Hail to the Chief

 Behold the imposing facade of the palace of the Head Penguin!  Majestic, no?

A Quiet Morning

 

From Sow's Ear to Silk Purse

 

Your Morning Moment of Patriotism...

 

2nd Life

 I am pleased to report that the carnations purchased 9 days ago are still going strong.  The original bouquet was sorted - the all red stems were drooping - and rearranged, and this was the result.  I am most pleased!

Finally/Finale

Well, here it is. March 223rd, 2020 and the election - the campaign for which has set a new record in going on for the past 50 years or so - is finally a week away. And y'all thought it would never come... To celebrate, I will do a series of appropriate posts all week.

We begin with the last, and I think the best, installment of "Places to Flee to in case of Re-election." Enjoy!

 

 

Breakfast

Breakfast today was AH's wonderful Pumpkin Cake with chopped walnuts and golden raisins.  Now, you didn't hear it here, but I have reason to believe the recipe will be featured in the 2020 American Bar Assn. Senior Lawyers Division Holiday Cookbook.   Keep a lookout for it at your local newsstand! 

Yesterday at the Supermarket

 What the bloody hell...

Haberdashery

 Jeeves's dapper Fall hat is one of his favorites.

The only issue is that it tends to attract sheep.

Seeing Red

My Gentle Readers might note a "time lapse" in the photos below, showing how the bouquet bloomed from bud to flower.

The stems were so full of blossoms, I was able to make another little arrangement out of them.

Yesterday's Walk

 Just some odds and ends I thought would make for interesting photos...

Athletics

 Found an old pic from my high school fencing class.

The Curio

A few of days ago, Anne Marie asked what was in our living room curio cabinet.  I gave a verbal reply, but it dawned on me that I should give a little tour.  So here goes, from the top down...

 On top is a lovely hand made glass vase/sculpture we found in a small art glass studio in West Virginia.  The elderly gentleman works mostly alone, and his pieces go for big bucks.  Happily, he had a small shop on premises with items he wasn't entirely satisfied with - happily at slashed prices.  Whatever the flaw was in this piece, we were never able to find it. 

Top shelf are Godfrey heirlooms.  The two small silver boxes in the middle David made in a jewelry class he took in college.

 As you see, the heart of the collection is a series of bunnies, penguins, and the occasional sheep in glass, wood, ceramic, semi-precious stones, etc.  There's Lalique, Venetian glass, a Fabergé replica, malachite, quarts, Alaskan jade, two small bronzes - a bunny and a penguin - that belonged to my father.  The tiny pieces you see on the black felt disk in the pic above range in size from 6/16ths" (a bit short of 1 cm) to 3/4" (c. 2 cm).   

4th shelf down are a Godfrey tureen and, very tiny and right in the middle in front of the tureen, a scrimshaw salmon and puffin from Alaska.

On the 5th shelf are some special cobalt glass pieces; we gave most of the cobalt glass collection to friends when we moved from Lexington - just too much and nowhere to put it here.  Don't worry, we kept more than enough. 

At bottom is my Classical shelf.  The piece in the middle is a high quality reproduction of a 5th-century kalyx from Athens.  The paper sheep in the corner was one of a small flock that grazed on top of our wedding cake.