Saturday, January 29, 2022

January CupboardScape

 Today I feature my first
cupboardscape of the year.

Hello Friends!


When I was thinking about what to display
for January, I immediately thought
of my snowy excursions on my
maternal and paternal grandparents farms.

This antique sled reminded me of the times
we would sled down gramma H's hill.
Her farm was situated on top 
of a pretty good sized hill.
It was tough riding up it in the Summer
on our bikes.
However in Winter, we loved sledding down it.


Gramma B would always tell us to take
our wet boots and socks off right away.
She would then hang them on the clothesline
she had in her living room above the wood stove.
Along with our socks, she also hung our mittens and scarfs.
Yes she had a clothesline in her living room.
Only in the Winter months though.
She strung it from hooks on the wall above
her woodstove.
She did not have a furnace.
At home we would lay our wet socks and mittens
on the furnace vents.


Speaking of home,
every Autumn my dad would mound up a portion
of the garden into an ice rink for us.
He would fill it with water and once it froze,
we would ice skate outside at our house.
The skates shown here are antique ones. 


I did not have any clothesline to add to my display,
so I added these socks to my dolly washer.


Can you imagine skating at night
 using one of these antique lanterns.
How romantic it would have been.


When we came back inside from having fun,
gramma B always had hot soup broth ready for us.
She always used enamelware,
so she would put broth in a cup like these
for us to warm up with.


Over at gramma H's house,
us cousins always made snowmen and snow forts.
Gramma would provide us with a carrot,
pipe and scarf for our creation.


Now even though there were sugar maples on
gramma B's farm, she never tapped them.
The white bucket here is a firkin or as other
folks call them a sugar bucket.
I added this faux tree only because gramma B
had lots of pines on her farm.
We use to cut down one each year for
our own Christmas tree.
I should say my dad cut it down.


More socks and a pair of mittens hang from
my tobacco rack.


I always look at the back of quilts I purchase.
This one I really love because of the
cream and blue stripes.  


The pattern on this enamel cup
is called snow on the mountain.
This pattern is getting harder to find.


That does it for my first cupboardscape of 2022.
Hope you enjoyed it.

In other news, the ice has come down the river
fast and furious.
Our ferry to the island has already shut down
twice this past week.
Two freighters also got stuck,
with two Canadian Coast Guard cutters
cutting the ice to free them.
Which now caused a flood watch for our
coastal area because the ice shifts more to land
when they do this.
This had caused damage to our dock
two years in a row and hoping not a third time.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to 
our friends or even family that are bring
affected with the Nor'easter this weekend.
I heard up to 3 feet of snow 
with winds up to 70 MPH. 
UGH

Bob and I enjoyed a Lebenese dinner made by my FIL.
He made Kousa which is stuffed squash.
It is similar to stuffed cabbage,
however you need a special utensil to hollow
out the squash and the tomato sauce has allspice in it.
I also made a Lebenese salad and we had pita bread.

What are your weekend plans?

January Snow Blessings To All!
Janice



22 comments:

  1. Hi Janice! Your cupboardscape is wonderful and brings back lots of memories of my childhood as well. We had an ice skating pond on our farm and we had so much winter fun skating. We had to slide under a barbed wire fence limbo style to get to it - I can remember getting my jacket caught many times, lol. I'm not sure why my dad never cut the fence so we could get through! I guess we were tougher kids back then ha! It's been a cold winter so far for everyone this year. Kousa sounds absolutely delicious! Have a wonderful weekend - we are working on installing a beadboard backsplash in our kitchen. Jane

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    1. Thanks a bunch Jane! So loved reading about your Winter fun too! Good luck with your backsplash. I love bead board! Janice

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  2. What beautiful memories you have of your winters with your grandparents and of your grandparents themselves. I do remember going skating on the creek...but it was a brief window of time as once the creek froze, the snows came and it soon became too deep to scrape off the creek or even to hike to the creek. I, of course, was always frozen by the time we got there and I changed into my skates LOL. No real plans for the weekend here... I have a lot of paperwork to get through...and I hope to get some stitching time in....maybe play with some paper and make some hearts/Valentines?? I can't believe Saturday is already almost over! ~Robin~

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    1. You know my gramma B had a pond, yet we never skated on that one. I dont even remember how deep it was. I just use to catch frogs in it and let them go. Well looks like we are going to get hammered with snow soon. Janice

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  3. How lucky you are to have physical old memories as well as the emotional memories of your grandparents. I used to ice skate with my mother and brother and guess as a teen I was immune to the cold....but not now, lol. Nor do I ice skate now!

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    1. Yes I was a lucky child with wonderful childhood memories! I think as kids we all were immune to the cold. Not now. Janice

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  4. What a lovely tribute to your grandmother. It brings back so many memories of the winter fun we had when I was a kid. We too skated on the ponds and we were lucky to have hills to slide down and when the snow was very deep, we built snow forts. We never hd boring moments when I was young. We didn't had insulated boots like today's kids but we sure were tough.

    There's a Lebanese church in our city and they used to have large Lebanese dinners and the food was so good. That is where I was first introduced to tabbouleh and hummus and then my daughter Jackie, introduced me to Babaganoush.

    The storm is over and the sun is shining this morning. I'm not sure how much snow fell because of all the drifting.

    Take care, stay safe and well.
    Hugs,
    Julia

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    1. I love all of that food! My hubby's grandparents owned a bakery in Detroit where they made pita bread. Then it was called Syrian bread. So glad I brought back fond memories of you skating. Janice

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  5. I love your cupboard and all the reminiscences. They were hearty then, weren't they? We are rather spoiled! That lantern is so beautiful -- I love the light it gives off.

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    1. Yeah I hate the cold weather now. Yikes we are in for a bit of snow on our side of the state. Janice

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  6. What wonderful childhood memories you have!
    I have hooked some and hope to hook some more ;-)
    I'm also trying to clean some in the basement which is no fun at all.

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    1. Maybe I will get my hook back out in a few weeks once I have set up for Spring. Will see. Am itching to hook a bit now. Janice

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  7. Such a beautiful cupboard scape and wonderful memories that brought back many of my own! As kids we skated down a creek that ran through the neighborhood and ended into a pond. All the kids played there. Snowmen, angels and hot cocoa are embedded in my brain for eternity! Big storm heading our way by Wednesday night into Thursday. I hope it's not going to you! Take care!

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    1. Oh my I think you are in the path of this snowstorm too. UGH So glad I brought back memories for you skating. Stay safe my friend. Janice

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  8. Your first cupboard scape brings back lots of memories of those cold January days of long ago. I can remember those lines above the coal stove at home and at school.

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    1. Thanks Mary. Yes we have had some very cold January's here in Michigan. Cannot wait for Spring. Janice

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  9. Thank you for sharing your memories with us. I just love the idea of the clothesline in the house. When I was little we would lay our mittens, hats and socks in front of the big Pot Belly stove in our kitchen.
    xx oo

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    1. Back then I think rural families made do with what they had. However I think it made them stronger. Janice

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  10. I just love how you weave family memories into your CupboardScapes...not only do they look lovely, but they have such sweet memories as well. As always, thanks for the inspiration! Mary

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    1. Thanks a bunch Mary! I have loads of childhood memories. Maybe I should write a book. LOL Glad I am able to inspire you. Janice

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  11. Your display is wonderful with the sled and I love reading your memories about sledding down the hill of your grandparents home.
    How very wise your Gramma B was to have a clotheline in the cold months for drying clothes. How sweet that your dad would make an ice skating rink. That must have been so much fun to skate on!
    The memories make your whole display magical! It is all so lovely! I hope this finds that the ice and the flooding has not brought damage to you. Your Lebanese dinner sounds delicious! Stay safe and warm!

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  12. Yes it was sweet of my dad to make our skating rink. In the Spring he would change it =back to the family vegetable garden. Dinner was delish!! Janice

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Thank you friends for reading my blog! I especially enjoy reading your comments.