Category: Americana
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Daylily season underway
I’m a daylily fan Daylilies are still blooming even though things are a little soggy. The blossoms look great with a few drops of water on them, but eventually most of them are damaged by continued downpours. Every garden has some old favorites like my Ruby Spiders in the featured picture. But there are also…
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Why have a 4th of July church service?
Celebrating the Fourth of July in the traditional way with patriotic hymns and maybe even the Pledge of Allegiance might raise questions these days. Is it too secular? Maybe even partisan? Or just distracting? I have always felt very positive about a traditional Fourth of July service. I even find them inspiring. First, a Fourth…
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My Christmas Village and Trains
West Granby Christmas Village and Trains Each year for about 20 years, I have set up a Christmas train village and invited children of the church to visit and run trains. This year, due to COVID-19, the only visitors were my two grandchildren. I decided that I would still put the whole village up because…
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Unexpected November flower bouquets
I can’t believe my marigolds have not really been killed by frost yet. They were burned this past weekend but I went out ahead of that anticipated cold and rescued flowers for another round of late fall flower arranging. Funny how I let them grow all summer, but when frost threatens, I start cutting and…
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More history from our house
In my previous post regarding our house at 8 Simsbury Road, I suggested that part of the older house that had been pictured in the Granby Drummer and is shown above had been preserved and reused in the the current structure. At that time I was basing my idea largely on a single piece of…
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Historical picture of our house
I enjoy reading the historical column in the Granby Drummer. But this last week I was in for a surprise. I was reading the article about a nineteenth century West Granby resident named Myron Graham. Beside the article was a picture of the house that Mr. Graham had lived in with a small caption reading…
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Country Santa
Just a mile or so away from my house is a man who collects small old Farmall tractors. Seems like I am always chasing a deadline when I go by, but today, by some miracle, I was running just a little early so I pulled in and introduced myself. I wanted to meet the curator…
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The Mailbox Thing
What is it about us that many of us are just not happy to use a generic mailbox? Where I have lived, either careening cars or snowplows have taken them out often enough that it never would have paid to get too creative. But that doesn’t keep me from admiring the variety that…
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A Country Touch at Thompson’s
I just love outside country decorating touches. I don’t claim to be good at making them happen myself but I certainly do recognize them when I see them. And I usually know why I like them too. This little corner trio is at my sister MarySue’s house. What a great way to…