Though I noticed starts of daffodils poking through the soil earlier in March, I had to brush the dried leaves away to find them. We often have blooms in late February so we were running three weeks late this year. And it was hardly a brutal winter, so why?
By last week the meadow was alive with a blanket of bright yellow flowers.
The daffodils are finally at their peak.
I didn't know quite what to call it and I usually referred to it as "the stool in the bathroom". It's become my go-to place to put on my socks every morning. There was only one problem: the upholstery was falling apart and what might traditionally be called "stuffing" was littering the carpet.
First, I've found a reference to the "bench" on Pinterest. There it's called an "Antique Paw Foot Cast Iron Vanity Leg Bench/Vanity Bench". OK. good enough. Although the description there dates it to the "!800's" I don't think it's nearly that old. I'd place its manufacture in the 1920's or 1930's and part of the Art Deco period.
For future reference, the legs have "OWI 630" cast into them. Does the OWI refer to a manufacturer? Is the 630 a model number?
As noted, the legs are simply cast iron. It appears they were painted gold at one time. I'm leaving them exactly as shown above.
Here's a close-up of a corner. The fabric was nailed on below but rather crudely. That makes me think this fabric was a replacement.
While the original piece just had a bare wood bottom, the reupholstered piece has a dust cover added to the bottom. Much classier.
I chose this new fabric to compliment the bathroom carpeting. I took the piece to William Meyers about 1 PM yesterday and he returned it to me about 3 PM. He said he wanted to show an apprentice how to reupholster a small bench.
Bill, by the way, reupholstered our four dining room chairs some years ago and we have been very happy with the quality of his work. Those in the Dayton area should consider him for this type of work. Highly recommended.
So this morning I was able to put on my socks with a very comfortable bench to sit upon.
When we were kids, Mom regularly made homemade slaw. I'd always anticipate it when she got an antique Munising bowl down from the cupboard. Wrapped in paper towels and stored inside the bowl was my Aunt Belle's antique slaw chopper.
The slaw chopper is heavy steel. It appears the handle is actually cast. It is about six inches long (the angle of the photo makes it appear longer). One source says it was made in the 1880's and calls it a "cast iron and steel bell-shaped cabbage/food chopper". That would have been about the time my aunt was married.
Anyway when I was at Kroger the other day I bought a small head of cabbage so that I could make vegetable soup. I had made it a week or two ago and Tom said "this would be good with cabbage". So my latest stock contained lots of cabbage.
Many years ago (five or six?) Tom bought an orchid for a friend who loved purple. She has since died and the orchid came back to Tom. It's been here for the past two years (at least) and it began life on our enclosed south-facing porch. I found that spot not great for orchids so I moved it to the north windowsill above the kitchen sink. It obviously is happy there.
In January - or perhaps December - I was washing dishes one day when I rotated the plant so the other side would get more light and saw a thin, green flower stalk reaching out.
First, here are two pictures of how it looked when it reached it's peak of blooming. Eight flowers!
It looked like we were going to have a decent late season snow, maybe something in the 1-3" range. Nothing much, just a bothersome snow.
Tom came home with fresh Florida strawberries on Friday, We could have had them "as is" for a nice dessert but I wanted something a little more elaborate. My friend in Florida, Jim Saylor, had been mentioning work he'd been doing to get ready for a strawberry festival there so that prompted other thoughts.
In fact, when I looked at the strawberries Tom bought I saw that they were grown in Winter Haven, Florida. That's just east of Jim.
Then I thought I might try a shortcake recipe. This is one dessert I've never made. Frankly, neither of us prefer shortcake to angel food cake which was Tom's mother's way of making this. I remember my own mother buying a small pound cake at Kroger's and coming up with something similar.
But I searched for shortcake recipes and, as usual, settled on one listed at allrecipes.com. The recipe is here.
Per usual, I made changes. I wanted the biscuit dough to be sweet so I used the entire 1/2 cups of sugar in the batter (but I didn't add more sugar to the strawberries). I was all but out of milk so I used 1 cup of water (2/3 cup was not enough liquid in my estimation). But because of the extra liquid I baked the shortbread for about 53 minutes.
The shortbread is baked perfectly top to bottom.
Tom bought the pound of berries at Aldi. They were on special for $1.49. I bought more on Sunday at Kroger's (Driscoll's) at $2.99.
I also opted to cut the shortcake into wedges (8) as I would a pie. As instructed I sliced the first servings in half horizontally but ended up not placing the strawberries in between the slices (or on top for that matter). That seems too much trouble to me. It's easier to serve a wedge (better in a small bowl than on a plate, too) and placing whipping cream atop everything.
This shortcake recipe is easy - and the traditional way to serve this dessert - but I do believe I prefer angel food or pound cake.