Looking for that certain dress...

Up early for a dash to New York City and the dress salon at Lord & Taylor. I explained to the sales lady that I was looking for a dress for a very special ball....that I loved the English country house look....
She brought out this one of a kind....now I like old fashioned things.....but this was a little too far back in the Way Back Machine ----even for me! Lady Macbeth I am not. Let's try something a little more up to date.

Now this was certainly ball worthy, but way too modern for me,
and looks more like a wedding gown. Next....

This one was almost as lovely as the model, but certainly not for right me.

Then, of all people at Tavern on the Green (I had to break for lunch) there was Charlotte Moss.... well I could not very well ask for her dress.....but I would love to know how to find her designer.....she has some gorgeous taffeta evening skirts I have seen in some magazines paired with very femine white blouses.

Then I passed a shop specializing in vintage clothes.....and I was getting closer ....this 1930's beauty was so elegant...so Katharine Hepburn......but the color was all wrong for me.



Naturally I wanted to check out jewelry at Tiffany's...surely I could find just the dress to crown with the tiara and matching diamond necklace and earrings!


Then I remembered a dress I had seen in one of Sargent's paintings....a Mrs. Chapman I believe......not time to copy it .....but wait........it reminds of something I had seen in England once upon a time......so across the Pond!

Once in London, I make my way north to the walled city of York. To my great joy and and surprise, I find my dear old friends still in business (I call this Willow Magic)... and there in the window...dresses, dresses, and dresses galore in the style I love.....and yes there is velvet! I am just a velvet kind of girl! I did spend more time than the 15 minutes I had spent there the first time I visited. Once inside, I meet owner and designer Angela Holmes sent by the angels to rescue the total lack of imagination and romance in current fashions. She walks to a collection of velvets...and the rest-- as they say--is history. At last, I have the perfect gown for the ball!

Once back home....I must make plans to call on a very famous and much admired Southern gentleman. Though he has been honored and celebrated, he has never made the Most Eligible Bachelor's List, or has even been on a date as far as I know. I am determined that he will be my escort...I think he may be sort of shy. I will ask a close friend of his...and get a few tips.

Happy Anniversary to my #1 and his love!

Happy Second Wedding Anniversary

September 29, 2007

Lisa & Cameron

on the way to their wedding reception

...looking in the same direction...

Much love from Graystone Cottage!

MyMy MeMe for Lyn: 7 Random Facts

Okay readers, help me here. Yep, there I am lost in time in the first photo!

1. The Dave Matthews Band is the one rock band that I still like to see in concert. I adore the lyrics, the music, and fiddler Boyd Tinsley on his electric fiddle is something to behold. This is the only band I have seen live more than I saw my original favorite rock & roll band in the '60's. Dave started this band when he was in college at the University of Virginia. He grew up in South Africa, but I am thrilled he came to this country and put together his amazing band. Yo, Dave!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2. I learned to drive in a 1951 Crosley Hot Shot designed by Powel Crosley. My father had purchased the car to make an economic drive to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. where he was assigned for a period of time during the Korean War. My brother, two older sisters, and I practiced our driving in the pony pasture featured in the header. It was a stick shift on the floor and loads of fun. The side doors were removable as was the top.

While looking for a photo of this little darling, I came across yet another book I need to read.

***************************

Remember Lily Tomlin's Ernestine?


3. My first job was as a long distance operator for Southern Bell --aka Ma Bell--located on 6th Avenue North in Birmingham. I worked there part time from 6:00 to 10:00 PM during my junior and senior years in high school. My best friend and often partner in crime, Cindy and I had applied and been hired and trained together. We worked in Unit Six which served the south side of Birmingham and a series of small towns down Highway 280 -- the same route that led to a college town named Auburn. Sometimes to keep the late evenings lively, Cindy and I liked to practice our accents: British , of course, and then Japanese, Spanish, French, and just plain Old Deep South --a la Scarlet O'Hara --when we plugged in and beamed "Your number please?"

4. One of my favorite claims to fame is the amazing fact that I actually had the gratt good fortune and pleasure of seeing the Beatles in concert 3 times! (Yes, only Dave Matthews got my attention as well as this band. )The first concert was in August of 1965 at Atlanta's Fulton Stadium. My best friend Cindy ( fellow operator in crime) convinced her mother to drive us to Atlanta. She took care of lodgings and food and made sure we made it to the concert on time. Thank you, Katharine!! The following summer, in August of 1966 my sister Sue and I took the train from Birmingham to Memphis. We had tickets to both the afternoon and evening performances at the Mid-South Coliseum. It was a much smaller and intimate venue. We could actually see their faces and hear the music!! I was much more mature by this time, and did not scream once (chuckling). It was sheer Fab Four euphoria! BEATLES 4 EVER!!!!

5. I STILL miss the Laura Ashley stores, clothes, accessories, fabric, & shoes desperately!!! Thank goodness I can still find my all time favorite perfumes Laura Ashley No 1 & 2 on eBay!
LA No 2 is a really rare find, but I have been lucky twice. As for clothes, I do have a few classic LA patterns, so I can have the occasional new taffeta or corduroy dress. At one point I was so far gone on the whole Laura Ashley era, that my good friend Bob, saw a chance to give me a most memorable Christmas present. Mind you , this neighbor, expert painter ( the only one I will allow to paint inside the cottage) , woodcutter, personal baker (his homemade sour dough bread is truly the stuff of yummylicious legend ), never misses a chance to have me double over in laughter with his humor. Having salvaged some satin & monogrammed Laura Ashley ribbon from some linens his wife had bought, he graciously presented me with my own personal and exquisitely wrapped bundle of his hand hewed Laura Ashley Fatwood (a Southern term for heart of pine pieces used as kindling) for my Christmas fireplace!

I think that was the beginning of the end of the era!



VANITY.....blame thy name on Laura Ashley!

***********************************



6. Though my usual approach to buying clothes had always been one of long, quiet reflection, I once bought two very special dresses in less than 15 minutes! I had only thirty minutes to stroll down the charming street in York known as the Shambles: a series of lilting but nevertheless sturdy & charming shops & buildings. Somewhere tucked in among the storefronts, I stepped into Droopy & Browns, the original store of designer Angela Holmes. A quick description of her style is in the name of the shop, then think medieval motifs in 1940's shapes and gorgeous fabrics. It was March and the winter dresses were on sale. I took one look at these beauties and declared something was going with me. When I returned two years later, there were several shops throughout England. I found the one in Bath, and discovered that Holmes's designs were quite in demand...and the prices had increased three fold! Alas, the end of another era was inevitable. I am sad to tell you that Angela died at the height of her career in the mid 90's.

*************************************************

7. After reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and seeing the film, I vowed that I would have to do something to leave my mark on my students: I would conduct student tours to England & Scotland! I did, too. In the 1980's I organized and escorted six groups of junior high aged students along with some parents. It was hard work, but it was worth every minute. I will always be grateful to the students and parents who participated in those trips. When students ask me to sign their yearbooks, I either quote Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" or say "The classroom is just a beginning; travel if you really want to learn about the world.'

(The caricature was surprise gift done by art teacher
Betsy Logan when I left the junior high school & all my travelers.)


Okay, now I am obliged, and very happily so, to tag seven of my bloggy followers to follow suit! Truly, I ask anyone who wishes to join in and share seven facts about you!
Special requests go to these 7 super duper blog friends....



Cait O'Connor

Delwyn

Janelle Goodwin

Linda

Maggie's Garden

Michael

Virginia

Oh yes, you can take your sweet time to do this.....I certainly did!

Thank you, dear Lyn, for giving me something to do!!!

August Anniversary

Here is folk artist Nancy Thomas's August calendar. This time I placed it on a picture hook near a window and allowed the Sunday morning sun to pour over it. No flash necessary, but standing inside a dormer it was not easy to get very far away from the image, hence the very close closeup.

Even though I have been back to school since August 4th and have been seeing my students since the 7th, it somehow never really feels like school until September arrives. So the school boards may change the dates, but the old inner calendar has been set in stone for a long time.

A lifetime of habits and celebrations and memories revisit our years. There truly is a certain quality of light in August that streams through the window and onto the faces of my parents. The two oil paintings used to hang in my parents' bedroom, but are now in my home. As a small child, I tested the artistic theory that well rendered eyes in a portrait will follow you as you walk past them....and both sets of eyes always did. My father had commissioned these when he was in Italy...somewhere in Sardinia...during WWII. The artist used a pair of photographs with which my father traveled all throughout the war. He came home with many unusual artifacts and relics, but to me these paintings are the real and unquestionable treasures.

My parents were married in 1936, seventy-three years ago today, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. My mother had ridden in a bus through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park from Chattanooga, Tennessee to marry my father and used to tell stories about that trip. I know to her it seemed a huge adventure, but my mother's innocent journey toward her future would be swallowed up by an even longer and more arduous journey. Just ahead of the newlyweds lay World War II spawned by the inevitable and tragic events brewing in Europe and the Far East.

" And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"

from "The Second Coming" W.B. Yeats 1920

Between August 1936 and the fall of 1942, my parents had their first two children and built a small two story home west of Birmingham. When my father left, he was gone for three and a half years. Indeed, he did return, unharmed, though not unchanged. How my parents and so many others managed to nurture a marriage and their children through those years truly astounds me. My sister Sue (born a little over nine months after his return) claimed Super Early Baby Boomer status, while I (born five years after her) was dubbed just a plain old Baby Boomer.

My mother's oil portrait from the photo featured below.

My father's portrait most likely painted from the photo below.
I think my dad may have sat for this as well.

This is the photo of my father, Captain Patterson, taken in 1942.
He lived from December 1911 to June 1971.

This is the hand tinted photo of my mother, Nina, which my father
kept with him throughout his time in Europe.
She lived from April 1914 to April 1982.

Harold Lloyd Connection for Willow

Last night I noticed that our Willow of Life at Willow Manor has a current passion for Harold Lloyd movies. I had to dig out this cherished snapshot of my father as a 13 year old with an advertising drum for the movie Girl Shy to share with her. The first photo is the original, while the second one is a an enlarged version which shows more of the face of the drum. My best guess on the date for this .... other than "Monday at the Strand".... would be late summer or fall of 1924. I will check the release date for this movie. It was probably taken in some small neighborhood near Birmingham, AL. The movie recently aired on Turner Classic Movies.

Sadly, I was away from home and missed it.

School Daze & School Days

Just when I thought I was going to settle down and enjoy my last week or so of leisure before returning to school, I found myself rearranging furniture and replacing old bath towels for new (but still all white), and making extra room in closets. This fall my son and his wife and my one and only grandson will finally have made a move to just one house in the next state and no longer have a place here in town, which means when they are here (which will be often), they will stay with us. Then, last weekend, it was time for my 40th high school reunion! It was great fun, and most people commented on the fact that we were a class that really loved one another. (Believe me, as a classroom teacher, I have observed that entire classes have distinct personalities and sometimes hate one another while the next year's group will be completely opposite.) Our class had a 10th, 20th, 25th, 30th, 35th, and now 40th reunion. So yes, we really like one another.

Now that I am back at school, and have seen my schedule of all seniors for British Literature, I am experiencing my same old butterflies and mild stage fright: tomorrow is the first day of classes. How silly does that sound? I have been adding up all the years I have actually begun a school year. Above is my first grade picture. I did not attend nursery school or kindergarten, but I did spend the year before first grade enthralled with Alabama Public Television as teachers gave instruction in language and math and social studies designed for use in the elementary classroom. I would set up a little table and chairs in front of our black and white RCA, and I would "attend" school with my dolls and teddy bears. Public television in the US was certainly in its infancy. In fact, Alabama was the first state to have a public television network in 1955! Add to that programming, Romper Room & Captain Kangaroo, and I had a pretty good start! So, when I began to account for every year, from 1957 until 2009, I realized that every year, since 1957, I have returned to a school or college to begin the quest of a New School Year, either as a student or as a teacher. Sometimes, it was a dual beginning, as when I was teaching and attending graduate school. In later years, I was teaching high school during the day, and teaching in a community college at night. If you throw in my year with Public TV, that adds up to 54 consecutive years that I have participated in the ritual of beginning a new school year.

My mother was very much a traditional stickler when it came to dressing her children. Too bad she wasn't there at school to straighten my collar before this picture was taken. She always wanted my hair in ringlets and used a large fountain pen to roll my hair into sausage curls. I hated my bangs because I had a cowlick that always made my hair lift up on one side so that it appeared to me that my bangs were cut unevenly. So, she curled them as well! This was the only one of my school pictures that was black and white. (I think some of the entire classroom photos were in black and white.) All subsequent years, individual photos were in living color.

I vividly remember my first grade teacher, Mrs. Maude Clements. She was classic: Think of the darling little lady in the cartoons with Tweety Bird...adorably plump, sweet face, silver hair in a softy shaped bun. I think she was not really very old -- maybe a late forty something. Every morning she would read to us from Psalms or from a Bible passsage relative to a holy day. My best friends in first grade were Teena, Debbie (my maid of honor), and Harold. Teena was all fun and giggles; Debbie was a little blonde princess, and Harold was adored by all as a perfect gentleman who would become a fine, handsome athlete and class leader despite his brush with polio which left him with a limp. We had the little table and chair styled desks which had a cubby hole, so in the back of the room, Mrs. Clements set up chairs for our reading groups. The floor was that rough, unfinished wood that had to be cleaned by pouring an oily sawdust compound on the floor and sweeping it up. Teena's mother, ever active in the PTA and the only working mother I knew of, bought a darling linoleum floor covering featuring many classic illustrated nursey rhymes so that we could sit on the floor in our reading groups. My favorite part of the day was right after lunch. Mrs. Clements would have us put our heads down for a nap. The steam heat would softly hum and hiss while she would play classic fairytales for us on a record player. I rarely slept but listened with rapt attention to every detail and description. This was the first time I ever heard the story of The Billy Goats Gruff and the Troll and other tales like Rumpelstiltskin.

I am certain that first year in her classroom made me a teacher. I loved my classmates, my school, and I loved Mrs. Clements.

Just Hanging Around the Cottage...

(I finally manged a focused non-flash version of this,

but I had to put it on the front door!)

Perhaps some you have wondered where I have been...well, I have been right here at home. As many teachers do, I keep a running list of projects I will get to during the summer. Without going into all the boring details, one of the biggest projects was emptying two closets which needed painting. These two caverns had many hidden treasures and yes...much trash. One was in our bedroom upstairs, so we moved to the downstairs guestroom. I must say it has been pleasantly like staying somewhere else! If not for the long, tedious tasks of sorting through "stuff"-- I might have been on a vacation. One of my lighter chores has been to carefully clean all glass and frames of pictures, dusting and vacuuming all books and shelves, and keeping my small flower pot garden going. I cannot really say it has been all work. I enjoy the leisure of taking care of my dogs or enjoying my doll collection (rearranging, changing, and sewing new clothes for them). Blame that on my parents. They bought me a set of encyclopedias when I was five. Looking over the old set, I noticed that I have nearly worn out Volume D: dogs, dolls, Dickens, Dickinson, etc. I loved my World Books. Since I have been just hanging around in the house, here are a few images for you to see where I retreat indoors from the heat and humidity of July.

This is one of twelve folk images - blurred- for the year by Nancy Thomas.

The entire set is displayed on the dining room hutch, but I put the current month on the guestroom door.

Here is my favorite old volume. I was the youngest of four children, often left behind each year when school began. I lived in a rural area. I was outdoors a great deal, but loved to curl up with books whenever the weather kept me indoors.

I have always loved dolls --- baby dolls or dolls that look like children. This beauty is an Italian felt Lenci from the 1930's which I had to pass up on eBay! My sister Sue once led us right up to Santa at Loveman's department store in Birmingham and announced, " I want a cowboy outfit, guns and holster, and NO doll. Get my baby sister a cowgirl outfit and a baby doll. "

I wore my cowgirl outfit. Sue wore her guns, and I carried the baby doll when we got on the pony!

I used this page to identify our beloved dog, Ruzzy. He looked most like a Great Pyrenees with thick white fur with pale rusty splashes. He was a stray who wandered into our yard. I wanted to name him Fuzzy, but Sue wanted to name him Rusty. We compromised. He was not as GREAT in size as a Pyrenees, but he was GREAT in heart and spirit. I used to tell my dad that one day I was going to have a Bobtail---Old English Sheepdog. He told me about seeing them when he was in England. When my husband returned from Vietnam, he got us one for a first anniversary gift: Beau is featured in the side bar pictures.


I have to say, we like posters as art. This is one I found in the Bodleian Library in Oxford during the summer of 1989. Sadly, the exhibit of children's literature had been in 1987, but there was enough in brochures to help me understand the significance of the Opie Collection and its role in preserving and promoting children's books. I was able to explore and read in the library. As a member of a seminar, I was issued a library card, but I had to take an oath first! (More on that in an upcoming post!)

Speaking of children, here is one of my German girls, Gerda. She is made by Zwergnase and designed by Nicole Marschollek -Menzer. You really must click on the photo to enlarge this one to see her darling freckles!

Here is a Madame Alexander Margaret (face sculpt designed after Margaret O"Brien and used as Princess Margaret as well). I bought her on eBay from someone in England. She did not have her original Princess Margaret dress, so I found a pattern on eBay....and well -- she looks ready for school!

Here's our getaway from Upstairs....Downstairs. Another little German girl named Ada keeps the pillow fluffed. The large poster is an original 1930's travel poster for London & North Eastern Railway of England & Scotland featuring Lincoln Cathedral. The artist is Schabelsky (?) I need to check this. The name is in script and hard to read.


Joan of Arc keeps watch over us in the dining room. This is a WWI American campaign poster encouraging the women of America to save their country just a Saint Joan saved France. It only required buying War Savings Stamps from the United States Treasury! The artist is Haskell Coffin.


One small project: Find the RIGHT frame for the portrait of an acorn by Country Girl. This is the most charming photograph. It came as one of the "get one free" extras when she had a sale last spring. Some of you may remember when Sesame Street had a parody of This is Your Life. It featured a Big Oak Tree. Of course, his baby picture was a little acorn in a baby bonnet. I loved watching that show with my children!

Ironically, the flowers which are thriving in the heat are named Diamond Frost (euphorbia). Click to enlarge so you can see the delicate blooms. Feed the plants!

Feed the birds. Pick up the dog toys. Feed the dogs.
Ahhh, the dogs, denizens of our kitchen!

Hanging in the kitchen.....Wind the clock. Clean its glass. Dust the clock. Set the clock. Start the clock. It is midmorning...when all good dogs should be napping.

This is a small reproduction of a 1930's travel poster by Paul Henry which hangs in the kitchen near the back door...where all good dogs exit for their morning walk....

More Windex, to clean a poster for Alice in Wonderland at the Auburn University Little Theatre performed sometime in the sixties before I came. This is just one of my mementos from my years and many hours in the costume shop at AU and as costume mistress for several plays.

Here is Lucy, dreaming of chasing a chipmunk. She is the Princess of the Pups and holds court from her chair

She turns to recognize her audience.

Litter mate/sister Paddy suggests she come down

and allow someone else a look out the window.

Gracie could care less, as long as she is close to Mom.

These two are philosophical about the whole "Lucy in the Chair with Diamonds" attitude. Let her have the chair! Give me a Milk Bone, Mom!

Back to napping!

It's summer time and the living is .....

easy. Turn up the AC.

I am back and have lots of ideas I have been saving up for all of you!

Kindest regards to all!

When in the course of human events...

John Adams

by Gilbert Stuart

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
by John Trumbull

(That's John Adams in the center of the painting,

which is exactly where he should be!

Click on image to enlarge)

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Thus concludes our Declaration, and begins our American story. Want to know the details of how it was written? Revised? If you missed the HBO series JOHN ADAMS last year, find it and get ready for American history to come to life before you. If videos are not your cup of tea, then read the book on which it is based, David McCullough's JOHN ADAMS. McCullough makes clear the fact that when our founding fathers made that final pledge, it was not just a manner of speaking: "What was the source of their courage? Who were those people? I don't think think we can ever know enough about them." One of his primary sources for this book were the letters exchanged between Abigail and John Adams. What a life these two shared! And, what a life they helped shape for generations to follow.

"The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people."

John Adams

Have a glorious 4th of July!

Pray for peace.

Four hundred years from now...

Photo used by permission of Virginia Jones of

http://birminghamalabamadailyphoto.blogspot.com/

National Public Radio is conducting a survey in honor of the 4ooth anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets. What lines from a love poem ...or song...or lines from fiction ...or even a film... do you believe will endure for the next four hundred years? They call this their "Summer of Love Survey." You can go to http://www.npr.org/ to offer your choice.

I once read that James Joyce's wife said to him, "Why don't you write something that people can read?" I guess she was not too fond of his distinctive stream of consciousness style in Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses

I hope she did get around to reading the short stories in The Dubliners.

"The Dead" is a bittersweet reflection on first love juxtaposed with the current disillusionment of a marriage which leads to a great epihany for the main character, Gabriel. These last two pragraphs of the story represent one of the most beautiful examples of modern prose written in English.

**********************************************************************

from THE DUBLINERS by James Joyce

Generous tears filled Gabriel's eyes. He had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such a feeling must be love. The tears gathered more thickly in his eyes and in the partial darkness he imagined he saw the form of a young man standing under a dripping tree. Other forms were near. His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a gray, impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

*****************************************************************

Let me know if what passage or poem or song, etc you might submit for the ages.