste baskets.  My kitchen phone lives in a green shaker carrier upon a checked cloth (from Trisha)  that can be pulled up over it at a minute's notice. I learned this from Virginia long ago.

 

Pot plants have been borrowed from next door and fabric pieces have been gathered. The nice ochre check tea towel on the front of my stove was woven by Penny at a weavers workshop in Vermont.  What a treasured gift when I know she made just two of these that trip.

I have cut herbs at my house and Barbara's to hang on the sun porch.

 

The bakers at HEB were all running about this morning early showing me the prettiest loaves as they came from the oven!  It was hard to choose among them all.  to the left of one picture, see bay leaves from Virginia's Bay tree on a treen plate Jack turned long back.

 

Barbara is working high and low, on a ladder in this shot. Tomorrow morning Barbara will come with flower arrangements she has made and stored in a large refrigerator at her house. 

 

 

Cheryl has brought three great ferns to lend for the patio. I would have some there permanently but they cannot stand that much full sun. Gary and Beth will take the Television out this evening.

 

Next to the carrier on the table is a cookie cutter made by Beth and Gary. The square under the carrier was woven by sweet friend Cathy in Massachusetts. The little blue carrier is the first antique Jack and I ever bought together, before we were married. What an avalanche of Americana followed through the years!  There was never anything else we wished we had done instead.  There were more than forty trips to New England to search and study and buy for our small shop.    The collection I live with now in my retirement nest is so personal and full of happy memories as well as  present good times like today.  Friends are the whole story, sharing enjoyment of our homes and gardens and families together. Never more true to me than right now today.  e

 

 

 

 

Easter greetings

My three Greatgrands.

Also a birthday cake for Bailey. She has plenty of help from her small brother and sister. e

Cut up an early dress?

Absolutely no contest.  When a child's hand stitched garment has survived intact or even mostly so, who am I to destroy it as an antique forever!  Most of my larger dolls wear old clothing that I have carefully hand tucked or softly hemmed or otherwise altered to look right on the dolls, using long loose stitches easy to back out. 
Pictured here is an infant's long dress from the mid 19th century made of  the ubiquitous "double pink" which was and is so pretty on a child or a doll. To use on my doll it needed to be shortened by many inches. I turned up a neat hem and never mind that it is 8 inches wide.  I did not iron the hem in, but just softly ran it though my fingers to press it the least bit so it hangs nicely.  I have taken pictures inside to show the simple construction, just two rectangles with the top corners cut away, then sleeves applied that are each a simple ruffle the same width for its whole length.
Now here is the temptation, look at the doll and see that like so many the upper arms are not pretty and should be covered. Ah, part of the 8 inch hem would do nicely to fabricate longer undersleeves to give a great look! But I cannot cut it so undersleeves will have to wait and be made later of soft white goods.  I am watching now for an apron to tie around her middle.

This doll, an early glass eyed papier mache head made by Andreas Voit about 1845 or 50 went through  my house fire in 2005. She is entirely repainted by me as she was blackened, almost charred, by the smoke and fire.  I have kept some of these large glass eyed Voit children anyway, as they will not come my way to buy again. 
This doll head style with her center parted short hair and wispy curls at the sides was doubtless an inspiration for some of the dolls made in this country by Ludwig Greiner. I show one of his earliest dolls marked only with a black stamp "Patent Head"  (ex collection Winnie Langley)  and another slightly later doll with a standard 1858 Greiner label.  Thank you sweet friend Martha for the little cape you crocheted for her.  Her dress is original to her I believe, a nice sheer wool plaid. I have very few dolls in original clothing and I treasure the ones that are.

 This Motschmann baby has her complete original outfit in the cradle with her, including dress Jacket and cap.

 

 

 The dolls know a photographer from EAL  is coming next week and they are all aflutter hoping to slip into the pictures.  e