Since my husband has been wasting time and money working in the basement, it was inevitable he’d discover some treasure. And for the first time in a long time… I’m not being sarcastic when I say that.
To my delight, he came upstairs the other day with these.
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A box full of old photo albums given to me by my late father’s sister years ago when she was moving. She gave us all kinds of unwanted things that were basement bound but these must have gotten mixed in with the rest, and sadly I’d forgotten all about them.
The photos are old, taken in England between 1910 and 1920… and just for fun I thought I’d share a few.
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My father as a boy. A well dressed dapper little lad, no?
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My grandfather and my aunt. Another dapper gentleman.
Unfortunately I never met him, as he died when my dad was 10 years old.
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My grandmother and another aunt.
I was 2 when my grandmother passed and have no memory of her. It may have been the era, but I don’t possess a single photo of her smiling either.
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My grandfather with two unidentified children. Apparently one of them was a daisy.
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My father loved the sea, as is evidenced by him taking the tiller at an early age.
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This is his older brother, who clearly was only trusted with toy boats.
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My grandmother and uncle. Oh, that hat!
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My grandfather, left, with an unidentified man in Cuba. Pops was a world traveler.
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My grandfather and father. Did no one ever smile for pictures back then?
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My father, building his own mini Stonehenge in Cornwall.
Housed in an old inn, the restaurant/bar was warm and inviting.
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Most of the dining sections were full so we grabbed a high top near the empty bar.
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Seeing the empty bar made me wonder about the quality of libations….
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But a stellar blood orange cranberry gin fizz allayed my fears.
Of course this was Vermont, so some of the menu items put me off.
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A skillet full of kale? There wasn’t enough gin in the state to make me order that.
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Ditto the falafel, though the maple chicken didn’t sound bad.
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But the clam chowder was homemade, rich, creamy and full of fresh herbs so I started with that.. accompanied by the most amazing peach cornbread with orange whipped butter you’ve ever tasted. Ooh la la! I raved over them so much the waitress brought me extra of both to take home.
The beer? I thought you might notice that.
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I tried both of these.
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Because a girl gets thirsty when she eats salad.
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We enjoyed this place so much we stayed long enough to order dessert. (Mainly because the husband found a fellow veteran to talk to… and you know how long that can take.)
Pumpkin cheesecake for him, Key lime pie for yours truly.
If you’re ever in the Jericho area of Vermont drop in. You won’t be sorry.
You knew there had to be some antique shopping on our trip.
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The husband refused to let me purchase this pair of chicken rocking chairs… even though I knew they’d be great on the barn porch. The $2,000 price tag might have had something to do with that.
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This old advertisement made us cringe. Clearly 666 didn’t have the same connotation back in the day.
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But look, it cured everything from headache to constipation . What’s not to love?
We hit a few stores and were about to call it quits but then, from the corner of my eye….
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A beer crate! At an extremely affordable $25 price. I was thrilled and I think the store owner was so happy to sell something he gave me these two vintage wooden darts (with real feathers) for free.
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Score!
Later in the day we arrived at our destination.
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The Old Red Mill in Jericho.
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A picturesque, well preserved piece of the past.
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One half the building houses a lovely gift store filled with crafts from local artists.
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And I liked the way they left the original mill works in place.
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In hindsight I really should have bought this book.
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Probably some decent blog fodder there.
But it was the other half of the building that I’d actually come to see.
River's world..... 