I kept this perfect little tea cup

We had so many Sunday lunches at China Cottage with Steve and Janice so I kept this little cup to use and remind me of those fun memories.  The lid keeps your tea warm while it’s steeping and doubles as a coaster or place to rest your used tea bag while you’re drinking.

Ran across Steve’s plumbing permit drawing

Andy found it interesting since he has to do these for living now.

Just a pretty day to take a break by the pond :)

A lady bug tagging along on my walk❤️

There’s no such thing as a five second rule…

…when you have a three second dog and a two second (visiting) cat! Zoe missed out on licking the leftovers in the bowl since Shadow beat her to it! Zoe looked at me like, “Wait, what just happened?!” Hahahahaha!

The tools of the estate trade…! Hahaha

I’ve lost count, but I think the current number is 10 houses/estates/relatives I have helped through the process of culling their personal affects.  It’s fun to relive memories, discover new facts, preserve the antiques, and re-home some of the stuff.  I’m practiced at it enough that I enjoy it these days. ❤️ But you do need lots of totes for the process.

I kept this cool Tea set of Janice’s!

We found this locket

It was from her mom’s side of the family.  Might be Julie’s great great great grandmother 

It’s engrave with MLP.  Mary L Peay perhaps? 

It’s a glass-type picture and lock of her hair.  From the 1850s.  Pretty cool!

“Why won’t Shadow play with me?!”

210 year old bible!

We found this among Julie’s Nanny’s belongings.  Pretty cool and in readable shape in spite of the years and binding issues.  It even has some books like Judith for instance… 🤪

Wind in her face 🐶

Zoe discovered a new experience. She kinda liked it but also wasn’t too sure about it. That ear though!  

And yes, she’s strapped in and at the limit of her free length in that position. 

Taught my jeweler something…

I like delving into various topics and/or hobbies, learning about them, becoming an 80% expert, then moving on to something else.  I’m enjoying that process with watches currently.  One thing you have to do with a mechanical watch is “regulate” it.  This is the act of checking how well it keeps time and tweaking a tiny lever inside, much like you do a pendulum grandfather clock.  You can check it each day, jot it down on a piece of paper then average it.  Or you can use a fancy instrument that measures it accurately in a minute or two.  The instrument is expensive, but the jotting it down process takes days and several trips.  I found some apps that use your phone microphone to give you a relative idea how well it’s doing in about a minute.  I showed it to my jeweler and we used it to get mine regulated to within less than three seconds in only a few tries during one visit.  For a mechanical watch anything better that +/- 5 seconds per day is considered properly regulated.

The only catch is you need to be somewhere quiet and free from vibration.  What I found works best is inside a car in a quiet part of town away from busy streets. Interesting.  

Speaking of memories and heirloom pieces…

I’m THRILLED to have had the chance to get these rings cleaned up and sized properly!  They look SO good and remind me of my dad’s and mom’s whenever I wear them.  I like to rotate around all three depending on where I’m going and what I’m doing on my current adventure and which side of the family or my career path it relates to the most 🤪

Taking in my memory shelf and whole watch collection…

It means a lot to me to have these pieces that represent four generations of wearing coming down both sides of my family (Julie’s and mine).  Two grandfathers, two dad’s, several of mine, and even ones worn by my boys.  The other random relatives, gifts, memories, stickers, names… I’m really blessed in the relationships and time I’ve had with my relatives (ancestors, kids, and nephews)❣️My wife too! She supports, and even encourages my hobbies, collections, relationship time with my kids and relatives, and the many things we enjoy doing together.  A lot of that is represented here too!

I love you all!

It’s funny to see and think about all the brand history of the watches too.  Boutique Swiss, Timex, Seiko, Casio, Citizen, Apple, Garmin, etc.  Ultimately I’d like to add a nice clone Rolex.  Currently playing around reading up on that subculture, hahahaha.

We had a visiting black cat…

We got to watch Shadow while John and Savannah made a trip to Boston.  It was fun having her back in the house again.  She warmed up to us again after a day or two.  Zoe REALLY thought Shadow should play with her!!