News from Haiti

Our friend Maurice Geiger, Director of the National Rural Justice Center ...  (New Hampshire Bar Association,  NH Union Leader News article, Consortium for the Advancement of Haiti) ...  is currently in Haiti.  Happily he has been in contact with home and is OK.

I have not been to Haiti, but I have been to the Dominican Republic.  Here are some pictures from the country side taken in 2006.  They are not the best since I was on horseback at the time.  But I think they show the conditions up in the hills in the DR.  These were the "good" houses.  In the rain these roads are rivers of mud.  The poverty is striking, but I'm sure no where near what is found in Haiti in the best of times.

Can you imagine what Haiti was like...and is like now?

You can text 90999 with the word "Haiti" to donate ten dollars to the American Red Cross; the charge will appear on your phone bill.

Another friend works with Bill Clinton and his foundation.  You can text Haiti 20222 to donate ten dollars to the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Banana Peels and Fish Knives

This is Mind Your Table Manners Monday over at The Entertaining House  Take a look.  In that vein here's our manners experience.

Our country club has a "Your Manners are Glowing" series.  Three Sundays, three hours each, ending with a dinner.  Yesterday was the first session.  The little sponges came home soaked.  They had all the basics of meeting and greeting with eye contact, waiting for everyone before sitting at the table, napkins, Continental and American style eating, all the basics covered at The Entertaining House post.

However....here's how dinner went.

They learned to fold napkins in a Banana Peel style...

...  and they used them on the table. E hid the napkin rings inside the fold.

Then we got critiqued.  Now I try not to use every plate in the house.  But I try to set a complete table.  Good silver, place mats, napkin rings. We were having Beef Burgundy, a salad, bread and apple cobbler.  Three plates.  Everything fits in the dishwasher.  E insisted on adding a service plate, salad forks, dessert fork and spoon, full complement of wine glasses.  Since no one was having wine I talked him out of the glasses.

We sat down.  Perfect manners.  No elbows, no talking with full mouths, silverware at 4 o'clock (not 3:30, not 5:00).  No licking the dessert plate!

The bottom line came at the end of dinner when E went through the silver drawer inventory.  "Where are the fish knifes?"  Excuse me!  This is a kid who loves to fish.

But he's a catch and release boy.

In fact, his hyper sensitive nose detects when I have fish in the fridge.  Forget about on the table ready to eat!

I'm ok with banana peels, but sorry no fish knives!

Frozen Garden

We've had it cold...

Visit TODAY'S FLOWERS #74 for warmer gardens scenes.

Bedrooms

Here's the master bedroom, on the first floor.  Before:

After: 
We had the wallpaper stripped and painted with Behr Pewter Mug with white trim. 
 
Left to right:
The dresser was Mom's, my Victorian marble top I've had from childhood, great grandfather's shaving stand, bedside chest-curb, ordinary new bed, drop leaf farm table from PA., framed pieces are all old rowing prints.

This table I bought from a radio ad in State College.  It has been used as a dining room table and a computer table.


Pillow cover I made from old linen runner.


Old double weave coverlets on the bed and chair, my Mom's big mirror...was that ever fun to move from NJ!  Plan de Paris through the door.



There is a sitting room connected with pocket doors. This room has not been painted. Highboy (thrift shop $125), flip top table from family, old bike is my son's 1st auction purchase...at 6 weeks old, framed items are all family pictures / documents.


The wash stand is a family piece.

Desk I bought at auction (when I was in high school), the window treatment came with the house. All the oriental rugs are old, this one is Afghan from PFS's former student/rug dealer, chair-curbside (see it here).

The chair is the "clothes horse" cleaned off for a party.
I love the gray walls...it some of these photos they show up bluer than in person...it is just a restful room.

Green and White

Green and white in the garden.  Stop by Today's Flowers #73 for some more flowers from around the world.