I was picking a roaster pan full every day through August and September.  Had 5 different kids- Brandywine’s, Colossal, Abe Lincoln, Dr. Wyche Yellow (was my favorite), and a few others.

These tomatoes have been coming in handy and they lasted till November. I made a lot of tomato soup to freeze and I was adding up the savings when I think of a can of soup is at least $1.19.

It’s nice to be able to pull out a frozen portion of tomato soup;  beef and barley too which takes a lot of tomatoes for the broth.  I froze  tomatoes plain to make fresh beef and barley soup.  Isn’t Beef and Barley the best soup there is?

This is the 3rd book in the all-of-a kind family series that I’ve read.  First review was on Oct 10th, then, Jan 17th, and now this one (2 left to read !)

Sarah, her sisters, mom and dad and little Charlie the toddler  are moving from their Jewish neighborhood to  live uptown where the neighbors are not all Jewish.   Ella’s boyfriend goes off to WW1 while Ella puts on a play to raise money for the Red Cross.  Mother has her appendix out in the hospital and the girls run the household.  

I love this series and have 2 more books to go in it.  Below is the victory arch that the troops went through upon arriving home from France in 1919.  Ella’s boyfriend marched through it too.  This is a good family series of 5 books that your kids will enjoy  as much as you will. 

Oct 10th, 2011  I  read the first one; here’s the 2nd book of this short series- More all of-a-Kind Family.  Author of the series, Sydney Taylor (below)

There’s Ella the oldest who meets a special young man in this book, Henny who borrows her sister’s party dress, Sarah (author of the book), Charlotte and Gertie; these are the sisters in the family of the book.  The polio epidemic strikes New York in 1918 and Sarah’s family is affected by it.

Physicians treating polio in New England, 1916.  (photo below)

a New york east side Jewish market/early 1900’s. (below)

(below) Lower east side in New York city.  1916

There really was a Rockaway Beach and in this book the family goes there for the unbearable hot summer.

1910 photo below :

Canvas tents for camping at Rockaway Beach in 1910. (photo below)

Here’s a steamer landing at Rockaway Beach in 1910. (below)

Holland Ave. pier at Rockaway beach in 1919 (below)

Uncle Hymen and Lena meet in an unexpected way. Uncle Hymen is the brother of the mom of the family and the Dad runs a salvage shop. 

Below photo- 2 squares  I took out of the sample foil bag.

 Upton tea page about this tea

Reminds me of the first Pu-erh tea I tried in November; the round compacted little things, but I think I like this one better.  To me it’s a healing tea.  I tried it  the day after I had the stomach flu (first time in 2 yrs I had that).   This tea was a big welcome to me as I only had water in the last 24 hours before brewing this tea.  

The color is a rich brown  similar to coffee.  The taste is smooth and good although totally different from Assam tea.  I think I’ll purchase some of this when I finish up all my samples and need more tea.  photos below- more  Pu-Erh tea  from other sources than Upton.  One of the squares made 5  ( 5 oz. each) cups  of tea.

Below: mountains of Yunnan Simao of China.  Wow, is this neat place where this good tea is grown?  Must be.

I like Victorian novels especially  because the culture time period is so completely  different from  what we have  today, like this book- Miss Marjoribanks.   She’s Lucilla ( I still don’t know how this is pronounced) and she starts out as 15, reappears at 19 and then 29 years old at the end of the book.

At 19 years old she has a Thursday evening get together every week that includes a dinner and then socializing afterwards with some singing at the piano.  This weekly event is not for young people of her town only since she doesn’t believe in that, so a well rounded gathering of married couples, single older adults and younger singles are brought together. 

The writer, Mrs. Margaret  Oliphant, uses typical writing techniques for her time period- long drawn out descriptions and eloquent  phrasing which is sometimes tedious, but  for the most part it fits perfectly and is very descriptive in an elegant way.

This author like many others puts in pieces of their own  life in the books they write.  Margaret (the author) in real life had a cousin named Tom (her husbands brother)  and a brother named Willie which are both in this book.  Below is an older portrait of her.

She was mostly homeschooled by her mother and of Scottish descent.  When she was 24 she married Frank Oliphant, her cousin.  It seems so strange – cousins marrying, yet is was common way back when and maybe still goes on.   Her husband died 7 yrs later of tuberculosis while she was with child.

There’s one more book to continue the story of Miss Marjoribanks; Phoebe Junior published 10 yrs later.  According to Wikipedia, there were the following 6 books on Carlingford where Lucilla lived.

• Salem Chapel (1863)
• The Rector
• Doctor’s Family (1863)
• The Perpetual Curate (1864)
• Miss Marjoribanks (1866)
• Phoebe Junior (1876)

The ending to this book was a surprise.  I hope the local library sends me Phoebe Junior before winter is over.

I’m looking forward to reading more of Margaret Oliphant’s books in the future since this was the first one of her 60 or so novels I started on.

   (older bottle) 

This is one of my favorite perfumes.  I read somewhere this is the first one Andy Tauer created.  It’s an exotic combination consisting of rose and jasmine with lavender (no wonder I love it), citrus, woods and cedar.  Classified as an oriental perfume.

I like the sweetness of the whole composition which isn’t a sickly sweetness, but rather, it all blends in  so well.  What a way to wear a rose. 

Here are the notes: Moroccan Petigrain/ it’s bitter orange, french lavender,red mandarin, Moroccan rose absolute, Moroccan jasmine absolute, Moroccan cederwood,Sandalwood, Patchouli.

La Maroc Pour elle is on this page of rose perfumes a great collection of rose perfumes     Sweet heady rose and jasmine blended by a few other things; that’s what Le Maroc pour elle is!

To me this is a scent of beauty.  Some are comforting ones, easy going scents… but this one is for when you want to sniff your sweater all day after you’ve sprayed it on.  It’s just beautiful.

Assam tea gives a bright reddish/orange/brown color in the teacup.  I’ve had it before, but didn’t know  until now it was Assam tea. this tea on the Upton website   It’s a very popular tea and I can see why; real tea flavor.  A few years ago I tried a canister of Yorkshire tea and it had this same color in the teacup as this  tea- now I realize that Yorkshire tea was Assam tea! 

Nov. 28th was last months tea.  I don’t know how to link to the post on WordPress.  Hope I can figure it out in 2012.

He’s waving; see his arm?  It’s a grittibaenz.   I feel special to have this little Christmas dough boy and I barely got this photo of him before we ate  him as we turned him into a turkey sandwich.   Thank you Evy!

This is the last installment of a 3 part series on the Betsy-Tacy  books by Maud Hart Lovelace; included because the author of this book is her husband. (photo below of Delos and Maud Lovelace)

A book about a 14 yr old boy’s summer is what it’s about and I thoroughly enjoyed reading his summer in Minnosota at his Uncle and Aunt’s home in the country.   I mentioned on the previous post that Delos is the  the character Joe in the Betsy-Tacy books.   In this book That Dodger Horse, I read somewhere that he had some of these experiences in his boyhood.   It’s a good book and I whole heartedly recommend it.

  I think there is at least one book of Maud and Delos Lovelace’s that they collaborated on together.  I’ll have to investigate.

Here’s the 2nd post of the 3  on the Betsy-Tacy series.

Betsy grows up in Mankato Minnesota through this series by Maud Hart Lovelace.  I had to look up where Mankato is since I’m only familiar with where St  Paul MN is located; but thanks to someone who lives in Mankato and told me this is where the book originates, now I know; it is south of St Paul and Minneapolis.

I like the way they put 2 books under one cover.  These last two books in the Betsy Tasy series  were the best, since she’s 21 yrs. old now!   I was fascinated with her description of the Portugal Islands- Azores to be exact.

This was in 1914 when Betsy went to Europe, stopping at the island Azores.  She said the houses were cute and painted, maybe not like this exact one, but  quaint none the less. 

below- the old habit costumes that the ladies wore on the island since it rained frequent showers throughout the day.

 Betsy and the Great World  was hard to put down, after all, she goes to Europe at 21 yrs. old!  Germany, Italy, England ( with a few other places in between).   WW 1 starts when she is in England which initiates  an earlier than expected sail home.  It was neat to see Europe in 1914 through the eyes of Betsy.  Did Maud the author really go there?  I don’t know.       

 they are still doing the passion play in Oberammergau

Betsy went an hour from Munich to see the village where the passion play  in Oberammergau  takes place every 2 years.  She met some of the actors.  Now  according to the link above, it is  put on every 10 years.

  When Tilda and Betsy met  for a get together weekend, they ate pfannkuchen.  I don’t know if this photo is like the one they ate.  There are a lot of different varieties of it all the way to a filled jelly roll.

Casata  di Sicilono is what Betsy ate in Italy with Marcos, but I can’t find photos of it.  She describes it as chopped fruit, nuts and layers of chocolate.  Sounds like a parfait .  In London their dessert of  “cold shape” seems like it is jello.

Betsy’s Wedding

Good thing she said no to Marcos’s proposals in Italy, or else she wouldn’t be marrying Joe !  I think this particular book should have been named-  Newlyweds in 1917.   Tib’s almost engagement to Lucky was a story within a story.  The start of the US getting into WW!  was a thread throughout the latter half of the book.

 The character of Joe is her husband in real life whom she meet in college which makes these books so interesting.  The author combines her own life experiences into the book.

I like the part where Betsy is still in England and World War 1  breaks out because it seems like you get a first hand account of how things were and  the thoughts of the common English person on the street.

WW 1 uniform

Sergeants outfit

President Wilson declares war in April.

The German Kaiser- Wilhelm ll