At last! Nearly three weeks since I purchased them, my pink Freeman Leidy set is arriving today! Due to the fragility of these pieces and with the help from some friends, it is being hand delivered to me over in Kokomo later today.
The set has made its way from central Ohio and through the hands of Christina Harrington (who kindly offered to pick it up for me when she learned I was only one day post-op and could not drive for a while), Ronda Mosley, Allison Pareis, and Stan Sollars. These pieces have had quite the journey.
Hopefully tomorrow I will have some pics to share and will tell you more about their trek to me. In the meantime, I can't wait to hit the road for Kokomo!
I had a rare opportunity to do some antiquing Monday. My best friend Lisa moved to Indianapolis so I traveled down there and met her for lunch and a catch-up session.
It was good to catch up and afterward I stopped at an antique mall that I hadn't visited in a while. (Fortunately I had my walker in the trunk of my car - I still get tired as I am recuperating and the walker allows me to sit down when I need a moment.)
I enjoy going on the hunt for HSOs in the wild and the mall had a fair share of them. (Horse Shaped Objects - hobby slang.)
There must have been thousands and thousands of these furry maned chinas made as I see them all the time. (I got the one on the right in St. Louis when I was in 4th grade and it's part of my carpet herd.)
I was interested in the Britains horse and rider but its tail was missing. (Er, the horse's, not the rider's...) I have the Hartland foal already.
The Western Ponies were not in good shape nor was the Appaloosa Performance Horse or the Western Prancer. The Five Gaiter was in good shape but overpriced. (Besides, I already have it.)
That St. Bernard, though, is sitting on the shelf behind me here at home!
Someone has glued this Japan mini family onto a mirror.
I probably should have bought this piece, but I'm pretty sure I already have it. It was in a locked glass case and I was far enough into the mall, I did not feel like walking back to the front desk and asking someone to open it for me.
Two more of the vintage Japan mini horse families. I was sorely tempted by the pamoninos with their big ol' spots!
A Breyer Buck and Fawn; the does are knock-offs. (Their plastic was styrene.)
I was tempted by this Goebel piece, but when I examined it, it had a poorly repaired break so I set it back on the shelf.
This cutie is in my carpet herd already but it made me smile and feel nostalgic to see it.
The ubiquitus Breyer Boxer. Already have five so it stayed at the mall.
Often you see old horse collars turned into mirrors
but this one had pictures of harness horses, including circus horses! A pass for me, but I enjoyed looking at them.
Another pass (ya'll know why), but it was in excellent shape.
I thought about getting this polar bear for Hawkeye Sarah (she loves to photograph bears) but she prefers grizzlies to polar.
I considered getting this nice little collie
but this Springer Spaniel is the piece I regret most leaving behind. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful and is in excellent shape.
Our very first family dog was a Springer named Duffy and he was the best introduction to dogs our kids could have had. After he passed away at the age of fifteen, it took me three years to even begin to consider getting another dog. Sometimes I still cry when I think about him.
After driving to and from Indy, an extended lunch with my friend, and then wandering through an antique mall, I came home and fell into bed, sleeping for two hours into the evening!
Two and a half months have passed since Abby's death, and once in a while someone will ask how I am getting along. And then almost always, that question is coupled with, "Do you plan to get another horse?"
That's not an unreasonable question to ask, especially considering how deeply I love horses. But my history of losing a beloved animal and the grief that accompanies that is complicated. Here is some insight on me, my love of my animals, and grief.
Our first family dog was Duffy, an English Springer Spaniel. Our neighbors bred Springers and had had a litter of puppies. Duffy would see our kids playing in the yard, come over to the fence to visit, then squeeze under and bounce around with them.
I'd pop him back over the fence and into his own yard, go back in the house and soon hear the kids shrieking with laughter again. There he would be once more, having slipped under the fence again to play. (None of the other puppies came over, it was always Duffy.)
Finally, our neighbors said, "If you will let us show him, we will give him to you. He wants to be your dog." It was a really good trade!
Duffy and Music City Son Cole supposedly "taking a nap" together. (Those spilled Duplos tell the real story.)
Duffy was with us for fifteen years and when he finally crossed the rainbow bridge, we were absolutely devastated. I really struggled with his loss; the house seemed so empty without our Duffy. (Even with six kids, it still felt empty.)
It was three years before I could even bring myself to consider getting another dog.
Hawkeye Sarah helped us with that. She was married and living in another town, and her neighbor was a police officer who handled their local police department's narcotics dog, Zeus.
He told her that he was retiring Zeus but he was having a problem in finding a retirement home - Zeus had made so many drug busts in that town, the police department had received death threats directed at him. The officer was afraid that if he retired Zeus with someone locally, someone would find him and follow through with their threats.
Sarah piped up that her parents who lived in another town would be interested and a good home, and sure enough, Zeus came home with us.
Zeus and my mom on her 80th birthday. They had a special bond and he would sit close to her whenever she visited. (He was a HUGE boy!)
Craig and Zeus were especially closely bonded. Craig will still say, "Zeus wasn't a pet, he was my friend."
When Zeus passed away, we mourned him for ten years. Get another dog? It just didn't feel right.
Until suddenly it did, and we rescued Molly. (We also call her Mama; she answers to both.) My friend Kathy heard about her and contacted us to see if we would like to rescue her.
Oh, our poor girl! Our first view of her - she was scared, she was dirty, and she was terribly traumatized.
A puppy mill mama, she was surrendered to a shelter. Molly came home with us, but she was frightened of everything, including us, and spent most of her time huddled on her doggy bed.
The only thing that perked her up was when Teacher Daughter Lisa and her dog Millie came over. Molly quickly bonded to Lisa and Millie; she felt safe, she felt loved, and she sought out their company.
After nine months, Craig and I realized that she would be happier with Lisa and Millie than she was with us, even though Molly had made progress and was not as frightened as she'd been. Lisa took her home. (This video of her greeting them helped us make the decision.)
Another loss for us, but we took comfort in Molly's happiness although we did grieve. Our home went back to being quiet. Again.
She doesn't look like that terrified, dirty dog in a crate anymore, does she? Letting her live with Lisa was the right decision.
Just a month or so later, Kathy put us in touch with her friend Sarah whose guide dog needed a retirement home.
Four prospective couples were interviewed, and we were the lucky couple selected. Pepper came into our lives.
Waking up from a nap to find Pepper cuddled up to me, head on my shoulder, nose under my chin, and front legs wrapped around my arm.
Just as Zeus bonded with Craig, she has bonded with me. Deeply. Labs love their people, but she's a guide dog and they are trained to be with one person, and there is no doubt that I am hers. When she passes on, I will be inconsolable.
So, back to the question people have been asking me as to whether or not I am going to get another horse.
Well... I'm still very much grieving my girl. Even typing about her makes me cry. (Or, as reader Kat says, "Makes my eyes leak." Love that description, Kat!)
And then there is this.
I am using the walker more and more to get around. I suspect I am facing another spinal fusion. Even before Abby died, I was struggling to walk out to whichever pasture she was in; now I'd be unable to do that if I got another horse.
Possible surgery, a busy Fall with the Feast, Great Lakes Congress Show, Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, and then winter's snow and ice. This is not a good time for me to get a new horse.
So, my plan is to see how things go, see how I am feeling, and if I get back the ability to walk pain free.
If so, then in March I will discuss it with Craig and get his insight and input, and then contact Tim. He's already given me the green light to bring another horse out to the barn. (Best barn owner ever!)
It's a big stay 'tooned, but... stay 'tooned!
The Give Away for the beeswax ornaments ends today at 11:59 PM Eastern time. Comment to enter! (Hopefully I will get another blog posted later today around lunch time.)
The encounter I am sharing today still terrifies me. To this day I have no explanations as to what I saw.
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Teachinmama Blog, August 18, 2013
Finally, the unusual phenomenon I saw that most closely resembles "typical" UFO sightings, almost to the point of being comical.
Trust me, it was not comical.
Not in the least.
#3, Urbana, Illinois, early to mid 1990s
Back before my joints and bones began wearing out, I used to walk quite a bit. We had a beautiful Springer Spaniel named Duffy, and he was my walking buddy. One day, I'd gotten the kids all off to school and decided to take Duffers on a walk to the field at the end of Florida Avenue where there were trails through the grass and he could safely play off-leash.
Our Springer Spaniel, Duffy.
We had not been out too long, and he was happily running through the tall field grass, making waves in it as he joyfully bounced around. (There's a reason they call them Springers!) I was standing just where the street ended and the countryside began, and looked up at the beautiful morning sky.
To my surprise, coming across the field was a brown-red cigar-shaped pipe. (Stereotypical, I know, but that is what I saw.) It made no noise as it came quickly floating through the air and appeared to be two to three feet long, flying fairly low over the ground. (It was a bit above my head, so maybe 7-9 feet high.)
At first I thought it had to be a remote controlled airplane or something. But it was totally silent, even eerily so, and it had no wings to help keep it aloft. The shape was simply a tube with some projections (as I remember it now, twenty years or so after the incident, it was sort of submarine shaped. Certainly not the shape of a remote controlled airplane.)
As it flew over the field, the object made a jog in the air so that it was now approaching me.
And then it stopped. Right in the air several feet in front of and above me.
"There has got to be someone flying this thing and having me on," I thought nervously.
The thing sat in the air, no sound, no lights, nothing.
Waiting. Maybe watching.
I felt panic bubble up inside me, looking all around to see if I could spy someone operating the thing.
The tube continued to just hang in the air with no means to stay afloat that I could see. The silence was eerie. And terrifying. Whatever it was and how it worked, it did not make sense to me.
How did it just hover there? Without making any noise? And what was it doing waiting by me?
At that point, Duffy came bouncing out of the tall grass nearby, and so I spun on my heels, grabbed him, and took off at a fast clip toward home. I looked back over my shoulder, and the thing was gone. Disappeared in a blink.
I was pretty shaken when I arrived home.
In the ensuing years, I have thought a lot about that morning and what I saw. Rationally, I tell myself that there has to be an explanation, and yet, the object defied any natural laws of physics and science that we know of. Even with advances in technology over the past twenty some years, I think the way it acted is still outside the reach of current capabilities.
While I did not feel the sense of foreboding and brooding I'd felt from the dark shape I'd witnessed at Crestview Park, nonetheless I felt unsettled and afraid as it hung in front me me, motionless in the air, as though it were observing me.
Like a specimen under a microscope.
And I don't want to think about THAT any further.
----
If I were writing this post now rather than 11 years ago, I would change two things:
1) The length of the object. I'd call it four to five feet, at least. Why? Because now I sew almost every day and have an excellent idea of the length of a yard of fabric (3 feet.) I can eyeball that now without measuring. That thing was longer than two or three feet as previously written, and more likely five to six feet in length.
2) I was surprised that I had written that the thing had disappeared. My memory of its disappearance now is that it suddenly reversed course and flew back the way it had come at a very fast pace. Which memory is correct? I don't know - about thirty years has passed since the actual occurrence, and eleven since I wrote the first blog entry. But, I lean toward the memory of it flying away rather than simply vanishing.
So, there you have it - my three brushes with oddities in the sky. Tomorrow I may do a final wrap up or I will go back to chatting about horses, models, sewing, and family like usual. I haven't forgotten the March give away, either.
Our first dog as a family was a beautiful Springer Spaniel named Duffy.
Our neighbors bred Springers and had had a litter of puppies. At the time, our kids were small, and I remember looking out the kitchen window and seeing them bouncing around the back yard with this little puppy who'd slipped under the fence for a visit. I'd pop him back home over the fence, but several days later, he would be back in our yard and playing with my kids.
After several more visits, our neighbors saw the writing on the wall and gave him to us. Duffy was a wonderful dog and we had him fifteen years. (I am tearing up as I write about him.)
So, is it any wonder that when a hobbyist found a bunch of Mortens Studio dogs in excellent condition that I snagged the Springer Spaniel?
I have about 15 Mortens horses, dogs, and cats and none of them are in as good of shape as this one.
Made of plaster over a wire armature, Mortens are very fragile and it is highly unusual to find one in such good condition. I can't find a flaw on him.
Whoever owned that small collection of Mortens dogs clearly took good care of them and I wish I could tell them that this particular piece is in good hands and will be well cared for.
The Large Honora was not the only find I had the other day. This palomino Hagen Renaker Miss Pepper may not be quite as spectacular as the Large Honora, but she is still an excellent piece to find and bring home.
The photos don't show her detail very well, but she has beautiful coloring and shading.
She also has her gold and black football shaped name sticker on her back.
How often do you find Hagen Renakers with the early blue and silver Monrovia sticker?
I flipped the photo to show the sticker better. This sticker was only used on Designer Workshop pieces from 1957 - 1964.
I spied this group of cocker spaniels in a glass case full of miniatures elsewhere in the antique shop. They sure had that Hagen "Renakerish" look about them.
Since the vendor only wanted $7 for the set of four, I took a chance on them. It turned out that they were very early Hagen Renakers.
By using Ed Alcorn's Hagen Renaker Museum site, Liz Cory helped me identify them. (Screenshot from the Hagen Renaker On-Line Museum.)
One of the puppies even has H-R stamped under it - something the factory did occasionally according to Gayle Roller's book. (Sorry for the lousy photo - that puppy is so small, and the stamp even smaller, that I could not get it in focus.)
I picked up two Nancy Drew books that Teacher Daughter Lisa had been looking for to add to her collection.
And one for me - the reason is obvious, right?!
A vintage, first printing Glen Balch book from 1959 to add to my collection of vintage horse books.
Our first dog as a married couple was an English Springer Spaniel named Duffy. We had him for 15 years and he was a wonderful family dog.
Duffy near the end of his life in 1997.
So this Enesco black and white Springer Spaniel came home with me as a result.
Even though he had been used as a souvenir for Cave City, Kentucky. (I wonder if I can get that paint off?)
It's a Goebel piece, and even though the head looks too large for its body,
I brought it home to add to my (growing) collection of dogs.
Not horsey, but I bought this Indianapolis Motor Speedway hat for Lisa. She is heading to the time trials down in Indy this Saturday.
Finally, I brought home this old Napcoware planter. I loved the soft coloring and the eye detail. (Those are drops of water on her face - she'd been used as a planter and I'd been cleaning the dirt out of her when I snapped the photo.)
My sister, Leslie, and I used to call these blazes "arrowhead blazes." You can find them on many of the old Japan pieces.
How many times do we collectors go into a shop hoping to find some good pieces for our collection? And how many times do we walk out empty handed and maybe even a little frustrated?
It only takes a day like the one I just had to keep us looking.
