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Monday, April 30, 2012

Chick, chick here and a chick, chick there...

One of my collections is chickens.   I guess you could say it is a family collection… these dishes were part of my grandmother’s everyday set.  It’s called “Poppycock”.  

And my mom had a similar pattern “Red Rooster”.  The pitcher to the right belonged to my great-grandmother and the little pottery chicken also belonged to my mom.

There are little bitty chickens…

Patriotic chickens…

Nesting hens…

And even funky chickens!  These all were gifts from Best Friend and ‘The Pirates’. 

Himself would bring these beautiful eggs back from his travels to the Middle East. 

One year Mom bought this folk art piece as a birthday present for me.

When I travel, I always get some sort of chicken during my trip.  This painting is from Ethiopia and is painted on cured goat skin. 

This piece of ‘art’ is the result of dear hubby’s joke on me.  When we were in Bosnia, I came back to the US before he did.  My last day I realized I hadn’t bought my chicken.  He told me that he had gotten one for me and it was already packed in my suitcase.  When I got home, I found a package of chicken noodle soup!  (Very good chicken noodle soup!) 

Uh-huh…  Not about to let him get the last laugh, I very carefully opened and emptied (and ate) that soup, then headed over to Hobby Lobby to have the package framed!  It hangs in my kitchen.  LOL

But most of my ‘travel chickens’ are like these little figurines.  Small and easy to bring back.  These chickens are from all over the world.

Back row: dish from Hungary, yellow rooster from Chinatown in NYC, pottery rooster and gilded rooster are both from Mexico (different trips), and the rubber chicken is a toy from Russia.

Front row:  blown glass from Hungary, the black hen is made of coal from North Dakota, the girl with a chicken is also from Hungary, the bright little rooster is a whistle from Nicaragua and behind him is a carved wood rooster from Kenya.  The purple hen is Navajo art.  And the attitudey white chicken is a gift from my Mom – it makes me laugh!

This is my latest chicken… a piece of pottery from Uig Pottery at Uig, Isle of Skye, Scotland.  It is a salt cellar.

And this is Omar the duck.  He is an honorary chicken.  When Best Friend and I were part of a medical mission trip to Mexico, our job was to work in the children’s area (BF was in charge of that team).  One little guy (Omar) took a liking to us, and he would be with either one or the other all day long… every day.

One the last day we were there, he came with his mama and she gave a gift in a small bag to Best Friend and me.  She thanked us for caring about her son and being kind to him.  In each of our bags was one of these ducks... from a salt and pepper set. 
She gave her best out of her poverty to us and I treasure that little duck more than if he were made from gold.  










Sunday, April 29, 2012

Spring Comes to The Sticks!

Spring has sprung!  I know this because yesterday was the annual flower auction at Fairview, KY.  This Amish run auction is something I look forward to every year.  You can get some fantastic bargains if you have the patience to wait…

We were running a bit late, so Himself dropped me off and I zipped in to register for my bidding number. 

Only a few steps into the auction pavilion I run into Best Friend.  She and her Sweetie got there on time and she had even started winning bids!  We scoped out the selections together in the flower barn. 

There was a LOT to scope out…

And that was only the first pavilion.  The second was full of trees, scrubs, roses and some misc perennials.  Two auction venues running at the same time meant ol’ Teri was going to be doing a lot of running herself! 

But it is sooooo worth it.  Look at the feast for one’s eyes… beauty was everywhere!












Incredible… yes?

Best Friend and BF Sweetie got comfy in the flower pavilion, while Himself sat farther back keeping an eye on all our purchases. 

Running back and forth between two buildings didn’t give me much time to people watch, but I did get a few fun snaps. 

Kids are kids everywhere and they WILL find a way to entertain themselves…

Playing peek-a-boo…

Hiding from siblings…

Or using the manual forklifts as a scooter between deliveries!

I didn’t see many buggies since I was so busy but this one caught my eye. 

Himself got much better people shots from his ‘guard post’.

…including me bidding on some plants! 

Others were of the folks both buying and selling that day.







 

He captured our friends checking their list…

And BF’s Sweetie visiting with one of the local men.  That soon turned into a three way conversation!

Six hours later (!!) we were loaded up and ready to go.  Best Friend had picked up plants for several of her friends.  We loaded up her car…

Packed the back of Little Red completely full…

And the front too!  Uff-da!!

So, what did I come home with?

This beautiful petunia basket.


(Here’s a close up).

Misc black coleus (Best Friend and I swapped from the flats we each bought so we’d have a bigger variety).

Black petunia (we split this flat too).

Eight hanging baskets of moss rose.  (Mom, here they are!  I’ll bring yours up in May.)

Four pots of ice plants.

Two pots of Sylvia.

Five dill and five thyme.

Two green pepper plants.  (I was going to get 2 large tomatoes also but realized there was NO place to put them in our cars!)

Four lilac bushes.

And two smoke trees.

(I got outbid on the partridge in the pear tree… )

Now it is time to add all this springtime to our yard!