It has been in the 80s and sunny for the last week, more or less. We had some rain and all the flowers and trees are blooming and leafed out. Wednesday I was looking at Weather Underground and saw this forcast:
First came the bad words, and then just a big sigh; this is just so typical. It was about 88° F today, and it’s going to snow tomorrow, and we could actually get some accumulation. I’m grateful that I didn’t bother putting in my veggie garden yet, or plant my annual flowers. Actually I’m now thankful that we had that late snow last year and I lost a lot of big branches. Hopefully, anything ready to break let go last May. Springtime in the Rockies is a real thing!
We went to several garage sales last week because the weather was so nice. We really enjoyed the back of this fellow garage saler’s truck:
I didn’t know that magic users drove big trucks, but if you’re going to battle Balrogs, you might want to have some horsepower on your side, just in case. We also thought the lizard was pretty funny. We need more people like this driving around; it could help curtail the road rage that is everywhere right now.
We did go to a couple of fun garage sales and bought some interesting things, but that’s for another post. We have a backlog of awful things from the thrift stores to wade through first.
Where do golfers find these pants?
At least I hope they’re golfing pants, because if he was just wearing them around town he could be arrested for fashion crimes. I get why you need to wear obnoxious pants while you’re out with your buddies. They make you be quiet when it isn’t your turn to hit your ball into the woods; but there isn’t anyway to make this pattern anything but LOUD:
Mission accomplished—you are officially distracting. One good thing about this pattern is that you could wear anything or any color up top and no one would notice. The more I look at them, the more I think that Nicholas Lowry (the poster guy on Antiques Roadshow) would wear them in a heartbeat, along with a matching jacket.
As long as we’re looking at loud ugly things:
It looks so Seventies, but actually, Vernon Ware by Metlox was made in California from the 1930s to the 1950s. We probably should have bought it, because Etsy sellers were listing the plates for about $9 each, but that doesn’t mean anyone is buying it as Kathy and I know all too well! The pattern is raised, just in case the colors weren’t grabbing everyone’s attention. I was looking at information on Metlox, and found a rooster pattern that was pretty fun. I don’t know if I could deal with it on a daily basis, but I liked it better than this pattern, Della Robbia.
My first thought on seeing this was: I didn’t know that Lewis and Clark took a black lab with them:
That totally ignores the crazy thing right in front of my eyes—a fabric canoe, with Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea lolling about. This must have come out during the celebration of the expedition’s 200th anniversary, although I can’t see any kid being really excited to play with a fabric boat that won’t float. By the way, the dog was a Newfoundland named Seaman who went on to become very much a valuable member of the team.
We weren’t quite sure what to make of this pair:
Are they fertility symbols/fetishes? It’s hard to tell with the tree decorations; I would think that fertility would have more to do with crops or babies than trees. Maybe they’re Druidic in nature? Trees, with ? moon symbols (moon calves?) on their legs seem to check a couple of boxes. But, what’s the deal with their arms? I’m thinking that they are just weird objects trying to be decorative in the hopes that someone would buy them. What do you think? If they float your boat, I think they’re still sitting on the shelf.
Last up, a kitchen tool in its original box? Sign us up!
It’s made in Hong Kong, so that usually means the item is vintage, usually from the 1970s, but there are earlier versions of this English muffin breaker from the 1950s. It turns out that Wolferman’s is a bakery in Kansas City, MO. It started out in the latter part of the 19th century, but became famous for their “legendary, super-thick English muffins” in about 1910. I was wondering why you would need a tool to open typical English muffins, and this one seems like overkill:
A surgeon could probably use this breaker to open a patient’s chest, but not their muffin top! If you buy Thomas’ Nook and Crannies muffins like B.H. and I do, this thing would disintegrate them into dust. My dull butter knife does a fine job. But, if you were buying Wolferman’s super-thick muffins, this just might do the trick. Kathy and I looked at this for a few minutes and silently slid the breaker back into its box, and set it on the shelf. It wasn’t for us, as we aren’t surgeons or serial killers. Wolferman’s does a cracking online business, and is part of the Harry and David empire. I might have to take a look at their offerings.
Well, thanks for reading along. I hope that this is the end of snow and cold so we can get on with the real business of spring—garage sales! See you all next week.
Second Hand Roses 