More Weekend Things

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you so much for all the kind comments - you all certainly bolster my self esteem to no end!!!  I do love a visit to "Needle in a Haystack" - not only is it a great store but so nice to visit and just look!!  It is also great to be able to bounce ideas off the staff, they are so helpful with everything.  My visit as i said I took a list of things I was interested in and they went out of their way to find a book for me that I wanted to see - after looking through the book it was easy to pass on it and so I saved myself $27 - that I could put else where.

__________

On Sunday after Mass and some super scrumptious pancakes at Eddie's we headed over to our (I can get so possessive sometimes) Farmers Market - and here are some snaps.....

There where some beautiful peppers.....

My weekly adoration of the the tomato snap......

These where really great looking stone fruit....

There are still some great looking peaches coming out of the Valley - even this late in the season.

__________

On Sunday I baked up a quick Coffee Cake using the last of my Black Berries - I have made this before and you can click HERE to go to BBB for the recipe.  Here is a snap...

I left off any glaze and added an additional 1/2 Cup of berries to this cake -  and the cake was super moist and real berry-licious!!

__________

I finished up a great Biography of Judy Holliday - written in 1982 it covers her life and career very well.   It is the only Biography that is out there for Judy.  A great read!!

__________

There you go sports fans - thanks again for stopping by, and for taking the time to comment!  

Do come again.

Take care,

edgar

A Movie and a Book

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you all so very much for all the kind comments about my sampler endeavour and the little bit of border I posted.  I stitched away on more of the border last night and will work on the piece this weekend.  I'll post another snap on Monday that I hope will be a bit more interesting.

__________

There is a super book and movie I wanted to mention today. 

First up the book - called "If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende. ..........

Here is a description that tells about the book - "Tiny Haines, Alaska, ninety miles north of Juneau, is accessible mainly by water or air--and only when the weather is good. There's no traffic light and no mail delivery; people can vanish without a trace; and funerals are community affairs. As both obituary writer and social columnist for the local newspaper, Heather Lende knows better than anyone the goings-on in this breathtakingly beautiful place. Her offbeat chronicle brings us inside her busy life: we meet her husband, Chip, who owns the local hardware store; their five children; and a colorful assortment of friends and offbeat neighbors, including aging hippies, salty fishermen, native Tlingit Indians, as well as the moose, eagles, sea lions, and bears with whom they share this wild and perilous land."  It is a great book!!

__________

The movie was a Netflix DVD and when I put it on my Queue IO was a bit leery. It is called "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" -2004 - a made for TV movie starring Tom Selleck as General Eisenhower.  

 

I guess it is my preconceive notions of Tom Selleck that brought on the raised eyebrow.   Although he looks nothing like the General  I was pleasantly surprised and taken with this film about the 90 days leading up to June 6 1944.  I have seen just about all the D-Day films out there and there are some great ones.  But, usually you do not see all the back story leading up to the event.  This film covers that period from the point of view of  the top leadership and the hard decisions that had to be made to make the Allied Invasion of Normandy code named "Operation Overlord a success.  Even if you don't like war type films - I would recommend seeing this just for the acting and the story of how Eisenhower dealt with all the top brass and politicians  - I rate it as excellent and well done!

__________

That's all for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by  - have a great weekend and do stop again!!

Take care,

edgar

A Stop at Harrison and 24th Street

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends thank you all for the encouragement about the sampler - I hope not to disappoint - I think I solved the border problem yesterday -  I am charting the sampler to fit one of my old frames so there are some size constraints and I want to include lots and lots of stuff.  I am having to cut many things... which says to me that there actually might be another "edgar sampler " in the future - who knows???

__________

We made a stop down in the Mission to pick up some things - and of course I had my camera so I got some snaps to share - 

We saw this new mural - or new to me, decorating the wall at this outdoor cafe - notice there is nobody outside enjoying the cold "sunshine."  The wind was a howling and chilly.

Our favorite shop to get Latino foodstuffs now has a wall of great pickings - including some new bins of bulk things.....

... and a whole range of dried peppers - these bins a really amazing and quite beautiful.

Then it was over to "our" panderia for some treats.... 

these crunchy. sweet treats are usually gone by the time we make it there after work, but yesterday there was an entire new tray of them that had just been put in the case.

__________

I just finished up a great little book called "Immoveable Feast"  by John Baxter.  

A true story of an Australian ex-pat living in Paris with his French wife - who takes on the cooking of the traditional Christmas dinner.  A loved this little book - it has everything I like - true story, set in France - during the Christmas season.  You follow him searching and gathering up the perfect bits and pieces for the dinner - with some great flashbacks to earlier Christmases.  I would highly recommend this book.

__________

There you go sports fans.  Thanks again for stopping by - do come again!!

Take care,

edgar

Warm Weather and an Itallian Love Story

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends yesterday we had a really warm day here in the City by the Bay.  It got into the low 80's - which is way off for this area and time of year.  But, it was only one day and now the temps has been cool all night and it is not supposed to get much more than the mid to low 70's.  The one or two day warm spot is what keeps me loving the city.  Yes, we have great places to visit, lovely eateries and enough coffee shops to caffinate a small country.... but the weather is so very lovely!!  Growing up in the deep south I remember the months and months of hot sweltering humid days..... but give me the SF fog and cool breezes every time - I just love them!!!

_________

For the last couple of evenings I have been stitching hard at the 4th Blogoversary Gift.  It is coming along nicely and I do hope whomever receives my little package enjoys everything as much as I am enjoying the stitching.  I am dumbfounded by the response to my little Gift-a-way - I just checked and there are over 230 comments on that particular post - which doesn't count the entries as that number will be much greater with multiple chances.  Thank you all for entering and for the wonderful comments!!!  If you haven't entered the drawing and would still like to - there is time - just click HERE to get to the post.

__________

I finished up a great little book yesterday - "A Thousand Days in Venice - an Unexpected Romance" - by Marlena de Blasi.  It was a really tremendous book.  Along with "A Thousand Days in Tuscany" and "The Lady in the Palazzo" these books make up a really wonderful triptych.  I would highly recommend them for a good read, but, read them in order and not like I did backwards.  The story begins in Venice  - then moves to Tuscany - then wraps up with Palazzo.  It so reminded me of my visit to Italy and the time I spent in Venice.  I would go back in a NY minute!!  There is a reason the city is called the "Queen of the Adriatic"... she's a gorgeous city full of wonderful things!!!

__________

That's about it for today sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,

edgar

A March Gift-Away, a Couple of Books and a Flicker

Gentle Readers and Dear Friends a few weeks back at an estate sale I found a great little piece of porcelain.  I didn't talk about it then as I knew I wanted to have a gift-away for March and it would be perfect.  What I found was this lovely......

....little bowl covered in shamrocks from the Belleek Porcelain factory in Ireland.  It is very well marked with the 3rd green Mark which dates it to 1965-1981.  I have it nestled in among my other bits and pieces.  If you would like to win this piece then comment on this POST only and I will draw a name on March 17th - celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  Anyone, anywhere can enter - so if you collect Belleek or just like the shamrocks throw your name in the mix.... you have to comment to win.

__________

I usually don't write about the books I 'm reading - I read lots - and usually have a few books going at one time and in a few different places.  Well, I just finished up two really wonderful "travel" type books.  Both by Marlene de Blasi - I read them out of sequence - the first was " Lady in the Palzzo: at Home in Umbria" - about her move to Orveito and the search and eventual restoration of a Ballroom/Apartment .  The Second book was "A Thousand Days in Tuscany:a Bittersweet Adventure" - a lovely book about her life in this lovely region of Italy.  I was totally taken with her writing style and adventures.  I would highly recommend them!!

__________

The flicker last night was another colonial extravaganza - but from the Golden Year - 1939 - called "Allegheny Uprising" - starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne and George Sanders.  With Trevor getting credit above Wayne - she was the bigger star at the time.  I enjoyed this film, but found Trevor a bit much.  Wayne and Trevor acted earlier in 1939  together in "Stagecoach" a much better film and one where she was more suited to the character she played than in "Uprising."  Overall a good film and at about an hour and half not too long.

__________

There you go sports fans.  Thanks for stopping by, do come again.

Take care,

edgar

It was a busy evening...

... not really doing anything all that great, but just busy. We had to run out to the mall. Where we a gourmet dinner at Hot dog on a Stick!! A guilty pleasure but you just can't beat that really sour lemonade they serve!!! The fabulous dinner wasn't the only reason for the journey - I had finished a book so I needed to get another to read. I also had to pick up the most recent copy of Majesty - a magazine I have always enjoyed. They read up very fast but the articles are interesting and I am a total hog for Royal History. The book I just finished is a new book called "Versailles: A Biography of a Palace." by Tony Spawforth. A very good read about the Palace and not a coffee table book. The book I picked up is called "Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War" by Jacqueline Jones. With my family being from low country Georgia I am always interested in anything written about the area and especially about Savannah. I have read really good things about this book so I am ready to enjoy a good read.

We got home in time to catch a very good movie on TCM - now you are totally surprised about that aren't you!! - This month the Movie Star of the month is Jack Lemon and last night they were showing "Bell Book and Candle" - 1958, starring Kim Novak, Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemon. If you have never seen this movie you should!! A nice adult comedy about a modern day witch and her family. Very entertaining and the sets are sleek and modern - take special note of the Christmas Tree in Gillian's home. Thank you Alex for the nice comment yesterday about Deanna Durbin's movies - and telling us about the Deanna Durbin site - "Deanna Dirbin Devotees" - they is some very interesting info!!!!

In the stitching department - I worked on some exchange stitching and packed up the Valentines Exchange for mailing this morning - so there are no snaps. :( Thank you all for the super nice things about Le Jardin. Since I shifted all the floss from lite DMC colours to richer/darker over dyed shades I did wonder how they would look together.

Thanks for stopping by!!!
Take care,
edgar