Monthly Archives: March 2025

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What we’re not taking… Part two.

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Should we take the old map that hangs over our living room mantle to the Antiques Roadshow if our ticket entry is chosen?

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It’s a beautiful thing. Gifted to my parents for their wedding in 1958.

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The date is 1792.

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It has sea monsters…

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As well as indigenous people…

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And curious wildlife.

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It appears hand colored and though I couldn’t find the exact same one online…

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It could be worth a few bucks if original.

Problem?

I don’t think it is. The paper seems wrong, and on close inspection…

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It has weird dots I can’t find on any other example.

I doubt it’s foxing…

And would rather not waste an Antique Roadshow opportunity on something that’s not an antique.

The search continues.

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Snowy sunrise.

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You know something wonderful is happening outside when my husband takes pictures.

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And after a quick peek, I had to grab my camera too.

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We’re blessed to live where we do.

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Witnessing these stunning sunrises never gets old.

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They change colors so quickly.

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And are always too fleeting…

❤️

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What we’re not taking… Part one.

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In anticipation of our possible trip to the Antique Roadshow taping this summer, I’ve been silently walking around the house wondering what we should take.

Yes, we have hundreds of antiques… but it should be something special.

Something unusual.

Something expensive.

Something the dealers won’t roll their eyes at once we step away from the appraisal desk.

In a perfect world I would have taken this…

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A large Audubon print of canvas back ducks in Baltimore harbor.

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Years ago we thought this was the real deal. It was the right elephant folio size to be an original…

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It had the correct identifiers…

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The right printer and date.

It was a gift to my parents from a wealthy family friend and had been hanging on my parents wall since the 1960’s. My mother always told me it was worth a fortune.

She was right about that..

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But when my husband and I took it to Christie’s auction house in NYC 30 years ago we were told it was an only a good quality restrike from the 1940’s, worth approximately $3,000.

While that’s not chump change, and it may have appreciated some since then….

Nope.

Not Roadshow material.

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You can’t beat a good old fashioned general store.

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We drove down to Barrington New Hampshire recently… specifically to visit this store.

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Calefs was opened in 1869 and run by the same family for 150 years. Walking through its doors is like stepping back in time.

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Filled to the rafters with quirky products you’re not apt to see anywhere else, it’s a wonderful place to browse.

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Here’s the husband examining some pickled quail eggs.

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You can’t go wrong with peace, love or cheese.

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Beer?

They have that too.

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People still fill buckets with pickles from a wooden barrel.

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Though as I was taking a picture of this briny abomination the man behind the counter said, “Go ahead… no one’s tried them yet!”

Can’t say I’m surprised.

🤢

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Even the hot sauce was fun.

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The creaky uneven floors of the old farmhouse were great and my husband thoroughly enjoyed gawking at all the antiques lining the top shelves. The woman standing next to him works there and shared some story history.

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Naturally, we came home with goodies.

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Dinosaur wine gummies anyone?

🤣

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February was a good month for snow.

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Are you tired of winter snow photos? If so, you have my permission to depart the pattern now…. because that’s all there is today.

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No adult beverages on the deck last week I’m afraid.

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The above is a rare deer track free shot of the backyard. Taken early in the morning, it didn’t last.

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The wind has been killer this season. The above is a shot of my husband shoveling the driveway when it was 6 degrees with 53 mph gusts.

Yours truly stayed inside.

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Driveway clearing after a storm is the Maine equivalent of the office water cooler. Everyone crawls out of their snowbound homes and chats.

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And if you’re lucky, your neighbor cracks through the ice crusted snow your snowblower won’t with his tractor plow.

😊

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How weird is your state?

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Apologies for not posting every state, some of you just aren’t that weird.

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This sounds perfectly reasonable to me. There are entirely too many fake cowboys.

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Do pickles bounce in every state, or just Connecticut?

Is my recently dormant pickle algorithm to blame for this blog?

I have questions…

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If I have any Hawaiian readers, please try this and report back.

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Okay, so that’s not very weird, but it’s my state so I’m including it.

I’m also adding this picture …. of the absolutely only billboard I’ve ever seen here. It’s on the Lisbon road heading towards Lewiston and was supposedly “grandfathered” in.

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I don’t buy that excuse. There were plenty of older billboards, someone is just too cowardly to rip down God.

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Kudos to Nebraska for their honesty.

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Finally, a reason to visit Notth Dakota.

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Do you love this as much as I do?

I’m not sure why they thought a giant plastic potato would draw tourists to their state, but I’m all in.

It also might explain something my husband and I are puzzled by every time we drive by this house…

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Yes. This is real.

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Clearly the homeowners are from Rhode Island.

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Seagulls have been known to wreak havoc here. I’ve had them steal a loaf of bread from my tote bag and dive bomb our cat. They will flat out f**k you up.

I’m definitely not spitting on one.

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