Friday's Favorite Family Foto

This photo would have been taken in early 1945. My father was in the Royal Air Force during World War II. My mother left the Air Force to have me and was most likely working as a dressmaker in my home town of Torquay.....................and you can bet your boots she made that stylish dress with the Peter Pan collar just for me!

Notice I was wearing the famous Clark's sandals even at that young age. I remember having them in brown, navy and a deep red, with the non-slip crepe rubber sole.......just like every other British child. I think I continued wearing them until age ten as they were standard issue for kids, then finally put my foot down - no pun intended - and begged for grown-up footwear!

Have to say though, they were very comfortable.

The wall we are sitting on is still there and is a favorite spot to have a photo taken along the seafront promenade.

This is the only photo I seem to have of myself with both my parents when I was very young. I'm guessing it was due to it being wartime.

Visit Deborah, our hostess, at Pictures, Pots & Pens today, just know there are other great family photos to see.

Celebration Giveaway

I can't believe it!

I've just reached my 500th blog post.

What a ride this has been and what a lot of wonderful new friends I've gathered around me along the way! Thanks so much for taking the time to visit, read, and leave your much appreciated comments on my blog. Some of you I've had the great pleasure of meeting in person here in the USA, and overseas in France last October. Perhaps on my next trip home to England in the Spring I will meet more blog friends. To those who've taken the time to share their stories and interests with me for almost two years, thank you. For those who've become new visitors to Across the Pond recently, a hearty welcome and please keep coming back as I just love to hear from everyone.
In two years of blogging my list of friends around the world has grown by leaps and bounds. I try very hard to keep up with everyone, but I have to admit it's difficult.......I must get some sleep now and then! If I've missed leaving YOU a comment lately please forgive me.........and then tell me how to get more hours into my day!

Above, Court China made in England by William Lowe from 1874-1931. This china is translucent and delicate, the pattern colors are dark blue and rust with gilt trim. I inherited part of a tea service from my Mother including the teapot, cream and sugar pots, two cups and saucers and two plates. Imagine my delight when, last Summer, I found several more matching cups, saucers and plates at SuzAnna's Antiques here in town!

William Lowe's trade journal advertisement of 1875

Being born and raised in England I do of course love all things English. Two favorites have to be a good cup of tea and the scenic English countryside.

To thank you for your friendship, I'm happy to share some small British treasures. These will include an antique Court China cup and saucer, the backstamp dates it between 1874 and 1912; a rose pink Irish linen tea table cloth and serviettes; a box of Harrods excellent English Breakfast teabags; and a lovely book about the Cotswolds featuring John Tookey's watercolor paintings. I may also tuck in a little surprise ~ who knows what I might discover just for you in the next couple of weeks!

All will be carefully packed and mailed from my cottage to the winner in early February.

To enter this giveaway celebrating my 500th post, leave a comment on this post only by Saturday, January 31. The winner's name will be drawn February 2 ~ Groundhog Day!!

Restoration for the soul....and dining room

Shades of grey ~ Appartement Chanvre ~ La Madone, Provence.

It's that time of year again. The cottage needs a little TLC here and there. My dh held his breathe and sighed while I trotted joyfully to the paint chip displays in the big box DIY store. Now they are stuck in the door moldings and window frames so the colors can be viewed in the changing light of day and night. These may not be my final choice but they are a start.

Since staying at La Madone in Provence last October, the peaceful shades of grey, the palest hint of blue edged in white have interrupted my sleep and invaded my dreams. Don't get me wrong, I love the warm neutrals of cream, linen, oatmeal too, but as my dining room is a South facing sunny space, I think I can safely try these French shades to change the look of the room without it feeling cold.

I have a great painter who will do this job because it's more than just slapping on a coat of pure color. The 1980's popcorn ceiling has to go ~ big messy job! There is a large crack in the corner wall beyond the hutch requiring attention ~ guess the cottage has settled a bit in her old age ~ and the wallpaper border will have to be removed. There is a chair rail in this room. Several years ago I wallpapered below with a heavy embossed paper similar to Lincrusta which is used a lot in England to hide flaws in old construction. I love this look and have repainted the paper a couple of times. I'm thinking of painting above the chair rail in a very pale grey with just a hint of blue, and the paper below in a shade just a tad deeper. I'm not going for a blue room, just the palest blue grey.

Can my Welsh Dresser change its nationality and become French? After packing away the china for a while, I'm thinking of repainting it French grey which will be a fresh background for my white and cream china. This dresser is in two pieces and the last time I painted it I was able to lay the top section flat on the dining room table making it a much simpler job........I think!

Appartement Chanvre dining area at La Madone, Provence.

The plan is still only in my head right now and I'll let you know when things start moving.

Do you have any redecorating projects in mind for this year?

Time and Thyme again

Like most of us in the Northern hemisphere, I haven't done a garden post in a couple of months or more. My garden is sleeping. Shrubs and plants were hibernating until after Christmas when a sudden warm snap changed things. Here in the Southeast US, lack of snow cover and many days in the sunny 50's and 60's mean we do have a few plants strutting their stuff, trying to impress us.

I guess 'Thyme' waits for no man after all.............it's blooming in the sunshine and even the Sage in this same pot has a few fresh leaves...............I must create a Winter dish with fresh herbs.

Being vegetarian for more than thirty years, I have collected some great recipes including this Winter favorite, Bean & Winter Squash Stew with Chili, Mint and Cream.

Bluebell bulbs - behind the pansies - are already peeking through.

The pansies, ah the sweet pansies. How they love the chilly weather when the sun also shines. They add color to the layer of oak leaves used as mulch. Always deadhead your pansies to ensure many new blooms and spreading growth through late Spring ~ once the heat of Summer arrives, sadly, they leave us.

These bright Violas are happy in their large pot and will grow into a huge clump by Spring.

Unfortunately no hibernating hedgehogs in my garden, but I recall the real one in my childhood garden in England ~ he spent his Winter under the same hedge for years.

Interesting garden notes from the great UK Country Living magazine ~ I was happy to learn that ivy does NOT kill trees. I love the romantic look of it climbing skyward and have to admit I have some in my garden doing just that!
Yes, we must do more to protect our birds, especially in new housing developments where the land is often stripped of trees and shrubs.

All garden photos taken yesterday, January 12, 2009

What's happening in your Winter garden? Is your 'green acre' more white than green these days?

True Friends

ear friends surround me and make my world a happy place.

Friendship can start in odd ways. Perhaps the strangest way is becoming pals with someone you meet in the virtual world of blogging. You find you share interests such as collecting flying pigs and transfer ware china, or treasure hunting at vintage shops. The latter has worked often for me as I really prefer white soup tureens and I leave the piggies for friend Jenny!! Then, somehow you arrange to meet in person, and you have one heck of a good time together and the friendship blooms.

Other friendships started in school, with neighborhood playmates, or later in life with colleagues we worked or socialized with. The friendship lives on year after year until one evening you look at each other over a Starbucks, or a wine glass, and think where on earth have the years gone? Girlfriend, we are suddenly old!

When I arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1962, my first 'home' was a well run 'residence for young women' where, for about $25 a week, you had a comfortable room and two excellent meals a day. You were safe, no male callers were allowed beyond the lobby (my dh remembers those days!), and well cared for thanks to a lovely housekeeper who was English and felt like a second Mum to we girls. There were a dozen or more British women living there who, like me, had longed for adventure and to see America. We had been accepted, following interviews and office skills tests such as typing and shorthand (anyone remember that now archaic skill?), to come and work for a year in a secretarial position in our nation's capital..............this was when having a secretary with a British accent was apparently some kind of status symbol! The other residents were mostly young American women who had moved from other states to work on Capitol Hill or in other federal government agencies in the District.

Within a few weeks, in a room across the hallway from mine, Paula appeared, and life changed forever! She arrived from England and we immediately became best friends. The amazing part was that we grew up within a couple of miles of each in the same Devon town - but had never met as children before her family moved to the North of England. Once in D.C. we had a marvelous time, details of which I've promised never to divulge on this blog, ha! ha! We both decided not to return to England at the end of the year but to settle permanently in the States. She moved to California, married, and still lives in the San Francisco area. I married and moved first to New England, and then to North Carolina. Even with so many miles between us, for 46 years we've always kept in touch and met whenever and wherever we could. We even visited each other's parents on trips home to England over the years, but we have never been in England at the same time! This will soon change as we are spending time together in our childhood Devon town this Spring - how exciting is that?

2006 ~ Hilton Head Island, SC ~ Bob, Mary, Paula and Sterling

Paula and Sterling are not only the greatest couple, and the best of friends, they are perhaps the most traveled couple in the world! If they're not in the Guinness Book of Records they certainly should be! Paula has recently set up a great web site to share her fantastic photographs taken in places many of us never get to visit, such as Africa and Antarctica. Be sure to visit her here at Paula's Planet where you will see amazing animals, icebergs and much more.

Do you have a very special friend who has been a big part of your life for many, many years?

Pink Saturday..........avec moi

A pink daydream in the middle of Winter. I hear Paris has been cold and wet lately, but somehow the 'city of light' is always beautiful in any weather. I've been there on the hottest of Summer days (2006), on wet and chilly pre-Christmas days some years before, and way back in the '60's my dh took me there in Autumn when it was perfect for my first view of all that magnificent city has to offer.
Next time I would love to be there to see the city dressed in pink blossoms.

Framed in Paris pink at SuzAnna's Antiques.

A magazine image with the pink Paris feel.

I Love Paris ~ Cole Porter

I love Paris in the Spring time

I love Paris in the Fall

I love Paris in the Summer when it sizzles

I love Paris in the Winter when it drizzles

Vintage hangers to which I added Paris style.

Enjoy a Winter Pink Saturday even though you may be snowed in. I love Winter but must admit Spring will be welcomed when it arrives with pink blossoms.
Thanks as always Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting another Pink Saturday. Hurry on over to see the many participants sharing their pink today!

Friday's Favorite Family Foto

t my brother's home in France in October, I was pleasantly surprised when he shared some very old family photos I had never seen before. They were recently passed along by a distant family member in England. This was my paternal grandmother whom I knew nothing about. Because my father was raised in foster care, I always thought his mother must have died young. Obviously this lady lived to be a good age and I see so much of my father in her. I wish he had been more open in discussing his roots - I believe his childhood was sad and he would never talk about those early years. I don't even know this woman's first name but do know she was from Brixham, Devon where my father was born in 1900.

Perhaps this is not really a favorite family foto, but seeing my lost grandmother's face is special. I notice my hands look a lot like hers with long fingers and pronounced bones. I wish so much I'd had the opportunity to know her when I was a child. I only lived a few miles from her.....................a scenic twenty minute ride around the bay on a double decker bus and I could have been tapping on her door!

Visit Deborah at Pictures, Pots & Pens to find out who else is sharing favorite family photographs this week.