Sunday dish

Fiesta sugars, stick creamers, and utility trays in the six original colors.


Top: Contemporary Fiesta bread tray. Bottom: Vintage Fiesta utility tray.

Freestyle Music Park

Here are some shots from the Freestyle Music Park in Myrtle Beach from Memorial Day weekend. Hard Rock Park has new owners and many of the names of the rides have changed. Here are photos of Hard Rock Park I took last year.


The new name and new logo. I don't particularly care for either. Freestyle makes it sound like a sporting event and the logo, which is supposed to resemble a rolller coaster, looks more like a serpent.

My only complaint about the park is the fact it was built so close to an airport. Planes make their decent right over the park. Not only is this noisy and distracting, but it puts a limit on how high the rides can be.

From the garden

A pair of gladiolus, orange day lilies, and two pink habranthus

Laurel and Hardy Museum

Here are a few pictures I took at the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem, Georgia, Oliver Hardy's birthplace. It was on the way to Myrtle Beach on I-20 so we stopped for a bit to take a look. The building was once a post office and has been converted into the museum. It is filled with L&H original movie posters and lobby cards, scripts, newspaper articles, and all kinds of L&H memorabilia made over the past 80 years. The back has a small screening room to watch L&H movies. BTW, there is a sister museum at Stan Laurel's birthplace in Ulverston, England.


Laurel & Hardy Museum in Harlem, GA

Garden pic

Hollyhock

Fiesta Amberstone

Here's my small collection of the grocery store promotion, Sheffiled Amberstone. This spin off line of Fiesta has the flat pieces decorated with an underglaze black decoration. I was lucky enough to pick up the chop plate without the black design. I've heard of at least two others. I got this one on eBay for the ridiculously low price of $5.99. Also shown: ashtray, sauceboat, deep plate, disc pitcher, coffeepot, and mug.

Here's a picture of a Fiesta Amberstone plate I ripped off eBay that shows the ugly black decoration. The 10", 7", 6" plates, platter, pie plate, saucer, chop plate, handled tray, and butter dish lid all have this design. I would love to find more "blanks", but I have a feeling the chop plate may be the only one I come across.

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Here is the chop plate with another favorite piece of mine - a Fiesta dinner plate in Antique Gold with a NOP design.

Japanese/English learning video

They've hatched...

... and they're hungry. While we were away, four of the barn swallows hatched.

Back home

Just got back from a four day trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Have dozens of pictures to post in the next couple of days from the amusement park in MB and some from the Laurel & Hardy Museum from Harlem, GA.

Made it to several antiques shops along the way. I was surprised how much Depression glass is available. Several years ago, it was becoming scarce, but now I'm seeing it everywhere.

Here are some pieces of pottery I picked up: Fiesta 10" plate in cobalt, 9" and 7" plates in yellow, Harlequin cream soups in turquoise and spruce (these were the best buys at $6.00 each), Mt. Clemens salad bowl in blue, and three pottery piggy banks.

New Trek, new cast

Finally got to see the new Star Trek movie. Was it good? Yes. Was it the best? No. I still think Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home holds that title. I was prepared to be disappointed in the new actors, but I have to say they did justice to the characters. Most people have been talking about Pine and Quinto as Kirk and Spock, but for me, the best performances were given by Karl Urban (McCoy) and Anton Yelchin (Chekov).

Everybody knows DeForest Kelly's McCoy as a curmudgeon. Urban (shown) was able to take this and add intensity that a younger version would have. Same goes for Yelchin's Chekov with great eagerness and energy.

There's going to be more Star Trek which is good as long as they keep this cast.

The one and only Betty White

Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds: Behind the Scenes of The Proposal from Betty White

A little TS&T

From the 1960s: Taylor Smith & Taylor's Ever Yours casserole, sugar, and creamer in the speckled Pebbleford glazes, honey, turquoise, and mint respectively.

Ms. Val posted some Ever Yours pieces in her blog the other day which prompted me to dig these out. This is one of my favorite shapes by TST. The tall, dropped edges are well designed and reminiscent of Homer Laughlin's Epicure shape from the mid-1950s.

The brass finials were rather ingenious. This way they didn't have to mold an extra piece and attach it for firing. The brass finials, which were outsourced, could be applied anytime after the lids were glazed.

Sunday dish

Fiesta sweets compotes in the first six colors.

My hero

Garden pics

Hollyhocks


"black" hollyhock


Pixie lilies

Will Thompson

Will Thompson (1847 - 1909) was from East Liverpool, Ohio. He wrote many songs including the hymn, "Softly and Tenderly." According to wikipedia, "...It is thought to have been translated into more languages than any other hymn."

In 1899, he donated one hundred acres of land to the city to be used as a park. Over a century later, it is still in use.

Here are a few shots of the park I took this past April...




Entrance


Pavilion


One of several tennis courts


Amphitheater


Sheet music for Softly and Tenderly


LINKS:
Thompson Park
Will Thompson on wiki

Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday dish

Fiesta sauceboats. Left: turquoise, turf green, old ivory. Center: gray and red. Right: amber, light green, cobalt.

Not one of my favorite pieces of Fiesta. The ellipsoidal body and curvaceous opening don't fit with much of the other pieces of Fiesta which have global bodies and straight rims.

It was added a year and a half after Fiesta was first offered on the market so I'm guessing it was made out of necessity and/or demand. I have to believe had it been made with the original assortment, it would have had a different look. It may have even been a round gravy fast stand like those offered with Century, Wells or later with Jubilee and Charm House.

Aside from the shakers and saucer, the sauceboat is the only shape that can be found in the fourteen old colors - standard eleven plus gold, turf and amber. (I'm not counting the plates since the Amberstone ones have the black decoratoin.)

The story how I got the red one is here. The others I got on eBay. I got lucky with the gray and cobalt ones. In both cases, the sellers thought they were contemporary Fiesta pieces, but they turned out to be vintage. The cobalt was $10.00 and the gray $5.50.

Pixie Lilies

Last year I bought over thirty red pixie lilies that had been reduced. They had bright red blooms in the store and after the petals fell off they went on clearance. I got all they had, planted the bulbs and hoped they would grow again. The first one bloomed this morning, but it is not the same solid red color. This one has an orange center. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I'm happy that they are blooming regardless.

The term pixie is used when lilies are less than eighteen inches tall and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the petal color. The one shown below is about twelve inches tall.

Today's question

Q: Why was Dynasty the best?

A:

Goodbye, Dom

Dom DeLuise (Aug 1, 1933 - May 4, 2009)

Actor. Funnyman. Best Caesar ever to grace the silver screen.

Dom DeLuise on IMDb
Dom DeLuise on wiki

The Market Street Bridge

More bridge photos from back home. This time of the Market Street Bridge in Steubenville, Ohio. Unlike the Fort Steuben Bridge, this one is still in use, but many speculate that could change in the near future. The Market Street Bridge was built in 1905.

Market Street Bridge on the West Virginia side.


On the Market Street Bridge heading towards Ohio.


Market Street Bridge on the Ohio side.

East Liverpool, Ohio

From East Liverpool, Ohio. Left: Museum of Ceramics. Right: Carnegie Public Library. Back and center: East Liverpool High School Alumni Clock Tower.

The Fort Steuben Bridge

More pictures from back home -- this time of the Fort Steuben Bridge which spans the Ohio River and connects Weirton, WV with Steubenville, OH. It is about twenty miles south of my home town.

This bridge was recently closed and is to be demolished soon. People use the nearby and more modern US 22 Veterans Memorial Bridge. .

Fort Steuben Bridge from the Ohio side


Fort Steuben Bridge from the West Virginia side


Built in 1928 with a length of approximately 1250 feet.

LINK: Fort Steuben Bridge Demolition