"F" is for Finn!

   I am a bit behind the times with this post but these winter storms, along with marmalade making and cutting firewood, have been keeping me quite busy.  Supposedly another storm is to swoop down this way tomorrow.  I think that one is named Indigo so we have had a few since Old Finn dropped by the Bayou..  (Also, naming these storms makes things easier.  Just like the tropical systems we usually get, having a name tagged on a storm makes it far easier to remember.)  Anyway, it was just before Finn came whipping through the Bayou that I was frantically moving stuff from the greenhouse (used as a place to display the Christmas village) to the upstairs.  The greenhouse is just an old outbuilding that I claimed and was in the process of redoing as my "Swamp Shack" when the idea hit for the village.  Mark always enjoys setting up the town so this was an ideal place for this year. But...those tiny ceramic houses would not stand a chance if Finn decided to demolish the greenhouse/Swamp Shack.  So I toted a whole town upstairs to be stowed away in the closet.  It was while I was upstairs that I noticed the "F"!  Peering out the window, at the drippiness, a perfect letter "F" caught my eye.  Was this some sort of sign that Finn was not going to play nicely?  Was Finn just announcing his arrival by flashing his initial for all to see?  What in the world was an "F" doing in the crape myrtle tree?  I had to investigate.

  After taking a photo through the window and screen. I trotted myself downstairs, out the backdoor, through the garden plot and to the crape myrtle trees.  Yep.  There was an "F" being proudly displayed on the branches but it had no mystical reason for being there.  Apparently, the visit of Ember had knocked down some oak leaves and haphazardly placed them in the branches of the crape myrtle.  There, they dangled for me to see as I peered through the upstairs window.  Nothing magical...no omen...nothing more than oak leaves that were hung by a previous storm.  My brain just sees things a bit differently than what other folks see.  Things like this are interesting enough for me to dawdle around while awaiting a storm just to get a photograph.  

Brigadoon Returns!

  Years ago, the kids and I used to love watching musicals on TV.  One of our favorites has always been "Brigadoon" starring Gene Kelly. There was just something so magical about the whole concept of a disappearing town. We loved it or at least I loved it.  In fact, I was mesmerized by the movie as far back as the first time I watched it at my grandparents' house. That said, it is only natural that I would name my little Christmas Town after the mythical village in the movie.  Since this village disappears as quickly as it appears just like the one Gene Kelly visited, Brigadoon seemed to be an appropriate name.

  My Brigadoon came to life this afternoon.  Mark and I hauled out the houses, trees, townspeople and other accessories.  We still have to put the finishing touches on our village but at least the houses are in place. This year (like every year), we managed to find a few new pieces to add to our ever growing village.  A fire station, a second gazebo, a post office and (my favorite) a chocolate shop were purchased.  Most of the buildings are secondhand pieces that we find in thrift stores or garage sales.  It matters not that these are someone else's discards.  They all add a bit of charm to our happy little community.  

  If these purchases continue, we will soon have to find a much larger table to serve as our base.  It is not my desire to have a mishmash of buildings but rather a nice, homey village that can inspire kids' imaginations.  I know that if I had seen such a tiny village when I was a child, my imagination would have run amok!  Hopefully, this little town will have the same effect on the little tykes that visit the Little Bayou House.  If the town brings a smile to a child's face, then it is so worth our effort.  Brigadoon returns to the Bayou!

Little Bayou Village

My little Christmas Village has finally returned!  Much like the fabled Brigadoon, my little town will disappear for quite some time only to reappear once again. In the musical, Brigadoon, however, the town only appears for one day every hundred years. At least my village only disappears for about eleven months and then hangs around for about a month!  Mark and I pondered today at just how to set the village's buildings.  The churches would go on either end of the long winding road while all of the businesses would settle in between.  The barbershop, hotel and stores all curved around the Town Gazebo.  Tiny streetlights lined the cobblestone road from church to church and even across the bridge to the park.  There, carolers were singing their tunes to empty benches.  Perhaps this was a dress rehearsal or something and the good folks of the village were awaiting the musical production with bated breath!

Each year, it seems as if Mark and I purchase a new building for our town.  For the past two years, we have gotten churches.  A Christmas Village definitely needs an abundance of churches!  I love the one we acquired this year as it has a "stained glass" window that is lovely when lit from within.  Now Mark is talking about expanding our village to at least twice this size.  The new town would have a train, more roads and perhaps an ice-skating pond!  Of course, this new village would not fit in my entryway so...ummm...maybe a new screened porch should be added to the Little Bayou House!  (Hint, hint...Mark!)  The new village could be housed on the porch and be extended for quite some distance!  Yep...I am beginning to like this village!

Like Brigadoon, this little village is a magical, mystical place.  A place where the imagination can run free.  A place where the unexpected might just happen at any time but still a place where the pace is a bit slower and the people a bit nicer than most other towns.  It is the ideal place to settle down for a peaceful life...Wait! I have just noticed something sad about my village!  There are no houses!  Each building is either a business or a church!  Where, oh, where do my tiny little people live?  Houses!  Houses!  I need tiny little houses!  Not all of the townspeople can reside at the hotel!  And if I have houses, I need a fire station...and a train depot...and a schoolhouse!  Yes!  A schoolhouse!  We cannot have illiterate people in this village! Yep..my little town  will soon be growing!  Progress is the name of the game for the people of the Little Bayou Village!  Come this time next year..when our little town makes its next appearance..perhaps there will be many additions!

"Brigadoon" and Happy Finds!

Today was cleanup day! With guests coming for a visit tomorrow, I had to get this place in some semblance of order. Not only did I have the usual cleaning to do but I also had pulled all of the Christmas decorations out of the closet. These were still mostly heaped in one big pile in the living room...and another in the dining room...and one in the guest bedroom...ok...so maybe there was more than one pile! It was on of those times where good intentions just did not get the job done! Two trees were up, lights on and a few of the ornaments adorned the trees but mostly...other than the stair rails..the decorations were still in the "wannabe" stage. I had to kick it in high gear and get this finished!

One of the all important jobs today was to "build" the Christmas village! All of the lighted houses and little streetlights had to be put in place. That place just happened to be a long table in the entryway. The little Victorian people will call the entryway "home" for the next month. They will shop in the drug store, have their shoes fixed at the cobbler's shop and then make the short hike out across the bridge to the gazebo for an impromptu songfest! Sort of reminds me of "Brigadoon" since then the whole town will disappear for a while! "Brigadoon" just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies! Of course, any movie with Gene Kelly was always a favorite! But now I've gotten way off track of my happy find!

While building my village, one of the little springs that hold the batteries in the streetlights went sproinging away in who knows what direction! Just a hint here...never drop a spring on a brick floor...I don't believe it will ever stop bouncing! Now I was in a fix! No spring..no streetlight! That would have to be fixed! I started looking in the usual doodad places such as the junk drawer in the kitchen. Since there seemed to be no spring in the kitchen, I looked through some antique canning jars that now hold a variety of things and then found my "happy"! There in one of the jars was some old, milk bottle lids! These things are treasures! These were from the family dairy! My grandpa, grandma and whole slew of young'uns ran a family dairy back in the day. Later, my Uncle Quentin (we all called him Uncle Jim!) took over full operation of the dairy and ran it for many years. I have several of the old milk bottles but for some reason, coming across these caps just made me smile! It brought back a ton of memories..not only of the family business but also of Uncle Jim. In his later years, it was nothing to hear the "chug, chug, chug" of his tractor come up my driveway! He would either have cut me a load of firewood or if Summer, would be bringing me buckets of tomatoes or field peas! We would sit and chat for a while before he went chugging back down the road to his lane. I miss Uncle Jim..