Christmas 2020

My granddaughters' favorite activity when they visit is collecting pine cones from the backyard and looking for Paul the (real) squirrel who lives in our cedar tree.

Royal Doulton English Renaissance, Rosenthal Pine Needles, Heraldic silver.

 

Wine Pergola

Thanksgiving 2020

 A small Thanksgiving this year. First course: soup in Wedgewood Patrician Golden Ivy

But what are those soup bowl hiding?

Turkey Plates!!! Everyone gets a different turkey!

Glen doesn't want a picture of his dinner staring up at him so he gets a winter scene (with a teeny tiny turkey in the foreground  )

East or West - Home is Best

110 degrees in the valley last Saturday so we headed for cooler weather on the coast, only to find a 2 hour traffic jamb 10 miles from the beach. (who'da thunk?) So we turned around and hit up a cool antique store on the way back home. I bought myself a consolation prize - this gorgeous tablecloth! Almost too pretty to cover up with plates.
 

Dansk "Winter White" dinner plates w/ Helsey "Beehive" glass salad plates, Rogers "Vintage" silverplate, Tessitura Toscana table cloth

California Fires

Life in California: My undying gratitude to the farm workers shown here (just a few miles from my home) harvesting grapes in 110 degree heat, with fires burning nearby, during a world wide pandemic... all so we can enjoy a nice meal and a glass of wine.

My table in their honor. The smokey tablecloth is a stark contrast to the pure white china. The centerpiece is made from wine leaves (and grapes) foraged from our wine pergola which -this year- goes unused.

Dansk "Winter White" china, Rogers "Vintage" flatware

A wreath made from the corks of dinner-parties-past peeks out from under the vines.

Summertime revisited

 Summer breakfast: Change the salad plates, take away the topiary trees and the whole mood changes.

Home made wine cork trivet waiting for the fresh out of the oven quiche

Johnson Bros Blue Danish salad plates, with the Lemon Tree dinner plates et al from the last post

Summertime

It's 110 degrees outside so I set the table inside.

Nine lemons in a bowl is good luck!

Pottery Barn Ava salad plates over Johnson Bros Lemon Tree plates, raffia place mats and spring green lattice table cloth, King Cedric silver

Take-out Picnic Downtown

In the wake of Covid-19, our town is closing the streets downtown and holding a Take-out Picnic every Saturday night in June. You order your dinner from one of the local restaurants and then eat it at one of the "socially distanced" tables in the street. We were there - :with china, linen and silver! And this gorgeous centerpiece.

Flowers include, from the grocery store, Peonies and Basket Flowers (Centaurea) and from my garden: Artemisia (remembering absent friends), Hollyhocks (for my granddaughters), and Grape Vines from our pergola (holding the promise of a better future)

We set up right outside Mojos Kitchen 428 

Royal Doulton "English Renaissance" dinner plates and Homer Laughlin "Aristocrat" square salad plates over Dollar Store chargers, "Heraldic" silverplate and swan salt & pepper cellars I found on eBay.

Even burgers taste better on nice china

View from the balcony

 My friend Christy (who owns Mojos Kitchen 428) came up with this idea to help not only her restaurant but the other neighboring restaurants. Her motto is "High tide raises all ships." She had to go through a lot of bureaucratic hoops (health dept, ABC, city and county approvals) but she made it happen. Thanks Christy for doing all you do for our town. <3

Cheers!