After the Storm

For the last few weeks it seems we have had nothing here but storms...one right after another. In my little piece of the world, we have a temporary abundance of rain and nothing more. Just down the road, people are suffering from flooding, tornadoes and all the usual things that happen after the storm. We are lucky, here at the birdnest, and we are very grateful.
Someone asked me the other day what I would do if my "nest" was blown away in one of these storms. Well, I don't know. I actually don't believe anyone knows for sure until it happens to them. What I admire most about all these people you see on the news, who have suffered a great loss in a tornado or flood, is their determination to go on. To get on with life and see where it takes them. I hope I will be just like those great people.

Because we have had a definite lack of sunlight over the last couple of weeks, today's sunshine is a welcome relief. It's cool, but sunny, and a very beautiful day. Yesterday, still rainy, I had a case of cabin fever, so took off to the local flea market and had a great time shopping, met a couple of new vendors and really enjoyed conversing with them. Now they know what I like and I will look forward to shopping with them in the future. One of them had QUILTS. So, needless to say...I came home with two quilts. I had purchased one a few weeks ago from another vendor...so there are now three quilts new to the nest. The blue nine patch is the most beautiful one and also the most fragile. Whoever made it was an excellent quilter...very tiny quilt stitches. It is not in good shape, but worth saving "just to look at." The windmill is in pretty good shape, but needs washing and a few patches replaced. It has nice quilting too. The blue triangle one is in pretty fair condition, and usuable, but the poorest made of the three. I wonder about the three different quiltmakers....did any of them survive a storm with determination to go on? Well, we know the answer to that, don't we? They survived the storms of life...if not the storms of Mother Nature....til they couldn't anymore. I'd like to think they KNOW I have their quilts!!!

My other purchases at the flea market are pictured here too. I just love to find this kind of stuff and enjoy the "hunt." The little upholstered chair is so cute, there are lacy linens, several spools of antique french ribbon, a tiny deck of children's playing cards (and they are all there!), a beautiful dainty pitcher, a silver cat pin, two 50's style collar pins, vintage pink silk milliner's roses and seventeen sparkly glass with metal buttons. I'm like a magpie...saving everything, and a crow...liking the shiny stuff! Another reason to call this Bird Nest on the Ground? Oh, yes, a great floral plate with roses and would you believe on the back it says: "Texarkana Casket Co. The factory making Texarkana famous." How wierd is that? Oh, the little shoes I already had, but thought they looked really cute with these things. Then, there is that beautiful little teacup. It has no markings, but who cares? Just a bunch of unwanted junk to some....a real treasure to me!

I'll take today's sunshine and store it in my memory bank...along with the lovely time spent yesterday with new friends and new treasures....and hope you have weathered the storms as well. Pat