May have wallpaper . . .

Sunshine sparkling off of Gram's carnival glass onto the ice box.

Didn't expect to have a busy week but . . . I didn't have to go to Groton Monday because big brother was also home for Columbus day and the guys were able to hang out together so I went out in search of wallpaper. You have no idea what a chore that is. I went to Creative Interiors in Canterbury but they don't carry paper, wallpaper, only vinyl. I need paper because the walls in this old house need to be covered in old fashioned paper so all of the bumps and bruises of 200 years won't show up. I called Home Depot: no wallpaper. I called Lowe's and they said they had books and maybe some real paper. (He was new in the department and couldn't be bothered to really look well.) I took a ride to Lowe's and found one possibility, only one and it wasn't great. Most of the stuff is garish, modern and ugly. If it's not ugly then it belongs in monster new homes with monster wall surfaces. I took a chance and drove on the back roads to Putnam where Agnès and I had bought wallpaper years ago to redo Ma and Pa's kitchen. The old barn was exactly where it should be but it was deserted. I got out to peak inside to see if there was anything in the place when a sweet, kind, darling older lady came out from the farm house across the street with the key and let me in! Wow, it was wonderful. Same cold rooms filled with all kinds of wallpapers. She helped me to find a few designs that might work and cut off strips of four of them so I could bring them home to see if I liked any one of them. As I left she thanked me for the visit! I believe her son still runs the business but only some afternoons or by appointment. He also sells on eBay. Can you believe he had a shipment ready to go out to Australia! That is so cool. I tried to get in touch with them to tell them what I wanted to buy but by the time we finished playing phone tag it was too late to do anything now. I'll go see them in a couple of weeks.

Kiddo and I spent a good afternoon and evening Tuesday playing and book buying. Wednesday cousin Susan and I went to O'Live a Little because she loves to cook and wanted to buy some neato olive oils and vinegars. We also stopped at LLBean because the last time I was there I had forgotten the $10 coupon youngest had given me. So I ended up with one, yes, one pair of socks! But they are certainly cool, in the bizarre meaning of the word.

Quote:  An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.  __Washington Irving