O Ye Jigs & Juleps

Found the cutest little booklet at Uncle's title above written in 1904 by Virginia Cary Hudson, a 10 year old.  Published in the 60's or before and must have belonged to Aunt Marge.  This little girl writes  about church, etiquette, life, sacraments  through  10 year old eyes.  Made me laugh out loud when she describes the final "sacrament" death...After  we get home I'll scan and share some pages, but for now... "And then you get carried back in the Church again.  But you are dead & it takes 6 people to lift you.  And everybody cries and that's the last sacrament you are going to get.  Mrs. Park was old and so sick she didn't even know her own children.  Maybe she was tired fooling with them all those years and just acted like she didn't know them.  When Mrs. Park died, I sure didn't cry because I bet when she waked up & found she was dead, she was just tickled to death." 

We went to Union cemetery here in Arnold PA trying to find Frank Ostrowski's grave, my great grandfather. You  all are quite familiar with him by now and his herd of descendants.   I learned that as in Poland the Polish mounded the early graves.  I never knew that,  reminds me of Indians.  We were unable to find the grave, many old markers are  illegible and  broken off or just gone.  They said there were vandals from time to time who would rampage the cemeteries.  That's  disgusting.   I will have to submit a written request to the cemetery to search through their more than  23,000  sites and pay the fee.  I noticed that descendants are having new marble markers erected  for their ancesotrs as several were new; I will do that for him next time after we do the location.  Today off to decorate my grandparents' graves, Mom's, Aunt Jinx and Aunt Marge. 

I'd thought Uncle Carl might come along but his dementia has  wavered and he has good and bad days.  He seems to be ok in his routine in the home but any variation throws him into a state of  disorientation.  Though he knows us and is  mostly glad to see us, he gets disturbed.  Took him to get  new  eye glasses and  on return he wanted to sit outside on the porch at the home, so we did.  But that must have kicked off his porch sitting days at home and he then thought we were to  take him home.  He went inside reluctantly but then was not clear and his mind wandered back and forth from "That's where I eat..to You  guys let me know when we are ready to leave...."   Saturday he packed up his toiletry articles and was ready to go home again.  He is much slower and weaker than when we were here  first of November.  I remind myself of what the doctors and the social worker said and what I know, "the dementia will decline and rise and come and go and the aging  progression may  make him weaker,  Do not  think that  placing him into the personal care assisted living caused this, but be assured that he is well as can be and safe, something that could not  be guaranteed at  his home without  24/7 help."  And yet still it makes me so sad that this is how this remarkable man will spend his last days.  He's 92 and who knows how much longer he has.  He has been sleeping   a lot in the afternoons now, something my granpap, his father, did  before he died peacefully in his sleep, never waking from a nap.  I  pray Uncle Carl has that same peace.   And again I wonder, why the mental decline.  Mom had Alzheimers, starting in her early 60's.  Jinx had some dementia with the cancer and Uncle Carl is now in decline.  Yet my grandparents, their parents had none of this and they  died  in their  mid and late 70's.  Why does this happen now so much more than in the past? 

Ahh well,  I am finding lots of things to get onto Sepia posts when we return home and I have my scanner. Even found Granpap's naturalization papers...  I just wanted to check in online and let  folks know what we are about.  Limited computer access here.  So I will not be posting much.

Sepia Saturday Week 22 Annie Gorlewski Click here to connect to other's Sepia posts

                Anna Ostroski Kaluzny Gorlewski 1901—1982

This photo taken in  1940 is Annie on the right holding her daugher Katherine, with my grandmother Rose Ostrowski on the left.  I remember Annie, and her daughter, Katherine vividly because we (me and my Grandma) visited them often, sometimes detouring  on our way home from the Sunday movies. Annie may have been my grandmother’s God daughter or certainly her favorite niece because my Grandma had a very soft spot for her. She always took some food and a few dollars to Annie on every visit; I can still see my Grandmother sticking her hand in her purse and palming money off to Annie and Annie shaking her head in refusal as we made our way out the door but my grandmother always prevailed! I can still hear her say, "we take care of each other Annie!"  I  believe they did look out for one another and may have been identical in generously helping others. When I get to my grandmother’s stories I’ll explain the source of her pin money and I suspect this is what she shared, from her own abundance.

When I got a bit older, I considered that Annie who lived in a very poor part of town might have needed help and my grandmother was always one to help others. Regardless, I absolutely enjoyed going there because Katherine, the daughter was my first “friend.” Katherine was almost six years older than me but she welcomed me and was always willing to play dolls and have tea parties with me. When I was not quite five years old, she taught me how to make my first salad, slicing apples and a banana, sprinkling with bits of nuts and then adding salad dressing. I just thought Katherine was the cat’s meow.

Until I came along, Katherine was the center of attention but she was never jealous of the new kid in town. They said Katherine absolutely doted on me, took to me immediately and from the time my mom brought me home from the hospital; Katherine held me and watched my every movement. This would have been when Mom and my infant self lived with Mom’s parents and her sister, my aunt Virgina either next door or a door down from Annie. When I was nearly a year old Mom and her parents and sister pooled their funds to buy the home way up the hill, where Mom lived until she died in 2004. Here I am about 3 years old, on one of our stop by visits, when Katherine put me in the cabbage patch in the garden; I thought that was a hoot, remember I loved crawling around in the dirt around my grandpap.  They said that whatever Katherine thought up for me it was all good! She was a girl way ahead of the times, creating the first cabbage patch doll! I have no photos of Katherine with me, which I find strange, but then photos were not just normally taken of kids at play.

Annnie was the first of 10, 12 or 14 children born to great uncle John Ostrowski and his wife Frances Gapinski and as such the sister of Lizzie Waszkiewicz whom I posted on Sepia week 15.  Research varies on the number of children in that family but at least 10 survived. Uncle John dropped the “w” from Ostrowski so that the family spelled it Ostroski, one of the first name changes. Researching Annie helped me identify others in the previously posted Ostroski gathering photo of about 1910 when Annie was about 9 years old.   I have cropped them here; Annie is the little girl with her brother Ignatius next to her, parents John and Frances are seated with another baby on Frances’ lap, perhaps that is Frances.  The woman to the left of John is still unidentified.  Notice how Annie already has her mother's lips and serious face.  And  compare the look on John's face here with below on the steps with the cigar in his mouth--very similar. 

Browsing through my old photos to feature Annie led me to several interesting discoveries, the first that Annie was married twice, first in 1919 to Frank Kaluzny who died in 1927, reportedly from complications from World War I. So Annie was one of the first in the family to lose her husband to war and become a war widow with a baby. That would have made her a model for her cousin, my own mother years later in 1944 when my father’s death occurred. Annie and Frank Kaluzny had two sons, Raymond born March 3, 1923 and Frankie born January 1, 1927. I have limited memory about Frankie who was not living at home long before I came along and absolutely no recall of Raymond. My grandmother had this clipping of Frank’s marriage to Camille Slezycki in June 1979, another event I don’t recall.

Until I researched this I only knew of Annie’s second husband John J. Gorlewski, whom we called Bosco, another name I cannot explain but speculate that with the many John’s in the family including Annie’s father, maybe it was better to use a nickname. These two photos show the very strong physical resemblance between Annie’s father, John Ostroski and John “Bosco” Gorlewski who was only 10 years younger than her father. Evidently Bosco wore hats, which Uncle John did not.  Bosco and Annie had two children, Katherine born March 9, 1939 and Johnny born January 26, 1943. The photo of Annie and Bosco standing with Johnny and Katherine is earlier in 1943. This photo on the porch with her parents behind her and my grandmother to her right and Johnny on her lap is from  later in 1943 by Johnny's appearance and it may be one of the few with Annie almost smiling.  I don't remember her as  full of laughter as others, but I know that she was very dear and caring.

Johnny would have been almost two years older than me, but I recall little of him; perhaps he was one of those boys who steered clear. In 1945, here is Johnny trying to hold on to me but they said I wanted to go toward whoever had the camera and that I wanted my Grandma!. I think Johnny was not all that amused at having to pose with me, but someone must have thought it a good idea.

Bosco worked many long hard hours and double shifts when he could so was not at home much but when he was he seemed to be ill. I believe he suffered strokes and may have been recovering. This is the only other picture of him that I have, in the snow, noted as just weeks after Katherine’s birth in 1939.

Annie was a caretaker, I suspect that came with being the first born child into the huge family. At one time she was raising her youngest brother, Raymond, shown here between Frank Kaluzny, Annie’s oldest son and Katherine. This photo of the three is dated 1942.   My aunt always said that way back then Katherine was just waiting for another little girl to come along, a couple years ahead of my time. 

 If anyone, especially a woman in the extended family was ill or not up to duties, Annie helped out and was one of the first to cook a meal and deliver it or bake something and take it to cheer up a person. She must have had to beat her Aunt Rosie (my grandma) across the river to the aunts and cousins, but often she did. I believe that she cared for both her parents and that her mother lived with her after her father died. I can recall an old lady lying in a bed when we visited.

I don’t ever remember my Grandmother and Annie just sitting down and talking during visits; seems they were either in the kitchen cooking or cleaning something up, or washing something or ironing.   I believe that Annie took in washing and ironing and mending and that may have accounted for some of the activity.


Annie made quilts and always had some sewing underway. My aunt Virginia said that Annie taught her to quilt in 1940 after she graduated from high school. I have that “one and only” as my aunt preferred to sew and crochet and never made another quilt. I am working at restoring pieces on that quilt which I rescued from my aunt’s basement several years ago. Here they are in 1940 after my aunt’s high school graduation, Annie on the right and Virginia on the left.
Annie died in 1982 when I lived in California, so I did not return to PA for the funeral. Sadly I have no information about what ever happened to her children and their families. It is a sad testimony to Annie, who spent so much time caring for anyone in her entire extended family that all are now scattered perhaps around the country. That was what happened when the mills and plants closed, in that small town in PA, everyone moved on. Perhaps further research will lead us back and or someone will see this Sepia Post when they Google and contact me as happened with other photos.

This has been an interesting week of research using Ancenstry.com.  If I could do a time warp and interview someone from the past, it would be Annie, I expect she had many tales and a lifetime of experiences with all her brothers, sisters and family.  She must not have had big weddings because my grandmother would surely have had those photos.  Ahh, well, I am blessed to have what I do, so many in the collection.  Were it not for Sepia Saturday I wouldn't be getting this all  posted and shared.

Click on the title  as always to go to the Sepia site and read others and see the wonderful photos.

Two more reads for the side bar -- First Family and Niagara Falls

Finished both these books in April but here is the commentary in May.  After Rove’s book I needed lighter reading. David Baldacci is one of my favorite story tellers and his First Family, published in 2009, was immensely satisfying. But then to me he has not written anything which I’ve read that I don’t enjoy. I don’t know how to classify the genre, other than the perfect blend of intrigue, mystery, suspense, a shade of romance, friendship, political or just good old reading this tale through the eyes of the private investigators, former Secret Service agency employees, whom the First Lady solicits for assistance when her niece is kidnapped. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, the investigators, find themselves back in the game but soon become suspicious of the First lady herself. Besides the main tale, there is a sideline with Michelle’s complicated family. Two tales in one, pure Baldacci. Nothing much more I can say about this so as to not reveal too much. This was another popular best seller by Baldacci; I wonder how he does it without resorting to outline comic book style writing which often happens with popular authors. I’d picked this up at a book sale, $1 for the hard cover, a bargain, and will now pass it along to the local library for their sale. It is excellent reading that kept me quickly turning the pages till the end at 449.


While I snagged no quotes to share, the style is so Baldacci, that any paragraph is exciting……for example page 6……..”Her face was in decent shape, she thought as she snatched a look in a mirror. It held the marks and creases of a woman who’d given birth multiple times and endured many political races. No human being could emerge unblemished after that. Whatever frailty you possessed the other side would find and stick a crowbar in to lever every useful scrap out. The press still referred to her as attractive. Some went out on a limb and described her as possessing movie star good looks. Maybe once, she knew but not anymore. She was definitely in the “character actress” stage of her career now. Still, she had progressed a long way from the days when firm cheekbones and a firmer backside were high on her list of priorities. “

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan presents an intriguing book cover, almost a sepia print of a woman at Niagara Falls in the 1800’s. It caught my eye and as Niagara Falls is one of my favorite places in the entire country I thought it worth the time to read. Written ala the Victorian style this first novel for Cathy, hints at imminent disaster by title alone. The historical sketches and text and old photos woven through this tale enhance the drama about Bess Heath, a young woman who spurns what would have been a “better” marriage for her attraction to a naturalist of sorts. It begins in 1915—the beginning of the harnessing of the hydroelectric power of the Falls and a time when the dare devils were shooting the rapids in barrels. Her sister Isabel has her own story going on and there is a family tragedy in the making. Her father has lost his prominent job and the family fortune is dwindling; her mother helps support the family as a seamstress and her father despite trying to keep up appearances begins drinking. It follows the dawn of the ready wear clothing and how that affects the seamstress industry. I loved the in depth descriptions of some of the hand sewing, the finery and the descriptive of the feel of the fabrics. It is a tribute to  hand work, sewing, WWI and the Canadian culture of that time.   It is not an all ends happily ever after tale and at times I thought it slow moving, but then some history of the region would evolve to return my interest.

Some of the writing is melancholy which became dreary but as I prevailed through the 298 pages I can say this was a different genre of reading for me, reminiscent of Louisa May Alcott and  the like and I learned something about writing by reading this.

Pg. 138, “..Grief isn’t something to get over…it stays with you, always…just not so raw….”

Pg. 151..”Every day there are moments when it feels like I’m met head on by meaninglessness.”

Pg. 215 ..”We all matter so very little, .. not at all after a generation or two….as Darwin put forth…”

Pg. 217…”Even now it seems a sort of bull headedness is chief among the traits necessary to prevail, a trait Isabel had in spades.”

Waiting for time to write

Busy time here and I will not have time to post but I do have some thoughts weaving around in my head, one on cocktails and high balls!  Magpie tales must take a back seat for some time now as outside gardening beckons me,  diminishing time for  the keyboard.  I am trying to stay with the Sepias though as  I have so many stories still to share. 

I will be posting my current reflections after my recent political experience participating as a delegate to the MN Republican state convention.  I have been to the belly of the beast and am more than disgusted with what I've encountered there.  Watching the changes in politics can be invigorating or disgusting.  The take back the party by the young agressives and the ultra right wingers is offensive at the best to me and absolutely offputting.  I believe most people are decent middle moderates, as I am. Extremism in any form is not welcoming. Which is worse ultra right or ultra left? 

 Well, I have enough to do with blogging, reading, gardening, working out, biking, dealing with elderly mother in law in town,  and getting ready to take our RV back to PA to check on my elderly uncle.   More later. Especially about the great  graduation party I attended Saturday here.   

Bill Austin SEPIA SATURDAY Week 21 Click here to link to others' posts

Bill Austin 1889-1956 


This is my Great Uncle Bill, another Ostrowski, my grandmother Rose’s brother and his wife, Louise in 1944.Check out his white shoes and she in heels. Sometime early in his life as happened all too often in those times Bill may have experienced discrimination toward the Polish because he changed his last name to Austin. Not only that he changed his first name from Walter F to William, no middle name or initial. I can only imagine what went through his head to do this but surely wish I knew the story to share here. Maybe it was just as simple as a wish to fully assimilate—as far as he was concerned he was American. Maybe the Polish last name did not match is idea of being an American. As if I do not have enough to deal with in my genealogy with the changing of the spelling of Ostrowski, Uncle Bill had to go further.

He was born to Frank Ostroski and his second wife, Frances Swartz in Detroit Michigan according to my research. But Frank and Frances moved on to the mines of PA and there they settled; Bill lived in the New Kensington, PA area all his life.

Well my grandma Rose did not care if changed his name to “Yehudi” as she would say; he was her brother and that was that, though she thought it was very silly. When I was learning to spell, I asked her if the name change was because Ostrowski was just too hard to spell , to which she said that Uncle Bill was educated and could read, write and spell. I do not know what schools he attended, or how far he went in school, but she recalled he was the smartest boy in the family. I remember going to visit with my grandmother and my Aunt Virginia to the Anderson St. house where Bill and his wife Louise lived all their life and where she stayed after his death. I was fascinated with that area of our town known as Parnassus, and I imagined that Parnassus was a mythical name. Bill and Louise had no children and so far I do not know Louise’s maiden name. I know that she was my godmother, so identified on my Baptismal Certificate.

I enjoyed our visits to Uncle Bill and Aunt Louise because she always made fresh cold lemonade or freshly squeezed orange juice. My Grandmother would tell her not to bother that we only had a short time to spend, but that was Louise’s hospitality. Louise always had glasses being iced in the refrigerator, so they would be cold; this fascinated me, something no one else did. And more remarkable, Louise lined the glass rims with sugar and served proudly to each of us, even me the kid with gorgeous linen and crochet coasters. Mostly grandma made sure that Bill knew about family events, so anytime anyone had a new addition to the family, a baptism, a confirmation, a graduation whatever, my grandma would visit Bill. I never understood why she didn’t just call him on the phone, but suppose that was her way of being sure that her brother heard the news and would attend the upcoming event. I don’t recall him coming to many of the family gatherings or if he did it was just brief. Perhaps the others were not pleased with his Americanization attempt; my family were all proud of their Polishness.

I found his WWII draft card on ancestry.com showng his residence as the Anderson Street address. At that time he was still using the name Walter Ostrowski. But I learned something else from that. I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog that I grew up very close with my grandmother, she and I went to the movies every Sunday. In our small town which thrived in the days of the steel mills and the Alcoa Plant, there were three movie theaters. And some Sunday’s she and I would go to two of the theaters.   But we always went to the Liberty first, sometimes they were not showing a movie I preferred, I really liked cowboys and Indians in Technicolor so we had to take in one of those. I found this clipping about Uncle Bill in my grandma’s collection which shows that was his employment; evidently he loaded the films and ran them. This was a newsclip which I love showing the old equipment.  It explains why we always went there first, no matter what was on. I imagine we got free passes. On his WWII draft card Warner Brothers is identified as the owner of the theater, formerly known as the Ritz. I’d thought our three theaters were independently owned. Interesting to learn that Warner Brothers owned theaters across the country and in our little town in PA. This is my limited information about Uncle Bill and Aunt Louise for our  21st week of Sepia posts.

Week 20 Sepia Saturday My 2nd cousins Roginski's (Click here to go to other Sepia Sat. Posts)

How can it already be  Week 20!   I know I was a late joiner, but the time has really gone along.   This photo is of the children of Great Aunt Veronica Ostrowski (my grandmother’s sister) and Alex Roginsky. I assume this photo was taken approximately 1900’s. What puzzles me is that it shows done by a company out of Chicago, IL and the family lived in PA always far as I know.  The children, all so serious appearing to have the same  barber which was likely Mom's bowl at home, are on the pony, (which also looks serious) Frank and Helen, and then standing left to right August  and Alex. The names are familiar in the Ostrowski line, another Frank (my grandmother’s father) and a Helen (my mother’s name too.) There go the repetitive use of the names. I wonder if it was incumbent on the Polish to name their first born after the maternal father? I believe there was another daughter in this family, Loretta, who may not have yet been born when this was taken.

The only person I recall is Augie, (August). When my Mom died in 2004 Auggie came to the funeral home and wanted to see me as much as anything; this annoyed my jealous evil half brother and his wife to no end, because Auggie arrived at the funeral parlour announcing loudly, “Is Patty here, I want to see Patty!” it was a treat to visit with him and hear his stories including how he was corresponding with an Ostrowski somewhere in Australia and thought he should go visit. Only problem was the person wrote to him in Polish and Augie’s Polish skills did not include reading, so he had to get the letters translated. Augie had  several health problems but still had the funny streak and found  a light hearted story everywhere.  I love that trait of the family.

Augie was in his late 80’s at the time and was annoyed because he could no longer drive his big Cadillac; in fact his kids had to stop him from driving period. Never easy but something we have to do for the safety of others as well as the elders. I heard that since then he had to move from his home in Springdale, Harmar Twshp. PA across the river to be with his son and wife or perhaps it was daughter and son-in-law.

When my aunt Virginia, his cousin died, I heard nothing from him. I do not know if Augie is still alive or not. None of the other Roginski’s are alive to my knowledge. This is another limb on the family tree that has stopped growing unless there are some descendants out there somewhere.

I found these photos in my grandmother's collection.  This last is from the 1940's sometime, noted as taken during one of Frank's furlough's.  Oh but the soldier is another 2nd  cousin, Frank Janosky and his wife who sent this photo calling herself "the blur in the middle" while Alex Roginski is shown on the left.  Typical of so many in the family they needed no chairs, simply squatted and posed.  That does not seem comfortable to me.

The Cinderella Pact (Click here to get to author's blog)

After Rove’s book, I needed light reading which I found in the girlie chick book, “The Cinderella Pact” by Sarah Strohmeyer. I had previously read her “The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives” which I reviewed on this blog on February 11, 2009, (  find it at http://patonlinenewtime.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-winter-readings.html  )  however, I was not impressed with that book and thought that I would never read anything by her again, but I was wrong.

Sarah is one of the writers on the Lipstick Chronicles blog that I follow with relish and glee.....  a group of women mostly mystery writers.    You can check it out at  http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/    Besides that she has her own blog  which you can get to  by clicking on the title to this post.    Those are quite enough blog backs for one review. 

  After I read her essay explaining Cinderella which was my all time favorite fairy story, I thought maybe I would enjoy her Cinderella Pact. I wasn’t making the connection with my earlier read, one reason why I have committed to posting my reads on my blog, to track what I like and not, etc. When I saw this book in Barnes and Noble, I also spotted the previous one which made me a bit tentative to this purchase. But what the heck, writers can change, there are different likes and  dislikes depending on moods of readers (especially me) and not everything I write is accepted or liked by everyone or even myself at the same time either.

I enjoyed this book and breezed through it in a few evenings. There is no deep engaging thought or plot, merely a cute, amusing story and that was sufficient for me this time. The introduction is 10 ways to indulge your inner Cinderella; my favorite is “Act like Cinderella. Trill while you do dishes. Invite birds to sit on your fingers, chipmunks to nestle in the folds of your skirts. Do not mind that the neighbors have called your relatives expressing concern. Pity them for they know not that you are a woman of noble birth, kept captive among commoners.” Set in Princeton (Pg. 1) “a magical kingdom with shady tree lined streets and at its center a big castle of a university….,” Nola Devlin, the main character is an overweight editor at Sass magazine who creates the wonderful character of Belinda Apple. Irony pervades as the honchos at Sass contract with Belinda as their feature columnist and Nola as her editor. Nola keeps this deep secret till the end forces her hand and then those who suspected chime, “Oh I knew it all along!” There are several comical happenings as Nola keeps on creating. With her two close friends Nancy and Deb, she enters into a Cinderella Pact to lose weight. Oh haven’t all of us done this with friends and without as we battle our bulges!

I can’t spoil the story but true to Cinderella the book culminates in a grand ball, a sort of fairy Godmother, a prince in waiting, and everyone lives happily ever after. There are no wicked step sisters, sisty uglers, but there is Nola’s very own full sister who also adores Belinda and who through her own choices could qualify as a sisty ugler. This book is about daydreaming and fantasies while working and living life. Her opening line, “We are all Cinderella’s, no matter what our size” grabbed me as well as Belinda’s Guide to Indulging Your Inner Cinderella.

I liked a couple of lines in particular, pg. 43—“daydreaming, the refuge of worry warts” and pg. 45, “buying things because life is short.” That buying and treating self was one of my mantras during my career; a bad meeting sent me right to the mall at lunch time for a purchase of clothing, shoes, cosmetics, didn’t matter. But the most philosophical is on pg. 318, “Why I love life. You come for the love. You stay for the irony!”

This book has been made into a TV Movie on Lifetime, as “Lying to be Perfect.” I will pass this book along to friends to enjoy. It’s a great lose yourself here chic book!

My whimsical blue bottle garden

Sometime back on our travels I noticed somewhere in Arkansas or Louisiana several bottles in a yard on sticks and in the ground as garden art. I think there was a sign "Grandma's bottle garden." I thought it looked cool and always planned to do that someday. I had been saving blue wine bottles for this purpose. But most of the wines I prefer Chardonnay, Pinot noir, merlot, pinot grizio do not come in blue bottles, so progress was slow. And then like many of my ideas, I forgot about it. But I did have these five bottles setting awaiting their spot outside. Jerry thought this was another dumb idea and ignored it as he can do so easily when he is uninterested in my antics.

This week on my pedaling around town voila, someone had beat me to it and had  a display of  arrays of wine bottles of all colors in groupings on their front flower border and near the street on the mowing strip. I pedaled over and got off my bike to take a look recalling, this is something I intended to do and had not gotten around to. Whoever lives there on Main St. right off Maple in town is selling these wine bottle arrangements with dowels for $20 for six and on up, $40 for six blue bottles. Something is wrong here, that is an empty wine bottle!  Who would have thought anyone would buy that? 

Now, I am way ahead of this, I do not need to buy wine bottles, because that is my almost daily beverage of choice and I can empty those easily while enjoying its medicinal effects. I was curious about how they mounted the bottles and if they had soldered them to the dowel. Closer exam showed they only stuck the bottle atop the stick. And I was fixated on how to anchor the bottles onto something so they would not shatter in the winds. There was one quite lovely potted arrangement with white rocks over the top of the pot for $40 as well. No one was home because their little sign by the bottles said, to leave money in the mailbox to purchase them. See here in “Mayberry” we do such things and expect people to be honest. It’s a good place to live. I would have liked to talk to whoever was doing this and offer a supply of future bottles to them, but no one around. I thought they looked way cool and put that on my to do list for this week. So today I sent Jerry scrounging to the garage below and he found 4 fiberglass dowels, one short of my need. But I found an old wooden spoon I'd saved fpr dirt work, burying the spoon into the dirt gave me another dowel.

In a spot outside the bedroom closet window along the front my blue bottle garden is now in bloom. Jerry is still shaking his head, but I feel I accomplished something unique. And what a good way for me to contribute to Earth Week, recycling my own wine bottles. Well I do separate and set them into recycle anyway, but this use is right up my alley. I now will begin to save my other green and tan wine bottles for a bottle garden out back! Just what I needed another reason to open a bottle of wine! And think of it, drought tolerant and never need to fertilize.  A winning arrangement for sure!