Stood the Test of Time!

   The sorting of items from the upstairs stash continues with a box of Darling Daughter's stuff.  Keep in mind that this box contains things stowed since probably 1995.  At that time, she was "officially too old" for many of her "early childhood days".  (Yes, she really did tell me that.)  Items were boxed for "safekeeping" and placed in the window seat in one of the dormers.  There are three such seats that open for storage.  I had three kids so you can get the idea what treasures are stashed therein.  One for each kid.  Darling Daughter's boxes contain the usual girly things as she was very prissy....or completely tomboy depending on her mood.  Her interests had a vast range...still do.  But, as I was going through the boxes, I suddenly heard music.  Not music box music but rather a short trilling.  Hmmm...I pondered what was happening.  Thinking the music must be coming from some windup type toy, it was not too disconcerting.

  Surprisingly, the tinkling was not coming from a windup toy.  I found the culprit...err...trinkets.  Yep...plural.  There were four fairy wands!   Each of the wands had two tiny fairies that could be stuck on the end of the wand.  This end had a tiny light that made the plastic fairies glow when a button was pressed.  That pressing also released a tinkling of music...fairy-flying music... I suppose.  Aww, I remember those things!  They were gifts back when money was scarce.  I had bought them for less than a dollar each!  Let's see you get them for that now!  (Or any sweet toy for that matter!)

  It did not surprise me that the fairy wands were "treasures".  What surprised me was that the batteries were left inside the toys and after around 27 years, were good!  Usually, batteries go bad and then cause problems for the toy, itself.  Not these!  Three batteries came with each toy when purchased and were never changed even though the little girl played many hours.  Wow!  Those are some good batteries!  I checked..."Vinnic"...never heard of them but, if the company is still making the batteries this well, I sure will be on the search for some!  Testing the batteries showed that they were almost fully charged even though the fairy wands had been shuffled around in a storage box for so very long!  They truly "stood the test of time"!  Just imagine!  I will show my little granddaughter the fairy wands when she visits.  The four wands (sans the batteries for the time being) and the eight fairies might be entertaining for a little while anyway.  Not sure if these "retro" toys can compete with the newfangled, techy things of today but...maybe!  (Those are much better batteries in most toys of today, though!  These older toys had that going for them, anyway!)

The Box Stays

  A couple of weeks ago, we were having daily rains which put a damper on doing much outside.  Since I cannot sit still for very long, this led to a massive undertaking inside the Little Bayou House.  Son and I ripped out floors, tore down walls, rebuilt what we demolished, cleared cabinets, painted, varnished and literally redid the laundry room, kitchen and dining room.  After getting everything returned to its proper place (whether it was in the cabinets or trash can) and I was pleased with the work done.

  It kept raining...so, I moved onto another room.  This time, I tackled what used to be Darling Daughter's bedroom.  It has been empty since she married and has become sort of a catchall for any item that needed to be stashed somewhere but where?  So, needless to say, it was time for that to be emptied.  It was there that I found "treasures...which are probably trash to others.  One of these treasures brought smiles so it will be returned to the room once it has been transformed.  Mark's grandmother gave a small trinket box to me before she passed away.  The box is made of celluloid, the first synthetic plastic.  It is embossed with dragons giving it an Asian feel and has a bird (many say rooster) as a handle.  I think it is lovely!  The deep, rich burgundy color has always been a favorite.  

  Why does this trinket box mean so much to me?  Well, simply because my grandmother-in-law thought enough of me to give it as a gift.  "Momie" did not have much in the way of wealth and only had a few things left as she aged.  She and I did share an undying love for one another so when she handed me the box, I felt like she gave me a million dollars.  The box stays.  No argument will change that.

For All These Years

   Hurricanes work a number on the shorelines and marshes down here.  If the storm surge hits and lasts for any length of time, erosion is a big problem.  While the winds and higher surges wreak havoc on the homes and trees, even tropical storm waters can demolish the marshes and shorelines.  Those same waters can uncover "treasures" that have lain hidden for decades.  Such was the case with Hurricane Zeta.  Even after all of these months after the storm, I am still finding unusual items that are now exposed.

  Just the other day, I was traipsing probably just a little too close to the marsh.  With the warm weather, moccasins are out and about.  I should have more sense but figure that I would smell a snake if it was in the vicinity.  That said, thankfully, I did not find one on that hike.  I did, however, find a treasure.  The storm waters had uncovered and floated in a half-gallon milk bottle.  It is unusual to find one that is not chipped or cracked but this one was in pristine condition!  Darling Daughter is now the proud owner of this treasure!

  Over the years, I have found many such glass milk bottles.  Just down the shoreline to the west, my grandfather owned and ran a dairy.  Pop and his brothers and sister grew up on that dairy farm.  Pop used to tell me that when he and his brothers would work the fields or go hunting, they often grabbed a bottle of milk to drink.  Jars were often forgotten in the fields or woods.  Of course, those tidal surges probably took a lot of bottles out into the Bay only to be washed up again in the marshes.  The one I found was filled with mud so I figure it has been in that marsh for nigh on seventy years!  What a treasure to find!

The Little Lost Clock

   It is a known fact that I am not the most organized person in the whole world.  I do not feel the need to be.  When I leave this old earth, no one is going to have a clue where things are or even what some things are!  For years now, with the exception of this year due to health problems, I have been having a thing called "Clue Hunt on the Bayou".  I figure that my legacy will be the greatest clue hunt ever...finding where Mom put "this" or what is "that" and how is it to be used???   Great fun!  To be totally honest, I am a bit addlebrained and would rather go about doing what I like than clean house which is something I do not really like. As long as the place is "clean", it does not have to be uncluttered. There IS a difference. I also have no qualms about telling people to leave if my house is not to their liking.  I surely do not go inspect their homes.  It used to bother me how people were passive/aggressive about my maximalist habits and my inability to have a "neat as a pin" place.  "You will have more time!". "Your children do not want your stuff!"  "I read about something called flat surface syndrome."  "Have you ever watched the TV show about hoarders?"   You know what, folks???  Hush!  Just hush!  Don't like my mess, don't come here.  Simple fix. That said, occasionally, I do "lose" things.  Well, not exactly.  I do put things away and then forget where I put them.  Come to think about it, when I try to organize things, I lose them.  If I leave it out, I know where it is when I need it so maybe, in my own way, I have a bit of method in my madness or, at least, some madness in my method!

  After one of those clue hunts a few years back, I decided to organize some of the "really cool" items that I use as props.  "If I find proper places for everything, when I need it again, it will be easier to find."  Ha!  Did not happen.  As soon as something is out of sight, it is out of mind.  I lost them.  Oh, I knew they were in the Little Bayou House somewhere but where?  For two years, I have searched to no avail.

  One of the items that was "lost"...in my house...never to be seen again...after I organized it...was a clock.  How do you lose a clock??  Seriously...how do you lose a clock?  I did.  For two long years, the clock remained hidden from sight.  What brought it to mind is my sudden interest in repairing antique clocks.  The clock in question is a tiny cuckoo clock that has never worked as long as I remember it being in the family.  Mom loved this tiny clock but, since it does not have all the parts, it never worked.  I figure it would be a grand clock to tinker with now that I have an interest and lots of spare time.  So, I hunted.  I searched.  I racked the brain!  It was as if the clock had gone into hiding and refused to be found.  

  Until today...the clock was found today!  I am happy.  I am relieved.  I feel slightly embarrassed.  It seems that my organizing got the best of me.  The clock and several other long-lost items were found in a box on top of the china cabinet.  The box is ornate so it did not look out of place.  It was merely a "decoration" that I overlooked dozens of times in my clock search.  I do not remember packing the clock and other props so neatly in that box but I obviously did!  

  The truth be known, I was not even searching for the clock when it was found.  I was searching for a picture!  Son was helping me look when he asked if anything was in the box.  I shrugged my shoulders and told him he would have to look because I was not going  to climb on a chair to reach the top of the cabinet.  He did and said "Nope, no picture.  There is a clock, however."  A CLOCK!!!  Oh, my sweet little clock had come home!  I was beyond joyous!  Not only was the clock there but other treasures, as well!  

  Now that the clock has been found (and, yes, I did find the picture later), I had some deep pondering to do about the other treasures held within the Little Bayou House. Did I want to spend a year or so sorting, thinning and organizing all this stuff or should I just leave it and hope for the best.  I am sure you can guess the answer.  I told Son that he and his siblings have several choices of what to do with my treasures after I am finished with them.  They can call a thrift store and let them empty the place, they can put out a sign and have a huge rummage sale, or they can turn the place into a "House of Curiosities" and make a fortune!  It does not matter to me....the clock has been found.  I have to get to tinkering with it!  I have no time to sort stuff!

The Link That Holds It Together

   I shared a photo of some wooden chains with some friends of mine and never dreamed that it would garner so much attention.  The chains are hand carved antique pieces that I acquired from the old farm place where I grew up.  As a kid, I remember being in awe of the handiwork involved in creating the chains and feel blessed that I have them now.  The wooden chains were a quirky addition to the a "museum" also know as our house.  The Little Bayou House has always been filled with oddities of this sort and I would not have it any other way.  I am, after all, the "Keeper of Weird and Wonderful Things" or so I have been told.  I feel it is one of my duties to protect items such as this simply because (at one point) they were nigh on tossed on a burn pile.  (We won't go there but I am glad I was able to rescue the chains.)

  These particular chains were given to Pop by some very sweet old ladies way back before I was born.  Pop took up handyman work to supplement the meager money he made as a farmer.  In fact, this was just one of his "other jobs".  He had many to support his family.  The chains stayed in the old farmhouse as long as I can remember before coming into my possession.  Granddad had told me that these were made by sailors of long ago. I figured he would know as he was a sailor himself!  He claimed that sailors needed something to occupy their time on the long voyages so they took up carving among other handcrafts.  Each chain and its pendant are carved from a single stick of wood.  The links are movable and the pendants have small carved balls in them that are also loose.  

  In this day and age where everything is mass produced and cheaply made, it completely awes me that folks had the talent and patience to create such fantastical works of art simply to make use of their idle hours.   Some will claim that the chains are useless but I beg to differ.  The are works of art.  These fine pieces are here to inspire.  They are here to make us dream of times when things were well-made.  There are here to make us realize that we should have patience and do things to the best of our ability even if there are those who think we are of no use.  Folks, take the time to really look at things and delve into the idea behind them before being too hasty of passing judgement.  

Strange Things In Strange Places

    One never knows what may wash in with the tide around here.  We are accustomed to finding all sorts of "treasures" after a hurricane but having things come in during the winter months is a tad unusual.  The north wind has a way of pushing the tide far out from the pier leaving no water to float anything much less a bunch of oddities.  An oddity did make its way to a small inlet on the other side of my brother's pier (just to the west of us).  A freak storm from the south pushed the tide far enough up into the Bay that it left gifts behind for us.  By gifts, I mean debris that needed clearing.

  At first, I had no idea why a buoy was sitting almost on shore.  It then occurred to me that this thing was yet another "treasure" left behind by the high tide.  At least, it is not MY treasure and I do not have to discard that huge thing.  According to the "Regulatory Buoy Markers" list, the marker seems to be either a "no swimming" marker or a "swimming" marker as both have a huge red diamond mark in the middle with an + in the middle.  I find it odd that both have the same emblem but, hey, no one should be swimming in this area anyway.  First, there are alligators that do not like to be disturbed.  The gators stick to the small inlets where they will not be harassed by people but will defend their territory if necessary.  People are the intruders...not the gators.  Second, the bottom here is mud...soft, mushy mud that makes it easy to sink up to your waist in no time flat.  In a matter of minutes, you can become hopelessly mired!  The mud has been compared to the "quicksand of the Deep South".  Third, under that mud lies anything that previous tides, reckless people and numerous storms have dumped into the area.  This means everything from broken glass to boards with barnacles or other pointy, sharp things hide just out of sight. 

  I am not sure what the writing says on the buoy but lets hope no one takes it to heart that this is a "swimming" area.  Once in, a swimmer may become stuck and, as that person sloshes around trying to free himself, all of the gators in the inlets will be alerted to his presence.  The gators will come to investigate causing panic in the swimmer.  Said swimmer will slosh even more to get to safety and may just happen to stir up some shard that causes a wound.  Things will go drastically downhill from there.  Again, people are the intruders...the gators live here.  But...sadly, if an alligator ever does defend it territory, it will be the one dispatched.  

  The buoy sits right against the shoreline in about a foot of water.  Hopefully, another storm will come in and either wash it further ashore or back out to where it originated.  Also, hopefully, people use some commonsense when it comes to being around the bayous and not need some marker to inform them one way or the other.

Tick, Tock.....Boing, Boing, Boing.....

  There is a new noise ringing through the house at all hours...each hour, anyway.  A sweet lady gave Mark a nice old "35 day" clock that has a wonderful gong chime.  While some folks may grow tired of having a loud gong echoing through the house at midnight, I find it somewhat calming.  Yep, I am weird like that, I guess, but it is soothing to know that time marches on even when I am down for the night.  Some things never change.  The clock is punctual even when I grow weary.

  While the clock, itself, is a treasure, the true value lies in the friendship of such a kind person.  When you give something from the heart, even a small trinket becomes priceless.  We are blessed to have such friends in our lives and always hope that they feel the same.  Now I must get busy and clean the mantle so the clock will have a prominent place to be displayed. The clock will remain as a cherished part of the Little Bayou House....the dozen midnight gongs and all!  

Is It A Treasure?

  I am one that finds a lot of treasure in other people's trash.  People have a tendency to toss things in the trash instead of trying to repurpose or recycle them.  Don't get me wrong. I do not go digging through trash cans nor visit the dump to confiscate items to reuse. More oft than not, things are dumped on...errr...given to me or I merely find them.  The given items are usually some off the wall items that folks know I will find useful for the annual clue hunts while the found items are things that should never have been tossed in the first place...probably.

  Today while dusting, I came across one of those "found" items.  Years ago while driving the kids home from school, my oldest son shouted "Stop!".  This meant one of two things.  He either forgot something important at school or he spied something on the side of the road that was interesting.  (I trained him well!)  Usually, his finds were pieces of furniture that could be refurbished.  He was great about refinishing old pieces and making them usable once again.  This time, however, it was not a chair or table but a picture frame. I stopped the car, he snatched the frame out of the ditch and we were on our merry way down the road.  When he looked at the "frame" it was not empty.  Inside was a framed Valentine.  Hmmm?   We got home, Darling Daughter cleaned the picture and hung it near the front door.  She was always my interior designer even at a young age!

  Before today, I never paid much attention to the thing other than to dust it.  The Valentine has been hanging in the same place for some twenty years now.  It was there and nothing more. Today, however, I pulled the thing from the wall and inspected it.  On the back is the name Pizitz in Huntsville, Alabama.  So I did a bit of research and found that places with this name have been around for over a hundred years.   The Valentine inside sure looked like it could be that old but the framing looks newer.  I pondered if the gallery maybe did custom framing and found that they occasionally did.  Well, now the question...do I rip the paper dust cover off of the back of the frame and examine the Valentine? Or do I just leave well enough alone and rehang the framed piece near the front door?  Ponder, ponder.  Why would anyone toss this if it was Great-grandmother's Valentine? Perhaps it was lost during a move?  Or is it just some cheap decorative piece created to look like an antique? Who knows?  Maybe I will think about this a bit more before tearing into the frame.  It would be nice to know and maybe return the piece to its rightful owner if it indeed is an old Valentine.  Oh, the Little Bayou House holds so many treasures....even if some are just junk!

Treasures in the Marsh

  When living on a bayou, one comes to expect storms and extremely high tides.  This is nothing new.  We know that there will be days that our yards are filled with water and with that water come a myriad of strange things.  Oddities have a way of washing in from who knows where.  Sometimes, these things are usable and are snatched up with glee.  Other times, one wonders why the item was ever created in the first place and how it got in the water.  Even small storms such as the one that has been lingering about for the past few days can wash up a multitude of items.  

  Son and I headed to the pier to check on the small skiff once again this morning.  Sitting over to one side just out of our reach was a buoy. This...was a usable item!  One never knows when a good buoy might come in handy!  We made plans to retrieve the bright orange ball as soon as it is feasible.  The winds need to subside a bit before we dare get in the skiff. 

   You might wonder just what my intentions are in retrieving the buoy. Years ago, Mark brought home a large white buoy that he found while out fishing.  The thing had floated up on the opposite shore and was obviously abandoned.  He lugged the thing into the boat and headed to the pier.  That buoy became a thing of joy! At least it did for the dogs. They so loved to "attack" the buoy and send it rolling down the hillside. Mark had the brilliant idea of tying a rope to it and a tree at the top of the hill.  This was done to make it easier to hoist the huge thing back up once the dogs fought it all the way down to the marsh edge. 

  Now another buoy has washed ashore.  Since we have no dog at the moment, I thought that Sunny, our former foster dog, would love to have this one.  She and Ms. Ez (RIP) had so much fun with the other that I am sure Sunny would be overjoyed to see another.  Hopefully, my daughter will not mind having a large, red buoy in her nice, new yard!  Tomorrow, Son and I will slip the skiff out in search of treasures in the marsh! Buoy....here we come!  Sunny....get ready for some fun!

Standing the test of time.

  While excavating the area for the Bog Garden, Son has been uncovering a lot of "treasures" and a lot of "non-treasures" (also known as junk).  When Hurricane Katrina pushed through here years ago, she picked up tons of sand from the beach front miles to our south.  All of that lovely sand was deposited in places like our yard.  This was fine by me as I would much rather have mounds of sand than washed out ruts. In places, the sand was piled up higher than six feet.  Now, years and years later, the sand has leveled to become part of the landscape.  One particularly deep area is where Michael decided the Bog Garden should be so he is digging through not only sand but lots of stuff!

  We were tickled to see just how many plastic yard ornaments were under the sand.  Dozens of three foot tall red and white candy canes were pulled from the area.  These were considered junk and tossed on the trash pile to be hauled to the dump.  Thousands of shards of stained glass were also found and painstakingly collected to be recycled as art pieces.  Stained glass work has always held me spellbound and I can hardly wait to begin creating with these hurricane shards.  Then he found a treasure.....a true treasure.

  A crazy as it may sound, he found a glass canning jar with a zinc lid still intact.  It amazed us that the lid had held tight all of these years underground.  The fun part was that the jar still contained whatever was preserved inside from years ago. Granted the stuff had become a gelatinous, brown liquidy mess but it was still tightly bound inside the jar.  Not being one to waste a perfectly good canning jar (hmmm?), I unsealed the jar to find a substance that was not at all what I expected. I figured that whatever that stuff was, it had to be quite smelly by this time.  It was not.  It smelled highly of blackberry jam!  (No, I did not eat it!)  

  After a bit of scrubbing, the jar and lid came incredibly clean and will soon become a container for buttons or beads in the craft room.  "Waste not, want not."  comes to mind.  I figure if the jar withstood a hurricane of Katrina's strength and then ten years buried in salty sand, it has a story to tell and should be added to the collection of weird and wonderful things housed within the Little Bayou House.

Every Owl Needs a Tree and Daughters are Treasures!

  This evening, I was talking to my daughter about possible topics for tonight's writings.  I had been pondering this since with the torrential rains keeping me inside, I had no photographs.  The good thing about all of the rain is that I have been able to sort a good bit of the items given to me by Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Stanley. (They just recently completed a move to be with their daughter.)  While talking with my daughter, she mentioned that I should write about treasures.  Well, I have done that many times in the past.  Still, her words of wisdom rang clear.  "The most valued things are the ones that have the most sentimental meaning."  She is so correct.  Her statement made me proud.  I have long tried to instill in my kids the true meaning of riches. Wealth lies not in dollars but in love.  Don't get me wrong, those dollar bills come in mighty handy but there is a certain beauty in things or actions given purely out of love.  I have gifts from people that have no monetary value whatsoever but they are priceless.  I am rich far beyond comprehension.

  Last night I talked about how owls seem to be collecting at my house in all forms and from all sorts of people.  The owls make me happy.  Not that any are worth a red cent but they are some of those priceless items that fill the Little Bayou House.  It was then that I spied another of my recent treasures from Aunt Sylvia.  This is a wall plaque that features a tree..I am supposing it is a "Tree of Life".  This is crazy!  I just received a beautiful bed cloth decorated with a tree.  (My daughter and her husband bought this for my birthday!)  Add these trees to a sort of funky tree that I painted and I seem to have a fine start of homes for my owls!  You have to agree that owls and trees do, indeed, go well together!

  Trees, owls and other unique items fill the Little Bayou House.  All of these things are treasures merely because of the sentimental value but there is another treasure that fills my heart.  The fact that my daughter holds the merit of things given with love over the number on a price tag makes me one happy mom!  Elizabeth, indeed, is a treasure and she holds my heart forever!
 
 

Calamity leads to treasures!

  Today was not good.  It was not particularly bad but it was just not good.  It started off at the break of day.  I got out of bed full of vim and vigor.  I was ready to tackle the world but that came a screeching halt.  I turned on the faucet to fill the coffee pot and nothing happened.  No water came gushing from that spigot!  Nothing...not even a dribble.  Uh, oh.  This is never a good thing especially when you have a well. Anything from busted pipes, well gone dry or burned up pump could be a reality and that reality was not on my agenda for the day.  I called Son.

  "Hop to it, Michael!  We don't have any water and without water there shall be no coffee!" I yelled up the stairs.  Never uttering a word, he came stumbling down the stairs.  "No water?" he queried.  "Nope...no water."  He headed out the door to the pump shed.  "Wow." was all I heard.  I peeked into the shed.  Wow, indeed.  Water was everywhere as was everything else that had been stored in the shed!  It looked like a mini-hurricane had attacked our pump shed!  Geez!  This was not good. Some very large critter had decided to rearrange everything.  After turning off the electricity to the pump, we decided it would be prudent to clear out the jumbled up clutter before he tackled the pump, itself. Once we pulled out the thousand or so tools, old furniture and other odds and ends, he discovered that whatever critter was in the shed all night, had broken the pipe that led to the house.  Obviously, the pump had been running for quite some time.  Stuff was not only knocked around, it was soaked! I cleaned while he did plumbing work.That, my friends, was when I discovered where some fantastic treasures have been hiding for the past decades! 

 One of my favorite "treasures" of the day is an old paint sprayer.  Yeah, I realize that this is probably more trash than treasure but it means something to me.  This was Pop's old sprayer.  I very rarely remember him using it since he always painted everything with a brush but, still, it was his and that is important!  I set the paint sprayer aside to be cleaned and moved inside the house.  It is a good thing that the Little Bayou House is more like a museum of oddities than a prim and proper house!  Things like this fill shelves and all of the nooks and crannies of the house.  To me, they are treasures.  To everyone else, they are junk...dust-collecting, space-consuming junk.  TREASURES!! TREASURES!!

The Map!

It is most folks dream to find that elusive treasure map that will lead them to untold fortunes.  Childhood stories of pirate treasure told by well meaning parents and grandparents only served to heighten that desire especially in highly imaginative children.  Sadly, there are those that never outgrow that stage and still, in adulthood, believe that such treasure and maps exist.  Well, I am here to debunk the myth!  The myth that treasure maps do not exist!  They do, indeed!  Now, I cannot profess to know if said treasure of pearls, rubies and gold doubloons actually is real but there is definitely treasure to be found...and there are maps to lead you to it.  I found just such a map today so there is my proof!

I was on the pier being bored by the lack of excitement when I first laid eyes on the map!  It was right there in plain view!  I have walked past it on a thousand occasions and never noticed it before but today it stood out like the proverbial "sore thumb".  How had I not seen this before?  Is my vision being blurred by the ordinary so that I cannot see the extraordinary?  Anyway, the map was right on one of the pier posts!  I hurried over to examine the "map".  Was this some fine trick of my imagination or really a map?  And if it was a map, would it lead me to some fantastic wealth?  I studied the map.  It sure did look like a map to me! Then, to confirm that this was indeed a treasure map..a clue!  A lone nail was hammered into the top of the post and on that nail's head was the clear imprint of the pretty-much-universally-recognized dollar sign!  Well, that was enough for me!  I had found it!  I was surely to be the richest woman on earth now!  I just needed to decipher this map!  I stared at the map.  Hmmm, I did not recognize any particular part of it.  I could find no local landmarks that might give me a starting point so I was bewildered.  Even with my vivid imagination, this map was pushing it a mite!   After looking at the thing for a while, I decided that perhaps I was wrong.  Maybe this was not a treasure map.  I guess it was just a pile of pelican poop that was washed from the post during our recent rains.  Drats!  I was all set to be rich beyond my dreams!  Still..there is that nail!  That nail that hints strongly that something might....nah, just pelican poop!

With all of this studying of the post, I did come to the conclusion that there is a treasure, though.  That treasure is this little Bayou where I can while away the hours in some dreamland of pirates, treasures and maps.  A place where my imagination did not have to die away with adulthood.  A place that can inspire and create all sorts of fantastical myths all its own.  Yep, the Bayou is definitely a treasure!  ....Now..about that nail.....

Hidden in the Dusty Depths of my Mind!

My memory is not just slipping but I rather think it is fully careening downhill at the speed of sound.  Michael did pull out all of my fall and Halloween decorations just as I asked him to do.  This is not an easy task as all seasonal decorations are stored upstairs and I always want them downstairs!  Box after box, crate after crate, bin after bin..the decorations were pulled from the closets and hauled down the stairs.  The whole ordeal took approximately two hours!  After we got them all downstairs, I started digging through the mountain!  Most of the decorations, I remember!  Most...some I have no clue as to where I acquired them!  But, then again, that does not bother me much.  Yearly, I am "donated" a good many decorations by folks who do not want to store them.  They know that I love to embellish the entire house!  I do not mind storing decorations, Folks!  So..yes!  I will always gladly take your leftover plastic Jack-O-Lanterns and  rubber bats!  Like I said, I remember most of the decorations.  It was something else that inexplicably was stowed away with the decorations that confuses me a tad.

Somehow, a crocheted tablecloth or..to my way of thinking..a crocheted bedspread was tucked in with the ceramic pumpkins.  Why?  I have no clue. Most likely it was used to buffer the pieces from breakage. That is fine.  It is not why it was there that really confuses me.  It is where I acquired said crocheted piece!  I am thinking it has to be a hand-me-down heirloom that someone bestowed upon me last October.  Why else was it in that box?  But, who gave the lovely thing to me?  Yep, that memory is hidden in the dark depths of my feeble brain..somewhere behind a few boxes of dusty ideas and under a mess of spiderweb cloaked notions.

The strongest feeling is that this is either from Great Aunt Thelma's belongings or Great Aunt Velma's.  These two were sisters-in-law.  They had married brothers who were the brothers of my maternal grandmother.  I believe this is not from my paternal grandmother as her work was much neater and tighter.  This, although lovely, has a few mistakes and is done with looser stitches.  So...that said, I am now proudly displaying the piece on my dining room table.  Since it is far too large for the table, it will be moved to the guest bedroom as soon as I wash all of the bed linens and decorate the room for fall.  It will be a delightful touch over the dark red comforter.  Oh, and if any of you fine folks reading this, recognize the piece and can enlighten me as to its origin..I sure would love knowing!  It is a treasure!

Could I have been Polly?

Ok, so I really should stop digging about in all of the old trunks in the Little Bayou House.  It has been a week of finding long-lost treasures!  These might seem like worthless junk to most folks but to me they are all priceless treasures!  They are things that take me back to a lifetime ago..back to my childhood.

Once such thing is a little book that I came across today as I was digging through a chest that held a lot of antique bric-a-brac that my mother had saved.  She was a great one to hang onto a lot of unique and wonderful items that might also be described as useless!  I do the same.  Now the collection has burgeoned as I not only have hers but things that I added as well!  It is a doubly large collection!  It is exciting!  The little  book in question is torn and tattered but priceless beyond compare! (Well, probably not!)  When I uncovered the book, I was transported back eons ago when I first discovered it!  The book was wedged between two large volumes of encyclopedias on Mom's shelf. Perhaps that elusiveness was what thrilled me!    The book, however, is adorable!  I can remember being fascinated by the pictures long before I could read the words.  The book is entitled "Polly Through The Crystal" and is the story of a young girl with a vivid imagination.  She sees Brownies that are from Rhymeland and soon becomes small like them.  She has several adventures with the Brownies!  (And who ever hears of Brownies any more?  Brownies being a form of faerie.)

The little book brought back all sorts of memories..not just of the book itself but of my own imaginative dreams of faeries, Brownies and elves.  I sat for a few minutes just thinking of days past and then put the little book up in the china cabinet with a lot of other treasures. Hmmm..I could have been Polly at some point in my life..back when I had visits from Brownies and faeries.  Yep...treasures!

Treasure Hunt

Back in the day, I used to create Treasure Hunts..or more precisely..Clue Hunts. This game consisted of around seventy-five clues. Each clue would lead the person or team to the next clue. The clues were usually written in cryptic verse form and the hunt was always on my folks property. There were just so many things there that lent themselves to this sort of game. The hunt would start with one clue that was handed to the team (the groups usually opted to work together for the good of all!) and after that was read, the fun began. The clues were usually all tied together by a theme such as movie classics, songs or children's book characters. The theme was then tied to everyday things such as..."Pinocchio should have stayed in school, this friend led him to play the fool!" The friend in this case being the key word to finding the next clue. Lampwick was the friend and a kerosene lamp has a wick..hence, the clue was hidden in an antique oil lamp. Round and round the house, yard and fields went the team until all the clues were found. The last clue would lead them to the treasure box which was usually a large wooden box filled with trinkets and a last note. This final note would say something on the order that no matter how far and hard you searched, true treasure is always found in your home where things are dear to your heart. The clue hunts were just a fun way to spend an afternoon at a family gathering. A time for the children and adults to interact with each other. It had the added plus of getting most of us out doing some much needed exercise after having eaten some large, home-cooked meal!

These clue hunts were brought back to memory by a simple little box. I was actually hunting for a rubber band and opened up the roll-top desk. There was the little box that held the last clue hunt that I wrote. My mother had saved all of the little scraps of paper that held the clues. She carefully put them in order of the hunt and tied them with a red ribbon. These were then placed in the box where they have been for the past twenty or so years. I had forgotten about them until today. A flood of memories filled my brain when I started reading the clues! I need to write more hunts! Then I looked at the contents of the desk. This appeared to be a treasure hunt in the making! There in the top of this desk were so many odd, weird, unique and unusual items. Nothing in the desk was remotely related to its neighboring item. There were religious pictures, cigarette lighters, antique car parts, old letter openers and brass angels. There were antique candle holders for the Christmas tree, autograph books, belt buckles, ticket stubs and pocket knives. There was a thimble with a bullet hole in it, my dad's old wallet (empty..I checked!), and postcards of "Old Biloxi". So many things! So many unrelated things that for some reason all melded together to be a collection. It was like I had opened a door to the past by opening the roll-top of the desk! A treasure hunt! Now if I only knew what to do with all of these treasures..ooohhh, my kids are going to love me when they have to deal with all of these nice items!

I thought this ticket was rather interesting merely because of the date! Barton High School (State Champions of Alabama) vs Biloxi High (Coast Champions)! Thursday Nov. 30, 1922.....oh the treasures that I find in my house!

Tackling the Monster!

In my house there is a monster! Actually, it is part of the house..a room..the "sewing" room. This sewing room has long been used as a catchall for anything and everything that had no place of its own. When one hears the name "sewing room", immediate thoughts of walls lined with shelving that is stacked with neatly folded fabric, cute little racks full of threads and sewing notions tucked away in cabinets. Not so in this room! The mountain of stuff had far outgrown the limits of the area and was near bursting through the door. I jest not when I say that I feared for my safety each time I opened the door! The threat of an avalanche loomed from the moment I stepped inside. The area had not been used for sewing since my daughter moved out years ago. Since then, stuff accumulated..need I say more.

That said, I have decided to start a "What I found in the Sewing Room" segment. Occasionally, I will post a description and picture of some long lost item, some "why did I save this?", or even "what in the world is it?" There are items in this room that I did not even realize were in my house!

At first light this morning, I timidly opened the door and stared in at what seemed like a sleeping ogre. There stacked higher than my head, were boxes, bags and baskets each filled to the brim with whatevers. Who knew just what I might discover in this bleak place. I thought to myself, "What am I thinking?" and started to close the door again.."NO! I HAVE TO CLEAR THIS JUNK!" So, I called Son! Actually, he volunteered to lend a hand..little did he know what he was attempting. We started pulling stuff out and making neat (yeah, right!) piles in the living room. I was determined to go through each box and discard most of the saved treasures.

First box..well, this is not so bad. This box held sewing notions, something you would expect to find in a room designated for creating sewn projects. There were zippers, snaps, velcro, etc.. all stowed in a nice plastic box. There were little metal thingys that go on sewing machines. Things that I had no clue how were used. I did recognize the needles, pins and buttons! There really did not seem to be a need for me to sort through this box. Then Son pulled four more such boxes. They were all crammed with sewing notions of all sorts. He nonchalantly asked if I had planned to open a craft store or something. Ummm..No. He knows that I cannot sew. I told myself then and there..I need to learn! I have all of this lovely stuff on hand..what an inspiration! I will teach myself to sew and then all of these things will come in handy..err..whatever they are.

Next, a tote bag..it was filled with chenille stems left over from an elementary school project. Elementary school project? My kids have all graduated from college already..Wow! It really has been a while since I delved into this room! Ok? So do I need to keep approximately 5000 chenille stems? Does anyone need to keep approximately 5000 chenille stems? I do occasionally need a pipe cleaner for a project, but 5000? Son stared at me. I knew he was wondering just why I was even considering stashing the bag back into the room. Secretly, I am positive that someday I will need a whole slew of chenille stems. They will be the definitive factor in a most important craft project. Something I cannot do without, something I really should save! I mean..how many times have you asked yourself just why there are no pipe cleaners on hand? I slipped the bag around the side of the sofa..perhaps Son would not notice it there! I might just need approximately 5000 pipe cleaners some day and I would have them!

Son handed me another box. Hey! At least this box smelled nice! I opened it and peered inside. Wax! This box was one of three that held the wax remnants of scented candles and scented wax tarts. Oh..I remember! I had once thought of reusing these to make the wax-coated pine cones for Christmas decorations! My very talented sister-in-law makes these pine cones and they are really so nice to receive as gifts each year. They have a dual use as once they lose their scent, she informed me that I should use them as fire starters in the wood-burning stove. I really need to keep those! I promised myself that I would get started on those as soon as the pine cones fell this year. Son looked at me and shook his head. For some strange reason, I think he did not believe me!

Another box came out of the room and landed on the floor with a loud thud. Ok. So, I do not remember ever seeing this. It was actually a large suitcase. I unzipped it and it literally exploded, spewing fun fur pieces like confetti. Ahhh, yes! These pieces were from several years ago..(or longer)..when Dear Daughter made costumes for the local theater group. They were performing the musical "CATS" and she made the costumes! What fun we had when doing that! She did most of the work, I was her assistant! She sewed costumes and wigs! I snipped yarn. Lots of yarn was needed. I snipped yarn. To meet the opening night deadline, she and I stayed up day and night and worked ourselves silly. We still giggle about it whenever something jogs the memory of the wild goose chases she sent her dad on to find some strange material or paint, the coercing we had to do to get Son to be a mannequin for sizing and the endless pots of coffee! Oh! I cannot get rid of this box..I could make stuffed animals!

Son took a break to entertain Ezzy. She had been patient enough as we looked through the treasures. I sneaked into the room. Wow! I could actually walk in! It was amazing! Then I found them. Yes, them! Lots of them! Three drawers full of Barbi dolls! Not the prettily dressed Barbi dolls that Dear Daughter collected when she was a little girl, but..ahem..Barbi dolls that had a wardrobe malfunction. Undressed dolls that were in dire need of clothing. These dolls were another unfulfilled project. A huge box full of shall we say, bare (?) dolls, (68 to be exact) was donated to me one year and I had intentions of making clothes for each of them. I always wondered just where they had disappeared! Now I found them! I need to sew outfits for them!

I will continue cleaning and rediscovering treasures for the next few days! This is not going to be one of those easily done tasks. It will take a while, I am sure. Oh, did I mention that this was a sewing room? Did I mention that I actually found a sewing machine while in there? Did I mention that there is fabric? Yards and yards...and yards and yards of fabric???? And yes, I do see a trend here..I cannot seem to part with the treasures in this room. I might be able to use them......someday!